(Or it was when I started this post.  Now it’s 12 days. 12 DAYS!)

SHADOWSTORM will be available for purchase and download in less than two weeks!

Now, I’ve never dealt with Amazon’s CreateSpace before – the Kindle store takes less than a day to approve and list a new book, but CreateSpace and the Nook store might need longer, so I’m planning to upload all relevant files early next week.  What that means for you, gentle reader, is that there’s a chance SHADOWSTORM might be available before the official release date.  If you see it is, by all means, order! Hopefully when Book 7 comes around I’ll have a better feel for how all this self-pub stuff works in my world.

At any rate, over on my Facebook page I’ve been posting songs from the “official” SHADOWSTORM playlist, so if you’ve been entertained by my soundtracks in the past I recommend you hop over and follow me.  I’ll be posting a different song every day (more or less) until March 1.

On to the actual post.  I’ve been asked many times since the Shadow World appeared (and the Agency, too, for that matter) which of the landmarks and businesses in the books are real and which I made up.  I treat Austin as a character in the books, and it seems to work.  So I thought I’d give you an updated list of places in the books that are “real/not real,” not to be all Peeta Mellark about it.

Real (or Once Real) Locations in the Shadow World Novels

Strait Music
Austin Java
Barton Creek Greenbelt
Book People
Alamo Drafthouse
Waterloo Records
Zachary Scott Theatre
The Driskill Hotel
The Texican Cafe
Kerbey Lane Cafe
Zilker Park (the Austin Live Music Festival is not real, but is based on big music festivals like SXSW and Austin City Limits)
Paramount Theater
Amy’s Ice Cream
Freebird’s World Burrito
Brackenridge Hospital
Houndstooth Coffee

Fictional Locations in the Shadow World Novels

The Bat Cave (As in where Miranda records her albums; then again, the other Batcave, David’s office, isn’t real either, but I doubt I had to tell you that.)
Mel’s Bar & Grill
The Winchester Bank Building (It surprises me how many people think this one really exists.)
The Ambassador Hotel
Travis County Psychiatric Hospital
The Torch Song
Slim Shaky’s Espresso Bar  (People ask about this one more than any other.  Sorry, it’s fictional, and yes, it’s a play on Eminem’s alter ego.  Why? Because I thought it was funny.)
The Black Door
Anodyne
Nepenthe
Deep Six
The Plague Rat
The Riviera
Hunter Development
Newman’s Deli (the approximate location where Miranda hides while waiting for Kat during Queen of Shadows is actually a Schlotzsky’s)
Anna Hausmann Memorial Clinic
Madre Luna tattoo parlor
Revelry
IntelliGenetic Labs

Also, I probably don’t have to point out that there aren’t nearly as many empty warehouses and abandoned buildings in East Austin as it sounds like there are.

Locations Outside Austin

In California:
Muir Woods – real
Tower Bridge in Sacramento – real
St. Anthony’s Church – not real
La Caccia – not real
Goodall’s ice cream – not real

Rio Verde, Texas – not real, therefore places like the Verde Inn aren’t real either, although unfortunately Wal Mart is a real thing in the world.