Got an email from the Amazon, a few minutes ago (first paragraph modified slightly):
quote:We have received new release date information related to the order you placed on some previous date (Order# yadda yadda). The item(s) listed below will actually ship sooner than we originally expected based on the new release date:
Richard Lee Byers "Blind God's Bluff: A Billy Fox Novel (The Billy Fox Novels)" Previous estimated arrival date: January 14, 2013 - January 17, 2013 New estimated arrival date: December 21, 2012 - December 27, 2012
Thanks for posting that, WR. I have had my author copies for several days now, so I'm not too surprised that it's going to come out a little ahead of schedule.
Dec. 21st...have I mentioned that the book makes a great Christmas present?
This is the first Billy Fox novel. There will be more.
The genre is urban fantasy. Billy is a vet of the war in Afghanistan who, since his return home, has become a professional gambler. Unfortunately, a streak of bad luck has left him owing lots of money to a loan shark.
A chance meeting gives him the chance to earn the money to buy back his markers. The person he meets has suffered an injuries to the eyes that make it impossible for him to play in a certain poker tournament. Yet for reasons that become clear as the story unfolds, he MUST play, or someone must play as his proxy. He recruits Billy.
Billy soon discovers that all the other players in the game are supernatural beings of one sort or another. (The story posits the sort of urban-fantasy secret world in the shadows of our mundane reality with creatures of many different types coexisting, the kind of world Jim Butcher and Simon R. Green write about.) They use their magic to cheat at the table. Worse, what happens away from the table is tacitly regarded as part of the game, too, and the play there can include anything up to and including murder.
One, two! One, two! And through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back. --Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass
"Mmm, not the darkness," Myrin murmured. "Don't cast it there." --Erik Scott de Bie, Shadowbane
They started sending out the subscription copies last week. Only reason I've not read it yet is that international shipping takes time (and I'm not fond of reading books on the laptop).
There is a rumour going around that I have found god. I think is unlikely because I have enough difficulty finding my keys, and there is empirical evidence that they exist. Terry Pratchett
And for non-subscribers who would like to read it in electronic format, the release day is this Wednesday* (19/12).
*A day named for a supernatural being who lost one of his eyes, incidentally.
There is a rumour going around that I have found god. I think is unlikely because I have enough difficulty finding my keys, and there is empirical evidence that they exist. Terry Pratchett
One, two! One, two! And through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back. --Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass
"Mmm, not the darkness," Myrin murmured. "Don't cast it there." --Erik Scott de Bie, Shadowbane
Forgive me for belaboring what's already probably clear from the last few posts, but hey, just in case anything remains ambiguous:
The Paizo website has made my novel Pathfinder Tales: Called to Darkness available as an ebook starting this Wednesday, 12/19/12. You can order the paperback there, too; you just won't get it quite as soon. Or, you can wait and order the novel from Amazon and they'll start sending it out on the 1/1/13 release date.
Audible.com is releasing four of my Forgotten Realms novels as audiobooks on 1/8/13. I'm hoping these will the first of many. The novels are the three books that make up the Year of Rogue Dragons plus Whisper of Venom. More info here:
Forgive me for belaboring what's already probably clear from the last few posts, but hey, just in case anything remains ambiguous:
The Paizo website has made my novel Pathfinder Tales: Called to Darkness available as an ebook starting this Wednesday, 12/19/12. You can order the paperback there, too; you just won't get it quite as soon. Or, you can wait and order the novel from Amazon and they'll start sending it out on the 1/1/13 release date.
Forgive me for belaboring what's already probably clear from the last few posts, but hey, just in case anything remains ambiguous:
The Paizo website has made my novel Pathfinder Tales: Called to Darkness available as an ebook starting this Wednesday, 12/19/12. You can order the paperback there, too; you just won't get it quite as soon. Or, you can wait and order the novel from Amazon and they'll start sending it out on the 1/1/13 release date.
Just got my hardcopy today, with my monthly Paizo shipment. Unfortunately, my reading list right now is taller than my son...
Tell him to grow faster.
There is a rumour going around that I have found god. I think is unlikely because I have enough difficulty finding my keys, and there is empirical evidence that they exist. Terry Pratchett
My new column for Airlock Alpha (written Monday) just got posted today, the same day that Amazing Spider-Man #700 came out. Check it out and see how utterly I failed to predict the fate of Peter Parker and the future of our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
My new column for Airlock Alpha (written Monday) just got posted today, the same day that Amazing Spider-Man #700 came out. Check it out and see how utterly I failed to predict the fate of Peter Parker and the future of our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
I'm ecstatic over what's coming for AmazingSuperior Spider-Man. And the twist certainly wasn't what I was expecting either. [I was secretly hoping it would somehow be Miguel "Spider-Man 2099" O'Hara, but... this works just as well.]
@Sage: It's definitely interesting, although I found myself unconvinced that the process of psychological/moral transformation we saw in the final pages of the story would really have happened.
@Sage: It's definitely interesting, although I found myself unconvinced that the process of psychological/moral transformation we saw in the final pages of the story would really have happened.
I'll agree with that.
I'm still of a mind that this is really nothing more than a rather bold experiment in character-development. I can't expect that this "new" status for Spidey will remain beyond the coming year, because, quite frankly, the psychological fallout from such a transformation might be a little too difficult to explore -- for any great length of time -- in comic book format. But, still, I'm intrigued by the potential for new insights into the character.
There is a rumour going around that I have found god. I think is unlikely because I have enough difficulty finding my keys, and there is empirical evidence that they exist. Terry Pratchett
I'm now a contributor to The Night Bazaar, Night Shade Books's communal authorial blog. My first post lists some of my favorite works of fantasy, SF, and horror from 2012. Check it out here:
As of today my urban fantasy novel Blind God’s Bluff and nine of my Forgotten Realms novels are available as audiobooks. For more info, click the link and then Search “Richard Lee Byers.”
Questions for Richard Lee Byers
Posted - 15 Dec 2012 : 20:53:47
