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    Interview with The Man Monday night

    Dungeon 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.

    Cool facts on breaking in, advances, etc. for writers

    New page on writing facts & figures in the On Writing section.

    Novel update

    CURSE OF A DARK GOD is moving along. You should see the progress bar move along quite a bit this week.

    Initial Schedule for American Fork Arts Council Conference for Writers

    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)

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  • Does anyone going to LTUE want “What Comes Next?”

    LTUE didn’t have enough slots to include the presentation in the schedule, but I’m willing to give it in the chat area by the lobby to folks who are interested. Probably on Saturday.

    So in “What Comes Next?” I share two tools I use that help me figure out where to start my stories and, well, what comes next all the way to the end. The second tool encapsulates, for me, the core of what story is all about.

    If you’re interested, let me know

    EDIT: I’m targeting 8-9 am on Saturday.

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  • Artist Dixon Leavitt does Hunger

    Dixon Leavitt is an amazing artist. He recently emailed me saying: “Sometimes I just start sketching with no plan in mind. This just popped out. Thought you’d like to see it.” It’s Hunger from Servant of a Dark God.

     

    Duuuuuuuuuuuude!

    Dixon explains the step by step of the creation of this painting at dixondoodles.blogspot.com.  You’ll want to noodle around that blog to see the other artwork he’s done.

     

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  • Free books and other swag at signing tomorrow!

    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.

    • Tracy Hickman (THE author who started the whole Dragonlance line with Margaret Weis)
    • David Farland (Runelords, Golden Queen, etc.)
    • Larry Correia (Monster Hunter)
    • Dan Willis (More Dragonlance novels)
    • Paul Genesse (The Dragon Hunters)
    • Jaleta Clegg (Nexus Point)
    • Plus short story authors Eric James Stone & Brad Torgeson

    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!

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    MountainCon 2008 Killer Story Workshop

    Just got word from the programming organizer that my killer workshop is a go for MountainCon this year. The bonus is that Brandon Sanderson will be teaching it with me. You do NOT want to miss this one.

    WHAT: Writing Killer Stories: This is a hands-on workshop conducted by two professional
    authors (Brandon Sanderson, John Brown).

    When you finish, you will know:

    • The 3 keys to writing killer fiction
    • 4 parts of story & how they relate to the key
    • The creation process
    • 7 principles of creativity
    • Critical guidelines on suspense, plotting, setting, and character building

    WHEN: Saturday, September 20th,  7:30-10:00 PM, Panel Room 1

    WHERE: Davis Convention Center, Layton, Utah

    For more information go to MountainCon.org

    And if you get sick of me, you can listen to Sarah Douglas, the villain from Superman II.  She’ll be there as well with lots of other folks including

    Kevin Sorbo*

    Richard Herd

    Herb Jefferson Jr.

    Sarah Douglas

    Scott Schwartz

    Victor Brandt

    Tad Atkinson

    Mark Goddard*

    Penny Johnson Jerald

    Brandon Sanderson

    Brandon Mull

    David Reddick

    Rebecca Shelley

    JoSelle Vanderhooft

    Paul Genesse

    Sky Conway

    Gralin Jerald

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  • “From the Clay of His Heart” to be included in Year’s Best Fantasy #9

    More good news! I just found out that my novelette, “From the Clay of His Heart,” will be included in this year’s annual Year’s Best Fantasy anthology edited by David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. The anthology will be released in the summer of 2009.

     

     

     

     

     

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