I’ll get the advertisement out of the way here. In celebration of the book reaching #1 best-seller status on Amazon, the Kindle edition of Action Figures – Issue One: Secret Origins will be going on sale for 99 cents next week. Grab a copy for yourself, gift a copy to a friend, or just spread the word to fellow readers.

WRITING PROJECTS

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Assassins Brawl: With my editor, still on-track for a September release.

Action Figures – Issue Six: Power Play: Pre-editing revisions are done, in the queue for editing.

Action Figures – Live Free or Die: Pre-editing revisions are done, in the queue for editing.

Action Figures – Issue Seven: The Black End War: Got a little bit more done here, but I’m in the middle of helping my wife with a busy show season, so my writing weekends are a little sparse right now.

Action Figures – Issue Eight: I don’t have a subtitle yet, but I do have a fleshed-out plot!

Action Figures – Issue One: Secret Origins: Jennifer MacPherson is doing a read-through on the audiobook manuscript and should start formal recording sessions any day.

APPEARANCES and EVENTS

• Wednesday, July 27: The New England Authors Expo in Danvers, MA. Workshops, forums, and a daylong book fair for librarians, book shop owners, and starting in the afternoon, for members of the general public.
• Sunday, October 2: The Connecticut Renaissance Faire’s 2016 Meet the Author series, which runs from 1 to 3 PM.
• Saturday & Sunday, October 15 & 16: The fall New Bedford Bookfest. Times TBA.

MISC.

I’d like to use this space to alert my fans of a case of art theft, and to encourage you to add your voice to the fight.

I learned this week that Chrononaut Mercantile, a small business, had one of its designs ripped off, and the knockoff version — shamelessly named “The Chrononaut Coat” (they have since renamed it to something more generic, so there’s that) — was being sold through By the Sword Inc. I contacted BTS and urged them to remove the item out of respect for Chrononaut Mercantile, and I posted a message on BTS’s Facebook page.

The company’s responses were, to put it mildly, disappointing.

EDIT: I had originally posted summaries of BTS’s e-mail responses to me, but that earned me — I kid you not — a threat of a libel lawsuit. So, to make absolutely sure that BTS’s responses are represented accurately and there is no possibility of me misrepresenting their replies, here are the actual screencaps of their e-mails to me:

Not only were my comments on the BTS Facebook page deleted, I was blocked from posting. As word started to spread, several other people in the New England renaissance faire community also posted on the FB page, and similarly saw their comments deleted and their access blocked.

I do not take art theft lightly. I’ve had my books pirated, as have many other indie authors I know. It’s happened to my friend Tricia, who does my cover art, and my wife. Big companies do this to independent artists all the time and expect to get away with it — and even try to make their actions sound somehow benevolent by telling the aggrieved artist how flattered he or she should feel that their art was worth stealing.

Fuck that noise.

Now, in the interest of fairness, this knockoff is being sold through other retailers. BTS happened to be the one brought to my attention. If you’re of a mind, send By the Sword or any other retailer you find selling this item a firm but polite e-mail asking them to drop the Chrononaut Coat from their line, and spread the word to others letting them know about this incident. Help dissuade retailers from encouraging art theft. Don’t let yet another independent artist get screwed over.

EDIT THE SECOND: Here is the libel threat, just so we have that on the record too.