***Interview with Moses***

AUGUST 20, 2010—I made a mistake when I first discovered Michael J. Sullivan. I found his books on Amazon and read some of the reviews of his first book. Despite the overwhelming ratio of positive to negative reviews (14:1), I read the handful of critical reviews and decided not to try his series. Yeah. I know, that was pretty dumb. Lesson learned (seriously)."

So begins my interview with Moses Siregar III...

***Royce and Hadrian Make Themselves Heard***

JULY 25, 2010—Since my first book signing people have asked for an audio version of my books. Yesterday the final episode of the audio version of The Crown Conspiracy went up on Podiobooks.com and iTunes and the best news…it is free. You can also download the same audio version of Crown direct from iTunes.

***Foregin Rights Deal: Riyria Going to the Czech Republic***

JULY 3—Through a series of strange developments where one person told another and so on, I found a wonderful Foreign Language Rights Agent who finally closed the deal with Argo, a major publisher in the Czech Republic.

*** Best Fantasy Books of the 21st Century ***

I was absolutely floored to find my name mentioned along with the likes of Joe Abercrombie, Patrick Rothfuss, and Jim Butcher in Ben Lingenfelter's article: Best Fantasy Books of the 21st Century: Titles and Authors Worth Reading I have no idea who you are Mr. Lingenfelter but you made my day, week, and probably whole year of 2010.  Thank you.  CLICK TO READ ARTICLE | CLICK TO READ BLOG

*** Avempartha Wins BSC Tournament ***

APRIL 20—The final round of BSC’s fourth annual Book Tournament (best of 2009) came down to Michael J. Sullivan’s Avempartha and Catherynne Valente’s Palimpsest.  It was everything a year-end best of contest should be:  democratically selected, round-by-round from 64 of the most-discussed titles of the year; weighted in favor of informed voters who can argue why their choice is the best; publicly chosen...

*** Dec 24, 2009 - Crown Conspiracy Sells out of First Printing!! ***

Someone ordering a book from me happened to mention that the book was on back order at Amazon. This seemed strange to me as Amazon always has the book (sometimes it will go "out of stock" for a day or so as books are being transferred from the publisher's warehouse to the Amazon warehouse) but it has never gone to "back order status". So then I looked at Borders - same thing...then Barnes & Noble, and Powells - Ditto. 

So I wrote an email to the publisher asking if something was up and he said "Sales have really accelerated and a few days ago there was less than 100 copies at the warehouse." By estimating sales from Amazon rankings I think those are now gone as well. AMI said they would start a second printing in January, but that will take time...typos found in the first printing have to be fixed, proofing has to be done, then there is the actual printing and shipping. So I anticipate about a 3-month "outage" for Crown.

On the positive side...I previously purchased 500 or so books through my author's discount to have on hand for just such an emergency.  I've sold about 200 of them so still have 300 here that should act as a bridge until the retail chain is "re-stocked". Amazon's current discount is 28% and while I can't match that (their price from the publisher is smaller than my price from the publisher) I will extend a 15% discount for a limited time while the book is out of stock. This discount can be used for any of the books so you can buy them together if you wish. CLICK TO READ MY BLOG ON THIS

*** All three books in Top 20 for Kindle Sales ***

Kindle sales have been brisk for all the books recently and at various times one or the other has been pretty high in the rankings.  Received an early Thanksgiving present today when I checked the Kindle Rankings and found all three books in the top 20 for Fantasy (Historical)!!

*** Fantasy Book Critic buzz for Emerald Storm & Wintertide  ***

It's the time of year when many review sites look ahead to books they are anticipating for the coming year.  I was honored to see that Liviu at Fantasy Book Critic took the time to put both Emerald Storm and Wintertide on his list. CLICK TO READ ARTICLE

"The Ryria Revelations series shows why it's good to try small press novels too since from the almost standalone first novel The Crown Conspiracy (FBC Rv) to the superb Avempartha (FBC Rv) that starts dealing with the big picture in a major way, to the very good, though somewhat less satisfying because of being essentially a transition novel, Nyphron Rising (FBC Rv tbp), the series has established itself as a page turning pure fun adventure tale and the 2010 offerings #4 above and #5 below are highly awaited novels."

*** Speculative Fiction Junkie Reviews Nyphron Rising ***

Speculative Fiction Junkie has now reviewed all three books.  Some notable quotes from the review include:

"One of the things I mentioned in my recent interview with Harry over at Temple Library Reviews was that I cannot believe that a major publisher hasn't yet picked up author Michael J. Sullivan."

"The second half of the book, however, is amazing and probably constitutes Mr. Sullivan's strongest work yet."

"Nyphron Rising is another capable installment in a fantastic series. Fans of the Riyria Revelations will not be disappointed."

You can read the full review by clicking here.

*** Nyphron Rising Named Notable Release ***

If you've been out to Fantasy Book Critic recently you may have noticed that Nyphron Rising has been added as a "Notable Release" along the right hand side of the site. This is a great honor as most "Indie" books are usually overlooked and its the "big boys" that get such distinction. Michael's books have always been well received by FBC and other review sites and it has been integral to the series sucess.

*** Great Review on SF Site ***

SF Site is one of the "big boys" in the fantasy review business.  So big in fact that I never bothered contacting them with a review copy.  Well, some how or another they found Crown Conspiracy on their own!  Great feature review was just posted.  Here is some of what they said:
"The Crown Conspiracy is a well-written and enjoyable novel. I was invested in the characters and their travails. Royce and Hadrian's friendship was particularly fun to read, utilising the banter and familiarity of buddy cop movies but placing it in a fantasy setting...Michael J. Sullivan is an appealing writer and I'll be interested to see where he goes with his writing in the future...Sullivan is a solid writer and, with five more novels in the series to come, he has plenty of time to explore all the elements of his world to my satisfaction."
The full review can be found HERE.

