As a reader I’m always interested in trying out new books and new authors. So when there are exciting giveaways announced, I always take an extra interest to see which books are featured. This exciting giveaway was announced nearly a week ago and is titled “The Ides Of March book giveaway”. Seventeen award-winning and best-selling authors have teamed up to offer this giveaway. One lucky person will win a set of 17 fascinating titles and the titles being offered are:

- THE LANTERN by Deborah Lawrenson
- THE FIREBIRD (ARC) by Susanna Kearsley
- THE TWELFTH ENCHANTMENT by David Liss
- COLD MAGIC by Kate Elliott 
- THE MAPMAKER'S WAR by Ronlyn Domingue
- DRACULA IN LOVE by Karen Essex
- RED, WHITE AND BLOOD by Chris Farnsworth
- THE HOUSE OF VELVET AND GLASS by Katherine Howe 
- THE FAIREST OF THEM ALL (ARC) by Carolyn Turgeon
- THE BOOK OF LOST FRAGRANCES by M. J. Rose 
- THIEFTAKER by D. B. Jackson
- GLAMOUR IN GLASS by Mary Robinette Kowal
- DEVIL'S GATE by F. J. Lennon
- THE MISSING MANUSCRIPT OF JANE AUSTEN by Syrie James
- THE CROOKED BRANCH by Jeanine Cummins
- A NATURAL HISTORY OF DRAGONS by Marie Brennan 
- THE RECKONING by Alma Katsu 

The contest begins from the 1st of March and runs until the 15th of March. Once the winner(s) are selected, the person(s) will be notified within 48 hours. The authors will be giving one set of books per 500 entries.

For those interested in entering this awesome contest, can do so over here (scroll all the way down). The only disclaimers with this contest are that it is open to all residents of the USA, Canada and the UK ONLY and by entering this contest, each participant agrees to be added to the authors' mailing lists (However you can always unsubscribe from any mailing list at any time). That’s it so I would like to wish all the very best to everyone who enters this contest.

I’ve come across Gord Rollo’s work via the Fading Light anthology edited by Tim Marquitz. His story Friends of a Forgotten Man was a delightfully weird and very very creepy read and it stuck around in my head because of the author’s talent in writing such stuff. Lincoln Crisler alerted me to this author post wherein Gord is offering his favorite book THE JIGSAW MAN for free for the next four days (until 5th March) on Amazon.

He’s also offering a 20% discount on all his titles released so far through Createspace and so interested readers can check them out:

- CROWLEY’S WINDOW
- PEELER
- VALLEY OF THE SCARECROW
- THE JIGSAW MAN 
- STRANGE MAGIC 
- GODS & MONSTERS – STORY COLLECTION VOL. 1
- TIME & SPACE – STORY COLLECTION VOL. 2

So for readers wanting to try out a new author be sure to download a FREE copy of THE JIGSAW MAN and check out the various other tales the author has to offer over on his website.

Lastly a few weeks ago, I had announced that David Dalglish had signed on with Orbit books to re-release his Shadowdance trilogy and The Watcher’s Blade trilogy as a six book series that is titled The Shadowdance series. Well there was another bit that I had to keep a lid until it was announced and since it was done so by David in this very fascinating and in-depth interview over at David Gaughran’s blog.

The gist of this announcement is that David will be partnering with Robert Duperre for a new series called “The Breaking World” that is set in the same world as his previous books and is being published by 47 North (Amazon publishing). This will be a trilogy and the titles are:

- DAWN OF SWORDS (tentatively out January, 2014)
- WRATH OF LIONS (TBA)
- BLOOD OF GODS (TBA)

So head over to Robert Duperre’s extensive announcement on his blog that details the inception of this trilogy and how this authorial partnership came to be as well. So this is another excellent bit of information for fans wanting to read dark, gritty character driven fantasy. I’m sure with these two new series coming out, David and Robert are sure to become really popular with fantasy fandom in the near future.

NOTE: David Dalglish, Gord Rollo and Robert Duperre pictures courtesy of the authors themselves.