New Crown of Vengeance Review from Watch Play Read

Will be getting a full report on DemiCon with pictures shortly. The weekend went very well, and I already miss my Iowa friends!

I just got the good news that a very nice new review of Crown of Vengeance went up on the Watch Play Read site. They reviewed Crown of Vengeance to prepare for their review of Dream of Legends, which is coming soon.

The review link is here:
http://www.seventhstarpress.com/documents/ebooks.html

The eBook sale that includes Crown of Vengeance will be going on through mid June. Please spread the word about it, as Crown of Vengeance and The Exodus Gate are both available for just $1.99, as well as Jackie Gamber's Redheart and Steven Shrewsbury's Thrall.

the eBook sale link is here:
http://www.seventhstarpress.com/documents/ebooks.html


The DemiCon report will be coming very soon!

Big eBook Sale: Try Seventh Star Press for Two Dollars

My report on MidSouthCon is about done and ready, but I needed to get this post up about a new Seventh Star Press eBook sale. Here's the official info from the SSP site, but suffice it to say that if you haven't tried my books and wanted to, OR you like YA or Heroic fantasy, there's a great sale going on now at Seventh Star Press with $1.99 titles. My Book 2's, Dream of Legends and The Storm Guardians, also have a special price of just $2.99. Please help me spread the word on this special sale. Thanks!



Try a Seventh Star Press Title for Just Two Dollars!

What is your favorite flavor of fantasy? Do you like character-driven YA Fantasy? Do you like heroic fantasy with loads of action? Do you like epic fantasy with a wide cast of characters, lands, and lore? How about epic scale urban fantasy?



To celebrate the launch week of Jackie Gamber's Redheart, we're announcing a very special sale. The good news is that we've got a title in each of the above areas of fantasy, so that you can try Seventh Star Press eBooks out in this special sale that will be running through Mid-June. What are you waiting for? Just two bucks and you'll be on a grand adventure. Find out what readers around the world are discovering...there's a growing constellation of quality titles at Seventh Star Press!

Click here for titles and other information at the SSP site

Cyber Monday-Notes on my friend's new book, my new one, and more.

I hope that everyone had a great thanksgiving weekend! I had a relaxing one, including a fantastic dinner at with my mother, sister, and some of our closest friends. Kept up with traditions, such as watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (which was pretty amazing this year, with some super cool pizza dough twirlers that they needed to do a lot more coverage on), and loads of football (though I always find myself feeling bad for the Lions, who always host a Thanksgiving Day game and rarely seem to do very well).

I'm back at it here on monday, which in the US is called Cyber Monday, due to all the online shopping specials going on.

Right now I'm trying to get as much word out as possible for my new book Dream of Legends, which is no small task when you are with a small press publishers and have to contend with the big dollar marketing/PR blitzes from the major publishers. Thankfully, there are some bloggers who have read my books, and my reader-friends, who are helping me go against the grain in getting some word out there. Not an easy thing when the latest TOR release is requesting blogger coverage! LOL

I've just been given interview questions by a very well established blogger that I've not visited with yet, so there are some signs of new interest from the fantasy blogging community. I appreciate that so many of them are open to small press releases, which I think is a good approach, given that small press is where lots of new fantasy authors and very well-established ones are having releases with all of the consolidation and contraction going on at the major press level.

I hope that people do give the limited edition hardcover package some consideration this holiday. It is a very sharp looking book, with a special illustration not found in the regular edition, and it is accompanied by a big package of extras, with 2 posters, art cards, 8x10 cover art print, and bookmarks. Plus, you can add the newest t-shirt design from Dream of Legends for just over 8 bucks. All of it, including the new t-shirt, is signicantly less in price than a new video game, and the book will last a whole lot longer. Orders through the publisher are very helpful to the launch of a book, so do give it some thought.

And if you aren't in the mood for epic fantasy, I will give a shout out for my fellow SSP author Steven L. Shrewsbury, a friend of mine on the circuit, whose great heroic fantasy novel Thrall also has a limited edition version with extras. The deadline for pre-orders on his book is this Wednesday, and as prices go up significantly for any remaining packages after Wednesday, now is the best time to pre-order one.




Here's a link to the online store where you can see both Steven's book and my new one and the packages available. SSP does ship internationally too!


