Well, this year isn’t off to a bad start.

First up, a big thanks to everybody who voted for The Caledonian Gambit’s cover over at The Qwillery’s Cover of the Year poll. There was some stiff competition from Sara O. Thompson’s Muddy Waters, complete with a lengthy teeter-tottering for first place, but I’m happy to say that we emerged from the scrum victorious, carried aloft on a ceremonial book cover. Or, well, the little bar on our results was just a little bit longer anyway. Anyway, that’s amazing and flattering, but full credit must go to cover artist Sebastien Hue and cover designer Rain Saukas, who did phenomenal jobs putting the whole thing together. The best that I can hope for is that it means you can judge my book by its cover. (And once again, I’m ever thankful that the folks at Talos didn’t opt to use my original cover design).

Secondly, you might remember in my last post that I was going on a bit about my lateral move into apparel. Well, the response was simply fantastic: almost 90 people ordered shirts! Far more than I’d anticipated, but fortunately the good folks at Cotton Bureau were well up to the challenge. Orders are going out now, and hopefully everybody who ordered one should receive it in the next week or so.

If you missed out on this run of shirts, you can still register your interest at Cotton Bureau, and they’ll let you know when it’s available to order again. Next time around, I’ll also probably make the Illyrican Empire option available as well, and maybe some new color options for the Commonwealth version too.

Thanks again to those who decided that they wouldn’t mind walking around with a logo from my book emblazoned on their chest—truly, the highest honor. I look forward to seeing one in the wild at some point; then, I’ll know I’ve really made it. If you do have one and wear it some place I might see it—say, one of my upcoming appearances—who knows? Maybe I’ll have a special surprise for you.

Finally, I’m at work on a few projects that I’m hopeful you’ll all enjoy, though most of them are early days. If you’re looking for a good book to read in the meantime, let me point you towards the excellent techno-thriller The Exphoria Code by my good friend Antony Johnston, whose name you might know from a little movie called Atomic Blonde. It’s a ripping good read, as you’d expect from him.