Yep, it's off to the printer, folks. So if you're one of those dawdling procrastinators (or if you're just a nogoodnick, cheapskate skinflint) who didn't sign up to advertise or to be one of our wonderful, intelligent, good looking and above all generous sponsors, it's just too damn bad. The horse is out of the barn. The train has left the station. The window of opportunity has slammed decisively shut. And YOU'RE left out there in the cold. Serves you effing right!

But we'll still let you buy the damn thing, because that's just the kind of folks we are. Book Tour/Web sales plans and scams are as follows:

We will (God and the printing company willing) have copies of the paperback/no color insert PREVIEW & REVIEWER copies available next weekend at Road America, where Carol & I will be signing copies and/or taking orders for the hardback/color insert-included FIRST EDITIONS, which will begin shipping sometime around mid-August. We WILL NOT have the new book available for sale on the website until the week after Labor Day on account of we'll be traveling so we can't ship the damn things anyway. General book store/vendor launch will take place on Halloween, just 'cause it's as good a date as any, I love Halloween any way (remember, that's where The Last Open Road ends...at the big blowout racers' costume Halloween party at Carson Flegley's family's funeral home) and so it'll be fresh on the shelves everywhere (I hope) for the big holiday book-buying season. In the meantime, sales will be handled thusly:

At events where we are present and signing with Preview editions in hand, you may (pick from the following menu):

Option #1: You may PURCHASE one of the PREVIEW softback editions for 35 bucks (they actually cost me more to print than the hardback books) which I will be happy to sign and personalize if that's what you want.

Option #2: You may ORDER a signed/personalized copy of the First Edition hardback for 40 bucks (including freight & tax except for if you live in a furrin' country, in which case we gotta pro-rate the freight for you). Books will begin shipping, say, the week before Labor Day and will continue until either all the orders are filled and shipped or my effing arm falls off. Whichever comes first.

Option #3 (we call this one "THE BIG PLUNGER!") whereby, for a mere 60 dollars Ca$h American, you get BOTH options 1 and 2 listed above. So you can get a signed first edition a month and a half or thereabouts down the road and also get a Preview Edition to start reading immediately! Such a deal!

By the way (and for what it's worth) two of my wonderful proof readers AND my even more wonderful wife Carol think this new book is the best one I've ever done. No shit!

Just sayin'