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Click HERE for an article on the festival by Gazzette.net.

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20,000 attendees expected! I’ll be signing copies of The Moon Coin and The Dragondain (free book poster for anyone getting a book), and handing postcards, etc. And the chocolate gold coins have shipped from Texas! So we should have those on hand too.

Here’s how it happened: back in the fall, Barnes and Noble sent me a letter saying they wanted to carry The Moon Coin in their brick and mortar bookstores. The problem is that B&N doesn’t acquire books from publishers and authors, they get them from distributors and wholesalers.

Well, this week I heard back from Baker & Taylor. I’VE GOT THE BROOM AND I’M HEADING BACK TO OZ! My book is going to be available to B&N, (among many other bookstores), and a 95% of all libraries!

I have no idea how long it’s going to take me to get back to Oz, though. A couple months maybe? There’s just never a roving band of blood-thirsty flying monkeys around when you need one. Have you ever noticed that? But when I do get back, and into the Barnes & Noble catalog, B&Ns everywhere will be able to stock the series!

I’ve already heard from one B&N children’s dept manager who says she already has a special display in mind. She also plans to put up posters! Yikes!

One B&N store down, 722 to go.

In other news, I’m back up on Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/u/0/116346566164783346454

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“The magic is more mesmerising, the adventures more alluring, the 

building sense of intrigue and danger more tantalising and evocative.”

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Click HERE or the image above for the review.

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highly recommended.”—Midwest Book Review

This just in from the Midwest Book Review:

A good story almost comes alive in our imagination, and it may do just that. “The Moon Coin” begins Richard Due’s Moon Realm series, following young Lily and Jasper, who learn much about the place from their uncle. But when he goes missing, the kids will learn there was more to his stories than just stories, and the secrets behind them will prove dangerous as they are enticing. “The Moon Coin” is a fine and adventurous read for young adults, highly recommended.

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The Moon Coin

Available in paperback:

Amazon and SecondLooksBooks.

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Paperback Version

On Sale at Amazon

20% Off

Click HERE.

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Available for E-Readers:

Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iTunes iBookstore

Please share these files with your friends. Enjoy.

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❍

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The Dragondain

Now available in paperback and ebook.

Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iTunes iBookstore.

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Paperback Edition

On Sale at Amazon

20% Off

Click HERE

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Two chapters formatted for ePub, Mobi, or PDF.

Please share these files with your friends. Enjoy.

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❍

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Copyright © 2011 by Richard Due. All rights reserved. Gibbering Gnome Press,

A Division of Ingenious Inventions Run Amok, Ink™ The Moon Realm™

Carefully concealed within the nocturnal tales of Lily and Jasper Winter’s youth are hidden secrets only a child could believe. And believe they did. But now, as young teens, their Uncle Ebb’s disappearance has left many more questions than answers. Had he meant for them to discover the Moon Coin? Did he need them in the Moon Realm? Was it really possible that, by telling his tales, he’d actually been preparing them for the adventure of a lifetime?

Click HERE to read it in full.

You didn’t think Ebb was the only one with such a coat, did you?

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Jessi, from Maryland, sent in this pick of her pocket-Rinn.

She sent this message with it: This is Blooregard Q. Kazoo, commonly called Bloo. He just wants to read this pretty book with the similarly majestic kitty on the front of it, OK? But he doesn’t have opposable thumbs. : (

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Gibbering Gnome Press has been thrilled with the response to their ebook giveaway for THE MOON COIN. We thought it would take four weeks to get 50 takers. We got 40 in the first week! If the next 10 go before this weekend is out, Gibbering Gnome Press is prepared double the number of ebook versions they’re giving away. That’s right, they’ll give away as many as 100 ebook copies! Also, in addition to the Kindle and Nook versions, there are now a limited number of iTunes iBookstore versions available. So don’t forget to mention that if you want an iBookstore version. Please Share this Post.

Here’s the original offer:

In an effort to build up our email list, Gibbering Gnome Press is giving away 50 free e-books of The Moon Coin, the first book in the award-winning Moon Realm series, to the first fifty people who join our email list. Please specify if you’d like to receive a Kindle or Nook version in your email.

You will receive your gift link on February 18th.

Details here: http://themoonrealm.com/tmremaillist/

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There are some images in this film that come freaky close to the Moon Realm. If you want to see what it looks like to have one world hanging over another, or what a crossover might look like, then check it out! (As you already know, if you’ve read the books, the way gravity works in this film is VERY different than in the Moon Realm.)

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/upsidedown/

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Gibbering Gnome Press just made it a whole lot easier for librarians (public & school) to order MOON REALM novels. For details click HERE. There’s even a handy, printable Order From. So if your local library is lacking in the Moon Realm department, print out a copy of the PDF and take it down to your local library and tell them you’re dying to read the print edition. Which is quite lovely, btw. You can catch a glimpse of it HERE.

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If you’re a GoodReads member (What’s GoodReads? Imagine if facebook was filled with readers and authors and all they wanted to do was talk about great books!), and you enjoy middle-grade books (Harry Potter, The Hobbit, Percy Jackson, etc.), or shop for a middle-grader who does, check out the Group Great Middle Grade Reads. And while you’re there, don’t forget to give the Moon Realm books a vote on their Listopia List, which you can get to that list by clicking HERE.

