In the Claws of the Tiger news

The official release date is almost upon us, and a couple of people over at worldsofdnd.com have reported picking up copies. As of Friday night, neither the Borders nor the Barnes & Noble in Tukwila (near where I live and work) have it in stock. 

I noticed another reference to it in the Player's Guide to Eberron the other day—in the Documents entry, the art depicting a letter of marque is made out in the name of Janik Martell, and dated with the date Dania secured the letter in Sharn. I had forgotten I did that, and now I think that was a neat touch. :)

The forums at worldsofdnd.com have book club threads set up for discussing the book. Apparently no one has yet read through Chapter 4. I expect to be there pretty regularly, answering questions and reading feedback, so that's a great place to visit if you want to talk with me about my book!

Well, maybe not nobody. I loaned copies of the book to Rob Heinsoo from work and Cameron Curtis, who used to play in my Eberron campaign. (Remember that campaign? Yeah, he and Dave Noonan were both leaning on me pretty hard over the holiday weekend to get it started up again.) Rob finished it and liked it, except for one specific critique about the ending. I'm going to wait and see if other people say the same thing in the book club before I talk about it at all. :) I respect Rob's opinion, so it was good to get his feedback. Cameron said that it reminded him of my campaign, which I'm forced to take as a compliment.

I'm going to GenCon, as I think I mentioned. I'm scheduled to sit at a table and sign books with the esteemed Matt Forbeck (who has been called the nicest guy in gaming), on Thursday, August 10 at 11:00 am. I feel like I've written about this before, but I can't prove it either way. Anyway, there are also Eberron signings scheduled in Author's Alley, and I'm going to try to get to those as well, depending on my work schedule for the show. As always, I'll be around the WotC booth most of the time.

Other Writing
Not novel-related, but I wrote two articles for the WotC web site that have appeared on the last two Fridays. The first one talked about playing D&D with my son, and I've been getting a lot of really cool feedback about that one—lots of people telling stories about gaming with their kids or finding the improvisational inspiration while DMing. That's cool. The second one discusses the new stat block format.

The Actual Task of Writing
Remember my whole Starbucks saga, about being told that Starbucks is phasing out its Valencia syrup? And how it was supposedly permanent, according to the manager I talked to? Turns out, its "corporate-permanent," which means something like, "permanent until we decide to cancel it." A barista recently told me they're phasing it out in September. And my next novel isn't due until November. How am I supposed to get this thing done?

Well, in the Starbucks attached to the Barnes & Noble in Tukwila (like how I tie the beginning and end together?), I found a big bottle of Valencia syrup for sale. I bought it. I plan to go back and look for more. I'm going to stockpile it. That's the only way I can imagine actually finishing this next novel.