I’m back from Arizona.  We were only there for 2 days, but we managed to do two events, visit 23 stores, sign a lot of books, meet a lot of people, and then go out for BBQ.

John put together an area map and then numbered every store in the Phoenix metro area. Then we unleashed the power of the Tom Tom and set out.  Store. Store. Store. Eat. Visit. Store. Store. Store.  Sign. Eat. Non stop for two days!  It was awesome. I’ve gone to other states before, but I’ve never gotten this much done.

Borders has got to be hurting.  Visiting that many stores that quickly was very enlightening.  Every single Borders was dissapointing.

You go into a B&N. It is well lit, well stocked, the staff is friendly and knowledgable. You ask who their fantasy readers are on staff and everyone else automatically knows.  They’re excited to have you sign the stock.  I was either in stock at every B&N, or they could look on the computer and tell me that they’d just sold out and had more coming. Most stores had 2-4 copies, with plans to reorder 4-8 more.  A few stores told me that if they’d known 2 weeks ago that I was coming they would have ordered in lots of extra copies for me to sign, because in their words “Signed copies make anything easier to sell!”

You go into a Borders. The staff doesn’t seem as happy. If my book is in stock, they have a single copy. Or their computer shows that they have a copy in stock, but they can’t find it.  A few of them were downright dreary, with the lights all dim and depressing.  In one store I walked up to a group of managers, introduced myself, and asked if I could sign the stock.  One manager quickly warned me not to sign them all, because “If they’re signed, then we can’t return them!”

I looked at the guy for a second, trying to wrap my brain around that. “Uhmm… I’ve been out for five months, I’ve been on two best seller lists, and I’m on my third printing. It isn’t exactly a hard sell.”  

Okay… I’m not just speaking as an author, I’m speaking as someone who’s been a small businessman and who has run a retail establishment… if your sales strategy is based on managing inevitable failure, you’ve got issues. No wonder the staff never seemed as happy.  That has got to be a tough corporate culture.  “Welcome to Borders, sigh. No, we don’t have that, and if we did, we’d probably just have to return it anyway.”

We were able to meet with fans a couple of times, and I had dinner with the guys from WTA, the Gun Counter, the Anarchangel and Smallest Minority. I think John was impressed that my readers aren’t just heavily armed red-staters, but we are philosophical heavily armed red-staters who can discuss literature and complex political issues.  Plus, my people bring gifts of t-shirts, unit patches, can openers, and Cav Arms plastic stabby knives.  I love my people.

John was talking about his book at one of the B&Ns. He got to the part about how in his world, humans are being ranched.  A bug eyed crazy guy says “It is true! Lizard people are ranching us! IT’S TRUE!!!!”  He was totally serious.  John figured that my audience was made up of the well-armed gentlemen who could have profound discussions on the nature of human liberty and his audience was the guy off his meds. Sadly by pointing this out I’ve doomed this prophet of truth, as now the Reptoids know that someone in Arizona is on to them. 

We had a discussion and signing at the Poison Pen in Scottsdale. It was a great shop, and our hosts were awesome. I think we drew a larger crowd than they were expecting. We had a great time.  It turned out that Michael Stackpole was in the audience too.  I didn’t know that until the end. It was nice to hear somebody who’s written a lot of books say that for being new guys, John and I had a clue. 

It was kind of fun to be doing this trip in the immediate aftermath of Brandon Sanderson’s Wheel Of Time Mega-Tour. There were a few stores we went into where they had a giant stack of his books, and one of us would say that we were friends of Brandon’s. 

Bookstore Clerk: “OH MY GAWD! YOU KNOW #1 BEST SELLER BRANDON!!! AAAAAHHHHH!”  

“Yeah, you know his Podcast?  John and I have both co-hosted on there… It’s not a big deal.  There aren’t that many fantasy writers in Utah so we all know each other.”  

“BRAAANDON SANDERSON IS SOOOOO COOOOOOL!!!!” 

Oh my friggin’ hell. It was like telling people I hang out with Aerosmith, Tiger Woods, and the Queen of England.  The only other way to get that kind of reaction out of store clerks was to tell them that my book was the “Anti-Twilight.”  Then the clerk would usually mutter something incredibly bitter about fourteen year old girls and then buy a copy of MHI for themselves.

