The year 2012 is just dawning on the horizon filled for Laura and I with new and, in may ways, life changing possibilities. In the past I have contented myself with ‘resolutions’ but given the scope of the changes in my life and the new directions that writing is taking, I think ‘New Years Revolutions’ is more appropriate of an approach to this upcoming year.

So, for all of our friends out there looking toward what this new year will bring, here are a few of the ‘revolutions’ which we will be engaging in over the next year.

Knights of the Red Band:

This is our most exciting news for the new year. Laura and I are pleased to announce an agreement with DAW books regarding a new fantasy series we will be developing and writing called ‘Knights of the Red Band.’ This is the story of a world of eternal daylight and eternal night, where humanity lives on the dusky ‘red band’ separating the two. When an ancient evil rises to retake the world it once enslaved, a group of young, idealistic warriors is recruited into a revered and legendary order of Knighthood. But they soon discover that the reality of war is very different from the stories they were raised on … and that the question of right and wrong may be more difficult to answer than they believe. The great thing about this new trilogy is that YOU will be able to follow its development from the very beginning through its completion. We already have a website and facebook page set up for the project and will be posting to both at each stage of the novels development. From initial concept through final release, you’ll have a ringside seat at our creative process.

Lakota Dragon’s War:

Laura and I are also excited to be launching this new online series this summer. In addition to our Dragons Bard series of fantasy subscription novels, we will be opening our new series of steam-punk novels set in the American West exclusively in ebook format. You can read more about the history and background of this new series … and even build your own life-sized  replica ‘Lightening Gun’ at our exclusive Lakota Dragons Website.

Scribe’s Forge Changes:

We will be making some important changes to our Scribe’s Forge Online Writing Seminars.

• SEMINARS PRICE INCREASE: The one you need to be most aware of is that there will be a MAJOR price increase coming on January 6th. If you have been contemplating getting into the seminars, I would highly recommend doing so before the increase — which will be tripling our current prices for a years access to our seminars.
•  WORKSHOPS DISCONTINUED: The Writing Workshops will also be discontinued at that time to allow me time to address my very heavy writing schedule next year. We will be reworking our workshop system through the coming year.
• SCRIBES FORGE PUBLISHING CHANGES: We will also be changing our Scribe’s Forge Publishing program; instead of advising you on how to set up your website, we have determined it is more time and cost effective for us to set up the website for you as a turn-key system. Yes, this means that you can have your own web-publishing website, fully functional, designed and implemented by us that allows you to publish your own serial novels online in the same way as our Dragonsbard series. Additionally, we will be offering Scribe’s Forge Ebook Translation services that will take your text and will not only convert it into the most popular of ebook formats, but do so with advanced layout styling that sets your book professionally above the crowd.

 Visit our Scribe’s Forge website for details of these changes.

But Wait, There’s More Revolution to come:

Don’t forget the following FANTASTIC events we are anticipating this year:

• DRAKIS III: BLOOD OF THE EMPEROR will be released this summer.
• “WAYNE OF GOTHAM”, my upcoming Batman novel is scheduled for release this May.
• DRAGONSBARD: BLACKSHORE will be released this spring to our subscribers AND we will be taking subscriptions for our final Dragonsbard novel: Moredale later this year.
• DRAGONSBARD: EVENTIDE is scheduled for its first mass-market release this summer as well.

We have our conventions, our newsletter and will be looking at introducing our own ‘video channel’ of quick writing advice in the coming months.

So join us in our New Years Revolution! We look forward to quite an exciting year.

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Well, Laura and I are both home from Dragon*con … the amazing and sometimes frightening convention in Atlanta, Georgia held over every Labor Day Weekend. It was something of a miraculous event for us this year, marking our return after several years absence.

Thursday, September 1st

Laura and I started the day early, rushing to get to the airport on time. We had previously mailed to ourselves at our destination hotel in Atlanta two boxes from Indianapolis, Indiana and one box from our home in South Jordan, Utah. The Indianapolis boxes were from our GENCON appearance (where our Kokomo crew kept them for us rather than ship them back to Utah and then have to ship them to Atlanta) while the additional box contained some additional ‘Eventide’ books. Since airlines have decided to charge for everything including the nuts on their flights, it’s cheaper to send these things ahead via UPS or FedEx Ground than to pack trunks of them in luggage. The downside is, of course, that with two separate shipments of three boxes AND us coming to the hotel all at the same time … there was some question as to whether we would all arrive in the same place at the same time.

