Curse

  • Fab Readers, Time to Make Your Voices Heard

    ByJohn Brown

    Whitney-logoEvery April, the Whitney Awards holds a gala to announce the year’s best novels by LDS authors. But how do they find and select the novels to consider?

    They start with you, dear reader.

    The Whitney committee  asks the public to let them know about novels by LDS authors they like. A panel of judges reads those novels that receive 5 or more reader nominations and select what they feel are the top 5 in each genre as finalists. Then the Whitney Academy, a group of “industry professionals, including authors, publishers, bookstore owners, distributors, critics, and others,” vote on those finalists. The winners receive a Whitney Award. It’s like the motion picture Academy Award, but for LDS authors.

    Back in 2009, readers nominated my debut, Servant of a Dark God. The judges made it a finalist. And it won its category!

    (And there was much rejoicing.)

    This year, I released Curse and Raveler, books 2 and 3 in that series. Both are eligible. If you liked Curse, nominate Talen, Sugar, Harnock, and the gang  to be considered for the Whitney. If you liked Raveler, give the characters another chance and make a second nomination.

    Don’t delay. The more nominations the better. You only have until December 31st! 

    Here’s to hoping the Dark God makes another appearance.

  • The Curse Honor Roll

    ByJohn Brown

    Sometimes, despite our best efforts, mistakes make their ways into the text. Omissions are common. For example, a missing “the” or “of” can be hard to see; your magical mind just fills these tiny words in.

    Some omissions are hilarious. I was editing Raveler a few days ago and ran across a howler that made me laugh and laugh.

    In one scene Shim is angry about the Bone Faces. When he sees their ships, I meant to have him exclaim with some indignation that they were “Coming to plunder under our noses while we’re tied up here.”

    What I wrote was “Coming to plunder our noses while we’re tied up here,” which is a different type of threat altogether.

    And then there are the aaarg! omissions. Like leaving the names of awesome folks who provided valuable input out of your acknowledgements. (Head smack!)

    Yes, I’m guilty of such an idiocy.

    I’m very recently guilty. Like, today guilty.

    The good thing about indie publishing is that I can make changes and upload them immediately. I have already fixed the ebooks. The big paperbacks will be fixed on Monday. But these folks deserve better. To make amends, I’m going to spotlight them here, right now, for all posterity.

    For excellent feedback on the full manuscript, I want to thank Stephen and Liesl Nelson.

    A few years ago, I posted on this website, asking if anyone would be willing to read and report their response to a beginning I wanted to test. These folks stepped up and responded in grand fashion, helping me make the beginning better.

    Adam Teachout
    Alexis Cooper
    Cameron Wilson
    David West
    Eric Allen
    Hyrum Grissom
    Justin Fisher
    Krista Hoeppner Leahy
    Laurel Amberdine
    Lindsey Tolis
    Mark Holt
    Martin Cahill
    Melanie Goldmund
    Merrill Nielson
    Nick Dianatkhah
    Ray Solomon
    Wes Amodt

    All of you rock. And may the Bone Faces never come to plunder your noses.

  • New Release Sale for Curse!

    ByJohn Brown

    CurseCoverEbook1600x2400Curse’s long and crooked path to publication is now over!

    And there was much rejoicing. To celebrate, we’re putting the book on a huge discount today and Saturday.

    Big trade paperback, plus free ebook: $9.99!
    (normally $18.98 if purchased separately)
    Amazon

    Ebook: $.99 cents!
    (normally $3.99)
    Amazon
    Nook
    iTunes
    Kobo
    Smashwords

    I want to thank all of you who emailed and posted comments on the website expressing your anticipation for this book. I really hope you enjoy the story as much as I have.

    Happy reading!

    John

    PS To get the free ebook with your purchase of the big paperback, purchase the paperback, then go to the Kindle store and click on “Kindle MatchBook” in the left sidebar. That will take you to your personal list of books you can get with the MatchBook program. Curse will appear there AFTER  you make the purchase.

    PPS Look for a similar sale for Raveler soon!

  • Curse, Raveler, Comic Con

    ByJohn Brown

    CURSE_FinalCoverSpreadWebI’ve been busting my chops these last three weeks. CURSE is finished. RAVELER will be finished tonight. I will be putting them both on sale at smoking hot prices for those that have signed up for the newsletter in the next few days.

    This is also perfect timing for the Salt Lake City Comic Con. I’ll be there, participating on panels, chatting with readers, and selling copies of my books at a table in the Artist’s Alley (White, booth 40). I’ve invited two other awesome authors to join me at the table–Cheree Alsop and Eric James Stone. This is going to be a great event. If you’re going, please drop by at the table to say hello. I’ll have more on Comic Con in a post in a few days.

  • Curse Update: Cover

    ByJohn Brown

    Behold.

    CURSE_FinalCoverSpreadWeb

     

    The proof has been shipped. When that arrives, we’ll review it to make sure everything looks good, and then it’s release time.

    The artwork is proceeding along for RAVELER as well. The target for that is mid August. As soon as it’s finished, we’ll be ready to release that book as well.

    Just for kicks, here’s the SERVANT spread.

    ServantSpreadWeb