I want to once again thank everyone out there that listened to the podcast and/or supported the book by purchasing it when it came out last year. I also want to thank my editor, Gabrielle Harbowy, for her tireless work as my editor, and Gwen Gades, my publisher with Dragon Moon Press.

Today we have the Tales of the Children short story “Love’s Sacrificial Song,” by Tabitha Grace Smith. This episode was c0-produced by Paulette Jaxton of The Empress Sword podcast and novel.

0:00 – Intro Chatter

• Apologies ;*-)

3:10 – Love’s Sacrificial Song

Daralis is a story-teller. And the people of Bostich need this story to be the best story she’s ever told.

22:00 – Outro

Upcoming events and planned releases.

Promo: SpecFicMedia.com

Extras

• Twitter – http://twitter.com/pgholyfield
• Facebook – http://facebook.com/pgholyfield
• MaAH and Tales of the Children Facebook Group – http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=24571342195
• Call The Caern Line – 704-315-5884
• “Tales of the Children” and SpecFicMecia.com t-shirts at http://pgholyfield.spreadshirt.com – email me and I’ll create a custom t-shirt for you, with whatever “Child” you like best!
• Murder at Avedon Hill wins the John W. Polidori Award for Best Vampire Novel of 2010 – http://outofthecoffin.com

Music in this episode:

• Shira Kammen – Magnatune.com
  • The Impossible Butterfly – Wild Wood
• Kevin McLeod – various cuts
• Ruben van Rompaey – Grande Rue De Pera
• David Beard – various cuts
• Marc Gunn – Stardust Serenade
• Additional f/x found at Soundsnap.com and The Freesound Project

Thanks to everyone that went over and voted last month. This was a people’s choice award and your votes pushed MaAH past a wonderful set of nominees, including books/novellas by Gail Carriger, Charlaine Harris, Stephenie Meyer, and Seth Grahame-Smith. You guys rock!!

From the website:

ForeWord‘s Book of the Year Awards program was created to spotlight distinctive books from independent publishers. What sets the awards apart from others is that final selections are made by real judges—working librarians and booksellers—based on their experiences with patrons and customers.

The awards are given out in June. Wish me luck!

People who purchased a print version, a Kindle version, and/or wrote reviews on Amazon and sent me an email about it were entered. Here are the winners (and what they won), based on numbers called out by my Vanna White in the Chatroom, Mistress Jett!

Rob Stauffer – MaAH Mousepad
Joe Mieczkowski – MaAH Mousepad
Kristin Mayo – Signed copy of Murder at Avedon Hill
Tim Dodge – The Rookie signed by Scott Sigler
Shawn Murphy – POD version of Mur Lafferty’s Playing for Keeps
Beth Case – MaAH Mousepad
Cathy Monblatt – MaAH Mousepad
Cliff Lowe – POD version of Mur Lafferty’s Playing for Keeps
Kevin Crosby – Signed copy of Murder at Avedon Hill
Michell Plested – Samson CH700 Headphones
Paul Fischer – MaAH Mousepad
Scott Roche – MaAH Mousepad
Terri Flynstress – Signed copy of Murder at Avedon Hill
Ed Parrot – Matthew Wayne Selznick prize pack – BMR, The Sovereign Era- Year One, Anyman: The John Smith EP from CD Baby.
Michael Spence – Framed Study, acrylic/water color, the initial painting that was a test for the original POD cover of Murder at Avedon Hill.

A lot of these folks will be at Balticon, so they’ll get their prizes there. The rest will have their prizes sent to them through the mail. Congrats to those that won prizes; you made this weekend an unforgettable one for me, that’s for sure!

This is where we are right now:

#1 on the Movers and Shakers List (all books),
#3 in Hot New Releases, Fantasy (General),
#10 in Hot New Releases, Fantasy
#16 Overall, Fantasy (General)
#30 Overall, Fantasy
#274 in Fiction

So far we have 14 reviews on Amazon for the print version of the novel, and five more on the Kindle page. These help out a book’s place on Amazon, so please add a review if you purchased the novel!

Thanks so much for your generosity and support for me, for this novel, and for podcast fiction authors everywhere. I’d love to have one more push tonight, but whatever happens for the rest of the night and tomorrow, this has been a successful launch in my mind, that’s for sure!

Are your friends confused about the Amazon Rush?

Can you tell I’m just writing text here so the image below will appear underneath the thumbnail image, and not be pushed out to the right and off the screen?

The attached flyer explains what we’re trying to do on Saturday. Please grab it, post it and/or send it to everyone you can. Spread the word!

The link to Amazon is live. The book CAN be purchased now. But if you can, please wait until Saturday at noon Eastern to buy the ten copies you plan on purchasing.

Special thanks to Ron Earl for the creation of these avatars! And as always, thanks to Jeff Himmelman for the use of his wonderful art piece called “Sophia.”

I will be dropping a Tales of the Children story tomorrow, a story written and produced by Dan Absalonson.

Simply put, we are attempting to push Murder at Avedon Hill up the charts by having as many people purchase it as possible, at the same time, on Amazon.com. By doing so, we can push the book up the charts and increase its exposure in the short term. This has successfully been accomplished in the past by authors like Scott Sigler, Tee Morris, and Philippa Ballantine.