Here was John’s take on the trip: http://johndbrown.com/2009/11/poisoned-pen-concealed-carriers-and-crazies/

Next up is Denver the first week of December, then I’m done for a bit. I still have several other places that want me to come, but I need a few weekends that don’t involve flying. (on that same note, my Southwest experience is beating Delta pretty handily).

Come and say hi tomorrow:

The signing at Mysterious Galaxy went well. They’re a great bunch of folks out there in San Diego.  I’m also glad to hear that my book is very popular on the USS Ronald Reagan.  Rock on. 

Day 2 was spent doing store drive bys, meeting the managers, and signing store stock. 

Day 3 was in LA, and most of it was spent meeting important movie type people.  At one point I was eating lunch at an outdoor table at a restaurant filled with the beautiful people.  Somebody overheard our conversation, and the next thing you know people are dropping off their bios and headshots.  I suppose that is what happens when you eat lunch with people who’ve won Oscars. 

Yes, there is the possibility in the future of a big MHI movie. I can’t say much else at this point.  Let’s just say that the book has been read, and is being read, by people who make decisions.  I’ll post more as things develop, but right now, it is all a pipe dream until somebody gives me a big sack o’ money.

http://www.locusmag.com/Magazine/2009/Issue11_Bestsellers.html  Look down at the bottom of the page! I tied!

Holy crap, that is 5 months after MHI came out!

This was posted into the comments in my last post about socialized healthcare passing the house.  I feel the need to respond. The person that posted it, Dave, seems like a nice enough guy.  So, Dave, this isn’t personal, but I need to fisk this. My comments are in bold.

The unemployment rate is over 10%, which means a good chunk of the population has lost their healthcare coverage, Okay, first off that rate will climb if the socialized healthcare is passed. If you increase the burden on employers and raise taxes, what always happens?  Pretty much every economist and expert who isn’t in the pocket of Obama says that.  Hell, ask Joe Lieberman, and he’s certainly not a republican.

since we all know it can be near impossible to buy a policy ourselves because of pre-existing conditions. For some people this is an issue. So why don’t we write a bill that is about 20 pages that addresses this one problem instead of one that takes 4 reams of paper to print that nobody has read? 

Lots of other people have jobs that don’t provide healthcare. And that sounds like a personal problem. When I was self employed, I bought my own health insurance… and after listening to the wailing and gnashing of teeth, I was surprised how cheap it actually was.  For what most people pay for cable and cell phones I insured my family of five.  When I was younger and worked crappy jobs, I bought my own insurance, or I rolled the dice and went without.  That was my personal choice. Your bad choices should not constitute an emergency on anyone else’s part.

I don’t love the dems, but they are trying to do something about it, I’m sure it’s not perfect, but I think it will help.

Oooooohhh…. They’re doing ‘something’. 

I heard an analogy on the radio the other day that I want to expand.  Imagine healthcare is an automobile. Our car is the best car in the world. In fact, it is so much better that when people with other cars really need to drive somewhere important, they come and use ours.  However, our car does have some problems. It needs a new set of tires and maybe a new transmission.  So to continue the analogy, the proposed reform is to take our nice car and replace it with a shitty import that gets bad mileage, has a terrible safety rating, was rated Worst Buy by Consumer Reports, and costs twice as much.  In fact, it costs so much more that we really don’t know how we’re going to be able to afford the payments. 

The Republicans have offered nothing, they are fine with 10s of millions of people being absolutely screwed if they get a serious illness or injury.

You’ve been watching the news, haven’t you, Dave?  That’s another one of those talking points that is full of crap. What about the proposals that have been shot down every year for the last decade about opening up competition between insurance companies by removing artificial boundaries, so that there could be an increase in competition?  What about the one that the NASB floats every year about allowing small businesses to group together, in order for them to be able to get more affordable rates for their employees and to offer coverage to more people?  As much as I dislike Lindsey Graham, I believe he’s the guy that keeps bringing those up and getting smacked down by the democrats.

And wait a second… wasn’t it the EVIL George Bush that pushed Medicare prescription drug benefits? (which I also disagreed with, but it does disprove your point).

The amount of paranoia and fear-mongering in your rant is disturbing, and far from anything resembling reality.

I was told that very same thing when I said the bill would cover illegal aliens and fund abortions. (turns out I was right at the time).  It is interesting to be lectured about reality, when nobody has read the whole bill. Death panels? Yep, they’re in there still. They just call them something nicer.  You get the living hell fined out of you for not switching to a “Qualified Plan”. That’s in there too… Only they haven’t actually defined what constitutes a qualified plan yet.  

