I’ll be doing a live chat on Twitter on October 13th from 12pm to 4pm EST at @simonschuster hashtag #NYCC. This is my first one so I’m still not 100% on how it works. I think that if you log in to Twitter and follow @simonschuster you’ll be able to send me questions and I can reply back…or something like that. Not sure if it matters (or helps) but my Twitter handle is @CEvans_Author

Assuming I survive that, I’ll be at New York Comic Con Friday, October 14th and Saturday, October 15th. There will be an official signing on Saturday, but unofficially I’ll be signing all weekend. The location will be right across from the Simon & Schuster booth. If you get there and don’t see me, just ask for my editor, Ed Schlesinger, and he’ll track me down.

In the contest department, I found another new one, this time at scifichick.com

http://scifichick.com/2011/10/05/book-spotlight-and-giveaway-the-iron-elves-series/ (and yes, US residents only)

And here are the others:
http://dreyslibrary.blogspot.com/2011/10/giveaway-darkness-forged-in-fire-iron.html#.TosfSrKVqTE (US residents only)

http://www.mangamaniaccafe.com/?p=5587 (Open to US residents only)

http://bookinwithbingo.blogspot.com/2011/10/darkness-forged-in-fire-book-one-from.html (Open to US residents only)

Thanks to publicist extraordinaire Melissa Gramstad, several blogs are hosting giveaways of the Iron Elves series. As I find them I’ll post them. Here are the ones I’ve located so far:

NEW
http://dreyslibrary.blogspot.com/2011/10/giveaway-darkness-forged-in-fire-iron.html#.TosfSrKVqTE (US residents only)

http://www.mangamaniaccafe.com/?p=5587 (Open to US residents only)

http://bookinwithbingo.blogspot.com/2011/10/darkness-forged-in-fire-book-one-from.html (Open to US residents only)

Enjoy!

Hopefully I’ll see some of you there. It’s not as big as San Diego, yet, but every year the New York Con gets bigger and better. I don’t have the exact time yet, but I will be there Friday and signing Saturday, although if you see me Friday I’ll sign anything you want, heck, even if they’re not my books 🙂 I know my publisher has some promotional stuff in mind for the show as well.

In somewhat ComicCon related news, I finally watched Thor. I don’t remember much of the actual comic book so I only had the movie to go by, that and my limited knowledge of Norse mythology. I went into looking to be entertained, and in that regard it succeeded. At the same time I don’t know that I’d be lining up to see Thor 2. The whole thing felt light to me, which is fine, but it didn’t completely gel with the movie’s visual tone…and I’m probably sounding like an artsy-farsty critic at this point. It was a popcorn-first date kind of fun movie if you like watching things blow up, sort of Transformers with fewer robots.

I’m surprised to realize I’m not as eager for the book to publish as I was for the first two. It’s not that I don’t think it’s good – I think it’s my best book yet – but when it publishes it will mark the conclusion of the series. I’ve grown very fond of the characters. They’ve lived with me for years now. Saying goodbye to them is definitely bitter-sweet.

More than a few readers have emailed asking me if this really is the end. The answer is yes…for now. The Iron Elves had a beginning, a middle, and now an end. Will I ever come back to them some day? It’s possible. Maybe another book, a series, or perhaps a short story or graphic novel. For the time being, however, this will be their last adventure for some time, and when you read Ashes of a Black Frost I think you’ll agree, they need some R&R after what I put them through.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/28/us/looking-after-the-soldier-back-home-and-damaged.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha23&pagewanted=all
This is heartbreaking. There’s something fundamentally wrong in a country when its warriors and their families have such a difficult time in getting excellent and quick medical help. This is the perfect example of why asking the rich to pay their fair share and closing tax loopholes for corporations like oil companies makes sense.

I’m not one of these people that says all soldiers are heroes as that’s like saying all teachers love kids, all doctors are saints, and all CEOs are crooks. But I do believe that a country makes a pact with its soldiers. In return for risking their lives to carry out the missions given them by their civilian leadership, soldiers, and by extension their families, should expect to be cared for AFTER the war is over, especially if they have been wounded. It just seems like such a simple and honorable thing to do.