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.

Share

Similar Posts

  • Servant Now in Paperback!

    ByJohn Brown

    The Stocking Stuffer for LORD of the RINGS readers

    Make someone happy with 624 AWARD-WINNING pages of thrilling ACTION, cool MONSTERS, & wicked MAGICS.

    • ~ Best Novel of the Year Whitney Awards, speculative fiction
    • ~ Engrossing Publishers Weekly
    • ~ Provocative Booklist
    • ~ Starred Review! Library Journal
    • ~ A great setting, a smart story Brandon Sanderson

    This book makes crowds cheer*. Only $7.99. Read the first chapter.

     ORDER NOW FROM

    *tested on a statistically valid sample of gerbils, hamsters, and various other intelligent rodents who all cheered with wild delight at the reading and then asked for more peanuts and crackers

    Share

  • 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.
    Share

  • Bad Penny – working title

    ByJohn Brown

    I’ve decided to tentatively call the first book in my Frank Shaw series “Bad Penny.”  This is the thriller I’ve been talking about. It’s a working title, so it may change.

    As for progress, I’m close to 14,000 words. Huzzah! And I’m having a blast writing it. Every day I look forward to my writing time.

    For those curious, the book takes place in Rock Springs, Wyoming. The plot will move it across eastern part of the state and then down into Colorado.

    Frank Moses Shaw, ex-con . . .

    Ah, folks. I’m just loving it.

    I’m also generating options for a pen name.  Althought I know there’s overlap between readers of epic fantasy and thrillers (hey, look at me!), I still think the genres are too different to try to spread a brand name across both.  I read about Tess Gerritsen, who started in romance, using the same name for her thrillers, which is all I think she writes now. She reports that she had a number of the thriller readers pick up her romances and vice versa, and then get frustrated because her brand meant one thing to them, but they got another.

    If I was writing thrillerish SF, like Card’s Ender’s Game, or thrillerish fantasy, like Correia’s Monster Hunter, then maybe the stretch wouldn’t be so far.  For those of you who are thriller readers, I’ll be posting some possible names in the near future. I’d like your reactions on the options, so keep a look out.

    As for CURSE OF A DARK GOD, no word yet from ye Editors. I’m expecting a reply March or April. Yeah, I turned it into my agent end of November. She submitted it to Tor in December. No, I don’t like these lead times any better than you do. But it is what it is. My job is to produce. My target this year is two novels–DARK GOD’S GLORY (book 3 in the series) and BAD PENNY. My stretch goal is to finish the working outline for the second Frank Shaw book (already have the premise) and actually start on it before the end of the year. We’ll see what happens.

    Share

  • Did you like BAD PENNY? Nominate it.

    ByJohn Brown

    If you enjoyed Bad Penny, you can nominate Frank, Sam, Carmen, and the gang to be considered for The Whitney Award.

    Here’s how it works. The public nominates novels they like by LDS authors. A panel of judges reads through all the nominations and selects no more than 5 finalists for each genre. Then a “panel of industry professionals, including authors, publishers, bookstore owners, distributors, critics, and others” vote on the nominations. The winners get some good PR and exposure. It’s not Oprah, but getting the word out is critical, and every bit helps.

    To tell the judges to consider BAD PENNY go here: Whitney Nominations. You have until December 31st.  

    Hope you all had a wonderful holiday.

    Share

  • Bad Penny is here!

    ByJohn Brown

    BadPennyEbookCoverBoom, baby! Today is thriller day.

    Frank’s an ex-con, trying to go straight. Then an old cell mate shows up and . . . let’s just say things go downhill from there. Throw in a Mormon, some drug lords, and a good helping of guns, and, man, was this book a blast to write!

    You might be interested to know that this story was inspired by a fine old brother in my church in Ohio who was one of those salt-of-the-earth folks who also happened to have been at one time a bank robber.

    When he got out of prison, he determined his life would change. He married a good Methodist girl he met at a church dance, went into the laundry business, and never looked back.

    It was my privilege to record his life history. Not a single event or detail in the book is about him. But I can tell you that his story deserves a book. Hopefully, my character Frank ends up doing as well in life as he did.

    The new release sale will run this week only. Same great prices as the last time.  Get ’em now while they’re hot.

    Bad Penny – eBook (Amazon)

    Bad Penny – Trade Paper (Amazon)

    Hey, John! What about iTunes, Nook, Kobo, etc?

    I’ve been working the last two weeks like a freaking elf from the North Pole trying to get these distribution channels set up, but the holidays seem to have stretched out the channel lead times.

    So here’s what you do: email me right now (click on my face in the sidebar) and tell me which platform you’re interested in. When the book goes live on that platform (and that should be soon), I will set it at the new release price and email you with the news. It’s that easy.

    See how good I am to you? (grin)

    A Holiday Side Note

    If you’re lying around on the 24th and don’t know what to do get the holiday spirit, please watch Merry Madagascar. It’s short, you’ll have a good time, and if you’re not already a King Julien fan, you will be.

    Have an awesome Christmas!

    Sincerely,

    John

    Share

  • Update on CURSE OF A DARK GOD – just finished numba 40

    ByJohn Brown

    For those who haven’t noticed, I just finished chapter 40 of 60 on this draft of Curse of a Dark God. My original target was September 5th to finish the draft. I’m closer in my projections than I have been in the past, but I’m clearly not going to make that date. However, I’m going to see what I can do these next three weeks and hopefully pull it off by the end of September. 

    This is possible.  Author James Maxey just finished a novel of almost 60,000 words in one week. Yes, you heard that right. ONE WEEK! Here are his tips for doing this and here was his master plan when he started. I got to read his updates a few times each day. It was simply amazing.

    Of course, there’s no way I can write 60,000 words in one week. Not because I think it’s impossible. But because it takes time. James had a week off and spent like 10 hours a day at it.  I can’t take a week off.  But even if I could, I don’t write as fast as James. But hopefully I can structure things to get more time and finish it in three weeks. We’ll see. I’ve been working on this draft for the last four months and have put in about 240 hours on it, roughly 12.5 per week.  My slow 500 words per hour that I can’t seem to budge (yes, some is writing and some is revising as I go along).  I wanted to get a solid 20 hours in each week–that’s really the key–and am disappointed I haven’t managed to do this.  Of course, it’s hard with a full-time job and family and a daughter going off to college and life.  Waa, waa, waa. But I’m going to see what I can do to boost that to 25 hours per week for the next few weeks.  The good thing is that I’m really enjoying the story on the page.

    As for manuscript size, the issue with the last draft, right now the manuscript is 123,000 words. The target is around 170,000. I’m roughly on track to hit that. I’m trying to keep my chapters around 2,500 words.  We’ll see how close I get.

    Share

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.