# THE BLACK GOD'S WAR--The Novel Arriveth! #SFFWRTCHT Tonight!



## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

*UPDATE:**

Here are the links to the newly released novel:

The Black God's War [A Stand-Alone Novel] (Splendor and Ruin, Book I)


__________

Hi everyone, I'm thrilled to be here and very thankful for this warm community. I hope you'll sample my dramatic work and consider writing a review. The title just went live on Amazon and Smashwords.

THE BLACK GOD'S WAR: A Novella Introducing a New Epic Fantasy

Her father-king wants war.

Her messianic brother wants peace.

The black god wants his due.

She suffers all the consequences.


"An inventive tale with high command of craft."
--Scott Nicholson, Author of Drummer Boy​
Buy it for the introductory price of 89 cents. Word count: 24K.

​







ing Vieri's war against the lands of Pawelon rages into its tenth year, and with the kingdom's holy savior, his son Caio, en route to the fighting in the storied canyon, victory ought to come soon. Feeling abandoned by his god, King Vieri forces young Caio to lead his army to victory.

The Black One, Lord Danato, tortures Lucia with nightly visions promising another ten years of bloodshed. She can no longer tell the difference between the waking world and Danato's nightmares. Lucia knows the black god too well; he entered her bed and dreams when she was ten.

As the epic battles rage, Lucia struggles to understand the messages of The Black One, while Caio wrestles with his conscience: Can someone who only wants to heal the world bring himself to kill another man?
_______

A novella-length story introducing a new epic fantasy novel by the same title.









Lucia, from THE BLACK GOD'S WAR, drawn by Rich W. Ware​
_______

In 



, I read from my first chapter. You can also read the first chapter for free on my GoodReads profile.*


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

Very nice presentation.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Welcome to KindleBoards, Moses, and congratulations on your book!

Just as a matter of housekeeping, we put a copy of the "welcome letter" in each book thread. It doesn't mean you've done anything wrong, just helps us know that you know the rules. So here it is!

We invite you to use your book cover as your avatar and have links to your book and website in your signature. Don't forget to bookmark this thread (using your browser's bookmark/favorite function) so you can update it. Although self-promotion is limited to the Book Bazaar, most of our authors have found the best way to promote their books is to be as active throughout KindleBoards as time allows. This is your target audience--book lovers with Kindles!

Thanks for being part of KindleBoards! Feel free to PM us if you have any questions.

Betsy & Ann
Book Bazaar Moderators

_The fine print:
Please add to your existing book thread when you have news about your book rather than start a new one, it helps the members who are trying to follow you. You may have a separate thread for each of your books. We recommend you bookmark your post so that you can find it in the future.  You may respond to all posts, but if there have been no member posts, we ask that you wait a week before "bumping" the thread by posting back-to-back posts of your own. And we ask that Amazon reviews not be repeated here as they are easy to find at your book link. Also, full reviews from other sites should not be posted here, but you may post a short blurb and a link to the full review instead. All this, and more, is included in our Forum Decorum. From time to time our site rules may change; be sure to check Forum Decorum (http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,36.0.html) for the current guidelines and rules. _


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

Thanks David and Betsy & Ann.

David, what I did for the drop cap (as you can probably guess) is I made a small graphic that uses the baby blue color as the background color, then inserted it where the first sentence starts.

I have a bit of news, too. I just got my first review on my book! It was a very thoughtful review, so it was a great way to get started. EDIT: And a second review was just added.


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## Sandra Edwards (May 10, 2010)

Good luck with the new book! Hope you get tons of sales 

Sandy


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

Thanks Sarah, it's been great fun so far and the feedback has been better than I'd hoped for.

And I even have a product description now!


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## Guest (Aug 14, 2010)

Hey!
Awesome cover!
sounds interesting. i may just check it out!
Good luck
Dave


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

Thanks very much, Dave! Since you mentioned the cover, here's a question I was recently asked in an interview:
*
How did you create your cover?*

A muse popped the idea into my head to put together half a woman's face with an ancient Greek helm. I dug around on istockphoto.com until the perfect images manifested, and then I went to work on laying it all out. The woman fits the description of one of the key goddesses in my story. Her ethnicity is perfect, her hair is exactly as I pictured it, and she's covered in vines--just like the goddess Mya from the story. I also got a lot of help and input from my friends on Facebook (shout out to David Kerschner).

Your series looks great, David. Congratulations on that. There are so many interesting fantasy reads around here!


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

And it's got five reviews on Amazon now.

Here's my recent author interview on the Kindle Author blog.


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## slwiser (Dec 28, 2009)

Very good read...looking forward to the more complete version.


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

slwiser said:


> Very good read...looking forward to the more complete version.


Thank you, slwiser!


