The Pyrite War — now digitally AND in print!

You asked, friends, and I answered. My new novel The Pyrite War, a #1 bestseller on Amazon.com*, is now available in print! The print edition has all the same text as the eBook, along with the following features:

• Paper
• Wireless transfer from the page to the reader’s eyes
• Fully resistant to electrical surges and electromagnetic pulses
• A photograph of the author on the back cover attempting to look all dark and brooding

And much more! So if you’ve been waiting to read The Pyrite War in print, it’s now available at Amazon.com!

For the rest of you weirdos with your “e-readers” and your “fiber optic cables” and your “macrobiotic diets,” there are two ways to get your fix, with more on the way. If you’ve got an Amazon Kindle or any device with a Kindle app, it’s available in the Kindle Store. If you’ve got a Nook, a Kobo, or any of those other readers, you can buy the book at Smashwords.com in a variety of electronic formats! Basically, you can bring the book to you in any form other than carrier pigeon, and I’m working on that as soon as I can figure out how many of them it takes to carry a Kindle tied to their ankles.

Spread the word! The Pyrite War is well and truly here!

*-For a very brief period of time in a ridiculously specific category that it doesn’t, technically, belong in.

The Countdown Is Over! The Pyrite War is here!

I hope you’ve enjoyed the past 12 days of glimpses at the characters in my newest novel, The Pyrite War. This is a story that’s long in the making and one that I’m particularly proud of now that it’s here. As the newest tale of Siegel City, the first novel-length Siegel City story since Other People’s Heroes, it’s something I know people have been waiting for.

Set in Siegel City’s Golden Age, The Pyrite War is the story of David Ruston, a father, husband, and brother, who lives in a world where there is only one superhero — the omnipowerful Guardian M. David’s brother, Gabriel, discovers a power of his own and decides to emulate his city’s hero, but something goes terribly wrong. Without any Gifts to defend himself, David is drawn into a hunt for the truth about what happened to Gabriel and for what’s really going on with his city’s defenders.

Because you see, friends, in Siegel City, nothing has ever been what it seemed… not even in a Golden Age.

The eBook edition of The Pyrite War is currently available from Amazon.com for $3.99 — that’s 314 pages of action, thrills, and surprises. Have a different eReader? No problem! Smashwords.com has it too, in ePub, mobi, PDF and several other electronic formats. Still not good enough? Soon, the book will crack into the Barnes & Noble Nook store and the iPad bookstore (I’ll let you know when those are available). And are you one of those fine, old-fashioned folk who prefer your books on paper? That, too, will be an option in a matter of days. Keep checking this blog or my Facebook page for updates.

So you’ve bought The Pyrite War. You’ve read it. You’ve consumed it. You loved it. What can you do next? Well, the obvious answer is to bounce to my now available page and snare any of my other work that you’ve somehow missed. But come on, who are we kidding here? You’re a true blue Evernaut, right? You’ve already read all this stuff!

In that case, friends, the best thing you can do for me is to write a review. Post it at Amazon, Smashwords, wherever you bought the book. And don’t forget to add your review and ratings to this book (and my others) over at Goodreads as well. And heck, while you’re on Goodreads anyway, follow my author page or send me a friend request.

I write because I love it, friends, but I need your help to make a bigger splash. Each time you buy a book, each time you share a link, each time you post a review, it helps raise my profile and it helps more copies of my work make their way into the ether. And when you’re doing this all by yourself, like I am, you need all the help you can get. Thanks.

Christmas 2012: The Ghost of Simon Tower

It’s time again, my friends, for my annual Christmas gift to you, a new short story. And this year, we’re going back to Siegel City and Josh Corwood. Every Christmas Eve the heroes of Siegel City come together to raise a glass to their fallen friends. On Josh Corwood’s first Christmas among them, he learns of an apparition that has haunted Simon Tower for years… a mysterious, nameless phantom, who may hold some of the Tower’s biggest secrets yet. This short story continues the tale of Other People’s Heroes with a gateway into the past of Siegel City, and a glimpse into its future.

So how do you read this story, do you ask? It’s simple, guys. If you’ve got your Amazon Kindle, it’s available in the store right now for a mere 99 cents. But just between you and me, the reason I charge even the 99 cents is because you can’t make a book free on Amazon unless it’s enrolled in their special program, which I’ve decided not to do for reasons.

