In the past couple of weeks I’ve noticed some positive reviews coming in for Dead Man’s Hand and for my story, “Second Hand,” specifically.

Over here M. J. Starling says “I love Rajan Khanna’s card sharp stories” among other wonderful things and let me tell you I will be flying high on those comments for weeks.

Also, at The Book Plank, they single out my story along with those by Tad Williams, Joe Lansdale, Christie Yant and Seanan McGuire. The “Second Hand” review ends with “Rajan Khanna has started to build a great premise in Second Hand that will hopefully be featured in more stories or a full length book!” which is encouraging (and I am definitely writing more). 

Feedback, positive or negative, is sometimes so hard to come by with short fiction that it’s nice to get some. Especially when it’s so positive. Knowing that people are enjoying my fiction makes the writing all the more worthwhile. It also helps to keep going when things get tough.

Now, to work on the next story…

I am very happy to say that my story, “Second Hand,” is currently up to read, for free, at Lightspeed Magazine. This is my first appearance as an author at Lightspeed (I’ve narrated and edited podcasts for them before) and it’s a market I’ve long wanted to appear in. “Second Hand” is a weird western and a sequel of sorts to my story, “Card Sharp,” which appeared in the anthology The Way of the Wizard. “Card Sharp” isn’t available to read online at the moment but the story was podcast over at Podcastle if you’d like to get the full story so far.

“Second Hand” also appears in the anthology, Dead Man’s Hand, which also releases today. It’s an anthology full of weird western tales featuring authors like Tad Williams, Joe R. Lansdale, Ken Liu, Jeffrey Ford, and Christie Yant. Here’s the full Table of Contents. You can also find a list of free reads from the anthology (and related tales) here.

Sound interesting? Why not buy the book?

As people on Twitter and Facebook already know, Falling Sky, my first novel, has a release date – October 7, 2014 – and is now available for preorder on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and many other online retailers. Right now only the print book is available but I’m pretty sure the ebook will be available down the line.

I also wanted to post the full art for the cover, courtesy of the brilliantly talented Chris McGrath. I knew Chris from his Dresden Files covers and many others and I was beyond thrilled when I learned he would be doing my cover as well. As you can see, it’s pretty amazing.

This is starting to feel like it’s really happening…

After a long absence, my website is back! After repeated hacking attempts, I have a new web hosting service and, better still, a brand new site! The site was designed by Matt Kressel who is, without hyperbole, a wizard. If you’re in need of a new site, especially if you’re a writer, definitely get in touch with Matt (contact me directly for contact info).

We’re back just in time, too. I have some new announcements to make about the novel, Falling Sky, which will be out on October 7.

Stay tuned…

In only a couple weeks, I will have the honor of reading at the NYRSF reading series in New York along with Fran Wilde. I’m very excited.

The reading will take place at the SoHo Gallery for Digital Art –
138 Sullivan Street (between Houston & Prince St.). Doors open at 6:30.

I’m looking forward to hearing Fran read. I hope you’ll come check it out if you’re able.