A couple of months ago I attended Balticon, and at a live recording of the podcast I Should be Writing (which I will be appearing on soon), I met John Anealio of Scifisongs.blogspot.com, who has an SF/tech podcast of his own called The Functional Nerds with writer Patrick Hester.

Earlier this week they had me on the show as their “Third Nerd”, and we had a blast talking about writing, tech, comics, and the like. You can listen to/download the MP3 for free here, or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

Check it out.

Posted on July 30, 2010 at 12:04 pm by PeatB
Filed under Craft, Interviews, Tech, Writing
8 Comments »

I use a lot of reminder alarms on my Outlook calendar, so I don’t forget about shit. Because otherwise, I totally will. So I put them in for birthdays and holidays and conventions and lunch dates and writing deadlines. I use them to remind me to write this interview or go on that podcast. Whatever. The calendar syncs to my phone, so the reminders go off wherever I am.

Now that I have an iPad and made that my primary interface, I decided to sync the calender there, as well. Now there’s no WAY I can forget shit.

But sometimes, like just now, I have all three arranged in a semicircle around me at the desk, and all three alarms go off at once.

Scares the shit out of me every time.

What was the reminder? That I will be appearing on The Functional Nerds podcast with John Anealio of SciFiSongs this week. I met John at Balticon where he provided amazing original music for a live episode of I Should Be Writing with Mur Lafferty (another podcast I will be appearing on soon). John and I got to drinking after the show, and had a really great conversation about making sure children were exposed to music regularly at a young age and encouraged to explore it. (If you don’t have kids, this might not interest you, but I was two sheets to the wind and fucking riveted.)

Anyway, after the con I started listening to his podcast and he started reading my book, something that has benefited us both. I’ve been really getting into writing podcasts lately. They’re great for exercise when I want to keep my brain active. Finally been listening to the Desert Spear audiobook, too. It is so good. The narrator, Pete Bradbury, has the voice of a god.

There have been a number of very positive changes going on in my life, not the least of which being that I’ve broken through something of a creative snag with The Daylight War and am moving forward with confidence again, which has a positive ripple effect through the rest of my life. I finally wrapped up the story arc of one POV and switched to a new one: Arlen. I haven’t been in his head since the dramatic events at the end of The Desert Spear, and it’s like catching up with my best friend after being apart for a few years. My, how he’s grown.

In other news, Kim from Saskatchewan, who won a signed Desert Spear in the Warding Contest, sent me a really sweet letter. Attached to the letter was an absolutely STUNNING piece of fan art. I’ll let her tell you about it:

Dear Peat,

Firstly I would like to thank you for choosing my warded chest in your contest, it really was an honor and great surprise.  I would have been truly happy to receive another bookplate for my efforts!

Your books have been a miraculous source of inspiration, and your previous words of encouragement to a fellow writer have pushed me to do better and try harder.

I have not always been writing, but I think I was born with a pencil in my hand.  I have been drawing all of my life, though it wasn’t until I started playing D&D in 1989 that I began to draw people.  Our group had a few guys that did doodles of their muscular fighters, and I didn’t want to be out done.  It has taken me years to get where I am artistically, but there is still room for improvement.  Once I joined Deviantart I learned a lot of tricks and tools to help me improve, still struggling with realism but not for lack of trying.

That being said, my attempt at fan art for your glorious characters was punishing.  The perfectionist in me wanted to match the wards, then I had the thought – if a ward is backwards, does it make that area more susceptible?  Yikes.  Needless to say I took some liberties.  I used the wards from your website, and some from Lauren Cannon’s pic of Arlen, plus made many of my own.   I just hope my vision isn’t too far from your own…

Entitled “Another Night”, I chose Arlen and Renna for the final work, there just wasn’t room for a horse. 🙂 I used stock photos as reference, credited with thanks on my Deviantart entry: http://kimoffet.deviantart.com/art/Another-Night-172795865

Sincerely,

Kim

Seriously, this picture is amazing. Kim worked entirely in pencil, the level of detail is incredible. This is dozens of hours of work, and the most detailed vision of Arlen I’ve ever seen. Even Lauren’s famous portrait of Arlen has him mostly covered. Kim’s picture really brings home how much Arlen has given up for his power. He can never blend in again. Even the expressions speak volumes about the relationship between the two characters. This relationship is exactly what I am working on at the moment in the new book, so the image speaks to me a thousandfold. It is fabulous.

Thanks, Kim!

Posted on July 26, 2010 at 10:50 pm by PeatB
Filed under Appearances, Desert Spear, Events, Fan Art, Fans, Interviews, Life, The Daylight War, Warded Art, Writing
4 Comments »

I know I haven’t been updating the blog much lately, but things have been pretty busy. Sometimes I feel like Rojer, juggling with half a hand. Sooner or later, something’s going to drop.

But that’s not enough to keep me from putting up a shout-out to the most special little girl in the world on her 2nd birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CASSIE! I love you!

