Locus Magazine, the trade publication for the science fiction and fantasy genre, has listed my novelette, “From the Clay of His Heart,” on their 2008 recommended reading list.
Yea!
Lots of other goodies out there as well.
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This review of Servant of a Dark God comes from Kirk Shaw, a fiction editor who works for Covenant Communications which is a part of Deseret Book. I think he points out something interesting about how I structured the story.
This is no simple epic. Brown has essentially written in three major plots: (1) the Dark Mother’s resurgence in the world and her cunning plots, (2) Talen’s family’s struggle against the Divines and the oppression he and his face from those who aren’t Koramite, and (3) the epic struggle of all those who are oppressed by the tyranny of the Glory and the Divines. The complexities of these three struggles overlap and complement one another in the story, with each group and entity relating to each other in different ways. For example, the Dark Mother is seeking out those who are fighting against the Divines to cull them, but she also plans to attack the Divines. In other words, groups that have mutual enemies are also fighting against themselves. These interacting conflicts I’m certain will generate quite an epic series (just as Robert Jordan’s tri-fold conflicts have held readers of The Wheel of Time series spellbound–Dark One vs. Artur Hawkwing’s returned armies vs. Rand and the gang)…
…I highly recommend this debut novel for those who enjoy a good coming-of-age epic fantasy, and I hope to see many more great things from debut author John Brown. Full review here.
The city of American Fork is putting on what looks to be a great writer’s conference. I’m very pleased to announce that I’ve been asked to present the keynote speech.
Keynote: The 3 Things You Must Learn to Write Killer Stories
When: Saturday, April 25, 2009, 9:00 AM
Location:
American Fork City Arts Council
31 N. Church Street
American Fork, UT 84003
(801)763-3081
This looks like a great opportunity if you’re a writer. Here’s what the organizers envision.
We have editors from Desert Book, Covenant and Cedar Fort coming to speak as well as National Book Award finalist Sara Zarr, Kristen Langdon, Ginger Churchill, Linda Bethers, Anita Stansfield and others. The goal is to provide a space for local writers to interact with local editors and local authors for inspiration, motivation and guidance in the tricky world of writing and publishing. To that end, the editors will be holding a query letter clinic using query letters from participants, which I think will be super useful. The editors are also speaking on what they want and don’t want as far as submissions, and the state of regional publishing in 2009 given the world upheaval. The authors will all be speaking on how they got an agent, how they got a book deal, what they have learned about writing.
More info: American Fork Arts Council
You may nominate works for the 2009 Hugo award if you either:
If you liked “From the Clay of His Heart” and want to nominate it in the novelette category, all you need to do is go here and fill out this form before Saturday, February 28, 2009. You can nominate up to 5 stories in each category.
If you want to read it, you can do so online if you have an IGMS vol 8 subscription ($2.50). If you don’t plan on subscribing to that issue, post a comment, and I’ll make sure you get a copy.
Here are nomination numbers for last year’s awards. What this shows is that 40 nominations puts a novel on the final ballot. 17 nominations put a short story there.
Best Novel (382 nominating ballots cast):
65 – Brasyl by Ian McDonald
58 – The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon
58 – Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer
41 – The Last Colony by John Scalzi
40 – Halting State by Charles Stross
Best Novella (220 nominating ballots cast):
52 – “Memorare” by Gene Wolfe
50 – “Recovering Apollo 8” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
49 – “All Seated on the Ground” by Connie Willis
39 – “The Fountain of Age” by Nancy Kress
34 – “Stars Seen Through Stone” by Lucius Shepard
Best Novelette (243 nominating ballots cast):
69 – “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate” by Ted Chiang
45 – “Dark Integers” by Greg Egan
24 – “Finisterra” by David Moles
22 – “The Cambist and Lord Iron” Daniel Abraham
Best Short Story (270 nominating ballots cast):
46 – “Tideline” by Elizabeth Bear
29 – “Last Contact” by Stephen Baster
28 – “Distant Replay” by Mike Resnick
25 – “A Small Room in Koboldtown” by Michael Swanwick
17 – “Who’s Afraid of Wolf 359?” by Ken MacLeod
PodCastle.org is the world’s first fantasy audio magazine. Each week they deliver audio stories by published authors. But they make the deal even sweeter because not only do you get to listen to great stories, you get to listen to and share them for FREE!
I’m happy to announce that they will be publishing “Bright Waters” in the near future. If you recall, this is my story about a fearsome Dutch trapper, a spunky Irish woman stolen as a girl in an Abenaki raid, and a small Iroquois tattoo…
Keep an eye out.
Thursday, September 30, 2010.
All day writer’s conference at UVU in Orem, UT.
Folks, this looks like it’s going to be an excellent seminar. Larry Gun-Crazy Correia will be there as well as Brandon Mull, Jeff Savage, Traci Hunter Abrahamson, Rob Wells, and a whole bunch of other great authors. You can see who will be doing what and where right here: Book Academy Agenda 2010 PDF. More details on the Calendar.
You can find registration information on the Book Academy site.
Wahooooooo!
I just turned in my final story edits to Stacy and David. The due date was November 1. The 3rd actually. The book clocks in around 177,000 words.
Wow. This last set of story edits led to some great changes. Not huge ones, but nice touches. I had to rewrite part of this battle scene, and man, oh, man I’m totally geeking out about it. We’ll see how it plays with readers.
What’s been interesting is seeing the types of things Stacy and David have commented on in the text. It’s as if they went through asking simple logic questions. Did they have enough time actually to do this? It makes no sense that person y wasn’t there. This thing isn’t fully explained.
And sure enough, the logic gaps were there.
So it wasn’t the interest level of the story they seemed to be editing for as much as the details that lead to clarity and belief. Of course, that those two things must be present for the interest to come. And this is not to say they didn’t focus on parts where interest flagged. There was one comment that forced me to cut my favorite dawg scene, a whole chapter’s worth. But the bulk of the comments were focused on the “logic” of the story.
Anyway, as of next Monday I think I’m officially into production. And back to book 2, which I’m 25,000 words into.