So how does it work?

In my case, on Saturday, May 15th, at noon Eastern time I would love for everyone that wants to own the print version of Murder at Avedon Hill to head on over to Amazon.com (url for the book coming soon) and purchase the novel. Amazon updates their rankings every hour, and they even have a specific page called the Movers and Shakers list.

What else will be going on? And what’s in it for me?

Well, besides owning a damn good book, I’m going to be live streaming on stickam.com starting at noon Eastern. I’ll be reading from the novel, chatting with folks online, and there should be some special guests on hand to celebrate the book’s release. I will also be giving away prizes to several lucky owners of the book. More on that in the days to come… including one special prize that I’m very excited about.

I’ve been creating online content in some capacity for going on five years now. I hope that karma really works, and we can knock this thing right out of the park!

This audio update gives some info on what’s going on for the next week leading up to the book release. Enjoy!

Promo: Seth Harwood’s Young Junius Special Edition

Promo/Skit: The Book Launch Promo – The Mercuralia!

If you are a podcaster, help a brother out; grab a promo and play it on your podcast before the 15th!

Shorter promo (1 min. 30 sec.) – plot info and amazon rush info – http://bit.ly/aLyir0

Longer promo (2 min. 15 sec.) – longer plot info and amazon rush info – http://bit.ly/9WS9Rq

Promo/Skit (3 minutes) – more of a funny skit than a book promo, written by Morgan Elektra. Christiana Ellis appears in the promo with me: http://bit.ly/dCxXaJ

The shorter promo is attached here so it will drop in my feed.

Murder at Avedon Hill Casting Page at Storycasting.com

The site is addicting (if you are a book/film buff), so WATCH out!

If you have a podcast, a blog, or even just friends that you’d like to share info about Murder at Avedon Hill with, please send me an email (pgholyfield at murderatavedonhill dot com) or ping me on Twitter @pgholyfield. I’m setting up interviews and will send out promotional materials to anyone that might want them.

An audio update will be released in the next couple of days about this, and about a contest I’ll be doing for those purchasing the novel day 1.

This is actually happening! Woo Hoo! (wait, I’m supposed to be the reserved author… ).

Thanks for your continued support…. (yay!)

Sometimes I don’t know about this whole publishing thing. I mean, I can make a wood chipper work, but nobody in Caern has light blue socks!?

Sigh.

Well, hopefully you understand why I’m excited.

It feels more real every day. Thanks for coming by to see the cover, and get ready for the push… you’re going to be flooded with content over the next two months.

I’ll be interviewing Alex again as we approach the book’s release, to talk with him about the process we went through, and also about his own journey finishing up The Gearheart.

Excuse the low sound quality of this episode. We recorded in a room at the Atlanta Hilton during Dragon*Con and there was a lot of noise that didn’t clean up very well. But it is listenable, and the interview itself turned out great.

Be sure to join in the fun on Wednesday evening, 9:30 pm Eastern, for the next vidcast on Stickam.com

Enjoy!

Blurb – Me chatting about 7th Son: Descent

Promo – J.C. Hutchins – 7th Son: Descent.

Music: Grande Rue De Pera – Ruben van Rompaey, courtesy of Magnatune.com

Excuse the low sound quality of this episode. We recorded in a room at the Atlanta Hilton during Dragon*Con and there was a lot of noise that didn’t clean up very well. But it is listenable, and the interview itself turned out great.

Part 2 of the interview will be released on Monday.

Enjoy!

Promo – This new podcast called 7th Son: Descent. I hear it’s okay.

Music: Grande Rue De Pera – Ruben van Rompaey, courtesy of Magnatune.com

• Discussions on cover art and creativity
• The state of the publishing industry
• What is The Gearheart?
• not a fan of Blade Runner, other than the “style” of it?
• Fonts and genres?
• Glenfiddich
• Oil rigs

Is that it? … Oh yeah… there was Tears for Fears.

Listen in on my interview with Alex White, creator of The Gearheart podcast novel, Art Director at Dragon Moon Press… and in his spare time he’ll be doing the cover of Murder at Avedon Hill.

This is the first in a series of interviews leading up to the print release of Murder at Avedon Hill I hope you will enjoy this behind the scenes look at the journey I’m taking to get MaAH into print.

Enjoy!

Music: Grande Rue De Pera – Ruben van Rompaey, courtesy of Magnatune.com

Promo: The Gearheart

Music: Grande Rue De Pera – Ruben van Rompaey, courtesy of Magnatune.com

Promo: Tales of the Children

From the Parsec Awards website:

The Parsec Awards are dedicated to rewarding excellence in various aspects of Speculative Fiction Podcasting. The Parsec Award is available for Sci-fi & Fantasy Original Content, podiobooks and a variety of other categories dealing with the new frontiers of Portable Media. The 4th annual Parsec Awards will be held at the Dragon*con convention held September 4 through September 7, 2009.

