I think you’ll like it.

So as most of you know, my day job is editor of military history and current affairs and conflict titles for Stackpole Books. A new book out is one called War Shots and focuses on US Marine combat photographers in WWII. There’s a lot of neat stuff in the book, but one of the most amazing is that footage shot by cameraman Norm Hatch was used in a documentary about the fighting on Tarawa which ended up winning an Oscar in 1944! Anyway, you can see a little for yourself including some of the combat footage here: http://www2.timesdispatch.com/lifestyles/2011/feb/21/2/bills-back-porch-wwii-video-01155-vi-24634/

In other news, I can’t actually show you yet, but holy smokes, the cover for Ashes of a Black Frost is out of this world. There was a rough draft showing some spears that got out on the web, but that was just a red herring. The real McCoy is coming soon, and it’s a killer.

OK, so I am a stranger living in a foreign land, but I have been here ten years so you’d think I’d have a better grasp of what the holidays are by now. You’d think that, but clearly, you’d be wrong. It’s like finding $20 in a coat pocket you put away in spring and just pulled out as the first snow flies. I just found a three day weekend! I don’t have to wear pants for a whole other day!

I was minding my own business, not doing anything naughty or subversive when my computer started spitting out popups from something called AntiVira AV. Turns out it’s a scam that tries to get you to buy antivirus software for a virus they infect your computer with. Three or so hours later with much fretting and a few curses I was able to fix everything and get my systems back to normal. Not exactly the way I’d planned to spend my Tuesday evening, but at least this story has a happy ending…I hope!

In other news, I received copies of the German edition of The Light of Burning Shadows and the French edition of A Darkness Forged in Fire last week and they both look great. What’s interesting is that both are blue. The German edition reversed the colors and used red for Darkness and blue for Burning Shadows.

Bonsoir mesdames et messieurs. I am pleased to announce that A Darkness Forged Fire is now available en Francais under the title La souveraine des ombres which translates as The Queen of Shadows. No doubt the City of Lights will be sipping wine and reading tonight 🙂 Merci to the translator and creator of Les Elfes de Fer website, Emmanuel Chastellière, and my editor in Paris, Bénédicte Lombardo.