The Ghost of Simon Tower in the Amazon Kindle Store ($0.99)

But let’s say you don’t have a Kindle… or you don’t have 99 cents, because your kid needed that Tickle-Me Emilio Estavez doll I hear all the kids are crazy for this year. I feel you, my friend. Now before long, the book should be in the Sony Reader store, the Kobo Store, the Nook store, the iPad store, but all of those things take a bit longer than Amazon. So for the rest of you, friends, the book is now available at Smashwords.com, and at Smashwords, for a limited time, it’s absolutely free. Yep, for the whopping price of nothing, you can download the book in any format you want, ready to load on your Nook, your Kobo, your iPad… and yes, even your Kindle. And if you don’t have any of those, there’s also an option to read it in PDF format or HTML, right there in your web browser. So if you’re a fan of Siegel City and Josh Corwood, there is literally no reason not to check the book out right now.

The Ghost of Simon Tower in the Smashwords bookstore (FREE!)

As always, my friends, I ask just one favor of you. If you like my work, please post a review of it online — at Amazon, Smashwords, wherever you happen to get it. Reviews help the book get attention, attention gets more sales, more sales means Blake can keep writing stuff like this. And after some of the hints I drop in The Ghost of Simon Tower, I think you’re really going to be excited to see what I’ve got planned for 2013.

Special thanks to the great Jacob Bascle, who once again has come through with a great cover for the book! Merry Christmas, everybody!

Announcing… The Obligatory Everything But Imaginary!

Well guys, it’s been about twelve minutes since I launched a new product, so it’s time, wouldn’t you say?

I’ve been reading comic books since about 1985 or so. Since 2003, I’ve been writing about them over at CXPulp.com and various other places all over the internet. And now, because absolutely nobody is demanding it, I’m presenting my new series of collected features from the corners of the web, The Obligatory Everything But Imaginary.

The idea is simple: every couple of months, I’m going to gather up five or six columns, essays or reviews from my somewhat vast archives that fit a chosen theme. I’ll do a little bit of editing, add some footnotes to give them necessary context and to inject a little additional commentary, and then put them in the e-book stores of the internet. The question, of course, was what to call this not-at-all-new series of columns. Taking a page from the great Bill Watterson, who chose the title The Essential Calvin and Hobbes for a book that collected two previously published books of comic strips which themselves had previously been published in newspapers (and was therefore not even remotely essential), I decided The Obligatory Everything But Imaginary had a nice ring to it.

Today I present the OEBI Vol. 1: A Revolving Door in Heaven. As the solicit text I wrote states:

When a superhero dies, nobody thinks they’ll stay dead. When a superhero kills, everybody gets up in arms. When someone close to a superhero bites the bullet, no one knows what to think. A REVOLVING DOOR IN HEAVEN is a series of handy essays about the phenomenon of death (and life) in mainstream American comic books.

The Obligatory EBI is not a money-making proposition for me, it’s a name recognition thing, so I’m offering the volumes as cheap as I possibly can. In the Smashwords.com store, where you can get it in any format for whatever e-reader you happen to have, it’s a whopping zero cents. That’s right, absolutely free. In the Amazon store, you can’t set a book for free unless you meet some very specific criteria involving where the book appears digitally and exclusivity and sacrificing a Peruvian tree frog at midnight on the winter solstice… long story short, this book isn’t eligible. So I’ve set it at the lowest price Amazon will allow, 99 cents. But fingers crossed, Amazon will notice it’s free elsewhere and price-match… they do that sometimes.

Anyway, however you want to get it, the book is available now. Check it out, tell your comic-lovin’ friends, and feel free to suggest topics for future volumes!

A Revolving Door in Heaven at Amazon.com
A Revolving Door in Heaven at Smashwords.com

For one week only, get The Beginner FOR FREE!

So you’ve read Other People’s Heroes. Loved it. Devoured it. Built a little shrine to V3OL in your garage. Awesome. And I love you for it. But have you tried out any of my other work? The Beginner, for instance? The Beginner is a dark fantasy about a filmmaker who begins to notice people vanishing from the set of his latest film… and when those people vanish, the ones that remain forget they were ever there. It’s different from OPH, but it’s a book I’m proud of.

