Larry Correia, creator of the best-selling Monster Hunter series of hard-hitting urban fantasy, is branching out in 2015 with a new epic fantasy series. The first novel of The Saga of the Forgotten Warrior, Son of the Black Sword, debuts in a lavish hardcover edition in October, featuring a beautiful full-color art frontispiece by legendary fantasy artist Larry Elmore.

Before he became a New York Times best-selling author, Correia proved that hand-selling and tenacity is fundamental to success in publishing. For example, in his capacity as an expert on firearms Correia had been offering free on-line nonfiction and fiction to several forums while building an audience and earning pre-orders for his first novel, Monster Hunter International, which he was self-publishing.

Don Blyly of Uncle Hugo’s, the long-established science fiction specialty store in Minneapolis, was intrigued, started to read it—and finished it in one night. He urged Correia to literally “stop the presses,” get it to a publishing house, and recommended him to Baen Books. The print job, already in the works, compelled Blyly to purchase a large number of copies for Uncle Hugo’s, where he went on to hand sell them with great success.

As fate would have it, the week Uncle Hugo was selling the book, it was also the store chosen by Entertainment Weekly as their bookstore of the week, which helped to propel Monster Hunter International to #3 on their print bestseller list. “Get thee to a publisher” was the cry, and Toni Weisskopf, Publisher of Baen Books, had soon signed Correia for a multi-book deal. His third novel for Baen, Monster Hunter Alpha, became a New York Times bestseller.

A prolific writer, Correia is also the co-author of the military thrillers Dead Six and Swords of Exodus with former Air Force bomb-disposal expert Mike Kupari. The audiobook of Swords of Exodus was nominated for an Audie for Best Thriller/Suspense 2015. His paranormal detective noir books, the Grimnoir Chronicles, have also received high acclaim, with Hard Magic, wonderfully narrated by actor Bronson Pinchot, winning the 2012 Audie Award for Best Paranormal Audio Book.

To launch the new series, Correia will embark on a twenty-city radio campaign and a bicoastal book signing tour beginning in Minneapolis, including Albany, Boston and New England, then continuing to the opposite coast, hitting Seattle and San Diego, and ending with his hometown Salt Lake City.

Correia lives in the mountains of Utah with his patient wife and children.