Thanks for everybody’s patience! Small Town Heroes took much longer to finish than I expected, and I hope it has been worth the wait. Also thanks to everyone who ran out and grabbed it as soon as it was up, SMT has been doing at least as well in Amazon’s Superhero category as the previous books. And now for everyone waiting for the paperback edition, it is also available through Amazon here.
Now that it’s done, I don’t mind saying that I worried for awhile there. It took longer than I would have liked to find new cover artist who could do justice to the covers done by Viktoria; the even better news there is it looks like Jamal will be the principle artist for the RPG as well. I have floated the note that the working title for the next Wearing the Cape book is Ronin Games, and this one will “return” to a plotline I had developed for Astra and the Young Sentinels in Japan. I won’t point to a release-date, but I will say that I will work very hard to make it happen sooner than happened for Small Town Heroes.
On the RPG front, things are looking better and better for using FATE as the base system, and I will let everyone here know when playtesting begins again. On that note, I want to give a shout-out to a group of my readers in England who tested the game using Cortex Plus to create their heroes; they told me what happened in Great Britain following the Event, and it’s going into the final rulebook!
Anyway, hope everyone’s enjoying Small Town Heroes; as always, comments more than welcome, and thank you to everyone who has taken the time to put up an Amazon review! -M.G.Harmon
Marion G. Harmon, A Writer in Vegas. 
Good news about the paperback. I picked up the ebook version for my Kindle the day it was released. Already read it once, and I think I’m going to go back to the first book and read the whole series again, though Small Town Heroes. I just can’t get enough of Astra and the rest.
What happened with the original cover artist? I like Jamal’s work; Grendel looks fantastic and Shell’s Android looks feminine while conveying a feeling of real weight, robotically speaking. I like Astra’s new uniform, though will say that the combination of the angle and the mask makes Astra look a little pudgy and bald.
I feel like that came off harshly, and it wasn’t intended to. It’s really this optical illusion seeing the underside of her chin.
Love the new cover art, and I liked the new book. I read it twice already, but it left me with a LOT of questions. There wasn’t, in my humble opinion, a lot of character development in this episode. That left me with a lot of questions and potential issues:
1. Where were some of the characters? Seven, who was a big character in previous books, never shows up. Lei Zi is only mentioned briefly. There was a lot of talk about Astra being trained into the next leader of the Sentinels, but that’s not really brought up.
2. Can Capes do what Kindrake did? Just kinda crash their way onto a team?
3. We didn’t learn any more about Kitsune! However, we did learn a LOT about the DSA, which I liked.
4. What is going on between Astra and Grendel? Astra needs a romantic connection!
5. I would love to hear more about Jackie and her crew, but they keep getting dropped into Astra’s story without a lot of base. They’re like the famous guest stars of your series.
I can’t wait until the next book, because the whole series is awesome, but I have to know more! Thank you for the great writing.
1.) This was more an Astra/Young Sentinels story, which is why all the senior Sentinels pretty much disappeared.
2.) Kindrake isn’t a new Young Sentinel–she got dragged along on this one because of her airlift capabilities. As for her future status…
3) Kitsune remains mysterious.
4.) Patience.
5.) Maybe a Bite Me sequel one of these days.
Glad you’re enjoying the stories.
Just finished my second read of the new book (actually, I read the new book, then reread the whole series from the start through through Small Town Heroes).
I kind of wondered about Astra and Grendel, too. You seemed to be setting them up for a romantic relationship in Young Justice, but they you shut it down almost right away in Small Town Heroes. Is this just going to be another of Hope’s many unrequited crushes, or did it just not fit into this story, so you are leaving it to the next book to explore?
On a somewhat related note, I was kind of surprised at how relativly little Grendel was present in this story, given how prominantly he featured in the cover art.
In any case, can’t wait for the next book in the series!
Don’t hold your breath waiting for Hope to dive deep into another relationship in the next book. First, she’s still only 19 and still growing. Second, she’s got a lot of responsibilities on her plate, considerations that affect any should-I/shouldn’t? I questions.