Thanks to everyone for the notes about my article in several newspapers across the country. I hope the article made it easier to do what I know folks want to do: support America's warriors as they sacrifice so much for us. It was inspiring to see the response to the article and confirmed what I said-- that Americans are a generous people always willing to reach out to our service members. I appreciate everyone's help.

Along those lines, I hope to officially announce a fundraiser that my Publisher, Chris Payne at JournalStone, has been instrumental in supporting. I don't want to jump the gun, but check back frequently for updates on our plans to raise money for the Navy SEAL Foundation.

Looking for a great book for holiday time? I have a couple of recommendations. While I'm not yet finished, Richard Godwin's APOSTLE RISING has absolutely captivated my attentions. A terrific thriller that you will not be able to put down. Godwin writes with a fantastic style and command that moves a chilling story along. Importantly to me, his rich character development pulls you into the story in ways that rival King and Koontz and make you care deeply what will happen next. I'll review it here when I'm done but please check it out at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

I hope everyone enjoys the Holidays. Drop me a line. I'm always here and dying to hear from you.

October is always a fun month for Horror writers. There is a lot going on and I would encourage you to go to the HWA website at www.horror.org and check out a long list of events nation wide featuring HWA member authors. In particular I would encourage you to check out the HWA blog during the month. They have worked really hard to put together a month long event leading up to Halloween, with new posts every day from some of your favorite HWA authors. Fellow JournalStone author JG Faherty had a great post on the 5th about his background, Halloween, and his new book The Cemetery Club which will be available in early 2012. There are also contests and giveaways almost daily, including copies of Greg's books Carnival of Fear and Ghosts of Coronado Bay. Bestselling Author Jonathan Maberry had a great post with Janice Bashman about their love of Halloween. There was a Q&A with Norman Prentiss. All of this is just in the first few days so please check in daily at http://www.horror.org/blog/ for lots of great posts and fun prizes.

I'll be signing books at the Barnes and Noble/William and Mary bookstore later this month, on Saturday October 22nd. I'm excited about this one for a few reasons. First, Williamsburg is my hometown so it will be a great chance to catch up with friends and family. Second, I'm a William and Mary Alumni and the booksigning is part of the William and Mary Homecoming weekend, which is kind of cool. And third, I'll be doing interviews, and meeting for the first time, bestselling author Marliss Melton. Marliss writes action/romance novels featuring Navy SEALs as her protagonists. What makes this meeting fun is that she and I attended the same High School, graduated from William and Mary in the same year, and while we have corresponded and clloaborated on some work this past year we have never met (or heard of) each other until recently. This will be our first meeting (actually the day before the signing when we are doing several radio interviews together).

October is also the release month for fellow JournalStone author Brett J. Talley's debut novel That Which Should not Be. Brett is an extremely talented writer who will be going places over the next few years and his novel is absolutely fantastic, especially for lovers of the classic HP Lovecraft, Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley style of classic horror. The book is available this week, on October 7th. Check out my review of the book at http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/201782422

And of course, when you have 3 kids ages 11, 4, and 3 October is a busy month already. We are working on costumes (though my 4 year old jack is easy since he has worn his Woody the Cowboy costume nearly night and day for about the last 3 months) and I'll be excited to share pictures on my next post.

Enjoy your Halloween season and drop me a note here with any comments, questions, or thoughts.

I'm dying to hear from you,

Jeff

On August 23rd our son Connor signed his formal contract with Weaving Dreams Publishing. His children's book The Giant Pencil is scheduled for release in October 2012 (and I'm not at all miffed that his contract is slightly better than mine). It is fantastic to watch him work on his edits, engage with the publisher on his first phone conference with her, and get very excited about meeting with his illustrator next week. He's not quite as excited as he was about meeting the legendary Tony Hawk at the Skate Park of Tampa earlier this week, but almost.

I'm one proud Dad!

We are counting down the days until September 1st when we announce the winners of the book giveaway! There is still time to enter and win a free, signed, Hardcover edition of The Traiteur's Ring. Thanks to everyone who has already entered as well as the folks who entered the contest over at Goodreads. If you don't win, the book will be available everwhere on September 9th so don't be afraid to pre-order after the 1st-- I mean you wouldn't have entered if you didn't want to read it right?

Send you thoughts, comments, and questions any time.

Dying to hear from you.

Jeff

Well after a short courting period (something I'm used to, actually. Wendy and I were married 367 days after our first date) Chris Payne and I have taken the plunge to a larger commitment. We have agreed to an additional two-book contract. I couldn't be more delighted. Despite the temptation to spread things around a little bit, the advantages of keeping the books together and the incredible work ethic and marketing plan that I have found at JournalStone more than outweigh any theoretical downside.

Look for my novel The Donors to be released from JournalStone sometime in the spring or summer of 2012. Combining a supernatural horror story with a medical thriller backdrop, I think fans of either genre will like this one. We'll be updating on release dates, getting you a free excerpt and more after the first of the year, I hope.

Then look for Fade to Black to come out later that year or early 2013.

I look forward to a long and productive relationship with JournalStone. Thanks to Chris, Joel, and the rest of the talented staff at JournalStone for making this a no brainer. It has been an absolute pleasure to work with them so far.

"I'm excited to help promote the "Virtual Book Tour" for my friend and Bram Stoker award winning author Ben Ethridge. This is a really cool way to follow an author who is doing some amazing things.

