Forgive the lack of organized blogging, but I’ve got a ton of stuff going on.  This is going to be brief, because I really do have a ton of work to do, and yesterday instead of working I took the kids shooting. Yesterday we worked on pistols, I taught them the difference between double taps and controlled pairs, and introduced them to the speed rock. My kids are getting pretty damned good.
1. Don’t forget to vote for the Hugos. The deadline is looming. Only you can prevent Puppy Related Sadness.

2. Speaking of deadlines, Project Blue (not the actual name) is due at the end of August. Mike and I are working on that now. It is pretty awesome.

3. This week I’m drawing cartoons for yet another secret project. Yes, I know I’m a terrible cartoonist. That’s what makes it funny.

4. People keep asking, yes, there are more Monster Hunter novels coming. That’s the next book I’m working on after Project Blue is turned in.

5. And there is a John Ringo MHI spin-off series coming out.

6. And there is another MHI collaboration with me and another author.

7. And there is an MHI anthology coming in 2017.

8. Oh, but I forgot, I’ve got another secret project this summer. Crap! I volunteer for too much stuff. This one involves Tom Stranger.

9. I wrote another novel for Privateer Press and their Warmachine universe earlier this year. It is the sequel to Into the Storm. They are sending the continuity edits back to me. I really enjoy writing these. They’re a lot of fun.

10. GenCon is this week, but I can’t go this year. I’ve still got like 4 other cons to go to before three weeks of book tour.

11. I’m listening to Monster Hunter Nemesis on audiobook right now. It is awesome. Oliver Wyman is amazing.

12. On that note, I found out who the narrator is for Son of the Black Sword. I’ve not worked with this narrator before, but he’s done a lot of epic fantasy. I listened to some of his work yesterday. I think Audible found someone who will be a really good fit.

13. Speaking of SotBS, go preorder it.

14. Which reminds me, I need to write a blog post about how opening week stats help or hinder writers.

15. I put up more shelves in my office. They look nice.

Okay, nobody cared about that last one, but this is a stream of consciousness kind of update.

Now back to work!  These manatees will not draw themselves!

Many of you on the Monster Hunter Nation know Jack Wylder (that’s not his real name by the way). He is a really good friend of mine, and for the last few years has been helping me with my merchandising and web stuff on the side. He is the one who took care of the Challenge Coin Kickstarter, designing the art, and processing all the orders. All the various shirts, hats, mugs, and assorted oddball fun things we’ve done on this blog, Jack was more than likely the one who actually put it together.

Jack’s real job was as the marketing director for a well-respected gun company. If you have read a gun magazine in the last decade, you’ve seen his work. What most people didn’t realize though was that he wasn’t the manager of a department, he was the entire marketing department by himself. He designed the ads, placed the ads, handled the advertising budget, did their website, handled their social media, even shot the photos, and basically did all the stuff that most folks in the gun business assumed was done by a team of people. Before that he was one of their sales guys (that’s how I met him), and before that he was quality control.

Jack was laid off. Everybody in the gun business knows his work, but it isn’t a huge industry, so there aren’t a lot of open positions for full time marketing people. He found another marketing job at a start-up gun company, but before he’d even started working they ran into some legal trouble and put everything on hold.

So Jack is currently unemployed and looking for work. The man has serious skills. I vouch for his character without hesitation. To give you an idea, when this blog started having technical problems when Jack offered to help, I said here are the keys to everything and my credit card, I trust you, have fun.

Jack lives in the Austin area. The man is Texan to the core, so it would have to be something pretty sweet to move, but I think marketing is one of those things where you can do it remotely too.

I don’t think he wanted me to post this. Jack is a proud guy, and not the type to ask his friends for favors. So that’s why I’m using his internet name instead of his real one and leaving the above description of his work history vague about who he worked for. If your company needs a marketing wizard, post in the comments below so I can put you in touch with him, and he can send you his resume.

Thanks.

The blog went down yesterday to change a bunch of things around. This is a test. Let’s see if this thing is working now.

For once I agree with GRRM. Everybody should vote. The deadline is coming up fast.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/20/george-rr-martin-hugo-awards-vote-game-of-thrones-science-fiction?CMP=share_btn_fb

Since we wrote a novella worth of giant blog posts back and forth, GRRM knows damned good and well the Sad Puppies campaign wasn’t motivated by racism or sexism, but that doesn’t stop him from casually tossing the “neo-nazi” accusation out there… but you should believe him when he says there was like totally never any political bias in the system. 🙂

Forgive the lack of blogging recently. There are a bunch of topics I’d like to talk about, but I’ve been swamped with travel and writing. Not to mention I’ve got to get a book out the door and another one completely edited before I head out on book tour in October. So here are some quick updates.

The Albuquerque signing went great. It was a good crowd, I got there early and stayed late, talked for a while about secret projects I’m probably not supposed to, and signed a bunch of books. People drove all the way from southern Colorado, Tucson Arizona, and El Paso Texas to be there. I was in Albuquerque for my wife’s family reunion. I tacked on this book signing at short notice, so I’d like to thank the Cottonwoods Corner B&N for throwing it together so quickly.

Okay, update time.

My next novel Son of the Black Sword releases in October. Early reviews on it are great. Epic fantasy is new territory for me, so fingers crossed that it does well. Which reminds me, I need to write a blog post about the importance of preorders or buying during release week for the author’s stat boost. 🙂

Right now I’m working on the third and final Dead Six novel with Mike Kupari. It should be done by the end of summer. Approximate release date, unknown. Our working title for years has been Project Blue, but that won’t be the final title. I’m really enjoying this one.

Then I will be doing the final edits on the John Ringo’s Monster Hunter International universe novel, Grunge. (Which is awesome by the way). John has written more, and if you follow him on Facebook, he’s put out lots of snippets. So this is my universe, but takes place in the 1980s before the events of the main series starts.

I just got done judging the final stories for the 2nd annual Baen Fantasy Short Story contest. Again, we had a ton of entries, and the ten finalists were all good and very different. “Fantasy” is a really broad category. The judges picked, debated, and we have our winners. They are being contacted this week.

People keep asking me if there are more MHI novels. Yes. In the near future, in addition to the Ringo spin off series, I’ve got another Owen novel in the works, and another collaboration set in the current timeline. After that there are still several more planned.

Oh, and don’t forget, we’ve got the MHI anthology coming out in 2017 too, edited by me and Bryan Thomas Schmidt. It is filled with big name authors, who will be playing in the MHI universe. I believe our final count was 6 or 7 NYT bestsellers in there. I’m really excited for this one.

Because of popular demand, we are going to be doing another run of MHI challenge coins soon. However, I don’t know if we’re going to be doing it on Kickstarter or just taking orders for a month on the blog and then producing them. Kickstarter is great (we sold over $100,000 worth of merch last time) but between them and the processing, they take 10%. That’s great if it is the kind of project where being on Kickstarter attracts more new people, but this is a pretty weirdly specific type of item, so I don’t know if KS really directed that much extra traffic our way.

Either way, more coins, coming soon. To keep the collector value up on the original run, these are all new. Because the PUFF tag is the one that is in the most demand, we have made a “probationary PUFF exemption tag” and the new version is bronze instead of silver.

Okay, miscellaneous other news. No details yet, but there will be a new Tom Stranger, Interdimensional Insurance Agent, project. Details to follow. I’ve got a couple of really cool things I can’t announce yet. NDAs or waiting on contract details.

I think I’m about done red shirting all the people who donated to charity last time, so I’ll be picking another charity and gathering people’s names to have you cameo in books. The last Monster Hunter Nation charity redshirting was a huge success.

Updates given, now back to work!