It’s The Final Countdown!

We’re in the final week before the (hopefully!) release of BUDDY THE KNIGHT AND THE QUEEN OF SORROW on August 30th!

(Um, he wrote “hopefully!”. What’s he talkin’ ’bout, Willis?)

Welp as with any release, there are always…complications.

The most recent is Amazon still hasn’t approved the books because my metadata (author name, contributors, inside stuff that isn’t story related, etc.) doesn’t match. You see, I went with the author name of Peter David rather than Peter Hartog for this series because I want to keep my urban science fantasy adult language-y stuff separate from my middle grade stuff. Obviously, visitors to this site will clearly see both, so why bother? It just felt right to me to separate the two. David is my middle name. Whenever I got in trouble, my mother would shriek “Peter David!” and I knew I was toast. Given the target audience for Buddy, I felt it appropriate. That, and it’s easier to remember Peter David rather than Peter Hartog.

Unfortunately, Amazon takes a dim view of messing around with names when you already have written material on their site. I *think* I’ve corrected what needed correcting in the metadata, but we shall see. For now, I get to chew my fingernails down to the cuticles and beyond as I await Draft2Digital to update, and then for Amazon to re-review (not a word, I know). And if what I did doesn’t work, then it’s Customer Service time with D2D and hope they’ll be able to correct it for me.

Don’t get me wrong. The 8/30 release is still happening because nearly all the other vendors contracted with Draft2Digital have approved the book. This Friday, I’ll post the universal link here and anywhere I have a social media account, which means some of you fine readers will be able to grab the book. But when the biggest distributor in the universe hasn’t rubber stamped it yet…well, you get the picture.

Aaaaaaaaanyway…

By now, I hope some of you have had a chance to read three ARC reader reviews that dropped over this past weekend!

If you’re curious, head on over to Goodreads then do a search for the book’s title or Peter Hartog.

(Yes, the irony of changing my author name, yet needing to type in Peter Hartog to reach the reviews for the book under Peter David has not escaped me. Life is full irony, amirite Alanis?)

Many thanks to T.A. Bruno, Douglas Lumsden, and Beth (@f33lthesun) for your wonderful words about my little story!

After the book’s release, each week I plan to post here a piece of original concept art by the talented Zachary Robichaux, and include a little blurb “about the character”. If you follow me on Facebook, Twitter (@althazyr), Threads (@althazyr), and Instagram (@althazyr), you’ve already seen these great illustrations.

So that’s it (for now). Please send positive vibes the book’s way as it languishes in Amazon-atory. Hopefully, it’ll be ready to go by Friday. If not, then not.

Until then, be kind to each other, and write on.