So, what specifically have I talked about in this bill that is “far from anything resembling reality”?  The part where a public option will be introduced?  The part where there are rationing boards? The part where Obama has flat out lied about what is in the bill?  The part that it is going to cost a fortune that we don’t have? 

You’re so blinded by fear and hatred everything the Dems do seems like some sort of crazy plot to you.

This goes beyond Dem or Repub. If you are an American, period, you need to be concerned about this thing. Why the rush to so fundamentally distort our existing system? Why can’t people take the time to read it first? Why did Pelosi keep 700 pages of small print legalese secret until a few days before the vote? Doesn’t this bother you?  Do you trust these people that much to just assume that they have nothing but your best interests as heart?

This is going to end badly, not because Obama stages a marxist coup, but because some psycho folows Tim McVeigh’s example and kills a bunch of people because you all yelled about how the tree of liberty needs to be watered one too many times.

I like how the specter of violence is always raised by the left to color the tone of the debate. Pelosi talked about how we’re so dangerous in hushed terms. The Tea Parties I’ve been to have been peaceful affairs, but they’re portrayed as screaming maniacs. Janet Napolitano isn’t worried about Muslim terrorists anymore, but rather the greatest threat to America are people who don’t trust the federal government and returning veterans.

I’m sick and tired of this crap. If we right wingers were as unhinged and deadly as Keith Olberman and Obama seem to think we are, then why the HELL do they keep pushing all our buttons? This is just a tactic to paint the right side of the debate in a certain light.  “Oh, you don’t want healthcare? I better tread carefully, because you’re such a psycho, racist, lunatic, gun owning, tea-bagger.” It colors the perceptions of the debate from the very beginning. That is the goal.

Quit believing the news, Dave.  Keep in mind that this is the same news media that can ponder obtusely on whether the Fort Hood shooting was terrorism, and how we can’t jump to conclusions, or paint anyone with a broad brush, or blah blah blah friggin’ blah, when he was in full imam wear that morning, spouted off jihadist propaganda, called up Al Queda, and shot US soldiers while screaming Allah Akabar.

Seriously, if a right-winger went on a shooting rampage while wearing a John 3:16 shirt and singing hymns, how do you think the media would portray it? Would they urge caution in jumping to conclusions, or would they use him to portray everyone on that side of the debate as a lunatic? 

Same media, Dave.

That is what this is coming to, and you’re all too dim to see it, or are secretly rooting for it, I honestly can’t tell which anymore.

I call BULLSHIT.

I read your blog because I have a few guns, Good. and I generally like your sense of humor, Thank you. even when you’re doing political rants I disagree with, My blog. My opinion. (well, at least until the new guy at the FCC who loves Hugo Chavez shuts that down too)

but you’re wandering into crazy land with parts of this one.

Yep. Crazy land. Because I’ve said so much that is so very crazy.

You know what would have been really crazy?  What if last November I had said that within a year, the government would own or directly control 30% of the US economy, would be poised to take over another 18%, that in a time of economic crisis we’d pass cap & trade, that the dollar would spiral downward because of record spending, that the new president would have spend more in a year than any prior administration had in eight, that the new president would take a ten months (and counting) to decide on whether to send more troops to Afghanistan or not after his generals had begged him, that we’d go on a worldwide apology tour to countries that hate us,  that Obama would win the Nobel Peace Prize, that we were going to ram through one of the largest pieces of legislation in history (without reading it!), and that many of our top federal appointments would go to admitted Marxists.

Whew… Now that would have been crazy talk!

I think Obama is losing momentum because he’s equivocating, looking weak and not getting done a lot of the stuff he promised,

 Negative. The reason he’s losing momentum is because America is waking up to what kind of man they elected.  Like I said last year, Obama is the Boy Band of Politics. All flash, no real talent, but boy bands come out of nowhere, and media saturation tells everyone how great they are. Next thing you know they’re on the cover of every magazine in the world.  They’re mega hits, but after a little while people start to realize that the boy band actually sucks and is annoying. Then like all boy bands, people start to hate all the celebrity being shoved down their throats. Then they fade into obscurity and go away.

I think we’ve moved into the backlash phase. Personally, I was ahead way ahead of the culture curve on this one!

not because the country’s discovering he’s a crazy Marxist/Communist/Fascist.

