I've just added a new image to the Wallpaper page.
It might look a little odd at first, but it really stands out if you use specialist equipment
(not supplied) to view it...
Yes, there are still some copies of The New Heroes: Superhuman available!
If you would like to order a copy and receive it in time for Christmas, then please take note of
the official "last posting days" according to the Irish postal service:
| Ireland | 19th Dec |
| Northern Ireland | 19th Dec |
| Great Britain | 18th Dec |
| Europe | 18th Dec |
| USA / Canada | 8th Dec |
| Central / South America | 5th Dec |
| Australia / New Zealand | 8th Dec |
| Hong Kong | 8th Dec |
| India / Philippines | 8th Dec |
| Israel | 8th Dec |
| Rest of the World | 5th Dec |
| Lunar Colonies | 1st Dec |
Please keep in mind that when I receive an order for the book I always send the buyer an e-mail asking for their personalised inscription... I generally wait three or four days for an answer before mailing the books (of course, the sooner the buyer responds the sooner the books are mailed...!).
Ah, the joys of computing...! What fun and games I've had lately. It all began a few weeks back when Windows XP decided that it needed to automatically download something called Service Pack 3. Apparently this is supposed to make the PC more stable. If by "stable" they mean "unstable", then Service Pack 3 certainly did its job. It took me hours to get the machine back up and running, because Service Pack 3 isn't 100% compatible with certain processors. This incompatibility is clearly mentioned on Microsoft's website, along with a few simple instructions on how to get around it. How nice of them! But... Why didn't they just build these work-arounds into the software? Or, if that wasn't possible for some reason, then why didn't the automated download part mention that my PC might have trouble re-booting, and tell me what I needed to do to get past the problem?
Since the "update" did neither of these things, I had to go on-line to Microsoft's site and track down the information. A very simple task indeed, except that I couldn't go on-line because my PC wouldn't start up because Windows had decided to automatically install Service Pack 3.
Now, I'm in a luckier position than most people because I have more than one PC: I was able to go on-line with one of the others (the rarely-used brand-new PC running a horrid little operating system called Windows Vista) and find the required info. If I hadn't been able to do that, I'd still be stuck.
Anyway, all was back to normal after only a few lost hours... And then, two weeks ago, I turned on the PC one morning to discover that it wouldn't start at all: Windows XP was kaput. I had to reinstall the entire operating system - which took most of the day - and then I started on the still-not-finished task of reinstalling all of my programs. Luckily I regularly back up all my data, so nothing was lost there, but each of the several dozen programs I use has all sorts of tweaks and settings that have been lost forever.
As you can probably guess, this has not made me very happy. I've lost about hundred hours trying to get back to where I was before Service Pack 3 arrived... I'm this close to ditching Windows and moving over to something that works, like Linux.
Grrr...!
Uh oh... Someone ordered a copy of The New Heroes: Superhuman today (Sunday November 09, at about 17:10 GMT) - but unfortunately my reply to the sender's message bounced with the message "The recipient's e-mail address was not found in the recipient's e-mail system."
So, if it was you and you haven't yet received a reply from me (the reply will have the subject line "The New Heroes: Superhuman") then please get in touch ASAP so that I can personalise the dedication.
For a limited time only...
Every copy of The New Heroes: Superhuman ordered
through this website will come with a free New Heroes postcard!
Printed in glorious colour (on the front) and glorious black-and-white (on the back), on glorious card, these darned good postcards feature a brand-new, never-before-seen New Heroes pic created by yours truly!
Order soon, because stocks are limited: once they're gone, they're gone forever!
Today is my half-birthday, so as a special treat I've decided to let you in on a little secret about this website that not nearly enough people have discovered...
If you see a banner ad at the top of the page for a company called SHSuppliers, please click on it... SHS is not a real company! The whole site is connected with the New Heroes / Quantum Prophecy series. Trust me: have a click - I promise you it'll be fun!
