Mirian Raas
Introducing Mirian Raas, the main character from Beyond the Pool of Stars.
Artist Roberto Pitturru perfectly captured the character. What can I say? I love this art.
Blog Tour & Book Giveaways
I’m back from a wedding trip into the great north, where for the first time ever I visited Lake Geneva, which, for those of you not in the know, is the birthplace of Dungeons & Dragons.
That’s not why the couple we were visiting got married there, and I might have forgotten to mention it to them, so they’ll probably be mystified about why those mugs I gave them as a wedding gift were full of 20 sided dice.
Kidding — that last part didn’t happen.
Anyway, I’m continuing my blog tour recap. Here’s where I’ve been, including some book giveaways! More to come soon.
Link Day
It’s been busy and sad here at Jones central. While mourning the death of an old friend my blog tour has rolled on and on, and a whole slew of folks have been kind enough to host my ramblings about my new book and the writing process. More on that in a moment.
First, I’m very excited to announce the release of a collection of grand pulpy fun featuring the work of my very good friend John Chris Hocking. As you probably know, I think the world of Hocking and his writing and wish we’d see a whole lot more of it. This collection is more than a little on the purple side, but it’s a blast, and Hocking’s tale does a wonderful job of emulating the old thriller pulps without parody.
You can find a copy and read more about it right here.
October Doldrums
This is launch week for my new book, Beyond the Pool of Stars. And it’s only a few days since my new adventure went to press in Pinnacle’s Savage Tales of Horror volume 3. I should be a relentless promotion machine talking about both things.
But I’m having a hard time mustering the enthusiasm.
I went in for a minor medical procedure early this morning and when I returned home I had a message that an old friend of mine had gone in for a minor medical procedure the night before. Ironic. Both things were so minor we hadn’t bothered to tell each other.
The parallel ends with me coming out alive and well. Something went wrong while my friend was under and his brain was deprived of oxygen. He died early in the morning, probably at about the time I was waking to drive in for my own surgery.
I can’t stop thinking about his child, and his sister, and his parents, and his long-time girlfriend, and her little girl, who was like a daughter to him.
Guest Posts
My first guest post is up over at SFSignal, with more to follow in the coming days. In this one I discuss how I came to write the new book, and a little about the writing process.
In other news, the adventure I wrote for the Solomon Kane role-playing game is now available as a PDF from Pinnacle Entertainment, AKA the Savage Worlds folks.
Seems like I had more to share, but I still have a slew of guest blogs to write, so I’d better get on with that…
Beyond the Pool of Stars Sweepstakes and Chapters
TOR.com is running a contest right now to win a copy of my newest book, Beyond the Pool of Stars. All you have to do is sign up in the comments section of this page.
And check this out — you can read a chapter of the book for free right over here!
Once again, here’s the back cover blurb:
Mirian Raas comes from a long line of salvagers, adventurers who use magic to dive for sunken ships off the coast of tropical Sargava. When her father dies, Mirian has to take over his last job: a dangerous expedition into deep jungle pools, helping a tribe of lizardfolk reclaim the lost treasures of their people. Yet this isn’t any ordinary job, as the same colonial government that looks down on Mirian for her half-native heritage has an interest in the treasure, and the survival of the entire nation may depend on the outcome…
Catching Up
I’m gearing up for a big promotional push for my next book, Beyond the Pool of Stars. That means I’ll be spending a lot of spare time writing blog posts that will be appearing in other places, doing my best to convince those unfamiliar with me or my work that it’s interesting and that they need to buy it. I DO need money to buy food and pay the mortgage and college tuition for the first born, etc.
Anyway, I’ll be so busy with that I probably won’t have too many in-depth articles going live on my own site for a while. The last half of this year has been even busier than usual!
Link Day
I remain crazy busy doing writer and house dad things, so I have little that’s especially clever. I’ll still do my best to entertain you today.
First, giant-sized hounds. Beware!
Second, I want to take a train across the U.S. like this. Except I’d probably start from Chicago and go west. But you get the idea.
Howard’s Books on Kindle and Nook
I learned some more cool news yesterday — my first two Pathfinder novels, Plague of Shadows and Stalking the Beast, are now available on Kindle. I’m assuming that my new one will be as well, when it’s released in October.
Speaking of which, there are still twenty days left to enter the Goodreads contest for a chance to win a free copy of Beyond the Pool of Stars! Swashbuckling action! Hair-raising escapes! Lost jungle ruins! Lizardmen! A kickass female protagonist! What are you waiting for, eh?
Win a Copy of My New Novel
Here’s a nifty thing. Courtesy of TOR and Paizo you can enter to win one of ten free copies of my new novel, Beyond the Pool of Stars, over at GoodReads!
And in case you haven’t seen it yet, here’s that glorious Tyler Jacobson wraparound art of the book’s cover again!
