About Pierce Brown, My New Book, and a Giveaway!

Hi SF&F and Pierce Brown Community Members!

I’ve known Pierce Brown a long time. I own The Signed Page in Seattle, WA and I have authors stop by to sign books while they are on tour. Pierce Brown signed for me when Red Rising published and he’s stopped by for every book after that. Maybe some of you have ordered signed copies of Pierce’s books from me. So I’m not a complete stranger.

Regardless, Pierce and I have been friends since the day we met. We have dinners together. We have drinks together. And we text periodically. So when I was driving him from his Iron Gold Portland event to his Seattle event, he asked what I was currently writing. I told him about The Tempered Steel of Antiquity Grey — a SF&F hybrid novel similar to Red Rising but with mechs, dragons, and an attack from the stars. He loved the idea of the story. I told him he was an influence. He laughed at that, and then he said, “Well, the story is good. You need to fix that title. The Steel Within would be better. But that sounds like a Sam Sykes title. Hmmm.” We both laughed. And after that drive, I would go on to finish the novel, have it professionally edited by former Del Rey Books editor in chief Betsy Mitchell, and get some wonderful Todd Lockwood art on it. The book publishes in September and I’m thrilled with it. And as you can see above, Aidan Moher likened my book to Pierce’s debut.

The novel would go on to also be blurbed by John Joseph Adams, Terry Brooks, Robin Hobb, Mark Lawrence, and Janny Wurts. But I wanted to do something fun with the release, some extra piece. I decided to write a 32,000-word e-novella that is a prequel to the novel. It is titled The Undone Life of Jak Dreadth. It published last week. And the prequel already has some reviews on Amazon HERE.

I’m not here to pitch the September novel to you guys. That’s a big commitment to ask readers. Especially since I’m a relative unknown. But an e-novella? It might be an easy way for you to see what I’ve done without spending all of that money:

• Kindle
• Nook
• Kobo

I’m also conducting a giveaway! Click HERE for a chance to win one of twenty (20) e-novellas. Winners will be randomly drawn during a Facebook Live on Wednesday, May 5th at 11 AM PT. I love taking questions and talking SF&F! Should be a fun virtual event.

158 ENTRIES TOTAL, WINNERS ANNOUNCED BELOW:

• Caitlin Menzies
• Chester Paul Crawford Jr.
• Brian Robinson
• Sharon Park
• Joshua Bradley
• Timothy Meier
• Willy Duffle
• Joseph Rice
• John Willis
• Lauri Holmes
• Jackson E. Johnston
• John Ilacqua
• Richard Quist
• Joshua Sutton
• Michael Hustead
• Joseph Chong
• Mary Cherry
• Aaron McLean
• Dan Dortch
• Robert Ailing

I hope you all are well and reading something great!

Best Wishes,
Shawn