The Children's Book Festival is almost upon us once more! Here's the latest schedule of my upcoming appearances...
| Date | Time | Location | ||
| Wed 1 Oct | 10:00 | Kells, Co. Meath | ||
| 11:30 | Navan, Co. Meath | |||
| 13:30 | Nobber, Co. Meath | |||
| Thu 2 Oct | 10:00 | Dunboyne, Co. Meath | ||
| 11:15 | Dunboyne, Co. Meath | |||
| 13:00 | Dunshaughlin, Co. Meath | |||
| Fri 3 Oct | TBC | Waterford | ||
| Sat 18 Oct | All day | Octocon 2008, Dublin | ||
| Sun 19 Oct | All day | Octocon 2008, Dublin | ||
| Wed 22 Oct | 10:00 | Clondalkin, Dublin | ||
| 11:30 | Clondalkin, Dublin | |||
| Thu 23 Oct | 10:00 | Lucan, Dublin | ||
| 11:30 | Lucan, Dublin |
I've just discovered that there is an downloadable audiobook version of Quantum Prophecy: The Awakening listed on Audible.com!
It's an unabridged version, and runs for 7 hours and 21 minutes. The narrator is a chap called Bryan Kennedy and from the clip available on the Audible site it sounds like he does a pretty good job (not counting his rather unorthodox pronounciation of "Ragnarök").
The audiobook was released on May 19th 2008, and costs US$12.99 (or only US$7.49 for members of the AudibleListener Gold scheme).
Crikey... I've been back for three weeks and I still haven't written my report on the San Diego Comic Con! That's primarily because I've been busy, busy, busy...
So. The con. Was it any good? Well, we certainly had a lot of fun, but... To be honest, the convention itself was just too big. Way too big. The Exhibit Hall (a fancy name for the dealers' room) was about the size of two football pitches end-to-end, and it was absolutely packed with dealers.
The first night of the con, the Wednesday, was the Preview Night, where only members who'd signed up for the four-day package were allowed to attend. Now, one would be forgiven for thinking that would mean that the Exhibit Hall would be fairly quiet. One would be wrong... It was absolute chaos. Thousands and thousands of people crammed into a space that would be big enough to cope if it wasn't for the hundreds of people in huge, bulky costumes blocking the aisles, and the dozens of TV crews doing the same thing while interviewing the people in the huge, bulky costumes. At one stage it took me about five minutes to get to Leonia and she was only ten feet away from me.
Part of the problem was that many of the dealers were giving away free stuff. For the most part, the free stuff wasn't really worth the scrabbling and elbowing: badges, bookmarks, posters and so on. But free is free, so it seemed like everyone was grabbing as much as they could in case the dealers changed their minds.
After wandering - very, very slowly - through the throng for about an hour, we finally found some dealers selling comics. Most of the stalls, you see, were promoting TV shows, movies, books, toys and assorted other items that aren't actually comics. But we did find some comics dealers, and with a good deal of elbowing I was able to fight my way through to the comic boxes and begin searching. I managed to track down two comics a friend had asked me to get, and when I went to pay for them I discovered that the guy taking the money had left his good manners at home. If he'd ever had any to begin with, that is... He was incredibly obnoxious, abrupt and dismissive.
After another couple of hours of wandering around or, to be more accurate, getting stuck in the crowds, Leonia and I decided we'd had enough and headed back to the hotel. I was not impressed with the convention. It was not fun at all. In fact, I absolutely hated of it.
Thankfully, things were a lot better the following day, the first "proper" day of the convention. Unlike the Preview Night, the panel rooms were open. There were hundreds of panels throughout the con. However, we didn't get to see any of the big movie-based panels because to do so meant waiting in line for an hour or more. But that wasn't the line to get into the panel room... No, that was the line to get tickets to be in the draw to be allowed to join the other line to go into the panel room. And there was no guarantee of getting in anyway, because they didn't clear the rooms between panels: a lot of people were sitting through panels they didn't care about because they'd then have a seat for the panels they did want to see, even if it meant waiting three or four hours.
But that wasn't necessarily a totally bad thing: it meant that thousands of people were waiting in line and not clogging up the Exhibit Hall, so we were able to move around a lot easier and finally began to enjoy the event.
