Idaho Librarians

Just got back from the Idaho Librarian conference in Soda Springs.

  • Had a wonderful time. Got to meet a lot of great people. I just love librarians.
  • Organizer Cindy Erickson was so very gracious. She even promised to take my wife and girls huckleberry hunting. Not only does she reference books, she references the sweet harvest spots!!
  • Drank my first bottle of Hooper Springs sparkling water–naturally carbonated mineral water. It wasn’t too bad at first, but I can still taste the minerals seven hours later 🙂
  • Borders from Logan came up and sold a whole bunch of my books. The sales manager was very positive about the new corporate management. I hope things go well for the bookstore.
  • Locked myself out of my car. But I have a solution now, thanks to one of the librarians (how do they know so much?), that will never ever ever ever fail. I will never be in that situation again. No, I’m not talking about a magnet key box somewhere.
  • Told myself I am getting a camera to take to these things next week. That’s it. I want pictures of all these fine folks.
Share

Similar Posts

  • Halfway finished with 10% trim of CURSE

    I’m at the 51% mark with my trim and have cut 10,000 words. Right on target. And I haven’t cut any story, just flab in the writing. Usually when I revise, I add words. I thought I wrote lean, but that’s clearly not the case.  Strangely enough, I have to say that I’ve enjoyed every hour of this. I’m loving this edit,  improving the flow and immediacy, cutting out redundancies and superflous lines. Who would have thunk?

    For those of you who are numbers geeks, here’s a peek at the spreadsheet I’m using to track my trim goals and actuals. “Var” means variance. “CTarget” is the target to cut from the chapter.  

    Share
  • Awful Intent Update: Chapter 23

    You’ll notice that the progress meter for Awful Intent is slowly rising. I just finished the first draft of chapter 23. The meter says I’m almost 75% of the way done. But I’m thinking I might need an extra six chapters to finish this tale. We’ll see. The number of chapters I estimate I’ll have is always, well, an estimate. But we are moving forward.  The next chapter is where we get the next step in the mystery which leads to the big twist in the chapter after that which ratchets up the stakes.

    And for those of you wondering about the Far-Fetched Fables production of “From The Clay of His Heart,” they usually do two stories in an episode. But my story was too big to be paired with another big story, so they have moved the story “to the June 2nd (the first available spot on our schedule).”

    Share
  • Servant of a Dark God galley edit finished

    I just mailed my galley edits off to Stacy. My baby is now out on her own. And whether she sinks, swims, or squishes is largely out of my control. I’m excited and anxious. Here we come September 15th!!

    I’m wishing I could do one last story edit. But I suppose that’s just par for the course. I’d be doing story edits until the fulness of times. I’ll just have to take what I have and will learn from this one as it plays with audiences and roll it into the next. I’m going to be very interested to see how this plays.

    I also just saw the map. It’s very nice. Love the style. I’ll see if I can’t post it here.

    And I got an estimated publication date–September 15th. I found out there are two dates, actually. A shipping or release date when the books start leaving the warehouses. And then the date (publication date) when they estimate (a few weeks later) the book will be in stores. The book should be in stores on the 15th.

    I expect the cover to be out soon as well. I told my agent I’d try to work in a big-bosomed blond into the series just in case. Not because she’s particularly fond of well-endowed ladies, but because she told me about another author’s book about a Hispanic woman with an initial cover that depicted this Hispanic woman as a blond with mucho clevage, toting a big sword (just to be clear, it was the blond toting the sword, not the clevage). Hey, miscommunications happen. I don’t know which publisher it was with, and to the departement’s credit, they were able to revise. Still, I thought I’d be ready.

    And now back to book 2 in the series.

    Share
  • “From the Clay of His Heart” reprinted

    Cover_YearsBestFantasy9I loves me golem story. It was such a joy to write. Obviously, two editors found it a joy to read as well. So it was just reprinted in Year’s Best Fantasy 9 edited by David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer and published by Tor.com.

    The good thing is that there is a whole boatload of other great stories in this anthology including one of my favorites, Kij Johnson’s “26 Monkeys and the Abyss.”

    Here’s the Amazon link.

    Share
  • Press Release – Utah Author Selected for Best SFF Stories 2008

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

    UTAH AUTHOR SELECTED FOR BEST STORIES OF 2008

    Will Present Keys to Successful Fiction at BYU Symposium

    LAKETOWN, UTAH |  February 9, 2009 |  Utah author John Brown’s novelette, “From the Clay of His Heart,” has just been listed as one of the best stories of 2008 by Locus Magazine, the main trade publication for the field of science fiction and fantasy. Locus Magazine selected its list from the hundreds of stories published and reviewed in 2008. Brown’s novelette will also be included in the annual Year’s Best Fantasy anthology edited by Hugo award-winning editor David G. Hartwell.

    “I’m thrilled with the recognition,” says Brown. “Still, I suppose you’d have to be a potato head not to squeeze some drama out of a story that’s a mix of religion, thieves, monsters, and love.”

    Brown will present his views on the keys to successful fiction in a lecture and workshop titled “The 3 Things You Must Learn To Write Killer Stories” at BYU on Friday evening, February 20, 2009 as part of Life, The Universe, & Everything, a symposium on science fiction & fantasy. Admission is free and open to all.

    John Brown is an award-winning Utah author. His epic fantasy, Servant of a Dark God, will be released in September 2009 by Tor, the largest publisher of science fiction and fantasy in the world. For more information on the author visit: http://JohnDBrown.com

    MORE INFO

    Click on image. Artwork for “From the Clay of His Heart” which will appeared in Locus Magazine’s recommended reading for 2008 and will appear in the Year’s Best Fantasy #9 edited by David Hartwell. 

    Share