Cool photo

Jeff Draper sends this from Africa, where he is hunting pirates with the Marines.

Back from obscurity

I'm back! Work has been impossible the last few months, but no more!

As a peace offering, here is some thing that hits waaay to close to home:

Nerd rage is an impotent, cushion punching thing, and there are rare people who behave in person exactly how they behave in Warcraft -- barking clumsy insults, standing in something that's killing them and blaming Blizzard for everything. You see, for every minor change the developers make to a gameplay mechanic, there's a guy sitting at home who knows they did it to destroy him. BlizzCon is their chance for payback. They ask fussy, nitpicky questions as if they're issuing a mortal challenge. As you can imagine, it's as crowd-pleasing as leaping off your prayer mat and calling Allah a pussy. What's exciting for everybody is that there's a solid chance these people will have to be forcibly dragged from the microphone by security. And when you're arrested for disagreements over Warcraft, that has got to be Christmas for the other inmates.

Now, I don't play WoW, but I certainly recognize the type.
More here:

Read more: http://www.cracked.com/blog/8-questions-every-wow-fan-apparently-needs-answered/#ixzz13lCQuXAH


http://www.cracked.com/blog/8-questions-every-wow-fan-apparently-needs-answered/

It's time for Clarion West once again and the Clarion Write-a-thon!




Help Michael help other writers!


This year Michael Ehart is once again participating the in Clarion West write-a-thon. Every summer during the Workshop, alumni, instructors, and friends of Clarion West participate in our Write-a-thon and help us raise money. Participants collect donations to Clarion West for achieving their personal writing goals during the six weeks of the Write-a-thon. Each year our Write-a-thon has grown more and more successful, both in terms of words written and money raised.

Like last year, Michael will be writing in collaboration with Nisi Shawl, this year on a story of Somali pirates!

If you would like to sponser Michael, please click here: http://clarionwest.org/events/writeathon/MichaelEhart

Any help you can give is greatly appreciated.

A Very Nice Review Of Tears

on SFReader, by Mary Rosenblum: http://forums.sfreader.com/content.php/181-The-Tears-of-Ishtar-by-Michael-Ehart

...Ehart creates such a rich character in Ninshi and makes her tragedy so accessible and so real, setting it in a vivid world that should make an historian happy, that the story moves easily beyond the cliché to become a real story about real love and loss, guilt and redemption that also happens to be a dynamite sword and sorcery fantasy.

Launch Party Today!

The launch party for my new book, The Tears Of Ishtar is today! Presidential Suite, Norwescon, 6-8 PM.

Fun!

Getting ready for the launch party

A booze sampler. Custom labels courtesy Kelly Christianson.

I've Been nominated!

Opened my email and what do I find?

Dear finalists,

I am pleased to announce that a short story you either wrote or published has been chosen as a finalist for The Harper's Pen Award 2009.

The Harper's Pen Award (formerly the Ham-Sized Fist Award) is given in honor of the best Heroic Fantasy or Sword and Sorcery short fiction published during a given year. The award is sponsored by The Sorcerer's Guild. By establishing this award, we hope to encourage authors to continue to explore heroic fantasy and sword and sorcery fiction, as well as to reward those who continue to publish it.

The rules are simple. Any heroic fantasy or sword and sorcery short fiction story published through an established editorial process - that is, not self-published - is eligible. Any subgenre of heroic fantasy or sword and sorcery is eligible, including but not limited to: historical, modern, sword-and-planet, etc. The nominated story must have been published between January 1 and December 31 of the contest year. Final determinination of story eligibility is at the sole discretion of the judge or judges.

The Finalists for 2009 are:
"Slow Stampede" by Sara Genge (Asimov's)
"Where Virtue Lives" by Saladin Ahmed (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
"The Face in the Sea" by John C. Hocking (Black Gate #13)
"Tomb of the Amazon Queen" by Michael Ehart (Dark Worlds 3)
"Bright Wings in the Ebony Hall" by Dale Carothers (Electric Spec)
"The Last of His Kind" by Bill Ward (Heroic Fantasy Quarterly)
"Serpents Beneath the Ice" by Carl Walmsley (Rage of the Behemoth)
"The Dark Blessing" by James Lecky (Silver Blade)
Congratulations to the finalists! I will announce the winner in a week or so.