Many of the smaller panels were easy enough to get into, such as the one in which I participated, "Superhero Superfiction" on the Thursday evening. Now, that was a lot of fun. My fellow authors and I talked about the differences between writing superheroes for comics and books, how we came to write those stories and books, and things of that nature.
On the Saturday morning I participated in a signing session with Michael Reismann, author of Simon Bloom, the Gravity Keeper (which I've now read: it's excellent!). Michael and I had a lot of fun and I think we worked pretty well together as a team. We signed lots and lots of books and met some great people (we even had a special visitor in the form of Peter David, the writer of one of my all-time favourite comic books!).
Leonia and I met up with our old friends C.E. Murphy, John Vaughan (John is a young Irish movie-maker who coincidentally was in California to attend the Action On Film Festival in Pasadena: His movie My Dad - premiered at last year's Octocon - won the award for Best Short Movie, and his screenplay "For Your Troubles" won Best Action Sequence Short), and Keith and Jonathan from Rebellion (publishers of 2000 AD).
But the highlight of our stay in San Diego wasn't really connected with the convention... We met up with my old friend Brian Meagher and his wife Grace. I've known Brian since I was about seven or eight, lost touch after we left school and got back in touch last year for the first time in over twenty years!
After San Diego, we were off to New York for a week. It was mostly work-related (meetings with publishers and agents, and so on), but we also got time to catch up with our old friends Tanya and Todd, and my sister Janet and brother-in-law Paddy.
And then all too soon we were home... Exhausted, jet-lagged and broke, but satisfied after a very enjoyable two weeks in the USA, during which we actually did quite a lot: we met a lot of friends, made some great new ones, visited the pandas in San Diego zoo, walked the length of Central Park, had a barbecue on the beach, signed hundreds of books, ate at some great restaurants, met some famous people (including Jim Starlin, Steve Purcell, Matt Groening, John Barrowman, Summer Glau, Lou Ferrigno, Lindsay Wagner, Richard Hatch and lots of others), and got very sore feet from all the standing around and the even more walking (an ailment that was greatly alleviated by paddling in the Pacific Ocean).
We're back! More later (much sleep required!), but for now I've re-enabled the order page for The New Heroes: Superhuman.
In addition to the Superhero Superfiction panel and signing (see below for details)
at the San Diego Comic Con, I'll also be signing with my fellow Penguin author
Michael Reisman,
creator of Simon Bloom, The Gravity Keeper), from 10:00 on Saturday July 26th at
the Penguin/Mysterious Galaxy booth (#1119) in the Exhibit Hall... Hope to see you there!
P.S.: If you haven't clicked yet on the SHSuppliers advertising banner, I urge you to do so. Trust me... I haven't let you down yet!
The order form for The New Heroes: Superhuman is currently disabled: it will be re-enabled in early August!
Finally got some time to tick a long-standing item off the "To Do" list: I've updated the
Official New Heroes Superhero ID Wallet, which you can find over on the
Features page.
Of course, that's after you visit my sponsors...!
Click on over to Concept Sci-Fi to download issue #1 of their excellent new E-zine! It's totally free and features some great new SF short stories and a very informative article on writing, as well as an interview with some guy called Michael Carroll and the first published review of The New Heroes: Superhuman. Warning: the E-zine is intended for adults only and contains some strong language (not from me, though!).
And speaking of The New Heroes: Superhuman... As I've mentioned before I'll be away in San Diego and New York for a couple of weeks, so before I go I'll be closing down the order page for the book. So if you still haven't ordered a copy (and you actually want one), please do so no later than July 15th. I'll be back on August 5th so I'll re-establish the order page shortly after that.
On a different topic: Remember a week ago when I mentioned the banner ads and asked everyone to kindly visit my sponsors? Well, I can see by the log files that very few visitors to this site have done that! Shame! If you see a banner ad at the top of this page that isn't for The New Heroes: Superhuman, please click on it now. Go on. You won't regret it.
