...also did a fantastic interview with me, which is now up for your perusal. I thoroughly enjoyed doing this one. Go have a look.

Off to get ready for the event in question - anyone in the immediate vicinity who might be reading this please DO drop in, a friendly face in the audience is always appreciated - everyone else, the voice is teetering a little, balancing on the edge of being OK but still prone to attacks of the coughies if I take a breath wrong. I'll take a bag full of cough drops with me, and hopefully they will last at least until the reading part of the evening is over. Think good thoughts.

UPDATE
Back.

Had some 14 - 16 people there, including mareklamo and a lovely older couple who bought copies of both books for their grand-daughter's birthday and a smattering of teenagers with parental or other guardianship-type adult units in tow, all of whom meandered up to get books signed which is all to the good because this is my word of mouth machinery gearing up. One young lady who came up to tell me that she read book 1 in the library and very very much wanted to buy book 2 actually ran off to where someone holding purse strings was, in a restaurant across the street, and came back to snaffle up a copy of "Spellspam". All very cool.

The voice held out - just. The Village Books people are awesome, they took one look at their genteelly coughing guest speaker and a large mug of steaming peppermint tea sweetened with honey was waiting for me at the podium when I started the reading. These are good people, I'm lucky to have a really good indie bookshop like this in my back yard.

Anyway. I suppose I can't talk at all tomorrow, trying to preserve the voice for Idaho on Friday and Saturday. But so far, so good. I can do this.

Sure, it's brand new and theres a limited amount of stuff on it - but I intend to nurture this particular flower and let's see what comes of it. It is yet another blog opportunity which will be visited peripatetically.

You may go for a look-see here - and please note that I am in some fairly distinguished company here... (feel free to pass on the link to any interested parties...)

New blog review of "Gift of the Unmage" here

The money quote:
Fantasy fans will definitely enjoy this amazing novel. Many will recognize themselves in Thea. I know I recognized this underachieving teen whose parents expected worlds of greatness from her. If you’re looking for a fresh breath in the fantasy world, check out Worldweavers: Gift of the Unmage by Alma Alexander in your local library or on Amazon.com today.

miladyinsanity has one with me here.

Enjoy!

"Hot off the presses", it says on a little card clipped to the dustjacket.

The first copy of the new book. "Gift of the Unmage" is ALIVE, and about to step out into the world.

Yes, book 2 is in editing right now (and man, there's nothing that makes a book feel more real than getting a MS full of scribbles and post-its and editorial edicts to go forth and FIX...) and book 3 is in the process of being created - the entire trilogy is in a dynamic mode right now, and the whole thing is a living breathing go-getting entity... but so far the actual BOOK, the volume that will grace bookshelves, that has not yet been a reality. Now it is. I am holding it in my hands.

Man,this just never gets old. NEVER. The wonderful shape and texture and smell of that new book. A story born of your own mind and heart and hand and spirit.

It just never gets old.

Look for it in bookstores soon, now. REAL soon. It will be there any moment.

I know.

I've seen it.

Well, what can I say? I have some thoroughly nice neighbours, and what's even better many of them I can call friends and professional colleagues, too. Accomplished authors like Louise Marley (who gave me one of my nicest blurbs for "Secrets of Jin Shei"), Jennifer Fallon (who gave me a blurb for "Hidden Queen"/"Changer of Days" books), Judith Tarr, Robin Hobb, Glenda Larke. And then, the other authors, the ones with whom my acquaintance is either very passing or non-existent but whom I've read and admired from afar for years - Guy Gavriel Kay, Charles de Lint, Amy Tan, Gail Tsukiyama, TOLKIEN ferchrissakes *grin*.

I'm extremely pleased at the company I'm keeping...

Once upon a time there was only one incarnation of "The Secrets of Jin Shei" on Amazon.com - the very beautiful hardcover edition with that incredibly evocative cover - this one:



Then came the paperback



Then the hardcover went out of print, and there were THREE variants on Amazon (this is all in the US, of course... for those of you reading this in the Antipodes, the covers must look... unfamiliar...). The original hardcover, the paperback, and the "Bargain" hardcover which was the remainders of the hardcover edition.

Today for the first time the original hardcover is permanently gone. It had a good run, for a hardcover novel - it was published almost precisely 2 years ago (two full years on April 27)and it was a beautiful, beautiful book.

But it is gone now.

Its current Amazon incarnation, let me gently remind potential customers, is the remainders... on which the author gets no royalties..BUT. There's more.

I made an offer on this journal a while back - if anyone wanted a signed first-edition hardcover, they could contact me directly. I still have several copies of that book, and for those of you going to Wiscon, there will be a couple of copies of it for sale at the Broad Universe book table where I will be on Sunday morning after my AM panel. If you are going to be there, come and say hi - and perhaps you can still pick up a hardcover at a special convention price. Otherwise, look for the nice shiny paperback in the stores.