Curse of a Dark God is Finished!

ByJohn Brown

I finished the 10% edit, going from 205,000 words to 185,000, this morning and emailed the finished manuscript to Super Agent Caitlin who will perform various incantations before sending it off to ye Editors for review. 

While that’s happening, I will be switching gears and starting the thriller. I’m looking forward to this.  Not only am I having fun developing the ideas, but unlike these epic fantasies I’m writing with a gajillion story lines, this is going to have one story line (okay, with maybe, maybe two subplots), one point of view (instead of three or four), and a limited cast of characters like six (as opposed to close to twenty). I’m preparing to reach  escape velocity. I’ll tell you what jupiter looks like when I get back.

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  • Denver: fire, snow snakes, and farty beef jerky

    ByJohn Brown

    Here’s the report of what happend on the Larry and John tour of Denver.

    On the way out:

    1. We met in Evanston, WY at 8:00 AM
    2. On a lonely stretch of I-80 we passed a semi that was on FIRE. Didn’t stop because Larry and I wanted to see the driver burn.
    3. Was freeze-dried in a parking lot in Rawlins by Arctic winds in the four seconds it took to open the car door, say “Holy schnitzel! It’s freezing,” and then run to the Subway. It was cold. COLD!
    4. On another lonely stretch of I-80 we passed a truck driver out in that wind with a knife. He was down in the median trying to hack off the antlers of a bull elk that had obviously been hit by a vehicle.  His truck was slowly rolling forward. Someone had to be driving, but I didn’t see anyone.
    5. Because it was soooo cold the snow didn’t stick. So in various stretches the wind would blow the snow across the road in long trails that looked like ribbons of fire or snakes. Totally awesome!
    6. Then we started hitting stores all the way down to Denver–Cheyenne, Fort Collins, Boulder, etc. I can’t tell you how much I like Barnes & Noble booksellers. Everyone was happy to see us and nice to work with.
    7. Oh, and Larry bought treats. Wal-Mart trail mix, cookies, and beef jerky. When he opened the beef jerky, he said, “Holy cow, did you just fart?” I had not. It was the jerky. You have been forewarned.

    Other highlights:

    1. A number of the stores ordered extra copies of our books for our driveby signings. But the Barnes & Noble in the Aurora Southlands Town Center beat them all hands down. They rolled out a hand truck stacked with books.
    2. Had a great time in Loveland at the B&N there. Vivian Tapp was a peach with a Santa’s hat to boot.
    3. We had a bunch of folks show up at the Lone Tree signing. Thanks to everyone there. I’ve forgotten all the names except that of James, the store’s fantasy nut.
    4. Then we went out to dinner with a great crowd. Larry had a bunch of his interesting friends. I got to hang out at the other end of the table with my sister and her man Mark, Rachel Dryden, and Ken and Rachel Kao (who both do parkour–cool!!).

    On the way back:

    1. We almost died. You can read Larry’s version of the story here.
    2. More of that fine smelling jerky and road crawling with snow snakes.
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  • Come say hello at CONduit this weekend

    ByJohn Brown

    This Friday and Saturday, May 28-29

    I’m going to be participating at CONduit (Utah’s longest-running and largest general science fiction and fantasy convention) again this year. It’s being held at the Radisson just east of the Gateway shopping center.

    Radisson Hotel
    215 W. South Temple
    Salt Lake City, UT 84101
    (801) 531-7500

    The list of authors and artists you can meet there is quite long, including BARBARA HAMBLY! They will have panels and workshops on everything from ghost hunting to chain mail. For more info, see the programming schedule.

