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You know what’s better than Christmas? Launch day.

You know what’s better than my birthday? Launch day.

You know what’s better than sex? Well… probably nothing. But launch day is really friggin’ close.

That’s right, today, March 1, 2011, The Desert Spear goes on sale in mass market paperback (mmpb) in the US. it feels like I’ve been waiting forever.

I don’t know if I can adequately explain what it feels like to literally spend thousands of hours working on a project, and then, after its finished, wait another YEAR for it to come out. Even then, it was out in hardback, and while tens of thousands of people enjoyed the book in that form, hardback sales are still a traditionally small number compared to the readership of a mmpb.

I am so excited for this broad release. The Desert Spear is, in my mind, the best thing I have ever written. After The Warded Man came out and enjoyed a fair bit of popularity, I was having daily anxiety attacks, wondering if I could create a follow-up that did justice to the first book, but also took the readers someplace new. I didn’t want to just rehash what I’d already written in another book. The result was a book I continue to be incredibly proud of, and my bestseller listings in the US, UK, Germany, and other markets seem to lend a measure of credence to that pride.

I often look back at my writing and want to pull a George Lucas and tweak this or that, but I really don’t feel that way about TDS. The book came out exactly as I wanted it to, allowing me to get into the heads of characters near and dear to my heart like Ahmann Jardir, Renna Tanner, Selia Barren and Abban the khaffit, in addition to all the heroes of The Warded Man.

Guerilla Signings

So what am I doing to celebrate? For starters, I am going to spend the day going to all the major booksellers (and as many of the small ones as I can) in Manhattan and Brooklyn for a little guerrilla signing, meeting the hardworking folks who work the floor and signing shelf stock. I will also be stopping by Random House to sign a big stack of books for their planned giveaways (details to come). Moving forward, any time I’m out of town I will try to stop by any local bookstores I find to sign the stock.

Bonus Materials

In the back of the mmpb, you will find twenty pages of new material, including a Krasian Dictionary and a long interview based on fan questions posted on this blog last year. The interview covers a wide range of topics, including the ward magic system, real world influence on fantasy cultures, how I write, my thoughts on fan fiction, and more.

In addition, the revised Desert Spear eBook (also on sale today!) has dropped a price point from $9.10 to $4.39, and will now include the full color cover, map, glossary & interview, PLUS a 6600 word excerpt from The Daylight War! The excerpt wasn’t ready in time for the printed edition, but I made it just under the wire for the eBook. It centers around Inevera, the beautiful, terrifying, and enigmatic wife of Ahmann Jardir, as she is called to Hannu Pash as a child.

Suvudu Cage Match

Here’s where I ask you all for a favor. While today is a big day for Jardir, it is no less so for my man Arlen, who has his own trials and triumphs in The Daylight War. Arlen also enters the ring for the first time later this week in the 2011 Cage Match on Del Rey/Spectra mega-blog Suvudu. Characters from a wide variety of fantasy and science-fiction books are pitted against each other, and the readers vote on who they think would win. Each victory advances the competitor on to the next battle until there is blood on the cage and one character stands atop the battered corpses of their defeated enemies, beating their chest.

This is the second year that Suvudu has done this event. Here is the bracket from last year. http://suvudu.com/cage-match

Arlen has been pitted up against Beowulf for the first round. We all know that Beowulf wouldn’t stand a chance against the Warded Man, so head over to Suvudu and vote vote vote!

Giveaways

I will be giving out signed copies of The Desert Spear mmpb in ongoing contests on this site, including the latest Audio Contest (still plenty of time to enter!). The copies I sign today at Random House will be used for various giveaways, as well. See Suvudu.com for details.

Posted on March 1, 2011 at 12:01 am by PeatB
Filed under Contests, Daylight War, Desert Spear, Events, Fans, Interviews, Pimpage, Sales, The Daylight War, Warded Man, Writing
9 Comments »

If you haven’t listened to Fictional Frontiers, you should really give it a try. The host Sohaib Awan is a practicing lawyer in addition to being a radio host, and you can really feel the passion and intelligence he brings to his discussions of the film and fiction news of the day. Sohaib has been an incredible supporter of The Desert Spear, both as a reader and a Muslim. It really makes me feel proud as an author, because when someone that brilliant and awesome loves your work, all the countless hours you spent on it seem worthwhile.

