About Books

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    And we’re off …

    Okay, the Web site guy tells me that everything is more or less resolved. There might be a few more tweaks this weekend when the site might go down briefly, but that should be it. Huzzah! I’m so happy that the site is finally back up. I’ve really missed blogging and interacting with readers. 🙂

    Spider's Bite high resSo I thought I would do a quick update about what’s going on with the Elemental Assassin books. The first book, Spider’s Bite, will be out on Jan. 26 (getting close now!). If you’ve looked at the rest of the site, you’ve probably seen the cover already. But here it is again in all it’s glory. Pretty cool, huh? In case you were wondering, the cover was designed by Tony Mauro, who I think did an excellent job.

    Last week, my editor send me a mockup of the cover for the second book, Web of Lies (due out in June 2010). I can’t share it just yet, but it looks just as cool as Spider’s Bite does. The art department really outdid themselves. Kudos to them.

    The third book, Venom, will be out in October 2010. I won’t see any cover art for it anytime soon.

    In the meantime, to whet folks’ appetite for the series, there’s a free prequel short story called Spider’s Bargain posted here on the Web site. It’s on the Excerpts page, along with the first chapters of all three books. I plan to do free short stories for each of the books. I’ll probably start working on the one for Web of Lies in a few weeks. There’s also a lot of info on the Elemental Assassin series in general on the site. So go check out all the new shinies. 😉

    So that’s what’s been happening in the world of Gin Blanco lately. I hope you guys like the new look of the site. I also want to give a big shoutout and kudos to my Web designer, John of Atomic Cherry. I really think he did an excellent job with everything. Thanks so much John!

    So what have you guys been up to while I’ve been incommunicado? Share in the comments.

  • Titles, titles everywhere …

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    So, while the site has been down, some more stuff has happened with the Elemental Assassin series.

    I have titles now! Huzzah!

    If you guys remember, the first book is going to be called Spider’s Bite. Book 2 is going to be called Web of Lies, and Book 3 will be titled Venom.

    Pretty cool, huh?

    Hopefully, I’ll get the okay to share the awesome cover art from Spider’s Bite soon … 😉

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    Nicholas Sparks …

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    So I did something kind of cool Saturday — I got to hear Nicholas Sparks speak. Sparks is the mega-popular author of books like The Notebook and Message in a Bottle (both of which have been made into movies).

    One of my local libraries has an endowment to bring authors/speakers to the area, and he was their big draw this year. An interesting note: the library paid him $25,000 to come in, go to a luncheon, and do a talk at one of the local arts venues — all of which added up to about 4 or 5 hours’ worth of his time. Nice work if you can get it. 😎

    Sparks was very personable and told a lot of funny stories about his kids and his dog. He also gave some insight as to how he came up with the idea for The Notebook and his other books. Many were family stories or tragedies.

    For example, his wife’s grandparents and their love story was the inspiration for The Notebook. His dad finally learning to love again after his mom’s death and his dad then dying in a car accident was the inspiration for Message in a Bottle.

    Overall, Sparks was a good speaker with a lot of interesting antecedotes. Next year, I hope the library brings in someone just as well-known and entertaining. I’d love to hear John Grisham speak or Lisa Kleypas or a dozen other authors …

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    Elemental Assassin updates …

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    Well, the good news about the blog being down so long is that quite a bit of stuff has been happening with the Elemental Assassin series, which means I have some news to share.

    The biggest is this — the books are now going to be published in mass market format. Huzzah! 😎

    I cannot tell you how excited I am about this move to mass market. Given the craptastic economy, the cheaper format will mean that the books are much more affordable for folks — $6.99 or $7.99 versus $14 or $15 for a trade paperback.

    The release schedule is still the same — Assassin 1 in February, Assassin 2 in June, and Assassin 3 in October. Since the books are going to be released in the mass market format, they will actually hit shelves a week early, which means that Spider’s Bite, the first book in the Elemental Assassin series, will now be out on Jan. 26, 2010. Not that I’m counting down the days or anything … 😉

    Also, in the last month, I’ve done copy edits for Spider’s Bite, revisions on Assassin 2 (title still to be determined), and I’m getting revisions on Assassin 3 from my editor this week. So stuff is finally starting to happen on the production end of things.

    Oh yeah, and I’ve started writing Assassin 4 too, just in case my publisher wants more books in the series (which I hope they do).

    Anyway, that’s what’s been going on with me and my books. What have you guys been up to while we’ve been on forced hiatus? Share in the comments.