I have returned to the surface after weeks of total immersion in The Crimson Vault to make an announcement: House of Blades is now available in paperback!

You can order it on Amazon, just like the eBook, only it's not an eBook. It's made of paper and everything. If you see me in person, I'll sign it.

On another note, we've hit 11,000 sales for House of Blades (w00t!), and I am almost done with The Crimson Vault. If I keep up my current blistering pace, I'll be done writing it this weekend.

Of course, that still leaves it to be edited. But don't worry; I'll keep you apprised of my progress.

And that's it for today. I'm spending all of my time working on Crimson Vault, so I'm sorry if I haven't responded to your comment or email. I promise I will get to it eventually, it's just that somebody around here promised a book in two months, which means I have to work like a madman.

As always, thanks for reading!

Hey, I'm back!

Also, while I was gone, we crossed the 8,000 sales threshold! Woo-hoo! At this rate, we'll hit 9,001 copies sold in less than a week, and then I can make an OVER NINE THOUSAND joke. My sickly heart craves outdated memes.

At this point, I estimate that I'm about 1/3 of the way done with The Crimson Vault, and I'm still working like a fiend trying to get it out for August 10th. I really want that to happen, because August 11th is my birthday, and then I can spend my birthday doing everyone's favorite post-book-launch birthday activity: sleeping. And, ideally, playing Cube World. Simultaneously.

Now that I have returned to the civilized world of Wi-Fi and 4G phone service, I will be investing my precious writing time into responding to your comments and emails. Look forward to my correspondence, friends and allies!

As always, thanks for your support! I channel your positive energy and feast upon it, swelling my writerly powers. Soon I will shed my mortal shell like a chrysalis, and ascend to a higher plane of existence.

No? Too weird? All right, I'll take it down a notch.

Here's a similar question to last week's: what was the most recent movie you've seen that was surprisingly good? I liked the Lone Ranger reboot (not counting the Tonto/Little Kid frame story, which needed to be edited out), which surprised me, because I expected it to suck.

Anyway, how about you?

As we speak, I'm sitting cross-legged on a desolate mountain peak, doing nothing but meditating and writing The Crimson Vault.

Parts of the above statement may or may not be true.

I am, in fact, on a trip to the mountains, and I am working diligently on Book 2. I have the first few chapters done, and over the next few weeks I expect to finish a big chunk of this draft. I'm well on my way to having the book out in August.

Plus, the cover is approaching completion. I'm excited about that. The two awesome and talented graphic designers I hired (Chelsey and Caitlin Bateson, available at www.designosaurus.ca) are hard at work on the second cover, and yesterday they delivered their rough version.

It's like someone squeezing lemon juice in your eye, only instead of lemon juice, it's pure awesome-juice. I am the king of analogies.

Anyway, I am in the mountains for the next two weeks, so I won't be as punctual when replying to your comments and/or email. Don't worry; when I return, I will do my best to respond to each of you.

Now, my question for you: what was the last incredible fantasy novel you read on your Kindle (not counting House of Blades)? I finished I, Minion by Lewis Dix a few days ago, because he commented on this blog, but it was a great read. So is Nyx by D.M. Livingston, a fantasy novel that was free on Kindle yesterday (and may still be today, I don't know).

Anyway, I want to know what you've read that's good. So let me know in the comments!