The copy edits for CURSE and RAVELER are finished. The artist has also begun working on the cover for RAVELER.
The next task is to review and add anything necessary to make the ending of CURSE and the beginning of RAVELER work in their new roles.
And then it’s pub time. Getting very close now, folks.
Folks, I have finally finished draft 1 of The Drovers.
Let there be much rejoicing.
It clocked in around 75,000 words, and as soon as I finished, I realized I had two shorter novels. And this is exactly what I had originally planned. I wanted to tell a very long story in many shorter chunks. So I now have two 35,000 short novels. Since only writers think in word counts, here are some other books to give you a comparison.
My books usually get a bit larger with the second draft, so I expect these will probably end up around 45,000 words. We’ll see.
What I’m really looking forward to is telling a long story in these smaller chunks and unrolling the story like it’s done on TV. You can do things over 20 or 30 episodes that you simply can’t in one big novel. This doesn’t meant I won’t be able to have big climaxes. Of course, I will. It just means that I’m going to do it in a slightly different form. I already have the basic ideas for the next dozen or so books. And now that I’m rolling, I expect things will go faster.
The working title of book 1 is “Hireling.” The working title for book 2 is “Outcast.
The cast so far:
Interview with The Man Monday nightDungeon Crawlers Radio interviews The Man Monday, March 8th at 10:30 PM MTN. You can listen live or to the archive they’ll post to their site. All brought to you by UtahFM. Malak and Revan are great guys. I had a blast with them.
New page on writing facts & figures in the On Writing section.
CURSE OF A DARK GOD is moving along. You should see the progress bar move along quite a bit this week.
This is a cheap day-long writers conference and looks like it’s going to be another great one. I’ve highlighted what I’ll be doing in red. I’ll be making adjustments to the HOW TO WRITE A STORY THAT ROCKS presentation for things learned at LTUE.
Here’s their website. That night I’ll probably be attending the Whitney Awards Gala which is also being held down in Happy Valley, Utah.
DATE: Saturday April 24 2010
8-9 a.m. Registration
9-9:10 Welcome (Plenary)
KEYNOTES
9:10-9:40 Keynote #1 Ginger Churchill, “What I Wish I had Known as a Beginning Writer”
9:40-10:10 Keynote #2 Ally Condie, “My Journey to National Publication”
10:10-10:40 John D. Brown, “Aiming for National Publication”
INTRODUCTIONS of editors and authors
10:40-11:05 EDITORS: Derk Koldewyn, Granite NAME
AUTHORS: Caleb Warnock, Linda Jefferies, Shannon Guymon
11:05-11:20 15-minute break
11:20-noon BREAKOUT ONE
Upstairs room “Crafting the Novel” with Shannon Guymon, John D. Brown
Downstairs One “Finding and Working With an Agent” with Ginger Churchill, Ally Condie, Caleb Warnock
Downstairs Two “Taking Your Questions about Publishing” with Deseret Book and Granite Publishing
noon-1 LUNCH “Mix and Mingle with Authors and Editors”
1-1:40 BREAKOUT TWO
Conference One Derk Koldewyn of Deseret Book “What Deseret Book is looking for now”
Conference Two Ginger Churchill “How to Write and Publish Picture Books”
Upstairs room John Brown, “How to Write a Story That Rocks Part 1: First Principles & Story Concept”
Office room Caleb Warnock “10 Things Every Writer Should Know about Copyright”
Downstairs One Granite Publishing “What Granite is looking for now”
Downstairs Two Ally Condie “Writing Young Adult Fiction”
1:40-1:50 Ten-minute break
1:50-2:30 BREAKOUT THREE
Upstairs Room John Brown, “How to Write a Story That Rocks Part 2: Character”
Conference Two Ginger Churchill “Genres of Children’s Books, from Board Books to YA Novels”
Conference One Derk Koldewyn of Deseret Book “National Publication with Shadow Mountain”
Office room Caleb Warnock “How to Write the Query Letter”
Downstairs One Granite Publishing “Publishing Options with Granite”
Downstairs Two Shannon Guymon “How to Write Romance”
2:30-2:40 Ten-minute break
2:40-3:20 BREAKOUT FOUR
Upstairs Room John Brown, “How to Write a Story That Rocks Part 3: Plot”
Conference Two Ginger Churchill “How to be a Writer and a Mother Too”
Conference One Linda Jefferies “Writing Poetry”
Office room Caleb Warnock “Write a Synopsis? I’d Rather Gouge My Eyes Out!”
Downstairs One Ally Condie “Succeeding as an LDS author”
Downstairs Two Shannon Guymon “Writing Nonfiction”
3:20-3:30 Ten-minute break
3:30-4:10 BREAKOUT FIVE
Upstairs Room John Brown, “Writing Scenes: The Basic Units of a Novel”
Conference Two Ginger Churchill “Querying Agents and Publishers”
Conference One Linda Jefferies “Publishing Poetry”
Office room Caleb Warnock “Okay, You Were Rejected – Why, and What to Do Now”
Downstairs One “How to form a critique group that works”
Downstairs Two Shannon Guymon “Succeeding as an LDS Author”
4:10-4:20 PRIZE GIVEAWAYS, GOODBYE
REVISED (MAY CHANGE)
For all of you in the greater Salt Lake City area, we have three major publishing houses–Tor, Baen, and DAW–donating lots of free goodies for the signings. 40 free hardcovers, ARCs, and other promo stuff. Some of it you can’t get in stores. For example, you can get a free ARCs of Larry Correia’s VENDETTA while they last.
Here are the folks that will be there along with my beautiful self.