If there were ever any doubt that she is my progeny, carrying my genes on to future generations, I offer here irrefutable proof:

Posted on July 23, 2010 at 12:13 pm by PeatB
Filed under Cassie
15 Comments »

Been meaning to post this for a while, but life has gotten in the way.

A couple of weeks ago, Roman from Poland posted a piece of fan art on my facebook page.  Check out his depiction of the Spear of Kaji (click to enlarge):

This wasn’t a contest entry or anything like that. Roman did this just cuz. That means a lot to me. I myself have been stirred to spontaneous creativity by someone else’s work many times, and it is a great honor when someone tells me my work gave them similar inspiration. And who knows? Maybe someone will look at Roman’s work and want to create something of their own, and so on.

So thank you, Roman! Great work!

Posted on July 15, 2010 at 11:40 pm by PeatB
Filed under Fan Art, Fans, Warded Art
2 Comments »

So the Warding Contest is finally over. This is a mixed blessing. On one hand, there is no sense of endless wonder every time I log in to get my e-mail, but there is also no sense of impending dread as judgment day approaches and I have to pick a handful of winners from an army of worthy contenders.

I’m looking forward to getting back to blogging about other things than the contest, and to working on The Daylight War in earnest once more. I took a break from it in April to promote Desert Spear and the Warded Man mmpb, and another break last month to go away on vacation with the fam, but I’ve had trouble getting back into it, mostly because I had almost completed a chapter, only to decide that I didn’t like the flow and cut 40% of it, rejiggering the rest. I’m still digging my way out of that hole, and it’s killed some of my enthusiasm. Thankfully, I made some good progress this last week, and am close to completing the revised chapter and moving on.

I could have let it go, of course, left the chapter as it was and pushed forward, but that’s not my style these days. It’s more tedious this way, but I think it makes for a stronger end-product, even if the going is slow.

If you’re frustrated by the implication that this will delay your next Arlen-fix, though, there is good news! I have just inked a deal with Subterranean Press for an all-new (and already written!) Arlen Messenger novella entitled Brayan’s Gold. Longtime readers will recognize the name (referenced in The Great Bazaar as The Duke’s Mines) as a story that was previously attached to Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy 2, but after discussion with the fine folks at SP, we decided it would be better as a fully-illustrated stand-alone book in the same format as The Great Bazaar, with full-color cover and interior illustrations done by the great Lauren K. Cannon. Lauren and I spent some time discussing the art last week when we judged the Warding Contest, and it is going to be awesome. Pre-ordering for Brayan’s Gold will begin in a couple of months, and the book is slated for January 2011 release, hopefully to coincide with my Detroit, Michigan appearance at ConFusion, January 21-23.

Also, by now some of you may have noticed that I am no longer slated to write Red Sonja 51-54. I will still be working on the book, but my proposal for the run was a little… unusual, and while Dynamite seems very supportive of the idea, they decided to push the books back a bit to make room. I haven’t officially started scripting, so it will still be some months before my run on the series hits the comic shop shelves. If you have 80’s nostalgia and a blue fur fetish, you won’t want to miss it.

In other news, I have bought my tickets to Australia for Worldcon in Melbourne Sept. 2-6, and while I’m there, I will be making a side-trip to Sydney Sept. 7-10 and can hopefully set up a signing there, as well. On the way out I will be stopping in LA for an August 29 signing at the Dark Delicacies bookstore in Burbank, CA, at 2pm. If you’re in SoCal, stop by and give me a hug.

Last but not least, I want to drop a little hint about the next contest, even though it will be some time before I recover from this last one and get it rolling. This is a contest I’ve wanted to have for a while, but have put off because I figured it would be a lot of effort and not many people would participate: Homemade Heroes.

What changed my mind? Several things, starting with the awesome birthday gift I got from my buddy Matt, made from a Spawn Jessica Priest action figure. I put off posting this for a while because it was spoilery, but now that Desert Spear is up and running and the Renna painting it out in the open, the time has come:

Add to this the fabulous Renna action figure entered in the Warding Contest by Dwayne…

…and the general amount of craftsmanship and hard work that went into the entries in the last few contests, and I think it’s safe to give this one a try, especially with an awesome grand prize.

And what is that prize? A complete set of signed worldwide first edition copies of The Painted Man, The Great Bazaar, and The Desert Spear:

All of these books are rare collector’s items, already selling for many times their cover price, and I will customize ’em any way you want. Hand-drawn wards or character avatars, boasts about your attractiveness and sexual prowess, whatever.

This contest won’t happen for a couple of months at least, and I haven’t decided on the rules (if any) or runner-up prizes (if any), but if you’re interested, this is a head’s up to get your modeling paints ready and keep your x-acto knives sharp.

Posted on July 11, 2010 at 12:44 pm by PeatB
Filed under Contests, Craft, Fan Art, Fans, The Daylight War, Warded Art
10 Comments »