I've been busy with my studies, so unfortunately I haven't been as frequent with giving updates as news as I used to. Unfortunately I can't promise that it gets better. But I can assure you that I'm still here, looking after things and trying to fit in as much time as I can for the wiki.
Technical updates
This gets me to my first point for this update: I think it would be best to have another, more active admin, so if anyone with in-depth knowledge of Tamora Pierce's books and preferably also MediaWiki/Wikia experience, would like the position and has enough time, please let me know. I have to say that I would first ask for about a month's worth of active participation in the wiki to make sure we find a competent person. The best way would be an answer to this blog post.
I've also turned on some optional features for this wiki: Achievements, article comments (replacing talk pages) and top 10 lists. Any comments on those features (do you like them? or do they disturb your editing experience on the wiki?) are highly welcome. Just leave a comment below.
To celebrate the Mastiff release later this year (see below, #1) I'm considering the option of starting a improvement drive based on the book around late October/November, which would essentially include getting the new information provided in the novel incorporated into the Wiki as soon and as neat as possible (content pages, categories and what else might need to be adapted). What do you folks thing of it? Would you be interested in a "structured" approach to incorporate the Mastiff information once the novel is released?
Book updates
Mastiff cover
Apart from those technical updates, there are some new developments regarding Tamora Pierce's publications since my last news-post:
1. Mastiff has a cover and publication date set for October 25, 2011. It will be released simultaneously as normal hardcover edition, audiobook (like the two other Beka-books probably read by Susan Denaker) and Kindle edition.
2. Tortall and Other Lands: A Collection of Tales has been released as hardcover and Kindle edition. An audiobook production by Listening Library is scheduled for publication June 14, 2011. The book includes all of Tamora Pierce's short stories to date, including those previously published in other anthologies and three new stories especially written for this book.
3. The Magic Steps audiobook by Full Cast has finally been released in May. I'm still waiting for my copy, so I can't give any details on the quality, but I suppose that it's as fabulous as the other Full Cast productions. Do any of you already have it? I'd really love to hear opinions about this.
4. In April The Song of the Lioness quartet was re-issued with a new set of covers (the first volume had actually already been re-issued last December, but this April's re-issue of the other three volumes make the set complete). For completeness' sake, here are the covers (thanks to Narflet for thos and other great uploads in the past weeks):
I'm not quite sure yet, if I like those covers or not. They certainly have some nice colors, but somehow they don't really fit the books in my opinion (I generally don't like the covers with real person pictures on them. I prefered the drawings.). The worst thing about them is that Moonlight is depicted as a black horse. What do you think of them?
If you'd like to compare the covers with older versions, you can do so at the Song of the Lioness covers page. I for one quite like the French covers.
That's it for this update. I'll try to make them more frequent in the future again (provided that there are news to tell) but can't promise anything.