Books

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Jason Cosmo and the Merry Christmas

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

A Merry Christmas to you and your family!

2009 has been an exciting and eventful year for me as an author. I had the satisfaction of finally seeing Jason Cosmo and company return to print with the release of Hero Wanted by Trove Books, not to mention the digital version of Hero Wanted at Smashwords. I released the first-ever Jason Cosmo mini-novel, Rainy Daze. And I had the pleasure of connecting with and hearing from dozens of Loyal Readers via this blog, by email, on my pages at Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, LibraryThing, and in person at Dragon*Con.

Two things drive me as a writer: the desire to get all these stories out of my head before my sinuses explode from the buildup of creative pressure … and the desire to entertain readers for a few hours with thrills, chills, adventure, laughs, and a few groan-inducing puns. I want to thank all the Loyal Readers who have picked up or downloaded one of my stories and given me the opportunity to do just that. Thanks again to those who have taken the time to send me a note to let me know you enjoyed the book. I truly appreciate your encouragement, comments, and even the constructive criticism.

Please join me in 2010 for more Jason Cosmo adventures. My plan is to publish Noble Cause in print and ebook, release an episodic audio bookcast of Hero Wanted (and maybe Noble Cause too), and I hope to offer a few more Jason Cosmo short stories and mini-novels along the way.

In the meantime, I wish you all the best of the season and a healthful, prosperous and happy new year!

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

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Jason Cosmo and NaNoWriMo

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

It’s National Novel Writing Month. I know that NaNoWriMo has been around for about a decade. I only became vaguely aware of it a couple of years ago and have never participated. Nor will I be participating this year, at least officially. I will, however, be writing a novel in November: Jason Cosmo #2: Noble Cause. Since I’ve already written a good bit of it and will mainly be filling in gaps and revising, it doesn’t fit the NaNoWriMo model, but I’ll be playing along in spirit.

Incidentally, my friends at Smashwords have an interesting National Novel Writing Month promotion underway:

Participants can upload daily updates to Smashwords. Their works-in-progress will be made available as multi-format ebooks, readable on any e-reading device, personal computers and many mobile devices.

All participating writers will receive promotion at Smashwords.com within a special NaNo catalog, as well as distribution of their works-in-progress to Stanza, the e-reading app used by over 2.5 million people on the iPhone and iPod Touch, and to Aldiko, the e-reading app for Android smart phones.

If you want to share your NaNo novel in progress as an e-book, check that out. I am, as Loyal Readers can probably tell, a huge fan of Smashwords. (Where you can read Hero Wanted as a free, full-length e-book right now.)

Meanwhile, best wishes and godspeed to all the NaNo writers starting your project today! I hope you have fun with your story and stick with it for the next 30 days. If you want, leave a comment and let me know what you’re working on. And write! Write like the wind!

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

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Jason Cosmo Podcast Audiobook to Come

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

Just a quick update. Despite my best intentions, the conclusion of Rainy Daze remains unwritten. I have been sidetracked by other obligations and continue to be. I hope to see daylight and finish the story soon. I don’t think I’ll have time to squeeze in a Halloween story before Halloween either.

Once I do wrap up Rainy Daze it will be time for the final push on the manuscript of the next Jason Cosmo novel, Noble Cause. I pretty much suspended work on Noble Cause at the beginning of 2009 to focus on getting Hero Wanted finished, edited, produced and on sale now wherever fine fantasy novels are sold.  That doesn’t mean the story hasn’t been percolating in my head. I will probably do some significant revising once I get back to it. I’ll have to see how the existing text has aged these last few months.  My back of envelope calculation is to be ready for editing and proofreading by early next year (January/February) and looking at a summer release. I’ll keep you updated as those plans gel. This is, after all, the Jason Cosmo Update.

In the meantime, I’ve decided it is long past time I got on the podcast audiobook train. After studying the examples of podiobook pioneers like Scott Sigler and Seth Harwood, I’m convinced this is something I need to do. My plan will be to record the full text of Hero Wanted, as read by me, and release it in a series of free weekly podcasts. I am persuaded that this will help me connect with many more potential new Loyal Readers (or, Loyal Listeners, I guess they’ll be), perk up my print book sales, and have fun doing it.

