Learn from some amazing authors this October 7th and 8th in Layton, Utah

ByJohn Brown

brendanovakThe Utah chapter of the Romance Writers Association is holding a writing conference on October 7th and 8th at the Davis Conference Center in Layton, Utah where FIVE New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors will sharing key insights into writing stories. I’m talking about:

  • Brenda Novak
  • Kristan Higgins
  • Dean Wesley Smith
  • Raeanne Thayne
  • Lynn Kurland

If you write stories and want an opportunity to learn from some major pros, then you will want to be at this event.

If you’re not a romance writer, you might be tempted to think that the topics won’t apply to you. Don’t be fooled. Story is story. And these storytellers are pleasing huge numbers of readers.

I will be there. I have two presentations. But I can tell you that when I’m not sharing what I’ve prepared, I’m going to be in the sessions listening to these superstars.

I hope to see you there.

Share

Similar Posts

  • |

    Free stories from Year’s Best Fantasy 9 anthology!

    ByJohn Brown

    Tor is posting ALL the stories in the Year’s Best Fantasy 9 anthology (published summer 2009) for FREE. Mine was in the second installment, but you can already get it here. What you want are all the others! For example, installment 3 has one of my favorite short stories I read last year: Kij Johnson’s “26 Monkeys and the Abyss.”

    Here’s how to get them.

    1. Go to the Tor.com site.
    2. Scroll to the bottom of that post and click the “Year’s Best Fantasy 9” tag to see all of the installments.
    3. Click on each installment and download!
    Share

  • Smith’s Grocery and Servant of a Dark God

    ByJohn Brown

    I’ve just learned that Kroger Food has decided to carry Servant of a Dark God on a trial basis in its Utah Smith’s grocery stores. If it sells well, they will take it nation wide.

    Folks, this is a BIG opportunity for SERVANT. To put this in perspective, Barnes & Noble, the biggest book retailer in the nation, currently operates 775 retail bookstores. For first time novelists in my genre, they usually stock 2-6 copies of a hard back book. (BTW, if after eight weeks the book has sold decently, they will model the book for the store which means when they sell out, they order some more.  Other books that aren’t modeled are not reordered or are sent back to the publisher.) Kroger, on the other hand, operates 2,500 + grocery stores with book sections in them. That’s more than three times the size of B&N! That gives so many more readers the chance to preview the book. Heck, to even know it exists.

    If you know someone in Utah who was thinking of buying SERVANT, let them know now’s a good time to get it at Smith’s. My fingers are crossed.

    Also, if you spot the books while shopping at your local Smith’s, please let me know. I’d like to know how widely they’ve been distributed.

    Share

  • Free audio version of “Bright Waters” available April 7th!

    ByJohn Brown

    Mark your calendars. Just got word from the folks at PodCastle. The audio version of “Bright Waters” is set for release on April 7th! You’ll be able to get it then. Remember: Everything on PodCastle is free.

    Again, 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…

    Just go to the PodCastle site. Enjoy!

    Share

  • Curse update: March 15, 2014

    ByJohn Brown

    CurseV2FinalV1I’ve been diligently moving forward with CURSE.

    However, it’s not been in a straight line. While working on the ending last week, I realized that I no longer had the word limit constraints I had with Tor.

    Of course, I knew that, but I hadn’t gone back to my previous draft that had been written to meet Tor’s limits and asked: should I put  back in anything that I was forced to cut?

    But while writing the ending last week I realized that in the last revision I had removed an awesome sequence that introduces the villain of the tale. I’d done it to save the word count. I’d written another entrance. It was good given the constraints, but it didn’t have the cool wattage that this one did.

    Not even close.

    I love great character entrances. Could I put it back it?

    The answer was a resounding yes!

    So this week was spent rewriting that entrance (and now it’s even better than it was) and fitting it into the story (and slid in so smoothly and made it so much better).

    Folks, you will now get to see the naked orange-eyed priest of Mungo.

    Share