And for the next week, it’s FREE at http://www.Smashwords.com.

That’s right, folks. From now until May 1, use the promo code VF55N at checkout and you can download the book absolutely free in any eBook format of your choosing. Get it, give it a read, and, most importantly, tell people what you think.

That’s why I’m doing this, guys — I want to help spread awareness for The Beginner as I get closer to launching OPENING NIGHT OF THE DEAD, my next book, hopefully some time in May. Opening Night is set in the same universe as The Beginner, and I’d really like to get the word out.

So if you get the book for free, my little gift, I AM making one humble request. If you like it, please, review it. Drop a review at Smashwords, at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, the iPad store — or all of the above. Reviews are an enormous help when these online stores generate search results and sales lists, and every review you write for one of my projects helps all of them get seen by more people.

So please, check out The Beginner this week — totally free, from me to you. And if you’d be so kind, once you’re finished, tell people what you think.

What I’m Reading: Doom Patrol #4 (plus a new book from Blake!)

Except for the two Green Lantern titles and the odd prologue, it’s taken four months for Blackest Night to touch upon any regular DC Universe titles. But look out, friends, because this week’s Doom Patrol #4 opens up the floodgates. To be honest, I haven’t sampled this version of the Doom Patrol before. I’ve read some of their previous incarnations, but I’ve never been a huge fan, and if it weren’t for the Blackest Night tie-in (and the Sinestro Corps ring that came with the book) I wouldn’t have picked this up. Still, I’m dedicated to reviewing the whole of Blackest Night here, and this counts.

As we’ve come to expect from the scourge of the Black Lanterns, this issue focuses on several late members of the Doom Patrol rising from the grave to cause havoc for the current members, including Niles Caulder’s late wife (who does not inspire the emotions that one would expect) and a rather curious Black Lantern that’s specifically sent to target the human-brain-in-a-mechanical-body hero called Robotman.

For the first time since this crossover started, I’ve found this issue to be a mixed bag. The Robotman stuff is promising, but I’m not really all that interested in the rest of the team or their respective Black Lanterns. The writing is solid enough, and the art by Justiniano is very good, but I’m just not connecting with this team.

Like many of DC’s current books, this title has an ongoing second feature, in this case the Metal Men. While the second story has nothing to do with Blackest Night, I read it anyway because… well… I paid for it. This story, by the old Justice League International creative team of Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire, features a robotmaker whose creations, a trio of bald supermodel dolls, wind up causing trouble for Dr. Magnus’s robotic creations. Unlike the main story, I took to this one right off. The JLI series by these creators is one of the highwater marks of the grim and gritty 80s, and as they proved with Formerly Known as the Justice League a couple of years ago, they haven’t lost a step. This story was funny, entertaining, and a treat to read. If the book was reversed, with Metal Men as the lead feature and Doom Patrol as the back-up, I’d seriously consider adding it to my pull list on a regular basis. As it is, I’m just glad that DC has announced the second features will be reprinted in their own series of trade paperbacks.

Doom Patrol Rating: 6/10
Metal Men Rating: 8/10

My first eBook is available!

If you missed the announcement in yesterday’s post, I just wanted to let you all know that the eBook version of my Christmas anthology, A Long November and Other Tales of Christmas, is now available from Smashwords.com. In addition to the novella A Long November, the eBook also includes eight other Christmas-themed short stories, as well as a new introduction and notes on each story, where they came from, and in some cases, how they fit in to the larger picture of my Realms.

Want to hear something even better? The book is available in various formats suitable for any eBook reader! Have you got your Amazon Kindle, like I do? Got an iPhone or iPod Touch? The Stanza reader, the Sony reader, or a good ol’ PDA? Or maybe you just want to read the text on your computer screen. You can get the book in any of those formats, and for a limited time, you set the price you pay. You can pay nothing at all, or you can kick a donation of any size over 99 cents (to cover the PayPal transaction fees) into the jar. So if you’re a fan of my work, even if you’ve read these stories before, cruise on over to Smashwords.com and download this book to read by the glow of your Christmas tree this season.