Jeff Sampson's Blog, page 3

Box o' Books

I was woken this morning by my doorbell ringing. Anyone who knows me well knows I'm a total night owl and always sleep in, so I had to jump out of bed, fumble for my glasses, throw on clothes, re-throw on my shirt since it was on backward, and run for the door.

The FedEx guy was already back in his truck and about to drive off, so I yelled out, "Excuse me! Excuse me!!" He didn't hear. Then, disheveled and looking like a crazy person, I shouted "Heeeeeeeeeeey!" That got his attention (which saved me a trip to the FedEx depot) and I got this:



That would be a box full of the finished copies of Monster Slayers! Look how shiny:



I also got two great blurbs.



Hmm, now what to do with all these copies. Maybe a contest is in order…

A Brand New Site!

It’s been forever and ever, but I’m back with a brand new web site! And that’s ’cause I have new books! So visit jeffsampsonbooks.com to read about them! Or not. I mean, I know we all have busy lives.

Anyway, 2010 has been a busy year for me as I gear up for upcoming book releases. The past few weeks have been a flurry of adding web site content and putting on my “Lukas Ritter” persona to write the sequel to Monster Slayers, which we’re currently called Monster Slayers: UNLEASHED. My first suggested titled–Monster Slayers: Snakes on a Boat–was apparently not gonna work, even though the cover is gonna feature a medusa on deck of a ship. Which is gonna look frikkin’ awesome because the artist is the same as for book 1: Jesper Ejsing.

And of course Deviants stuff has been happening at a quick clip ever since I got my editorial letter in January. The first book–The Death and Life of Emily Cooke–has been revised, copy edited, and is now about to be out and about as proofread layouts. Which means very soon I’ll have Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) to share! Oh, and share I will, because I know some of you who have been waiting literally three years to read this thing.

I’m also excited because HarperCollins is gearing up for a photo shoot for the cover. For my book. So fancy, right? I have no idea what the cover will look like yet, but I’m gonna post the heck out of it once it’s ready.

Deviants also recently sold to Blanvalet, the German-based sci-fi & fantasy imprint of Random House, back in February. The German-language editions will be published in paperback sometime after the US and Canada release, under the name J.M. Sampson. This is my first foreign sale and, considering I’m of German heritage and was born in Germany, it seems fitting!

And that’s about it for now. Now that I have an actual blog up and running I’m going to post more often both there and here, so keep an eye out!

Monster Slayers!

I've been writing for the Mirrorstone Books imprint of Wizards of the Coast for years and years; in fact, I consider them the folks who "discovered" me.  So I'm proud to say I have a brand new book coming out from them -- in hardcover! -- this May.  I actually wrote it under a pen name, but that was only for marketing purposes.  I even dedicated it to myself -- my real self, that is -- just as a little joke.

The book is a middle grade adventure novel based on the Dungeons & Dragons world.  In the beginning it all seems like standard D&D adventure fare, but as the characters and readers will discover, not everything is as it seems...  I've described the book as Hunger Games and The Truman Show meet Dungeons & Dragons, so infer from that what you will!

Let me present to you Monster Slayers by "Lukas Ritter":
 
This is an early-ish cover and there will be some changes before release of the finished book, but this is the cover of my very first ARC!  In fact, soon I'll have copies of the ARC to send out.  If you're a book reviewer or an author willing to blurb -- or know anyone who is -- let me know and I'll get a copy sent out to you!