They announced the finalists for the 2019 Dragon Awards while I was on book tour. I just got home last night so this is my first chance to actually have a minute to talk about it.

Participation is free and open to all fans. Anybody can go vote for their favorite books of the year here: https://www.dragoncon.org/awards/

I’m a finalist again this year, which is kind of funny because I believe that every time I talked about the Dragons I specifically told my fans I’ve already won before, so share the love and nominate somebody else. But I’ve got the most libertarian and oppositionally defiant reader base in the world, so they just said YOU ARE NOT MY SUPERVISOR AM I BEING DETAINED and did what they wanted anyway.

I am honored that House of Assassins is a finalist. You guys rock. There’s a bunch of other amazing authors in a whole bunch of categories, from authors that I love. I’m not going to say who I’m voting for (and it wouldn’t matter because y’all are just gonna do what you want anyway!).

One awesome thing about the Dragon Awards is that they are an actual popularity contest for all of fandom. They want authors to spread the word and get their fans excited. DragonCon wants as many fans as possible involved and participating. So please tell your friends. They aren’t an elitist clique, and one look at this list of nominees demonstrates that they are actually inclusive, with big names, new names, large publishing houses, small houses, indy, and everything in between.

I’ve already seen where some of the usual suspects in the never ending culture war are flipping out about these nominations, because unlike certain other awards that have degenerated into a lame social club for like-minded high school mean girls, the Dragon noms include authors with all sorts of differing political beliefs. I think that’s fantastic. The Dragon doesn’t give a crap about politics. The Dragon is all about what makes fans happy, not rewarding politics.  This of course really upsets the denizens of a certain website which I like to think of as Fandom’s Prolapsed Anus, which is run by a scumbag who is basically the living avatar of hepatitis in (sorta) human form, and they are very very upset, tsk, tsk.

So that’s a happy bonus!

A bunch of my friends are up for awards (many of them competing against each other!) so I want to congratulate them. Brad, Aaron, Mark, Jason, Nick, Jason, David, Kacey, Chris, and sorry if I missed anyone. You guys rock. Congratulations. You are there because you entertained your fans, and that’s the best thing in the world.

Sadly, I’m not going to be able to attend DragonCon this year. I was there last year, and I love Dragon, but because of building the house and moving I am way behind where I need to be with the writing. I’m trying to finish two books before the end of the year. I’ll see you there next year.

      2019 Dragon Award Ballot

Best Science Fiction Novel 
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
A Star-Wheeled Sky by Brad R. Torgersen
Europe at Dawn by Dave Hutchinson
Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers
Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson
Tiamat’s Wrath by James S.A. Corey

Best Fantasy Novel (Including Paranormal) 
Deep Roots by Ruthanna Emrys
Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett
House of Assassins by Larry Correia
Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie

Best Young Adult / Middle Grade Novel 
Archenemies by Marissa Meyer
Armageddon Girls by Aaron Michael Ritchey
Bloodwitch by Susan Dennard
Imposters by Scott Westerfeld
Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand
The King’s Regret by Philip Ligon
The Pioneer by Bridget Tyler

Best Military Science Fiction or Fantasy Novel 
A Pale Dawn by Chris Kennedy, Mark Wandrey
Order of the Centurion by Jason Anspach, Nick Cole
Marine by Joshua Dalzelle
Sons of the Lion by Jason Cordova
The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley
Uncompromising Honor by David Weber

Best Alternate History Novel 
Black Chamber by S.M. Stirling
Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
The Iron Codex by David Mack
The World Asunder by Kacey Ezell
Unholy Land by Lavie Tidhar

Best Media Tie-In Novel 
Big Damn Hero by James Lovegrove, Nancy Holder
Darkness on the Edge of Town by Adam Christopher
Master & Apprentice by Claudia Gray
The Replicant War by Chris Kennedy
The Way to the Stars by Una McCormack
Thrawn: Alliances by Timothy Zahn

Best Horror Novel 
Cardinal Black by Robert McCammon
Little Darlings by Melanie Golding
Riddance by Shelley Jackson
We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix
Zombie Airman by David Guenther
100 Fathoms Below by Steven L. Kent, Nicholas Kaufmann

Best Comic Book 
Batman by Tom King, Tony S. Daniel
Black Hammer by Jeff Lemire, Dean Ormston, Dave Stewart
Mister Miracle by Tom King, Tony Daniel
Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man by Chip Zdarsky, Adam Kubert
Saga by Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples
The Batman Who Laughs by Scott Snyder, Mark Simpson

Best Graphic Novel 
Berlin by Jason Lutes
Hey, Kiddo by Jarret J. Krosoczka
I Am Young by M. Dean
Monstress Vol. 3 by Marjorie Liu, Sana Takeda
On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden
X-Men: Grand Design – Second Genesis by Ed Piskor

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy TV Series
Game of Thrones, HBO
Good Omens, Amazon Prime
Lucifer, Netflix
The Orville, Fox
The Umbrella Academy, Netflix
Star Trek: Discovery, CBS All Access

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Movie 
Alita: Battle Angel by Robert Rodriguez
Aquaman by James Wan
Avengers: Endgame by Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Captain Marvel by Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
Spider-Man: Far From Home by Jon Watts
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy PC / Console Game 
Apex Legends by Electronic Arts
Assassin’s Creed: Odysssey by Ubisoft
Life is Strange 2 by Dontnod Entertainment
Red Dead Redemption 2 by Rockstar Games
Outer Wilds by Mobius Digital
World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth by Blizzard

