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Il Guardiano dei Demoni
I just found out this morning that Il Guardiano dei Demoni, the Italian translation of The Warded Man, will be on sale February 24 from Italian publisher Newton Compton! They just put out a press release that is making the rounds on Italian blogs and genre sites like this one (English google translation here).
Newton also put together this fun book trailer using footage from LOTR. I can’t understand a word of it. Any Italian speakers out there?
Boskone Feb. 18-20
Lots of things going on this week, some of which I’m allowed to talk about, and some not. All good stuff, though, if hectic and stressful.
One of the things I CAN talk about is the Desert Spear mass market paperback (mmpb) which goes on sale March 1 in the US, and in April in the UK. I am VERY excited about this, and was thrilled a couple of days ago when my US samples came in from Del Rey. The book is gorgeous, and somehow pocketsized despite being 240,000 words in length. The layout people worked real magic with it.
Plus, blurbs from Paul WS Anderson and Pat Rothfuss! It also contains the 20 page reader interview based on questions submitted on the Peephole a few months ago, here and here, from readers all over the world. There’s some straight answers to questions about the magic system, demon intelligence, real life cultural & political influences, my writing style & technique, etc. Some really great stuff if you’re into that sort of thing.
Del Rey sent me a bunch of copies to use as contest prizes and whatnot:
Speaking of which, I also think I’ve finally found someone to help me around the office, particularly with running contests, which is a huge weight off my shoulders, and will allow me to focus more on The Daylight War, which needs to be my top priority for the next several months. I still have a LOT of writing to do, and haven’t had a lot of time to do it in. More on Assistant X later.
I will also be attending Boskone in Boston, MA next week, Feb. 18-20, along with my agent Joshua Bilmes and my buddy and fellow author Myke Cole, who just sold the 3-book Shadow Ops series to Ace books (Penguin). It looks to be an exciting weekend, so if you are in the Boston area, think about dropping by. My schedule at the con is listed below:
Westin Boston Waterfront
425 Summer St., Boston, MA 02210
Friday Feb. 18, 6pm: Big Canvas, Little Strokes: Creating an Epic Fantasy Series
Peter V. Brett
David Anthony Durham (M)
Elaine Isaak
Rosemary Kirstein
Jo Walton
Building a world in fractal detail, animating a vast cast of characters, finding and holding an audience: let’s talk about the challenges of writing in a format with perhaps the broadest scope in the business.
Saturday Feb. 19, 11am: New Faces of Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror
Laird Barron
Peter V. Brett
Paul Di Filippo (M)
David Anthony Durham
Kelly Link
These exceptional writers may still be in the early stages of their career, but already we catch glimpses of greatness. Let’s name names — and talk about what makes them so special.
Saturday Feb. 19, 1pm: Kaffeeklatsch
Peter V. Brett
David Anthony Durham
Here you can sign up to essentially hang out with me around a coffee table for an hour and talk about whatever. Seats are limited, so sign up as early as you can on Friday or Saturday.
Saturday Feb. 19, 2pm: Autographing
Saturday Feb. 19, 3pm: Playing with Dice
Peter V. Brett (M)
Ethan Gilsdorf
Margaret Ronald
Dungeons and Dragons,along with other fantasy role-playing games, has influenced the lives (and careers) of many professionals in the field. How has an involvement in such activities affected your relationship to the genre? How can you use gaming to help you – as a person or as an active participant within the science fiction community.
Sunday Feb. 20, 1:30pm: Reading (0.5 hrs)
Peter V. Brett
Maalingutega Mees
Oh, my family just grows and grows. It is a pleasure to welcome each new child into the fold.
This time it’s Maalingutega Mees, which google translates from Estonian as “Paintings of Man”.
Close enough.
As you may have guessed, this is the Estonian translation of The Warded Man from publisher Varrak, which my agent just passed on to me. It is a beautiful hardcover book, with a translated map and the character avatars I drew.
The only thing more exciting than getting a new edition of one of my books is getting one with heretofore unseen cover art, especially when that art is awesome, as this is:
Any Estonians reading this blog? Holla!
RT Book Review Video Interviews
There was a lot of excitement last year, over NY ComicCon weekend. I was on an awesome Fantasy panel with Jim Butcher, Joe Abercrombie, Naomi Novik, & Brandon Sanderson, as well as debut author Deborah Harkness. I did a rambling video interview for Suvudu, and got in a bar fight with Abercrombie.
I also did a bunch of other interviews, including Fictional Frontiers, RT (Romantic Times) Book Reviews, Science Fiction Book Club, etc. I remember having a great time with those, because for once all the interviewers had read my work and asked really smart, pointed questions. Still, it was kind of a whirlwind that faded to a blur by the end of the weekend, especially since some of the interviews never seemed to materialize.
That is, until yesterday, when I got an e-mail from RT Book Reviews telling me that my series of interviews with Morgan Doremus were live on their site.
Morgan was a great interviewer. She was super-friendly, read the books, asked great questions, and really put me at ease despite my anxiety about interviews in general and video interviews in particular.
The interview was split into three parts, all up on YouTube, so I will embed them here, but if you like them, definitely check out the RT website, which has a lot of other great interviews, reviews, and articles.
The first interview is about The Warded Man and its themes/characters:
The second is about The Desert Spear:
The third is about Brayan’s Gold and my experiences as art director on that project:
Last but not least, Sohaib Awan, host of the Fictional Frontiers radio show, interviewed me that weekend as well, also having read my books and asking pointed questions about The Desert Spear and its Middle Eastern influences, something that resonated with him personally. It’s a great interview that starts at the 45 minute point of this episode: Fictional Frontiers with Sohaib (Episode 122)
Apparently the interview was posted in November, but I was out of the country and missed it. Glad I thought to do a search for it today.