We’ve survived earthquakes and liquefaction, we’ve counted down with excerpts from the book and finally the first 100 pages, we’ve talked celebrations and blog tours—and now finally, it’s The Day.

Today I’m welcoming The Gathering of the Lost, the second novel in The Wall of Night series, fully into the public arena right here in New Zealand, over the Tasman in Australia (it’s official my books are now Tasmanauts! — waves out to Joanna Preston) and in the USA and Canada. (And in just 9 days time, on April 5, it’ll be out in the UK as well.) And although there’s plenty happening here, later on in first Australian, and then USA, time I’ll be linking through to guest posts on Orbit and SF Signal respectively. So ‘watch this space’ for those links.

You can also check out each edition of the book in more detail by going to the links in the far right sidebar. But now onto what’s happening right here! (As previewed for you on Sunday.)

First off, this is a Celebration, so I’m doing GIVEAWAYS—and yes, they are fully international. (Kinda like me and The Gathering of the Lost, come to think of it—international! 😉 )

All you have to do to enter the Giveaways Draw is post a comment on this post, or any other posts I may make dated 27 March. But to allow international readers a chance to read and comment, the giveaway draw will close off at midnight Wednesday 28 March, NZ time.

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But Now For Those Giveaways!

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Grand Fantasy Book Prize No 1: a book pack comprising —

• 1 x signed copy of The Gathering of the Lost (of course 🙂 )
• 1 x The Dragon’s Path by Daniel Abraham
• 1 x The Inheritance Trilogy by NK Jemisin, comprising The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms; The Broken Kingdoms; and The Kingdom of Gods
• 1 x The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson

Grand Fantasy Book Prize No 2: a book pack comprising —

• 1 x signed copy of The Gathering of the Lost (again, of course 😉 )
• 1 x City of Dragons by Robin Hobb
• 1 x Graveminder by Melissa Marr

Signed Book Plates & Cover Flats:

• 10 x sets of the US The Gathering of the Lost cover flats and 10 x signed ‘Helen Lowe’ bookplates designed by Peter Fitzpatrick, creator of The Heir of Night map

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But As Promised, There is More—

Your Chance To Enter The “Give Your Name To A Character in Daughter of Blood, The Wall of Night, Book Three” Draw:

Everyone who comments on both/either Tuesday 27 (USA/Canada and Australia/New Zealand) and/or April 5 (UK) release days, will go in the draw to give their name to a character in Daughter of Blood, The Wall of Night Book Three.

Provisos include:

• Only 1 comment per every distinct blog post I publish here on Tuesday 27 and/or April 5 will count as an eligible entry (so you automatically get 1 chance to enter on both March 27 and April 5 respectively, but you will get a further chance every time I add an additional post on each of those days);
• The successful name must be the real name of the commenter, not a pseudonym;
• The person whose name is drawn will also be recognised in the Acknowledgments to Daughter of Blood and receive a signed, complimentary copy of that book;
• I reserve the right to adapt the winning name to best fit a fantasy character, e.g. “John the Miller” as opposed to “John Miller”
• I cannot predetermine how the “Your Name” character will appear in the story and whether he/she will play a positive or negative role

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How This Will All Run (A few slight changes here from Sunday’s post, mainly because of time zone considerations):

• All draws will be made by Random Number Integer and the “Name/Character” draw will be made by an independent third party to ensure full transparency(!)
• The opportunity to comment on today’s posts and enter the Giveaway draw will close off at midnight Wednesday 28, NZ time, with the results published as Thursday 29’s blog post.
• The opportunity to enter in the “Name/Character” draw by commenting on either today’s March 27 post(s,) or the April 5 post(s) for the UK launch will close off at midnight April 6, NZ time and be posted as Saturday 7 April’s blog post.
• Also—don’t forget to check back to see if you’ve won 😉

 

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Breaking News:

5.00 pm: My first guest post on the Australian leg of my Blog Tour has just posted on Orbit: “Celebrating “‘The Gathering of the Lost’ and the Power of Environment.” Click on the link to check it out—and I’d love it if you supported the Blog Tour with a comment. 🙂

8.00 pm: And now my first guest post on the North American leg of my Blog Tour has posted as well—over on SF Signal I’m “Celebrating Epic Fantasy & Publication of The Gathering of the Lost.” And, if you miss out on a giveaway here, I’m giving away two copies of The Gathering of the Lost there as well—but you will have to comment there to be in to win.

 

Now, let’s party on!