Check it out. “The Clan Lands of Whitecliff” by Isaac Stewart. I think he’s done a great job. Here’s the full PDF. BTW, this is not the map that will appear in the book. That one’s being done by another artist selected by Tor. This is one I commissioned when I got my book contract.
The first draft of the novel is essentially finished. I have two chapters left–one that confirms the resolution of the A story, and one that wraps things up in the B story. I am so excited to let this sit for a week or two, then come back to it with fresh eyes and get the second draft written. That draft will go out to my beta readers. And while they’re reading, I will be developing the idea of the next novel.
These last two weeks, I have been applying the techniques used by sports psychologists to enhance professional- and olympic-level sports performance to my writing sessions. I’ve noticed the difference. And it’s been very good. I’ll be describing what that is in a future post.
My schedule has changed. You can see the updates below. As I said before, LTUE is one of the best writing conferences around. There are going to be quite a few authors there sharing tips on craft and the business of writing. BTW, it’s NOT going to be held in the Wilkinson Center as it has been in the past, but in the Conference Center on the NORTH side of campus. See map below. Find the full schedule here.
Romance vs. Story with Romantic Elements: Injecting romance into saving the world
Plotstorming from Character: In some cases the plot of a book drives the characters. However, characters that instead drive the plot can make for a more compelling story. In this hour, we focus on how to grow your plot from your main characters.
How to Get and Develop Killer Story Ideas
Lessons on Story from THE HUNGER GAMES (and let me tell you, there are a lot of good lessons)
Click the map to see details
Yea! Thanks to those of you who nominated. The judges have chosen Servant of a Dark God as a Whitney Award finalist. Of course, the four other books in the category are great. Here’s the list of finalists in my category:
Check out all finalists in all categories here. If you click on the Whitney Academy link on the top of that site, you’ll see all the folks who will be voting on the finalists.
John Scalzi writes a massively visited blog called Whatever. He has a regular column called “The Big Idea” where authors explain the “big idea” behind their novels. I got a chance to explain the big one behind Servant of a Dark God. Read about it here.
Mark your calendars!!
The free, 2009 Life, the Universe, and Everything symposium at BYU will run Thursday – Saturday, February 19 – 21.
The speical guests are Tracy & Laura Hickman (Dragonlance authors) and James C. Christensen (yes, the amazing fantasy artist). But there will be more than a dozen other authors there, including: L.E. Modesitt, Brandon Mull, James Dashner, Brandon Sanderson, David Farland, Mette Ivie Harrison, Eric James Stone, Howard Tayler, and a number of others.
Here’s what I’ll be doing:
If you want to write fiction, you’ll want to attend the workshop. And if you’ve attended the workshop before, know that I’ve made some significant updates to the workshop content for 2009. I’m always learning, and so each time I teach this I’m able to provide more insight.
You’ll also want to carefully review the whole schedule. There are tons of panels with professional authors on them that are going to be both useful and interesting to writers.
My workshop focuses on three incredibly important things. In the beginning, I didn’t know these key things, and that ignorance stymied all my writing efforts for years. Once I learned them, the way was opened. There was still a lot of work involved. But these principles increased my output of quality material 1000% (literally). The principles allowed me to write the story that got me my current three-book contract from Tor.
I’ve taught it now more than a dozen times to all sorts of fiction writers and they’re telling me they’re finding it very useful. You’re going to love this stuff, and I always enjoy sharing what I’ve learned with other writers. The three things are:
It’s a highly interactive workshop. Again, the whole symposium, including the workshop, is free. I don’t know another place where you can learn from so many professionals for such a great price.
Hope to see you there!!
The Dragon Award winning novel Gun Runner, by Larry Correia and me, is being adopted into a graphic novel by Hound Dog Media. The writer is the legendary Mike Baron (The Punisher, Nexus) and the art is by Marcelo Salazar.
This is a story about a smuggler crew who specialize in stealing battle mechs and selling them to worlds that aren’t allowed to have them. The book is great. I can’t wait to see it as a graphic novel.
This is going to be awesome. Check it out. There’s even a pledge level to get yourself drawn as a member of the crew.
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John, you must be so stoked. I think that’s so awesome. Bless you and your hopefully best-selling book! May I ask how many copies TOR plans to print?
Best-selling would be great. But I’m hoping for slow and steady. I haven’t heard the final decisions on print run size yet. I do suspect it will be more than the average first novel since my deal was for more than the average, but who knows with the current economy.