This week will involve a great deal of activity with the awareness campaign for the new book, but I will also be doing a lot of work for FandomFest, a great convention in Louisville Kentucky that I am serving as the Literary Track coodinator for. www.fandomfest.com is the new website, and it takes place next summer from July 22-24. Expect some new media-related things with the convention that I will be participating in.

There will be a whole lot going on with Swordbearer post production throughout December, do keep an eye out for updates on that as well.

Those in the Madison Indiana area should come out and say hi this Saturday, where I'll be from 12-2 at That Book Place, a great bookstore owned by Frank Hall, a familiar face out on the Con circuit.

The Kentucky Book Fair this Saturday

Just a quick note about the Kentucky Book Fair in Frankfort KY tomorrow:

I had a great experience last year at my first appearance at the Kentucky Book Fair. It is an amazing event, and I have the honor of returning again this year. I went down this morning to set up my assigned space on the convention floor (it is at the main Convention Center at 405 Mero St), and lo and behold they have me at the end of the 7th aisle, which is centered at the front where the main entrance is. Maybe being a Seventh Star Press author and being on the 7th aisle is some kind of omen...I'll let you know what kind after the event is done, LOL.

Saw Shane Berryhill while I was there for setup, who is a great speculative fiction writer from the Chattanooga TN area that I met at ConNooga. Also appearing in the speculative fiction area is steampunk star Nick Valentino from Nashville, a great guy and friend I love to see out on the circuit.

If you are thinking about going, I encourage you to do so...admission is free, and there are over 200 authors presented, in all genres. VERY cool day with about 5,000 attending readers/book buyers. Be sure to look me up and say hi, though!

I will have a copy of fellow SSP author Steven Shrewsbury's new book Thrall with me as well, so you can get a sneak peak at that if you are there. It turned out FANTASTIC! Steven is a great guy so I was thrilled to see how good this novel looks.

I'll check in after the event and let you all know how the day went!

Help me spread the word on my friend's new book Thrall...

Just a little favor to ask...help me spread the word on Steven Shrewsbury's new book Thrall. Here's the info from the SSP site with a link to the page with the banners:


From the SSP site:

Please help us spread the word on Steven Shrewsbury's fantastic new heroic fantasy novel Thrall. Two new banners available promoting Thrall and the limited edition hardcovers (deadline on pre-orders is December 1)

Visit the following link to get code to cut and paste the banners into your blogs and pages.

http://www.seventhstarpress.com/documents/help_promote_ssp_releases.html

ScareFest, the new book, and another SSP release

(thanks to Nic Brown, I got to do my very first "red carpet walk", which was interesting! Here's a pic from that moment taken by Bill Spangler,who is an awesome photographer)

I attended and exhibited at ScareFest 2010 in Lexington this past weekend. Thankfully, I didn't have far to drive for this one, maybe about 10 minutes, which was nice.

ScareFest is a large and growing horror and paranormal convention in Lexington, which has a big celebrity, visual media, and paranormal investigation core to it. While it does not have any literary/book related programming at the present time, it does bring in a large audience, many of whom do enjoy genres like fantasy, and science fiction.

I was based at the Deth Publications booth, at the invitation of Elizadeth Hetherington, a very talented horror author from Wisconsin. Her husband Vance, who is an editor, was also present, and the three of us had a great visit and weekend at ScareFest.


(Elizadeth Hetherington and myself)

As the Louisville and Lexington conventions tend to be, it was a time when a lot of the Kentucky filmmakers got a chance to come together, hang out, talk shop, and network.


(here's me with David Rupp of Infernal Dreams)

I really enjoy this aspect of a convention, and getting to see such folks as David Rupp (of Infernal Dreams), Jason Crowe and Roni Jonah (of Feathered Italian Films), Jacob Ennis (Tuckywood Productions), Eric Butts (director of Girl/Girl Scene), and others is great, as we don't get to visit in person all that often due to everyone's busy schedules.


(Suzie and Stephen Lackey of Cinegeek.com and the CineGeek Podcast, Elizadeth Hetherington, and myself)


(me with actor Ryan Buckley, who knows how to make some very potent punch!)


in addition to filmmaking friends, there were many other folks that I don't often get a chance to see except for conventions, such as Joe Garcia of Fast Custom Shirts Jason Sizemore of Apex Publications.


