Blog

Sorry for talking so long to post the winners of the Cosplay Contest, but between my surgery, some new and exciting business deals, work on Daylight War, and general life/daddy stuff, I haven’t had a lot of spare time. I also needed to stew a bit about the winners.

One of the most amazing things is how the same people keep entering each contest, showing amazing creative range as they do fan art, audio recordings, warding, action figures, cosplay, and the like. Some of them I have met in person, but even the others feel like old friends now. It’s an incredible honor to have readers like all of you.

Every time I have one of these contests, I lament that I don’t have enough prizes, that there were too many fantastic entries, and that picking a winner was hard. And it’s always true. I wrestled for a while over who should win the grand prize, and even after that was done, had a tough time choosing the runner ups. I have it all settled now, though, so let’s get to it.

Grand Prize

A print & digital file of an original custom digital painting by Lauren K. Cannon (AKA Navate) inspired by the character(s) in the winning entry, WITH THE WINNER’S FACE(S) PAINTED IN.

Winner – Margherita: I was sure I had the winners all picked out when Margherita’s entry (the very last one accepted before the deadline) appeared in my inbox. This isn’t the first time she’s skewed the curve. She is too much awesome to pack into one person. Her Inevera/Damajah cosplay is amazing, not just because Margherita is gorgeous. Most every item in the entry was hand-made and warded, and the costume and set design was incredible. You can tell she and her friends spent hours and hours on it. Plus, she had me psyched out thinking she was entering as Leesha.

Click her name to see her full entry, but here is a taste of the A game Margherita brought to the contest:

First Prize

Three custom warded silver necklaces from Fotini Designs:

Winners:

Arthur Bearden: Arthur has done many amazing contest entries over the last couple of years, and this one was so damn good that I seriously considered giving him the grand prize. I mean really. In addition to Creator only knows how many hours of painting wards, dude shaved his head for it! That is commitment.

I kind of agonized over it, if for not other reason than even a silver necklace seems a paltry prize. Arthur is a fucking champion.

Carol Hinds: Carol is another one who has consistently sent in wonderful contest entries, not the least of which being the REAL ward tattoos she has on her shoulders! She entered first as sexy Inevera, and then again with a showstopping Renna Tanner:

Birte: I have gone on and on about how awesome Birte is. Not only was she the first to enter, but she entered as three different characters! Leesha, Renna, and Rojer. Then she entered AGAIN as Arlen! I <3 Birte. And I still have to upload some of the new music she composed for her Desert Spear epic.

Second Prize

Sets of 4 Succor dice. Succor is a common game in Thesa, most notably played by Arlen and Beni & Renna Tanner in their hayloft. Loser paid in kisses. Adults gamble money (and sometimes kisses) on the game. The Krasians call it Sharak, and have slight variations on the rules.

Winners:

The dice sets go to… oh, hell. Everyone else who entered gets dice! To see some of the other fantastic entries, you can just click here and scroll through. There is some really good shit there. The Red Sonja Blue one is amazing.

Please bear with me if it takes a bit of time to get all the prizes all the door. The velvet bags I bought for the dice are too small, so I need to order more, and I want to make sure the other prizes are packaged securely. I will show sketches and perhaps a WiP of the grand prize painting as it evolves. Lauren is already on the case!

Thank you all so much. Really. I was just post-surgery and in incredible pain when this contest started, and it brought me such joy as I cannot express.

Love,

Peat

Posted on August 14, 2011 at 4:47 pm by PeatB
Filed under Contests, Cosplay, Craft, Daylight War, Desert Spear, Fan Art, Fans, France, Germany, The Daylight War, Warded Art, Warded Man
9 Comments »

I don’t usually post reader mail, but this one from last night was too good not to share:

Peter:

I don’t write fan mail, but after some of my students and I found that we share a common love of Patrick Rothfuss, I’ve been seeing authors as actual people; not drones who exist to satisfy my need for excellent fiction or rock stars who would never deign to notice me. I went back and forth with Rothfuss, trying to get him to come to my school, which didn’t work out, a near miss. That’s not why I’m writing you, however; I’m writing to tell you how your book saved the day.