Yeah. I guess that would just be more crazy talk. What with him hiring Mark (Lil’ Hugo) Lloyd, Cass (Population Control)Sunstein, Van (Communist Agitator and Proud!) Jones, Anita (Mao & Mother Theresa) Dunn, Ron (the free market is a lie) Bloom, and crap, I can’t even remember all of the others, but you get the idea.  The President has only said in his own book that he preferred the company of Marxists, and he’s surrounded himself with Marxists. He’s promoted Marxist ideals, goes off on social justice, and has slipped up a few times and talked about wealth redistribution.  Gee whiz… I don’t know why anyone would get the crazy idea that he might, just might, harbor some Marxist tendancies!

Once again, I’ll throw this challenge out, even though no Obama supporter has ever answered it.  Maybe you can help me out, Dave, since the idea that Obama is a Marxist is so very crazy.  Can you name five things that Obama has promoted or pushed for that Karl Marx himself would not approve of? Hell at this point, I’d settle for three… Two maybe?  Come on, Dave, I’m sure he’s done something to prove how CRAZY it is for me to call him a Marxist.

I’ll be waiting on that.

http://mg.booksense.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp?s=storeevents&eventId=431414  I’ll be signing at Mysterious Galaxy with Dave Farland and John Brown.

I received this e-mail a few days ago:

Larry,
Vids:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8KLhLYybbc

I thought you might like to see what we did for our Halloween shotgun match:

Stage 1 Monster Hunter International

SETUP: Shooter will begin at the low ready in Box 1. His shotgun will be fully loaded with the safety
engaged.
PROCEDURE: At the buzzer, the shooter will engage the two Wights until they are fully neutralized. He will then move to Box 2 and engage the Vampire until the heart is destroyed (no red remains on the target or 5 hits). He will ground his shotgun, retrieve an edged weapon (either from the table or from his person) and behead the Master Vampire (switched to cutting in half; people kept launching the sword). He will then retrieve his shotgun and move to Box 3. While moving to Box 3 he may engage the Seeing Eye of the Cursed One. After the Eye has been neutralized, he will engage the 10 tentacles of the Cursed One.

Me on all 4 stages:

Bloodfeast on Stage 1 boomstick division:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwqEB3ChM0Q

Discussion Forums:
http://www.arizonashooting.com/v3/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=86799&start=90
http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=90788

—Russell Phagan
Cavalry Arms Staff

Okay, now that is pretty darn awesome.  I’ve shot a lot of 3gun, and designed a lot of 3gun stages, but I’ve never had anybody do one based on a book that I’ve written before!

And here is another post about it from WTA:

http://wethearmed.com/index.php?topic=6384.0

MHI isn’t just a book, it is a movement!

I’ve seen a lot of commentary today about how Nancy Pelosi is insane to push a healthcare vote the Saturday after the Democrat trouncing in the elections this week.  Republicans aren’t even a factor at this point. It is a given that none of them are voting for this beast.  The only question, since the majority Americans hate this bill, is how many Democrats are willing to throw themselves on the sword and lose their cushy jobs next election?  

This week’s elections demonstrated that the Boy Band of Politics Barack Obama’s star power has lost its luster. The people are royally pissed. Democrats know that if they vote for the healthcare bill they are going to get tossed out of office. Pelosi is pushing it anyway. 

Here is the thing. Pelosi isn’t crazy. (well, not that kind of crazy at least)  She knows exactly what she is doing.  Like I predicted several months ago, Barack Obama will be a one term president, and he knows it.  The true believer ideologues know that.  This is a suicide mission.  They know that this bill is garbage, but it is also the ultimate power grab. Should it pass, the government will control our health, and by extension, since everything effects our health, they’ll get to control everything. This new bill talks about guns and vending machines.   

Pelosi doesn’t care that a bunch of democrats will lose their jobs, because she is in it to win it.  If this passes, then America will be changed, and it will be almost impossible to change it back.  Pelosi is a Marxist, and Marxists are patient. The blue dog democrats are expendable.  All that matters to her is to shift the country further left.  Nancy would love for them to vote for this, then lose their seats, because her work will have been done, and it is hard to untighten the noose when you’re already swinging from the gallows.

This bill isn’t about insuring the sick, lazy, poor, stupid, or your Cousin Pooky. This bill is about twisting America into a socialist country.  If all it was about was forcing insurance companies to be more competitive or to take people with pre-existing conditions, they could do that with a five page bill.  This thing is now 1,900 pages. 

