Category: Books

. . . a chance to win an autographed Happiest Days of Our Lives at Geekdad:

This 4th Day of Geekmas is extra special, as it boasts a prize from a member of the GeekDad extended family. Oh yes, kids, it’s a present from your Uncle Willie!

Actor, writer, father, uber-nerd, and GeekDad reader Wil Wheaton is, for lack of a better term, our Champion. From Gordie LaChance to Wesley Crusher to his keynote at PAX 2007 to his epic appearance on MC Frontalot’s new album Final Boss, Wil has become a veritable cultural touchstone for nerds of all stripes. Wil is one of us, and he was kind enough to toss a signed copy of his latest book The Happiest Days of Our Lives into the pot for 12DOG.

Should you wish to procure this literary jewel, simply leave a response to this post by midnight tonight, and a lucky winner will be chosen at random. (Don’t forget to include your email address in the relevant field!)

It’s a geekmas miracle, kids.

Note: You have to go to Geekdad and leave a comment there to be entered. You’re welcome to comment here, but it won’t be a contest entry unless it’s at Geekdad.

We’ve just taken down the ordering page for the Happiest Days of Our Lives at Monolith Press, because the entire second printing is now sold out. It’s unlikely that I’ll do another Monolith Press printing in the near future, because Subterranean Press will have the special edition in just a few months.

Before I get back to work, I want to thank all of you who have made this moment – the end of one journey and the beginning of another – possible. I’ve been able to sell through two printings of my book entirely via word of mouth, and that’s just un-fucking-believable to me. From the people who told me way back in 2001 to hurry up and write a book, to the people who bought that book, to everyone who bought Happiest Days, to the 300 (holla!) and especially to everyone who told friends and family and helped get my work in front of new readers . . . none of this would be possible without you, and you all have my gratitude.

Once these final orders are processed and shipped, the serious work will begin on the next big Monolith Press project, something super awesome that I’m not quite ready to announce, but I hope will be worth the wait. Feel free to speculate in comments, because that’s always fun.

Holy shit, it’s already December 2nd! How did that happen?

(I know, Earth rotates, time marches on, etc. It was a rhetorical question. Jeeze.)

Why do you care? Well, most of you reading this probably don’t, but if you want to get a copy of The Happiest Days of Our Lives from Monolith Press, and have it arrive in time for the holidays, you have until this Friday to place your order.

I’m not sure how many copies are left, but I think it’s less than 100. I’m not sure if there are even that many potential sales in the universe at this very moment, but if I run out of books before Friday, I’ll update this post. Either way, after Friday, it’s probably gone forever because I’ll be working on something new.

The special expanded edition from Subterranean Press is still available for order, and will ship sometime early next year.

Edited to add: This afterthought is for people who are interested in the audio version. It is damn close to being done, and will probably be out VERY soon. Like, very, very soon, if you get my drift. I mention this today so you don’t think I’m pulling one of those “buy this now but guess what here’s something else hahaha I got your money like a Whammy on Press Your Luck” moves that are so popular with jerkfaces who have the face of a jerk these days.

For those of you who are wondering about the audio version of Happiest Days of Our Lives : it’s currently in post-production. My producer/partner/engineer/friend David, who should be working on it 24/7 and only stopping to occasionally eat and pee, had the nerve to go get cast as Eric Doyle on Heroes, and I guess the producers “like him” and “want to keep working with him” all the time, so he’s “kind of busy” with “that” and he’s working on the audiobook in his diminishing free time. GOSH! Uh, I hope it will be finished and available in the very near future. Like, maybe next week, but you didn’t hear that from me.

I mention this because I’ve come up with something cool and special that involves the audiobook and the special expanded edition of the book that I’m doing with Subterranean Press.

Months ago, I talked with Bill at Subterranean about taking something from the audiobook and putting it at Subterranean Online to help promote the special edition, and hopefully sell audiobooks. Everyone wins!

The thing is, David and I are already very busy, and it’s unlikely that we will be able to coordinate and record the extra material and get it edited together in time for a holiday release. I don’t want to do two versions of the audiobook, so I’ve decided to kill several birds at once, make a necklace from their skulls, and attach their feathers to football shoulder pads, just like that guy in Mad Max: using my rig at home (which isn’t nearly as nice as David’s, but is good enough) I will record audio versions of the stories we added to the expanded edition, and give those to Bill to put on Subterranean Online.

For free.

Yes, you read that correctly: it’s for free, as in, “Hey, look what Wil gave me for free! He sure is a neat guy!”

I hope that this will help sell the expanded edition by letting people who aren’t familiar with my work hear me perform it, and I hope that it will create interest in the audio version I did with David. It may even generate sales of Just A Geek: teh Audiobook, but I don’t want to get too close to crazy talk, so I won’t count on that. Additionally – and this is really important to me – the people who don’t want or can’t afford the expanded edition, but already have the MP edition will have a chance to hear the stories that they’re missing. This special edition wouldn’t even be possible without those people, and this is my way of saying thank you. It’s really important to me to take care of my customers, and I hope that this effort will convert unhappy people into happy people.

This plan was formulated in the middle of the night, when my brain wouldn’t let me sleep and not even the pouring rain could drown out its incessant babbling, so I haven’t worked out a release schedule yet. When it happens, I’ll be sure to post about it.

Hooray for awesome news that is awesome!

Shortly after I published The Happiest Days of Our Lives , Bill Schafer, who is the publisher and owner of Subterranean Press, contacted me about doing a special limited edition. I discovered Subterranean Press when they published John Scalzi’s Questions for a Soldier, and I fell in love with their special editions when I got Charlie Stross’ Missile Gap and Neil Gaiman’s Coraline. The idea of having my little book treated the same as books by John Scalzi, Elizabeth Bear, Ray Bradbury, and Neal Stephenson was awesome, but I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea – I didn’t want to put out yet another edition of a book people already owned, and I really didn’t want to do something that would devalue the 300.

I talked it over with Anne, sought advice from my friend and editor Andrew, and I asked some friends who have worked with Bill what they thought (it turns out that everyone who works with him adores him, which ended up being very important to me). After a few weeks of consideration, I realized that this was a unique opportunity, and I would be a fool to pass it up.

I got in touch with Bill and accepted his offer. We decided that instead of just doing a different printing of a book people already had, I’d look through the material that just missed the final cut, and put together a special expanded edition. I would also take all those pictures that are on the cover, and create a special photo insert section. (I’m really excited about this; my idea is to create something that looks and feels like a family photo album, complete with handwritten captions.)

I’ll be taking the Monolith Press edition (which has almost sold through its second printing!) offline in a couple of weeks, so Bill and I aren’t competing with each other. If you’ve been waiting to get a Monolith Press edition of The Happiest Days of Our Lives, or you wanted a copy of the book in time for the holidays, you should place your order soon. Like a set of car keys dropped into molten lava, it’s gone, man.

The Special Edition of The Happiest Days of Our Lives from Subterranean Press is now available for order, and it will ship in Spring of 2009. There are 2000 in the limited hardback edition, and 26 in the leatherbound lettered edition, which will come in a custom traycase.

Andrew and I have been working like crazy on this project for a couple of months, and over the weekend I finally felt like we’d put together something worthy of being called a special edition. I just love it, and I can’t wait for everyone to see it.

Edited to add: you may want to check out this awesome news that is awesome, about an audio accompaniment to the special edition.