News & My Favorite Reads
Appearances: I am just back from Capricon and will be attending Wiscon on Memorial Day Weekend in Madison, Wisconsin. I'll also be at Draculacon 2 in Windber, Pennsylvania on May 14. This is a strange, one track, con held in a theater with a blend of music (last year David J of Bauhaus fame performed), lectures, a few authors and others. Well worth attending if you are in the area.
Other cons may include Context 24 in Columbus, Ohio, and Windycon, in Chicago in November.
I am looking for ideas for other cons, and would be open to readings and signings in bookstores, bars and coffeehouses pretty much anywhere. It's spring and I have a yen to travel.
Beyond Sundown is finished. The trade paperback and Kindle version have just become available.
Shattered Glass has been reissued in the "author's cut" -- including over 12,000 words cut from the original manuscript for length considerations. What goes back adds to the development of the Wells children and adds to Charles' backstory. It is now available on Kindle and in trade paperback.
Blood Rites -- the sequel to Glass and a book very hard to find, it seems -- is also being reissued sometime in 2011. It is now available on Kindle.
Nocturne is on Kindle as well. This book is a must-read before Beyond Sundown, which continues where Nocturne ends. For those who have misplaced their copy, it will be very reasonable to download -- and kindle aps are also available for computers and, I gather, iPhones (for those with really good eyes).
Finally, my look at metro-zombies, Just the Way You Are, will appear in Moonstone Book's Zombies anthology due out sometime this year.
Other books you may love: If you have not discovered Wally Lamb's second book, I Know This Much Is True, pick it up. It looks incredibly hefty and you may be damning me at 4a.m. when you are still up reading but it is incredible.
I am also highly recommending A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick. It is incredible that this first novel came from a man in his 70s, I believe. And, I have recently finished Beach Music by Pat Conroy, an incredible read.
If you are looking for something light and delightful in fantasy, try Bloody Good and its sequels, from Georgina Evans. It's a look at life on the British home front during WWII from the perspective of pixies, vampires, dragons, nynphs and other creatures of legend. I always love books that blend accurate history with the fantastic, and Evans does a beautiful job with both.
Twelve, and its sequel Thirteen Years Later, both by Jasper Kent, blend some far-from-sexy vampires and 1800's Russia into a page-turning mix of history and fantasy. I know when an author does his homework, and Kent's books are superb.
Finally, for those who love their vampire tales shorter, be sure to check out Evolve Two: Vampire Stories of the New Undead, an anthology releasing soon.
