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The Black Quill Giveaway
You may have heard the legends of the Black Quill. That it can turn its wielder into the mightiest writer of all ages. That it is a weapon far more dangerous than any sword or spell. That it uses souls for ink. There is only one way to find out. Win the Black Quill for yourself!
Whenever you mention my new book, The Dead Hamlets, on social media, you’ll be entered into a contest to win the Black Quill and a free copy of the book. Any mention is fine — tweet a link to the book, share a review on Facebook, post this giveaway to your circles on G+, recommend it on reddit, whatever you like. Just make sure you tag me or otherwise let me know you’ve shared news about the book so I can add you to the contest. You get a separate entry for each mention, so share away.
Of course, if you don’t win the giveaway, you can still find out the secrets of the Black Quill. You just have to read The Dead Hamlets!
The contest runs until the end of February. Any mentions dating back to Feb. 1 will be automatically included in the giveaway. I’ll announce the winner here and on social media.
Good luck and thanks for reading!
Let’s launch this thing in style
I’m going to hold a couple of local launches for my latest novel, The Dead Hamlets. The first launch will be at the Water Shed Arts Café in Langley on Friday, Feb. 27, at 8 p.m. The Water Shed is a friendly, intimate place that’s home to a lot of the arts crowd in Langley — I like to go there those rare times I can escape the house. If you’re in Langley, come on out.
Langley launch
The Water Shed Arts Cafe
11-20349 88 Ave. (get map)
Langley, BC
Friday, Feb. 27, 8 p.m.
Facebook event
The second launch will be in Vancouver, when I read at the Storm Crow Tavern Thursday, April 16, at 7 p.m. I’m reading at the Storm Crow as part of the Storm Crow Tavern Reading Series – Season Two. It’s sure to be a lot of fun as long as we don’t wake the Elder Ones. If you’re in Vancouver, come on out.
Vancouver launch
Storm Crow Tavern
1305 Commercial Drive
Vancouver, BC
Thursday, April 16, 7 p.m.
Facebook event
I’ll have copies of The Dead Hamlets for sale at both events. In addition, I’ll have a special treat for those who make the effort to make it to either event. It’ll probably be a previously unpublished story, but I haven’t made a final decision yet. I’ve been known to give out lottery tickets at readings before, so you never know. Come on out and you could change your life!
I’ve created a Facebook group for the Langley launch. The Storm Crow Facebook event is here, although it’s the event for the entire reading series. The info for my event will be added closer to the date.
I likely won’t be doing any other launches for The Dead Hamlets. A four-year-old with asthma and a four-month-old with a heart condition that needs monitoring are keeping me close to home this year. If I manage to make it out to any other cities, though, I’ll post about it here.
Looking forward to seeing you!
The Dead Hamlets has a trailer
The Dead Hamlets is alive! It’s crawled from the open grave of my office, where dreams go to die, and is now lurching into our world. See it lurking on bookstore shelves near you! Read about its exploits in the reviews! Watch it terrorize the innocent on YouTube!
That’s right, YouTube. The Dead Hamlets has one of those eerie videos, with words and ghostly covers and more words. Watch it here and then share it if you want to avoid the curse!
(Curse not available in your viewing area.)
A tiny reminder
I just sent out my latest author update via the TinyLetter service. If you’re interested in getting updates by email as well as reading this blog, or maybe even instead of reading this blog — insert crushed author emoticon here — then feel free to sign up.
I only send out updates whenever I have a new project to announce, so don’t worry about getting spammed — think of it as an alert service. You can check out the archive of letters here if you’re nervous and not sure you want to commit.
Go have a look. I’ll be here waiting. I should be writing the new book, but I’m waiting for you. No pressure.
Whistles tunelessly.
It’s not too late to sacrifice!
My new Cross novel, The Dead Hamlets, is making its way into the world. The official date when it’s available for purchase is Feb. 17, but some of the people who pre-ordered it have already received their copies. It’s not too late to read the first book in the series, The Mona Lisa Sacrifice. Here’s a little trailer I made to help convince you.
I was trying to break the genre, but I wasn’t strong enough
Further to my last post about charming product placement, I see The Dead Hamlets has made the Genre-Bender list over at Tor.com. Which, now that I think about it, is the perfect way to describe my writing. Can we please start a petition to include “genre-bender” in the list of official genre categories in bookstores and Amazon and such?
Also, The Dead Hamlets is in some pretty fine company on that list.
That immortality game
In a lovely moment of product placement, my new book, The Dead Hamlets, and The Lazarus Game by Stephen J. Valentine are listed side by side over at SF Signal’s February releases roundup. Anyone who’s familiar with Cross will get why this is charming.
Also, great representation by ChiZine!
The Dead Hamlets are alive!
It’s alive! My new Cross novel, The Dead Hamlets, is shipping. ChiZine wasn’t just pranking me when they said they’d publish it!
I’ll have more details about launches, blog tours, reviews and so forth soon. But right now I’m just going to crack these open and breathe deep of that new book smell.
And then get back to working on the third Cross book.
Roll a d20 for appearances
If you follow this blog, you know that I’m a big fan of the Storm Crow Tavern in Vancouver. Where else can you eat an Elvish Burger while rolling a d20 for random shots — Critical Hit! — while playing one of their many board games — who’s in for a quick game of Arkham Horror in front of the giant Cthulhu head?
On very special nights, such as when the Known Planets align with the Unknown Ones, or certain Thursdays, you can also hear writers such as myself read from their works.
I held the Vancouver launch for The Mona Lisa Sacrifice at the Storm Crow Tavern, and it was a great success, aside from that Curse of Typo Terror cast by the wait staff. Now I’ll be returning to the Storm Crow to read from The Dead Hamlets, the sequel to The Mona Lisa Sacrifice, at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 16.
My reading will be part of the Storm Crow Tavern Reading Series – Season Two. Other readers will include James McCann, Kristi Charish, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Claude Lalumiere and Heather Haley. I’m thrilled to be part of such a great lineup.
I already have a special surprise in mind for the reading. But you’ll have to be there to experience it. Book your time away from work and your family now!
peter darbyshire 