Das Flüstern der Nacht, the German translation of  The Desert Spear, was released today. Amazon has it listed as #1 in Fantasy and #30 in overall books. It climbed as high as #15 over the weekend. In addition to this, based on Amazon orders alone, which activated last week when the book shipped, I made the German Bestseller list, reaching #40 in Der Speigel according to Buchreport!

This is fantastic news, and thanks in no small part to the tireless efforts of Sebastian Pirling, my German editor at Heyne, and Ingrid Herrmann-Nykto, my wonderful and hard-working translator, not to mention my fine German agent at the Fritz Agency.

Heyne made a wonderful web page for the first book, and they are doing no less this time around. A special interactive map will be posted hopefully tomorrow, including video interviews I sent about the various cities and hamlets. I will put up the link as soon as I have it.

Also, this weekend I got a bit drunk…

Posted on August 9, 2010 at 6:39 pm by PeatB
Filed under Appearances, Desert Spear, Events, Germany, Writing
6 Comments »

I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated the blog, but I have a good excuse. I was working on The Daylight War, and for the first time in a good long while, the work has been good.

I think every writer has their ups and downs, times when it feels like the muse is giving us a handjob, and times when she won’t return our calls for weeks. Times when we’re so confident in the story we’re telling that the only limitation is the speed at which we can type, and other times when we stare at the screen for hours, unable to write a single word. Times when we feel like a pro, and times when we feel like a fraud.

I’ve been in one of those downs for a while. I was moving along at a fair clip with new material, and then I hit one chapter that didn’t work. It just felt… wrong. I tried rewriting it several times, changing the events, the POV (Point of View character), everything, trying to find the flaw, to no avail. I was dissatisfied with the results every time, but could never quite put my finger on why. It was like banging my head up against a wall. Finally, I decided to put it aside and switch to an entirely different POV character in another location, so I could give myself a break from the problem.

But there were too many to choose from. My stepsheet for the book included notes for twelve separate POVs, all of them characters I was eager to explore in depth. It was far too much for one book if I wanted to keep it under 1000 pages. I was succumbing to Mission Creep, as my buddy Myke called it. However well intentioned it was for me to want to get in the head of every interesting character, the series would buckle under the weight of them. I think all of us who read epic fantasy can think of examples where this has happened. I don’t want to do that.

So I cut. I cut a whole storyline about Ragen & Elissa. I cut the POV’s I was planning for Prince Thamos and Amanvah. I cut an entire new character called Mudboy (along with 10,000 words of prose) out of the story. I pushed Selia the Barren’s POV into the next book. I hacked and slashed the stepsheet until the number of perspectives was one that kept the story tense and moving forward with a decisive pace. The end result is MUCH stronger and more streamlined. Much more… epic.

I went back to the trouble chapter, and kicked its ass. Starting this week, it’s full steam ahead for as long as the muse is feeling frisky.

I’m keeping all the notes on the cut POV’s, though. Some of them are great stories in their own right, and might one day become their own standalone novellas like The Great Bazaar and Brayan’s Gold. The Mudboy storyline most certainly will.

Before I disappear back down the rabbit hole to work some more, I want to remind everyone of some upcoming events. I’ll be traveling a lot in the coming months.

Conventions & Signings

First up is my August 29, 2010 signing in Burbank, California signing at the Dark Delicacies bookstore, at 2pm. If you’re in SoCal and want to show some love, it would mean a lot to me if you stopped by. I’ll be signing books and taking questions on everything from writing to Krasian politics to how cute my baby is (baby not included). Possibly a reading. Free bookplates, too!

After the DarkDel signing, I am flying out of LA to attend Worldcon in Melbourne, Australia (Sept. 2-6, 2010). It will be my first-ever Worldcon, but I am told it tends to be a huge event, and attendance is often a veritable who’s who of the SF industry. A lot of my readers down under have contacted to let me know I’ll get to meet them there, and I am thrilled for that.

If you’re in the greater Melbourne area and big conventions are not your thing, consider attending my signing at Dymocks Southland in Cheltenham Thursday 2nd September 2010 at noon. The signing is officially set to end at 1pm, but I will not be in any hurry to leave, and will make sure everyone gets their books signed and questions answered. I also may be accompanied by another author, this one more beautiful, talented and fabulous than I. Stay tuned on that front.

The last of my store signings will be in Sydney at the famous Galaxy Bookshop Wednesday September 8, 2010 at 5:30 pm. As with the Melbourne signing, I will stay as long as there are folks to talk to, and probably adjourn to a local bar soon after.

If you can’t make it to one of the signings, but would still like a signed book, consider pre-ordering one from the store closest to you for me to sign while I am there. Most stores will happily facilitate this, sending you the signed book after my visit. You can even request personalization. I will happily dedicate the books any way you like, and include bookplates (while supplies last).  While it’s often cheaper and easier to order books from big online retailers, it is the live, brick and mortar bookstores that make author events like this possible. They are a valuable part of our communities and deserve our support.

Dark Delicacies
3512 W. Magnolia Blvd.
Burbank, CA 91505
U.S.A.
818-556-6660
1-888-DARKDEL
darkdel@darkdel.com

Dymocks Southland
3067/8 Westfield Southland Shopping Centre
1239 Nepean Highway
Cheltenham 3192
Phone:(03) 9584 1245
Fax:(03) 9584 7985
southland@dymocks.com.au

Galaxy Books
143 York Street
SYDNEY NSW 2000
T) 02 9267 7222

After that, it’s time to think NY ComicCon, Oct. 8-10, 2010. You may recall that at last year’s con, some 40,000 name badges were the cover of The Warded Man. It was the coolest con ever.

I expect this year to be even better. Plus Stan Lee will be there.

October 2010 is also World Fantasy in Columbus, OH, followed in November 2010 by Forum Fantastico in Lisbon, Portugal. I’m taking a break in December, and then attending ConFusion in Detroit in January 2011 where I will be signing copies of Brayan’s Gold.

Posted on August 8, 2010 at 10:32 pm by PeatB
Filed under Appearances, Australia, Brayan's Gold, Events, Fans, Sales, The Daylight War, World Traveler, Writing
52 Comments »

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 »