And So We Return . . .

Patricia Bray (pbray), Jennifer Dunne (jennifer_dunne), and I made it home late-ish last night from our little jaunt to Toronto. The signing was a blast. We got to meet a few fans (some of which came from rather far away to see us, such as Lillian (llwheeler)), and I got to meet a couple of fellow DAW authors that I haven't managed to catch at cons and whatnot, including Jim Hines (jimhines), Michelle Sagara West (msagara), and Violette Malan (that's Violet, not Vee-O-Lette). It was practically a DAW party. *grin*

And of course, we got to see a little of Toronto and sample some of the local cuisine through the help of Sylvia (sylvia_rachel). Thanks for helping the out-of-town tourists. Grano's was great, and we ended up going to Flo's Diner the next day for lunch/breakfast. In particular, I appreciate hauling me up to the Indigo after Grano's on the slim chance that they were open. Although it was good to see the Topiary Squirrels. And thanks for the chocolate! It wasn't necessary, but I'm certain I'll enjoy it immensely. *wicked anticipatory grin*

And now we're back to the writing and Nin90. Only two free days left before the new semester hits, so I'm hoping to get some serious wordage in the next few days, because after that . . . it will be hit or miss. I do have to write my syllabi and try to get ahold of the one textbook, so there goes some writing time, but we'll survive.

Thanks again to everyone who joined us at the bookstore for the signing. I hope you all had a blast!

Author Introduction: David B. Coe

OK, one of the things I wanted to do starting this year is to introduce everyone here at the blog to some of the other authors out there that they may not have seen at the bookstore or noticed in some way. Some of them will already be well-known (such as today's author), but some of them will be first-time authors, with a brand new book that you should check out. All of them will have a new or new-ish release, and all of them are here by invite from me, because I've either met them or know them in some way, or they happen to be a favorite author of mine. I'm not getting any push from them to do this, and I'm certainly not getting anything from their agent or publisher or whatever. They're just people I think you should check out, get to know, and possibly read in the future if you aren't reading them already. And if you ARE readying them already, feel free to tell everyone what you think of their books in the comments section!

So, the first author of the year is David B. Coe (davidbcoe). What I've done is contacted the author and asked if they were interested in doing this. After that, it's pretty much up to them what they want to say. I've inserted the pictures and links to bookstores, but everything else is theirs. So everyone, say "Hi!" to David B. Coe, and the next time you're in the bookstore, check out his books!

"Hi. My name is David B. Coe and I'm the author of nine fantasy novels. I'm also a blogger here on LiveJournal and a cyber friend of Josh's. Josh was kind enough to invite me to guest blog on his site.

First off, I'd like to thank Josh for letting me post on his blog. [Looks around] Nice place; it's good to be here.

Josh invited me to post today because I have a new book out as of last month that I wanted to tell you about. It's called The Sorcerers' Plague [Hardcover: Amazon, Mysterious Galaxy] and it's the first book of a new trilogy called Blood of the Southlands. Blood of the Southlands is set in the same world as my five-book Winds of the Forelands series (Tor Books) and it even features a couple of characters from the Forelands books. That said, the new book stands very much on its own and readers coming to it without having read Winds of the Forelands will have no trouble following the action.





Like Winds of the Forelands, the Southlands books deal with issues of ethnic identity, race, and prejudice, examining the ways in which ancient hatreds inform everyday interactions among people of different backgrounds.

The series tells the story of an old Mettai sorcerer named Lici who bears the emotional scars of a wrong done her as a young girl. In seeking vengeance for this wrong she unleashes a plague that strikes not only at her intended victims, but at all who have sorcerer blood in their veins. While some, including the characters from the Forelands series, try to stop Lici's plague from spreading, others seek to exploit the chaos created by the pestilence by recommencing the blood wars that once raged across the land. In short, this is kind of a medical thriller set in a medieval land and mixed with high fantasy.

It was fun book to write, and it was also a great challenge. I wanted to do something more with the world I created for the Forelands series, but I didn't want to fall back into writing the same kind of castle-intrigue books I'd done for the first series. The result was something utterly different for me. My villain is not at all typical of fantasy villains. One of my heroes is an old man who gets by on intelligence and wisdom rather than brawn and sword-skill. Again, not your typical fantasy hero. In fact, the entire series has been a stretch, which I think is why I've had so much fun with it.

If you're interested in learning more about the books, please feel free to check out my website -- www.davidbcoe.com -- where you can find more information about all my books, including sample chapters. You can also email me from the site, and I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have about my books. And finally, I hope you'll stop by my blog davidbcoe. I'm hoping to have Josh as a guest blogger soon.

Thanks for reading. And, Josh, thanks for letting me stop by."

( David B. Coe's Other Books )