At the airport I realized once again how we had lost the War on Terror … as I trudged through the Kafka-esque process of getting through Homeland Security and its moment at the end where I must hold my ticket in one hand, my ID in my second hand and my belt-less pants up with my third hand while allowing myself to be unconstitutionally search and scanned. Air travel was once exciting and fun … it has now become a dystopian reenactment of ‘Metropolis.’ We flew to Houston, foregoing purchasing a ‘snack box’ and managing to survive only on a half can of Coke Zero, ice and our own snacks packed by the resourceful Laura. George Bush International Airport in Houston, however, offered us immediate solace in the form of a Pappadeaux Seafood restaurant. A little Andouille Sausage and Seafood Gumbo and a shared plate of Shrimp Etouffee and we were set for the rest of the day, walking onto our flight just as it was ready to leave.

We arrived exactly on time in Atlanta, worked things out with the Dragon*Con transportation representatives and were on our way to our hotel along with Michael Stackpole, renown author in his own right and another pioneer in the field of e-publishing.

Much to our amazement, every one of the boxes we had shipped from various locations around the country had arrived and were waiting for us. It was a great omen for an incredible weekend to come.

Friday, September 2nd

It’s Killer Breakfast time! Laura and I emptied one of our suitcases and packed it full of Killer Breakfast materials then, madly, set off in search of a Kinkos where we could print out copies of the character sheets. This turned out to be four blocks in the wrong direction. Eventually feeling the weight of the roller back behind us we staggered into the Killer Breakfast room in the Hilton. There we were delighted to be surprised by Richard Garriott. I first met Richard at Dragon*con twenty-five years before and it was great to see him again. Richard is perhaps better known to you as ‘Lord British’ from his Ultima computer games and, more recently, from his incredible adventure flying into orbit aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft and spending ten days on the International Space Station.

The crowd was already lined up outside the conference room when we arrived and after getting all the equipment properly placed and checked out, we brought them in. Richard graciously agreed to help us with the opening part of the performance as Laura and I launched into ‘Phantoms of the Ravenloft.’

This year’s performance included a tavern in Barovia complete with storm troupers (players begging them to shoot AT them since storm troupers never hit what they are aiming for) and the crash landing by Richard of a Soyuz spacecraft on top of the tavern. There was yet another encounter with Zombies Anonymous (Zomanon) and a rather exciting and confused piece of dungeon crawling through the ‘Hall of Silence.’

Laura also got to sing her rendition of ‘Don’t Kill Me Now Dungeonmaster’ and run the game show ‘The Dying Game’.

That afternoon I performed a reading from ‘Eventide’. This was by acclamation from the audience who, I was surprised, wanted to hear this gentle tale over selections from my upcoming Batman novel. You can watch this reading here if you like…

Tracy Hickman reading at DragonCon from tyanna taylor on Vimeo.

After the reading, I sold all the copies of ‘Eventide’ that I had carried with me to the signing … and even promised one more to a wonderfully patient woman for the next day. This made me late for my scheduled  World Building Panel with Jason Bulmahn of the Pathfinder RPG from Paizo and with Mike Capps with Epic Games — creator of the Unreal Engine for computer games. It was a heady experience being on a panel with both of these fabulous creatives.

What could have made the day absolutely perfect for Laura and me? That would be an elegant dinner with Richard Garriott which was one of the most enjoyable evenings we had experienced in a long time. Perfect day.

Saturday, September 3rd

Up early and a good thing as Laura bravely blazed a path through the packed crowds lining the street for the Dragon*con parade. This so that I could get to an autographing session being held DURING the parade. Not the best of timing for that exhibit booth signing.

This, however, was followed by our official signing … and what a wonderful signing that was! So many great fans coming by … and suddenly Laura and I had run out of Eventide novels AGAIN. Laura rushed back to the room (literally) that was several blocks away and brought back every copy we had left. Only two remained by the time we were finished … and a good thing since I still owed that nice woman from the day before!

