It has been an eventful past few weeks for both me personally and my fantasy series professionally. This past weekend, I went to St. Petersburg and appeared on Saturday (Oct. 20) at the Times Festival of Reading, where I gave a talk/reading/signing which by all accounts went really well.

Just about 10 minutes before I appeared, I met -- for the first time -- my first grandchild, Jaxson Smith, son of Fred and Jill (my second-oldest daughter) Smith. It was a wonderful time, and Jaxson was awesome! So much fun in so many ways. Can't wait to see him again.

Much is happening with The Death Wizard Chronicles. Book 2, titled Chained By Fear, is set to come out in late November, and Book 1, Forged In Death, will be featured in November as one of Amazon's top 100 books. This should really spur sales and get the series going. In addition, a short story titled Torg's First Death will also be coming out soon (before Book 2). This story is a prequel to book 1 and will be one of three short stories I've written that will be interspersed between the releases of books 1-6 to aid in the promotion and to increase reader interest.

Please go to www.jim-melvin.com for more info. :)