Last night we had the first signing for Firefight, and I hope everyone who came out had a great time. The book is now available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook in the United States, Canada, Europe, and many other places. (The official release date for the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and associated countries is Thursday, but we’ve heard that many stores in the UK have the book out on shelves already.)

Firefight is the sequel to Steelheart, which is in turn a near-future science fiction / superhero mashup about a world where people start gaining super powers, but those powers corrupt the people who gain them.

As many of you already know, release week is the most important week of a book’s life. One oddity of the entertainment business is that week one often determines the entire life of the project. Whether it be a film, a book, or an album, the first week usually becomes a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy to reflect future sales.

I hope you all will take the time to check Firefight out—or, if you haven’t read Steelheart, to look into it. Sample chapters are here. If you liked Mistborn, I think you’ll like Steelheart as well, as they share a lot of stylistic choices.

My book tour continues tonight and tomorrow with two stops in Seattle, and then I’m signing in Miami on Thursday. (In the past, lots of people have asked when I’m coming to Florida, so I hope you represent!) My full list of tour stops is on my events page.

For those who aren’t aware, at my signings I like to do a reading from something I’m currently working on. Last night I read a selection from Perfect State, a novella I’m writing. I also like to do a sort of scavenger hunt during my tours, and this year I’m doing #Steelhunt2015, where the goal is to collect these character standups:

Things are working a bit differently this year, in that inputting the code from each character card gives you access to that character’s bio. To see all three bios, you have to get all three cards. These are the same bios that appeared in the special editions of Steelheart that were released in 2013, and also appear in the small Mitosis hardcover in the UK, so some of you have seen them before. So that’s why I’m making sure that whichever code you use, you can also see something new: a longer excerpt from Perfect State, including the bit I’m reading at a signing but also extending beyond that. Once you input a code into the correct website, you can see the content immediately—you don’t have to wait for other people to submit other codes.

I’m handing out these cards at the signings to people who ask questions during the Q&A, and I’m also leaving many cards in the bookstores of airports I pass through. The first such airport was the SLC airport this morning, and I should hit up SEA today.

Now, if you aren’t going to be anywhere near where I’m touring, we want you to be able to participate too. We will have ways you can win codes on the website, on Twitter, and on Facebook over the next few weeks. In addition, we have a few surprise appearances by codes planned for stores I’ll not be visiting.

If you own or work for a bookstore in a city I will not be visiting and are interested in participating in the Steelhunt, drop me an email through my website. (Note: there is no guarantee we’ll be able to get codes to every store that contacts us.)