Second, I have a guest blog post up at Buried Under Books, wherin I try to tell the truth about lying.

I’ve also added to the review pages for Wolfbreed; new mentions at Bookworm Blues and (you have to love this title for a werewolf-themed blog) Lupines and Lunatics.

Lastly, I have to mention that I’ve achieved some sort of milestone in terms of internet awareness.  My Wolfbreed series now has an entry on TV Tropes.

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To the Wolf’s Cross page.

Over at BSC Review, Lexi C had this to say:

In Swann’s first book in this series, Wolfbreed, we were introduced to a young girl who had grown up treated like a monster, but who found a way to reconcile who she was with who she could be.  In this second book, set a hundred years later in 14th century Poland, it’s the exact opposite set up.  Maria grew up human, unaware of who she was or what she could become.  Upon learning of her heritage, she has to reconcile the monster she sees herself becoming to the human she wants to remain.

I enjoyed Wolf’s Cross more than its predecessor.  I found myself empathizing more with Maria’s problems than I had with Lilly’s.  Maria’s problems, though similar to Lilly’s (just from the opposite spectrum), felt more developed.  Whereas Lilly struggled with the notion of being a human, Maria struggled with being herself; for Maria it was a question of whether she could retain herself while lost in the power of being the wolf. [More...]

Then over at Dear Author, Shuzluva says:

Books that are in medieval time settings haven’t been my thing; for me the 14th century generally conjures up images of the Plague, dank, miserable castles, and men and women who are happy to remain unwashed for as long as possible. That being the case, it took me quite a while to pick up Wolf’s Cross, but I’m glad I finally managed it. [More...]

Lastly, at SFFWorld.com, I have Rob H. Bedford saying the following:

Werewolves and Teutonic Knights make for an interesting combination in Wolf’s Cross, S.A. Swann’s commendable follow-up to Wolfbreed. In the 14th Century, a band of Holy Men are hunting a monster, a demon who walks like man and beast when their trail leads them to a small Polish village. The P.O.V. character on the Church’s side is a young man named Joseph, who is just an initiate and not a full member of the order. In the village, we are introduced to Maria, a young girl living with her sick father, stepbrother and stepmother as she is tasked with helping the wounded Knights upon their arrival. Sparks fly between Joseph and Maria immediately, but their stations in life prevent them from acting on their impulses. [More...]

Wolf’s Cross

When I wrote Wolfbreed I wasn’t concerned for markets, or genre, or much else beyond having my muse promise not to beat me senseless.  It was written outside of my contracts for DAW, so I had no real constraints on what I was doing, and no expectations of anything beyond its fiery conclusion.  Everything had been wrapped up, the still-living characters all had their main conflicts resolved.  All the plot threads tied up with a nice bow made of human entrails. . .

Of course you have to go there tor read the rest of it.

“On Friday, March 16th 2007, I had an idea for a novel. It had been bubbling in my head for about a week after watching the anime Elfen Lied. Since it wouldn’t leave me alone, I decided to just write the thing out of my system even though I had other things I was supposed to be working on. Little did I know what I was getting into. By the start of April, I was forty thousand words into the thing. That was the point I took a breather and started realizing that this was more than just getting an idea out of my system.

Go read the rest.

And our wonderful UPS guy decided to leave the package out in the rain, on top of a trash can next to the house. . .  But I got this to cheer me up.  Go there, you may win a book.

You can get it here, and on the page is a little flash widget where you can listen to a sample of the mayhem.

Here we see the cover of the Blackstone Audio version of Wolfbreed coming out March 20th.  Much coolness, and it’s interesting seeing a cover that’s clearly influenced by Spectra’s cover, yet different.  I can’t wait to get this on my iPod.

Werewolves. They are like the annoying little brother of the monster family, a me-too, tag-along, smearing their mustard encrusted corndog over your new iPod type of annoyance. They try to act cool, all slouched posture and affected sneer, conspiratorially smoking in the Boy’s Room with the bigger boys like zombies and vampires, hoping coolness can be transferred by association. But in the end werewolves are strictly second-tier in the realm of scary critters, the Lon Chaney Jr. to the more accomplished Lon Chaney Sr. They’re lamer than a three-legged horse prowling the water troughs at Pimlico, naying forlornly, one hoof away from the dog food factory.

This is also a milestone in that (at the moment) it is the last book I’m contracted to write.  For the first time I don’t have any additional contractual commitments which both liberating and incredibly frightening.  (Especially frightening to my wife, who really wants me to be able to ditch the day job so we can move out into the middle of Amish country before the economy collapses.)

Since I’m going to be working on book proposals when I’m not at the day job or working on Messiah,  (or digging out from the snowpocalypse)  I’m going to cut the blogging down to thrice a week for the time being.

Oh, and if you want to help out, buy a copy of Wolfbreed or Prophets.  If you can’t afford to buy a book, tell all your friends to buy them, that doesn’t cost anything (and then you can borrow a copy, everyone wins.)

But, in addition to that, look at what I got in the mail:

These are the faux trade-paper bound galleys, like I got for Prophets.  I still think it’s way cool seeing them in this format.

Second off, speaking of Wolfbreed, I’ve put up a sample chapter for your perusal.

Third off, speaking of sample chapters, I’ve done likewise for Prophets.

Fourth off, I’ve added pages for upcoming 2010 titles, Wolf’s Cross and Heretics.

If you can think of a book where three more disparate authors all loved it, then I’d say buy that book, too. But the fact that it appeals to Martin (fantasy), Balogh (romance/women’s fiction), and Masello (thriller) is amazing to me.

Especially as Wolfbreed doesn’t really fit in any of those genres. It defies genre.