Okay, here’s the shorthand news:

We’ve signed off on the initial film option for HERE, THERE BE DRAGONS. HOWEVER – since that was only done last Friday, there are a lot of things that still need paying a lot of attention to before an announcement is made  – and we don’t expect to be ready for that until AFTER Comicon.

There may be an announcement/press release made just prior to the Con to promote our producers’ formal involvement, but that won’t be as loudly trumpeted as the deal with the studio will be (which we still expect to have closed before month’s end). And at this point, I needed to decide within a day or so if it would be more to my advantage to stay here and finish other work instead of attending Comicon.

Simon & Schuster is already planning on giving out ARC’s to select readers (retailers, reviewers, and other creators, mostly) which CAN be done without me there. And so I’m going to sit it out this year.

There are a LOT of reasons I desperately WANT to be there… but productivity-wise, it’s going to be a less efficient use of my time than finishing other work (such as the DRAGONS sequel, and the second fantasy series I’m discussing with S&S, and the standalone we’re discussing with Atria Books)…

So – I’m thinking of just buckling down to finish the new books (which I may just be delivering to my editor in person), then looking towards the retailer dinners S&S is setting up in CA and the actual film announcement as the preambles to the book launch/signing tour this Fall.

I’m ten days from completing Book Two – which lets us double the announcements to come: the film sale, and the plan that every October, there will be a new sequel published in the Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica.

I desperately want to be in San Diego, but this is the best long term plan for what I hope to become the most direct line to my future.

If you’d like to drop me a note, I’ll be here, writing. Which is just as it should be.

The first major mainstream review from Orson Scott Card, who also provided a wonderful jacket quote:http://greensboro.rhinotimes.com/story.html?id=1497

Scott was also very happy to know he’d overlooked a few minor personal details about the characters in the book; and I deal with their ‘real’ lives much more in the beginning of the next book.

Eighty-two days and counting to the launch.

The report of James A. Owen’s trip to New Orleans for the ALA, courtesy of our friend and yours, Heidi MacDonald over at THE BEAT:

http://www.comicon.com/thebeat/2006/06/james_owen_at_the_ala.html

It was a remarkable, remarkable experience.

James A. Owen is going to be at the American Library Association Convention in New Orleans beginning tomorrow. Simon & Schuster has put him up at the W Hotel, and he’ll be in the lobby all evening Thursday sketching for any attendees who drop by.

Friday evening, he’ll be doing a reading from HERE, THERE BE DRAGONS at the Simon & Schuster Authors’ Dinner, and has a signing at the S&S booth Saturday from noon to 1.

Writer/Illustrator James A. Owen will be one of the guests attending the 2006 Heroes Con in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The convention will be held June 30 — July 2 at the Charlotte Convention Center.

For more information on the convention and MANY other guests attending this year, please go to: http://www.heroesonline.com/con-update.htm

A lot of things have changed in the last year – which was about the last time any significant updates were made to the Coppervale, International Studio, and Argosy websites. Because of limited availability of our webdesigner at the time (who is also an Artist in Residence at the Studio), news was limited. So I started a livejournal account here:

http://coppervale.livejournal.com/

Going through those archived posts will answer many questions about where we’ve been and where we’re going with all of the above. Certain material will be redirected here; and all future announcements, news, and updates on publishing, pckaging, and media projects will go up here first.

As you can see, we’re in the midst of building the completely new Coppervale site. It’s happening before your eyes – so please check back frequently as we add, diversify, and create a place where, if you want it to be, magic is real…