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

Eight Amazon reviews now, and I'm excited for the excerpt that should go out to Kindle Nation Daily's email list on Monday (Labor Day in the US). Thanks for reading this.


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

slwiser said:


> Very good read...looking forward to the more complete version.


Agreed. I really enjoyed it and I _love _your cover.


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

Thanks, Monique! I've actually read the first (long) chapter of your work, and despite it being way out of my normal genre reading, I think it's excellent so far. I've found so many great writers around here.


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

MosesSiregarIII said:


> Thanks, Monique! I've actually read the first (long) chapter of your work, and despite it being way out of my normal genre reading, I think it's excellent so far. I've found so many great writers around here.


Cool! Thanks. I hope you like the rest of it too.

I just checked out your rankings. Dang! You're kicking bootay! Congratulations. I feel like I can say I was there when...


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

Monique said:


> I just checked out your rankings. Dang! You're kicking bootay! Congratulations. I feel like I can say I was there when...


Ha! It is going to be cool to see if any of the KB indies become rock stars someday. Whoever they are (Hocking? Nicholson?), I'll be a groupie in their entourage.

So I've been having a nice couple days. I'm currently sitting at #529 in the overall Kindle store and #6 in the Kindle>Fantasy>Epic category.

My free, six-chapter excerpt is up on Kindle Nation Daily.

There's also a KND blog sponsorship today, and later today Kindle Nation Daily is also likely to be posting my YouTube video, in which I read my first chapter (also linked to at the end of the first post in this thread).

EDIT: Here's KND's post with the video.


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

It looks like your promo is going great!

It's a very good book and I wish you success with it. I can't wait until the full novel comes out.


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

Groovy, D. Nathan. Thank you.

So Kindle Nation Daily posted a video of me reading the first chapter. They did a great job for me.

From the Lies, d*mn Lies, and Amazon Rankings department, I'm currently the #3 book in Kindle > Fantasy > Epic, ahead of everyone not named Sanderson or Martin. Also #372 overall. I did not expect that to happen.


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## Valmore Daniels (Jul 12, 2010)

MosesSiregarIII said:


> Groovy, D. Nathan. Thank you.
> 
> So Kindle Nation Daily posted a video of me reading the first chapter. They did a great job for me.
> 
> From the Lies, d*mn Lies, and Amazon Rankings department, I'm currently the #4 book in Kindle > Fantasy > Epic, ahead of everyone not named Sanderson, Martin, or Weeks. Also #395 overall. I did not expect that to happen.


You're doing fantastic, Moses. You have a great cover and solid writing. I can't wait for the full novel!


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

Valmore Daniels said:


> You're doing fantastic, Moses. You have a great cover and solid writing. I can't wait for the full novel!


You're great, Valmore. Thanks very much.

If anyone out there has read the work, I'd be thrilled to hear more from you about your experience with it. Likes, dislikes, opinions, etc.?


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

There are now 14 Amazon reviews on this work, including a new one that blew me away.

I've been keeping busy recently, editing chapters from the full novel. I can't tell you how excited I am to complete the work and make it available, but it won't be released until it's professionally edited and absolutely ready.

As before, any comments or questions on this work are welcome.


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## Guest (Sep 21, 2010)

I saw you featured here yesterday:







http://indiefantasywritersunlimited.blogspot.com/


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

Good call, M.R. I should've linked to that. I may also have a review to link to in the next week or two.


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## Guest (Sep 26, 2010)

PM me any review links that you cpme across to sites with more than 500 followers.


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

I hit a little milestone recently. I got my 15th Amazon review. It's up to eight 5-star reviews and seven 4-star reviews.

One of the scariest things coming into this was not knowing how the book would be received and reviewed, but thanks to beginner's luck it's been a good start.


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## Guest (Sep 29, 2010)

The reviews are well deserved, but I want the rest of the story, so quit promoting and get to writing!


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

M.R. Mathias said:


> The reviews are well deserved, but I want the rest of the story, so quit promoting and get to writing!


Ha! No worries there, mon frere. I'm not doing much promotion right now. Just writing pretty much every day.


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## slwiser (Dec 28, 2009)

Just keep the quality up;  it will be finished when it is finished and we will all enjoy it.

Actually, few books have hit me with the same early intensity as this one did.  The other one, I hate to mention since it has been so long ago and was such a hit was The Magician, by Feist.  So this makes me look forward for the completion with a lot of anticipation.  

Not to put and pressure on you of course.


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

slwiser said:


> Just keep the quality up; it will be finished when it is finished and we will all enjoy it.
> 
> Actually, few books have hit me with the same early intensity as this one did. The other one, I hate to mention since it has been so long ago and was such a hit was The Magician, by Feist. So this makes me look forward for the completion with a lot of anticipation.
> 
> Not to put and pressure on you of course.


No problem at all. I put a lot of pressure on my myself and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Your comment really inspires me, so thank you.