    My CONduit Schedule

    • FRIDAY – 2:00 PM – Cartography for Stories
    • FRIDAY – 4:00 PM  – Reading from CURSE OF A DARK GOD or SERVANT OF A DARK GOD (1/2 hour)
    • FRIDAY – 5:00 PM – A Writer’s Life
    • SATURDAY – 11:00 AM – SIGNING
    • SATURDAY – 4:00 PM – Writing the Rogue
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  • Need Your Input on a T-shirt Design

    ByJohn Brown

    Folks have been asking and I’ve been thinking about a T-shirt. I want it to have potential to be a cool saying on its own (so people actually want it) as well as promo for the book. I know I want the title, but do we need anything else? I’d like your input.

    OPTION 1: TITLE ONLY

    Slap the title as it appears on the book on a black shirt. Font is brown or the green of what’s on the book’s cover.

    ServantofaDarkGodFont

    OPTION 2: I AM NOT

    I had someone say that the parents might be concerned if their kids were walking around with a shirt proclaiming they were servants of a dark god. Part of me says, yeah! Another part says, well, I guess I can see their point. The suggested solution was to add the words “I am not a” in front of the title in smaller font. It works. But it also feels like a copy cat of Dan Wells’ marvelous shirt which is just the title of his book.

    OPTION 3: TITLE, SUBTITLE

    In this version you get the bang of the title, but then you make it clear we’re talking about a book, not minions. So you have the title as above in big letters, then underneath or on top in smaller font you have:

    • Read it!
    • Eat. Sleep. Read.
    • Rocks!
    • An Epic Fantasy
    • Book-o-thrills
    • The humans are being ranched…
    • It’s story time, kiddies…
    • ??

    So here’s where I need your help. Let me know which option you like best and if you have any ideas for option 3, please share them!!!

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  • Calendar updates

    ByJohn Brown

    I’ve added a number of entries to the calendar, including three conferences I plan on attending.

    I know I’ll be presenting at the first two. The title and description of the League of Utah Writers presentation are:

    TITLE: The Secret to Getting Story Ideas

    DESCRIPTION: How to stop generating great story ideas by accident and start generating them on purpose, whenever you need them.

    I don’t know what I’ll do for LTUE. I might do a repeat of the “The Secret to Getting Story Ideas,” or I might do something on how to write scenes or how genre is the key to plot. Stay tuned!

    Date & Time Event Location Notes
    Right now Writing Office It’s all for you, Dear Reader
    2015, Summer Release of Awful Intent, a Frank Shaw novel All major online retail venues The date is not firm.
    2015, Aug 28-29 League of Utah Writers Fall Conference Logan, UT League of Utah Writers
    2016, Winter Release of Hard Target, a Frank Shaw novel All major online retail venues The date is not firm.
    2016, Feb 11-13 Life, the Universe & Everything Provo, UT LTUE website
    2016, May LDStorymakers Conference Provo, UT LDStorymakers website
    2016, Summer Release of Glory: The Dark God Book 4 All major online retail venues The date is not firm.
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  • Library Journal gives Servant of a Dark God a starred review

    ByJohn Brown

    Library Journal just gave Servant of a Dark God a starred review. Yesss! BTW, that’s not one star out of four or five. The review gets a star or it doesn’t. Those with a star are “highly-rated.” I just wish I could lick it and put it on my forehead.

    Brown, John. Servant of a Dark God. Tor. Oct. 2009. (The Dark Gods, Vol. 1). c.448p. ISBN 978-0-7653-2235-7. $25.99. FANTASY

    Suffering under the oppressive rule of their Mokaddian conquerors, the Koramites hide ancient magics that draw power from a person’s “days,” thus shortening the lives of the donors. A young boy becomes caught up in a personal and political struggle when one of the Divines who knows how to wield this power disappears. Brown’s first novel, the opener in a new fantasy series, creates an elaborate new world with a rich and deep spiritual and political background. VERDICT Reminiscent of L.E. Modesitt Jr.’s “Recluce” novels and David Drake’s “Lord of the Isles” series and David Farland’s “Runelords” books, this well-wrought tale of families in conflict against both politics and religion represents a welcome addition to large-scale fantasy.

