Nine days ago — and already I can’t believe it’s been that long — you joined me here to celebrate the release of The Gathering of the Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two in the USA, Australia and New Zealand. And today it is out in the UK—where of course I hope the story will take wings! 🙂

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But right here, now, today, I would like to celebrate what really does feel like the final milestone in the publication process.

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Here’s what’s happening to do just that:

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First Up — The Draw To Give Your Name To A Character in Daughter of Blood, The Wall of Night, Book Three” Resumes:

Here’s the buzz:

Everyone who has commented 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 published 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 if/when I add an additional post today—and there’s already been the Ursula Le Guin quote post earlier);
• 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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And It’s A Celebration Right—So of Course There’s  Giveaways!

So what have I got for you today:

* An Absolutely Tremendously Fabulous “Helen Lowe” Gift Set Comprising —

• 1 each signed first editions of  Thornspell, The Heir of Night and The Gathering of the Lost

* An Absolutely Tremendously Fabulous “Grand Fantasy” Gift Set Comprising —

• 1 x signed first UK (of course!) edition of The Gathering of the Lost
• 1 x copy of NK Jemison’s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
• 1 x copy of Brandon Sanderson’s Warbreaker

* 10 x Copies of the UK Launch Day Poster (featured) signed by the artist, Peter Fitzpatrick (who also drew “The Wall of Night” series map) and the author (that’s me! 😉 ).

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And Here’s How It All Works Again:

•  All you have to do to enter any of the draws is post a comment on this post, or any other posts I may make dated 5 April. But to allow international readers a chance to read and comment, all draws will close off at midnight Friday 6 April, NZ time.
• All giveaways and draws are fully international.
• 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 results will be be posted as Saturday 7 April’s blog post.
• Also—don’t forget to check back to see if you’ve won. And do contact me through my website (details will be part of the April 7 post) to claim your prize!

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Want To Find Out More?

You can check out more details, including reading more of the book, via the links in the side bar — see “The Gathering of the Lost: Read More Here”

And you follow the stops on the Blog Tour to date by clicking on the links below:

• SF Signal — launching the tour in North America with a post “Celebrating Epic Fantasy & Publication of The Gathering of the Lost.”

• Orbit — where I kicked off the Australian tour with a discussion of The Power of Environment in my writing

• John Scalzi’s Whatever — with a guest post on the Big Idea that manifested in The Gathering of the Lost

• Trent Jamieson’s Trentonomicon — with a guest post on “Romance vs Reality: War & Conflict in Epic Fantasy and ‘The Gathering of the Lost.’”

• Galactic Chat — you can check the podcast out here.

• R is for Romance in The Gathering of the Lost on the Supernatural Underground, here.

• And there’s an indepth interview with the Civilian Reader here

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Breaking News:

The next stop on the Blog Tour is now current on Gillian Polack’s blog, Even In A Little Thing where I’m talking historical influences on The Gathering of the Lost and The Wall of Night series, including geography, cultures, heraldry and names!

You can check it all out here.

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And it is UK release day after all, so the celebration is current on Orbit, my UK publisher’s blog with a lovely focus post on The Gathering of the Lost.

Get into the launch day spirit—rock on over and take a look, here! 😉

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