Last Day of the Charity Auction for a Circle of Enemies ARC

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If you want to read Circle of Enemies before everyone else (and would like to help a worthwhile charity, the Ballard Food Bank), there’s only one day left in the benefit auction of a CoE ARC.

Win the auction and I’ll pay shipping to send you the book by priority mail, plus all proceeds (after PayPal fees) go directly to the Ballard Food Bank.

One day left, and thank you to everyone who’s already bid!

Forgot to mention:

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As I write this, the charity benefit auction of the Circle of Enemies ARC is already at nearly $150. Thanks to everyone helping out with this.

Also, the 99 cent promotion for the ebook of Child of Fire has pushed it to sales rank 254 on the Paid Kindle Store at Amazon.com. Yes, I’m obsessing about it. A little

Some people hate to wait.

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And I don’t blame them. People have been bugging me about the release of Circle of Enemies for nearly a year now. Should they have to wait another month for it? Longer?

Possibly not!

Here’s the deal: I have an Advanced Readers Copy of Circle of Enemies sitting on my shelf, and I’m going to auction it off on eBay to benefit a local charity. Here’s the link. Go! Bid! Spread the word!

Truthfully, I wish I could have found my charity listed in the eBay system but they’re not there. Instead I’ll have to cut a check after the money clears–which is fine, but creates a “Sounds like a scam!” response in some people. Maybe I’ll provide pictorial evidence.

Anyway, the proceeds will go to The Ballard Food Bank, which really helped my family when things were difficult a few years back. Since then, the recession has hit and food banks everywhere are straining to help those who need it. We don’t need them anymore, but now that I have an opportunity to pay them back a little, I’m doing it. (When I told my wife about my plans she said: “Yes. Oh yes absolutely, thank you.”) I’ll be paying for shipping and I’ll be donating 100% of what I get after PayPal/eBay takes their cut.

Again, I’d be grateful if everyone could help spread the word a bit. The food bank folks are good people and deserve whatever help they can get.

Didn’t I promise a teaser trailer today?

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Well, I have it right here and ready for you. What’s more, I promised that there would be a cool announcement to go with it, didn’t I?

First, here’s the teaser trailer:

Twenty Palaces Teaser Trailer (not HD) from Harry Connolly on Vimeo.

That one isn’t HD, but if your connection can handle it and you want to go full screen, there’s a High Def version as well.

Honest to Pikachu, I love this teaser trailer. It’s gorgeous and gory, just as my editor said. What’s more, from what I’ve seen of the full trailer, it’s going to be even more incredible. The guys at Wyrd are doing a fantastic job. (The sound effects make my hair stand on end!)

What about that announcement? Well, now that my editor has dropped the announcement over at Suvudu, I feel fine posting it here: As a short-term promotion for my upcoming Circle of Enemies, Del Rey has dropped the price for the Kindle edition of Child of Fire to only 99 cents!

That’s right. For a limited time (don’t ask me how limited because I’m not at all certain) Child of Fire will be available for just one dollar. What’s more, Game of Cages has had two dollars knocked off the ebook price.

As I write this, prices in Apple’s iBookstore and Sony eReader have been changed, but I can’t link to them. Google Bookstore is more accomodating. Child of Fire | Game of Cages. Unfortunately, as I write this, Barnes & Noble hadn’t implemented the price change yet. B&N, why do you have to be so hard on me?

Two more things to say: First of all, this isn’t the last cool thing happening today. See next rock.

Second of all, I’m tremendously happy that Del Rey (and everyone at Random House, too) chose my books for this promotion. Really, they could have given this push to any number of authors, and it shows their confidence in the Twenty Palaces books that it’s happening to me.

So, if you wouldn’t mind maybe spreading the word a little bit? It’s only a short time offer, but poor Ray Lilly could use a couple extra readers before book three comes out.

Added later: It seems that only the U.S. version of Amazon.com that have lowered the prices. Readers outside the U.S. should check that Google link, though. It might be what you’re looking for.

State of the books/trailer/shorts report

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Thanks to a comment I received yesterday, I realized that I’ve been putting people off for months now about the status of the books, the trailer, everything. And that’s not fair. So here is a quick rundown of where things stand on the projects I’ve been promising. And since this is long, I’m going to put in a Continue reading

Did I mention? (advice needed)

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Hey, did I mention that Circle of Enemies earned me another starred review from Publishers Weekly? I did? In my birthday gift report post? Oops. Sorry.

Well how about this, then? The Science Fiction Book Club’s omnibus edition of all three books has a page on line, and I think the cover is pretty cool. I look forward to receiving my copy, so I can see it a little bigger.

In other news, I have some pretty cool things coming up in two weeks or so, including an auction of an ARC of Circle of Enemies. The auction will benefit charity, of course, and I’m wondering what’s the best way to do this: Should I put it on ebay (do people still use ebay?) and turn over the money after I collect it? Should I have people donate, like, ten bucks and forward the receipts to me so they’re entered into a raffle?

I’ve never done this before, so I’m grateful for any advice you can offer.

Five things make a Sunday post

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1) Curious about the plot of Twenty Palaces, the prequel to Child of Fire? Well, some years ago I ran the query past Evil Editor for their advice way back in 2006. Over the weekend, EE brought it back as an Evil Editor Classic. (Here’s the original, with amused commenters.)

It’s interesting to note that I’ve cut 9K words since then, but that query most definitely sums up the plot of book zero.

2) So! Authors have a lot of outlets to obsess over their sales, but one of the ones I like is the Random House website. See, I can go there, click on “Science fiction/fantasy” on the left sidebar, and it will show you a list of their available books, sorted by how well they sell.

I know, right?

Well, today, for the first time ever (not that I check often, but still) Circle of Enemies was the first book listed. The ebook, actually. Can I say “Yay!” For the series to continue, CoE is going to have to do quite well, and I’m tentatively taking this as a hopeful sign.

3) How is THE DARK KNIGHT rated PG-13? Jesus, but it was dismal, disturbing, and intensely violent–all things I like, mind you, but I’ve taken my son to a couple of PG-13 movies, and I think this one would have been a bit much.

4) However, as this is the summer of my son’s ninth year, I’m back to seeing films in the theater again. We saw KUNG FU PANDA 2, and yeah, it was just as great as you’ve heard. PIRATES 4 was a complete mess, though. When the main villain, Blackbeard, is introduced, he magically ties up a big crowd of mutineers, then stops himself from punishing them because his daughter asks him to. Nothing like a villain not acting villainous to win the audience over.

Then there was the “SHE HAS A NAME!” thing, which confused me at first because I thought the mermaid really did have a name. Turns out it didn’t matter if she did or not, or what it might have been, because the supposed good guy hangs one on her himself without caring one whit how she felt about it.

Finally, it turns out that Barbossa got a peg leg because he’s too much like the KGBeast. You know, the next time I get some tape stuck on my finger, I’m just going to cut off that finger.

5) I still have a lot to do to prep for my trip to NY, so off I go.

My usual library book post

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It’s that time again. Circle of Enemies will be released in three months (at the end of August) and, if your library is like mine, now is the time that you can ask your local system to purchase a few copies. (The Seattle Public Library won’t order anything more than three months in advance.)

If you need other information like the ISBN and such, it’s here.

Thanks.

You guys, OMG

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I just watched a rough cut of the Twenty Palaces trailer (no, I will not share) and it looks fantastic!

There are no effects yet, and the cut is still rough, right? Obviously. But it looks fantastic.

Sooooo excited!

Added later: I watched it at home with the sound, and it’s 50x more awesome. You guys, seriously.