Random End of Year Giveway (14/12/2014)
News this week? Is there any? Not much. The third of my Bulldog Drummond novellas has finished editing. I enjoyed writing them, but I don’t think the first one has sold nearly well enough for there to be any more (I base this purely on the non-existant amazon ranking). There is an audio version now available, if anyone is into that sort of thing. Elite: Wanted looks like it’s kicking Empires’ butt, which wasn’t supposed to happen (yay – go Elite!). Nathan Hawke continues to fiddle with a few short stories.
Usually at this time of the year I do some sort of post that says where various projects are at. So . . .
The dragons and the thief-taker
There’s no sight of a US publisher for The Black Mausoleum, Dragon Queen, The Splintered Gods or The Silver Kings, or for the Thief-Taker series. Both should be available via online retailers, and this seems to have started working a lot better than it did a couple of years ago. They do all appear to be available from Amazon. Dragon Queen came out in paperpack in the summer. The Splintered Gods is out and The Silver Kings is into the later stages of the edit process and should come out in June, I think. This series seems to have settled into a set of devoted followers, to if you’re one of those, thank you. Zafir has been something of a ride. She’ll probably linger with me as one of the best characters I’ve ever written, but damn is she hard to live with.
Nathan Hawke
The omnibus is out there. As with the later dragons books, there is no US publisher but it’s available from online retailers. There are three rather long short stories which are going to come out as e-books over the first half of next year. If they sell, there may be some more novels to follow – that’s down to Nathan’s publisher being convinced enough that they’re going to make any money out of them. I liked writing Gallow and I’d like to do some more. If you’re a Gallow fan, please help that happen by buying copies for all your friends as Christmas presents.
Gavin Deas
Elite was fun but it doesn’t look like there are going to be any more in the near future. Extraction/Infiltration hasn’t had nearly enough review coverage to turn into decent sales, I fear, but it’s a bit early to know for sure.
S J Deas
Lots of positive review coverage for The Royalist. The Protector, William Falkland’s second mystery, is written, edited, and coming out in June (I think, or maybe September) and the paperback of the Royalist comes out in March (again, I *think*). I’m hopeful this series will continue.
Anyway… Most of you are just here for the free book, right…? 
So this week’s giveaway is… a mystery. Several mysteries, in fact, because I’m going to rob a book from the Gollancz offices (they’re all on holiday until like the middle of March or something) for every five entries[1]. I’ll take requests, but I might not be able to honour them (in fact there’s a pretty good chance I won’t, but I’ll try). I’ll be keeping half an eye open for double entries, but only half of one 
So – to enter the great random end-of-year book draw, all you have to do it comment on this post before January 1st and say hello or happy Christmas or something that’s at least not obscene and I’ll randomly select lucky victims for free books. That’s it, although if there’s a specific Gollancz title you’d like me to try and pilfer then say so in the comment! So far no one has complained about how long it takes me to get to the post office and post things, but 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. Am currently up to date, in that all recent winners have been posted. Obviously all the winners from this particular competition won’t be gettin gtheir books until the new year…
(it’s open worldwide, but deliveries outside Europe can take about two months)
[1] in the unlikely event that we get past fifty entries, I’ll have to drop the prize ratio in order to not go bankrupt…
December 14th, 2014 at 9: 16 pm
Hihi!
I’m still not smoking… This is a good thing. If I make it past new year (here’s hoping!) I’m demanding a cruise from the smoking nurse lady. I think they should be standard, a good incentive to quit if ever there was one.
December 14th, 2014 at 9: 24 pm
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
No specific title request – anything would be awesome!
December 14th, 2014 at 9: 25 pm
Merry Christmas
December 14th, 2014 at 9: 30 pm
Hopefully a succesful ear of releases next year
December 15th, 2014 at 12: 24 am
Nothing obscene, huh? Well…Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, good luck for the future, keep up that fantastic fantasy work, you know your fans love you!
Splintered Gods, please, if managable. It’s already out, isn’t it? (My copy of Dragon Queen ought to arrive soon too, I can barely wait. Living in Austria su- wait, nothing obscene. I’ll rather end this here.)
December 15th, 2014 at 9: 47 pm
Merry Christmas Stephen. May you and Nathan have a very successful 2015. Would love to see more Gallow adventures, but you know, that’s entirely up to you (being the author and all that jazz). Anyhow I hope you and yours have a blast.