Just a quick note: Running a website isn't free, so many webmasters use banner adverts at the top
of their pages to help cover the costs. I've always avoided this until now (not counting the banner
ads for The New Heroes: Superhuman, of course!), but I've finally given in. I do promise,
however, to avoid including any of those incredibly distracting animated ads where possible. Remember, every time you
click on one of the ads on this site you'll be helping to keep it all up and running - so please
visit my sponsors!
Thanks,
Mike
As promised, here's some more info on my panel at the San Diego Comic Con...
Thursday, July 24 16:00-17:00
Superhero Superfiction Room 5AB
Superheroes don't just appear in comics anymore. Authors discuss how to write superhero prose.
Thursday, July 24 17:00-18:00
Superhero Superfiction Table AA5
Autographing in the Comic-Con Autograph Area
Superhero prose authors:
Even more details to come!
A short video advert for Quantum Prophecy: The Gathering...
Everything is starting to slot into place for this year's
San Diego Comic Con (July 24th to 28th).
Last year 125,000 people attended the event, and this year is already looking like that number will
be surpassed: The four-day memberships have already sold out, and the Saturday is almost fully-booked.
The details haven't been finalised yet, but I've been provisionally booked for a panel on the Thursday evening as well as signings on Thursday and Saturday (the latter alongside my fellow Penguin author Michael Reisman, creator of Simon Bloom, The Gravity Keeper). More news as it's confirmed!
So right now, I'm working like mad to get all my work done before we set off on July 21st... Man, that's going to be a tough day: Depart Dublin at 10:30 GMT, arrive in New York at 13:00 local time (18:00 GMT), leave New York at 18:40 local time (23:40 GMT), arrive in San Diego at 21:50 local time (05:50 GMT). And given that we have to be at Dublin airport three hours before the flight departs, and that it's going to take an hour to get to the airport, and maybe another hour from when the flight lands in San Diego until we get to the hotel, that means we'll be travelling (or waiting in airports) for about twenty-five hours.
I guess I'd better bring a book or two!
It's been busy, busy, busy here at New Heroes Central, so I haven't had much time lately to add anything to this site. However, because you've all been so patient, I've decided to add a few old short stories, which can be found on the Features page. Now, they're not New Heroes tales, but I hope you'll enjoy them anyway!
Just heard some good news from the lovely people at Penguin: The paperback edition of Quantum Prophecy: The Awakening received a second printing before it was even published!
It seems that lately a number of people ordering copies of The New Heroes: Superhuman have been having trouble with the "Dedication" field... For some unfathomable reason it's just stopped working! So in order to simplify the process, I've removed the field.
Now, when I receive an order, I will contact the buyer via e-mail and ask whether a dedication inscription is required. The e-mail will have the subject line "The New Heroes: Superhuman". Important: If I don't receive a reply within a few days, I'll assume that no inscription is required and I will then mail the book!
Bit late notice (sorry!)... I'll be speaking tomorrow night at the monthly meeting of the
New Irish Science Fiction Association in
the White Horse Inn, Burgh Quay, Dublin 2. The meeting starts at 8pm, and there is a
fee of €1 per person (which includes a complementary strip of raffle tickets).
Come along and listen to me waffling on about stuff!
The new advert for Quantum Prophecy: The Awakening...
The paperback of Quantum Prophecy: The Awakening is officially published today!
Now, I realise that there is a world-wide shortage of Michael Carroll books, but that does not mean that you should panic-buy lots and lots of copies. I'm certainly not condoning that! Of course, there's nothing technically wrong with buying every copy that you can get your hands on, but it's only fair to leave some on the shelves for everyone else... :)
My US publishers Penguin had a strong presence at the recent New York Comic Con, and my fellow author Sarah Cross snapped this photo of one of their displays:
You'll notice a familiar image in the left of the background... On her Livejournal page Sarah writes that Penguin were giving away a free "sampler" containing extracts from some upcoming novels, including Quantum Prophecy: The Awakening.