Come to the one at Barnes & Noble from 11 am – 1 pm or the one at Borders from 3 pm – 5 pm. See my calendar for address and details.
See you there!
Curse of a Dark God, book 2 of the Dark God series, can now be published!
That’s the short version.
Here’s the long version that will probably not be what you expect. A little over nine months ago I initiated a contract termination with my publisher Tor Books. A few days ago Tor reverted the rights. This means I have all the rights to all the books in the series back.
But why would I initiate such a thing? Tor’s like THE publisher of science fiction and fantasy.
There are a couple of factors, but I think the biggest issue is that we had differences in our vision for the story. This meant there were things I didn’t like about where the project was going and how it was progressing. It also meant there were things Tor didn’t like about the project and how it was progressing. This translated into some big delays.
We could have hung together–Tor never raised the idea of termination. But I saw no benefit in limping along. If things aren’t working, I tend to want them fixed. So after I raised the issue, all involved agreed that a termination of the agreement would be the best option.
And although all of us were disappointed it didn’t work out, this was an amicable parting. Tor went to bat for me with Macmillan, their overlord, to get this thing done. And we ended up with, I feel, a fair agreement. Of course, my agent was a valuable resource every step of the way.
I don’t look at these last years as a loss. The series was introduced to thousands of readers. And I learned a number of valuable things about the business and craft working on this project with the folks at Tor. We’re farther along now that we were, even if we didn’t take the rocket ship to the stars.
Most importantly, the good news is that for those of you who have been waiting, I can now move forward! The series will be published by Blacksword Books, my own imprint. We’ll start with e-book and trade paperback formats. Both will be available online from Amazon, Barnes&Noble, and other retailers. Once that’s rolling, we’ll look to see if audio is feasible.
I’m very excited about CURSE. My agent loved it. I loved it. My early readers have loved it. I think all of you who enjoyed SERVANT will enjoy this just as much if not more.
Mokad is coming. And bringing all its might to root out and obliterate the sleth in the New Lands. And they’re not alone. You’re going to meet a Guardian of awesome and cunning power who leads Mokad ‘s dreadmen army. You’re going to meet the Dogmen of Toth. And sleth who have rallied to Argoth’s call. And a fearsome ally who lives in the Wilds. All the main characters are back with Sugar and Talen learning new magic, facing new creatures, and discovering unsettling insights into what’s really going on.
I love this book. I can’t wait to get it into your hands.
But there’s a lot to do to get it out the door.
I need to make some edits to SERVANT. There are a number of maddening typos that crept into the manuscript. I’ll also be changing the sequence of the first eight chapters back to my original sequence, starting with Sugar and Legs and then moving to Talen. I know some readers like the sequence my Tor editors requested that starts the book with Talen sitting around in his under pants, but I structured it for him to follow Sugar for specific reasons, and starting with Talen undermines a number of those things. Finally, because I don’t have a word limit, I’m going to be adding some clarity to the ending that wasn’t in the Tor version. I also need to make some revisions to the last draft of CURSE, which has been done for almost two years, and then put it through a rigorous copy edit. And then there’s cover design, interior formatting for the print versions, and the publishing part.
So lots of work. But I think it’s going to be worth it. At the very least I will satisfy the young woman, soon to be a mother, dining at a pizza place I went to this last week who told me she loved SERVANT, thought it was awesome, and was angry at me because there’s no book two!
I’ll post a schedule soon. My hope is to have both books up sometime in August.
Oh, and when they do come out, please know that both the e-book and trade paper versions will be on sale for two weeks. I’m going to put SERVANT on for a massive discount so those of you wanting the author’s cut can get it cheap. I don’t want you to have to buy the book twice at full price. And I’m going to put CURSE on sale as well because those of you who have stuck with me deserve a reward.
Then it’s on to DARK GOD’S GLORY which I’ve already completed the working outline for. There might be another book in the same world about a team of fell-maidens (the female version of dreadmen) given a difficult task. And then there’s a whole other series—different world, different awesome magic—waiting in the wings. The first one in that series is tentatively titled LORD OF BONES.
Get zinged, Baby! The Dark God is back in action.
Folks, I’m trying to decide between 2 book descriptions for SERVANT. Tell me which one appeals to you more.
OPTION A
The spirited blacksmith’s daughter accused of using the dark and terrifying sleth magic.
The young man who hunts her.
And the ferocious monster who only wants to be free.
Trapped in a web of lies and ancient secrets, of right becoming wrong, the three must struggle not only against each other, but also a being of irresistible powers. A creature who is gathering her servants to usher in the impending human harvest.
If the three succeed, they will save those they love the most. If they fail, the clans of the land fall with them.
OPTION B
Sugar, the blacksmith’s daughter, is on the run, accused of using the chilling sleth magic.
Talen is determined to catch her, not only to get the bounty on her head, but to clear his people from her guilt.
But his plans go awry when a terrifying creature of grass and stone begins to stalk the clan lands. A creature that is somehow tied to those both Sugar and Talen hold dear. A creature sent by the dark Mother, the true master of the land, to both find the seed she planted in a woman’s womb a number of years ago and kill all those who might oppose her.
At odds and trapped in a web of ancient secrets, lies, and lore, Talen and Sugar must struggle to find the truth. But will they be able to uncover a way to fight back and save their loved ones before the Mother finds the one she bred to be her scepter and return her to power? The one bred to become lord and usher in the impending human harvest.
Let the voting begin.
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.
Comments are closed.
Do you know if your website host provider has been having problems?
Several times in the past few days when I have tried to access your site (looking for news on the release of Curse), it has been offline. Then a few hours later it will be back up.
I noticed something yesterday, but haven’t see it other days. I’ll keep an eye on it.