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18 Comments

  1. So, best case, if no further major revisions are required, when will we be able to buy Curse of a Dark God? Obviously you don’t have an exact date, but best guess?

  2. Best guess is sometime next summer or fall. But it’s not in the schedule yet. But I would imagine they’d want to get it out then.

  3. @JohnW – John probably won’t be able to give you an official date for several reasons, but here’s what little I know about the publishing world. If you’re a superstar like George R.R. Martin, then they’ll be rushing your new book out just as fast as they can bind them, and deep editing be damned. If you’re a star like Brandon Sanderson, then they’ll put you right to the front of the line, and you’ll go through the normal process where your book is probably edited and bound and sold within 4 months. If you’re a new author like John, then there are a ton of other factors. Whether or not the publisher has room in their lineup to fit you in, whether or not they feel that the book would cut into another big author, or whatever other crazy reasons that they have. Needless to say, if i had to offer a guess, I’d say that 6-9 months sounds like a pretty good one. I’d love to hear from John on this, though, and I’m certainly not trying to steal his thunder, just bored while waiting to go to pick up some Black Friday junk at Target.

  4. Sweet! It’s a huge undertaking. I’m sure it feels great to have it done. I know we all feel great knowing we’ll get to read it relatively soon.

  5. Bryce,

    That is about what I thought. Hopefully these things start to change soon, now that e-publishing is becoming more widespread. It sucks for authors to be at the mercy of the big publishers.

  6. Wonderful! I’ll bet that feels great. It’s going to be fun re-reading Servant in preparation.

  7. Congrats John! I hope everything goes smoothly. You’ve been on my list of sequels that I want really badly, right up there with the third Patrick Rothfuss book, the third Scott Lynch Book, and Peter V. Brett’s third one. I’m probably looking forward to yours the most, though. Good luck on the thriller. Hopefully a change of genre will really get the creative juices flowing for ya! 🙂

  8. I love your book and your website. Thank you for taking the time to post so often. I was wondering if you were going to do a post on how your transition into the new genre of thiller. It seems that you have a lot of experience writing in the Fantasy genre, I wonder if you have the same type of experience in Thrillers or not. Anyway best of luck on the new genre. I can’t wait to read your new book.

  9. John,

    Great news! Congradulations on finishing Curse and good luck on the thriller!

    Maybe you can get on Writing Excuses again once Curse is out… 🙂

  10. James,

    Sorry I missed approving your post. I’ll certainly be posting on how things go with the thriller. I haven’t published anything in the thriller genre to date, but I don’t see the story telling as substantially different. My fantasy includes situations of peril and action with sprinkles of humor. The thriller will be the same, except I won’t have to invent a whole setting 🙂

  12. JohnW,

    It will be posted. It’s just a matter of timing. But it will be up as soon as the Editors and I go forward.

  13. Amazing.

    First off the bat gotta say I’m sending this from Bulawayo, a small town in Zimbabwe – yes that Zimbabwe!

    SODG rocked my mind – concepts were vibrant, smells were palatable, everything struck me as being authentic.

    Cannot wait for sequel – if you sell a blurb version I’ll be first in line to skip the publisher delays! 🙂

  14. Welcome to the Grove, ZimboDood. It’s absolutely awesome to hear that Servant has made it to Zimbabwe. So are you a citizen, visiting, working?

  15. Just wondering if there is an update on when this might be released? Thanks for your writing – its lots of fun.

  16. Ryan,

    I truly hope to have an answer for that by the end of July. It’s still on my editor’s desk. Stay tuned. I’ll post the news on the website as soon as I know it. And thanks for stopping by.

  17. So much for July, 2012. Maybe July, 2013 might be enough time for the editor to get back to you?

    Have you considered changing to another editor/publisher that does not delay your work so long? Or looked into hiring your own editor and self-publishing?

  18. JohnW,

    I hear you, buddy. But I can’t say anything more at this time. I do hope to have the issue resolved soon. 🙂

Comments are closed.