There is news.

Right now, the e-books of Heroes Die and Blade of Tyshalle have a tentative (repeat for emphasis: tentative) release date of November 4th.

This may be shifted pending resolution of a minor contractual issue, and/or the pitched firefight in the streets between fraudulently-registered Democratic ineligible and/or imaginary voters (i.e., Mickey Mouse) and crypto-fascist Republican vote-suppressors (i.e., Alberto Gonzales).

For you handicappers out there, here are words to live by:

Never bet against the Mouse.

I'd just like to touch on the question of Caine's Adventure-related POV, since it seemed to come up quite a bit in the last thread.

It's not intended to be a literal transcription of his Soliloquy; it's basically a magic trick, not unlike the illusion a first-hander is subjected to, as an Actor's Soliloquy comes to feel like his or her own thoughts--to make him feel like he is the character.

The Studio has an exceptionally powerful piece of speculative technology (direct CNS stimulation by focused induction) to help maintain this illusion. I, on the other hand, have to pull off this trick with nothing more than a succession of black marks on a page.

So:

Some of these black marks represent Caine's Soliloquy, some reflect sense impressions and others denote visceral reactions. Some indicate other things. All of them together are intended to give you, the reader, the illusion of riding along inside Caine's head (and body). That's the whole story.

If worrying about his Soliloquy distracted you from the story, that means I (in that section, anyway, at least for you) screwed up, and let you see the Man Behind the Curtain.

Sorry.

I hate it when that happens. It's kind of like discovering I've been walking around with my zipper down.

Back to Ayn Rand for a moment, it's worth noting that the #1 cheerleader for the deregulated trading in derivatives that is the fundamental cause of the current global financial crisis, Alan Greenspan, is an avowed admirer of Ms. Rand's political philosophy, and spent roughly the last 15 of his 19 years as Fed Chairman assuring Congress that the "rational self-interest" of derivatives traders would "weed out" weak securities . . .

Also (speaking of libertarianism), has anybody been paying attention to this guy? It may be that I owe Cheryl Morgan (who once wrote that she could tell I'm a libertarian by looking at my author photo) an apology. I saw Bob Barr interviewed on CNN yesterday and realized (with considerable consternation) that "Holy crap! I do have a libertarian moustache."

For the record:

Feel free to post extravagant praise of Caine Black Knife (or of anything else I've written, for that matter). You can also post less-than-extravagant praise, or even bitch about how shitty something is.

But comments containing spoilers will be summarily deleted.

You have been warned.

Look for "The Big Idea of Caine Black Knife" on John Scalzi's Whatever this coming Tuesday, which is -- by no coincidence at all -- CBK's on-sale date.

He's pretty effing cool.

In response to Rob Locke in the previous comments thread:

My take on Objectivism can be summed up by a paraphrase of Samuel Johnson:

"I have read Ayn Rand's work, and found it to be both original and good. Unfortunately, however, the parts that were good were not original, and the parts that were original were not good."

To put it another way: what was useful in her philosophy was cribbed from Nietzsche, and what wasn't cribbed from Nietzsche wasn't useful.

Nietzsche himself points out the inescapable flaw in rational self-interest (I am again paraphrasing here):

"Man is not 'the rational animal,' he is the rationalizing animal. The primary use to which we put our reason is to justify our irrational desires and prejudices."

Hokay. Here's the rundown.

The medical test came out negative, which means that Whatever the Fuck is Wrong With Me is still wholly in the Whatever stage. So it goes.

However, in the interim, I have been introduced to a new medication regimen that has me feeling sharper than I have in years. So, downside: lots of pills. Upside: unlike all previous meds, these seem to be working.

In the midst of all this, I finally delivered Luke Skywalker & the Shadows of Mindor, and due to the heroic (no exaggeration) efforts of my long-suffering editor, Shelly Shapiro, it looks like Del Rey will manage to cram it through production in time for its scheduled Dec 30 release. Shelly has now ascended to my short list of Personal Heroes.

Thanks to all & sundry for expressions of support.

The unnamed game tie-in I'm supposedly writing is on temporary hold, as I wait for supplementary materials that the parent company has so far failed to provide. So, for now, I'm working on interviews 'n' shit in support of Caine Black Knife, including an essay for Scalzi's "The Big Idea" feature. And I'm getting back to pulling together the Revised Editions of Iron Dawn and Jericho Moon, as well as getting my shit together on the final Caine novel, His Father's Fist.

As to the similarities in the underlying philosophical stance between Cainism and Satanism, and between the Church of the Beloved Children of Ma'elKoth and Catholicism, well . . . pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Let me just say that I know a bit about how religious doctrine can be (and has been) tailored to promote secular political ends, and leave it at that.

Caine Black Knife comes out in ten days. Meanwhile, just so you know:



'nuff said.