My latest novel has just been released in paperback plus I’ve been making forward progress on other projects this week. This seemed a good opportunity to step back and give you some updates.
Ten Years in the Making
My vampire novel Dragon’s Fall: Rise of the Scarlet Order has just been released as a trade paperback this week. Dragon’s Fall is a prequel to my novel Vampires of the Scarlet Order and tells the story of how the vampires Alexandra, Draco, and Roquelaure came together to form the Scarlet Order of vampire mercenaries. The novel opens in Hellenistic Greece, moves to Arthurian Britain, descends into the dark ages and finally comes out in fifteenth century Transylvania. I started writing the novel even before Vampires of the Scarlet Order was published. To learn more about the ten-year journey to publication, read my vampire blog http://dlsummers.wordpress.com tomorrow. Of course, you don’t have to wait to read the novel, it’s available right now in print and as an ebook at Amazon.com.
Steam Powered Talisman
The spring issue of Tales of the Talisman is regrettably behind schedule, but it’s not stalled and I think it will be worth the wait. We’re stoking the boilers and moving full steam ahead for our second annual steampunk special edition. I have just finished editing the issue and have sent it to the artists for illustration. We have stories by O.M. Grey, Christine Morgan, and Tom Lynch plus poetry by Denise Dumars, N.E. Taylor, and David S. Pointer and a whole lot more. You’ll see steampunk in the future, in distant fantasy worlds, as well as the more traditional views of an alternate Victorian England. I’m hoping the boilers won’t explode and we can get copies of this shipping no later than the middle of May. If you want to make sure it arrives in your mailbox on day one, you can subscribe to the magazine at http://www.talesofthetalisman.com.
A Kepler’s Dozen
Now that the spring Tales of the Talisman is edited and off with the artists, I’m busy laying out an exciting new anthology that will be released this June from Hadrosaur Productions. One of the things I’ve done during my “day” job at Kitt Peak National Observatory is follow up observations of planets outside our solar system made by the Kepler space probe. As of this writing, the Kepler space probe has discovered a remarkable 115 confirmed planets outside our solar system. What would it be like to visit these worlds? Thirteen scientists and science fiction writers imagine just that in A Kepler’s Dozen. You can learn more about the book, see the table of contents, and even pre-order a copy at http://www.hadrosaur.com/kepler.html
Wolf Songs 2 Honored
To top it all off, I learned that the anthology Wolf Songs 2 won the 2013 Epic Award for best ebook anthology! This is an anthology that follows the latest myths and legends of the wolf as written by science fiction, fantasy, and horror authors. The book contains an alternate version of my story “The Clockwork Lobo” from the novel Owl Dance. What’s more, the anthology also features stories by M.H. Bonham and Carol Hightshoe who have stories in A Kepler’s Dozen. You can learn more about Wolf Songs 2 and pick up a copy of your own at Amazon.com or Smashwords.com.
David Lee Summers' Web Journal 
The cover cover the recent Tales of the Talisman looks pretty damn cool. I wish I was able to do steampunk
Thanks, Nick. Yeah, for me it’s a natural fit. I’ve been doing steampunk, or at least closely related stuff, for a long time. Space cowboys since the 80s and gaslamp fantasy of different types since the 90s.