I can’t believe I can finally tell you about this! I’ve been holding onto this secret for a very long while.

Today I’m super excited to reveal to you a brand new book called 7 Hours, and while I can’t go into specifics just yet, I can tell you that it features seven original stories told by seven novelists: Mike Dellosso, Rene Gutteridge, Veronica Kendig, Tom Pawlik, Travis Thrasher, James Andrew Wilson, and yours truly. This very cutting-edge idea was the brainchild of James Andrew Wilson, and I really believe it’s going to be incredible. Trust me: this one is something special. You don’t want to miss it.

That’s all I can say for now, but stay tuned for updates. Head over to this page for a little teaser, and be sure to like 7 Hours on Facebook for all the latest updates!

7 authors. 7 stories. 7 Hours.

Coming in 2012 from Tyndale House Publishers.

Merry Christmas! I’m thrilled to announce that my seventh novel, Corridor, is now available to purchase from Amazon.com in ebook format for just $2.99! Get it now! (Barnes & Noble and iBooks are expected to have it any time now as well.)

If you prefer printed books, I’m told that you’ll be able to order Corridor that way by the end of January. An audio book version is also in the works (my first!).

How you can help:

1. Buy the ebook. It’s only $2.99 — that’s less than a cup of Starbucks!
2. Spread word-of-mouth. Tell your friends, families, and strangers on the street!
3. Post links on your social network of choice (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) to the Corridor page at Amazon.com. Here’s a shortlink that goes straight to it: http://amzn.to/RPcorridor
4. Write a review of Corridor. Post it on Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, iBooks, Goodreads, and/or Shelfari. PLEASE DON’T POST SPOILERS in your review.

It’s time to enter the Corridor. Are you ready for a whole new ride?

Corridor is finished, and as I write this, the ebook version is in-process at both Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com. It should show up for sale at both online stores within the next 48 hours. (The print-on-demand version will follow soon.)

Are you a book reviewer? Do you write for a media outlet or a blog? If you’re a journalist or blogger and would like to review Corridor, email me! I have the ebook on-hand right now, and can send it to you immediately in either PDF or MOBI format. (MOBI is ideal for Kindle; PDF works virtually everywhere else.)

It really is that simple. If you want to review the book for your readers, I’m happy to send it to you. But please: legitimate inquiries only. Reviews for Facebook or Goodreads are appreciated, but we are soliciting reviews from genuine media outlets at this time.

I am also available for interviews regarding Corridor, so contact me if you would like to set something up. There are some very big things coming in 2012 that I’ll be able to talk about soon.

You’ve waited. You’ve wondered. You’ve asked. You’ve begged. Maybe you’ve even tried bribery.

The wait is almost over. Today the ride begins, as I can finally share with you what this young adult novel called Corridor is all about. Here’s the official plot description.

THE ONLY WAY OUT IS TO RUN.

On the eve of his seventeenth birthday, Troy Goggin finds himself inexplicably transported to an impossibly huge, miles-long structure called the Corridor. But what is the Corridor, and why was he brought to it?

It’s a place of mystery, wonder, and heart-stopping danger. It will test him and push him both mentally and physically. His only companion is the girl whose voice he hears inside his head, explaining the rules he must follow if he hopes to escape.

But there is much more to this extraordinary place than Troy could ever imagine. The Corridor’s true purpose — the biggest mystery of all — is revealed only to those who make it to the end.

Don’t forget: Corridor is releasing later this very month — December 2011 — from Stonehouse Ink, so if you want to be the first to know when it’s available, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or watch this space like a hawk! I should have an exact release date for you soon, as well as some cover art to show off, so stay tuned.

How cool is this? It’s the Chinese edition of Nightmare! I knew this was in the works, but I didn’t know when it would be finished. The Chinese publisher that licensed the Chinese language rights, “Gobooks & Sitak Group,” was kind enough to send me a copy of the finished book, and it looking through it is mind-blowing. (Click on any of these images for larger versions.)

Above you can see the cover. Chinese books are read in reverse order to how we read, so the spine is on the right instead of the left. Speaking of the spine, here’s a closer look.

And here’s the back cover.

First page.

Chinese readers read vertically, right to left. It’s fascinating to turn the pages and try to wrap my mind around reading this way.

Check out this closeup of a page. Instead of a straight line to divide up sections of a chapter, like what’s used in the English version, someone at the Chinese publishing house apparently had the idea to use the three alchemical symbols as section dividers. You can see them here in the center of the image. Genius! I wish we’d thought to do this in the English version!

Another interesting feature are the footnotes. Sporadically throughout the book are these footnotes for cultural references and other things that Chinese readers might not be familiar with. Flipping through the first few chapters, I see footnotes for “Grinch,” “cold spot,” “Agnostic,” “Ghostbusters,” and “Linda Blair.”

The Chinese publisher kept the formatting we used for the flashback chapters, with the surrounding journal-style page frames around it. They also used the opening pages of those chapters where there are photos and descriptions of the real-world locations described. Here’s how one of those pages looks in Chinese.

The one thing I can say for certain about the Chinese version of Nightmare is that it wasn’t easy to make. My thanks to Gobooks & Sitak Group for putting a tremendous amount of thought and attention to detail into this. I couldn’t be happier!

Digital painting by Nazar Gnativ & Aleksey Golovchenko.

According to the artist, this steampunk creature is “based on the story of the Iron Man, which the movie Iron Giant was based off.” My mind immediately wonders who built something like this. And why? What kind of world could something like this exist in?

Attention bloggers, journalists, and anyone else with a media outlet or following:

Are you interested in reviewing Vigilante and sharing it with your readers or followers? I’m thrilled to announce that I can now personally provide reviewers with a PDF ebook version of Vigilante, which can be imported to your Kindle, Nook, iPad, or other ereader device. And I’ll give it to you totally, 100% free of charge. My only request is that you post an article about it — short, long, positive, negative, whatever. Write and publish some kind of review about it online (or in print) that gives your honest opinion, and then share that review with your peeps via Facebook, Twitter, Google+, whatever.

Want in on this incredible deal? Send me an email, and please include a link to the outlet where you’ll be publishing your review.

One word of warning: this ebook PDF file is an ARC (Advanced Readers Copy), so it doesn’t sport the final typesetting or layout of the published book, or the cover art. It ain’t fancy, and some small things might be a little different than the final version. And you’ll spot some typos here and there. Also, the newspaper, magazine, and website article mockups that appear occasionally throughout the book (which we called “interstitials” during the editing process) are absent, though not required to follow the plot. One thing it does have that the printed book does not: I added my signature to it, as you can see in the pic above (thank you, OS X Lion).

Reviewers: If you need help importing PDF files to your ereader, here’s a helpful program that can convert PDFs to any format you like, and will even help you sync your ebook files directly to your device. It’s a free app for Windows, Mac, and Linux, though the devs request a donation if you find it useful.