The proofs are here! The proofs are here!
I can’t begin to say how excited I am that proofs for all four volumes of the Special, 10th Anniversary Edition of Saga of the God-Touched Mage have now officially landed at the Collins Condo. Oh. My. God.
I videoed my experience with getting a first look at them so you can share the moment—check it out down below.
First, though, let me explain for those who are unaware that SGTM is the epic fantasy series that moved me from being a short story writer into a writer of bigger things. Garrick, Darien (the sidekick), Sunathri (the Freeborn mage), Braxidane (the meddling powerful planewalker). Will. Kalomar. The mage orders. Everything. They are all back! It’s a twisty story of magic, and intrigue, and battle, and… well … it’s big and fast moving. Among my favorite reviews was one that said something like “this is what fantasy can be if you take out all the boring parts.” Admittedly, I love that.
Writing this story told me I could make big things work, and finding my way toward putting them together was quite the adventure in itself. Maybe I’ll tell it at some point here, but for now, it’s enough to say that finishing this series that I loved so much changed my life. At that point, the series was comprised of eight novellas, and was well-read enough that each of those eight spent several weeks on Amazon’s bestselling Dark Fantasy lists, several hitting #1. Which was pretty danged heady at the time, for obvious reasons. I mean. Whew, boy, that was fun.
So, you can understand why I’ve been anticipating this 10-year milestone for some time, focusing on it with the idea that I wanted to do something cool with it. As luck would have it, the world is hitting this period just as independent publishers are finding it possible to bring some truly amazing books into the world. When I saw what was possible last year, I knew exactly what I needed to do to give this series its proper due.
Enter these absolutely stunning Special Editions.
I’ll be writing more about each volume over the next few days, but suffice it to say here that today—opening the final proofs of the special editions—was an incredibly cool thing.
These are great stories.
I’m so happy to see them again.