Yea! SERVANT wins Whitney Award

ByJohn Brown

I’m totally blown away. No way. NO FREAKING WAY. No way.

Servant of a Dark God just won the Whitney award for speculative fiction. Look who the others were in the category–three New York Times best sellers and a book that had something like 11 or 12 printings in Europe before coming to the US. Holy crap. I’m thrilled the academy voters liked it so much.  

Servant of a Dark God
by John Brown		 The Maze Runner
by James Dashner		 Wings
by Aprilynne Pike		 Warbreaker
by Brandon Sanderson		 I Am Not A Serial Killer
by Dan Wells

When I informed the academy president, Robinson Wells, I couldn’t come, he asked if I had a speech should I win. There was no way I was winning. So I was like, yeah, whatever. So I wrote him this:

Yeah, like that’s going to happen (grin). But should something go wrong with the chads, you can simply say that “John told me if he won, that would mean the events in Revelations were probably upon us, and he’d be headed to his father-in-law’s underground bunker with his wife who was the brains behind the whole operation. He’s thrilled so many of you liked his story enough to vote for it. Thank you, thank you, thank you. But he’s also sad that you’ll all be toast before Fox News airs at 9 PM.”

Holy, heck. I’d better get to that bunker.

Here are the other categories and winners:

  • Best Romance: Counting the Cost by Liz Adair 
  • Best Mystery/Suspense: Methods of Madness by Stephanie Black (absolutely love the cover)
  • Best Youth Fiction:  The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams
  • Best Speculative Fiction: Servant of a Dark God by John Brown
  • Best Historical: The Last Waltz by G.G. Vandagriff
  • Best General Fiction: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
  • Best Novel by a New Author: I Am Not A Serial Killer by Dan Wells and Gravity vs. The Girl by Riley Noehren (it was a tie, obviously)
  • Best Novel of the Year: In The Company of Angels by David Farland

Of course, you had to have read all the books in a category to vote on them. You can see the finalists in each category here. So while Farland’s book didn’t win in his category (I”m assuming with the hard core historical fans), it did win with those who read every finalist.  Same with Dan Wells. So what this tells me is that depending on the cross-section of voters a lot of us could have been winners. I’m just happy I got the cross-section I did–ye speculative nut jobs 🙂 Hooray for the Whitneys!!

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  • A great day for humankind!

    ByJohn Brown

    Today is a great day for humankind! No, it’s not the cure to cancer, the end of politics, or aliens from space being discovered in Albuquerque. No.

    It’s the release of Awful Intent. The next book in the Bad Penny series, with more white-knuckle action, crime, humor, and a little something to think about.

    Awful-Intent-original

    Frank’s back. This time he’s traveling through Southeastern Utah, enjoying the miles and miles of red-rock desert and wilderness when a man is murdered where nobody is supposed to see.

    Except Frank does see.

    He could turn his back, but as you know, turning isn’t in Frank’s nature. . .

    The ebook is up on Amazon now.

    It should appear on Nook, iTunes, Baen, etc. in the next few days. The paperback should appear on Amazon as well in about a week.

    Here’s what the beta readers are saying.

    “WOW! Brown has outdone himself on this one. His books are always interesting and entertaining, but this one added a current twist to a captivating plot.”
    ~SHERIFF GARY OGILVIE, RET.

    “An engaging story about law and order in the west, complete with gun battles, aerial stunts and a hero just out for a hike.”
    ~POLICE SERGEANT LOUISE SPETH

    “Grabs you by the throat until the thrilling ending. All too true of what can happen in rural law enforcement.”
    ~DEPUTY SHERIFF JARED JOHNSON

    I had a blast writing this. I think you’re going to enjoy it.

    Sincerely,

    John

    EDIT: Nook and Kobo links are now live.

    EDIT: Apple link is now live.

    EDIT: Smashwords link is now live.

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  • Advance Praise for Servant of a Dark God

    ByJohn Brown

    My editor just emailed me another endorsement from one of the folks we sent the manuscript to. I’m so excited! This one’s from Kage Baker.

    I’m a total stranger to three of the four that have responded so far. It continually amazes me how generous the pros in this genre are with both their time and praise.

    Here’s the last one.

    “A classic heroic saga, dealing with the bedrock issues of good and evil and identity. These are classic themes because they matter; and Brown makes them matter both to his young protagonist and the reader. It promises to continue for quite a distance, and I hope it does.”

    —Kage Baker, author of House of the Stag and The Company series.

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    “Thoroughly engrossing from the first page to the last! John Brown shows himself to be a writer with remarkable depth and power. I haven’t seen a debut novel this good in years!”

    —David Farland, New York Times best-selling author of Runelords and Ravenspell series

    “In Servant of a Dark God, John Brown has created a complex and intricate world, filled with all the permutations of human good and evil, as well as evil that goes beyond the human, where neither heroes nor villains are quite what they seem at first, and where the cost of virtue is high indeed, yet where, in the end, the tenacity of such virtue is what is required to triumph.”

    —L. E. Modesitt, Jr., award-winning author of the Recluce Saga

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  • Passed the 75% mark on the final draft of BAD PENNY

    ByJohn Brown

    Working on the copy edits of BAD PENNY today and passed the 75% mark to general rejoicing.

