Heading to Salem

I taught The Crucible by Arthur Miller for many years as an English teacher—so did my bride, Kimberly—and it would not surprise me to learn that many of you were assigned it in high school. Heck, it was such a favorite of Kimberly’s students that they called her Goody Hearne. So I’ve always kind of wanted to go to Salem because I’m already familiar with some of the original history and so very many stories have been inspired by events there. So I’m going! In July! Wanna meet me there?

Just north of Salem—a couple of miles away?—is the city of Beverly. And in that city is a spiffy indie bookstore called Copper Dog Books. They are hosting me on July 23 at 3 pm—a bit unusual, time-wise, which is why I recommend you make a day of it. That’s what I’m doing. I’m gonna be a Salem tourist in the morning, visiting museums and such, then go to Copper Dog, and after that, I’d love to hang out and grab a bite at some local place nearby—The Indo looks like it might serve if it’s just a few people, a nice Irish pub a couple of blocks away, and if there are more folks, then we should probably go another couple of blocks to The Pickled Onion.

This is all for the paperback release of A Curse of Krakens, which comes out on July 23, and which I know many of you have been waiting for. I’ll be signing that and of course anything else you’d like me to sign while I’m there, and this goes for folks who can’t be there in person too! I won’t be doing a full tour—this one appearance is the whole shebang—so if you want a signed copy, you can get it from Copper Dog! In fact, you should smoosh this preorder link right now, support that small business and get you a signed copy for your collection!

In the checkout process you’ll see a bit called Order Comments, and that’s where you say “signed please” or “signed and dated” or “make it out to My Precious Snugglemuffin, Sarah” or however you’d like me to personalize it.* I’ll sign it for you on the 23rd and Copper Dog will ship it to you wherever you are! And obviously this will apply to anything else you order—you can order individual books or full set of the Seven Kennings or the Iron Druid Chronicles, or even the Tales of Pell, and I’ll sign them as you wish.

*If by wild chance there is a subscriber named Sarah who is known by her partner as My Precious Snugglemuffin, then this is a case where any resemblance to real people is entirely coincidental and I seriously did not know that, but congratulations on having a partner who truly loves you.

If you’re coming to see me—yay!—please buy something from Copper Dog to support them, but you’re welcome to bring books from home too. I have no limits on what I’ll sign.

AND: I’ll be in conversation with another author to be announced soon. Very much looking forward to seeing you if you can make it, and signing something for you to be shipped if you can’t. I’ll note that this is the perfect time to dive into the Seven Kennings if you haven’t yet: It’s a trilogy that’s designed to be binge-read (or listened to), and I’m turbo grateful to y’all who have already read it and spread the word.

And now: Bunnies

Since my backyard is a bit of a meadow with no chemicals thrown down, we often get bunny rabbits stopping by to munch on some clover, and this year we even have baby bunnies! They’re so cute! If you have consumed any news or social media today you probably need a shot of cute right now, so here you go.

The Hermit Approaches

Next month—egad!—my new sci-fi novella, THE HERMIT NEXT DOOR, comes out on June 30. Early readers are digging it—I have screenshotted a couple of reviews from NetGalley, and saw many more from librarians, which made me happy.

You can preorder a signed and numbered limited edition print copy of THE HERMIT NEXT DOOR directly from the publisher, Subterranean Press. There’s an excerpt you can check out on their site, which starts out sad as the reviewer above noted because Winne Mae and Pax are running from their grief. But once they meet the hermit, things get wild pretty quickly. Ebook and audio will be available too, but snag your print copy now if you’re a print person!

What I’m Reading

Actually, this is what I recently read. Picked it up while browsing a bookstore and I'm so glad I did.

Murder Your Employer: McMasters Guide to Homicide

This upends the murder mystery format because we are kept in the dark about how the protagonists will pull off a perfect murder of their employers. I stayed up late to finish this because I couldn’t wait to see what they were going to do—yes, there were three of them, pursuing hits on their very bad employers. Enjoyed it very much and I highly recommend.

Murder Your Employer