As the ARC-RV tour winds down my folks popped in to two B&Ns in Michigan. They met Bill in Kalamazoo (sounds like a song from the 50s) and Tom in Battle Creek. They’ve actually made it all the way back to Canada, but I’m still getting information on their last stops.

I just finished going through second pages and found just a few tiny tweaks. The cover is final, so too the flap copy, so everything is just about ready to go to press.

I am thrilled to announce that A Darkness Forged in Fire has been picked up by the Science Fiction Book Club and will be featured as the (or is it an) alternate selection for August 2008. For a rookie first time author I am really excited by this. I bumped into Pocket’s subrights director in London while visiting the S&S UK offices when she told me the great news, but was sworn to secrecy until now. You can’t see it, but I’m grinning and doing a little jig while typing this, which is making it a bit hard to type!

Cheers,

Chris

For the last several days my parents have been camped out in Indiana looking at new trailers. After much debate they have purchased a new one. I jokingly suggested they get huge panels put on the side with my book cover and my dad thought it was a great idea. My mom, not so much.

I completed my first interview last night. When it shows up on the web I’ll note the website. The questions were indepth and definitely required some thought.

More ComicCon – While at the show I also bumped into a lot of folks from Del Rey where I first started out, including my first boss, Steve Saffel, Kathleen O’Shea (who happens to be married to author Peter David) as well as being a master puppet-maker, her daughter Ariel (did I spell that right?), Betsy Mitchell, Keith Clayton, Chris Schluep and Bill Takes. I also reconnected with Caron Harris in production. Over at Pocket there was Anthony Ziccardi, Dep Publisher, Ed Schlesinger, my editor, Melissa Gramstad, my publicist, Marco Palmieri, another editor, and other folks that sadly I have forgotten their names at the moment! I’m probably forgetting even more. All in all Comic Con was a terrific experience. At the moment I don’t think I’m going to the one in San Diego, but that could change. I will be at BEA in LA the end of May, although I don’t know if I’ll be doing a signing or what. My primary purpose out there is to represent Stackpole Books in my editorial capacity.

ComicCon was a kaleidescope of colors and sounds, bright and loud. The Javits Center was absolutely jammed with people making moving in the aisles between the booths a challenge most of the time. I did my first signing today and thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ve been to many signings over the years, but always stood several feet away watching as one of my authors chatted with a reader. Now that it was my turn I had to remind myself that the line in front of Pocket’s booth was actually for me. People were incredibly friendly and very encouraging. I signed somewhere between 150 and 200 copies and had a chance to engage many people while I did so. A few questions came up more than once – is this a trilogy (yes) is this book one of the trilogy (yes again) and any advice for an aspiring writer (write, finish, then start writing the next one.) Hard to quantify, but I’d guess at least half of the people I talked to were also writers so the atmosphere was very collegial.

Speaking of writers, I met Naomi Novik, Richard Knaak and Sherrilyn Kenyon for the first time today, and Terry Brooks for either the second or third. Writers, artists, tv and movie stars were prevalent throughout the show and at one point I spotted Seth Green (huge line for his signing.)

Thanks to all the folks at Pocket Books that set up my signing today. They had it down to a science and had advertised it nicely. They also did up a very smart looking postcard which, when I figure out how, I will post to my website, www.ironelves.com which I’m happy to say is now fully functioning with active links. As time goes by we’ll be updating it further so if you have any thoughts on what you see please let me know.

My webmaster is currently uploading (or is it downloading?) the first three chapters of A Darkness Forged in Fire on my website so if you’ve come looking for that after having received the card at ComicCon it will be there shortly…really!

Speaking of ComicCon, I’ll be at the Pocket Books booth with my editor, Ed Schlesinger, to sign ARCs of the book starting at 11am. I’ve never been to a ComicCon before so I’m really looking forward to this.

Oh, and before I forget, a huge thanks to my brother for keeping up my blog while I was over in London and to my parents for their continuing ARC-RV tour.

The London Book Fair was simply amazing. It was a whirlwind of meetings and then drinks and dinner at the pub every night. That might explain why I still feel a bit wonky. In between my meetings in my job as editor I was also able to meet my British editor, Sally Partington, and many of her colleagues at S&S UK. They were terrific and really made me feel welcome. I also got a bit of great news while I was over there, but as it’s still being finalized I can’t reveal any more at this time…much as I would like to!