Remember the patch contest? Click here to see the awesome creativity of the Monster Hunter Nation, as they designed MHI patches for their home areas.  http://larrycorreia.wordpress.com/2009/07/15/monster-hunter-international-patch-contest/  I’m going to be doing another one of these in the near future.

There have been several people that have asked me about making their own MHI patches for everything from gun clubs to RPGs. I’m all in favor of it. I’m not sensitive about my logo being used for anything noncommercial. All I ask is that you send me photos to stick up on the blog.

That said, I recently found out that somebody I’ve known for a while has started a custom embroidery company. She recently did a small run of some custom MHI patches.

Hopie said: The first group of MHI approved patches that Crooked Stitch Creations made
was for Jeff Macklin and the people of Z.E.R.T. (Zombie Emergency Response
Team) who hail from Eastern TN.  They have an annual Zombie Shoot-up every
Halloween and now will totally be geared up tight!

Hopie does good work, she’s awesome, and I recommend her. Here is her contact information.

Crooked Stitch Creations, Custom Embroidery

Hopie Lopez-Boyett, Head Thread Pusher

You can find my fan page on Facebook listed as Crooked
<http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Crooked-Stitch-Creations/141978565824728>
Stitch Creations or go directly to my ETSY
<http://www.etsy.com/shop/DancingBearUS?ref=pr_shop_more>  shop.

Email any questions to DancingBearUS@gmail.com

I’ll be doing another patch contest so that another fan created patch can go into Monster Hunter Legion. When I do, I will put Hopie’s contact info again if anybody wants to go ahead and get their made.

For the record, Hopie’s husband is a member of Reader Force Alpha and looks suspiciously like David Spade. In fact, when we were in Vegas together, along with Mike Kupari, we were often mistaken for James Gandolfini, David Spade, and Bender the Robot out for a night on the town. (EOD techs are often mistaken for robots, because EOD uses robots in their job, and both are often intoxicated).

To start out, my wife got a new camera for Christmas.  She’s getting better at this photography stuff. She even made me look pretty decent.

Oh, and to make you all jealous, this picture was taken in my front yard. I grabbed it off of her Facebook profile, so it isn’t as high res as before. So even as cool as that looks, it doesn’t do it justice.

You don’t want to move here, though. The crime is out of control. The yard moose are everywhere.

I’ve got to tell you guys. One of the hardest things about being a writer is that first few days after a new book releases. You sit there, biting your fingernails, checking the internet every few minutes, and it is much worse when the new release is something different from the books you’ve released before.

Officially, The Grimnoir Chronicles: Hard Magic doesn’t hit store shelves until May 2^nd. However Baen loves putting out advance eBooks, so early that they haven’t even gone through the final edit yet. (typos, yay!) The eARC hit last Friday, so ever since then I’ve been anxiously waiting to see what everybody thinks of my new series.

Well, early reviews are coming in.

http://ramblesfromtechsupport.blogspot.com/2011/02/hard-magic-earc-review.html

http://bigbananaslug.livejournal.com/75526.html

http://www.facebook.com/#!/notes/nathaniel-thoburn-fitch/the-grimnoir-chronicles-hard-magic-review/498280298802

Looking good. I didn’t know if the market was ready for noir/pulp/alternative-history/fantasy/action with blimp fighting, hard boiled detectives, demons, teleporting magic ninjas, Cossack fighting bears, samurai, Tesla super weapons, John M. Browning, Teutonic zombies, and profane squirrels.  What genre is this? Heck if I know. The more I think about it, the more I like the term “Diesel Punk”. And yes, somebody wears goggles.

If you want an autographed trade paperback or one of the limited number of hard covers, go here: http://www.unclehugo.com/prod/ah-correia-larry.php  

The ARC is available for download here:  http://www.webscription.net/p-1363-hard-magic-book-i-of-the-grimnoir-chronicles-arc.aspx

In other news, I’m doing a signing at the Sandy Barnes & Noble this Saturday from 1-4.  It is the annual Authorpalooza and there will be something like 40 writers present. http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com/event/3080754  I know Brandon Mull, James Dashner, Jessica Day George, and Paul Genesse will be there. Last year they stuck me in outer darkness next to the maps and geography books. Which kind of sucked since I was the 2^nd best selling writer there that year. Oh well. Hopefully this year they will move me up to someplace that has some traffic, like by the bathrooms or something.

Coming up after that, I’m going to LTUE again. I’m on six panels. I’m doing one on action by myself, and I’m teaming up with Super Author John Brown again for a new version of Stories that Rock. That’s February 17-19 at BYU.  I’ll post my schedule when it gets closer.

http://www.webscription.net/p-1363-hard-magic-book-i-of-the-grimnoir-chronicles-arc.aspx 

SQUEEEEeeeee! That link will take you to Baen’s Webscriptions. The Electronic Advanced Reader Copy has just been posted for download.

For those of you that don’t know, an eARC is something distinctly Baen. On books where this is a lot of demand, they will release a super early electronic version to read off your computer or to download to your Nook or Kindle. You guys want to know how early this is? I just got my PDF printouts to check for errors and typos TODAY.

eARCs are more expensive ($15) than a standard Baen eBook ($6), but you get it several months early. So if you’ve been itching to read the rest of The Grimnoir Chronicles: Hard Magic, now is your chance to get an early peek.

Oh, and of course you totally have to post here to let me know what you think of it. Try to avoid spoilers for everybody else.  🙂

EDIT: Once you read it, please post honest reviews on the Baen Webscriptions page and also anywhere else, blogs, tell your friends, graffiti, etc.  Thanks!

http://www.unclehugo.com/prod/ah-correia-larry.php

Here is the ordering page for Uncle Hugo’s.  You can order your autographed copies of The Grimnoir Chronicles: Hard Magic now!

And to answer the FAQs

1. It is available in hard cover ($25) or trade paperback ($15)  The trade is the big sized paperback. There is only a single limited run of a couple thousand hard covers available. Originally it was planned to just do the paperbacks, but the hards are by popular demand. When they are gone, they are gone.

2. I’m doing personalizations. So if you want something other than just my autograph just note it on your Uncle Hugo’s order. That was nice of them to offer to keep track of that.

3. They ship overseas and to APOs.

4. I will be doing a signing in person there on April 30th from 1-3.

Here is the previous blog post where I got a head count. They ordered according to my headcount plus extras for their locals and then some, but please if you posted there that you were going to get one, don’t stiff them.

http://larrycorreia.wordpress.com/2011/01/15/who-wants-an-autographed-copy-of-the-grimnoir-chronicles-hard-magic/

http://www.larslarson.com/ 

It is a nationally syndicated talk show. They are on something like 200 stations. I’ll be on at 8:30 EST Friday night.

Lars read the Pajamas Media interview and wanted to talk. I found out this morning that the PJM page was also linked to a Wall Street Journal post. Groovy. That thing has got legs.