John’s appearance at American Fork writing conference cancelled

ByJohn Brown

Folks, just wanted to update any who might be planning on attending my sessions at the American Fork Arts Council writing conference. I’ve had to cancel. There’s been a death in the family. My brother-in-law’s three week old son died yesterday. His name was Landry. I’ll be at the funeral up in Cokeville, Wyoming on Saturday. What a very, very hard thing for them. I was so looking forward to participating in the conference, but these folks need solace and support. I’m sure you understand. I hope to attend next year. And I will be presenting at CONduit in May, although the organizers haven’t gotten back yet with details. I’m sure you’ll still have a great time–there are so many other interesting presenters coming. Happiness.

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    ByJohn Brown

    So I signed the contracts and put them in the mail today–I’m officially doing a collaboration with Larry Correia.

    This is an extension of the novel that we sketched for the 2015 LTUE presentation we did together called “How to Build an Action Plot.”

    Basically we took pirates and smugglers, put them in space, added in a nice helping of giant robots, huge aliens, space ships, nasty warlords, organized crime, and a government you don’t want to mess with, then stirred.

    It’s going to rock.

    You can see the materials for the presentation here. And read more about the collaboration in Larry’s post.

    Please note that we started our novel sketch by asking Larry’s ten-year-old son, “Hey, what’s awesome?”

    He replied without hesitation, “Giant robots, bandits, and murderers.”

    And we took it from there.

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  • It has begun

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    “That’s your father’s, isn’t it?”

    “You’re going to help me,” she said.  “He deserves better than that.”

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  • New site design!

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  • New Release Sale for Raveler!

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    John

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  • Poisoned Pen, Concealed Carriers, and Crazies

    ByJohn Brown

    Just got back from a wonderful trip with Larry Correia down to Phoenix. We did 2 signings and hit 23 bookstores in 1.5 days. Our new zipcode map GPS method rocks! Have three interesting things to report.

    First, we have a great time at The Poisoned Pen, an independent bookstore in Scottsdale. Lori and the other two guys whose names I forgot (doh!) were wonderful hosts. We talked about our books, fielded questions, and then signed. Had a great time. A lot of laughing and good stories shared. If you’re ever in their area, you should stop by and check out the store.

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    I also need to comment on Mysterious Galaxy, the store we went to in San Diego. Patrick and his crew were also wonderful hosts. This is also the first bookstore I’ve been into dedicated to science fiction and fantasy. The folks who showed up were hard core fans. We loved it. I hope I get to go back again and again.

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    Another comment along these lines. We noticed a dramatic difference between stores. Larry and I both agreed that the Barnes & Noble (Bookstar, which is a B&N store as well) and the independent stores (Poisoned Pen, Mysterious Galaxy) consistently showed the best customer service. They also consistently showed the most business sense. Kudos to them.  

    Second, Larry had a bunch of gun owner friends show up to the signing and then invite us out to dinner the next night. We had a great time. Polite, good-natured, and fun. Of course, a number of them were carrying concealed weapons. And I’ll tell you what–never felt safer in my life.  Now, I know some people are going to say, hey, that’s just an accident waiting to happen and if any bad dudes show up you’re just more likely to get shot or have the gun stolen.

    Um.

    No.

    These guys don’t just carry weapons. These guys live and breathe weapons. They customize guns. They shoot them and train with them in competitions. These guys know guns like I know my keyboard. I wish I could have remembered all their names–Chris, Hiram, Mark, the dude with the Hooters wife, and the other dude who drives for an armored truck company (and wears a kilt!), and about five others.

    Thanks to Chris for a great dinner at Famous Dave’s!

    I wish I could post pictures. I promised myself I take a camera on this trip. Dang it. Denver. I shall document Denver.

    Finally,  I have to write about a guy in the Mesa Barnes & Noble where we were holding our informal signing. We were in the cafe. My great sister had brought rum cake muffins and everyone who came was eating them and talking. One of them asked me how I got the idea. So I told them the cow story and about the idea of humans being ranched for their souls. And just after I finished this a guy who had been reading behind us, a B&N customer, stands up and says, “Your book it true! Your book is true!” He had a beard and was all bug-eyed.

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  • Writing Update: 25,000 words of battle and still going

    ByJohn Brown

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2 Comments

  1. I’m so sorry John. Please send along my condolences. I can only imagine how hard that must be for them. I’ve got a one year old and that would be the end of me…again, so sorry.

  2. It makes you want to focus on living now. That’s one thing I think athiests have on many of us belivers–the mindset suggests it’s unwise to put the things that matter off until a later time because there might not be a later.

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