One of the first books I gave away was the second in MD’s series of Vikings & Werewolves and now here’s the third, savaging 10th century Constantinople.

Usually deal – comment on this post and I’ll randomly select a lucky victim for a free copy of the book. Surprisingly no one has yet 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 I don’t like to advertise certain online book retailers so I can’t get an image of the cover of the particular edition I have up for grabs, but it’s the Special London Edition with an exclusive short story: Home Crowd Advantage.

I haven’t read the short but I’ve read the book and it was a lot of fun and a lot of people seem to agree. Usual story – comment here to be thrown in the hat to win a copy. This one closes on Wednesday evening.

Mwahahaha…. I have an ARC of Justin Cronin’s Twelve. To give away. But embargoed for now so you’ll have to wait

Another giveaway tomorrow. More dragons I think.

<exeunt cackling>

Some people have the best ideas for stories in the middle of the night, then fall asleep and wake up remembering only that they had an idea and that it was brilliant. For some reason, I’m like that with blog posts. There were at least two really cool ideas I had for things to talk about – exciting, interesting topics directly relevant to genre fiction with with a broader scope on which I actually had something interesting to say too.

Then I went to sleep again and forgot. Ah well [1]

So instead I can haz moar bookz foar Uz. Today’s giveaway, inspired by Fantasy Faction’s July read is the Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. This is the yellow hardcover Gollancz 50th anniversay edition containing The Shadow of the Torturer and The Claw of the Conciliator. I remember reading this in my university days. One of the guys who later had a large hand in the effects for The Matrix read it too and spent subsequent D&D sessions running around with a mercury-cored double-handed executioner’s sword.

For a bit more on the book, the Gollancz blog has an excellent post.I can’t help thinking that the recent Prince of Thorns owes more than a little to the shadow of the New Sun.

Usual rules apply. Comment here to be thrown into the hat, winners chosen at random.

[1] Possibly it was all just a dream… <cue Edith Piaff’s Je Ne Regret Rien>

I have two copies of Anne Lyle’s Alchemist of Souls to give away, both of them signed. Usual deal – comment here if you’re interested and I’ll select at random. I’m most of the way through reading this and thoroughly enjoying it – strong characters and a pleasing sense of Elizabethan England with some not-quite-human creatures brought back from the New World. Also was Fantasy Faction’s reading choice for May.

The copies I have to give away don’t include my very dog-eared reading copy!

Dragon book winners have been mailed. Next up – Stephen Baxter and the Science of Avatar. It has science? Apparently. Haven’t read this myself but Baxter generally knows his stuff (for what my opinion is worth…!)

Usual rules apply – comment if you’re interested and I’ll select at random on Friday evening. Only one available copy this time.

I wanted this to be the shout-line[1] for The Adamantine Palace, or at least for The Order of the Scales. I suppose there were some problems with putting that into Waterstones. Ho hum.

I have books to give away again, this time paperbacks of The King of the Crags and The Order of the Scales as one lot. That’s the UK editions and I will sign and line them if you want. Perfect for anyone who got The Adamantine Palace but never got around to the others.

[1] That’s the bit on the front of the book that says “THE LAST HOPE HAS COME!” and other things that often make me cringe. Hopefully the title and the author’s name and the quote from that nice other author who had is advance withheld until he gritted his teeth and said something.

MOPNOWRIMO target 56000, achieved 55000. Still trying to figure out where this book is going. More tomorrow maybe…

So, my sword-toting sass-talking thieves aren’t quite as popular as a certain Mr Lynch’s eh? I shall try to look surprised. Did you know we have the same editor at Gollancz? No? Do you remotely care? no? I’ll shut up about that then and get on with what matters…

The next book I’m giving away is Eric by Terry Pratchett, again in the yellow hardcover Gollancz 50th anniversary edition. Usual rules apply – post a comment here if you’re interested or else reply to me on Twitter and a winner will be randomly selected on Friday afternoon after 6pm. Which sort of makes that the cut-off for registering an interest except I might not get around to sorting it out until later that evening due to acts of gods, small children or cats. The last winner was randomly selected by the OpenOffice random number generator, for those who care about such things and I’m contemplating selecting the next one through some random process based on an as-yet undetermined behaviour of elephant seals. They must do something random, right?

One day the random number is going to be chosen to be equal to the number of typos I later see in the giveaway post. One day…

I haven’t read Eric so I can’t speak for its virtues, but it was selected for the Gollancz 50 so I assume it’s good. Don’t say too many nice things though or I might decide to randomly select myself and keep it

MOPNOWRIMO update: Target by new-plan-that-should-still-see-me-finished-by-the-end-of-the-month-honest: 40000 (but we all really know it should be 65000) Actual Words: 39100ish, but given I’m writing this mid-afternoon, there might yet be more. And also curse you trip to Tescos because we ran out of toothpaste…

Started the day with a sex scene. The next scene waiting to be written is a sex scene. Is it spring or something? Sometimes when I look in the sky I see a strange hot yellow ball thing that I have a dim memory of seeing before in some previous life. I think it must be an omen.

I’ve noticed a thing (trying to help the rest of you writers here): I’ve taken to going and doing some exercise some days first thing in the morning before I write, a little bit more than the usual re-arranging the DVD shelves or the old D&D miniatures. It’s becoming a consistent enough observation to convert into a theory – after a decent spree of physical exertion, I write more and faster for the next few hours. Is it better? I have no idea but I DON’T CARE!! Really not. That’s what the rewrites are for.