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Mobile Game
Cyber Hunter by NetEase
Elder Scrolls: Blades by Bethesda Softworks
Grimvalor by Direlight
Harry Potter: Wizards Unite by Niantic, WB Games San Francisco
Reigns: Game of Thrones by Nerial
Sega Heroes: Puzzle RPG Quest by SEGA

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Board Game 
Architects of the West Kingdom by Garphill Games
Betrayal Legacy by Avalon Hill Games
Cryptid by Osprey Games
Everdell by Starling Games (II)
Nemesis by Awaken Realms
Root by Leder Games

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Miniatures / Collectible Card / Role-Playing Game
Call of Cthulhu: Masks of Nyarlathotep Slipcase Set by Chaosium Inc.
Fallout: Wasteland Warfare by Modiphius Entertainment
Keyforge: Call of the Archons by Fantasy Flight Games
Magic: The Gathering Ravnica Allegiance by Wizards of the Coast
Magic: The Gathering War of The Spark by Wizards of the Coast
Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team by Games Workshop

Not only available, but already the #1 bestseller in a bunch of categories.

Monster Hunter Guardian is out this week!

 

Okay, end of July, but I snuck it in under the wire.

Tour

Monster Hunter Guardian comes out next month. Because I’ve got a coauthor on this one, and Sarah’s health won’t let her do the marathon crazy 5,000 mile, 16 stop book tours like I usually do, we’re just doing an abbreviated tour for this one.

August 7 7:00 PM | Thornton, CO
Book Signing
Barnes & Noble Thorncreek Shopping Ctr

August 8 7:00 PM | Colorado Springs, CO
Book Signing
Barnes & Noble Citadel-Colorado Springs

And as an added bonus, Dave Butler will be there too for his new novel Witchy Kingdom. I’ve signed with Dave before in Texas, he brings a guitar, sings songs from his books, and always puts on a really fun show.

Audiobook

Because people always ask, yes, there is going to be a Guardian audiobook. Because this one is from Julie, a female PoV character, it’ll be narrated by Bailey Carr. Ollie Wyman will return for the regular Owen PoV books.  Bailey has done some great work though, and she was in the Monster Hunter Files so I’m really looking forward to listening to this one.

In related Audibook news, Tom Stranger 3 should be going into production soon.

Vault Special Leatherbound Edition Grimnoir

After running into a whole bunch of production delays the special edition of Hard Magic is currently shipping.

I signed all of them, and they are truly the best looking books I’ve ever seen. I mean they are straight up gorgeous. Lots of extra art from Vincent Chong inside, and the cover is just amazing, both the French slip jacket cover, and the leather embossed Grimnoir symbol inside.

They still have some available for sale too.  I haven’t heard the ETA on book 2 and 3, but they’ve got the bugs worked out at least.

https://www.vaultbooks.pub/store/p19/Hard_Magic.html

Political Crap

I was out of town most of last week for a business thing, so I missed most of the stupid controversy.  Apparently somebody decided to weaponize Wikipedia to try and delete a bunch of Baen authors off of it. (and by a bunch I mean Mike Williamson, Tom Kratman, Sarah Hoyt, Brad Torgersen, Jody Lynn Nye, Sharon Lee, and they’d started to nibble at John Ringo, and me)

Now of course, these particular editors claimed they were totally unbiased, and they were just trying to delete all of these authors because they were “not notable”.  Other editors disagreed but they got dismissed as “sock puppets”. Any sources which backed up these authors were immediately dismissed for a wide variety of silly reasons.  (and apparently, Baen Books, which is distributed through big dog Simon & Schuster, so it’s on the shelves of the majority of book stores in the country, which has like a dozen NYT bestsellers actively writing for them, is just a “vanity press”…)

All sorts of sources got dismissed and deleted. Sales didn’t count. Primary sources didn’t count. (which was why they didn’t have much luck with mine I think, because love me or hate me, I’ve shown up in a lot of news articles so it’s hard to say I’m not notable). It was pretty obviously a weak attempt to deplatform a bunch of authors for wrongthink (ironic considering what some of those people’s politics are) And many of the arguments boiled down to BUT SOME OF THEM ARE MEAN AND HURT MY FEELINGS!

But thankfully this foolishness got shut down when many honest editors rushed into to argue about why these authors are clearly notable. Thank goodness for the honest, hard working editors who care more about reality than politics.

And one in particular surprised me, but credit where credit is due, John Scalzi jumped in to defend Mike Williamson, pointing out that Mike is clearly and obviously notable as an author.  Scalzi more than likely recognizes the danger here, because if Mike, Sarah, Tom, and Brad aren’t “notable” then neither are most of his friends. You can’t just go around weaponizing info sites to scrub your political opponents. That’s just Orwellian.

Personal Stuff

We are still unpacking boxes!  Moving is nuts. I never want to move again.  The new place is amazing though, so it’s totally worth it.

 

The Adventures of Tom Stranger, Interdimensional Insurance Agent was the #1 audiobook in the world (for the second time!) last week.

http://www.tribtown.com/2019/07/18/us-audiobooks-top-10-2/?fbclid=IwAR06Fysp402j2QHtkXFDGD0IkweJuyQsMcnosr0Tli3E31nuwuld0fxnxgI

Obviously, it helps to be FREE!  😀  And you can still get it now as one of the monthly free originals at Audible.com. You can check out Adam Baldwin’s amazing narration here:

https://www.audible.com/ep/audible-originals-member-benefit?pf_rd_p=4870f8d9-9b0b-4dbd-874a-8b510ed0a5ee&pf_rd_r=7BZE84KJ0M3V1ZS2E9ES&ref=a_hp_c11_banner_img_0

Tom Stranger #2 is called Murder of Manatees.  I just sent them #3 including the epic tale of Apocalypse Cow.