Hi, folks.

My third novel, Raising Stony Mayhall, will be out in stores on June 28. The book is my skewed take on the zombie genre, featuring a kid who thinks he’s the last living dead boy in the world. Publisher’s Weekly just gave it a starred review and named it their Pick of the Week — which is nice. You can also read the prologue and the first chapter at http://www.darylgregory.com/stony/

If you pre-order Stony, I’ like to thank you by sending you a signed bookplate. (Which is just a fancy sticker with my actual, not-scanned, handwritten signature and a nice thank-you message that you can paste into your book.)  And if you do so right away, I’ll throw in these lovely Ginsu knives. Okay, that last part’s a lie. Sorry about that.

How to do it

Just pre-order from anywhere (some possible links below), then, before June 28, send me an email with your mailing address. That’s it. No proof of purchase necessary, though if you send me box tops from your favorite cereal, that’s cool.

I’ll mail you the bookplate, with of course an inscription. Make sure to let me know if you’d like me to mention something specific–like, say, that this a gift for your beloved spouse, ex-girlfriend, or dog. However, I will not participate in gifts for beloved ex-dogs.

The best place to order is your local bookstore — support those people! But you can also order from any of these fine places, listed in alphabetical order:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Borders
Flights of Fantasy Books (great indie bookstore)
Powell’s Books

Feel free to pass this link around. Any friend of yours is a friend of mine.

How to keep your favorite authors around

If you have a writer you love (you know, besides me), pre-ordering their books really helps them out. Bookstores are increasingly deciding on what to stock on their shelves based on the number of pre-orders. So if you already know you’re going to buy the book, buy it early. And if you love it, make sure to leave a review online–those reader reviews sometimes have more of an impact than magazine reviews.