Well I’ve finished The Witcher II and I’ve delivered my ghostwriting project and now the world seems empty and lonely as I come to the crushing realisation that I haven’t got any un-played games on my shelf. Fortunately it’s coming up to Christmas, so anyone who wants to send a copy of Assassin’s Creed III wandering by, you could make an author very happy…

Something a bit different this week. Inspired by the general sentiments derived from going out and doing any sort of Christmas Shopping, I was going to give away a copy of The Killer, but recent news has persuaded me otherwise. So instead I have a nice first edition hardcover of Elves: Rise of the TaiGethen by the extremely talented James Barclay.

Usual deal – comment on this post before December 22th and I’ll randomly select a lucky victim for a free copy of the book. However, it occurs to me, looking at the cover, that I’ve seen this pose before…

Pretty similar, right? Now, for your own amusement (or more mine, vicariously), try and emulate one of these poses and see what happens. At least the elf has (I think) his sword the right way round. Anyway, it’s clear that fantasy swordsmen are extremely limber and well-balanced folk, and your challenge, if you choose to accept it and for an exciting bonus goody[1], is to point out any other fantasy covers in which swordsmen adopt somewhat unlikely postures. Or swordswomen, for that matter, but let’s not get into the whole  inappropriate-clothes-for-fighting otherwise we’ll be here all day.

Or alternatively wave and say hi.

Although, though no one has yet complained about how long it takes me to get to the post office and post things, it can take a while and if you live abroad then it can take even longer. Sorry about that, but they do get there eventually. Well, so far.

Other news is taking a long time to be releasable. These week I shall be working on some freebie short stories for something about which I cannot speak and a proposal for something else about which I cannot speak. There might be some news about some SciFi soon though.

[1] Exciting bonus goody not guaranteed to be exciting.