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At long last, I am excited to announce that THE DESERT PRINCE is with the copyeditor! In production terms, this means there are no structural or editorial changes left to make, just nitpicking over grammar and style, checking of math and timelines, that sort of thing. Sometimes a copyeditor finds a glitch, but it’s never one that has required more than a few hours’ work to correct.

I realize there has been a longer than usual gap between books. I’ve prided myself on delivering a book every 2 years, something I have done consistently since I was first published more than a decade ago. Some of the extra time was due to reimagining a new cast and landscape for the next generation of Demon Cycle stories. Some of it came with the change in writing style as I shifted from a close third-person narrative to a more intimate first-person point of view.

And some of the delay—a significant portion if I am to be honest—was due to the various trials of 2020—the worldwide ramifications of COVID-19 and the accompanying social and political change that came with it. A lot of folks had to leave their office and adjust to work from home, but writers suddenly found themselves with a crowd in their previously serene writing space.

But now, with the major revisions finally in the rearview mirror, we can look ahead. THE DESERT PRINCE, for all its growing pains, is a book that I am incredibly proud of, and I think it will be something both new readers and longtime Demon Cycle fans will adore. Olive and Darin and the rest of the new cast will, I hope, steal your hearts as quickly and completely as they did mine.

A number of publication dates have been floating around for the series launch—some from guesstimates by others, and some from me based on what I understood at the time—but now, after consultation with my editors, we have at last finalized dates for worldwide English release. Translation dates will follow soon as international partners build off these timelines, and I will report those when I have them.

THE DESERT PRINCE will be available in print, eBook and audio wherever awesome books are sold on: August 3, 2021 in the US; August 4, 2021 in Australia; and August 5, 2021 in the UK.

(This slight variation is due to the normal release days for new books in those territories. Tuesdays in the US, Wednesdays in AU, and Thursdays in the UK.)

We believe this date will offer the best chance for us to return to live events in bookstores and conventions to celebrate the launch, as well as continuing the virtual events many readers have enjoyed over the past year. While no one can say for sure what the landscape will be like next year, my plan is to travel as much as I am able to meet readers, sign books, answer questions, and see you all again after such a long time apart. We will also partner with vendors to find a way to offer signed books online or at local stores to those who are not able to attend.

There is a lot of exciting material to look forward to in the coming weeks. Cover art, character designs, new wards, and some first peeks into what has changed in the Demon Cycle world in the 15 years that have passed since the climactic events of The Core.

I can’t wait to share it all with you. Thank you for your patience as everyone on the team worked to make this very special new series the best it could possibly be.

Posted on December 17, 2020 at 4:53 pm by PeatB
Filed under Appearances, Audiobook, Australia, Desert Prince, Events, Sales, UK, World Traveler, Writing
6 Comments »

Hey all. Late again, I know. Time is just a vague notion these days. It seems to drag on moment to moment, and yet the weeks have flown by. But while I have not been keeping to the spirit my promise to pick winners every Friday by announcing them, I have followed it to the letter, choosing favorites and working with Dominik Broniek to bring those readers’ favorite scenes to life.

Before we go into details, the Demon Cycle Quarantine Contest is still accepting entries! Also, with regard to prizes, every entry remains in the running. There are so many wonderful entries to choose from, and honestly, I love giving out prizes. When the Brooklyn Post Offices become less of a infection hot spot, I will offer some runner-up prizes, as well.

We have the first two prizes!

Laetitia requested a portrait of Bruna and Leesha just enjoying a quiet tea in the Herb Gatherer’s hut during Leesha’s apprenticeship in The Warded Man.

Dominik Broniek really came through with this heartwarming picture of one of the series’ most beloved characters (and also Leesha).

The small number of illustrations in the Demon Cycle novels tends to restrict them to exciting, pivotal moments of the series, often full of action and movement. That makes it extra lovely to have gentler images like this one come out of this contest.

One of these days, I am going to find time for the Bruna novella I wrote a rough outline for a few years back…

Róbert Zelei, who works as translator for a few of my books in Hungarian, is a Wonda Cutter Stan, and requested Dominik capture a very specific moment from Desert Spear.

When Arlen casually shows off his hidden weapons cache and the treasures he’s collected from ruins of the old world, Rojer whoops with joy to find a perfectly preserved classic violin. But despite riches and art piled to the ceiling, Wonda and Gared both agree they liked the weapons room better.

Like the Leesha and Bruna moment, this scene isn’t something that would ever have made it onto the list of top 18 moments Dominik captured in the Polish edition of Desert Spear, and generally word balloons are frowned upon in book illustrations, which makes it extra delicious.