Look about those random numbers (you know who you are) – STOP IT! I was a mathematician once and I’m halfway to building a random number generator in my head to generate the method for generating a random number differently each time. It’s going to be dice now, OK. After the elephant seal thing.

The Fenrir competition winner has been been chosen and notified (provided he gave the right e-mail address). This weekend I’m giving away a copy of the Thief-Taker’s Apprentice Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. This is the very yellow hardcover Gollancz 50th anniversary edition with an introduction by Joe Abercrombie.

As before, comment here or reply to me on Twitter for a chance to win. Entries will be taken until the end of Sunday and then there’ll be another book up for grabs.

MOPNOWRIMO Words written: 20500

Round about now The Black Mausoleum should have been coming out, and due to my own personal immense cock-up, it isn’t. Here’s the blurb and the cover art.

I feel the need to make amends. So between now and the middle of August when The Black Mausoleum finally comes out, I’m going to be giving away books. Every week there’s going to be one paired copies of The King of the Crags and The Order of the Scales (for those who read The Adamantine Palace and then forgot to get any further) and something that isn’t mine. Here’s the stash as it stands so far:

Stephen Baxter: The Science of Avatar (trade paperback)

MD Lachlan: Fenrir (paperpack)

Anne Lyle: The Alchemist of Souls (signed paperbacks)

The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings Enhanced Edition (xbox 360 version)

Gene Wolfe: The Book of the New Sun (Gollancz 50 edition)

Dan Simmons: Hyperion (Gollancz 50 edition)

Terry Pratchett: Eric (Gollancz 50 edition)

Scott Lynch: The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gollancz 50 edition)

Patrick Rothfuss: The Name of the Wind (Gollancz 50 edition)

Others will be added to the list, depending on how it goes. Every time there’s another one up for grabs, I’ll wait a couple of days and then choose at random from anyone who’s raised their hands either. The next time a book goes up, I’ll say who won the last one. If you’re not in the UK then I’ll still pay the postage but it’s going to get shipped by surface mail and take ages because damn but that airmail shit is expensive.

First up is Fenrir by MD Lachlan, the is the sequel to Wolfsangel[1]. I haven’t read Fenrir yet because I’m rubbish at making time for reading stuff, but Wolfsangel was the dog’s bollocks (well, the wolf’s bollocks). If you like your vikings and werewolves dark, bloody and dangerous, you’ll be pushed to find better. Shout now if you want it! For nothing! I’ve only got one copy of this but if you miss out, it costs less than a packet of smokes to go and buy it for yourself.

(for anyone still following the ongoing failure that is MOPNOWRIMO: day 10 wordcount target 40,000; words written 14,600)

[1] Dark, bloody and dangerous – Me; Simply the most exciting, visceral and deeply imaginative writer of fantasy working today[2] – Adam Roberts

[2] Apart form me, obviously[3]

[3] Although Adam may have neglected to mention that at the time.

Todays excuse for procrasintion – mountains with good cliched fantasy names!

I have a Mount Terror in antarctica …

… another in North America …

I have a Mount Fear here too …

So the competition is this: Tell me what country this Mount Fear is is and you can have a copy of King of the Crags and The Order of the Scales flying over to you. If you haven’t already got The Adamantine Palace then sorry – no copies left in my stash

The mountain from the last competition was Mount Cook, for anyone who didn’t read all the comments…

The year of the Yang Water Dragon is upon us. Dragon years are lucky years to be born, to be married, to be, well, anything. Fingers crossed, it’s a good year to publish books with dragons in. We shall see.

Celebrating the year of the dragon, I’m offering readers of my Memory of Flames series a chance to be a dragon themselves. For the next fifteen days, I’ll take suggestions for names for dragons in the comments section to this post. The name I like best will appear in The Black Mausoleum alongside Blackscar.

Dragons have two names, as anyone who’s read the series will know. They have their “common” given to them by the dragon-riders who fly them – names such as Snow, Ash, Onyx, Unmaker, B’Thannan, Silence, Diamond Eye, Vengeance and so forth. Customs and traditions around naming vary from eyrie to eyrie.

Dragons also have the names that were given to them by the Silver Kings, long ago, names that they have forgotten but remember as the awaken from the alchemy of the eyrie masters. These tend to be names intended to capture a feeling or a sensation: Beloved Memory of a Lover Distant and Lost, Crisp Cold Shaft of Winter Sunlight, Black Scar of Sorrow Left Upon the Earth.

I’ll take either. Or even both

OK, first one to post a link here to an Amazon review of The Warlock’s Shadow gets a T-shirt. Bonus points if you can correctly count the number of typos and errors in the “Product Description” (thanks Amazon).

And….. go!

About a year ago, I offered an (unspecified) prize for the person to find the most typos in King of the Crags.  The hands down winner won a small slice of immortality, and ‘uncle’ Silvestre now has a small part in The King’s Assassin (out in late 2012) as a sword-master who teaches Berren a lesson or two.

This month’s competition prize is an opportunity to be an Adamantine Man in The Black Mausoleum. Possibly several opportunities. A fiery death is guaranteed, but you’ll appear for at least a few chapters. As usual with these things, I get to veto names that don’t fit. To win one of these cameos, you have to find typos in The Order of the Scales. The prize is nominally for whoever finds the most. Someone on Goodreads claims to have found eight. There may be further prizes for effort if I get several replies.

You can either reply to this post or mail me. Happy hunting.