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Many of you know that I am a huge and vocal fan of Terry Pratchett. I don’t recall when exactly I discovered Discworld, but now I can’t imagine my life without the adventures of the denizens of that magical place. I think my favorite character is Moist Von Lipwig, but there are so many to choose from that it’s hard to put one above the others.

It was wrenching to hear back in 2007 that Terry had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, a progressive and ultimately fatal brain disease. It’s a horrifying disease, and one I think with particular terrors for the writer as it attacks one’s ability to think and remember. Terry’s written an incredibly moving and, to paraphrase him, ferociously upbeat article about facing this disease and the right to die with dignity in the Daily Mail, and it hit me hard enough that I wanted to share it with you:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1203622/Ill-die-endgame-says-Terry-Pratchett-law-allow-assisted-suicides-UK.html

The man has guts.

The Light of Burning Shadows officially hits shelves today in the UK. Yesterday, my British editor sent me cover drafts for the mm edition that will come out next summer and all I can say is wow! It’s going to look very cool, or rather, hot.

There’s yet another free giveaway of The Light of Burning Shadows going on, this time over at Fantasy Book Critic. I think it’s big of them to do this as they really didn’t like the first book. You can find the contest and enter here:

http://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2009/08/giveaway-light-of-burning-shadow-by.html

Not that I really expected to be eaten by a bear, but you hear stories. I took the train upstate on the weekend as far as Syracuse where my girlfriend and her daughter picked me up and we then drove to Selkirk Shores State Park, which, I’m told, has a very low incidence of bears eating campers.

It rained. A lot. Monsoon-like. End of the world kind of rain. Rain drops that could kill a man…well, maybe not that big, but they weren’t small. Still, we had a wonderful weekend and I had s’mores for the first time in my life! When I was a kid we used to toast broccoli on the fire, so this was a big step up. Graham crackers, melting chocolate warmed by the fire, and a toasted marshmallow all smushed together…mercy.

I did get in a few trail walks among the trees and my thoughts strayed to the third Iron Elves book. As with the bears, no trees tried to attack me, but I kept a close eye on them just the same. Ever since I started writing this series my view on trees has changed. I just don’t trust them as much. Any moment they could choose to fall on you, or at least drip water from their leaves when you walk underneath even though it’s not raining so you shouldn’t have to worry about getting wet but a little breeze blows through and suddenly it’s a mini-downpour under the particular tree you’re walking by and…well, you get the picture.

So no bear or tree attacks, camp fires every night (I like to show the trees just who’s in charge,) s’mores and more – it was a great weekend.

I found another contest on Dave Brendon’s site. Just scroll down a bit and you’ll see it:

http://davebrendon.wordpress.com/2009/08/01/twisted-metal-sa-uk-giveaway-winners-light-of-burning-shadows-mega-giveaway/

Cheers,

Chris

I did a couple of interviews for book blogs which you can find online here:

http://abookbloggersdiary.blogspot.com/2009/07/blog-tour-chris-evans.html

http://booktionary.blogspot.com/2009/07/author-interview-chris-evans-author-of.html

Thanks to both for hosting my brain…well, my thoughts, such as they are.

Cheers,

Chris