Obviously that is two major projects on the horizon: write and publish Noble Cause, record and produce Hero Wanted. I do not know yet what the time frame for the podiobook will be. I just bought a pro-quality microphone and a copy of Podcasting For Dummies and I’ve got a good bit of learning to do before I launch that project in earnest.  For now, writing Noble Cause will be the first priority, but stay tuned!

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

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Hero Wanted – The Reviews Are In!

Greetings,  Loyal Reader!

The first reader reviews of Hero Wanted are starting to appear online, and so far they are overwhelmingly positive! I’m glad to know that Loyal Readers are enjoying the book and I especially appreciate those who have emailed or commented to let me know or have posted a review to let the world at large know.  Thank you!

Let’s get to it:

Loyal Reader Georges, from Luxembourg, recommended the Hero Wanted ebook in the MobileRead Forums:

“Funny read.”

Georges was seconded by forum members Dr. Drib of Peru, Slite from Sweden (who is the Minister of The Large Dogs Of Infinite Peace And Absurdity, which is a very important cabinet position in Sweden. I think.). Several MobileRead members downloaded Hero Wanted on the strength of their recommendations, helping make Hero Wanted the #1 novel on Smashwords! ((By number of downloads)) Thanks, Georges, Dr. Drib, and Minister Slite!

Last week, the first two Amazon reader reviews came in — both are 5-star ratings, for a grand total of 10 stars!

First, Loyal Reader H. Johnson from Minnesota says:

Clever and Funny with a good story too … It’s rare for a book to be able to walk that line between being a genuine fantasy novel, and a parody novel. This book gets that balance just right. Not too silly, but not serious either. … The wit is sharp, and some of the humor is dry, but that’s how I like it…

This is like a “Director’s Cut” of a movie. He has gone back and re-written the entire book from the ground up…Think Extended Edition Lord of the Rings, not Special Edition Star Wars. He took something good, and made it better.

Follow the link to read the rest of this 5-star review, including the parts I …’d out.

Next, we hear from Loyal Reader Rick Friedman:

HERO WANTED has shown that one can create a fantasy story- yet allow the characters to be painted with wit, smarts and intrigue. Not since the Late Douglas Adams have I read an author with such skills as Dan McGirt.

… This is a book that should be bought, as it can be read over and over, and digested like a fine French dinner, with new insights appearing with each reading.

But much less fattening! Thanks H and Rick for your generous reviews! I’m glad you enjoyed the book and I appreciate you encouraging others to try Hero Wanted.

That’s all the reviews I’ve seen so far. If you’ve read Hero Wanted and enjoyed the book, I encourage you to post your own review. If you didn’t like it, I don’t encourage you as strongly! But you could still post a review and discuss what you see as the flaws in my story–who knows, it might help me do better on the next book.

If you do come across a review, good or bad, that I haven’t mentioned, please let me know either in a comment here, on my JasonCosmo Twitter page, at my Dan McGirt Facebook page, or by writing me at Dan @JasonCosmo.com

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

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Jason Cosmo and the Fantasy Novelist's Exam

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

I’ve returned from a vacation and a visit to Dragon*Con and am finally able to get back to the update.  I’ll give a Dragon*Con report later. For now, thank you to all the Loyal Readers who came to my reading and book signing. I read the first three chapters of Hero Wanted, which were well received by the teeming crowd of at least one dozen.

But today I thought is would be fun to grade Hero Wanted against this funny, yet true, site “The Fantasy Novelist’s Exam.” I just stumbled across it today. I am sure many of you have seen it. If not, it is an exasperated response to too much derivative fantasy. As the site intro says:  “We think anybody considering writing a fantasy novel should be required to take this exam first. Answering “yes” to any one question results in failure and means that the prospective novel should be abandoned at once.”

While the test is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, it is a worthwhile reminder for fantasy authors and would-be authors to avoid tired, overused, and unimaginative tropes, clichés, and themes that frequently turn up in fantasy fiction.

I will say up front that on its face, Hero Wanted fails this test in spectacular fashion.  I can only say in defense of my creation that the Jason Cosmo series is to some extent consciously and intentionally derivative, being in large part a spoof or parody of the epic fantasy genre.  I used quite a few clichés on purpose. I hope I have included some original ideas and that the whole is satisfying diversion for Loyal Reader, but that is for you to decide.

I give Hero Wanted 20 yes answers out of 75 questions. A couple were close calls, but I erred to the side saying yes.  If you have a fantasy work in progress, it might be worth testing your manuscript against this quiz to see if there are any stale notions you could perhaps rethink. I will certainly do so if I ever get around to writing a straightforward fantasy! But for my satirical purposes I will probably make a point of including more clichés in a future work!

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

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Jason Cosmo and the Espresso Book Machine

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

Getting your hands on a print copy of Hero Wanted (assuming the free ebook on Smashwords doesn’t satisfy you) requires ordering a copy from Amazon or your other favorite online bookseller or placing a special order at your local bookshop. My publisher, Trove Books, takes a very 21st century — and, may I add, eco-conscious — approach to publishing books. Instead of killing a bunch of trees, printing a bunch of books, storing said books in a climate-controlled warehouse, then shipping the books out to bookstores in heavy trucks to sit on the shelves until someone strolls by and decide to buy a copy, Trove only prints a book when it is ordered ((Thus killing trees one at a time. The trees appreciate this.)) and ships it straight to you, via Amazon or whomever.

UPS was going to be in your neighborhood anyway.

But whether you order Hero Wanted online or at your local bookstore, you do have to wait at least a couple of days to start reading the book. Is there any way to get the book faster? If you happen to live in a few special communities around the world, then yes, there is: it is called the Espresso Book Machine.

No, it does not make coffee.

The Espresso is more of an “ATM for books.” Here is the official pitch from the makers of the Espresso, On Demand Books:  What Gutenberg’s press did for Europe in the 15th century digitization and the Espresso Book Machine will do for the world tomorrow.

I assume that means they are hoping to set off decades of bloody religious warfare between Catholics and Protestants.

Or else provide “library quality paperbacks at low cost, identical to factory made books, printed direct from digital files for the reader in minutes, serving a radically decentralized world-wide multilingual marketplace.” Er, right. That’s more PR gobbledygook, but translation:  it’s a machine that prints, collates, covers, and binds a single book in a few minutes.

Here is a video that eventually shows you how it works:

So.  Nifty.  So what? Well, Trove Books has arranged to make Hero Wanted available through the Espresso Book Machine.  So if you live in or near a town where an Espresso Book Machine is located, you can — in theory — go there and purchase your very own copy of Hero Wanted and see it printed before your very eyes.  ((Unless they keep the machine in a back room, but why would they do that?))

Here are the known locations of Espresso Book Machines around the world:

AUSTRALIA

CANADA

EGYPT

UK

USA

If there is an Espresso near you, go check it out! I’ve seen a demo in person and it is pretty cool to watch it make a book.

If you do happen to buy a copy of Hero Wanted printed on an Espresso, remember to take your digital camera and send me a picture of you, your new book, and the Espresso at Dan@JasonCosmo.com. Send me the picture and your thoughts on the experience and I’ll feature your story here on the Jason Cosmo Update. I dont’t think anyone has bought an Espresso-made copy yet, so you could be the first!

Best regards,
Dan McGirt

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Jason Cosmo vs. Hero Wanted

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

I had a couple of great comments today from Loyal Readers over at the Dan McGirt page on Facebook. (If you’re on Facebook, please join us there!)

Loyal Reader Luke wants to know when the movie is coming out. No one from Hollywood has called yet. I think the Jason Cosmo books would work better as animated features than as live action, but I am open to all offers!

Longtime Loyal Reader Mark has a deeper question. Having read the original books many times, he finds some of the changes in story details and wording I made in Hero Wanted (versus Jason Cosmo) distracting. He asks why I decided to make so much change? An excellent question!

You can read my answer at the Dan McGirt Facebook page, but I’ll restate it here for the benefit of all Loyal Readers.

As I’ve discussed previously, I did the revision of Jason Cosmo over several years, so the changes came gradually. I originally set out to simply correct a few typos. Then I decided to add some new scenes and drop a few things in to better set up events of the later books. I then let the manuscript sit for a year or two.

When I was getting the book ready for publication earlier this year, I went through line by line, tweaking dialogue and language. In my mind, these were all improvements. I feel I’m a better writer than I was in 1987-88, when I wrote Jason Cosmo. While that may be open to debate, I am certainly a different writer. So given the opportunity to revisit and revise my original prose, I did so.

As I hope I’ve made clear by now, Hero Wanted is not an exact reprint of Jason Cosmo. But neither is it a brand new story. It is a retelling or reimagining, hence the new title.

I think of it this way: there are lots of books about, say, the life of Alexander the Great, each telling the same basic story but in different ways, with different details, and different emphasis. There are also many versions of the Greek myths, the tales of King Arthur, etc.  For the comic book geeks out there, you might think of the Non-Trilogy as the Earth-1 version and the Hero Wanted continuity as Earth-2. They are very similar, but not identical, yet both are valid.

For Loyal Readers who have read the original Non-Trilogy books more than once–and possibly more than I have–and consider them among your favorites, I can imagine any changes to the text are jarring. Just like watching the retouched versions of the original Star Wars trilogy is a bit annoying and distracting to me. I totally get that.

I did ponder for a long time whether to make real changes in the story. In the end I decided to go ahead and deviate from the original Non-Trilogy text where it made sense to me. I decided that doing so was in the true tradition of Jason Cosmo. To ME, the “original” version of Jason Cosmo is in the the handwritten stories I passed around to my friends in middle and high school–those Original Loyal Readers without whose support the book might never have come about.

I also wrote a rebooted version of Jason Cosmo in high school which, come to think of it, was a little less popular than the first run of stories.  My point is, the published Non-Trilogy was actually, for me, the third incarnation of Jason Cosmo, making Hero Wanted the start of the fourth version.

For longtime Loyal Readers, I hope that you will enjoy this new run of Jason Cosmo adventures. I hope it continues for years to come. With your support, it will. I would not have made the commitment to bring Jason Cosmo back to print if it were not for the many encouraging emails and other messages I’ve received from longtime Loyal Readers over the years. I am also hoping to win many new Loyal Readers as the Cosmoverse expands.

If you prefer the original Non-Trilogy version of Jason Cosmo to the retelling in Hero Wanted, I understand and I appreciate your loyalty to the “classic” version. I warn you now there will be similar changes when I get to the revisions of Royal Chaos and Dirty Work — but I hope you’ll come along for the ride and I hope you’ll enjoy the stories to come as much I plan to enjoy writing them for you!

Best regards,
Dan McGirt

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Jason Cosmo HERO WANTED launches today!

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

Today is the day! The official launch date of Hero Wanted!

It is also — by design, not coincidence — the 20th anniversary of the release of my first book, Jason Cosmo. I was going to write a lengthy retrospective, but forget that. The future is now!

Thank you to all the Loyal Readers who have emailed and commented and otherwise contacted me over the years. Without your support, Hero Wanted would not have been published. This was a big project to both revise the text and handle the publishing aspects. I did it because so many Loyal Readers have been in touch to say they enjoyed my books and to ask when or if I would ever have another book out. Well, the answer to those question are “yes” and “today” and thanks for asking!

What next? Well, I’ve got two big tasks on my to-do list. One is to spread the word about Hero Wanted. I appreciate my Loyal Readers, but I don’t think there a quite enough of you! Getting Hero Wanted ready for publication was a bigger job than I expected. As a result I did not have time or mental bandwidth to do much advance promotion for the book. Ideally, you start getting the word out through reviews, media, guest blogging, etc. several months ahead of the release date. Faced with a choice of pushing back the release date so I could do more pre-launch promotion or doing what amounts to a soft launch, I decided to stick with the August release. ((My last book, Dirty Work, came out in January 1993. I think that is a long enough hiatus!))

Putting on my publisher hat for a moment, while the Jason Cosmo series is a labor of love, I do need to sell some books to keep it going. The good news is I don’t need to sell millions of copies. Not that I would mind that! But just a few thousand sales will be enough to get us to book two.

Every book counts — so I would appreciate your help in finding new Loyal Readers. Nothing is more valuable in getting readers to try a new author than a friend’s recommendation, so if you know someone who might enjoy Hero Wanted, please tell them about it.

You can also recommend the book on Facebook, Twitter, Myspace or other online spaces. (And please friend or follow me on any of the above!) Once you’ve read the book, you can also post a review on Amazon, Smashwords, or other retail sites if you care to. Rave reviews are welcome, but honest reviews are more important. ((I’ll post on this another time, but I’ve actually made notes for future revisions based on critical, but thoughtful reviews of my books. I’m under no illusion that my prose is flawless or my writing can’t be improved.))

That brings me to my second main task: getting Noble Cause ready for publication. Having learned much from the process of publishing Hero Wanted, I hope the next project will proceed more smoothly, but just to be safe I’m not going to announce a launch date until I’m sure I can meet it and get all the necessary advance work done.

Bottom line — I loved writing Hero Wanted and I hope you’ll enjoy reading it!

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

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Where to buy HERO WANTED by Dan McGirt

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

With the official launch date of August 1 coming up fast, listings for Hero Wanted are starting to appear with the various online booksellers.  As noted yesterday, first out of the gate — or at least the first I noticed — was BarnesandNoble.com. B&N is offering the book at a 10% discount, which seems to be the best U.S. price so far.

Today I also found listings at Amazon.com and Amazon UK.  Again, these are for pre-orders, because the book is not officially in stock yet. Here is what I have so far. If you find the book listed elsewhere please let me know or share the information with Loyal Readers here in the comments.

Barnes & Noble —   $13.49 if you are a B&N member.

Amazon.com —  $14.99

Outside US:

Amazon UK —  £10.99 (That’s full price, in pounds sterling)

Amazon Canada —   CDN$ 20.88 (But looks like that is through a reseller)

Amazon France —   €10.59 (An 11% discount!)  Yes, there is an Amazon France! It’s in French.

Amazon Germany — €19.99 If you’re paying in Euros, I’d order from France. German is charging above cover price?

Amazon Japan —  ￥ 1,778 That’s all I could decipher.  I don’t read Japanese.

I should note that Hero Wanted has not been translated into these other languages — this is the English language edition being offered at the various international Amazons.

As I learn of more outlets, I’ll let you know. In the meantime, you can still be the first to review Hero Wanted at any of the above sites! Just saying.

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

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Jason Cosmo HERO WANTED: On Sale Soon!

SPECIAL ALERT! UPDATE: Forget what I said below:  You can pre-order Hero Wanted at BarnesandNoble.com!

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

A quick update on the Trove Books print edition of Hero Wanted. I have received the first copy from the printer.  It looks good. It looks real good. Right now it is the only copy in existence, so I take it with me everywhere!

However, copy #1 will soon be joined by many more. I’ve ordered a couple of cases of books to bring with me to Dragon*Con 2009 — where I will be a guest, appearing September 5-7 in Atlanta.  If you haven’t got your copy of Hero Wanted by Labor Day weekend, come to Dragon*Con. I’ll have one with your name on it!

After you pay for it, of course.

As for regular sales channels, right now I’m waiting for data about Hero Wanted‘s availability to migrate out to booksellers. Until a book shows up in their computers, it doesn’t really exist, unfortunately.  I hope Hero Wanted will be included in the data stream by the beginning of August — at which point it will be available for purchase from Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and other online booksellers or through your local bricks-and-mortar bookstore.

Believe me — I’ll let you know as soon as that happens! Until then, keep watching the skies.

Best regards,

Dan McGirt