Archives: News

Finding Balance

If you’re a regular site visitor it might seem that I suddenly dropped off the Earth. I know I’m always curious when a site I like stops having regular updates. Has the person running it moved on to other things? Is the person alright?

In my case, I’m just trying to find  a little more balance in my life. For the last few years I’ve spent a lot of time running from deadline to deadline. I’m trying, now, not to be writing morning, noon, and night, and the weird thing is that I’m still getting quite a lot of good work done.

Over the last few weeks I’ve written about 25 thousand words on a new secret project. I’ve finally gotten around to reading David Copperfield, which I liked well enough that I read a second Dickens novel, Bleak House. Now I’m reading Mary Robinette Kowal’s Glamour in Glass (up for a number of awards) and my old friend Joe McCullough’s Dragonslayers. And over the weekend I finally sat down to try my hand at the solo wargame Field Commander: Napoleon. It’s even more fun than I had hoped (although I haven’t figured out how to beat the Egyptian campaign yet!)

That’s not all, though. I’m also spending more time with my wife and children– playing music with them and playing games and watching movies as a family. I am enjoying life, and it is good.

That pic up at page top is the cover image for my upcoming Paizo Pathfinder novel, Stalking the Beast. I don’t yet have the information on the artist, or I’d post it, and will do so as soon as I am able. If you click on it, you can see a larger version.

 

Bones in the UK

When I returned from my trip to New York City I had a wonderful surprise awaiting me in my e-mail. It was the cover for the UK edition of The Bones of the Old Ones, by the talented Charles Keegan, who created the original hard cover painting for The Desert of Souls.

I’ve heard from a lot of people that they preferred the original cover to the paperback, and I’m already starting to hear from people who prefer this version to the one for the American release. What do you think?

 

Back from the Big Apple

My wife and I took our children to the east coast last week for a nice family getaway involving museums, a musical, subway rides, fine dining, and excellent company. I have a few anecdotes to share later this week that might be of interest, but tonight I simply wanted to log in and share a couple of interesting links.

First, while I was away last week writer friend (and fellow Pathfinder author) Elaine Cunningham posted an interesting essay about speculative fiction characters who aren’t white, and cultural appropriation. I was in New York when most of the conversation was going on, but I dropped by to add my own two cents earlier today. You can find her essay here.

My friend Nathan Long, writer of the Waar books, and some Gotrek and Felix novels, not to mention the fabulous Blackhearts books and other tasty stuff, put up a post on fantasy world building that’s likely to be of great interest to many writers of fantasy and science fiction. You can find it here, and the conversation is just getting under way if you want to join in.

On the long drive to New York I read the family The Graveyard Book, and on the long drive back, my wife read us Watership Down. I already knew both were excellent books, but I did not realize how fine both sound when read aloud. The best writing often has a rhythm and meter to it so that the prose has an ebb and flow.

Two More Things

I’m deep in draft mode these days, but I wanted to swing in with a couple of recommendations.

First, I wanted to point everyone over to a new book trailer from the talented Alex Ross, something from his new fantasy series, coming in June from Tor. Take a look by clicking here.

Second, the gifted Jon Sprunk is running a book giveaway over at Goodreads through the end of March. If you’ve been curious about his work, now’s your chance to try it out… or at least to try for a chance to try it out. Follow this link to enter.

In the next couple of days I’ll post a link to some great sword-and-sorcery stories. For now, though, I must away!

 

Dabir and Asim in England

Whew! What a busy January that was.

I’m hoping February will be a little more… forgiving.

I’m just about to head out and look for groundhogs this morning, but I wanted to share something I thought was pretty cool. Head of Zeus, my British publisher, is putting finishing touches on their 2013 catalog, and I absolutely love their write-up of The Chronicles of Sword & Sand (aka the adventures of Dabir and Asim) so I thought I’d reproduce it here for your viewing pleasure.

Ask Me Anything Today

Well, almost anything… I hope the questions will be in good taste. I’m not quite the gentleman that Asim is, but I do try.