(me with Andrea and John Foley, Jason Jacob, and Abby Cook...John made some weapons shown in the castle scene in Swordbearer, and Abby was one of our two main designers and head of our costuming department)


As the convention went on, I did get to visit with some current reader-friends, and make some new ones. New friends included our neighbor in the exhibit hall, Don Sumner, who is the main guy behind the Best Horror Movies site, and he is the author of the new book, Horror Movie Freak, which looks like a great tome of horror movie lore.


(me with Don Sumner of Best Horror Movies)



(Me with my reader-friend Latosha)



(me with CT Brannon and his son!)


A big part of ScareFest are the celebrity film and paranormal guests. From what I observed, George Romero was the biggest draw, and others such as Danny Trejo and Adrienne Barbeau had very busy tables. Kane Hodder, Tom Atkins, Danielle Harris, wrestling legend George "The Animal" Steele, and many more were meeting fans, selling autographs, taking photos, etc.

Romero happens to be one of Eric Butts' favorite directors, and the following pic was taken right after Eric met George (notice the slightly dazed look, LOL)



On the book front, we are VERY close to the press release for the new Fires in Eden book, which will be accompanied by the unveiling of the new cover art, some of the illustrations, and a video trailer. Matt is doing more amazing artwork, and I can't wait to share it with everyone. This book has many elements that are VERY favorable to epic visual images, to say the least, and Matt has been having a lot of fun with the content in developing the illustrations.

On another note, if you haven't pre-ordered a copy already, you need to pick up one of Steven Shrewsbury's new Thrall limited hardovers. Not many in this batch, and it is the first appearance of his Gorias La Gaul character. Great price on it too and it comes with a poster, 5X7 glossy prints, and bookmarks. He's in the SSP family, so show him some love and pick up Thrall! here's a link to the online store. Check my previous blog post for the video trailer.

http://www.seventhstarpress.com/documents/online_store.html

That's it for now! Keep an eye on this blog as it won't be much longer before the new book announcement.

My fellow SSP author Steven Shrewsbury's New Novel Thrall

(newly unveiled cover art for Steven Shrewsbury's Thrall, artwork by Matthew Perry)


Getting everything pulled together to make the sojourn downtown for ScareFest today! If any of you happen to be there, I'll be at the Deth Publications booth, with author Elizadeth Hetherington and her husband.

I didn't want to leave without putting a link up to the press release and video trailer for my fellow SSP author Steven Shrewsbury's Thrall release. His book is VERY good, to say the least. As a big fan of Robert E. Howard, and David Gemmell, I can say with the utmost confidence that if you like characters like Conan or Druss the Legend, then you are really going to dig Gorias La Gaul. This book is the first published appearance of Gorias, so you can get in on the ground floor of what may well become an iconic fantasy figure. As with my book releases, there's a cool limited edition hardcover, with extras featuring the always-awesome Matthew Perry cover art and illustrations.

Steven is a wonderful individual, and an excellent writer, and I will be doing many appearances/events with him in 2010, so I encourage you to support his new book, spread the word on it, and check out the press release and trailer.

Here's the link:

http://www.seventhstarpress.com/documents/press_releases.html



and if you can't wait to see the trailer over on the press release page, here's the trailer:

Jackie Gamber joins the SSP family!

Will be reporting on my visit as a guest author for the Reading Extravaganza program at Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School in Lexington today, which went wonderfully, but I wanted to keep the immediate focus today and into tomrrow on the press release for the newest member of the Seventh Star Press family!

Award-winning author Jackie Gamber is now aboard, with myself and Steven L. Shrewsbury, at Seventh Star Press, and I'm ecstatic about this. Jackie is fantastic, and I absolutely loved the first release of Redheart on Meadowhawk Press. That book is going to be re-released by SSP, and the second book, Sela, is going to come out in the middle of 2011.

I've gotten to visit with Jackie at several conventions, and she is an outstanding panelist, as well as generous in her support of other writers. She will be a wonderful representative of Seventh Star Press and what it is all about. I am looking forward to teaming up with her at lots of events in the future.

visit her site if you haven't already at www.jackiegamber.com

Matthew Perry is going to be the first up to do cover art and illustrations for the Leland Dragon Series as well, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how he illustrates Kallon Redheart, an amazing dragon character in this series.

Be sure to check out the full official press release for Jackie at:

http://www.seventhstarpress.com/documents/press_releases.html


And get ready next week for Steven L. Shrewsbury's novel going live at SSP, with the introduction of the cover art and some more amazing Matthew Perry artwork.

