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TDW Cover: Women of the Demon Cycle

Posted by Meg

Our second entry is from Birte, who has some incredible contest entries in the past.

Just like our first entry, I love seeing these powerful women next to each other. Here is what Birte had to say about her entry:

My version displays the three most important women. In my opinion they will play a major role in the upcoming sequel. I used pictures from last years fan art contest as models for the women in my picture.

What characters do you think will be featured in The Daylight War? Make your own cover and let us know! The contest ends at 11:59pm on October 15th. Make sure to check out the prizes and guidelines before entering.

Posted on October 1, 2012 at 8:00 am by megelizabeth
Filed under Contests, Daylight War, Desert Spear, DW Cover Contest, Fan Art, Fans, Meg, Warded Man
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Being Yourself on the Internet

Posted by Meg

Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook are great ways to promote your work as a writer and get in touch with fans. Sites that allow readers to review books, such as Goodreads and Amazon, also allow a community of fans and readers to discuss books. Lately, though, there has been some controversy about authors not using these social platforms in the most considerate ways causing a lot of people to talk about how authors are behaving badly.

Blogger Mike Douton from Stuff and/or Junk suggests that we start focusing on those authors that are behaving well instead, and I tend to agree. He mentions Peat, Saladin Ahmed, Cat Valente and Chuck Wendig as excellent authors to keep up with on Twitter. He remarks that he dislikes when his feed becomes full of people’s nagging tweets to read, read, read their book! But, for new authors, Twitter and Facebook are some of the best ways to foster a network of fans and spread the news of your publications.

So, where do you draw the line between promoting and throwing it in everyone’s face? Mike gives some pointers on how to promote your work without being turning people off. It can be hard when you’ve put so much time and effort into creating a book, to not talk about it all the time. But I think, especially with the amount of personal information on the Internet today, fans, readers, bloggers and authors all want to know a little bit more about you. They want to relate to your life and get to know you as a person. Mike phrased it well: “I won’t stop reading your books if you’re a good writer but boring on twitter, so don’t feel the need to preform either. Just be a regular person.”

Who are some of your favorite authors that use social media well? We want to hear about them!

On Twitter? Use the hashtag #authorsbehavingwell to note some of your favorites!

And don’t forget to submit to our latest contest. Have ideas about what’s going down in Peat’s next book, The Daylight War? Submit a custom cover to win some awesome prizes including five rare Great Bazaar booklets. The contest ends at 11:59pm on October 15th. Make sure to check out the prizes and guidelines before entering.

Posted on September 28, 2012 at 8:00 am by megelizabeth
Filed under Daylight War, Desert Spear, Fans, Life, Meg, Tweephole
2 Comments »

TDW Cover: First Entry

Posted by Meg

Here it is! The very first entry to The Daylight War Cover Contest! Peat was so excited, he tweeted about it … twice! So just to make sure everyone sees this awesome cover, we are posting on the blog.

These are two of my favorite characters, and it is so cool to see them standing next to each other. I love the details and how, while they are both staring into the same sky, they are both firmly rooted on their own turf. It really gives an ominous sense of what is to come for two women from such dissimilar lives. Check out what the artist, Caroline, had to say about her process:

Drawn and colored with pencils. Scanner broke so I had to take a picture of the finished product and upload it to the computer. As a result, the colors are a bit darker than on paper. Added the writing afterwards using Paint.

She [Leesha] is holding a small bottle of what I pictured the liquid fire to be like the first time it came up in The Warded Man. Kind of like a mini Molotov Cocktail.

Have your own Daylight War cover idea? Don’t hesitate! The contest ends at 11:59pm on October 15th. Make sure to check out the prizes and guidelines before entering.

Posted on September 27, 2012 at 8:00 am by megelizabeth
Filed under Contests, Daylight War, Desert Spear, DW Cover Contest, Fan Art, Fans, Meg, Warded Art, Warded Man
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New York ComicCon Signings & Events

Posted by Meg

Mark your calendars! Peat will be appearing on his home turf for this year’s New York Comic Con, October 11-14th at the Javis Center.