Since the interview from ComicCon had a lot of background noise, the Sohaib offered to do a fresh interview to help mark the occasion of the US Mass Market Paperback (MMPB) launch of The Desert Spear, which goes on sale TOMORROW! Grab a copy while you’re in the store picking up The Wise Man’s Fear by my buddy Pat Rothfuss.

You can stream or download the new FF interview here: Fictional Frontiers with Sohaib – Peter Brett Exclusive Bonus Segment

Working on a longer post on the wonders and excitement of Launch Day now…

Posted on February 28, 2011 at 1:45 pm by PeatB
Filed under Desert Spear, Interviews, Pimpage, Sales, Writing
Comments Off on Fictional Frontiers Interview Mark II

After much deliberation, a winner has been chosen for the Pick-a-Contest contest. The honor goes to Ruvio, who suggested the idea that inspired us for the final contest. Ruvio will get a signed copy of Brayan’s Gold for the winning suggestion.

The contest will be to record the best reading of a section from one of the Demon Cycle books (you can read from The Great Bazaar or Brayan’s Gold as well as from The Warded Man and The Desert Spear). We’re looking for a fun, and enjoyable reading. You may make various voices for the different characters, but it isn’t required.

Rules:

1. Record yourself reading from one of the books.

2. Post the recording in the comments of this post. (Instructions are below.)

3. In the comment, list what book the selection is from and the chapter.

4. Aim for the reading to be around the five minute mark. It can be shorter or longer; however, entries over 10 minutes long will automatically be disqualified.

5. You have two weeks to submit to the contest. Have the comment posted by 11:59 pm United States eastern time on March 9th to be considered.

The winner of the contest will receive a personalized deluxe edition of Brayan’s Gold, an absolutely beautiful volume. It is bound in white leather with the ward signs embossed on the cover. It also comes with a special dust jacket. This only had a print run of 750. So overall, a nice piece of loot.

Runner up prizes will be determined later.

Instructions for posting the file:

We’ve decided to use the website Sound Cloud to upload the files. However, you may use a different service if you would like, as long as it is small enough to embed in the comments.

First, go to www.soundcloud.com and click Sign Up in the middle of the page towards the right. Then, create an account.

After you do this, they will then send you a confirmation email. Once you get the email, all you have to do is click the link on the email to verify the account. The email may take a while to get to you. You can have them resend it if it hasn’t arrived after about 5 minutes.

After you have verified your account, you can then upload your file.

There are two ways to do this. One, you can save the audio file onto your computer and then upload it. Or you may record it directly onto the website. I would suggest saving the file and then uploading it. You have more control over it if you happen to record a take that you don’t like.

To upload the file, click on Upload at the top of the page at the end of the line and then select your upload method (Either record or upload the file).

After it has uploaded, you may see the file and then play it on the page. (It is a long horizontal box that has the play button on the left.) Over the play button is a button labeled as Share. Click on this. It will offer some code that allows you to embed the file onto a page. Copy the code and then paste it into the comment section. Post the comment and then you are done.

And of course, feel free to listen to everyone’s entries.

If anyone has any questions about the uploading process, feel free to email me at pa@www.petervbrett.com.

-Rebecca

Posted on February 23, 2011 at 4:18 pm by Hannah
Filed under Brayan's Gold, Contests, Desert Spear, Fans, Great Bazaar, Rebecca, Warded Man
39 Comments »

First off, I would like to introduce myself. I am Rebecca, Peter’s new assistant, and as you can imagine, I’m really excited to start. I’ll be helping Peter out with some things including coordinating the contests, and other random tasks so that he can concentrate on writing. Here is a photo of myself so you can put a name with a face. I thought this photo was rather appropriate for my first outing on the site.

Now, onto the fun part: announcing the winners of the limerick contest! Peat and I really enjoyed reading all of the limericks. There were more than a few chuckles over the long process of trying to pick the best.

First Prize – Signed Mass Market THE DESERT SPEAR with the winning limerick above Peat’s signature

While Elicius submitted many great limericks, this one is pure gold; it has a great rhyme with a suitably vulgar image:

A young Kaffit grew up in Krasia,
Sold pottery that’d amaze ya,
When no-one was lookin’
His “pickle” he’d put in,
And lay all the blame on the glazer.

