Chronicle of GLORY!!!

Now I'm not usually one to boast but I received a special something in the mail today and I had to share...

Behold My Prize!!!

That's right, one of the first ARCs of The Coldest War - Volume Two of The Milkweed Triptych. And signed by Ian Tregillis no less...

All it took was a few obsessive compulsive days spent puzzling over the narrative challenge that was Chronicle of Sorrows, an ARG-esque enigma built into Tregillis's website. You can get the full scoop here. While all of the prizes have already been claimed (yetiwoot!) I would really recommend you give the game a try. It's fiendishly tricky AND it provides some pretty cool context to the first chapter of the excellent Bitter Seeds.

And if you haven't read Bitter Seeds yet, shame on you. Not only was it one of the best books of 2010, it's so good GRRM put off publishing A Dance With Dragons for another year just to avoid competing with it on Best of 2010 lists. The triptychular structure of the book is so awesome, Tor can't even calm down long enough to publish them on time. Stop what you are doing now, go read the book, them return here.

[::waits patiently::]

Welcome back. How good was that? Like me, you are now eagerly anticipating the follow up volume. Unlike me, you do not have a copy. But don't feel too bad. Although you probably won't be able to get a print copy of The Coldest War until it's release date in July, you can listen to the audiobook as soon as RIGHT NOW!!! over on audible.com. For reasons not entirely clear to me, the book has been edited for a long while, just not printed by Tor. As a result, the final edited copy was published via audiobook back in January. I can't do audiobooks, but if you can, have it at.

So to recap:

1) I've got a copy of The Coldest War. Bwa-hah-hah-ha.
2) Ian Tregillis has a really cool narrative game on his website. You should try it.
3) If you haven't read Bitter Seeds yet you should. It is awesome and available now..
4) The Coldest War will be available July 17th from Tor.
5) If you can't wait that long, The Coldest War is currently available via audiobook from audible.com.

I'll be in my bunk.

In Which I Threaten To Lose All Respect For The Hugo Award

Earlier today, I got the heads up via Twitter that GRRM himself referenced my blog in a LiveJournal entry about Hugo Award Nominees. (I think I might post that to Facebook and add it as a reference on LinkedIn just to round out the social media cycle.) He was writing about the controversy surrounding the Best Fanzine category. Last year the Hugo community voted to limit eligibility to traditional e-zines, ostracizing "new media" fan contributions like blogs and podcasts. The post has sparked some interesting discussion and I'd recommend you check it out. Particularly the point at which he says

"I think there are some great fannish blogs and e-zines and podcasts out there, I think they are the future, and I'm going to nominate a bunch of them. Some of my own favorites include PAT'S FANTASY HOTLIST, THE WERTZONE, MAKING LIGHT, THE BLOG OF THE FALLEN (okay, he doesn't like my stuff, but it's still a good read), STOMPING ON YETI, CHEESE MAGNETS, HATHOR LEGACY, and PUNKADIDDLE."

Blatant redaction aside, I am pretty excited to know that Mr. Martin is not only aware of this travesty I call a book blog, but that he felt it was worth nominating for a Hugo Award. Granted, it's not, but it's nice that he thought so. To put it in "gif" form, I would be Stephen Colbert to GRRM's no-nonsense Barney Frank.

It's pretty much the coolest thing that's happened to Stomping on Yeti since Neil Gaiman directly linked my blog from his. The traffic, my cthulu, the traffic...

I suspect it has something to do with my press release for A FLOOD OF FLAMES, the sixth and final book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. Or maybe he just has a penchant for things which are released once every couple of years. (Sorry, couldn't resist). Either way, very cool.

That being said - please don't vote for me. I've been a really crappy blogger recently and I in no way deserve any attention for my work here. If I even found my way onto the ballot (I assure you I won't), I would lose 99% of my respect for the Hugo award.
If you're a regular reader, I hope to get back into the swing of things now that I've got a little bit more free time. I still owe you (and a lot of worthy authors) spotlight posts for November, December, and January. I've got them in various states of completion - I just need to get them posted.

Alternatively, if you've found this blog for the first time as a result of someone's GRRMblings, welcome! I hope you enjoy what you find here and if you want to find the good stuff, ignore the last month or so.

And for all, if you do like my writing and want me to keep doing this, I would encourage you to stop by often and contribute to the conversation through comments. And not just on Stomping on Yeti - this extends to the blogs of all my wonderful compatriots who send their words into the internet ether for the sheer satisfaction of doing so. The vast majority of us don't get paid for this (I sure as hell don't) and it really means a lot to know people are reading it and that they appreciate the effort - even if we don't get to have an official category at the Hugos.

What Do We Have Here?

Cool, no?

Last week was my birthday and my wife (also a photographer/graphic designer) surprised me with a short stack of custom designed bookmarks based on the logo which she previously fashioned for me. They've even got my website and e-mail address on the back if I ever need to pass along a business card in the book blogging world. For whatever reason, I have trouble keeping track of my bookmarks. Possibly something to do with the thousand or so books I have cluttering up our apartment.

These reach the elusive PhoenixYeti Level of Awesomesaucity so I just might have to hold a contest or two in the near future so I can send a few of these little guys into the wild. I think I might have an extra signed 1st edition of The Wise Man's Fear somewhere around here... but no one would be interested in that, right?

More on that later... In the mean time, what good are new bookmarks without new (or, in this case, old) books to put them in?

How about a pile of classic science fiction short story collections? In pitch perfect, The Price Is Right style, Jennifer rounded out my geek gift showcase not with a new DeLorean, but by providing approximately 5,000 pages of genre goodness for me to bookmark to my heart's content.  If you're counting (from top to bottom), the books pictured are the 17th, 12th, 9th, 16th, and 11th editions of Gardner Dozois's seminal Year's Best Science Fiction series. Each year, Dozois pulls together the stories he feels best represent the science fiction genre and republishes them in one massive collection. For context (and to make Dozois feel old in the off chance he's reading this), he's been doing it for longer than I've been alive. I've made it my latest project to pull together the complete set so the 19% jump was more than appreciated.

At this point, I'm not sure which part of the gift I'm excited about more. All I know is life could be worse.

Thanks kid!