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I lived in Pennsylvania for a few years before moving back to New York. While I was out there in Amish country (just kidding) I found a really cool sci-fi and fantasy reading group that met every month in the B&N in Camp Hill. It’s called Watch the Skies http://mysite.verizon.net/res89guj/ and is run by B&N store manager and now published writer Jeff Young. Anyway, when A Darkness Forged in Fire came out Jeff and the group invited me back to do a signing and talk. What was even cooler is that they made up a program for the event, and Eric Hardenbrook, one of the members, rendered the Viceroy’s scrying table for the cover. I think that was the first time I had ever seen an image from my book brought to life. Very, very cool. As it happens, I bumped into Jeff and Eric at Balticon and Eric still had the artwork and was kind enough to send it to me so I could share it with you.

In other news, New York is about to get slammed with a heat wave. Mid 90s and more starting tomorrow. If anyone needs me, I’ll be sitting in my ice cube tray.

Sent the copy edited manuscript for Ashes back to my editor tonight. It was all done electronically using track changes which really does speed things up and ensures you’re always working with the same manuscript. With all the tweaks and refinements the book is clocking in significantly bigger than The Light of Burning Shadows did. It’s not a matter of quantity for quantity’s sake mind you, just that there was a lot of story to tell in this one. For example, one character actually – oops, guess I don’t want to let the cats out of the bag just yet Suffice it to say that there a few twists in Ashes that I hope catch you off guard.

Things will really start moving at Gallery now. From this manuscript they’ll generate first page proofs which are often used to create galleys or ARCs (Advance Reading Copies) which get sent to reviewers and sometimes buyers in stores as a way to generate buzz. Last week I worked on the flap copy they sent me so the cover is pretty much complete and should be released soon. How soon I don’t yet know, but soon.

I’ve been a runner off and on since highschool. I ran track, played football, rugby, cricket and more, but even then I was bothered by shin splints. Over the years I would drift away and then come back to running, and each time it would start out great then devolve into pain and suffering as the shin splints returned. The last time even crept into the dangerous territory of stress fractures. As my Olympic dreams only revolve around dating gymnasts I decided to stop and let time work its magic. After a three-phase bone scan, a hellish two and a half hours in an MRI, rehab and more rehab, I was ready to run again, except nothing had changed. I started running, and the pain came back. This time, I stopped before I crippled myself and finally decided to use my brain for a bit.

Clearly, my running style was doing real damage. I’ve always been a heel striker, landing heavily on the heel then pushing off with the toes. Sounds normal, but in fact we humans only run that way because of the invention of cushiony running shoes. Have you every run in barefeet? You lean forward, and run lightly, landing not on your heel but your midfoot to toes. That’s the way we were designed to run. Whether you call it natural running, Chi running, or any of a number of styles the result is the same – running the way we were originally designed to. Armed with this knowledge and prepared to try just about anything, I found this new shoe company that was designing shoes with this more natural running gait in mind. I was skeptical, not least because the color of the shoes is ghastly, but having tried almost everything else I decided to give them a try. A miracle, no, but I can run again. Between the new running style which I’m still working on and these shoes I’m slowing building up the miles and not crying all the way home to spend the next two hours with ice bags wrapped around my legs. It’s a nice feeling.

Now I just need to stop eating ice cream as a reward every time I run a couple of miles!

So it turns out this recession has been good for one thing anyway, it’s forcing manufacturers to cut back on the use of plastic as petroleum prices rise. That means those tough as nails plastic clamshells are being phased out for more eco-friendly packaging which also happens to be much easier to open. http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/112852/retailers-greener-packaging-nyt

And in sci-fi entertainment news, here’s the latest trailer for Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and wow, does it look cool. So much better than Burton’s attempt a few years ago:

http://www.deadline.com/2011/06/hot-trailer-rise-of-the-planet-of-the-apes-2/

http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/billionaire-larry-ellison-hedges-bets-buys-40-million-pad.html

Reminds me of the RUSH song, The Trees – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWHEcIbhDiw