Dan McGirt

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Caladon Falls

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

The Caladon Falls campaign setting from Savage Mojo is on sale now — 10% off — at their store. Caladon Falls is an exciting campaign that will take beginning characters from novice to world-class heroes of legend–if they survive!  I contributed a few prose mini-scenes sprinkled through the text.  I’ll add some excerpts over the next few days.

Caladon Falls from Savage Mojo

Caladon Falls

For now, here is the teaser text:

They came out of nowhere and started ripping the world apart, one city at a time. Using power on a scale never before seen, Warlocks wielding the magic of the Wild have a mission: raise armies and annihilate the entire continent of Austeria. Set in the fantasy realm of Relic, this book looks at warfare through the eyes of common soldiers – soldiers whose side is losing the war.

Take the challenge. Roleplay in a fantasy world without cute pointy-eared elves, where the dwarves aren’t cookie-cutter copies of Tolkein’s stout, bearded mountain folk. Focus on a daily life and death struggle where the enemy is cruel, powerful, and around every corner. Take the challenge. Let your adventurers become…

…mankind’s only hope.

Check it out!

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

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Sarah Palin: Vampire Hunter at Amazon Kindle Store NOW!

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

Sarah Palin: Vampire Hunter is now for sale in the Amazon Kindle Store.  As I write this, you can still be the very first person to buy it. Remember, this ebook includes:

  • Sarah Palin: Vampire Hunter (Twinkle): a novella-length sendup of Palin, pop culture, and sparkly vampires.
  • Beginner’s Luck: a short story serial killer comedy
  • The first six chapters of Hero Wanted: (for those who haven’t read the book yet)
  • Rainy Daze: a Jason Cosmo mini-novel set between chapters of Hero Wanted.

All for $2.99. Enjoy!

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

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Sarah Palin: Vampire Hunter meets Jason Cosmo!

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

By now you’ve seen the new cover art for Sarah Palin: Vampire Hunter, as imagined by Brian Denham. The new cover is already gracing the SPVH ebook at Smashwords.  I will also soon launch a Kindle version in the Amazon Kindle Store. But that’s not all! Jason Cosmo is coming along for the ride. (And so is the Hatchet Man)

Sarah Palin: Vampire Hunter

Sarah Palin: Vampire Hunter

As fun a story as SPVH is, I thought I should give Loyal Readers more bang for the buck. So I added three bonus stories to the Kindle ebook: the comedic horror short story Beginner’s Luck, the first six chapters of Hero Wanted, and the Jason Cosmo mini-novel Rainy Daze. All together, for the first time ever, in one ebook! It would cost about $8.00 to buy these ebooks separately, but I’m rolling them all into one for only $2.99.

This edition will be available (for now, at least) only at Amazon. It isn’t on sale yet because Amazon is still processing the file, but I wanted to give you a heads up and I will be sure to let you know when it goes live.

Stay tuned!

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

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Dan McGirt on The Dramapod October 30, 2010

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

This Halloween I will be heard again on The Dramapod for their “Terrifying Tales Told Around the Campfire” Halloween special. It debuts October 30. But the The Drama Pod is based in Australia. The International Date Line always confuses me, but I think that means Western Hemisphere listeners will be able to hear it October 29.

The show will include dramatic readings of classic tales of terror from Edgar Allan Poe and H.P.  Lovecraft, as well as original new works (possibly including my serial killer comedy Beginner’s Luck). Other special guests include John Bell from Bell’s In The Batfry and Julie Hoverson from 19 Nocturne Boulevard.

Please tune in! But leave the lights on!

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

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Jason Cosmo Non-Trilogy Ebooks

[UPDATE  10/24/10:  All three Non-Trilogy titles are now available at Smashwords:  Jason Cosmo, Royal Chaos, Dirty Work]

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

Several Loyal Readers have expressed interest in reading the original Jason Cosmo novels — aka the Non-Trilogy — as e-books.  Your wish is my command!  I recently had the paperback editions of Jason Cosmo (1989), Royal Chaos (1990) and Dirty Work (1993) scanned by the good folks at Blue Leaf Book Scanning since I lacked electronic versions of the final as-published texts. I’ve begun the process of cleaning up the files and hope to have all three titles available as ebooks in the near future.

This undertaking is separate from my relaunch of the series, which began with Hero Wanted and will continue with Noble Cause. I realize reissuing the original versions while also publishing new versions may confuse some people, but I don’t think that is any reason to not make the original versions available for those Loyal Readers who are interested.

I am only editing Jason Cosmo, Royal Chaos, and Dirty Work for typos, spelling, and formatting errors that showed up in the published versions. I am not otherwise changing the text. So, for instance, the Jason Cosmo ebook will not include the revisions and extra scenes and chapters included in the Hero Wanted.  If you’ve read Hero Wanted, there would be no particular reason to read Jason Cosmo — unless you’re interested in seeing what the first version was like.

Anyway, that is the plan. I’m happy to take questions.

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

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Jason Cosmo: Hero Wanted Kindle Edition

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

Hero Wanted is now available in the Amazon Kindle Store, both US and UK.

The book is the same — the Hero Wanted ebook has been available at Smashwords since July 2009 — but it does have a crisp new look thanks to some custom formatting by ebookarchitects.  (Look for the wanted poster!) I hope Loyal Readers who are also Kindle owners will enjoy the newly formatted version.

In 2009 I released the Hero Wanted ebook free at Smashwords and kept it at free for one full year. As of today, more than 8600 people have downloaded Hero Wanted. ((Or perhaps one person has downloaded it 8600 times. That is always possible.))

More than 12,900 Loyal Readers downloaded the (no longer) free ebook at Barnes & Noble. Others grabbed it at Kobo.  or got one of the the *ahem!* many bootleg copies that seem to be available on file-sharing sites.

Hero Wanted is also available at the Apple iBookstore and via the Stanza ereader app for your iPhone. And probably a few other sources I can’t recall.

Whatever your preferred ebook flavor I should have you covered!

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

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Dan McGirt World Audiodrama Debut at The Drama Pod

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

Today I am pleased — and more than a bit terrified — to announce the Dan McGirt world audiodrama acting debut in an episode of Off the Cuff produced by The Drama Pod.

Loyal Reader Tim Heffernan and the gang at The Drama Pod, based in Australia, have dedicated themselves to “the resurrection of radio drama.” I know what you’re thinking — wouldn’t they need to resurrect radio first? As it turns out, no — thanks to the magic of the Internet, which functions like a super radio tower with a broadcast range of infinity, you can hear their radio drama without a radio!

The Drama Pod have produced quite a few clever and entertaining audiodramas you can hear at their website or download to your mp3 player — all for free!  Most are fairly short listens — perfect for your commute. My personal favorites so far are The List and The Game Show (which you should listen to in that order).

One of their ongoing shows is Off the Cuff, in which unsuspecting guests are asked to star in a production without the benefit of a script — instead making up your lines as you go along. At the risk of permanent damage to The Drama Pod’s sterling record of success, Tim recently invited me to be a guest victim star on OTC. Thanks to Tim and the rest of the talented cast (or should I say, the talented rest of the cast) I had great fun recording my show. (I even got my own theme song out of it!) I hope you’ll enjoy it too.

You can hear the results for yourself at The Drama Pod — and let me know if I should stick to the writing!

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

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Jason Cosmo: Noble Cause Cover Story

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

The cover for Jason Cosmo: Noble Cause is here at last. The gorgeously absurd and absurdly gorgeous illustration, once again, is by award-winning artist Richard Hescox, with cover design by Kris Tobiassen. They did a great job! I’ll let the picture speak for itself. You’ll have to read the book to get the full story, but what you see depicted here is our hero Jason Cosmo and the lovely twins Sapphrina and Rubis. And a very large bear.

Noble Cause (2010) by Dan McGirt

Noble Cause (2010)

Alas, we had to trim the picture a little to fit the dimensions of a book cover.

Since I don’t want Richard Hescox’s great work to go to waste, here is a peek at the full image before it was edited for the book cover:

Cover art for Jason Cosmo: Noble Cause by Richard Hescox

Jason Cosmo: Noble Cause Copyright 2010 Richard Hescox

I hope you enjoy this cover as much as I do.  Stay tuned for Noble Cause!

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

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Hero Wanted ebook, soon no longer a free book

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

On July 18, 2009, I uploaded the Jason Cosmo: HERO WANTED to Smashwords as a free ebook. My initial intention was to offer the ebook as a free download only until the HERO WANTED print edition was released in August 2009. The goal was twofold:

  • A thank you to long-suffering, infinitely patient Loyal Readers who had been waiting for another Jason Cosmo adventure since 1993
  • Make it easy and painless for potential new readers to try Jason Cosmo.

For many and various reasons, I delayed charging for the HERO WANTED ebook. But the time is soon approaching when the free ride will end, as all good things must. Specifically, I’ll be adding a price tag on July 18, 2010, the one-year anniversary of the ebook release.

What does this mean for you, Loyal Reader? It means if you haven’t downloaded the free HERO WANTED ebook, what are you waiting for? You’ve had a whole year and now you’ve got one week left to get it for free!

(As for why I’m suddenly going to start charging for the ebook, the less said the better, but it involves a slight misunderstanding with the Russian mob and an unpleasant chap named Bruno. I really don’t want to talk about it.)

This does not mean I won’t be offering other fiction for free in the future–I definitely will be. In fact, I’ve got several free stories available right now:

And you can sample the first two chapters of the forthcoming Jason Cosmo sequel, NOBLE CAUSE here on JasonCosmo.com.

But if you haven’t yet grabbed the HERO WANTED ebook, do it now!

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

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Jason Cosmo: Noble Cause Progress Report

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

A quick progress report on the next Jason Cosmo title, Noble Cause.  I am still banging away at the manuscript. Ace artist Richard Hescox is sketching ideas for the cover that I hope to see soon. I expect he’ll finish painting the cover by end of June.  Shortly thereafter, I’ll debut the cover here at the Jason Cosmo Update. In the meantime, the text will go through editing.  I haven’t set a release date yet.  August would be the very soonest, but it may be later, depending how the pieces come together.

I also have on my to-do list recording a “bookcast” audio version of Hero Wanted. I hope to get in the studio soon for that!

Yes, as usual, I’m making it all up as I go along!

Best regards,

Dan McGirt