By this point, you guys know me.  You know there is always a Plan.  Now the details may change, and the specifics are sometimes a bit hazy, but the existence of the Plan is constant.  The Plan keeps me on track.  The Plan is how I know what the next 4 books will be.  The Plan is all-knowing and all-powerful.

But I also tend to keep the Plan private.  I figure you guys don’t particularly want to know the details of what I’m plotting for three books from now.  That’s years down the road, and if I chat too much about it now, you’ll be terribly bored by the time it comes up.  Striking the balance between spilling my guts and never saying anything at all is a bit of a trick.  My natural position on the matter is something along the lines of ‘don’t talk to strangers,’ but that has its limitations.

All of which is a very long and rambling introduction to the next step in the Plan.  Do you remember the mini book I told you about back in April?  Then we had the photoshoot in May?  Yeah, so it’s just about time for it to make its debut!  We’ll start with the cover for now.

It’s actually been off at the printer for weeks and weeks already, meaning that I have the electronic version sitting right here on my computer.  But I learned with Knitter’s Curiosity Cabinet that it’s a bit complicated if you have preorders go on for too long or have the e book come out too much in advance of the physical book.  It leads to record keeping headaches.  So I’ve been displaying unheard of restraint and keeping quiet about the whole thing.  I’m fine with keeping quiet about things when they’re far off in the future.  But keeping quiet about them at this stage is just killer.

But no more.  The time for restraint is past, and the time for official announcements and timetables and general blabbing has come.  On Tuesday the 24th of July preorders for Rabble Rousers will open.  As usual, there will be some sort of special offer for folks who get it during the preorder phase.  One week later, on Tuesday the 31st of July, the e-version will go live.  Two weeks later, on (or possibly shortly before) the 14th of August, the paper ones will go in the mail.

Short and sweet…no waiting for ages and ages for your book to come in the mail (and no organizational drama on this end for me).

And don’t worry, I’ll show you lots more about the collection between now and then, and I’ll let you know the details of the different ways you can order.  But for now, I’ll content myself with ‘hey, look, it’s the next step in the Plan!’