If you live in New York, you're aware of how crap is the weather. Well, this is a good day on Earth, in Disintegration. This is just shy of beautiful: gray skies, no direct sunlight, constant spittle raining down. Heavenly.

And then there comes the day. The day when the sun shines and you see something beautiful.

Here it is. The official front cover of Asteroid Made of Dragons. The entire team at Inkshares and Girl Friday Production and our designer David Drummond really knocked it out of the park. Tom and Veronica from Sword & Laser were also instrumental in guiding the style of this and I can't thank them enough. If it weren't for all these skilled, talented, kind people - the cover would have probably come out looking something more like this:

How do I feel?

Proud and terrified. This cover is marketable and slick and makes me feel very, very grown up. Also it kind of looks like a Beholder.

I wanted you guys to be the first to see - as you're the ones that made it happen. I'll do an 'official' reveal on my site in the next day or so, but for now GAZE DEEPLY INTO THE ABYSS.

Uhhh...spoilers, I guess?

I'm poking and prodding the Inkshares site with new text and layout - please give it a look and let me know what you think! Same goes for my personal site - Spell-sword.com. I'm hoping to be able to show you the fancy-schmancy new cover in the next few days - and with that will come new people curious about the book. This goes along with my Pan-Social Platform Clean-Up Regimen -- time to hide all that moogle fanfiction, I suppose. Please let me know what you think will help other people get interested in AMOD - as I finish up the copy edits in the next few weeks, I need to refocus my attention to the Marketing Cannon. Oh, how it gleams...

I haven't said this explicitly in a while - but thank you. This has been an exciting week - in between stresses of Dev Edits and the oncoming Copy Edits - working on the final cover, starting to lay down early work on the marketing strategy - I feel like a BIG BOY WRITER. And it's all thanks to you.  So thanks, you weirdos.

Fans of Blood Dawn, now you can read a FREE short story prelude to the novel, available on NoiseTrade. Click the cover to find out more:

ONE WHO WAITS is the story of Al'a Solaris, a boy who will die at his father's hands unless he can master a forbidden magic. Originally published in the Tantalizing Tidbits anthology, the story is set twenty years before the events of Blood Dawn, when Azzadul was still alive and consumed by the insidious Curse that darkened his empire.

Not only is the story set in the same world, it explores events which are the foundation for the plot of Blood Dawn -- in fact it's so critical to the story that I've thought of it as a prologue of sorts. However, it also stands alone as a short story and for this reason I've decided to make it something free and separate, optional reading for those who want to appreciate a deeper layer to the narrative of Blood Dawn.

Again, here's the link to where you can read it:

http://books.noisetrade.com/johnrobinrt/one-who-waits

If you enjoy what you read, consider leaving me a tip. I spend lots of time in coffee shops to write these things, so I promise all tip money will go directly toward story-generating fuel, aka my weekly French press of Komodo Dragon coffee (upon which many a great scene in Blood Dawn has been built).

Before I go, I want to say a quick word about the cover for ONE WHO WAITS. This is the brilliant work of John Anderson, whose art you are going to see a whole lot more of. But that's a future reader update (more than one).

Expect surprises ahead this next month, and some great creative opportunities for all backers of Blood Dawn.

A call to all DRAGONS, and those waiting to become DRAGONS. I have something new to offer!

Those not familiar, a DRAGON is a reader who pre-orders 7 copies -- 1 for themselves, and 6 for friends who love epic fantasy. DRAGONS get a t-shirt with the Blood Dawn dragon emblem by author and artist AC Weston, as well as a special Dragon name which I add to my world mythology.

I'm on the lookout for more DRAGONS, because backers who buy 7 copies can help get Blood Dawn in the hands of new readers who were not part of the funding campaign.

If you really believe in this project and want to help, consider being a DRAGON backer and help to spread the word about Blood Dawn after it's publication so that we can continue to get the word out to new readers. Here's a link that will let you become a DRAGON right now: https://www.inkshares.com/projects/blood-dawn/orders/card?amount=69.93&quantity=7

Here is something new I will give to 4 lucky DRAGONS:

Those are high-quality laser-etched business card holders, featuring the Blood Dawn dragon emblem made by author AC Weston. I will be giving these out to 4 randomly chosen DRAGONS once Blood Dawn hits 1,000 pre-orders. These are the handiwork of an innovative company called Polar Grinders (although they now specialize in metal herb grinders, I was fortunate to get the last of their business card holders).

Have I convinced you to become a DRAGON yet? Again, here's a link where you can become a DRAGON right now: https://www.inkshares.com/projects/blood-dawn/orders/card?amount=69.93&quantity=7

Regardless of how you show support for this project, please if you haven't backed Blood Dawn yet, go and do so now:

• Buy 1 copy (SUN PRIEST): https://www.inkshares.com/projects/blood-dawn/orders/card?amount=9.99

• Buy 3 copies (GOD-KING): https://www.inkshares.com/projects/blood-dawn/orders/card?amount=29.97&quantity=3

• Buy 7 copies (DRAGON -- *THE BEST!*):
  https://www.inkshares.com/projects/blood-dawn/orders/card?amount=69.93&quantity=7

Thanks for your support!

John Robin