Maintaining the best quality I can is extremely important to me. I'll be spending many blissful hours making little tweaks here and there between now and May, and the book will be professionally copyedited after being read by as many test readers as I can find. It's going to take at least until May (I'm cautiously optimistic about reaching that deadline), and if it's not ready by then I'll tack on another month or a few if that's what it takes.


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## Guest (Oct 13, 2010)

Review of "The Black God's War" on Indie Fantasy Review:

http://indiefantasyreview.blogspot.com/


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

Red Adept just reviewed this one and gave it 5/5 Stars:

"I enjoyed this novella from its opening chapter to its gripping end ... The writing style of this novella immediately put me at ease in the setting."

There are now 20 Amazon reviews, not including Red Adept's review.

It also has a new and improved cover that you can see here.


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

Ho Ho Ho!

Ho Ho Ho!

You'll shoot your eye out, kid.

Ho Ho Ho!

My 25K-word novella is currently free of charge and freshly updated with some extra holiday polish as of 3:00 am Christmas morning (seriously) at Smashwords. Or, it's still 99 cents at Amazon (link in my sig). Thanks very much for checking it out!


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

Please forgive me for tooting me horn, but writing a novel does strange things to a man.

A fellow writer, Guido Henkel, has been reading some of my work and I was very pleased to find some of the nice things he said (link) about it. Thanks, Google Alerts!

I feel so dirty for posting this, but here goes:

_____

"At this point I have started to read Moses Siregar’s novella “The Black God’s War.” He wrote this story as a precursor to his upcoming full-length novel of the same name. An interesting concept, to be sure, and if the first four chapters are any indication, I will most definitely read the novel once it becomes available.

The book is a mix between the mythology of Greek and Hellenic cultures, it seems, intermingled with somewhat more traditional fantasy elements. It reads like historical fiction with a fantasy twist. Things feel and sound real enough to give you the historical feel, yet none of it is part of actual mythology or history, thus giving it a familiar, yet completely new, fictitious flair.

Siregar’s writing style is also natural and flows very well, making it for a fast and easy read. There is none of the superficial style found in the books of many first time novelists trying so hard to impress the reader — or more accurately, the critics — while seemingly forgetting entirely that a good story is told as a good story and not an assortment of literary language gimmicks.

Siregar on the other hand, has a firm grip on his writing and seems to be very comfortable letting the story flow and his characters develop. It makes for really enjoyable reading and I am eagerly continuing this story. I will, of course, tell you more about “The Black God’s War” when I‘m finished reading it."

_____

I'm going to go take a shower now.


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

Three cheers for the Brits! I got my first Amazon.co.uk review.

And here's another one that my Google Alerts found. Here's the conclusion:

"Overall, The Black God's War is a wonderful read. Siregar's debut is an excellent example of what the quality of the indie author scene is capable of, and I look forward to reading the full novel and more works by him in the future. More like this, please."

I'm still doing lots of editing and some rewriting on the novel. Unless something odd happens, I'm still looking to release it in May.


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## Valmore Daniels (Jul 12, 2010)

Hello all! 

I just wanted to let everyone know that I'll be awarding a copy of Moses' epic novella "The Black God's War" as one of today's prizes in the *Angel Fire Fantasy Contest * held right here in the Book Bazaar.

Click here for details: http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,50055.msg868847.html#msg868847


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## Valmore Daniels (Jul 12, 2010)

I’d like to give a big shout out to all the kindleboards authors who participated in my book launch. It was a lot of work, but it was a lot of fun. 

Thank you all


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

Great job pulling off the contests, Valmore! What did you learn from all this?


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

Another reader has been fooled!

"Moses is a fine writer and is deserving of success, and I think that it will follow ... maybe his project will turn him into the next Amanda Hocking. Personally, I really enjoyed Moses's work." 
--David Farland, NYT Bestselling Author of The Runelords

David mentioned me in his free "Daily Kick" email service. David is cool.


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## Valmore Daniels (Jul 12, 2010)

MosesSiregarIII said:


> Great job pulling off the contests, Valmore! What did you learn from all this?


Hey Moses  For a new release, getting the intial word out is the greatest challenge. Without benefit of expensive ads, one of the most effective ways to generate some buzz is through giveaways, where everybody wins.

For the launch of Angel Fire, I wanted to do something a little more and give away a few other fantasy books from KBers as well. That served a few purposes: it made the prizes a little more valuable; it helped get the word out about some very worthwhile books; and I didn't feel like I was always talking about me, me, me. 

I know I'll be doing something similar when I release my next book, and I hope some of other authors on KB will make their book launches an "event" by doing something special.

BTW ... we're all waiting for your full-length novel!  Hurry up and get writing.