The winner of the The Harper's Pen Award (2009) will receive:


Publisher - $200 and a handsome certificate of recognition
Author - $200, a handsome certificate, and this handmade pen by Syzygy Pens, engraved in recognition of the award
I have been unable to find contact information for some of the authors, so please pass this news along them. And feel free to share with everyone!

Sincerely,

Jeff Crook

Best of luck to all! I am certainly in good company.

The official launch date

is April 2nd.
Buy very many books, please.

Okay, not so great in just text, but...

An ancient evil... an immortal warrior.



From the sands and cities of the ancient middle-east comes an epic story of bloodshed, love and betrayal. Award-winning fantasy author Michael Ehart spins a tale that echoes with the blood and thunder of the golden age.



Bound by an ancient curse, serving her master in bitter unwillingness, the Servant of the Manthycore must lure the greedy, the unsuspecting and the unwary into the desert to feed the insatiable beast to whom she is bound. Centuries of combat and murder have made her a swordswoman whispered of in the marketplaces, feared in the back-alleys and sung about by the campfires of the caravans. The passing centuries of betrayal and death have stolen her humanity and even her name, leaving only a glimmer of who she once was. Her only hope is to someday meet a greater warrior than she, and so be freed.



Striding across the background of civilization in its youth, in the time of the first great heroes and the cities they built, she becomes more than a woman, and as her legend grows so does her determination to someday be free of the great beast who she serves. Goddesses, bandits, soldiers and kings fall beneath her sword as she fights her way to discover a path to freedom.


Ancient Tomes Press is pleased to announce the release of fantasy author, Michael Ehart's new sword & sorcery epic, The Tears of Ishtar.

Michael Ehart has been at various times all the expected
things: laborer, seminary student, musician, shoe salesman,
political consultant, teacher, diaper truck driver, stand-up
comedian, and the least important guy with an office at a
movie studio. He currently works as a computer security
systems engineer. He made his first sale to a magazine at
age 15, which means he has been writing for nearly 40
years, with the aforementioned occasional breaks for gainful
employment.

Several of the short stories that make up a portion of The
Tears of Ishtar have been nominated for various awards,
including the Million Writers Award and top ten finishes
in the 2007 and 2008 Preditors and Editors poll.

Come with us now as we journey with Ninshi in her quest to free the person dearest to her heart from the great and terrible beast that holds him in thralled - the Manthycore! Will she succeed? Will she survive? Only time will tell if love will triumph over evil!



Read a free preview. Click here.


Special offer on The Tears of Ishtar!

Available only through this special newsletter! The Tears of Ishtar retails for $16.95 plus shipping, but for readers of this newsletter we have a special treat! Don't wait, grab your copy today!


Special Price: $ 12.00
List Price: $ 16.95
S & H: $ 7.50


Click here to grab your copy today!


Quick Links
Cyberwizard Productions
Ancient Tomes Press
Altered Dimensions Press
Banana Oil Books
Chaco Canyon Books
Diminuendo Press
Cyberaliens Press
Fireside Mysteries
Toy Box Books
Wild Plains Press
Abandoned Towers Magazine
Cyberwizard Productions Editorial Service

Robert B. Parker

"Robert B. Parker, who is largely responsible for the rejuvenation in the 1970s of the hard-boiled genre of crime fiction, died today at his desk at his Cambridge, Mass., home, it was reported. He was 77 years old."

If there ever was a great writer in the tradition of Chandler, this man was it. His writing grew stronger and more spare as the years went by. I seldom remember to list him as an influence when asked, but I read every one of his books and learned something about writing from each. The strength of his narrative voice became the equal of a Heinlein or a Hemingway.

So I'll be tipping out a drop of Maker's Mark tonight for the maestro, and saying farewell to my old friends Spenser, Hawk and Jesse Stone. He wrote far ahead of his publication schedule, so it will be awhile before we see the final books. Something to look forward to and slowly savor, knowing that these will be the last bottles of this fine vintage.

New launch date!

We will be launching The Tears of Ishtar at NorWesCon the weekend of April 1-4 --more as I get details.

Cool stuff popping up on the web, including these cool thingies from my publisher:
http://www.zazzle.com/michal+ehart+gifts