Young Wizards Discussion Forums software upgrade, June 20-21, 2011

YW Forums members, please note:

DD has advised that she has some new subscription material that's going to be ready to go up on the Forums in a short time -- she'll be advising about the timetable shortly at Out of Ambit and here at the YW news and events weblog -- so the forum staff will be taking this opportunity to install the new version of the Forum software.

Version 4.1.4 apparently addresses many bugs and problems with the present software and includes better rich-text formatting while in message composition. (See the details here.)

The timing of the upgrade is still a little up in the air, but it will probably happen early (UK/Irish time) on Monday June 20 or Tuesday June 21. The Forums will naturally be closed during the installation period during database backups and installation. Exact timings will be published here when available.

Also please note that if you're using one of the custom design/display templates, there's always a possibility it may malfunction as a result of the upgrade. If this happens, let the Forum staff know and they'll look into it.

At last: all Young Wizards novels available in International ebook editions!

It's taken a while, but it's so super to be able to announce that at last readers outside the US and Canada can acquire all the Young Wizards books in ebook form.

Previously only North American readers had access to the whole series in e-format (and even that took a while, due to some hiccups at the publisher). But now all nine books will be universally available, and I can turn my attention to other things -- like the upcoming publication of the New Millennium editions of the first four books.

(One note about the latter: due to production issues at both my end and the cover artist's, the pub date for the New Millennium edition of So You Want to Be a Wizard has been kicked into mid-July. More about this in another posting.)

With all the books now in clean electronic editions, I can now also start the business of getting all of them set in type as POD hard copy editions, for those international readers who prefer a paper book to the electronic sort. This process will take several more months to complete, at least, as there's new book work going on around here alongside the business of improving the availability of the old.

But at least these guys are dealt with now and are available DRM-free in .ePub (Nook, iPad) and .mobi (Kindle) formats. Enjoy, all!

Coming soon: Young Wizards "New Millennium" revised editions

The first four Young Wizards novels have been in print for more than twenty years, and DD has wanted to do revisions of all of them for some time.

The present US publisher of the Young Wizards series, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, has expressed an interest in publishing revised versions of the novels at some time in the future. However, DD wants to make revised editions available to the readership in the short term, and ebooks are the best way to do this.

Starting in June 2011, Errantry Press will begin releasing new revised ebook editions of So You Want to Be a Wizard, Deep Wizardry, High Wizardry and A Wizard Abroad. These books will be updated by DD to reflect technological and other changes that have become commonplace in the minds and lives of her younger readers over the last two to three decades. In some cases she will also be extending the books -- adding new material never published before. 

The first of the books to be released will be So You Want to Be a Wizard, with a new cover by noted German-based graphic artist Niko Geyer. The tentative release date for this version of the book is June 21, 2011.

Unlike the other edition of So You Want to Be a Wizard available in our shop, which can only be purchased by readers outside of North America, the revised edition of SYWTBAW will be an international edition available to all purchasers worldwide. The revised edition will also be available via Amazon.com in a Kindle
edition and via the iBook Store in an ePub edition (courtesy of Kobo). Other formats will be rolled out over 2011. Print editions will also be available in late 2011.

The "classic" editions of all four books will remain available here and at Amazon and B&N for those readers who prefer to purchase them.

Please check the Young Wizards New Millennium page at the DD.com Ebooks Direct store in coming weeks for more information!

It's not just US Presidents who visit Ireland. US wizards do it too.

In honor of President Barack Obama's visit to Ireland today, we're happy to announce the release of the latest in the series of Young Wizards International edition ebooks, A Wizard Abroad.

Fourth in the Young Wizards series, A Wizard Abroad details how the concerned parents of fourteen-year-old Nita Callahan -- thinking that she and fellow young wizard Kit Rodriguez are getting a little too close -- pack their daughter off to Ireland for an extended visit to the farm owned by her slightly eccentric Aunt Annie. They think that by doing this they're going to give Nita a little rest from both Kit and from the stressful and dangerous business of wizardry.

