Summer heat or not, I love a challenge. So, while reading manuscripts for work, a sexy thriller/mystery novel, and Len Deighton’s Berlin, I’ve been rereading (well, in an attempt to get my mind around the concepts) Etienne Klein’s Chronos, then switched to the revised and updated version of Hawking’s A Brief History Of Time. Now my synapses are firing so fast I swear I spotted a quantum singularity in my fridge just behind the loaf of whole wheat bread and a smidge to the left of the yogurt cups.

Big thanks to the nice folks at Simon & Schusters’ multimedia department for taping an interview with me. It’s now up on S&S’ website and you can view it here: http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Chris-Evans/46195026

In other publishing news, I hear C.C. Finlay (http://www.ccfinlay.com/) is hard at work on a new book, Richard Knaak (http://www.richardaknaak.com/INTRO.html) is coming out with a huge book in his Dragonrealm series on September 1, and Karen Traviss has said goodbye to the world of Star Wars in a blog post here http://karentraviss.typepad.com/blog/2009/08/end-of-one-era-start-of-another.html

I first met Karen at Michigan State University in the summer of 2000. We were attending the Clarion East SF/F Writers Workshop. You might recognize another name from that class, Gavin Grant, of Small Beer Press fame (http://smallbeerpress.com/). He’s now married to author, Kelly Kink (http://kellylink.net/ I think I met her there, then, too). I may have mentioned this before, but it was Gavin who told me Del Rey were looking for an editor for both SF and military. I got that job and the rest is a mystery, or something like that. I’m pretty sure I still owe him a beer or twenty for that. Anyway, before I start pulling out slides and showing you the cafeteria where we ate lunch, I bring this up because it’s been an amazing nine years from that summer to this.

The official pub date for The Light of Burning Shadows in the UK was supposed to be August 6, but if you live in the UK and have been looking for the book you’ve probably noticed by now you haven’t found it. Turns out there was a small glitch in the delivery and the book will begin showing up in stores by the end of this week.

When I was writing A Darkness Forged in Fire I was in a relationship that was ending. When I wrote The Light of Burning Shadows I was single and dating madly (er, by which I mean a lot, as opposed to lunatic-like, although my dates might beg to differ). No doubt that colored my views on the relationship between Konowa and Visyna. Still, just as I had hope I would find the love of my life, I hoped these two characters would find a way, too. Actually, what I really hoped is that I would figure out how that might happen. I’m still working on it, but it’s been more than a little gratifying to see some blogs pick up on the relationship – as imperfect and challenged as it is – and root for it to survive and even succeed. This is all preamble to introduce you to a romance/mystery blog where I recently had the honor of being a guest blogger:

http://moonlightlacemayhem.blogspot.com/2009/08/magic-muskets-immortality-and-editor.html

A huge thanks to Carrie for the terrific article, and for asking me to participate.

As an editor I publish 30+ books a year which means I deal with a lot of authors. Some of them have websites and I thought it might be nice to make introductions as I’ve received a few emails asking me about what I do when I’m not writing the Iron Elves.

So, in no particular order, here they are:

Charles V. Jones, author of Boys of ’67, Red, White, Or Yellow and a forthcoming book on Marine Combat Photographers in WWII
http://www.redwhiteoryellow.com/

David Danelo, author of Blood Stripes and The Border
http://www.danelo.com/

Kirsten Holmstedt, author of Band of Sisters and The Girls Come Marching Home
http://www.girlscomemarchinghome.com/

George Bradford, author of the AFV Plans series and Rommel’s Afrika Korps
http://www.geocities.com/firefly1002000/

Robert W. Black, author of The Battalion, Cavalry Raids of the Civil War, Ghost, Thunderbolt, and Wizard, and the forthcoming The Ranger Force and Ranger Dawn
http://robertwblack.com/

Joseph Balkosi, author of Beyond the Beachhead, Omaha Beach, Utah Beach, and From Beachhead To Brittany
http://www.angelfire.com/md/29division/