December 15th, 2014 at 11: 21 pm
Excellent Yuletide wishes – long may your logs burn!
December 16th, 2014 at 6: 15 am
Have a great Christmas!
December 17th, 2014 at 10: 41 am
Merry Christmas! Remember to eat too much and do very little over the festive period
December 17th, 2014 at 10: 42 am
Hi wishing you Seasons Greetings I would be extremely grateful to receive any book but would love to continue my exploration of the works of Mr S.J.Deas
December 18th, 2014 at 10: 23 am
Merry Christmas from the disappointly snow-free Highlands! Anything containing dragons and/ or proper sword and sorcery would go a long way to making up for the aforementioned lack of white stuff…
December 18th, 2014 at 6: 08 pm
Season’s greetings!
December 18th, 2014 at 6: 13 pm
Merry Christmas- will actually be working through Christmas (nursing assistant), but have a new job next year! Any book would be wonderful, thanks.
December 18th, 2014 at 6: 25 pm
Happy christmas everyone hope you all have a great new year.would like a wise mans fear or words of radiance preferably but any book would do
December 18th, 2014 at 6: 33 pm
Merry Christmas everyone! The secret would be good or wise man’s fear but any book at all would be amazingg!
December 18th, 2014 at 7: 24 pm
Bah and indeed humbug to the lot of you!
Now, if you could just grab me an advanced copy of Brandon Sanderson’s Firefight I’d be much obliged.
December 18th, 2014 at 10: 04 pm
merry christmas fellow book lovers, no specific title here
December 18th, 2014 at 10: 13 pm
Hey everyone merry Christmas, any book would be really nice
December 19th, 2014 at 12: 09 am
Happy holiday season, and a good New Year! Thank you for doing this
December 19th, 2014 at 1: 27 am
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
I’d LOVE a copy of the Splintered Gods but seriously anything else would be cool if that’s not possible
Have a good new years!!
December 19th, 2014 at 1: 31 am
Happy happy holidays!
December 19th, 2014 at 6: 07 am
Season’s Greetings to all from across the pond!
Zere’s never enough Zafir. Got Black Mausoleum, Dragon Queen & Splintered Gods, so earlier Zafir would be zenzational. Got all the Gallows so far, but hoping for more. And The Royalist sounds good too – actually anything by SJ or Gav Deas sounds good.
But mostly, wishing every one recognition, appreciation & remuneration in the New Year.
December 21st, 2014 at 5: 23 pm
Hi Stephen, hope you are having a good end of the year and a very merry holiday season. While I would be more than happy to receive just about anything to read, I would particularly be partial to anything by Joe Hill, Joe Abercrombie, Scott Lynch, or Graham Joyce. Also, I would still love the chance to read the first Gallow book The Crimson Shield by this Nathan Hawke fellow, I keep hearing he’s quite good.
December 23rd, 2014 at 1: 08 am
Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year to you and yours Stephen. Thanks for sharing your life as a writer through Twitter and your blog. Keep on writing.
December 23rd, 2014 at 1: 14 am
A Merry Christmas to you, Stephen! I eagerly look forward to The Silver Kings coming out, and frankly, the online retailer stores have been fantastic with their copies of your books. I haven’t noticed it as of yet, but was there a U.S. release for The Royalist? I will definitely keep an eye out for the paperback come March, if so. Keep writing and living your dreams!
December 27th, 2014 at 4: 00 pm
Happy Christmas, Stephen!
December 27th, 2014 at 4: 15 pm
Btw, would love to have a signed copy of “The Splintered Gods” if my name is chosen!!
December 28th, 2014 at 7: 47 pm
Hello. Counting down to my birthday on Thursday. Looking forward to 2015. Lots of new things to read ?
December 29th, 2014 at 11: 09 am
Michael, I’m afraid I have no news about a US release for The Royalist at the moment.
December 30th, 2014 at 10: 04 pm
Currently reading Empires: Extraction at the moment – fantastic read so far! Would love a copy of the Gallow omnibus if I win!
January 1st, 2015 at 5: 40 pm
New Year’s Day: Six winners it is, and the Gods of Random have offered up Laura (again), Holly, Thejawsi, Callum, Lois and Joe.
January 20th, 2015 at 12: 51 pm
DAMNED!!!! I’VE COMPLETELY MISSED IT!!!
AARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH
January 20th, 2015 at 12: 51 pm
Congrats though to the winners!