Think about that for a second.  1,900 pages.  Take four reams of paper and stack them on top of each other.  The bill from August was 800 pages shorter, and none of our congressmen had read that one either.  Just what kind of bullshit is going to be crammed into this one?

Unemployment is officially around 10%, and most of us realize that stat is understated. Yet somehow our government’s top priority is pushing a bill that everyone knows will increase unemployment and raise taxes.  Obama has now spent more money than anyone else, ever, combined, in one eighth of the time, and his next big idea is a bill that creates another hundred federal bureaucracies.  The American people’s priorities might be jobs and prosperity, but Obama’s is priority is total Marxist control.

“Silly, Correia. Obama’s not a Marxist. Enough of your terrible right wing hate speech.”

Oh, my apologies.  However could I think that a guy who has hired a bunch of self-proclaimed communists, and who surrounds himself with union thugs, and who’s mentors were Marxists, and who hung out with socialists in college, and who has fostered unprecedented power grabs in record time, and who’s employees seem to quote a lot of Mao, and who has never pushed one single thing that Karl Marx himself would disapprove of, could possibly not be as pure as the driven snow!

After the stimulus bills, the government controls or directly oversees about thirty percent of our economy. With healthcare they’ll gain another 18%.  That means that the government will be controlling about half of our nation’s economy.  So, wait a second… will all those people who told me I was crazy for calling Obama a Marxist last year finally admit that I was right when the government controls HALF of the business in America?  No?  So,when then? 70%?  Is he still a moderate when the government controls 99% of the free market?  I won’t know, because I’ll probably be in a ‘reeducation’ camp by then. Net neutrality, don’t you know.

In the last election, the Republican beat the Democrat in Virginia by 18 points.  This is a pretty evenly divided purple state.  Then the Republican won in bluest of blue New Freaking Jersey. JERSEY!  I didn’t know they still allowed Republicans in Jersey. Pelosi has held up New York 23 as a victory, which is kind of strange when you realize that the Democrat (endorsed by the Republican) beat a 3^rd party candidate (who the GOP actually spent money attacking), after the locals got sick and tired of people who’d support healthcare and went RINO hunting, and the liberal Republican she-hag only dropped out of the race a week ago.  He lost by 5%, which ironically is what the Republican got because she was still on the ballot.  So picking up that one congressional seat was somehow better than losing two governorships, Nancy? Now that is some good spin.

This is it guys.  This is the big push.  This isn’t about healthcare. This is about control. I’m sick and tired of politicians wanting to control my life. I just want them to leave me ALONE.  So now I find myself counting on the friggin’ Democrats as the last line of defense to do the right thing… That is unnerving.

Okay, here is something a little crazy for you to consider.  A bunch of people have been asking me about the possibility of a hardcover copy of Monster Hunter International.  I ran this past the publisher, and she said that it was a possibility eventually, as this has happened with other Baen series that have become really popular (like Miles Vorksogian and Honor Harrington), however, I’ve still got a way to go before that, and an omnibus edition once there are more MHI books out is more likely first.

But…  a limited run of these would be a possibility:

http://www.eastonpress.com/intro2.asp

So, the question is, how many of you would be down for a leather-bound, fancy, signed edition of Monster Hunter International?   The downside is that you pay for quality, and it would run about $50.  No, you don’t get to pick what kind of monster the leather is made out of.  (but if anyone asks, you can tell them that it is real minotaur). 

So what I need from you is to post in the comments here if you would buy one of these.  Please, only post if you really would pony up the money, because I need to get an actual idea if this is doable or not. 

Thanks.

November 12th – Mysterious Galaxy, 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
Suite #302 San Diego (858) 268-4747   7:00 PM

November 19th – Barnes & Nobel, Dana Park Village Square
1758 South Val Vista Drive Mesa, AZ 85204 (480) 545-8507 3-5 PM

November 19th – The Poisoned Pen, 4014 N Goldwater Blvd. Suite 101
Scottsdale, AZ 85251 (480) 947-2974  7:00-9:00 PM

December 5th – Barnes & Nobel, The Promenade Shops at Centerra
5835 Sky Pond Drive, Loveland, CO 80537 (970) 663-9473  1-3 PM

December 5th – Barnes & Nobel, 8374 South Willow Street
Lone Tree, CO   80124 (303) 706-9660 5- 7 PM