After reading and loving The Warded Man, I couldn’t pick up The Desert Spear for some time. The betrayal of such a great character left me with no desire to read about the man who committed such a heinous act. I gave in, finally, and was drawn in immediately by the things that make your books great: well drawn, complicated characters, great action, tremendous world building. I was so hooked, in fact, that I brought The Desert Spear when I went camping in the mountains of the Upper Peninsula in Michigan this week.

My wife, son and I hiked in to a yurt maintained by the state park for a time of enjoying each others’ company and the great outdoors. As the sun dropped low on the horizon, I struggled to build a fire after discovering that I had not included fire building materials in my pack. I tried using bark and toilet paper, but my efforts came to naught as the fire smoldered and went out. As my family looked on, I was coming to grips with the idea that my family would have no fire for the night and would be eating a cold dinner; my sons’ hero was failing before his eyes.

Then my wife said, “what about your book”? My heart stopped, my blood froze. How could I sacrifice one of my beloved books? How could I not? So I started over, using previously read pages to begin the best fire I have ever built. The flames leapt from the written page to sticks and twigs as if it understood the sacrifice. As I read on in my now mutilated book I made a promise to myself, which I now make to you. I will finish reading this copy of The Desert Spear, then I will buy a hard cover edition and both will reside in an honored place among my favorite books.

Here is a picture of the book. I wish I had one of the fire. I am so careful with my books that my wife teases me about it; they often still look new when I am done. To tear the pages from this book was tough to do. I look forward to finishing The Demon Cycle and checking out your blog and future projects.

Thank you for your work.

Mark Grosvenor

Normally I disapprove of book burning in all it’s forms, but when you have to torch a beloved book to save face in front of your family and you man up and do it, that is the mark of a goddamn hero.

P.S.
For those of you still waiting to hear the Cosplay Contest winners, I have selected them and will be posting in a few days. Been out of the office a lot, and picture-heavy posts are hard to do on the iPad.

P.S.S.
Because of a conflict with the Brent Weeks/Brandon Sanderson panel I was hoping to crash at Worldcon, I have moved my signing to 2pm on Friday Aug. 19. More on Worldcon soon.

Posted on August 11, 2011 at 10:36 am by PeatB
Filed under Desert Spear, Fan Art, Fans
9 Comments »

Leave it to Margherita to skew the curve.

Again.

My heart stopped at little when I saw this entry.

Hi Peat!

I’ve finally finished up my entry for the Cosplay Contest. I can’t describe how much fun I had putting this together! 😀

I had originally considered cosplaying Leesha, Renna or Wonda, but in the end went with Inevera. I figured I might be able to physically pull her off better than the other characters. I’m so glad I did! I really couldn’t stand Inevera throughout The Desert Spear. She left a bad taste on my tongue. But having to BE her has changed my mind. I see her character in a whole new light and, now that I know she’s got her own POV chapters coming, I’m looking forward to reading more about this devious woman.

Somehow, between learning to sew from the internet, figuring out how to put an outfit together without a pattern, ripping stitches out plenty of times and having to re-sew, and trying to find time away from work and a curious 3 year old, I managed to get at least this one entry done.

There are a bunch of pictures. And a huge thanks to my friend, Heather, and her husband, Derek, who helped put the character photos together.

1. Derek did a wicked job editing this one. You’d never know I have burn scars covering my left leg from top to bottom. I didn’t have the balls to show them off to all of your followers. It took enough for me to have the scars exposed to Heather and Derek during the shoot. :s

2. Derek added an awesome backdrop to this one and gave me some devilish red eyes.

3. Here’s the curved blade I made out of clay. I had never played with clay before. That was fun; tough, but fun. I started to “etch” the wards into the blade, but I was rushed and ended up just drawing them on with marker. You can’t see them in this picture because of blending.

4. This one, I edited. I’m not used to editing photos on Photoshop so it isn’t very neat. Wanted to give the idea that all the windows were covered and the room was completely dark except for where the Alagai Hora were glowing red and reflecting off of me.

5,6,7,8. “Jewelry of gem and warded gold”. A double of the warded bracelet was also added to one shoulder of the costume. There are coins dangling from the slits in each side of the pants as well. I didn’t get a chance to ward them, but I will.

