Dan McGirt

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Jason Cosmo: HERO WANTED Cutting it Close

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

Relative silence in this space the last few weeks, I know.  But fear not!  Amid the distractions travel and gainful employment, I have been plugging away at getting HERO WANTED ready for release. Over the last week or so I’ve been reviewing the galleys (page proofs) for the book — that is to say, I am for the first time reading the book as it will appear on the printed page, as opposed to reading my manuscript.  It looks good! And this is pretty much the next to last step before we’re ready to print.  So although I’m cutting it close (in the best Jason Cosmo tradition) the book is on track.

Well, I’ve got about 80 more pages to review, so I’ll get back to it!

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

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Dan McGirt on Facebook

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

For those of you on Facebook, I have opened a Dan McGirt fan page (they won’t let me call it a Loyal Reader page) which you are welcome to join. It has the feed from this Jason Cosmo Update blog and is also a place where you can meet and interact with other Loyal Readers (who are, I must say, a fine looking group!). No one has actually started a discussion there yet, but feel free to join and start a topic.

Best regards,
Dan McGirt

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Jason Cosmo HERO WANTED Cover Text: Take Two!

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

Thanks for the comments from Original Loyal Reader (OLR) Tim and others.  You’re right, Tim–“gold pieces” is maybe a little too old-school D&D. Not that there is anything wrong with that! So here is the final draft of the back cover of the forthcoming Trove Books edition of Hero Wanted: Continue reading →

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Jason Cosmo HERO WANTED Cover Copy

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

A while ago we had a little fun at the expense of poor Cover Copy Guy, who had the daunting task of writing the text on the back cover of Jason Cosmo. The cover copy has to describe the book, somewhat summarize it without giving too much away, and most of all induce a would-be reader to buy the book — or at least be intrigued enough to open it and investigate further.

Not as easy as it sounds–even if you wrote the book! Continue reading →

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Jason Cosmo HERO WANTED Preview

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

MILD SPOILER ALERT!

As I’ve explained previously, I hate spoilers. But some people like sneak previews of upcoming works–like, say Jason Cosmo: Hero Wanted, coming from Trove Books in August 2009–so today I present a micro-preview in the form of the first sentences of the first ten chapters of Hero Wanted: ((Subject to change in editing, of course.)) Continue reading →

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@JasonCosmo Makes List of "Best Authors on Twitter"

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

I’ll mention once again that I am on Twitter, twittering away about Jason Cosmo, writing, and other topics of interest (to me, at least). The link is  twitter.com/JasonCosmo

(Or, if you’re already hip to Twitter, I’m @JasonCosmo)

If you’ve been waiting for someone to validate the worth of my Twitter feed, then wait no more! @JasonCosmo was recently included on a list of  Literary Tweets: 100+ of the Best Authors on Twitter! Continue reading →

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How Jason Cosmo Got His Name

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

Last post, I discussed Robert Asprin’s Myth Adventures Series as one of the inspirations for the Jason Cosmo series (both the original handwritten stories and the novels). Today I want to address a more basic matter of Jason Cosmo’s origin: his name. Continue reading →

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Myth Adventures of Jason Cosmo

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

In the last two posts, I revealed the influence of the comic strip Finieous Fingers on the original Jason Cosmo stories that I wrote in middle school and high school. Today I continue that theme by considering some of the influences and inspirations for the Jason Cosmo books.

Obviously, all of the epic and not-so-epic fantasy stories I read prior to 1987, along with movies, TV shows, comics, other pop culture, current events, history, mythology, and other reading that I absorbed went into the mix. It would be impossible to identify every influence on my early writing. But I can definitely recall and acknowledge a few authors that I particularly looked to as models when I was writing Jason Cosmo.

One was Robert Asprin, particularly for his Myth Adventures series chronicling the adventures (well, myth-adventures) of Aahz and Skeeve.

Another Fine Myth

Continue reading →