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

Valmore Daniels said:


> Hey Moses  For a new release, getting the intial word out is the greatest challenge. Without benefit of expensive ads, one of the most effective ways to generate some buzz is through giveaways, where everybody wins.
> 
> For the launch of Angel Fire, I wanted to do something a little more and give away a few other fantasy books from KBers as well. That served a few purposes: it made the prizes a little more valuable; it helped get the word out about some very worthwhile books; and I didn't feel like I was always talking about me, me, me.
> 
> ...


Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get that a lot 

It's coming along. Looking forward to May.

Thanks for sharing your feedback on the launch. I am indeed working on a big giveaway and lining up some blogs and podcasts to appear on. I'll be a very busy boy for a month or two after the release. I can't wait!


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

To celebrate Amazon's free promotion of my novella The Black God's War and to honor the ebook gods, I'm giving away a free Kindle, Nook, or $100 gift card, as well as a $100 donation to one winner's charity of his or her choice.

This link explains how you can be entered in the free giveaway. Please feel free to share it and to add your comments to this thread.

_--- edit... new post merged with original thread. please remember, only one thread per book. please read our Forum Decorum thread._


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

Hi friends, long time no update. I've just announced the release date for the novel (August 1st), along with the new cover and book description, on my blog.










Against the backdrop of epic warfare and the powers of ten mysterious gods, Lucia struggles to understand The Black One.

Her father-king wants war.

Her messianic brother wants peace.

The black god wants his due.

She suffers all the consequences.

King Vieri is losing his war against the lands of Pawelon. Feeling abandoned by his god, he forces his son Caio, the kingdom's holy savior, to lead his army. Victory ought to come soon.

To counter Caio's powers, Pawelon's prince enters the conflict. Rao is a gifted sage, a master of spiritual laws. He joins the rajah to defend their citadel against the invaders. But Rao's ideals soon clash with his army's general.

The Black One tortures Lucia nightly with visions promising another ten years of bloodshed. She can no longer tell the difference between the waking world and her nightmares. Lucia knows The black god too well. He entered her bed and dreams when she was ten.

The Black One watches, waiting to see Lucia confront an impossible decision over the fates of two men-and two lands.


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## StaceyHH (Sep 13, 2010)

I guess I need to get busy clearing the decks so I can read this 3 weeks from now. Looking forward to it.


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

StaceyHH said:


> I guess I need to get busy clearing the decks so I can read this 3 weeks from now. Looking forward to it.


Thank you! I hope it'll be worth the wait.

I'm feeling pretty good about it. Can't wait to hear what readers think.


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

Really looking forward to it, Moses!


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

Monique said:


> Really looking forward to it, Moses!


I hug thee.

Btw, Stacey, I've had someone named "HH" commenting on my blog. I was pretty sure it wasn't you, but I had to double-check. It was Hedra Helix LOL.


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## StaceyHH (Sep 13, 2010)

Great name.  Nope, wasn't me. I pop in there once in awhile and read, but I don't think I've ever commented.


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

HAParker321 said:


> Quoted post and original post removed; soliciting business and/or self-promotion in someone else's book thread is considered bad form. Thanks.
> 
> Betsy
> KB Moderator


That's fantastic. Thank you, Parker. I'll be in touch.


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## StaceyHH (Sep 13, 2010)

Is anyone else reading this right now? Holy Moses (pardon the tired old pun, ) it's fantastic! It's "read slowly" fantastic. I keep checking my GR and FB "currently reading" lists to see if any of my friends are reading it, so I can talk about it. (They never listen to me until I post my review.) Last book (series) I was this in love with was the _Psalms of Isaac_ series by Ken Scholes. The mythology is incredibly rich, and I'm really loving the lack of a clear bad guy/good guy.

I had to tell somebody.


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

Thanks, Stacey. I haven't even posted a link to the novel in the Bazaar yet, so here we go.

The Black God's War [A Stand-Alone Novel] (Splendor and Ruin, Book I)


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## VickiT (May 12, 2010)

Congratulations, Moses.  

Best of luck with it. Not that you need luck -- I have no doubt it's a winner.

Cheers
Vicki


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

VickiT said:


> Congratulations, Moses.
> 
> Best of luck with it. Not that you need luck -- I have no doubt it's a winner.
> 
> ...


Thank you, Vicki!


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## 31842 (Jan 11, 2011)

Just wanted to drop you a note to say I started your book last night and it kept me up till the wee hours.  Really digging it!  Great job!


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

KateDanley said:


> Just wanted to drop you a note to say I started your book last night and it kept me up till the wee hours. Really digging it! Great job!


Thanks very much, Kate! I aim to insomniate!


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

I'm the featured author for the #SFFWRTCHT Twitter chat tonight, starting at 9 pm Eastern/6 pm Pacific. It's a nice author interview chat series. We're also giving away a free trade paperback to one person participating in the chat.


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