They couldn't be more wrong. Nita shortly finds herself plunged into a local crisis, as the Lone Power finds yet another way to interfere in human existence. All over Ireland, myths and creatures of the past -- both good and evil -- start erupting into modern life, a response to the swiftly growing influence of the Lone One's ancient Celtic avatar, the terrible Balor of the Evil Eye. Nita, Kit, and a host of Irish wizards -- including the brooding and enigmatic Ronan Nolan, who Nita starts to find disturbingly attractive -- soon find themselves enmeshed in a deadly struggle to stop the Lone Power before Its evil exploits this unexpected gateway to overflow Ireland's boundaries and overrun the world...

This 2011 International Edition is intended for Young Wizards fans outside the US and Canada who can't purchase the classic editions of the YW series from North American ebook retailers due to regional sales restrictions. It follows the text of the US SF Book Club first edition of A Wizard Abroad (1993) and the subsequent US paperbacks from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. (North American readers can obtain their own region-specific ebook editions of A Wizard Abroad from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and Kobo.com.)

Readers outside the US and Canada can purchase the International ebook edition of A Wizard Abroad, DRM-free and in .mobi (Kindle) and .ePub (Nook, iPad) formats, through the DianeDuane.com ebook store. It will also be available through Amazon.com within 24-48 hours.

Also please note: a new revised edition of A Wizard Abroad, updated by the author and available to readers worldwide, will be released by Errantry Press in the second half of 2011. Please check DianeDuane.com for dates and other details.

...And in the meantime, would somebody please tell the President to stay a little longer next time? And not to forget the golf clubs.

Out now: "Uptown Local and Other Interventions"

This new anthology collects for the first time some of Diane Duane's  most popular short work -- stories that range across across time and space, with a visit to her best-known milieu, the Young Wizards universe.

Uptown Local features eleven long and short works from the last decade and beyond, including:

• In The Company of Heroes -- A billionaire "living the dream" goes on a desperate quest for the one thing he needs to make his life perfect: a very special comic book...
• The Rizzoli Bag -- A sad young man in a Roman cafe is offered a once-in-a-lifetime bargain...
• Out of the Frying Pan -- The life of a part-time witch working in a shopping mall is turned upside down in a day...
• The Queen and the Thief and the Dragon -- A (fairy) tale of the True West, and a young monarch's solution to a thorny diplomatic problem...
• Bears -- An ancient sorrow (with a modern twist) wanders through the tumult of a pre-Lenten street carnival...
• The Fix -- In the dark guts of Rome's Colosseum, a slave boy with an impossible dream becomes entangled in the machinations of immortals...
• Herself -- In the heart of Dublin, something is killing the People of the Hills -- and it's going to take Ireland's only superhero to stop it...
• Hopper Painting -- Desolation and redemption in a midnight diner, as desperate characters struggle with the soul of the artist who created them...
• The Back Door -- Two terrorists meet in Zurich to carry out a very unusual heist with a confederate who's more dangerous than they imagine...

...And of course, the title story, beloved and sought after for a quarter century by Young Wizards fans, and finally available in an ebook -- along with the only other Young Wizards short story, Theobroma.

Uptown Local and Other Interventions is available for purchase in DRM-free Kindle / .mobi and Nook / iPad / .ePub formats here and at the DianeDuane.com online bookshop for USD $5.99.

Click to purchase the Nook / iPad / ePub version via PayPal
Click to purchase the Kindle / .mobi version via PayPal

ETA / Feb. 23, 2011, 11:00 BST: IMPORTANT! If you purchased a copy of the ebook last night or early this morning, your copy is missing a vital page or two of the story "Herself". Please use the download link in your confirmation email to download another copy, as the missing material has been restored. We'll also be emailing all the affected purchasers new copies of the file as soon as we make a few other corrections to the text.