I am pleased to report that The Unwelcome Warlock: A Legend of Ethshar is now available on paper, as well as in e-book form.

I have now mailed off all the donor copies — some of them twice, as I screwed up the postage on the first batch and they came back. (Only one where I know the postage was wrong hasn’t come back — yet.) The last of them went into the mail Friday afternoon around 3:00. I left the foreign orders until last, since they required these annoying little customs forms, but they’re all on the way now. Copies were mailed to a dozen countries.

I was not as careful as I probably should have been about making sure that everyone who requested a signed copy got one. If you wanted an autograph and didn’t get one, I apologize. If it’s really bugging you, e-mail me and I’ll see about sending a bookplate or something.

So that’s three Ethshar serials (and one non-Ethshar one) done. Next up is probably (no promises) going to be The Sorcerer’s Widow, which may come out only novella length rather than a full novel. I’m therefore planning (if it is that story) to cut the donor cost for a paper copy by five bucks. I’m also hoping to work out the logistics for an e-book option for donors. And I’m currently thinking it should start some time in April. (I have three chapters written so far; I like to start with a backlog of at least four.)

Thanks for your support!

Ta da! The Unwelcome Warlock is finally out. The paper edition is now available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

If you donated to the serial, you should have already received an e-mail about this — basically, the donor copies are on their way, and I’ve been promised they’ll be here by Valentine’s Day. (I’m too cheap to pay for express shipping, I’m afraid.) If you’re a donor but did not get the e-mail, please e-mail me as soon as possible to verify your donation and address.

Wildside has three more titles of mine in the works.

The next serial will start no earlier than March 15, and no later than December 15th, but I haven’t yet decided which story it will be, or where in that range it’ll launch.

I am pleased to report that the e-book edition of The Unwelcome Warlock is now available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

The regular paper edition was still scheduled for April, last I heard. Donor copies should be out before that.

Yes, it’s taking forever to get the donor copies of The Unwelcome Warlock out. I apologize. I can report some definite progress now, though — I’ve seen and approved the cover art and the final page proofs, so the book should be going to press Tuesday or so. It’ll still take time to print, pack and ship the books, so I won’t be mailing them all that soon, but the ball’s rolling.

As for other Ethshar projects, let’s see…

Tales of Ethshar, collecting all the short Ethshar fiction, is under contract and Wildside has paid me the advance, but I don’t have a publication date.

More or less the same is true for Ithanalin’s Restoration — Tor has relinquished all rights, it’s under contract to Wildside for a new edition in both trade paperback and e-book form, I’ve been paid, but I don’t have a pub date.

I’ve promised to start another Ethshar serial this year — that is, no later than December 31, 2012 — but there’s no definite date, and I’m not entirely sure which story it will be. Probably The Sorcerer’s Widow. Which, incidentally, will probably be quite short.

I’ve previously mentioned Azraya of Ethshar and Ishta’s Playmate as other possibilities, and they’re still on the list, but I’ve also begun working up a very large, complicated project with the working title “Big Fat Ethshar Novel” that combines several of the projects on my “planned stories” list. That may be too ambitious for this year, though.

I think that’s everything, really. Oh, except to brag that my daughter’s doing a webcomic — it’s called Misguided Light.

Things are not moving as quickly as I would like.

The trade edition of The Unwelcome Warlock is now scheduled for April 2012. The e-book should be out somewhat sooner.

The advance edition for donors — well, I don’t have a date (it won’t be in October), but it should be well before April. I’m sorry it’s taking so long. Wildside’s move to a new office seems to have thrown their entire schedule back about two to three months.

In other Ethshar news, Tales of Ethshar is under contract but not scheduled. Wildside and I have a verbal agreement for Ithanalin’s Restoration, but no contract as yet. And while I still have no definite plans for another serial, I was doing some plotting work on The Sorcerer’s Widow earlier today. (Azraya of Ethshar and Ishta’s Playmate are also candidates for serialization, if I decide I don’t want to do Widow next.)

Incidentally, my post office box is going away next month — it’s gotten so little use over the past year that I can’t justify the annual fee anymore. I’ll be making other arrangements for streetmail.

I’ll try to keep you posted on any developments.

The astute donor will have noticed that the Wildside first paper edition of The Unwelcome Warlock did not ship in September. I’m afraid I don’t know when it will ship — Wildside moved offices recently, which disrupted their schedule much more than they had anticipated, so last I heard, a couple of weeks ago, they didn’t have cover art ready and the novel hadn’t been typeset. We’re still hoping for October, but I can’t guarantee it’ll happen.

I’ll keep you posted. Newsletter subscribers will generally get the news first, but I’ll post anything important here as well.

In other Ethshar news, Tales of Ethshar, collecting all the short Ethshar stories, is complete and under contract to Wildside, but not yet scheduled. Wildside is also planning a new edition of Ithanalin’s Restoration, including an ebook version — we have a verbal agreement, no contracts yet.

I do not have any new serials or other new Ethshar stories in the works at this time.