Happy holidays!

Akemashite omedeto gozai masu!

I hope that you’re enjoying a joyful, pleasant holiday season. My whole family is home (with significant others) and so our house is (as Charles Dickens would say) “full to bursting.”

One of the things that has us all excited is the looming publication of Bright Eyes, the long-awaited sequel to Risuko: A Kunoichi Tale. In fact, I just received the first rough proofs of the new book — they’re looking great.

I hope you’re excited too — and to get you in the mood, I’m delighted to be able to reveal the Bright Eyes cover:

Nice, huh?

Like the Risuko cover, it was designed by James Egan of Bookfly Design — and I think he once again knocked it out of the park. What do you think?

Here are the two covers together:

As for the book itself, an editor along with a few “alpha” readers are working on it now — and we’re getting the print, ebook, and audiobook editions prepared for the May 5, 2022 release. And here’s the box of proofs that literally just arrived:

Okay. Yeah. I’m a bit excited, as I said. 🙂

If you backed the original Risuko Kickstarter campaign at the Senior Initiate ($50) or Kunoichi ($100) levels, you’ll have a beautiful print copy of Bright Eyes mailed to you as soon as they’re ready. (We’ll be reaching out this spring to confirm your mailing address.)

If not, don’t worry! You can always preorder today — or, if you’re willing to wait, you can pledge to the new Bright Eyes campaign, coming in March.

In any case, may your coming year be full of joy, light — and good books.

David Kudler

P.S. If you’ve read Risuko but haven’t had a chance to share your thoughts, I’d love it if you’d post a review on Goodreads  or Amazon or your favorite ebook store. Or you can even comment on this post and let me know what you thought directly!