My reddit Ask Me Anything thread is live now, and can be found by clicking on this line of text. I hope you’ll drop by, and I hope you’ll help spread the word.

Things have been quiet on the site because I’m caught in a promotional loop, but I do have some interesting things going on I’d like to talk about, once I catch my breath.

 

 

Journeying To Reddit

As I mentioned a few days ago, I’ll be answering all sorts of questions about writing and the publishing word over at Reddit on Thursday night. You’ll be able to drop in and create questions throughout the day, and I’ll be answering them live starting around 7:30 or so.

The actual page isn’t created yet, so I can’t provide a link to it, but here’s the general link, which you can use until Thursday. You can see my name over in the sidebar to the right, and sooner or later by clicking that you’ll be able to access my page and Ask Me Anything.

 

Ask Me Anything

I don’t mean RIGHT NOW, but next Thursday, January 31st, when I’ll be over at Reddit most of the evening. I’ll provide a link and all that as the day comes closer. I hope I can count on interested folks to help spread the word.

In other news, a friendly reader noticed that the FB link on my page wasn’t working. It is now, so if you wish to see what nonsense I’m posting daily, you can now click it, friend me, and find out. I tend to post much more often on FB than I do here, or on Twitter. I’ll confess — I still haven’t really figured out how to use Twitter effectively.

I’ve decided against a big ConFusion recap. Short form is that it was a wonderful convention, and I’ll definitely be returning next year. Not only did I reconnect with author and editor friends and talk with some readers, I met some new people I am pleased now to name friends. I flew up to Detroit Thursday morning to spend most of the day with my good friend the talented John Hocking, then wandered around with him and Steve Haffner for a while until I sat down to watch Salidin Ahmed and a group of folks playing a long game of Talisman. Over the next few days there were any number of highlights — a fantastic chat with Patrick Rothfuss on the subject of pacing (well, mostly he was brilliant, and I was nodding), helping Myke Cole brainstorm some silly questions for a Sunday panel on stupid questions, receiving some sage advice from Peter Orullian, talking story structure with Doug Hulick, and  relaxing, chatting, and dining with fine folk like Saladin Ahmed, Mary Robinette Kowal, Violette Malan, Brad Beaulieu, Brian McClellan, Scott Andrews, Michael Thomas, Michael J. Deluca, Amy Sundberg, Patrick Tomlinson, Mike Underwood, the indefatigable Sam Sykes, and a whole lot of other people… but remember how I said this wasn’t going to be a huge recap? So I’ll stop.

Right — it’s late, so I’m going to sign off so I have lots of time to write come the morning, after a good long rest.

 

Seven Kings

The second book from the talented John Fultz was released in trade paperback just last week, and I wanted to call your attention to it. If you’re used to a sort of Tolkienized fantasy, Fultz’s work, laden with the wine of wizardry and high octane thrills distilled from vats once owned by Lord Dunsany and Clark Ashton Smith, is a rich and different sort of treat. Here’s the official blurb for Seven Kings:

In the jungles of Khyrei, an escaped slave seeks vengeance and finds the key to a savage revolution.

In the drought-stricken Stormlands, the Twin Kings argue the destiny of their kingdom: one walks the path of knowledge, the other treads the road to war.

Beyond the haunted mountains King Vireon confronts a plague of demons bent on destroying his family.

With intrigue, sorcery, and war, Seven Kings continues the towering fantasy epic that began with Seven Princes.

Get thee to a book store and grab a copy! You can try out a sample chapter over at Black Gate.

Evildoers Beware!

I have a spider bite on my hand. It may seem unrelated, but while everyone else in the house has come down with various coughs, colds, and even a stomach virus, I remain in perfect health. Coincidence? I think not. Nay, my conclusion is that I have been bitten by a RADIOACTIVE spider. Already I have developed a superhuman immune system. I expect other amazing powers to manifest very shortly. Frankly, I’m just glad I wasn’t bitten by a radioactive camel. Those things HURT, and besides, I’d only be able to go for days without water and spit incredible distances, which isn’t especially useful for crime fighting.