7 Days, A Newsletter & A Contest

Wow, we’re just seven days away from THE KENSEI’s official street date – the day when the book should be in stores, literally everywhere and will start shipping from online retailers.

I’m excited.

Actually, I’m freakin’ thrilled. Lawson has a second chance at life and I’m determined to make sure he has a far longer one at St. Martin’s than he did at that other house. 🙂

I’ve got a ton of stuff coming your way. The official book trailer will debut soon. Possibly tomorrow if everything gets sorted. And then there’s another video with me in it that will be released in another week or so.

And today, my all-new, all-free Boston Nocturne newsletter launches. It has news, free fiction, and much more. And the free fiction is a serialized Lawson adventure called MISSION: MALTA. But the only way to enjoy it is to subscribe, so make sure you sign up! And you can do that by putting your email in the block over there on the upper right side where it says “Get My Newsletter.” It’s that simple. Just sign up and you’ll be all set when the newsletter goes out later today.

Back to THE KENSEI…I’m announcing a very cool contest now. Here it is.

Ready?

🙂

Send me proof-of-purchase (or a copy of your receipt if you bought online) that you’ve bought a copy of THE KENSEI and you’ll be entered for a chance to win the sword used by actor Brandon Stumpf in the official book trailer for THE KENSEI. Brandon will be starring in the TV series based on the novels, THE FIXER, and I’m certain he’s got a huge future. If you win, not only will you get the sword, but a certificate of authenticity, and you can even have it autographed by Brandon and me. Each copy of the book counts as one entry, so if you buy three copies of THE KENSEI to give as gifts to friends and family, then you have three chances to win the sword. One winner will be drawn on May 28th, 2011. You can send your entries to

thekenseicontest AT gmail DOT com


Good luck!

Guest Post: Willie Meikle

Note: today’s guest post is from a good friend of mine and an amazing writer, Willie Meikle. He’s got some fantastic fiction available for ebook readers. Read on and find out where he draws his inspiration from. – Jon

What inspires me.
_________________

There were two main points of inspiration for my vampire series, vamps themselves, and Hadrian’s wall on the Scotland/England border.

I’m a traditionalist when it comes to vamps – mine are evil, bloodsucking bas*ards. They don’t have souls, they don’t have good dress sense and they don’t get to snog Sarah Michelle Geller. Oh, and they’ll bite anything, not just ladies with big, exposed, bosoms.

I’ve walked the length of Hadrian’s Wall several times, and I’ve been to Culloden Moor where the final battle takes place. I have a deep love of old places, in particular menhirs and stone circles, and I’ve spent quite a lot of time travelling the UK and Europe just to visit archaeological remains. I also love what is widely known as “weird sh*t”. I’ve spent far too much time surfing and reading fortean, paranormal and cryptozoological websites. The cryptozoological stuff especially fascinates me, and provides a direct stimulus for a lot of my fiction.

Which brings me to The Watchers trilogy, my retelling of the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion in Britain. Bonnie Prince Charlie, and all his highland army, are Vampires and are heading south to claim the British throne. The “Watchers” of the title are the guards of the old Roman wall built by Hadrian, now reinforced to keep the vamps out. It is constantly patrolled by officers of the Watch, two of whom become the main protagonists of the series. I got the idea on a walk along what is left of the wall, and by the time I’d had finished my walk and had a few beers the first part of the trilogy was fully formed in my head. Think “ZULU” or “Last of the Mohicans” with vamps and you’ll get a feel of what I was trying to do.

I was dealing with a retelling of the Bonnie Prince Charlie story, where romantic myths have subsumed the harsh reality of a coup gone badly wrong. I needed to strip all the romance out of the Highlanders and build them up from the bottom. Making them a shambling army of vamps and mindless drones seemed an obvious place to start. The Watchers series is a swashbuckler, but there is little lace and finery.

What I do have is blood and thunder, death and glory in big scale battles and small scale heartbreak. I love it.

THE WATCHERS OMNIBUS edition in print

WATCHERS BOOK 1: THE COMING OF THE KING on the Kindle

Welcome to 2011: The Year of Lawson

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a great holiday season filled with wonderful memories. Now, it’s January and it’s time to get back into the swing of things. For me, this means getting ready to herald the debut of THE KENSEI, my long-awaited 5th Lawson Vampire novel, from St. Martin’s Press. To that end, I’m engaged in a lot of stuff right now. Tons of promotion around this title is coming. This week, I launch my newly-revamped FREE newsletter, BOSTON NOCTURNE – which you should sign up for right now since it’s going to feature a FREE serialized Lawson adventure called MISSION: Malta along with a lot of other really cool content.

