I’m about to make my birthday a festive one for everybody! With Amazon’s new royalty system, whereby authors get 70% of a sale, rather than the old 30%, I’ve decided to revamp the look of my eBooks and offer them for much less money. I want these books to be priced where anyone will try them out, and even owners of the physical book will feel like they need to also grab a copy of the digital version.

All three Molly books are now available on the Kindle store for less than $4.00! The Parsona Rescue is priced at $2.99. If you have a friend with a Kindle who isn’t hooked on this series yet, tell them about these deals. You seriously can’t get this much action, adventure, romance, philosophy, and tense cliffhangers for such a great price.

Check out the entire series here.

Happy birthday, indeed!

Enough about the books I write, what about all the books I read? Well, I haven’t had the time to do any of my in-depth reviews lately, but I’m still knocking back at least a book a week. And the freebies from publishers keep rolling in, which means I keep running out of shelf space. What to do? How about spending a weekend building one hundred linear feet of bookshelves?

The following two sets of shelves aren’t new, I just threw pictures of them in as well. Not pictured are the floor-to-ceiling shelves in my office.

Before we get to the pre-order business, let me tell you a little something about this book. First: it’s the best stuff I’ve ever written. Hands-down. Not only that, it was the hardest book I’ve tackled. It’s the one I had the most doubts about. The one I agonized over.

When I started writing Land of Light, I contemplated restricting the Bern Saga to three books. Looking back on how much hand-wringing I did over that decision, it seems a bit silly. The Bern Saga was always supposed to be four books, and I only started doubting the move as I worried readers would tire of the books before they got to the end. When I expressed this view, I heard a resounding: “ARE YOU KIDDING?!” Two readers are already giving me a hard time for not promising books five, six, and seven. It turned out I needn’t worry about writing too many of these.

With that resolved, I set to work crafting the best Molly book thus far. The challenges were numerous. For one, this is the first book in the series where the drama unfolds over multiple locations. There were hints of this in Land of Light (during the Wadi Rite and following Anlyn’s exploits on Drenard), but Blood of Billions carries this structure throughout. And it really drives the story forward. You’re gonna dig it.

Another challenge I had was working with new character dynamics. I don’t want to spoil anything, but you’ll see what I mean. The bonus here is that this is not one of those series of books you’ll read and feel like you’ve already heard this story before. The interactions between the protagonists are new, rather than just re-hashing what I know already works. As a reader foremost, I did what I wish more authors would do, which is to take chances. In Blood of Billions, I feel that every one of them paid off. I hope the majority of you agree.

Finally, this is the book I spent the most time with. I probably did seven full revisions, each pass adding a bit more polish. Blood of Billions also has even more of my philosophy on life, including my views on politics, racism, immigration, free will, energy policy, and so much more. There are some scenes taken right out of my 9/11 experiences as well, which makes this the first time I’ve really written about that day. These are just a few of the reasons I hold this book so dear.

In fact, I feel so strongly about this book, it makes me want to get more readers to pick up the first two. I want to urge them to read those already fine novels, just so they can experience this one. I might just have to come up with a package deal for people who haven’t gotten into the series yet (or who want their own personalized, signed copies). I think once you read this entry, you’ll be feeling the same way. You’ll want to write Amazon reviews for all three books. You’ll want to gift them to friends. You’ll start talking about them at work.

Anyway, that’s how I feel about this novel. Now, the first 70 pre-orderers will get a book out of the first batch heading my way. Those books will be shipping from me, to you, on the 21st of June. The next batch will probably be in a week later, or you can get your boring non-signed copies on Amazon or at Barnes and Noble’s website in early July. Alright, thanks for letting me ramble on. Click the cover below, or use the image off to the right.

A huge thanks to Millennium Charter Academy for having me speak with their students today. I had a great time, and came away very impressed with their school and their students.

I spoke for an hour or so with the middle schoolers (Half of that was my talk on writing and reading, the other half was a Q&A). Then, Mrs. Kesler’s contemporary literature class had me for pizza and almost two full hours of gabbing about books. Both opportunities were a blast.

I was really impressed with the questions these young adults came up with. The things they’re learning seem far beyond what I was studying at their age. We chatted about other books they’re reading, I got to see the reading journals they’re keeping (which included reviews of the first two books), and they peppered me with plot-related questions. It was really cool to hear which characters they loved and hated (they way they argued back and forth reminded me of an SNL Twilight skit. I nearly cried!)

Speaking of Twilight, these kids aren’t fans. That’s how awesome and discerning they are. They were mad for MOCKINGJAY (the third HUNGER GAMES book), and almost equally excited about the third Molly book (more on that in a later post).

All-in-all, it was a wonderful way to spend my morning. Seeing Mrs. Kesler’s class (complete with lounging therapy dog, shelves and boxes loaded with books, and full of students eager to read and learn) made me want to either moonlight as a middle school teacher, or go back in time and live seventh grade all over again.

Once again, a huge thanks to all the kids. It was truly an “epic” day.

Last Friday, I went down to Monroe, NC and did some book promoting. We hit the same spots that welcomed us with the first book, and the second time around was just as fun. A huge thanks to the guys at Oasis and Blu Moon for being such awesome hosts. Also, a massive thanks to all the fans and readers that came out to show their support. It was amazing to get a chance to sign so many books, even better to be able to discuss the plot of the stories now that so many of you have read the first two books.

One of the best parts of the trip was my return appearance to WIXE 1190. This is a multiple-award-winning AM station with a huge and dedicated audience. They had me on for a half hour, and I was having so much fun that it went by in a flash. They let Amber sit in the studio during the interview, which was very cool.

Anyway, for those of you that missed it, here’s you chance to listen to the entire interview. Enjoy!

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