Congratulations to the ten winners, your books will be mailed to you shortly.

But we also have a jury of eleven voting on favorite characters.  Allowing split votes (half each) the rating is: Rap 2, Durendal, 1.5, then one each for Alfeo Zeno, Sir Beaumont, Katanji, Knobil, Omar, Radgar, and Shonsu, with a half vote for Sir Wolf.  I was happy to see Katanji making the cut, but not surprised.  He is the only non-hero to do so, but he almost stole a book away from me.  (The only character who succeeded in doing so was Radgar, in Lord of the Fire Lands.) Shonsu reappears in the forthcoming The Death of Nnanji and of course Katanji sneaks in there also — couldn’t keep him out!  And no women??  Not even Inos or Aunt Kade?  Oh, well, Dickens was better doing men, too.

But if anyone else wants to vote in this popularity contest, I’d be interested to hear from them.  No book rewards, I’m afraid.  (I do offer three good characters coming up in Against the Light — you see them on the cover.)

PS: I see a twelfth juror just cast a vote for Ylo.  There was another sneaky character!

My new standalone fantasy, Against the Light, will be released on Tuesday, January 24. The publisher, 47North, has provided ten free copies to be given away to the first ten fans to answer this skill-testing question: Who is your favorite character in a Dave Duncan book? Answers must be posted on my blog, www.daveduncan.com, NOT on Facebook.

Having survived our two days at Wickaninnish, Janet and I are off to Maui for a week or so, staying at the same place we visited on our first trip there, around 37 years ago.  I will be offline, so posts to this page may be late in appearing, as they are routed by me for approval.  But don’t let that stop you!

I do not normally write a personal blog, because Janet and I rarely do anything noteworthy these days. At the moment, though, we are wallowing in decadence in one of my very favorite places, the Wickaninnish Inn, at Tofino, on the extreme western coast of Vancouver Island. Not only does this corner of Paradise provide a wonderful (if necessarily brief) Christmas treat of luxury and gourmet food, but it offers spectacular views of the coast. There is nothing between us and Japan except half a world of wild water, which explodes against the rocks here every few seconds, retiring in baffled white foam to try again. It has been doing this for about four billion years; it never gives up. There must be a lesson there somewhere, but I will leave you to draw it for yourself.  Personally I am content to sit back and watch it over the lip of a glass of something cold and  pricey. Happy New Year to all!

This being the time to celebrate the Saturnalia, Hanukkah, the birth of Mithras, Sol Invictus, or any other festival of your choice, I thought I would jump the gun… er, sword?… and offer All You Faithful a treat in the shape of the opening chapter of The Death of Nnanji.  I haven’t seen a target publication  date yet, so you still have time to get hold of the rest of the series and meet the swordsmen of the Goddess.  Or, if you were one of the many who were spellbound by them twenty years ago, to refresh your memory.  (Begin with The Reluctant Swordsman, of course.)  And have a great holiday!

With three new books coming out in 2012, I foresee a great year and hope that you do too.

Good news: after a very long wait, Pock’s World is now available for Kindle readers and should be out in other e-book formats by the end of this week.

I have been silent so long on this would-be blog that I must obviously have been up to something.  The only question is what?, and that I find rather hard to answer.  I have passed one encouraging milestone.  My editor, Robert Runté, completed editing the MS of The Death of Nnanji, and I spent the weekend going through it.   This morning I sent it off to E-Reads to be published.  I know the guys (and dolls) there are chewing on a couple of year-end deadlines, but I hope that they will get this one out not too far into the New Year.

After an absence of more than a year, Book 2 of “Tales of the King’s Blades” is back on line, thanks to E-Reads. Now all six of the original Blades books are once more available, plus The Monster War reissue of “The King’s Daggers” series. Enjoy!

Kirkus Reviews has rated When the Saints as one of the top fiction books of 2011 That’s a first for me.

At long last When the Saints has been published in hardcover and e-book formats. I don’t like the price, but publishers do have to pay line editors, copy editors, typesetters, artists, accountants, lawyers, rent, designers, and, not least, writers.