On December 5th, we opened Kris Longknife: Stalwart for sale.

Many years ago when I wrote Furious, I really wanted Kris in a Kimono because she was on Musashi meeting the Emperor. ACE said no – they always went with “Girl with a Big Gun.” They put her in fatigues, with a big gun and a pagoda in the background. I was greatly disappointed, and have been wanting to see her on the cover ever since.

This book, we are thrilled to be working with a new cover artist, Lee Moyer. He has made my dream of seeing Kris on the cover in a kimono come true!

As I’ve read your Facebook and blog questions, many of you have asked about the title. This book in the Kris Longknife saga has gone through a couple of working titles. I started with Victorious, then switched to Valiant. My assistant and one of our readers pointed out that the word Valiant was reminiscent of the Finest Generation in World War II, and Kris hadn’t been victorious in quite that way yet – so we chose Stalwart. In this novel, you see her as steadily fighting, steadily protecting, and growing increasingly uncomfortable with the experiences and processes of Iteeche politics. She plods on – in a stalwart manner, hence the title.

In this book, not only do you have the usual space battles, but you have a hostile take-over of Arteccia, which Kris recently liberated, the kid Emperor coming out to play, and an assassination attempt! You also have a really fabulous scene where Kris and two of her staff meet with the Iteeche in kimonos, hence the idea for the cover of the book.

This book is the longest yet, just over 140,000 words of action-packed adventure, space battles, Marine battles, and threats to the lives of those Kris not only loves but has sworn to protect. Because of its length, we had to increase the price by $1, but that covers the cost of paper, ink, and in the case of the ebook, editing. I’d like to thank all of you who have bought the book – we’ve sold 2,200 in the first week alone!

I’ve started on another book….stay tuned here for more details!

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