This morning’s off to a great start!

It’s been a full day since my Action Figures – Issue One: Secret Origins giveaway kicked in, and in the first day more than 200 copies have gone out. This lovely little streak has succeeded in pushing book one onto the top ten Kindle lists for YA/action-adventure and superhero novels (at positions four and two, respectively, as I write this).

A happy side-note to this: these blog posts auto-cross-post to Twitter, where several people I don’t know re-tweeted my tweet to spread the word. Thanks, perfect strangers!

I thought the day couldn’t get any more exciting, and then I checked my e-mail and found that my cover artist, Tricia Lupien, had finished the back cover. Now, you should understand that my concept was fairly simple: I wanted Missy (Kunoichi) holding the Libris Infernalis, the story’s MacGuffin, while Dr. Enigma loomed behind her ominously, hands glowing with magical energy.

Sounds a little dull, yeah? Well, this is what I got:

Say it with me: Ho. Lee. Shit.

I know from past experience Tricia’s color work is where her pieces really come to life, but this dropped my jaw. She promised me the back cover art would be a grabber, and she delivered in spades. Overall, the book two artwork is, in terms of attention-grabbing potential, leaps and bounds over the book one art. I am muchly pleased.

I am also pleased to announce that, assuming there are no further hiccups or corrections, set-up work on Action Figures – Issue Two: Black Magic Women will be completed within the next 24 hours, then it’s a matter of getting and checking my proof copy. We’re days away, people!