Before I started this project I attended the first Parsec Awards at D*C in 2006. From that moment it became one of my goals… to one day be a Parsec Awards finalist.  To have MaAH as a finalist in the Audio Drama category is a great validation of the hard work that I and so many other people put into this podcast.

Thanks to the fans that nominated Murder at Avedon Hill in the first place, and thanks to the awards committee and others that felt MaAH belonged on the short list of podcasts in this category. The other nominees:

• Amazing Pulp Adventures Starring Mr. Adventure
• The Metamor City Podcast – Making the Cut
• The Leviathan Chronicles
• Mur Lafferty’s The Takeover

As you know I love Chris Lester’s work on the MCP podcast (damn him), and Rich Sigfrit, the driving force behind Mr. Adventure, played two roles in MaAH (Herrjarr and Kell). Mr. Adventure is a lot of fun and you should check it out.

And Mur… she is simply the best.

The only nominee I am not familiar with is The Leviathan Chronicles (other than their great promo I believe I played on my podcast). But if nothing else, check out their website. It’s frakkin’ awesome! I’ll be listening to it before D*C, to be sure.

A lot of my friends in the podcasting world are Parsec finalists this year as well. Too many to list here, but I’m really looking forward to the ceremony to see who wins!

In the next few weeks I’ll be adding audio content in the feed. Interviews mostly, with Patrick McLean, Seth Harwood, and my editor, Gabrielle Harbowy. I also plan on contacting all of my fellow nominees for something prior to September.

Thanks again, people!!

Here are links to some of the things mentioned during the show:

• Michael Spence – Brother Osric’s Scriptorium
• Michael is now my official biographer. He must attend any future appearance I have and do a two minute introduction to whatever room we enter.
• The Red Box! – (I was wrong. From the screenshots of the different printngs, I must have gotten it in 1981)
• Neverwinter Nights
• Neverwinter Vault – You can still see the first draft of the first half of the novel deep within this site
• Caern Short Stories still on Lulu (free) – Seeker and Roh-Kin
• Christiana Ellis joins us for a Nina Kimberly Update!
• Short discussion on the planned sequel, tentatively titled “The House that Time Forgot”
• Question from Mae Breakall
• Sneak Attacked by Chris Lesssssster
• Tales of the Children – Short Story Anthology – More info will be posted soon!
• The Caern Line – 704-315-5884
• Mailing Lists/Fan Pages!
  • MaAH Facebook Group – http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=24571342195
  • Facebook: Fans of P.G. Holyfield – http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=34095009985
  • Google Group – http://groups.google.com/group/fans-of-murder-at-avedon-hill?hl=en

What do you mean, you haven’t written a review for MaAH on iTunes? Get to it! One more and I hit 100 reviews!

Music used in this episode: “Achaidh Cheide” – Kevin MacLeod

00:00 – Announcement

Dragon Moon Press will be publishing Murder at Avedon Hill. No set date at this time, but we’re looking at late ’09.

03:30 – Spread the Word!

Press Releases can be found on the Media Kit Page.  Please send to your local paper or media outlet… any entity that might be interested in the story of an unpublished author using ‘new media’ to land a publishing deal. Send me an email and let me know what you’ve done… we’re going to take this to the next level. Thanks, people!!

Last thing (not mentioned in the audio announcement). If you have a website or blog, please add a quick post about the publishing deal and link to the Press Page at http://pgholyfield.com/the-book/press – It will definitely help!

Music – “Sunset Serenade” – From Marc Gunn’s new CD, Heart’s Ease.

Constellation Books, near Baltimore, MD, is an awesome bookstore. How do I know this? Because at the recommendation of scifilaura, the wonderful voice of Julienne Avedon, Constellation Books purchased two copies of the novel from Lulu.com. Right now they are sitting on the shelf in the Mystery section of the bookstore, just waiting to be picked up by unsuspecting customers… muwahahaha!!!

Thanks to Laura for the photo, and if you are in the area, why don’t you go in and buy the book! Hell, I’ve got to get my rep started as an author that can move books through a brick and mortar store, right?

The stylized map was created by my friend Ilwan a couple of years ago. He and his extensive mapping skills can be found at Mapventures.com. The other two maps were created once again by snikle, one of the founders of Four Ugly Monsters, a site dedicated to virtual table gaming.

The maps do not follow the novel to the letter (for example, there are booths in the inn’s common room in the novel), but they provide a great visual for those interested in the feel of the world and the town. Enjoy!!

Here is a .pdf of a map of the town. It was created by snikle, one of the founders of Four Ugly Monsters, a site dedicated to virtual gaming tables such as Fantasy Grounds, Battlegrounds: RPG Edition, and MapTool.

The map was created for an RPG supplement that I was working on with snikle and devinnight (the artist that created the icons of the Children seen in the novel and on this site). I stepped away from Four Ugly Monsters (I was a founder as well) to concentrate on writing (and on the podcast). These are two great guys, and some of the extra content you’ll see over the next few weeks will be all thanks to their hard work.

A couple of areas previously mentioned and/or visited in the novel but not marked on the map: the Circle is the group of yellow buildings in the center of town; the Estates are the yellow buildings on the right side of the map.