What we’re releasing today is an imperfect work, with the idea being for it to be improved upon over the coming days and weeks, in response to your feedback regarding its design and ease of use. You’ll notice, for example, that the private messaging functionality is yet to go live, and that the registration process could be somewhat less clunky. Once you’ve registered, you’ll need to check the email account which you provided during registration for a message which contains your auto-generated password.

So, without further ado, I would like to invite you to check out the forum. Please feel free to post whatever you wish. It would be especially helpful if you could leave us your feedback here, under Forum Feedback.

(Please note that during the development phase, we secretly opened up the site to registered users for the first time. This is why about a half a dozen of you who are WordPress-savvy were able to register. Now that the forum page is no longer password protected, those users should be able to view the forum and sign in with your original login details.)

Thanks for reading. Looking forward to your comments and suggestions.

David

No, it’s not 1939. This current war is about who can be awesomer this week, and the fighting is fierce.

Germany has already racked up an impressive number of points. As I mentioned yesterday, Das Flüstern der Nacht, the German translation of The Desert Spear from publisher Heyne, just went on sale in Deutchland. The title translates as “The Whisper of Night”, and it is surprisingly apt, considering the title and cover were chosen long before anyone at Heyne had read the book, designed more to create a mood than to describe the content.

And yet it works. Throughout the book, the night is calling to Arlen in an insistent voice that only he can hear. I dig it. And the cover art is just gorgeous. I need to find out more about that artist. I can’t make heads or tales of the copyright page in the German edition. I’ll have to ask my editor.

Amazon.de released the book a little early, activating all their pre-orders the week before the official on-sale date, but on the strength of those orders alone, I made it to #40 on the prestigious Der Spiegel Bestseller list, as shown on the German buchreport this morning.

In addition to this, Heyne has created an amazing interactive map, using short video descriptions of the various locations that I recorded on my webcam. The map was put together by designers Andreas Hancock, Herbert Ahnen, and Stephan Kempers and is really awesome.

But Fabryka Slow in Poland is not to be outdone. They too released a book this week, part 2 of  Pustynna Wlócznia, which as I understand it is a pretty straightforward Polish translation of Desert Spear. As with part 1, the Polish edition is illustrated by the amazing Dominik Broniek. More than that, Fabryka Slow is willing to share some of those illustrations online.

I wish illustrations were still en vogue. They can add so much to the reading experience, and I don’t think they limit the reader’s imagination in the least. Take it from a comic book lover. Illustrations are just a springboard for the imagination.

And I really love Dominik’s work. He has a real knack for pulling powerful images from the text and bringing them to life, and his demons kick ass. Don’t believe me? Check this shit out:

Renna’s run through the rising demons:

Mind and Mimic 1:

That coreling ent gonna trouble anyone again:

Mind and Mimic 2:

Rojer in his Cloak of Unsight:

Wonda, Rojer, and Gared:

Staked at dusk:

Plus, Fabryka Slow has their own secret webcam agenda. Shhh!

Who will win out in the end? The week is young…

Das Flüstern der Nacht

This is fantastic news, and thanks in no small part to the tireless efforts of Sebastian Pirling, my German editor at Heyne, and Ingrid Herrmann-Nykto, my wonderful and hard-working translator, not to mention my fine German agent at the Fritz Agency.

Heyne made a wonderful web page for the first book, and they are doing no less this time around. A special interactive map will be posted hopefully tomorrow, including video interviews I sent about the various cities and hamlets. I will put up the link as soon as I have it.

Also, this weekend I got a bit drunk…

It takes stones to put yourself out there and be a first responder.

I’m talking about people like Francois, the first of three contest entrants to have submitted something within 24 hours of my announcing the Warding Contest. He wrote:

The photo is of me when I was young and had Chickenpox. I thought I looked pretty bad ass so I decided to ward myself.

He also included a kickass “night” version:

The next hero is Francine from the UK, who writes:

Dear Peter,

I heard about your contest and think it’s a great idea and would be loads of fun to do so here’s my entry . It’s a picture of my guinea pig zucchini.

He’s completely warded against huma- sorry, corelings.

Love Francine!

Finally we have the brave Lisa, who says:

The contest is simple:

Step 1: Go to the Creations page on my website and scroll down until you  find the 18 black & white ward symbols designed by Lauren K. Cannon. If you hover your mouse over them, you can see them by name. Click to enlarge, and right-click to download.

Step 2: Ward something. Anything. You can use as many or as few of the symbols as you like. You can draw the wards yourself or use the digital files. You can also carve, etch, paint, tattoo, brand, stencil, cut, silkscreen, henna, airbrush, or otherwise render the wards. Any medium. Any object. You can go all the way from making a full portable Messenger circle to just warding your sneakers with a Sharpie during history class. Whatever. Just make sure that when you’re done, demons aren’t going to want to go anywhere near what you warded.

Step 3: Take a digital picture of whatever you warded and send it to peat@petervbrett.com no later than July 1, 2010. If you want to physically send your entry, let me know in the e-mail and I’ll tell you how to do that. Please include your full name and the mailing address you would like your prize to go to, should you win. (I promise not to be a dick and share your address with anyone or use it for any other purpose without permission.)

That’s it. Lauren and I will review the entries and pick our five favorites. The lucky Warders will each receive a print of the new Renna painting gracing the home page, signed by both Lauren and myself:

If there are a lot of entries, I will also throw in some other prizes, like signed books and whatnot.

More news to come as the story develops. Good warding!