There were a lot of other fantastic contest since my last post. You can see the full collection in this Quarantine Warding Contest Album, but here are some callouts:

The April 24 winner was the mysterious @Mbeaureg6 from twitter, whose partner made him this fantastic warded face mask to keep the viral demons at bay. NGL I kinda want one, too, even if Peter B. Parker says it’s gauche to wear your own merch.

His first request was an illustration of a greatward, but the scale of such a picture made it difficult, so his second choice was One Arm breaching the Wall of Krasia. Dominik is working on that one, now.

The May 1 winner was Shanna from Plushes by Oh Joy. In her words: “I have always been jealous of Renna’s warded brookstone necklace, now I have a piece of self warded jewelry of my own! I took a break from homeschooling my kids and sewing face masks to make this warded bracelet. It was a nice little project to calm the nerves and now I can feel a bit safer walking in the naked night.”

Her request, next on Dominik’s docket, is: “I would love to see an illustration of Ashia and the sharum’ting kicking ass fighting demons and putting their arrogant male counterparts to shame.”

I haven’t picked a scene yet to fill this request, so if you have a favorite Sharum’ting scene from any of the books, post it in the comments and maybe we’ll bring it to life!

Last but absolutely not least, there was a surprise entry in the contest from my daughter Cassandra, who warded her most precious possession, her iPhone.

We’re all struggling to manage our new schedule, and Cassandra has been glued to her computer and phone for both schoolwork and gaming. It made me so happy to see she carved out some time to be creative.

That’s all for this post. I will try to be better about doing these updates weekly, but no promises. I do promise that winning entries will continue to be selected and prizes worked on, even if I can’t find time away from Daddy Daycare and working on Desert Prince revisions to get a blog done.

There’s still time to enter! Ward something, anything, and send a picture to contest@www.petervbrett.com!

Stay safe out there.

Posted on May 5, 2020 at 3:34 pm by PeatB
Filed under Contests, Craft, Fan Art, Fans, Warded Art, Warding Contest
Comments Off on Quarantine Warding Contest Prizes & Updates

Hey All. I promised to pick winners every Friday for the warding contest, and I have done so, but I totally forgot to post last Friday’s pick. It’s almost as if some world-changing event is stealing some of my focus and ability to concentrate. No idea what that could be.

Things in the Brett household are as well as one might hope. Cassandra is adapting to google classroom and Sirena is bouncing off the walls, but excited to have her family home more. None of us have been sick, and since Lauren works for a large hospital system, her job is pretty secure. I’m making decent progress on The Desert Prince, all things considered. I am 2/3 of the way through the 2nd draft. It’s the most intense rewrite I’ve done since Warded Man, but I am genuinely thrilled with how it’s coming along. Publishing and the convention economy are in a dark place, as is my home city of New York, but I’m trying not to think about it too much. We could all use a distraction these days.

Speaking of which, there have been some AMAZING entries in the Quarantine Warding Contest (QWC)! You can see all the entries in this album on my public Facebook author page, but I’d like to call out a few special ones, before posting the current winners.

NOTE: ALL ENTRIES ARE STILL IN PLAY FOR PRIZES. See guidelines for entry in my previous post. I will likely add some other prizes once the world spins back up and it’s safe to haul piles of signed books to the post office.

This handsome little Deliverer is Arlen Connell, whose mother Montana made him a warded onesie to go with the warded necklace from Badali Jewelry that I sent to keep him safe until he’s old enough to protect himself from the things lurking in dark places.

I jokingly made a promise to send warded jewelry to every newborn named after a Demon Cycle character, and I am thrilled to report it’s meant a lot of shipments. Especially in times when real world problems are so pronounced, it’s easy to feel like entertainment work like mine is meaningless. Seeing little faces like Arlen’s reminds me that my work touches people in its own way. <3

We ward that which is most precious to us. Jasmyn Robinson submitted beautiful images of her artfully warded page edges, and they are just fantastic.

If only books had been so protected when the corelings Returned, the world of the Demon Cycle might be in a very different place. But it’s good to have the reminder that no matter how bad things get, there is always a way back for the world. Humans have a long history of picking up the pieces and building something better.

The wonderful Tracy Robinson (no relation to Jazmyn so far as I know) decided to represent some of her favorite books in a brilliant tattoo, and (quite wisely) included a mind ward.

Tracy is a longtime reader who I’ve met several times in book tour. She is always a bright spot and a welcome face in the crowd. On the Core tour she helped me find food after an evening signing ended after all the restaurants were closed.

Tracy is good people. She sent in another entry as well, a Minecraft ward, which absolutely THRILLED my eldest daughter. You can see it in the facebook album, and I will post here and on the socials soon.

On to the initial winners!

The first, announced two weeks ago, is Laëtitia from France, who I had the pleasure of meeting at a signing in Paris last year. Laëtitia had one of the very first entries with her embroidered water ward to protect against virus-laden water droplets, coupled with some sound advice.