9,10,11. Close up of curved ‘clay’ dagger. It came apart a couple of times so I added clay wards to the hilt hoping it would help keep the pieces together. I dunno… I thought it was appropriate.

12,13. Hora pouch and belt. The pouch is made of black velvet (couldn’t find felt), has a drawstring and is attached to the waist by a string of colored beads.

14. Alagai Hora and pouch. Over a dozen dice made of clay and carved with wards.

15. Alagai Hora close-up. Here is a shot of the hora with a better view of the wards carved into them. A couple are blown up to see the wards more clearly. There is also the alagai hora piece that Inevera uses to knock Jardir out. It looks like a lump of coal until the wards flare red, so I carved a ward and filled the carving with red clay. I wanted to make an alagai skull as well, but I just didn’t have the time. I’ve got a lot of clay left over now.

Anyhoo, I hope I’ve done the character some justice. I will never forget this contest and the awesome time I had entering. Thank you for this wicked opportunity.

Margherita

Posted on August 3, 2011 at 7:00 am by PeatB
Filed under Contests, Cosplay, Craft, Desert Spear, Fan Art, Fans, Warded Art
16 Comments »

Hi Peat,

Firstly, I hope you are well, and I hope this entry is on time. If not, it was fun to do. 🙂

My original plan for this contest didn’t work out, as my husband, for some reason I can’t imagine, would not let me shave his head and draw wards all over him in black marker pen. If you ask me, that just shows a lack of dedication, but I got over it.

Instead, I decided to do Leesha again (having made her out of clay for homemade heroes), because I just love her to bits. I had this wonderful image of how she would spend her evenings in that hut;

It’s early evening – she and Rojer have just had dinner after a long working day. The demons have not yet risen. The two have got some time to relax. Rojer sits in a chair by the open fire practicing his fiddle; his beautiful melodies permeate the air as Leesha pores over her new grimoires from the Painted Man. She is fascinated by the variety of wards, especially the newly discovered battle wards. She traces them with her fingers, trying to memorise ones that could be useful. She thinks about how long it must have taken Arlen to compose these, and what he must have been through in all those years alone.  Meanwhile, The Painted Man prepares for battle…

The reason this entry may seem last minute is because one of the main ingredients for the picture in my mind was the gorgeous chest I’m leaning on in the pictures. My parents visited today and brought this up with them – it belonged to my late Grandparents, and I’ve always had a soft spot for it. It was made and bought in Zanzibar on one of the many exotic work placements and holidays my grandparents went on. I thought it had the perfect look for this picture, as it seems like it would fit in well in Leesha’s hut.

I didn’t put any wards in the picture, and I know it’s not quite as lively and dynamic as some of the other wonderful entries so far. But I hope you can get a feel for what I was trying to achieve. I have had a lot of fun getting into Leesha’s mindset. You’ve built such rich, rounded and delightful characters, any excuse is good. I was originally going to make an apron and herb pouch, but decided that in this short down time, Leesha would have taken it off.

Anyway, Hope you like the pictures, and keep up the good work. J

Liz x

www.nari-journal.blogspot.com

Posted on August 2, 2011 at 6:15 pm by PeatB
Filed under Contests, Cosplay, Craft, Fan Art, Fans
Comments Off on Liz X Leesha Cosplay

Arthur has kicked ass in the last few contests. Why should this be any different. Thanks to his awesome gf Lauren, a cosplay ninja herself, and her friend for all the help on this. It was great meeting them in LA last year.  I’m sure it was a terrible hardship for Arthur to have to take two beautiful women to dinner and a movie, but we all must bear our crosses.My readers are the best people ever.

Hey Peat,

This might be a few minutes late, but I had to take the ladies that helped me with the painting and pictures to dinner and a movie in payment and I just got home (Lauren and her friend spent over 3 hours delicately painting each ward). I decided that there were far too few male entries into the contest, so Arlen was given the chance to stalk some demons. With the magic of Photoshop, we can see it as if it were daylight. It’s late, so I’ll let the pictures show the story.

-Arthur

Posted on August 2, 2011 at 9:01 am by PeatB
Filed under Contests, Cosplay, Craft, Fan Art, Fans, Warded Art, Warded Man
9 Comments »