    You normal folks may now go back to work. For you passionate grammarians, my fab copy editor marked a hundred uses of “then” in my manuscript.

    No, I wasn’t having issues with the then/than confusion.  

    I was having issues when using “then” when tying two clauses together. The question: did I always have to use “and” with “then”?

    EXAMPLE 1: “Frank backed out of the parking stall then rumbled out onto Dewar Drive.”

    Was “then” naked without an accompanying “and”? Should I make it read as “Frank backed out of the parking stall and then rumbled onto Dewar Drive”?

    And if it doesn’t need the full “and,” does it need at least a comma for a miniskirt so it reads “parking stall, then rumbled out onto . . .”?

    EXAMPLE 2: “The tension ratcheted up, then Senor Zombie’s eyes slid to the side.”

    Can you use “then” as a coordinating conjunction? Or must it always be used with “and,” as in “the tension ratcheted up, and then Senor Zombie’s slid to the side.”

    I looked in the Chicago Manual of Style. I looked in Garner’s Modern American Usage. I could not find the answer. So I emailed Annette Lyon, author of There, Their, and They’re: A No-Tears Guide to Grammar From The Word Nerd.

    Saint Annette’s response:

    Your first example is correct as is, with no AND: “Frank backed out of the parking stall then rumbled out onto Dewar Drive.”

    The only time you grammatically need AND before THEN is if we’re connecting two independent clauses, because THEN isn’t one of the conjunctions that can do that. You’ll find those in a text box in the book, and they include AND, OR, FOR, NOR, YET, BUT, SO.

    The only issue in the above sentence is whether to use a comma before THEN. The current stylistic trend is to leave out the comma, so you can leave it just like you have it above. Some people balk at that and want the comma for the pause it provides. Depending on the house style guide, that may be something you can argue, or maybe it won’t be. Neither is really grammatically more correct; the comma before THEN is more of a style issue. 

    In the next example, we do need AND or some other conjunction from the list, because both sides of the sentence are independent clauses. So this would be wrong: “The tension ratcheted up, then Senor Zombie’s eyes slid to the side.”

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    -Senor Zombie’s eyes slid to the side; the tension ratcheted up. (Semicolons replace conjunction + comma)

    Rules of thumb:

    -If you’ve got 2 independent clauses, don’t use THEN as the conjunction. Add AND or another one.

    -It the sentence has just 1 independent clause, THEN is enough by itself.

    Thank you, Annette.

    And wouldn’t you know, I opened A Wanted Man by Lee Child, and what did I see? A bunch of then’s illustrating exactly what Ms. Lyon suggested.

    “Reacher heard the roar of the shot, quieter than some, but still deafening in a closed room, and simultaneously he heard the wallboard explode above and behind his head, and then he hit the floor, knees first, then his hip, then his side, sprawling, down low behind the counter, out of sight.” (159)

    I think all I’m going to see while reading for the next while are the then’s.

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  • Awful Intent Update: Chapter 23

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  • Kudos for Servant of a Dark God from author Mette Harrison

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    Mette Harrison is the author of Mira, Mirror, The Princess and the Hound and The Princess and the Bear (Orson Scott Card simply loves her work.) So she’s a great writer, but she is also someone who does not blurb books if she doesn’t like them. Heck, she has a hard time doing PR for her OWN work. So I was so very happy to see this review of  Servant of a Dark God.

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  • Another review and interview for Servant of a Dark God

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10 Comments

  3. John, of the five books listed above, I’ve read 3, and I would agree that yours is the best of them. I can’t imagine the other two could be any better. A well-deserved award!

  7. Thanks, Brad. Hope you have some interesting news to share with your own submissions soon.

    Gorion, very happy the nuns are in my camp (grin) It’s true all those points of view affect the narrative momentum. It’s one of the things that is very tricky. You have to do extra work. But I don’t know if it’s points of view so much as story lines. I think I was pushing the number of story lines in this one up to the edge for some readers. I did decide to scale back on book 2 by one story line. We’ll see how that goes. But I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it and the workshop. Have a great weekend.

  8. Wow, congrats. I’ve been stalking this blog since about the time you appeared on Writing Excuses with Brandon, and I have to admit I read all your competitors books…but I haven’t read yours! This is partially due to the fact that the Provo/BYU library never seems to have the darn thing. I think I’m going to need to take a trip to Barnes and Noble now and see what the fuss is all about. 🙂
    Congrats again; that was some hearty competition for certain, so you must have one hell of a book. 😛

  9. TheUseLessGod, thanks. Hope it’s to your taste. If you come to CONduit in May you can get a copy from me for cheap and signed 🙂 If not, the book stores revolve their inventory 3 or 4 times a year (except for the best sellers that have been modeled), so it might be hard to find. Of course, it’s always in the online stores. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it so much you’ll want to put me in your will 🙂 hAVE a good one.

  10. I am indeed coming to CONduit. I’ll be sure and bring some sweet dough to purchase your book and get it signed. Then I will probably spend the whole time reading it instead of paying attention to the speakers (like how I ignored my wife while I was reading your preview chapters :P). Ah well, it’s for the best.

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