Congratulations!

First off, congratulations to all of the winners of the Goodreads.com giveaway!  Five lucky folks were drawn from over 700 entries, and each of them should be receiving a signed copy of Carving The Light in their mailbox sometime soon!  I shipped three copies out today, and will do the other two tomorrow, hopefully.  I'm just waiting a but longer to hear back on whether they would like it personalized, or not.  :)

I've started reading my own Goodreads giveaway win, No Hope For Gomez!, by Graham Parke.  I'm only about 20 pages in, but I am really engaged and enjoying it thus far.  Can not wait to go read more, as soon as I am done typing this entry!

I have given the first draft of Ebon Black and the Seven Dryads to a couple of people to read, but everyone else will have to wait, I think.  I want people to be surprised and thrilled when they get to the end of it, but I am also so bad with surprises...once I have it, I want to share it!  So I've chosen just a few people to get feedback from, and I of course read it to my lovely illustrator, so she's the first to know the whole tale, and all of that combined should be enough to make me stick to the idea of everyone else waiting for the book to actually be published before reading my latest little tale.

I've started a CafePress preview store for Ebon, but I'm still adding items and images.  More on that once it's more complete.  I also have a few ideas for generating more publicity and hype while I work through the editing process.  It ought to help get people more excited about the book, as well.

Finally, I am feeling the need to mention the OTHER book I've been working on.  I started it first, but then worked on Carving The Light and Ebon Black, and now what was first is looking to come third.  I don't have a title yet, but I do have a sketchy plot outline.  It goes something like this:

Young Ellie Skye goes to spend the summer at her grandmother's house, with her trusted stuffed husky toy, Teddy, in tow.  One day, Ellie puts Teddy into the old, no-longer-used dumbwaiter, and wheels him up to the top floor of the house, where her grandmother's room waits at the other end.  When she brings the platform back down, however, Teddy is gone, and a small green stone is in his place.

Distraught, Ellie climbs into the dumbwaiter herself, and goes up the shaft in search of her stuffed friend.

What she finds on the other end sets Ellie on a course for adventure that she could never have predicted, even in her wildest dreams.

Now, off to read more Gomez I go!  :)

Until soon,

SAM