Sorcerers and Seer Cover Revealed--Update

I'll let fans and followers see it first. Here's the new cover for Tennis Shoes Volume 11: Sorcerers and Seers. I'm not sure it's my favorite cover, but it is my favorite book, so that makes up for it. :)

The book heads to press next week. They say its release is still set in stone for September. Hard to believe they can turn things around that fast now. I still have at least two full days left before I complete the unabridged audio recording. Then Covenant's audio editor has their work cut out for them to meet the deadline.

Fans can still pre-order Volume 11 by going to: Link

The book and audio tape are both discounted. Some fans have asked if the ordering site is secure. Yes, I've paid the "protection" money (sounds like the mob!) to my Merchant Account, but I've left it to my webmaster to post the "Secure Certificate" info, and he has not done so. An error message also shows at the top of the page, but please ignore it. The so-called "error" has nothing to do with the ordering part of the site. Pretty rinky-dink, I know. The best option for some may be to just call me directly. Then we skip the website and go directly to the Merchant Account--no middle man. Many have called to order this way. I've had a few people express reservations about calling the author directly. I guess I understand that. Some would like me to remain like the magician in the back room, too mysterious to actually speak to folks. But, hey, I LIKE talking to fans, and this is how I make a living, so if you don't want to order online, please feel free to call me at 801-495-0555. Leave your number if I'm unavailable and I'll call ASAP.

For the audio recording we settled on four separate narrators. Me, Carlyn Blake, Dave Walker, and Summer Naomi Smart. Summer and Dave were the hardest to nail down. Dave has narrated many Covenant audio tapes, and has traditionally done the part of Marcos for my stuff, but for the last year he has been bogged down in a start-up business. Both he and Summer did this as a personal favor to me, so I am deeply grateful. My sister, Carlyn, as usual is wonderful to work with. She flew down from Boise and reprised her role of Meagan, doing a spectacular job.

So who played Joshua??? Well, I looked into possibly hiring another narrator, but in the end, I decided to read Joshua's part myself. Joshua has some intense stuff in this book, and I wanted it done right. If I'd looked hard enough, I'm sure I could have found the perfect narrator for that part, but who has time? This product will be ON THE SHELVES in a month! It seems like this has all happened very fast, but I got to hand it to my publisher. They pulled out all the stops.

The page count on this book ended up over 500 pages! NOW we're in Harry Potter-length territory. I'm certain fans won't care. They're just getting more adventure for their money. It's very cool, because my initial impression was that they were going to expand the margins and decrease the fontsize so that they could keep the book the same basic length as the previous book, or as we call it in the publishing biz, keep the same "pagination." The best part is, even with this book almost 100 pages longer than any other Tennis Shoes book, they only raised the price a buck. And the audio book, at least for now, is the exact same price as the unabridged audio for "Kingdoms and Conquerors". To accomplish this, there may be some modest, undiscernable time compression and 13 CDs instead of 12. Sure, it means I don't get a "raise" in royalty, but at this point, after making fans wait for so many years, I'm more pleased that the publisher has been price conscious and tried to keep down costs.

As I have said, I personally feel this is the strongest book I've written to date. It tackles so many subjects that no fiction author--LDS or non-LDS--has ever tackled. Great fun. As long as it remains a challenge, it also remains fun, and that's the most important thing for me as an artist.