Many of our fans came in costume … and this was our favorite and most incredible costumes I think I have ever seen…

After the incredible autographing session we were — again — late for our Old School D&D Seminar. Richard Garriott had come to watch the seminar … and we found him there running it for us when we arrived and joining us on the panel. That’s absolutely appropriate since Richard is very much an Old School D&D man himself. After the panel, Laura and I connected with the woman from the previous day and finally got her the book she had been trying to buy for two days. We even sold the last of our books … and sadly had to turn away a final fan.

Then came our XDM seminar with Howard Taylor — which was so crowded that Laura had to give up her seat to a fan and LEAVE THE ROOM! Then came the rush to get to the writer’s seminar in the Hyatt on Characters that Come to Life. This turned out to be with Eugie Foster, John D. Ringo, Lynn Abbey, Nancy Holder and a surprise moderator … me.

Pressed again for time, Laura and I went straight from this seminar to the Awards Banquet. There was saw William Shatner receive two separate awards. (Laura and I sat at the table kitty-corner from his — we felt so cool!) Then James Darren came onstage and sang three remarkably great numbers. He had starred in the Time Tunnel, ‘T.J. Hooker’ with William Shatner and had even been a hologram on DS9. The many really still has a great set of pipes!

So, how was Dragon*Con? I was SHINY!

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It’s time we talked … or at least time we enter into a conversation!

Laura and I are proud to introduce our shiny new forums right here on our Tracy Hickman website. While we have administered forums specifically for our Scribe’s Forge authors and our subscribers in our Dragon’s Bard series … as well as our Xtreme Dungeon Mastery friends … we decided it was time to open up the floor to all your questions about our worlds, works, creative life and projects. This way we can answer your questions about our various (and multiple) endeavors, including our Scribe’s Forge writing seminars, workshops and our publishing program or our Dragon’s Bard series of exclusive, limited-edition novels from our own private printings.

Anyone can read the entries on our forums and all you have to do is log in to the site in order to post your questions. We personally administer these forums so there are a few ground rules. While we strongly encourage discourse and debate — and want everyone’s views to be expressed — we believe that disagreement needs to remain in the realm of ideas and persuasion. Convince us with your reason and your thoughts if you can … but bad language, hate-speech or personal disparagement are grounds for being banished to your room and away from our kitchen table … or forums. Be respectful of others here and you’ll be respected. Try using  a flamethrower and your existence will not be acknowledged again. Laura and I are nice folks and we expect you to behave in our house accordingly.

If there is a group or a forum topic that you feel needs to be included, then feel free to post it here in the Forum Suggestion Box. We’ll be happy to oblige you as best we can. And, of course, answer your questions, too.

That said, let the posting begin!

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I just appeared on the ‘Save or Die’ podcast, talking about classic AD&D and the good old days at TSR, Inc. We discussed the origins of Dragonlance and the early days of Dungeons & Dragons — the evolution of adventure modules and the new projects at Dragonsbard and our upcoming writing seminars at Scribe’s Forge.

We hope you enjoy the reminiscing as much as we enjoyed recording it!

Now for your Nook…

For all our Nook and iPad friends … we are pleased to announce that Eventide is now also available on Barnes & Nobel in Nookbook epub format.

This means that the book is now available as an ebook both at Barnes & Nobel and at Amazon.com in both formats. We hope that you’ll take time and visit both sites … leave a review of the book … and pick up your own ebook copy if you wish for $9.95 US.

We’re doing our best to get this story to you in as beautiful a form as possible. Let us know if you have any problems with either rendition of Eventide.

A Special Invitation…

Available nowhere else! New York Times Best-selling author Tracy Hickman with his wife and partner Laura Hickman, world-renown fantasy authors for over a quarter of a century are writing a fantasy novel exclusively by subscription only!