Friday, October 12th

12:00pm-1:00pm – SIGNING at Random House booth #1120

Saturday, October 13th

11:45am-12:45pm – SIGNING with authors from the Hero’s Quest fantasy panel; tables 2, 3, and 4 in Panel Autographing Area.
Authors include: Gwen Reyes, Joanne Bertin, Matt Myklusch, Peter Brett, Peter Lerangis, Rae Carson, Sarah Beth Durst, Stefan Bachmann, Steve Bein
4:00-5:00pm – SIGNING at Random House booth #1120
5:15-6:15pm – PANEL: Hero’s Quest: Swords & Sorcery in Fantasy Fiction; Room 1A08

Sunday, October 14th

2:45 PM- 3:45 PM – Discussing Red Sonja Blue on the Dynamite Entertainment Panel, Room 1A10

UPDATE: Hundreds of free copies of The Warded Man will be given out at Peat’s signings throughout the weekend. Already have a copy of The Warded Man? Bring it and a grab another for a friend.

Hope to see you there! To check out future events, you can always take a look at the Appearances section of the website.

Here’s a couple of pix from last year:

Posted on September 26, 2012 at 8:00 am by megelizabeth
Filed under Appearances, Daylight War, Desert Spear, Events, Fans, Meg, Warded Man
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Tweephole #8

Posted by Meg

Welcome to the Tweephole! Trying to keep up with Peat’s tweets as he finishes the edits on The Daylight War? You’ve come to the right place. As always, feel free to check out his tweets in realtime in the sidebar.

@PVBrett – 95 comments between me and the end of #DaylightWar. Fixed a 50 word sentence with three em dashes that I must have written sleep deprived.
@PVBrett – Watched Hunger Games. It was no Battle Royale.
@PVBrett – Torrential rain outside, but I have iced coffee and 91 more comments on #DaylightWar to kick. #editing
@PVBrett – 75 comments left in #DaylightWar. Running out of easy ones. Much go in search of a bacon, egg & cheese bagel before #editing more.
@PVBrett – Bit the bullet and added another chapter. Couple thousand words in already. Taking a break for dinner. #DaylightWar #editing
@PVBrett – Prize for 1st to make this happen MT @the_flamingo from description I pictured him sipping a small sherry wearing a burgundy smoking jacket.
@PVBrett – To those reminding me the Hunger Games books are better than the movie: Duh. The books are ALWAYS better than the movie.
@PVBrett – New #DaylightWar chapter (# 25) done. 60 inserted comments to go, but each will need an hour or more of work. Gonna be a long week. #editing
@PVBrett – Love that my word ‘douchebot’, i.e. a twitter spambot designed to troll people for grammar & usage (often incorrectly) has become a thing.
@PVBrett – Cornucopia of #DemonCycle fan art: http://t.co/t3glOkeR

@PVBrett – Germans! Uh… Maybe you can read this. Looks like they’re giving away books I signed: http://bit.ly/QAUEU0

@PVBrett – What the… I don’t even… RT @SamSykesSwears @PVBrett GET WITH THE TIMES, GRANDPA. http://t.co/rjznTrss

@PVBrett – Nice thing about facebook, you can verify untruth of nightmares that someone you went to grade school with died without a crazed phone call.
@PVBrett – The nightmares started with hours tossing and turning as my dream-brain tried to rearrange paragraphs in #DaylightWar. #editing #cracking
@PVBrett – Last night I was literally passing out from stress. Today I feel like I got this bitch right where I want it. #DaylightWar #editing
@PVBrett – Holy crap. RT @Planetpinto There must be a rule that all Orbit HQs must have a ridiculous retrofuturist atrium…http://t.co/zeMmXu2n

@PVBrett – Please let it be so MT @officialbrooks Rights for THE ELFSTONES OF SHANNARA have been purchased for a television series http://t.co/JTkY7hgq

@PVBrett – Well, duh. RT @PublishersWkly L.A. Times column: “Government’s e-book case helps Amazon build toward a monopoly” http://t.co/JfA0GSmL

@PVBrett – PW depressing as hell today. RT @PublishersWkly Security forces destroy legendary second-hand book stalls in Alexandria http://t.co/bEHJINA9