*** Record Breaking Kindle Sales ***

Since its release a few days ago I've been watching the Ranking on Amazon for the Kindle version of Nyphron Rising.  It has been doing respectably well - in the top 25 usually around 16 - 22 in the category of fantasy (historical).  Then a peek saw it at 9 - breaking the top 10!  Imagine my suprise a few hours later when I saw it move to 6 and beating out the classic Princess Bride!

*** Fantasy Book Critic Giveaway ***

Fantasy Book Critic is giving away 2 sets of the first three books in the Riyria Revelations. To put icing on the cake they had this to say—"This series is a favoriate of ours here at Fantasy Book Critic! "

The contest will run through October 25th, and you can enter by clicking HERE. Good luck to everyone who enters!!

*** Nyphron Rising is Here!!! ***

The original publication was October 1, 2009 and as it approached we modified it to November 1, 2009. It is now October 11 and I can announce that the book is officially out.  I know that a number of you already know that because sales rankings at Amazon for both the paperback and Kindle have been very good!  It will still be awhile before the book is fully processed through the bookstore chains, as soon as they are capable of taking orders I'll post here.  But for now you can buy from either: Direct (save 15%) | Amazon (Print) | Amazon (Kindle). Remember when buying direct from me you can use credit cards or checks and get signed personalized copies.  (Plus I get more cash (even with the discount) as Amazon and bookstores take 40% - 55% off the top - Ouch!)
*** A Blogging I will go ***

I've actually had this for sometime (my first post was January 9th, 2009) but a number of people didn't know that I blog as the address is buried (a pun for my wife Robin who put it there) on the contact page.  Anywhere the address for the blog is: www.riyria.blogspot.com and I generally ramble about various aspects of writing, pulishing, and the like.
*** Avempartha Reviews in High Gear***

July is turning out to be another banner month for the fantasy review sites coverage of Michael's work.  This time it is Avempartha and when it rains it pours with 3 of the heavy weights posting positive full length reviews (all within a day of each other!!) Here's a bit of what they had to say:

"Mr. Sullivan continues to impress. In Royce and Hadrian he has created some of the best characters the genre has seen in some time, and in Avempartha he shows that he knows what to do with them. These books should be in every bookstore and I really hope that they are someday. The Riyria Revelations prove that the fantasy genre is nowhere near exhausted and that there is as much treasure to be mined in its traditional forms as there are in the newer varieties." -- Speculative Fiction Junkie

 "Avempartha" is the second novel in "The Riyria Revelations", but like the previous novel, "The Crown Conspiracy", can as easily be read as a standalone. Also both novels offer a delightful reading, captivating adventures and a very interesting author. I am certain that I will hear more of Michael J. Sullivan in the future.-- Dark Wolf's Fantasy Reviews

"All in all, Avempartha is not only a great book in its own right, delivering on Michael's promise to give us stand-alones within a bigger story-arc, but it is also a better book than The Crown Conspiracy, showcasing Michael's crowing talents as an author who is sure to become a Name in the industry. :-) Well worth a read!"-- Dave Brendon's Fantasy & Sci-Fi Weblog

*** Tweet Tweet Neo***

Did you know that Michael has finally entered the world of Twitter?  If you want to keep up on latest happenings or information on future releases follow him at: http://twitter.com/author_sullivan

*** ConCarolinas a huge success***

I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone (both attendees and organizers alike) for such a great event this weekend in Charlotte North Carolina. We met so many nice people, including some fans who stopped by to say how much they enjoyed the books. We'll definitely be back next year. This was a fabulous con which broke all previous sales records for Michael's books. If you are looking for a great con for the future checkout: ConCarolinas

*** Two days and two great reviews ***

Wow May is shaping up to be a great month!  On the heels of winning an award two reviews came in over two days that were fantastic! The reviewers really "get" what Michael was shooting for and wrote beautiful reviews without spoilers that really give the readers of sense of The Crown Conspiracy.  Please take a look, and post a comment on the reviewer's blog they deserve to know their talented work is appreciated: Speculative Fiction Junkie and  King of the Nerds

*** 2009 National Indie Excellence Book Award Finalist ***

The Crown Conspiracy was selected as a finalist in the fantasy category for the 2009 National Indie Excellence Book Award. This award is dedicated to celebrating and promoting the outstanding work of independent publishers and authors."

***  Strange Weird and Wonderful Interview***

The Spring 2009 edition of Strange Weird and Wonderful is out and one of the founding editors, Sharon Black dedicated 5 pages to an Interview with Michael on his writing.  They also highlighted both "The Crown Conspiracy" and "Avempartha".  You can download a copy and read the interview on pages 72-77 from here.

***  Radio Interview at Story Institute***

Each week the Story Institute presents its "Rambling Verser" half hour program. The eleventh installment airing April 2, 2009 includes:
  • Featured Quote: Abraham Lincoln
  • Featured Poem: Alfred Lloyd Tennyson
  • Featured Interview: Michael J. Sullivan
 You can listen to the entire broadcast here.

*** 2008 ReaderViews Annual Literary Award Finalist ***

The Crown Conspiracy was selected as a finalist in the fantasy category for the 2008 ReaderViews Literary Award. Criteria for judging is content/originality, presentation/design, innovation, social relevance, production quality, enjoyment/impact, plot/story line, and resourcefulness (depending on category.) Semi-finalists in each category was determined by a point system. Final judging was determined by a jury of judges.