Click on the link to see where to find his virtual appearances, interviews etc. And if you haven't done it yet, pick up his award winning book Black and Orange and find out why it was this years Bram Stoker pick in the first novel category!"

Well the biggest news of this week is about my son. Connor is 10 years old and a year and half ago he told me he wanted to write a book like daddy. I encouraged him, of course, and then wrote it off to another grandiose 8 year old plan when a couple of months went by and he didn't bring it up again. Then one day he came to me and said "Here it is," and handed me a hand written manuscript. His first book The Giant Pencil is a children's picture book and it is more imaginative and creative then many best selling books out there.

This weekend we learned that Publisher L. Sue Durkin and Weaving Dreams Publishing is offering him a contract for the book. We don't yet know important details like the release date, but we suspect it will come out in 2012 sometime.

Connor is my favorite author and I can't wait for his book to come out. Plan to pick up a copy to share with your kids. We'll update you on his marketing website when its available and information about pulication schedules when we have it.

In the meantime we are counting down to the release of The Traiteur's Ring in just a few more weeks. Get your entry in to our contest for your free, signed hardcover copy before time runs out on August 31st.

And drop us a line with comments and questions.

As always, I'm dying to hear from you.....

Jeff

Thanks a ton to my friend, webmaster, and artist Joey for the best cover art I could have hoped for. And thanks to Chris Payne, my publisher, and his great staff for their tireless and patient editing and proofreading. He was also generous enough to give Joey a shot at the cover, despite having an in house artist already, and I really appreciate that a lot. I love how the book has turned out. The Traiteur's Ring is ready to go and will be released September 9th! It has been a really enjoyable process and working with the folks at JournalStone Publishing has been terrific. I can't say enough about the process and how professional Chris and his staff have been. They are an unbelievably author friendly house.

On the home page you may have noticed mention of a giveaway. I'm pretty excited about this. We will announce the details and rules later this week, but basically everyone who sends us a comment through the author feedback link will get a chance to win a free Hardcover copy of the book. We will announce the winner sometime before he release date, but the exact details will be available soon.

Read the excerpt, enjoy the beautiful cover art, and check back frequently.

Dying to hear from you...

Jeff

Me and my wife Wendy at the HWA event.

Me, Wendy and Journal Stone's Chris Payne.

Sorry for the delay in this post, but things are busy getting everything together for the release of The Traiteur's Ring with JournalStone Publishing. We are still hoping for a release by early fall. Wendy and I had a great time at the Horror Writer's Association's Stoker weekend in Long Island a couple of weeks ago. It was a terrific chance to catch up with friends and make some new ones. Speaking of friends, congratulations to my friend Ben Ethridge for his Stoker Award in the category of Superior achievement for a first novel. I have mentioned his novel Black and Orange before. It's a really great, highly original book that I can't recommend highly enough (and now I can point to the Stoker committee as validation of my opinion!). He tied in this category wth Lisa Morton for her novel Castle of Los Angeles, another fantastic book. We thoroughly enjoyed the banquet celebrating the winners as well as several workshops we attended. It was also great to finally meet my new publisher Chris Payne face to face. He is pictured above with me at fellow JournalStone author Greg Faherty's book signing. Greg launched his YA novel Ghosts of Coronado Bay at the meeting. I hope everyone (especially those with young adults in your house) have a chance to get his book. Connor (our nearly 11 year old) is already devouring it.

Thanks to everyone at HWA for a fun weekend. It was particularly fun to meet Peter Straub, Jonathan Mayberry, Jeff Strand, and Bruce Boston. I should probably re-iterate how great it was to meet Chris Payne (you know how sensitive publishers can be). Congratulations to all of this years Stoker Award winners:

Superior Achievement in a NOVEL
A DARK MATTER by Peter Straub

Superior Achievement in a First Novel (tie)
BLACK AND ORANGE by Benjamin Kane Ethridge
CASTLE OF LOS ANGELES by Lisa Morton

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction
INVISIBLE FENCES by Norman Prentiss

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction
THE FOLDING MAN by Joe R. Lansdale

Superior Achievement in an Anthology
HAUNTED LEGENDS edited by Ellen Datlow and Nick Mamatas

Superior Achievement in a Collection
FULL DARK, NO STARS by Stephen King (Simon and Schuster)

Superior Achievement in Nonfiction
TO EACH THEIR DARKNESS by Gary A. Braunbeck

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection
DARK MATTERS by Bruce Boston

HWA 2010 SPECIALTY PRESS AWARD GOES TO DARK REGIONS PRESS
ANGEL LEIGH McCOY AWARDED 2010 SILVER HAMMER AWARD
MICHAEL COLANGELO AWARDED 2010 RICHARD LAYMON AWARD

Well after a lot of hard work and what turned out to be painless negotiations with JournalStone, The Traiteur's Ring returns to life. I'm really excited to be a part of JournalStone and I am very impressed with both Chris Payne and his entire staff, especially Joel, his acquisitions editor. This is a group of people who are taking publishing very seriously and it is refreshing to see so much excitement and enthusiasm. I have no doubt that JournalStone will be a terrific success and I'm proud to be one of the debut authors for this fine group of people.

I'm also excited to be in the company of great authors like JG Faherty. Greg's first novel Carnival of Fear was fantastic and is enjoying tremendous reviews. His new book will be released by JournalStone in June. More on this great YA thriller soon.

Check back frequently for updates on the release schedule and for your free sample which will be available soon.

As always, drop me a line if you have a question or comment.

Dying to hear from you.

Jeff