This fantastic limerick by AW is the other first prize winner in the contest. Once again some perfect rhyme and such a great kicker at the end.

There once was a red-headed fiddler
Whose friend Leesha made his ruddy loins quiver
He wailed on his strings
And whispered sweet nothings
But never could manage to diddle ‘er.

Second Prize- Signed bookplates with the limerick written on it

With so many great limericks, Peat just couldn’t resist rewarding some of the other great entries.

Alex Quinn’s limerick left us chuckling for quite a while.

Elona’s back windows are boarded
For which she was soon rewarded
When all are working
With a coreling she starts jerking
But it turns out her condoms are warded.

The imagery conveyed in Elliot’s limerick is simply hard to get out of one’s head, once you think about it.

There once was a demon from the core
Whose crotch was awfully sore
For he was made from rock
And his balls did swing and knock
Oh, how loud he could roar.

Honorable Mentions

There were so many hilarious limericks that we had to give a shout out to these ones as well.

From Jonathan, showing that wards can be handy in more than one way:

There once was a lad from the Brook
For whom the ladies shivered and shook
When they got in his trousers
They’d stay there for hours
And Warding was all that it took.

By Tyson, who makes use of a rarely used term:

Jardir made a friend in an alley
Hasik and he were quite pally
But then one year
At the end of a spear
Jardir made the pair’s final sally.

From Alex Pualiani, fully embracing the limerick tradition:

There once was a fiddler named Rojer
Who could charm demon to toddler to codger,
With the demons entranced,
He turned to romance,
And got it from Jardir’s niece and hot daughter.

Liz Canning wrote an amazing limerick about Bruna:

There was once an old healer named Bruna
Who repelled feisty men all the sooner
With blinding powder to the eyes
And a boot between the thighs
In response to the way that they mooned her.

Shout Out

Although he did win first prize, we had to give a special shout out to Elicius who posted a lot of great limericks. Here were some of our favorites.

Unexpected Autumnal Foliage

Walking through the Hollow comes Halfgrip,
Entertaining crowds with a back-flip,
But his trews were untied
and the cold air belied
something Rojer would boast he could equip!

Also:

A mind demon rose from the core,
Found his nethers unbearably sore,
He checked down his pants,
Expecting some ants,
Found a fire demon ‘tached by the claw!

And while it is more of a collection of limericks together, the sheer feat of this one is impressive.

As the demons arose from the core,
in numbers ne’er witnessed before,
desecrating the land –
alagai Ka’s demand –
’till they’re faced with the Wards they abhor.

The Science of men became scattered
t’the winds, as their armies were shattered.
But the magic of old,
down years told and retold;
a bastion, against which death battered.

As the Wards of old give slight reprieve –
mankind allowed slight room to breathe.
Yet the world becomes small;
without succour to call
one must sleep in a circle’s tight weave.

But as strong steel is forged in hot fire;
Deliverance will climb from the pyre.
A bright hope in the night
chose to rise up and fight,
t’make the world, for some, seem much less dire.

Marking his skin, taking battle
to the demons who treat us as cattle.
Saving lives by the score
teaching them t’kill more,
With nought but his horse as his chattel.

So when night closes in ’round your camps –
and you check the last words, dim the lamps –
give a thought to young Bales,
heart of numerous tales,
as your pipes receive their final tamps.

For I’m trying to say with this song,
Arlen’s meeting with Leesha? Quite wrong.
Alone fighting demons,
For numerous seasons,
he’d’ve ne’er even lasted /that/ long.

All the winners will be getting an email from me soon so that I can send out the prizes.

Look out soon for announcement of the pick-a-contest winner.

Posted on February 22, 2011 at 10:46 pm by Hannah
Filed under Contests, Fan Art, Fans, Rebecca
7 Comments »

New fan art from Kite Lupine Aquila on DeviantArt. It is titled Leesha and Arlen Romp in the Mud, and it is friggin gorgeous:

(Click to enlarge)

Posted on February 22, 2011 at 1:54 pm by PeatB
Filed under Fan Art, Fans, Warded Man
3 Comments »