More mil-SF goodness from my friend Brad: http://bradrtorgersen.wordpress.com/ 

He is doing this as a serial. Brad has won Writers of the Future (which is a pretty darn big deal), and has books in at different places (some that I happen to, you know, write books for) So the more he can do to build name awareness, the better.

Brad has also already managed to offend lots of people by being very opinionated politically. For some reason I think that will be right up my reader’s alley. 🙂   So, other bloggers, if you like Brad’s serial, please spread the word.

Okay, weird request. Do any of you happen to have a GI Joe sized (the little GI Joes, not the big Barbie sized) guns laying around? Things that you bought for your kids, but they left them on the carpet for you to step on too many times so you don’t want them any more? Very specifically, I need a Thompson subgun. Preferably a GI style, but a 1928 style will do too.  Also I need a lever action rifle.  Anything that looks like a Marlin or Winchester would be perfectly close enough.

This is super geeky, but inspired by my friends that paint miniatures, all the custom action figure people on the internet (I think Silof is the most impressive), and the fact that all of my family except for me do some sort of geeky crafty thing, I’m trying to build/paint my own custom MHI action figures.  Don’t worry. I’ll put up pictures. (of any that turn out good).

This isn’t business. This is hobby. This is also extremely geeky. But inspired by my friends that paint miniatures (like Howard Tayler and Kirk Pfau) and by pages like http://www.sillof.com/C-Steampunk-ESB.htm I’m going to try and build myself some custom MHI action figures.  

I’ve got a few hobbies (shooting, but that is very time intensive), and writing consumes almost all my free time, but I’ve not done anything artisticaly creative in a really long time.  I’ll post pictures of the ones that turn out okay. 🙂

The Thompson is for Earl. The lever gun is for Sam. Both of those are already shaping up pretty well. I’m actually already very proud of my Gretchen and Skippy.

I’ll be signing books at the Layton Barnes & Noble, Saturday October 2nd from 2-5. Though I’ll probably be there at noon. This is my local store, and I’m pretty sure they’ve sold more copies than any other B&N. So drop by and say hi.

Brad Torgersen is a friend of mine. Fellow Utah writer, Army Warrant Officer, and all around great guy, Brad has won the very prestigious Writers of the Future award, and has been having a lot of solid commercial fiction sales this year.  Brad is like me, in that we’re in the highly-opinionated/conservative end of the writing business. In order to get some more name recognition/exposure, he’s taking a page from my handbook and doing an online fiction serial. (kind of like Mike Kupari and I did with Welcome back, Mr. Nightcrawler before the MHI launch). 

Brad is launching a new online serial. It is mil-SF, and I do believe my readers will enjoy it. Go check it out. 

http://bradrtorgersen.wordpress.com/2010/10/01/emancipated-worlds-saga-prologue/

Okay, I got the books Tuesday, signed them all Tuesday night, and then Baen had them picked up by UPS… OVERNIGHT and Uncle Hugos got them late yesterday. Don and the gang have started filling orders so you folks that ordered autographed copies should be getting yours over the next few days.

Why did Baen send over 30o pounds of books overnight? Because they LOVE you.  Baen is awesome. 

In related news, I did a symposium at UVU yesterday. It went well. I think everybody had a good time.

MHV has still be hanging out in the 300-500 range on Amazon, which is excellent. I found out my Nielsen Bookscan numbers for the week ending the 26th, and they were great. I’m eagerly awaiting the stats for the period ending the 28th.

In local news, my kids found a mouse swimming in my wife’s glass jug of left-over cooking oil.  They freaked out. Welcome to Country Livin’ my little suburbanite children.  I’ve got yard deer and house mice and nothing between me and Wyoming but a mountain and a bunch of trees.  Life is good. I eagerly looking forward to the winter, when most of my neighborhood gets a case of the Yard Moose.

The rough draft of Monster Hunter Alpha is DONE. I need to go through and do a bunch of little continuity edits, then it is off to RFA. Probably next week, depending on what I can get done this weekend. I’ve got a book signing at the Layton B&N, and I love that particular store, so I’ll be there for a good chunk of Saturday.