It is official. As of midnight last night you crazy Schlockers had pre-ordered just over one thousand copies of Under New Management. My last guesstimate, based on the orders that I saw flash by today: One thousand and sixty-something. Naturally I'm hugely grateful to all of you who have pre-ordered books. I'll let you in on a little secret: Sandra and I had reached the bottom of our financial reserves, and if the book didn't sell well, I was going to be looking for a day-job again come June. Now, however, the Tayler Corporation can afford to employ me through September. That gives me enough time, barely, to get another book finished. Hopefully you'll all be happy enough with this first one to sign up for the next, and I'll be in this business permanently. There's this point in one of the Zelda games where you use ice-arrows to cross hot lava. We feel like that right now. Sandra's job is to shoot ice arrows into the lava, creating patches we can run across. My job is to run across the patch and find pots that have ice-arrows in them. I'm not sure how many ice-arrows Under New Management has left, so once it has shipped, I will be running full tilt for The Blackness Between. Our goal is to have that book in your hands by November. (He says confidently, while none of you yet have the FIRST book in your hands.) I am grateful (hugely, as I said above) to all of you for your support and encouragement. Many of you have blogged about the book, and I expect that has helped. Here is a quick rundown: The Daily Illuminator Partially Clips Fleen Comixpedia The Evil Inc. "Inc Stain" Anarchic Teapot Herveus Rambles Seventeen feet of sunshine Greg's Journal Have Satellite Truck, Will Travel ...and then he turned the page... Cais de Gaia (in Portuguese) Jason Michl's Journal Perfect Duluth Day ZOYX Rats! In My Brain! The Flag of the World There is no Journal. Then there is. Whoa. Life is a Road The Sea Wasp Home on the Strange (Note: I'll be sharing a panel with The Ferret at Penguicon in two weeks) Chanilye (Note: She'd like a ride to Penguicon... from Toronto. Any takers?)
So there's a big shout to the bloggers and others who are getting the word out. Hopefully they'll be as enthusiastic once they've got the book in their hands.
