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.
Send Frank, Sheriff Hood, and the Knitters of Death club to kick some award patootie!Here’s how: go to: http://whitneyawards.com/ and click “Nominate” at the top.
Enter a bit of info and boom! But this needs to happen before December 31st.
The Whitney Awards are open for the public to nominate books they think are great and which are written by LDS authors (this is where your voice is heard, Faithful Reader). Those books that get at least 5 nominations are read and rated by a panel of judges. The judges then send on the finalists in each category to the Academy for voting.
Servant won an award in 2009. Awful Intent is doing well, and if the reviews piling up are any indication, it could win another.
Please take a few moments to send Frank to kick some award patootie.
It’s time for Frank to bring home a trophy.
I finished the updates for the copy edit today. Now it’s time to finish the cover, format the ebook and paperback, and then publish. I thought folks might be interested to see the blurbs I received for the book.
“An engaging story about law and order in the west, complete with gun battles, aerial stunts and a hero just out for a hike.” ~ Police Sergeant Louise Speth
“Grabs you by the throat until the thrilling ending. All too true of what can happen in rural law-enforcement.” ~ Deputy Sheriff Jared Johnson
“WOW! Brown has outdone himself on this one. His books are always interesting and entertaining, but this one added a current twist to a captivating plot.” ~ Sheriff Gary Ogilvie, Ret.
Raveler is now up on Audible! The other two books are getting excellent reviews so far for both the story and performance by Alex Wyndham. So happy to have these up in audio. Many readers have been asking for audio versions for years.
Life, the Universe & Everything is coming up in a little over a month on Feb 12-14, 2015. It will be held at the Provo Marriott Hotel & Conference Center. Some reasons to go.
Number one. Toni Weisskopf, the editor and publisher of Baen Books, is the guest of honor.
Number two. LTUE and LDStorymakers are the best two cons in Utah for learning how to write, but LTUE is lots cheaper.
Number three. Lots of local authors will be there. It’s a great forum for hearing their insights and finding out what they’re doing.
I will be giving three presentations.
I hope to see you there.
Assassin is moving along. I’m heading into the last quarter of the book, which is where the fireworks start. I appreciate all of you who have been so patient. My goal is to end this arc of the series with a bang.
In the meantime, I’d like to recommend a fantasy novel. I enjoyed it many years ago and recently reread it, finding myself swept away with as much intrigue and delight as the first time.
It’s The Shape-Changer’s Wife by Sharon Shinn.
The story follows an aspiring wizard named Aubrey who is nearing the end of his training. He asks his mentor, the wizard Cyril, to teach him transmogrification—the art of changing form—but Cyril refuses. Aubrey protests. Cyril knows the spells. He has cast them himself. Still, he refuses.
Eventually, however, Cyril’s conscience gets the better of him. A well-rounded wizard should know every branch of magic, even the ones Cyril dislikes. So he writes to another wizard, a shape-changer named Glyrenden, and asks if he will take Aubrey as a student. Glyrenden agrees.
As Aubrey sets off, Cyril gives him a warning: “Learn everything he teaches you so well you can cast his own spells back at him. Glyrenden respects only those stronger than he is, and those he hates. If you cannot beat him, he will destroy you.”
And so begins the tale.
There’s mystery, wonder, betrayal, loss, battle, and even love. Best of all, it’s a complete stand-alone novel, a rarity these days.
If you’re hankering for a fantasy adventure that can be read in one volume, I think you’ll be very pleased with this one.
Happy reading,
John
Folks, the first tentative schedule for Life, The Universe, & Everything (LTUE) has been set. For the past few years I’ve been teaching a 2-3 hour workshop called “The 3 Things You Must Learn To Write Killer Stories.” I think I must have taught it over 15 times in different venues. Hundreds have attended and said they loved it.
However, this year I’m going to be doing something different. I’m developing a new two-hour workshop called “How to Write a Story that Rocks.”
I’ll be teaching it Thursday evening, February 11th from 5 PM – 7 PM at LTUE at BYU. It’s FREE and open to all.
What I found was that a lot of new aspiring authors get lost in mountains of rules. But great storytelling isn’t about rules. They try to form stories with word counts, chapters, and weird plot diagrams. But stories aren’t about those things. They have a hard time knowing what to write next because they don’t understand how story works. In fact, some don’t know how to start at all. They just flounder in their piles of zing. Finally, even if they can get a bullet outline, they have a hard time turning that into a scene.
So what we’re going to do in this workshop is this.
When we finish, you should be able to:
Larry Correia will be there as well. So I’m expecting this to be a very helpful workshop. I’m going to do all I can to make it as good or better than the first.