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We’re gathering quotes from THE DRAGONDAIN to include on five new Second Looks Books bookmarks. If you have any favs, please shout them out. (We may just use one of them!)

Here are the five quotes we used on last year’s booksmarks. They’re all taken from THE MOON COIN:

“But—” yelped Twizbang, “Greydor will eat us!”

“Some people are just sad when there aren’t talking squirrels.” —Lily Winter

“You won’t find the tales I bear in any books . . . My tales are from the Moon Realm.” —Ebb Autumn

“Odd names: Winter, Autumn—they almost sound as if someone just made them up.” —Dubb

Tavin cupped his hands to his mouth. “Here, dragon-dragon-dragon!” he yelled. Lily stared in amazement. Well, that was bold, she thought, and stupid.

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Gibbering Gnome Press has posted two GoodReads giveaways for signed and numbered, limited edition paperbacks of the first two books in the Moon Realm. You can enter to win through the links below.

2 Goodreads giveaways, signed, numbered, limited editions of

The Moon Coin & The Dragondain.

Click HERE for The Moon Coin.

Click HERE for The Dragondain.

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Lastly, for those of you who are wondering, I’m editing third book in the Moon Realm series, The Murk, as fast as I’m able. I’ve been handing off the first few chapters with my primary editor these last few weeks, and she’s been saying nice things about it. And she hasn’t read chapter 3 yet, which was great fun to write. I can’t wait to hear what she thinks of it. I’ll say only one word about it: Faerathil.

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My editor has been asking me to rewrite my bio. She thinks a bio should satisfy a reader’s curiosity about an author’s journey and skillz.  She also sees it as an opportunity to let a prospective employer—in this case, one of the goliath publishing corporations—know that I’m not a complete dolt.

This is what I emailed her today. Any feedback would be welcome—just post your comments at the bottom. Thanks!

Author Bio:

Richard Due (pronounced “Dewey”) first imagined the Moon Realm while telling bedtime tales to his children. He makes his home in Southern Maryland, where he and his wife have owned and operated Second Looks Books since 1991. The Moon Coin is the first novel in his award-winning Moon Realm series.

Author Note:

I started writing stories in the 3rd grade and moved on to novels in my teens and twenties, only to give that all up in my mid-thirties.

In my working life, however, I’ve been into making squiggly marks (or dots, lots of dots) on paper since the 1980s. First, I worked as a laser scanner operator, making halftones. (Halftones are a reprographic technique that simulates continuous tone imagery through the use of dots). Or, put more simply, I turned black and white photographs into a whole mess-o-dots, extra pretty-like, making them perfect for running on printing presses.

Later, I worked as a DS camera operator, making halftones and text negatives on orthographic film. Or, put more simply, I turned photographs into a whole mess-o-dots, on film, and did the same with text, only without all the dots, making them perfect for running on printing presses. I made several hundred BFOPs this way. (BFOPs, pronounced BEEfops, stands for Books For Other People. And they aren’t always fun to make, but they’re great for paying for things like books, car insurance, rent, more books, food, and drink.)
Eventually, though, computers took all those jobs away from me and gave them to something called a digital typesetter. So I taught myself how to be one of those, and made more books (some cool, most not so much) and computer software manuals (can you say: kill me now).

In 1991, I put the typesetting business on freelance, and entered into the exciting and glamorous world of book selling. My wife and I are still at it, selling books at our independent (mostly-) used bookstore in Prince Frederick, Maryland.

In 2010, however, something very strange happened. . . . On a complete lark, during the night of a full moon, I put all my skills together in a paper bag, and waved them over my head while clucking like a chicken, then opened the bag, and out spilled the Moon Realm Series in all its ebook and print goodness. I have been very happy ever since.

Today, thankfully, has been one of magical editing days where not only do I have lots of time (so rare), but things are falling into place left and right (rarer still)!

So, while my wife and children race down the sloops like the ski bunnies they are, I’ve holed up at Trader’s Coffee.

This picture was taken directly across the street from the coffee shop. If you’ve never been to Deep Creek Lake, MD, in the winter: yes! the water really is that blue!

I’ve got a decaf latte, a warmed palmier, a printout of chapter two, and four very sharp dixon ticonderogas at my side. Now, to work!

Day two. On the way to Trader’s Coffee House, I pulled over and snapped this shot below.

And here’s the original shot I pulled this detail from:

THE MOON COIN

For a limited time, the first book in the award-winning

Moon Realm Series is going on sale! Please spread the news!

..

Available on E-Readers:

Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iTunes iBookstore

..

99¢

..

❍

..

The Moon Coin

Available in paperback:

Amazon and SecondLooksBooks.

..

Paperback Version

On Sale at Amazon

20% Off

Click HERE.

..

❍

..

The Dragondain

Now available in paperback and ebook.

Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iTunes iBookstore.

..

Paperback Edition

On Sale at Amazon

20% Off

Click HERE

..

Two chapters formatted for ePub, Mobi, or PDF.

Please share these files with your friends. Enjoy.

..

❍

....

Copyright © 2011 by Richard Due. All rights reserved. Gibbering Gnome Press,

A Division of Ingenious Inventions Run Amok, Ink™ The Moon Realm™