Dragon’s Bard is an ambitious new project created especially for you by Laura and me. Dragon’s Bard is a series of fantasy novels which we will present directly to you in serial form. Here is how it works…

For less than you would spend on two dates to the movies, you can own something unique. When you subscribe to Dragon’s Bard: Eventide you will receive:

• A new chapter each week! You can look forward to watching the story unfold each week as you receive a download file containing the edited and formatted text of a new chapter written exclusively for our subscribers.
• Private Updates and Insights: What are the challenges and rewards of writing a serialization of a novel? Gain insights into the process through special communiques from the authors via an exclusive ‘subscribers’ only website and forum.
• … And the signed & numbered limited-edition hardback publication of the book! When the book subscription is complete, you will receive your own hardback, limited-edition copy of the book — each one numbered and signed personally by the authors!

This subscription offering is the first of three separate subscriptions which will complete this series. We have prepaid and five-installment subscription plans for both United States and International subscribers. (The only difference between Domestic U.S. plans and International plans are the shipping costs of the book at the end of the subscription.)

Subscribers to this first book will have a priority opportunity to acquire positions in later book subscriptions in this series, thus insuring that when you subscribe now will be able to acquire the complete three-book set.

Order now … once the subscription is sold out this offer will be closed.

The first book, Eventide, will begin with one chapter per week over twenty-plus weeks beginning June 5th. Our plan is to have the finished hardback book in your hands by Christmas — making Eventide a unique holiday gift as well. This subscription is LIMITED … we have a cap on the number of books we can produce, sign and ship. This means that the book you receive at the end of the subscription will be highly collectible — a unique memento of our journey together.

In some ways this is a very old idea brought into a new medium. Charles Dickens wrote his books in a ‘serial’ format very much like this and, if he were alive today, I think this is how he might be writing again. So, we will ‘write like the Dickens’ and produce a unique gift for you. We think YOU should become our publisher and that we should right directly for YOU.

Join us for Eventide … and own a unique gift of fantasy.

I just want to give all of you a heads up this morning. In approximately two weeks, I’ll be making a game changing announcement … a new direction for Laura and I to explore on this Sea of Possibilities. We’ll be inviting each of you to join us in this new and, we think, very exciting journey. Get the word out because this one will be a mind-bender!

I’ll give you more details on the exact dates as it gets closer … but for now  just know that something BIG is coming!

Early this morning, I woke up with the last few chapters of ‘Song of the Dragon’ waiting for me. Reading through this story again got me excited yet again about this story of Drakis — an insignificant slave of the mighty Rhonas elven empire and his amazing flight toward a destiny that he wants desperately to avoid.

The Rhonas Imperium rules the known world with an iron, elven fist. It’s slaves are kept in thrall through nightly House Devotions — a magical process where every bad memory from the day is repressed and replaced by pleasant ones. The elven wars of conquest are even fought by ‘Impress Warriors’ — slave soldiers trained to forget everything but their devotion to the Imperial Will. But when the spell in Drakis’ Master’s house is shattered — he and his fellow warriors are suddenly and catastrophically brought to remember the terrible treatment they have received under the sadistic house master — and are soon on the run from imperial forces who are desperate to enslave him once again.

Once again I was thrilled with the characters of this journey: Soen, the elven Inquisitor of the Iblisi who is hunting the fleeing slaves and, in turn, is being hunted by his own Order; Jugar the Dwarven Jester whose truth is far darker and more sinister than anyone suspects; Ethis the Chimerian who can change his form in unexpected way … Mala, Urulani, Belag the Manticore and the mysterious Lyric. It’s been a delight to visit with them again.

So I’m excited to get this book back to the publisher tomorrow and bring this wonderful journey one step closer to you!

There is an important battle being waged right now in the intellectual properties arena over ebooks. There’s a lot at stake here and while it revolves around money, it also deeply may affect the quality of the book you read … or may not get to read at all.

It all started when a quiet, private little battel erupted into a public one this weekend, as reported in the Huffington Post:

Amazon.com Pulls Macmillan Books From Site In E-Book Price Dispute

NEW YORK — New copies of Hilary Mantel’s “Wolf Hall,” Andrew Young’s “The Politician” and other books published by Macmillan were unavailable Saturday on Amazon.com, a drastic step in the ongoing dispute over e-book prices.

Macmillan CEO John Sargent said he was told Friday that its books would be removed from Amazon.com, as would e-books for Amazon’s Kindle e-reader. Books will be available on Amazon.com through private sellers and other third parties, Sargent said.

