Update: if you don’t have two reviews to link, it’s cool … you can apply anyway. I have an idea for what to do.

Hi Guys,

I’m looking for two more people to become “trusted readers” — this means you get to read my first and second and third drafts and give me story feedback, ideas, “I hated this part” thoughts, and so forth. This is an unpaid thing … you’re basically trading some feedback for the chance at an early look at my upcoming work. You’ll also get thanked in the acknowledgments of anything that goes on to be published.

You will have to sign a very simple non-disclosure agreement. It’s a two-page contract in very readable English that just basically says “I totally won’t steal Chris’s books and give them out on the internet.”

In 2013 you will at definitely get to read The Broken God Machine before it comes out, along with the first draft of Monster Hunters, and probably another first draft. If you’re going to apply, please link me at least two book reviews you’ve written at Amazon, Goodreads, your blog, or similar. If the reviews can’t be linked (like Barnes & Noble or Apple), please describe how I can locate them. IE: “go to this book’s page and look for the user ‘TotesLuvsVampires’ … that’s me!”

Interested? Go to my contact form to get in touch.

After a couple of months of planning and getting everything together, I’ve launched the Kickstarter for The Children of the Sun! I’m really excited to be giving my readers the chance to pre-order the book, and to have a shot at some cool extra rewards as well. If you want a chance to get TCotS a week before it comes out, get signed copies of the print edition, or even get a chance to read my future work before it comes out, you should definitely check out the site.

If you’re not familiar with Kickstarter, it’s easy and convenient: you can sign up using an existing facebook or amazon account, or make a new Kickstarter account. Then you select a pledge amount and a reward tier (you can pledge higher then the reward you choose, if you want), set up payment through amazon.com, and then wait to see if the project succeeds. If it does, your card will be charged on August 29, and I will send you your reward(s) in November.

You can pledge anything from a dollar or more, and rewards start at three bucks, so it’s not expensive. Of course, if you want to drop some extra cash, you can get some pretty great perks!

If the project should fail, don’t worry — I will still release the book on time in November. However, there will be no chance to get it a week ahead of time, signed copies will be extremely limited in number, and there will be no additional rewards. So your best bet is to back the project.

Oh, and make sure to watch the video so you can check out the star turn by my adorable cat, Baron Salvatore H. Lynx II!

The Children of the Sun at Kickstarter

As some of you might remember, a while back I was interviewed by Darrell Pitt for his blog, Writing and Life. Well, after compiling many an interview, Darrell decided that it would be a good idea to compile an eBook of what he considered his best interviews. The good news is: I made the cut, and am included in the eBook. The even better news? The eBook is free!

The book contains talk with a whole batch of really interesting folks talking about both the business and the craft of writing, from people like me who are just starting to be recognized to people who are pretty famous in their respective areas. It’s a great collection of information if you’re an aspiring author or just interested in the world of writing.

Check it out: Secrets of Succesful Authors by Darrel Pitt on Smashwords

I think I’m going to try an experiment with this blog — I’m going to ask if you fine folks, my readers, have any particular questions for me. They can be about my writing process, or about the II AM Trilogy, or pretty much anything else you can think of. Ever have a question about one of the characters or events in Blood Hunt or TBTB? Ever wanted to know where I do my writing, or when I work, or how I come up with these zany ideas anyway? Now’s your chance!

Just visit my contact form, and ask. I’ll put together the MailBlog entry in a week or two, depending on how many questions come in! Hopefully I’ll get some interesting queries!

The results are in! I’ve drawn winners for all of the prizes in the II AM Trilogy “I Want a New eReader” Contest. Thanks to everyone who entered (more than 1,100 of you!) and congratulations to those who won. I’ll be holding more contests in 2012, including one for an early look at The Children of the Sun, so stay tuned!

Here’s the winner list:

Grand Prize

• Tiffany Tillman

First Prize

• Joiceann Fromm
• Clinton Ferreira
• Tammy Grice
• Fiona Cox
• Nanang Denny Vagustira

Second Prize

• Tyler Holland
• Brooke Jennings
• Sadie Samways
• Nadine Nel
• Luke Wolf
• Diane Ellison
• Richard Cook
• Julie Murray
• Caroline Massey
• Ginamarie Calix

My readers have been good to me. Blood Hunt is selling very well, particularly for an indie eBook, and feedback on the book has been extremely positive! With that in mind, I’ve put together a little contest. I’m giving away a free iPad 2, Kindle Fire, or Nook Color … along with some signed copies of my books (or gift cards for people who already have signed copies). Part of the idea of the contest is, of course, to drum up new readers, but it’s also a chance for existing readers to win something cool. It’s a way of saying “Thanks” for all the support and encouragement that so many of you have given me.

The contest runs til November 30, so there’s plenty of time to read The Blood That Bonds and Blood Hunt, if you haven’t already, and make sure you get those questions right.

You can visit the contest website now to see what the questions are or to enter. Good luck!

This is not the post you’ve been breathlessly awaiting. That one’s coming either tomorrow or Thursday. :)

However, there are a couple of small things I wanted to mention. First, I finally figured out how to make it so people can comment on the individual novel pages for The Blood That Bonds and Blood Hunt. Thrilling, right? [Update] A clarification: by comment on the individual pages, I mean the pages I host on this blog to promote the books (the place where you go if you click either of those two links), not every single page of each book.

Also, I wanted to say thanks to Asleigh for her nice review of The Blood That Bonds over at her blog, The Book Girl. Check it out!

That’s all I got for today. The big news is coming later this week!

This has been available over at the official The Blood That Bonds website for a while, but I thought it made sense to put it up here, too. I run a super-infrequent mailing list, sending off a newsletter about once every two months with the latest happenings with my writing (the next one’s coming in early August). If you don’t feel like checking Facebook or Twitter, this is a really good way to still get reminders about things like the Blood Hunt release, or contests that I might run.

You can sign up by clicking the link in the sidebar, or by going to http://writing.cwbuecheler.com/newsletter

I run this list myself, and can absolutely guarantee that your email address will never be sold, given away, or otherwise made available to anyone else, for any reason.

Making some changes to the color and layout of this site, so it feels a little less grey and dull. Things may look wonky on occasion over the course of today. Have no fear. By the end of the day, all will be well!

Huge article about re-drafting coming on Monday.

We’re live. Welcome!

I decided with the move to cwbuecheler.com to separate out my writing from my other projects, since my work (particularly The Blood That Bonds) is slowly growing a substantial fan-base. This site holds information on all of my significant fiction and non-fiction projects, from novels to articles about video games. I’ll also be making posts about writing in general from time to time, not to mention my updating my dedicated writing Twitter feed, linked over there on the left.

Commenting is currently open for all pages. Feel free to drop some thoughts on the short stories, or novels, or anything else that piques your interest. Also, you may see some stuff that still looks a little broken as I continue to clean up the custom theme.

CWB Writing makes heavy use of HTML 5 and CSS 3. That means if you’re viewing it in IE, you won’t get some of the pretty rounded corners and translucent backgrounds. It should still be totally readable, though, so if you have any problems in that department, please get in touch.

Thanks for visiting!