Not Exactly SP and Legends of the 5 Directions

[Bryn]

Oh that would be nice, but I assumed they Randomized again. Anyhow, CP, we can discuss the steppe. Or let's hope we can. Yes, I'd find hard to concentrate until results are known.

If they did Conn Iggulden -- of course I cannot discuss him, as I know I am not objective. Very far from. And I'd have to try not to watch the thread, because I'd only get upset. That takes discipline, and I don't know I have the discipline.

[C.P.]

Exactly. I had to bite my tongue when his name came up in nomination. ("I will not point out that the man wouldn't know Genghis from a pine tree. I will not. I will not.") Next time I'll nominate Amgalant. I'd have done it this time except that you were already in contention for the FA Group Read.

Instead I went off and immediately voted for The Janissary Tree, which has been on my TBR list forever but always seems to drop behind whatever else is on there. It has only three votes, though, whereas CI has nine. Something called The Tea Rose is way ahead, though.

Definitely we will discuss the steppe, if Nasan gets that far!

[Bryn]

I just put in a fourth for the Janissary Tree -- for the sake of the setting.
And as far as my experience of group read votes go, strong early trends don't change. I almost always do the group read in Ancient & Medieval.

[C.P.]

Let's hope!

It'd be great. I could use the attention—and the sales. But we'll see.

Thanks for voting for The Janissary Tree. Except for The Beekeeper's Apprentice, which I nominated and have read, there's not much in that list that interests me..

[C.P.]

Hazel wrote: "Ooh, I'm excited =) Yes, post in the giveaway section when you get it up and I'll make sure to put it in the newsletter when it starts."

Sorry, Hazel. Missed this one until now. Thanks! And I will, definitely, as soon as the link is open for business. :)

[C.P.]

And Nasan won the poll! (Good thing. She'd be impossible to deal with if she hadn't.) ;) She will be the Featured Author Group Read in that other group I will not name.

Thanks to those who voted for her. Those of you who've already read The Golden Lynx, stop by if you're in the area in March and add your two cents.

Hazel, we will miss you, but I totally understand.

[Bryn]

Great stuff. I'll be there.

[Hazel]

C.P. wrote: "And Nasan won the poll! (Good thing. She'd be impossible to deal with if she hadn't.) ;) She will be the Featured Author Group Read in that other group I will not name.

Thanks to those who voted f..."

Congrats! Oh well, I have so many books to read right now, which is why I rarely join in group reads anyway. I am planning on buying your book if I don't win the giveaway :)

[C.P.]

Thanks, Bryn and Hazel!

Giveaway starts in four days, Hazel. If you had an e-reader, I'd send you a free copy, just for hosting this group.

[Hazel]

I'd rather buy the hard copy, I have a couple free ebooks I downloaded but I read my own writing on the computer so much that I never like to do it for fun, and I refuse to buy and e-reader ;) But thank you for the offer!

[C.P.]

We'll both cross our fingers and hope you win, then!

I don't read for pleasure on the computer either. I do on my iPad, but even so, I am realizing I like print better.

[Hazel]

I get eye strain easily so print is best for me. I know the screens for e-readers are supposed to be 'like paper' but I've looked at them and they just make my eyes swim, and then the glossy ones are too much like a computer screen. But it's also that I love the flipping of pages and seeing how much of the book I have left ;)

[C.P.]

Goodness, it's been a long time since I posted here. Legends 2: The Winged Horse is published as of Monday 6/23/14. Steppe nomads! Crimean (and other) Tatars! Assassinations, romance, and warring brothers—never a dull moment, in other words.

There will be a couple of e-book giveaways and one for print (US only, alas, because of soaring postage costs). But the books are available now: for links, see http://www.cplesley.com/home/books.

[Hazel]

Congrats, C.P! glad to know you're still writing and publishing ;) I'm just about to release a new book myself, for the summer. I've been writing since last fall and have been terrible at keeping up with my promotions, but I wrote two books, and am going to be setting up a one year anniversary tour for one of my others. I'm also hoping to start some more promotions for the summer :)

[C.P.]

Great to hear. What are you working on, Hazel? Wanna trade blog posts or something?

[Hazel]

We could do that :) I'm releasing my first historical fantasy, more paranormal I guess, it involves werewolves in Roman Britain ;) It's going to be released this Saturday and I'm doing a giveaway and stuff. I would love to feature you on my blog to help get your new book out. We can do a guest post or interview or something.

[C.P.]

Sounds good. I'll PM you tomorrow and we can discuss among ourselves, as they used to say on Saturday Night Live.

[Hazel]

Great :)

[C.P.]

Note that even though they are not historical fiction, I have also published these two science fiction romances (note that you can take the girl out of history, but you can't take history out of the girl, so to speak): Desert Flower and Kingdom of the Shades. I'll be running a Kindle Countdown on them in about ten days, so stay tuned.

[C.P.]

As promised, Desert Flower is $0.99 until Monday at 8 am PST, then $1.99 until 12/12.