@PVBrett – Sick of feeling simultaneously depressed & enraged by the news. Also, there should be one word that means both. Bet the Germans have one.
@PVBrett – Okay, that’s it. Work time. Turning off the internets for #DaylightWar #editing. Tweet break after lunch, maybe.
@PVBrett – The last 100 pages of #DaylightWar have over 40 comments. All of them sticky. Also: I have eaten too many Runts. Blargh. #editing
@PVBrett – Internet, your protestations of disgust just make me want to try the Candy Corn Oreos all the more.
@PVBrett – 31 editorial comments (mostly mine) left in #DaylightWar. Gonna be a hectic weekend. What’s taurine? Been drinking a lot of it. #editing
@PVBrett – All this time hunched over the desk has my syrinx acting up. Feels like there is a knife in my ribs. Good times.
@PVBrett – Literary Agent assaulted by a rejected author last night. Deeply disturbing & a reminder that GPS apps like 4sq have a dark side. Depraged.
@PVBrett – It’s true. My day is better for having seen that. RT @Nanbits @AnneSowards @MykeCole last one, promise: http://t.co/dQAo67u8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BQjXYoUsAo&feature=share&list=UUbr-U5Uxnc6wPzd9r5WN7Zw

@PVBrett – Final #DaylightWar push this weekend. 12 comments & some rereads left. Plus I have to write two songs, henceforth called epic lays. #editing
@PVBrett – I may have accidentally challenged @scalzi to a gangnam dance-off. #whoneedsdignity #punchdrunkfromediting
@PVBrett – What’s that, ice cream? You want me to eat you? You know I can’t. What if someone sees? Okay, okay. Maybe just a little… #noonewillknow
@PVBrett – Finished main edits of #DaylightWar around 3am. Today is rereads of new sections & epic lays. Then panic attack. Then I turn it in. #editing
@PVBrett – I need help checking the math of polyhedral dice geometry. #nerdworldproblems
@PVBrett – Awesome is: When the Principal of Brooklyn Tech offers to check your math. #DaylightWar #editing
@PVBrett – More or less how I feel trying to figure out the math on Inevera’s alagai hora: http://t.co/9v6wLPoG

@PVBrett – More Calvin & Hobbesian math procrastination: http://t.co/8BiWUKDk

@PVBrett – Me and #GRRM at Aussiecon 2010 looking like Galactus and his herald: http://t.co/yVJxtTtQ

@PVBrett – Song of Waning: 7 verses with 7 lines, each with 7 syllables and rhymes on lines 5 & 7. WTF was I thinking? #DaylightWar #editing
@PVBrett – Know what stirs up a helluva racket? Raccoons fucking in your backyard. Don’t speak coon, but I think they were screaming some nasty shit.
@PVBrett – 2:45am. #DaylightWar is done. HUZZzzzzzz
@PVBrett – Daylight War is done. Which book should I read first? http://t.co/bggbQtPT

@PVBrett – Looks like King of Thorns by a landslide, which is good, because I was gonna read that first anyway. 🙂 @Mark__Lawrence
@PVBrett – I give you a 4 year old riding a metal dragon.

@PVBrett – Listening to the Dominion audiobook by C.S. Friedman. So much Coldfire goodness I have goosebumps. Gerald Tarrant, I have missed you so.
@PVBrett – Taught Cassie how to use the mouse on the computer, though I suspect that is like teaching her to use a rotary phone.
@PVBrett – Happy 75th birthday to The Hobbit. I read that book in 1982 when I was 9 years old and was forever changed.
@PVBrett – Problem with cleaning is it gets dirty again. We need to think big picture, step outside the box, and come up with a long-term solution.
@PVBrett – Just started listening to Year Zero by Rob Reid, narrated by John Hodgeman. It is already kind of amazing.
@PVBrett – If you’re an old school Marvel Comics nerd, this blog is a treasure trove of nostalgic joy: http://t.co/9qGf4xLO

@PVBrett – iPhone keyboard makes it hard to curse in texts. “Ficking” just doesn’t have the same gravity.
@PVBrett – Fear and pride cocktail: http://t.co/KqWjhhW9

@PVBrett – W00t! 1 airport in US with me instead of RT @brentweeks Cincinnati showing some love for m–never mind, for @PVBrett. http://t.co/4sZawmze

Peat has sure been tweeting a lot! You can check out the past Tweepholes here.

We are running a very special contest right now: The Daylight War Cover Contest and giving away rare Great Bazaar booklets as grand prizes. Entries are due at 11:59pm on October 15th. Make sure to check out the prizes and guidelines before entering.

Posted on September 25, 2012 at 8:00 am by megelizabeth
Filed under Daylight War, Desert Spear, Fan Art, Fans, Life, Meg, Tweephole, Warded Art, Warded Man
3 Comments »