Sarah's upcoming novel Dull Boy looks like's it's going to be a lot of fun: It concerns a group of teenagers who discover that they have superhuman powers! Of course, the big question is whether my characters could beat up Sarah's... I guess I'll have to wait until her book comes out to know for sure!
A minor change to the website (something I meant to do ages ago): The Sakkara and Absolute Power adverts have now been embedded into the Features page!
Only two weeks to go before the publication of the US paperback edition of Quantum Prophecy: The Awakening, so here's a look at the full cover...
A reader from Chilton, Co. Durham in the UK has sent me this photo of a display in his local library...
During a break at P-CON V over the weekend I dropped in to Sub-City, one of my all-time favourite comic shops. The shop is owned by my old pal Robert Curley, creator and writer of the Eagle Award nominated comic Freakshow. During the course of our chat the subject of The New Heroes: Superhuman came up, and Rob agreed to stock a few copies in the shop.
Now, I realise that I've said that the book won't be available in the shops, but this is an exception because the guys in Sub-City are my friends...!
Sub-City can be found on Exchequer Street, Dublin 2, Ireland. It's packed with great comics, graphic novels and collectables, so next time you're in Dublin make sure you visit!
And if you happen to be in Waterford this coming Saturday morning, drop in to Comixstop where Robert Curley will be presenting a masterclass on writing comics and graphic novels... It's all part of the 2008 Sean Dunne Festival. As mentioned before, I'm also taking part in the festival, but that's on Friday (in the central library at 10:00 and Ardkeen Library at 12:00) so unfortunately I won't be around for Rob's talk. :(
My good friend Paul Von Scott (creator and editor of the great indie comics
Solar Wind and Omnivistascope) has just sent me
a set of Beat That! cards, a sort of "Top Trumps" game that (instead of the usual Monster
Trucks or Dinosaurs) features Young Adult books... And as you can see from the image on the right,
one of the cards is The New Heroes: The Quantum Prophecy!
What's even nicer is that my book is one of the highest-scoring cards in the game, as well as, naturally, being by far the best book... :)
The cards were produced for libraries and book promotional events; I'm not sure that they're available to the general public. You can find out more on the Opening the Book website.
I'd never even heard of Beat That! until Paul told me about the cards, which is a little odd... You'd think that it's the sort of thing that publishers might tell you about!
Upcoming events:
28-29 March '08: P-CON V, Central Hotel, Exchequer Street, Dublin, Ireland.
What promises to be a fun weekend (last year's P-Con was great!) with lots of events,
panels, book launches and guests, as well as the famous P-Con Charity Auction, which
will be hosted by myself and the always-entertaining John Vaughan.
4 April '08: Sean Dunne Festival, Central Library, Waterford, Ireland.
I'm honoured to have been invited to participate in this most prestigious of literary events!
The details are still being finalised; more info as soon as it's available.
I've recently received quite a few questions about The New Heroes: Superhuman,
so I thought it might be time to provide some answers!
- Do I need to have read all of the other books before I read The New Heroes: Superhuman?
Not at all - the stories are designed to work even if you've never read any of the books. However, the more familiar you are with the background and characters, the more you'll get out of The New Heroes: Superhuman! - A bunch of my friends want to buy copies. How about a bulk discount?
It's certainly a possibility - Get in touch and we'll talk! - Arrgh! I've only just found out about this book! Do you have any copies left?
Yep! There's a stack of 'em this high in the spare room! - Hey, how come my copy is a low number but my friend got his ages ago and his number is higher than mine?
That's because I'm not sending them out in order of the numbers! By the way, if you want a specific number please feel free to ask - if your chosen number hasn't already gone, it shouldn't be a problem. - Hey, how come my copy just has a signature but friend's copy is dedicated to him?
Because your friend asked for a personalised signature. Whenever someone orders a copy the PayPal people send me an e-mail to let me know. I then contact the buyer and ask them whether they'd like their copy personalised. If I don't hear back from them within a few days, I just assume they're not interested and I just sign the book and post it. - Does The New Heroes: Superhuman follow on directly from the end of the third novel?
