Archive - February, 2011

Follow-Up: Winter Is Coming.

February 28, 2011 in All Posts, Announcements, Other with 1 Comment

If you were dazzled by my recent Game of Thrones scent-based transmedia experience — and were curious to learn where that unusual rabbit hole might lead us — you’ll be interested to read this email I received today from HBO:

Dear JC,

Thank you so much for sharing the Game of Thrones scent experience with your audience. We wanted to let you know that fans can now take the next step in this unique sensory journey by visiting TheMaestersPath.com.

The Maester’s Path is an interactive journey into the world of Game of Thrones, where players can vie to become “maesters,” the healers, teachers and advisers of this world.  Maesters wear chains as a symbol of their learning, each link representing one discipline. Players at TheMaestersPath.com earn “links” in their chains by completing a series of online challenges. In fact, the clues to answering the first of those challenges were hidden within the scent recipes you received.

The experience begins at TheMaestersPath.com — we hope you and your readers may find it interesting.

Thanks,

The HBO Marketing Team

I visited the site — it’s incredible — and savvily conquered the first online challenge. You can too, by checking out the photos at my original post about the GoT box, and then heading over to TheMaestersPath.com. Your keen eyes and curiosity will be rewarded!

I wish HBO the best of luck with its GoT campaign and series!

–J.C.

Pre-Order Melzer’s “Escape” And Hit The Mother Lode!

February 25, 2011 in All Posts with 0 Comments

My friend and fellow author James Melzer debuted some terrific news today, and I wanted to share it with you fine peeps.

Melzer is the author of Escape: A Zombie Chronicles Novel, the first book in a trilogy that combines zombies and government conspiracies. It’ll be in bookstores later this year.

To whet your appetite for that novel, Melzer is rewarding folks who pre-order Escape by sending them an exclusive excerpt of the novel months before it’s released … and he’s sending pre-order customers The Mother Load, a massively awesome horror/suspense short story anthology Melzer commissioned for this promotion.

The Mother Load is an eBook collection of never-before published stories from six great authors, including Mur Lafferty, S.G. Browne, David Moody, Wayne Simmons, Matt Wallace, and Jeremy C. Shipp. It’s available to anyone who pre-orders Escape starting today — Friday, February 25, 2011 — and right up until Escape’s release on December 6, 2011.

Wanna support Melzer? Awesome. Here’s the rules:

The only way folks can get their hands on this eBook collection is by pre-ordering Escape at any of the following online retailers: Amazon (Print Edition), Amazon (Kindle Edition), Amazon UK, Amazon Canada, Borders.com, and Indigo Canada.

People must forward their purchase receipts to EscapeNovel@Gmail.com. Within 24 hours, they’ll receive a .zip file containing The Mother Load anthology in .mobi, .epub and PDF formats for their eReaders. An exclusive text excerpt of Escape is included in this file.

Learn more about Escape at Melzer’s website. Here are some great things two great writers are saying about Melzer’s work:

“This is the 1984 of zombie novels” – Scott Sigler, New York Times Bestselling author of Ancestor and Contagious

“Just when you think you know where it’s going, Melzer kicks you in the balls and turns everything on its head. Escape will take you to the edge and leave you wanting more.” – David Moody, author of Hater, Autumn, and Dog Blood

So what are you waiting for? Support my friend and fellow author James Melzer by pre-ordering a copy of Escape today! With that anthology and excerpt of the book that’ll soon arrive in your inbox as reward, you’ll feel like you’ve hit the mother lode!

–J.C.

Winter Is Coming. (A Transmedia Fiction Experience with J.C.)

February 25, 2011 in All Posts, Announcements, Other with 38 Comments

This afternoon, a package from HBO arrived at my doorstep. Curious, I grabbed my vidcam and documented what quickly became not only an awesome “unboxing” video, but an amazing — and remarkably unconventional — narrative journey.

Ride shotgun with me as you get an unfiltered, as-it-happens look at this amazing HBO package as I experience it … and learn a little about the world of HBO’s upcoming fantasy series Game Of Thrones (based on the terrific novel series by George R.R. Martin) along the way.

For viewers who want a closer look at the images seen briefly in the videos, check the gallery below for larger versions.

And do be careful out there. Winter is coming.

–J.C.

Click the image thumbnails below to view detail shots of the HBO package. (Click your browser’s “back” button to return to this page, and the gallery.)