Sargent met with Amazon officials Thursday to discuss the publisher’s new pricing model for e-books. He wrote in a letter to Macmillan authors and literary agents Saturday that the plan would allow Amazon to make more money selling Macmillan books and that Macmillan would make less. He characterized the dispute as a disagreement over “the long-term viability and stability of the digital book market.”

Macmillan and other publishers have criticized Amazon for charging just $9.99 for best-selling e-books on its Kindle e-reader, a price publishers say is too low and could hurt hardcover sales, which generally carry a list price of more than $24.

Macmillan is one of the world’s largest English-language publishers. Its divisions include St. Martin’s Press, itself one of the largest publishers in the U.S.; Henry Holt & Co., one of the oldest publishers in America; Farrar, Straus & Giroux; and Tor, the leading science-fiction publisher.

Sargent credited Amazon in his letter, calling the company a “valuable customer” and a “great innovator in our industry.”

But, he wrote, the digital book industry needs to create a business model that provides equal opportunities for retailers. Under Macmillan’s model, to be put in place in March, e-books will be priced from $12.99 to $14.99 when first released and prices will change over time.

For its part, Amazon wants to keep a lid on prices as competitors line up to challenge its dominant position in a rapidly expanding market. The company did not immediately return messages seeking comment Saturday.

Then the Huffington Post reported that Amazon.com had just posted a notice saying that they, rather gruppily, were waving the white flag;

Dear Customers:

Macmillan, one of the “big six” publishers, has clearly communicated to us that, regardless of our viewpoint, they are committed to switching to an agency model and charging $12.99 to $14.99 for e-book versions of bestsellers and most hardcover releases.

We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles. We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan’s terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books. Amazon customers will at that point decide for themselves whether they believe it’s reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling e-book. We don’t believe that all of the major publishers will take the same route as Macmillan. And we know for sure that many independent presses and self-published authors will see this as an opportunity to provide attractively priced e-books as an alternative.

Kindle is a business for Amazon, and it is also a mission. We never expected it to be easy!

Thank you for being a customer.

And so round one goes to McMillan — and every Kindle-user on the planet should be grateful that McMillan won.

I know that sounds crazy on the face of it but the truth is that ebook pricing was threatening primarily the livelyhoods of authors like me. Since ebooks do not require warehousing or physical shipping (they’re just a file, how much space or maintainance does that take per title?) you would think that they should be less expensive to distribute. True enough.

But the value in a book doesn’t lie in whether it is made of leather, paper, glue or just digital code: the real value in the book is in the story, the ideas, the journey and the meaning that those words elicite from the reader. It doesn’t matter whether you’re drawn into those words through ink on a page or digits on a screen — the value is in the meaning of the message not the medium.

Ebooks are cheaper to warehouse and distribute but by cheapening the costs to recieve that experience the PERCEPTION has been that books across the board have been devalued as well.

Amazon wants to establish the Kindle as their own market monopoly … I can understand that.  They want to make their ebooks sell at bargain prices. I can understand that, too. But when their zeal to sell their Kindle product makes it impossible for my publisher — and by extention me — to make a living off our words and stories … then story itself suffers.

Like my local pizza chain says in their advertising: “You can buy a cheaper pizza … but then you have to eat it.”

I’ve been rereading both of the first two Dragonships novels in preparation for launching into Book III. It may seem like a strange thing that an author needs to read their own book. Of course, Margaret does the primary writing of the text on nearly all of our joint collaborations and changes often take place in a text during the writing process, so perhaps it may not seem so odd. However, I would point out that I am also in the process of reading my last draft of my own upcoming ‘Drakis’ series on which I did the primary writing of the text. As I said, things do change in the writing and when one is working on a series … well, let’s just say it’s important to remember what you have already said in the story.

It may sound self serving and a bit narcissistic but I’ve thoroughly been enjoying myself back in the world of Skylan, Aylaen and the northern barbarians! It is delightful to know how well the words and world still inspire and delight me. The second book, ‘Secrets of the Dragon’ will not be in your hands until later this year but I can tell you that it will be a great ride … and that I’m very excited now to get started on Book III in earnest!