Contest!!! and Signing Update

The signing yesterday was a blast! Thanks for everyone who stopped by the store, especially those of you here from LJ who we got to meet in person (for the first time or not). There was the usual frivolity, along with cookies, donuts, lots of drinks, and lots of sales. At the dinner afterwards, we were thinking about names for the group, since it's a good group and we hope to continue doing signings and events together. We came up with "The Magnificent Seven." We may need more time on this. But eventually we may even have a webpage set up for us all. In any case, there was also discussion of signings in other places besides NJ, so keep your fingers crossed. Maybe at some point we'll make it outside that state. (Yes, we did have a signing in Binghamton, NY--the first signing for the group I think--but otherwise we've only been in NJ. That will change.) We did make a few good contacts for other signings and events, so keep watch here.

And now for the contest: We have a winner for day 1: blood_of_winter!!! Congrats! Send me your address and a name if you want it personalized either as a message here at LJ, or at jpalmatier@sff.net, and I'll get the book out to you. But there's still nine more chances to win! The contest as described yesterday (with minor adjustments):

I will be giving away a first edition signed hardcover of The Skewed Throne, one per day, for the next nine days. The drawing will be done at random based on the comments received on that day's LJ entry. So if you enter today, you're in the drawing for today only; you have to come back tomorrow and enter again for a chance to win in the drawing tomorrow; then come back again for the next day, etc. You have to comment on that day's LJ post to enter for that day, so if you stop on by and I haven't had a chance to put up the post for that day yet, you'll have to come back when it's up to enter. You can enter as many days out of the 10 as you wish, even if you win on one of the days (if you win multiple copies, or already have a copy of the book, I assume you have some friends you can give the book to, or perhaps you can donate it to your local library, etc).

This contest is to celebrate finishing the revisions of the new book Well of Sorrows, coming out in May 2010 in trade paperback, AND to celebrate the release of Die Assassine, the German version of The Skewed Throne, which will hit the shelves on August 11th in Germany. Here's the incredible cover:





So if you're in Germany or can read German, RUSH--I say again RUSH--out and buy Die Assassine! Once it's out of course. (It is available for preorder on the German Amazon.com, along with book 2, "Die Regentin," to be released in January 2010.) And please, please tell all of your friends about it, since it's going to be impossible for me to do many signings and other stuff to promote it in Germany. Especially since I can't speak or read German very well.

And there you go! Enter the contest (just comment!) every day for the next 9 days, and buy my German book!

That is all. Carry on.

Book Review: "The Radioactive Redhead" by John Zakour and Lawrence Ganem

I just finished this book, the third in the Zachary Nixon Johnson series. He's the last private investigator in the year 2060 . . . and he's rather cool.





The first two books were good. Good enough that I kept buying the series. And I have to say that the writing is just gotten better. In this third installment, the plotting is exceptional. I felt the second book in the series was a little rocky and not as clear as it could have been, but this one was easy to follow and yet was still convoluted. There were at least three separate plot threads going on: bodyguard to Sexy Sprocketts, unwilling participant in a reality TV show called Let's Kill Zack, and clueless man in a relationship. And the three wove together seamlessly in this book. The authors have gotten much better with this type of thing.

And it rocks. I will definitely be moving on to the other 3 books already out in this series. The writing was smooth, the characters were fun and great, and the interplay between them--even the ones that aren't human--is spectacular. I laughed at moments, and the authors balance the humor with the serious moments perfectly. I STRONGLY recommend reading this book if you're remotely interested in humorous SF.

Not to say there weren't a few problems, but all of my problems were with cosmetic things. The first book in the series had a ton of typos in it that should have been found and corrected before publication. This one didn't have as many . . . but they were still there. I don't mind a couple in a book, because I've been there and done that and no matter how many people read a book there will always be typos. But there were enough that it became noticeable and reached the "touch annoying" line in my head.

In addition, the tag line on the book is . . . misleading. In a big way. It states: "How do you stop a superhuman villain who knows what you're going to do before you do?" Now, this isn't technically inaccurate . . . but the book isn't really about the superhuman villain. In fact, that superhuman villain only gets found and dealt with in the last few chapters of the book. What grabs you and holds you in this book is all of the other characters and their relationships and plot threads.

Again, notice that those two quibbles have NOTHING to do with the actual writing in the book. One is just cosmetic and the other has to do with marketing. So, if those are the only things I can find to complain about, you see how good the book is. I gave it 5 stars after all. *grin*





So go get this book! Get all of the books in this series. The first four are now offered in two omnibus editions, so they're even cheaper than when I bought them!