No, it's a collection of short stories (some not quite so short!) that are outside the main plot of the novels. See the stories on the Features page for some examples. - Can you list the contents of the book?
Yes, I certainly can! In fact, I think I will... (the titles enclosed in quotes are the short stories).- Foreword by Michael Scott
- A Note from the Author
- "A Decade Without Heroes"
- "What I Did on my Holidays"
- "The Offer"
- "Pressure"
- "The Footsoldiers"
- "Out of Sight"
- "Flesh and Blood"
- "Scholarship Boy"
- Notes on the Short Stories
- Origins of the New Heroes Series
- "One Million"
- If The New Heroes: Superhuman is so good, then why didn't you release through a proper publisher?
Lots of reasons! 1. Because I've always wanted to self-publish a book. 2. Because publishers don't usually go for collections of short stories. 3. Because this way I had complete control over the book's contents. 4. Because if I had gone through another publisher it would probably take another year (or more) before the book is published. - The book is too expensive! Can't you make it cheaper?
I wish I could, but the €10 price also includes postage to anywhere in the world (which, as those who have already received their copies will know, is not cheap), the padded envelopes, and of course the printing! - This is just a scam to get more money out of us, isn't it?
Trust me: this is not a money-making venture! Perhaps if all the copies sell, I might make a small profit, but given that I've spent hundreds of hours working on the stories and putting the book together, I'd need to sell something like 20,000 copies to earn the equivalent of the minimum wage (which isn't going to happen, because there are only 1000 copies, and that's all there ever will be). So I'm actually losing money on this book (please buy lots of copies to help minimise my loss!)
Some good news... Penguin - the US publishers of the Quantum Prophecy series - have decided to rearrange the books' publishing schedule, bringing forward the publication of the third book (the title of which is still top secret!) by about six months.
Here's the provisional schedule...
| May 1 2008: | Quantum Prophecy: The Awakening (paperback) |
| Jul 2 2008: | Quantum Prophecy: The Gathering (hardback) |
| Apr 2009: | Quantum Prophecy: The Gathering (paperback) |
| May 2009: | Quantum Prophecy: Book 3 (hardback) |
| Nov 2009: | Quantum Prophecy: Book 3 (paperback) |
Penguin will be giving the upcoming books a huge push, with ads on many relevant websites, in Wizard magazine and in a whole bunch of DC Comics. They'll also be heavily promoting the books throughout the US at the big comic and science fiction conventions.
The biggest con of the year, of course, is the
San Diego Comic Con, taking place from July 24th to 28th.
The lovely people from Penguin will be there in force to promote the Quantum Prophecy series... as will I!
Yes, after years of looking wistfully across the Atlantic at this most marvellous of events, Leonia and I have finally given in to temptation and decided to make the trip. We'll be in Hollywood for a few days before and after the con, but it's not all going to be work: we're hoping to get some touristy things done too!
The details of my appearance at the San Diego Comic Con have yet to be finalised, but as soon as I know more I'll post the news here.
Skip on over to the Features page to see latest Wallpaper images, including the new covers for the US editions of the first two books!
Only just over two weeks now before Leonia and I jet off to Inverness for
Hi-Ex - the Highland International Comic Expo -
which is shaping up to be one of the best comic conventions ever. The guest list reads
like a Who's Who of the UK comic scene:
Alan Grant, Al Ewing, Alan C. Martin, Asia Alfasi, Bryan Talbot, Cam Kennedy, Chi-Tan, Colin MacNeil,
Dave Kendall, Dave Taylor, David Hitchcock, David Lloyd, Declan Shalvey, Dom Reardon, Ferg Handley,
Gary Erskine, Graeme Neil Reid, Jock, John Higgins, Kev F. Sutherland, Rufus Dayglo, Sally Hurst,
Simon Coleby and Yishan Li. Plus me, of course.
Check out the Hi-Ex website for all the details.
If you happen to be there, track me down and say hello! I'll be bringing along a bunch of copies of The New Heroes: Superhuman, for those of you who haven't managed to get a copy yet.
Some new characters have been added to the
Characters page!