Those who can, keep in safe succor. And take care of those who can’t—your Warders, Messengers and Herb Gatherers—in these dark and trying times.

Her illustration request was for a portrait of Leesha and Bruna, which Dominik Broniek is already hard at work on. I’ve seen the sketches and they are great.

The current week’s prize goes to Róbert Zelei, who also translated my books into Hungarian.

In his own words: “I work at a medical university as a secretary, so I see the work of doctors and nurses every day. I guess that was the main inspiration for the drawing: the unsung, tireless healer many rely on. The image, like some of my previous drawings, was adapted from a painting, by William Hatherell, of a nurse during wartime.”

If you’re interested in seeing the original Hatherell piece, here is a convenient link.

Róbert requested a portrait of Wonda Cutter, and gave a couple of great suggestions. I’m working with Dominik now to bring them to life.

Thanks to EVERYONE who entered so far, and if you’re feeling inspired, please read the entry guidelines and join in the fun. I’ll post more entries when I announce the next winner ~Friday.

Stay safe.

Posted on April 21, 2020 at 4:49 pm by PeatB
Filed under Badali, Contests, Craft, Fan Art, Fans, France, Hungary, Tattoos, UK, Warded Art, Warding Contest
Comments Off on Quarantine Warding Contest Early Winners

Hey all. The world is pretty weird these days. Some of us, particularly those with small children and/or jobs that have ramped up due to the pandemic, are busier than ever. Others, due to a loss of business or isolating alone, have more time on their hands than they know what to do with.

All of us need to let off a little steam, and want to feel safer in a time of uncertainty.

In the Demon Cycle, humans find safety and defense in wards, the magical symbols that protect against demonkind, and offer a way to fight back against a threat that seems unbeatable.

So let’s ward some stuff. The contest is simple:

Step 1: Ward something. Anything. You can use as many or as few of the symbols as you like. You can draw the wards yourself or use the digital files. You can also carve, etch, paint, tattoo, brand, stencil, cut, silkscreen, henna, airbrush, etc. Any medium. Any object.

I don’t want to overtax anyone, so the bar is low. You can draw an impact ward on your hand with a sharpie, sew a wind ward onto your face mask, make one out of Play Doh during kiddie art time, incorporate them into a piece of fan art or cosplay, whatever. Work with what you’ve got and have fun with it.

Step 2: Send a picture of said warded thing to contest@www.petervbrett.com, along with a comment on your favorite Demon Cycle moment, scene or character.

Step 3: I’ll repost pictures on social media so everyone can enjoy them, and tell you you’re awesome.

Step 4: Prizes! Normally these consist of signed books or other goodies, but with the NYC postal system overtaxed and the post offices vectors for contagion, I’ve decided to keep the rewards digital this time.

I’ve commissioned several drawings from the amazing Dominik Broniek, who has been illustrating Demon Cycle books with me since the beginning—first with the Polish editions, then with the Barren novella and the Painted Man 10^th Anniversary Special Edition. With much of publishing on hold, assignments have slowed, so this has the added benefit of giving business to an artist who has been a huge support to me over the years.

Every Friday, starting this week on April 10, I will pick a winner from the total pool of entries, and have Dominik illustrate the scene you chose, including at least one in the likeness of the winner (more details to come). I’ll post it in hires on social media so everyone can enjoy it.

Contest will continue until something approaching normalcy returns to our lives.

You can find the official grimoire of wards (designed by Lauren K. Cannon) in downloadable hires images, along with descriptions, in this facebook album.

If you don’t use facebook, you can also find hires images here on my site.

Good luck and stay safe.

Posted on April 6, 2020 at 4:29 pm by PeatB
Filed under Contests, Craft, Fan Art, Fans, Warded Art, Warding Contest
Comments Off on Quarantine Warding Contest

Posted by Karen

Hey everyone! You’re officially invited to a party.

In 2011, Peat and six of his closest allies started http://www.Drinklings.com, a social club for scifi and fantasy professionals located in New York City. Since then, Drinklings has grown tremendously.

This year we’re extending invitations to the public.

Our annual charity holiday party is being held at the Society of Illustrators on Monday, December 2nd at 6:30pm. Here’s a handy link to their site: https://www.societyillustrators.org/

We’ll be hanging out, nerding out, and having an awesome time. There’s a $20 cover charge that goes directly to the society’s art scholarship program.

If you’re in NYC (or can get there) by Monday, feel free to swing by!

The Painted Man 10th Anniversary Special edition is available now! You can grab a copy right here!

Posted on November 29, 2019 at 8:00 am by Hannah
Filed under Appearances, Events, Karen
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