There'll be another book announced right after that..which has something to do with the Fires in Eden Series!

New Book Around Corner, New Dates added!

Just wanted to pop in to give a small update...

the final text for the new Fires in Eden book has been handed in! It may well be the largest book yet, lol ...I took a quick picture of the manuscript, single-sided, with a Monster Energy drink can for perspective! Yes, it is going to be a little larger, but that's so we can end it with a major, and I mean MAJOR, revelation for the entire series. It caught my editor Karen Leet off guard, but she loved it. She's been really happy with the pacing of the novel, so don't be daunted by the size of this one...it flows with action, action, and more action...plus a monster of an epic battle that fantasy fans and history buffs will get a real kick out of. I'm very excited about the new book, and Matt is working on new illustrations and cover art now.

I have just added some new appearances to the calendar. Thanks to Deth Publications, I will be attending ScareFest in Lexington after all. Deth Publications is going to be selling my titles at their table, and I will be going to help out over the weekend on November 5 and 6. The following weekend is the Kentucky Book Fair, and then December 11th is Apex Day at Joseph Beth, so it is going to be a very busy time locally (and I will be returning to Dunbar next week on invitation to take part in their wonderful Reading Extravaganza program, in regards to The Storm Guardians).

The new year is going to see MANY dates involving both the book world and the movie world, as Swordbearer will be premiering later in January. I will be attending many Cons both as an author guest and also to screen Swordbearer, and we will have some targeted premieres and festivals to announce very soon.

A while back, I talked about a new series of resin-cast collectible figurines from the book series, and it looks like that project is very close to launching the first figure. More on this soon, but wanted everyone to know that we are quietly advancing it forward.

On another note, keep an eye on the Seventh Star Press site the first week of November. Announcement coming on Steven L. Shrewsbury's novel Thrall out on Seventh Star Press. Steven has been a good friend and very supportive, and I can't say how happy I am that Amanda DeBord gave the green light to bring him onto Seventh Star Press. Those that like the dark fantasy of Robert E. Howard will LOVE Shrews. And in addition to that, a wonderful new addition is about to be announced to Seventh Star Press, and she's a fantastic writer! Wait until you find out who!

Steven L. Shrewsbury Aboard the Publisher I'm With!

Definitely in a great mood with the public announcement that Steven L. Shrewsbury, a first-class guy and fantastic fantasy/horror author, is now with Seventh Star Press.

I remember meeting Steven for the first time at the 2008 version of Hypericon, a little less than a year out from the release of my first novel, The Exodus Gate. He was a great panelist, and I went up to talk to him afterwards, and found him to be approachable and helpful. He had some great advice on working with bookstores that I was able to use very effecively when my own book got released.

I also picked up HAWG, a horror/thriller tour de force, with a monster of the like that I have not encountered since Clive Barker's Rawhead Rex.

He's had a truckload of tales published, and his recent novels have been through some excellent small presses like Graveside Tales and Lachesis publishing, and, of course, he had a short story in Harlan County Horrors, from Apex Publications, which is one of my favorite small presses of all ( Jason Sizemore, the head honcho there, has great vision, tenacity, and has really progessed Apex forward)

Steven is now aboard Seventh Star Press. The full press release is here:

http://www.seventhstarpress.com/documents/press_releases.html

His new novel Thrall involves the Nephilim, supernatural forces, and is set in the ancient world. His style is, like the press release says, in the vein of guys like Robert E. Howard (the Conan guy) and David Gemmell (whose book Legend is a fantasy classic)

I am looking forward to working with him to promote our work together. He's a self-starter, and rarin' to move forward, which is music to my ears.

I'll keep everyone posted about how Steven's book is coming along and when the release is. He's working with editor Louise Bohmer, and Matt Perry, who has done all my cover art and illustrations, will be doing art for Thrall.

Interesting side note on Louise...she's an editor that Amanda DeBord (SSP's head editor) wanted to bring in to do SSP projects as the roster and catalog expands. Well, it just turned out that Louise did Steven's last novel, Tormentor, and that the two of them really clicked working together. Small world, isn't it?

Anyhow, I've been helping with getting the news about Steven out, as there are two of us involved with PR activities, but it is worth it as Shrewsbury is one of the true gems in the fantasy/horror scene. I'm wishing him the best and I hope you all check him and his work out! (and get Thrall when it is unleashed!)