Additionally, I’m still working on finishing up THE MADAGASCAR MATTER, so if you’ve subscribed to that, don’t worry – the end is coming and it will be chaotic mayhem, to say the least!

From the publicity plan I’ve laid out, you’ll pretty much be hearing about another review or interview every weekday from January through April. My goal is to sell the holy nuts out of this book and I’m always grateful when others retweet or share my posts. The more people who know about Lawson, the better. Just last night, THE KENSEI got a fantastic review over on RomFan Reviews. Many more of these will be coming. You can also read my first interview of the new year over at The Novel Blog. They’ll be adding a review soon.

Look for added pages out here on the website – including a bunch of freebies you can download. There’s a lot ahead this year – trust me, you’re not going to want to miss it! 🙂

Updates on stuff…

We’re just 38 days away from the launch of THE KENSEI and I couldn’t be more pleased with how things are looking. Back in 2002, I was excited about seeing The Fixer eventually come out in mass market paperback, only to have the series dropped by Kensington after four installments. A lot of nastiness went into that decision by the publisher, and I’ve never stopped believing they made a huge mistake in letting it go. That said, I couldn’t be happier than I am knowing that THE KENSEI is being released by St. Martin’s Press. Not only is SMP a far superior publishing house, but I have the editor I’ve always dreamed of having and the in-house support has been extremely gratifying. Additionally, I’d like to say a huge thank you to the good people at Barnes & Noble, who have really stepped up to get behind the book as well. I hope you’ll give them your support in return by purchasing THE KENSEI either at one of their stores or online here (you can preorder it now). In fact, next Friday, Barnes & Noble will be doing a little something special for folks to get them rev’d up for THE KENSEI. Details next week as it approaches, so stay tuned!

Obviously, my goal with THE KENSEI is nothing short of selling hundreds of thousands of copies. Seriously. I want the rebirth of Lawson to be so spectacular, they every person who has grown weary of the sparkly, glitzy vamp angst that has plagued both books and TV/film, to read THE KENSEI and become excited all over again. A groundswell of support from my fans and friends will really help make that a reality. So I’m pulling out all the stops to make sure everyone gets a copy and then tells their friends to get a copy as well. Let’s sell this thing out of its first print run in a week!

To that end, I’ll be doing a lot over the next five weeks or so. Today, I created the Official Facebook Book Launch Event and would love for everyone to click over and attend. It happens everywhere on the 18th of January, so you don’t have to do anything special, except buy a copy of THE KENSEI on that day (or preorder it now). I’d also like to ask that you all invite all of your Facebook friends to attend the event as well. Let’s see if this social media phenomenon can really turn this thing into a bestseller. The more people who attend and make the commitment to buy THE KENSEI, the better. There are instructions on the event page about how to easily invite all your friends without needing to click every single one of them.

I’ll be posting more as the days dwindle toward launch, but please remember that without your support, none of this would be possible. I’m indebted to each of you and can’t thank you enough for your support through the years it took to find Lawson a new home.

Have a great day!

A Little Contest…

It’s the Tuesday before a holiday and I know you’re not really working, right? After all you’re reading this, thinking about how in a few days you’ll be feasting on the Thanksgiving fare and enjoying some days off with friends and family. Good times, good times…

So, let’s have some fun. I’ve got a brand new never-before-seen Lawson Vampire short story coming out from St. Martin’s in advance of THE KENSEI in January, but I want a few of you to have a chance to read this before my editor does. This is an exclusive chance to read something brand new in the Lawson Vampire universe.

All you’ve got to do is copy & post this snippet


<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kensei-Lawson-Vampire-Novel/dp/0312662238">
<img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51d9dFSHMaL._SL500_AA300_.jpg">
</a>I cannot wait for my friend Jon F. Merz's newest hardboiled Lawson Vampire
novel to hit shelves in January 2011!  This is a great urban fantasy series
that is like James Bond with fangs! These are not your typical
vampires; Lawson is a serious badass and this time he
heads to Japan for some ninjutsu training when things
go really wrong.  If you like great supernatural action
and bone-crunching realistic fight scenes, this is
definitely for you.  Check it out!

on your Facebook page or blog or message board and then comment out here on my Facebook Fan Page with a link to where you posted the snippet.  I’m trying to get a lot more notice for THE KENSEI and by posting this snippet or a modified equivalent online, it boosts the number of hits on Google and other search engines.

Five people who do this will be randomly selected to read through DEAD DROP before anyone else!  This is a quick contest, so get cracking and I’ll pick the winners later on.  Have fun!  The more places you post the snippet, the more chances you have to win!