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2010 marks the 15th anniversary of my UK publisher, the Voyager Books imprint of Harper Collins UK. To commemorate the occasion, they put together this awesome animated video showcase of this year’s most exciting books, including the best of the lot, The Desert Spear! Check it out:

I am off today to visit every major bookstore in Brooklyn and Manhattan to sign shelf copies of The Desert Spear, which releases TODAY!!!

While I am off gallivanting, please enjoy this (spoiler free!) interview I did on The Desert Spear with Simcha at SFF Chat. It’s seriously one of the best interviews I’ve ever done. Simcha’s questions were thoughtful and detailed without giving away secrets that might lessen the plot. I hope you like it. You can see the interview here.

Posted on April 12, 2010 at 5:14 pm by PeatB
Filed under Desert Spear, Events, Sales, Writing
5 Comments »

As many of you know, I will be flying out this Wednesday night to England, which I am told is both merry and old. I was excited about this trip to begin with, but after making the London Times Bestseller List two weeks in a row (#’s 9 & 15, respectively), my excitement has increased manifold. Lots of exciting things to look forward to on this trip:

Thursday, April 15: I hit the ground running, arriving at Heathrow at the crack of dawn and, as soon as I drop off my stuff at the hotel, going to every bookstore I can find in London to sign shelf stock of The Desert Spear and insert signed bookplates for readers to insert in their copies of The Painted Man. I will then go find my buddy Dave and have a pint (or twelve).

Friday, April 16: Signings at Goldsboro Books and The Forbidden Planet. The Goldsboro signing will be private, as I will be signing and numbering their limited edition copies of The Desert Spear stamped with the character avatars from the book’s chapter headings. To order a book, follow the Goldsboro link above.

The Forbidden Planet signing will be open to the public at their London Megastore (179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR). I will sign books and chat with readers from 6-7pm, and then find a local pub to adjourn to. You can pre-order books for the signing at the above Forbidden Planet link.

Saturday, April 17: Dave and I will be heading out from London early in the morning to hike to Bodiam Castle, and hopefully be back behind the wards by nightfall. Want to join us? More information here.

Sunday, April 18: I will be aimlessly wandering London with my editor, pretending to look at historic treasures as a mask for our pub crawl.

Monday – Wednesday, April19-21: I will be at London Book Fair to sign books, meet international publishers, and get the scoop (and some free ARCs) on the competition. Not sure if there is a formal schedule of events for me at the Fair, but I will be there all three days, and if anyone wants to get in touch they can stop by the Harper Voyager booth, or twitter me a direct message.

Follow my UK Adventures on twitter @PVBrett!

Posted on April 10, 2010 at 6:17 pm by PeatB
Filed under Appearances, Bookplate, Desert Spear, Events, Fans, Sales
9 Comments »

I feel bad about slowing down on my blog updates, but things have been crazy busy lately. I have about half a dozen partially written posts, but I am also working on interviews (and some other secret projects I am not yet at liberty to discuss), so I’m not sure when I will finish any of them. In the meantime, here are some pictures of the cutest baby ever to tide you over:

Supergirl incognito:

Flirt:

Bundled:

Playin’ with Ben Grimm:

Posted on April 9, 2010 at 4:42 pm by PeatB
Filed under Cassie, Life
5 Comments »

Haven’t seen one of these in a while. Henry in Australia sent in a DSAC entry yesterday. It is sweet:

Peter,

I know I’m way too late for the competition, but I only found out about it the other day while checking out when your new book was to be released in Australia.  My partner and I have been holidaying in Japan for the last 2 weeks and today the perfect opportinuty came up for a holiday snap.  This was taken just outside the lodge we are staying in a mountain town called Nikko. We like the photo and thought we’d send it in regardless. We’ve been carying the book around just waiting for a good opportunity (and so that I can re-read the book in anticipation of your next instalment!).
Hope you like it too.

Regards,

Henry, Australia.

I’d meant to keep the DSAC contest going for a lot longer, but Voyager’s decision not to print ARCs left me without any prizes to give out, so I had to cut it short. I feel bad about that, but there’s nothing to be done for it except to find another way to make it up to Chantal and French Jess, my deficit spending ARC winners. Consider this also a promise: No more Reaganomics on this blog. I won’t offer a prize unless I have it in hand.

I had forgotten how much joy there was in my inbox back during the competition, though. Things have been so busy lately that I haven’t I haven’t had a giveaway contest in a while, so I should get on that. I had a really good idea a couple of days ago for a grand prize.

One of the contest ideas I’ve been tossing around is a Homemade Heroes competition. Homemade Heroes was a column that used to run in Wizard magazine (maybe it still does; I haven’t read in a while), where comic book fans would make custom action figures by cannibalizing other toys and using modeling paint, fabric, etc. I always loved that column, and would totally geek out if people made figures based on characters from the Demon Cycle. But I realize that’s a lot of work, so I don’t know how many people would enter.

That said, I’ve been slowly making some of my own. The first is Jardir as a kai’Sharum:

This was made from various parts from the Leonidas and Immortal figures from the 300 movie toy line. As you can see, I still have a lot of work to do. I need to buy modeling paint and fix the clawed feet/hands, putting on proper Sharum sandals, and replace the white kai’Sharum veil, with at the moment is just a white piece of paper. I also need to re-paint the spear and shield with wards, and I might turn my Gorgo figure into Inevera.

I’ve also been planning a group diorama of Arlen and Jardir fighting One Arm:

One Arm at the moment is just a Pumpkinhead toy I bought for this purpose and cut the arm off of. I need to paint it black and add spikes to the tail, but it is in the right scale with the other figures. The Arlen figure is (I am told) WWE star Christopher Daniels, a contribution from my buddy Matt. At the moment he is unaltered, but I will paint his spandex shorts into a more dignified loincloth, and cover his body with awesome wards. I will also try to get rid of the flavor saver underneath his lower lip. This is one of those side-projects I’ve been putting off until I have time, which pretty much means I will never get around to it…

What does everyone think about a Homemade Heroes contest? Would you enter? I promise the prize will be awesome.

Posted on April 6, 2010 at 1:40 pm by PeatB
Filed under Contests, Desert Spear, Fan Art, Fans, Homemade Heroes, Musings, Warded Art, Warded Man
16 Comments »

A little photo journey through this morning’s London Times:

Words fail to express what this means to me. I spent 3.5 years and literally thousands of hours suffering over The Desert Spear. There were many times I thought it was impossible to get the book I envisioned down on paper, and I did much of it in the sleep-deprived zombie state that few people other than new parents and the night shift at the emergency room understand.

It seemed a minor miracle that the book turned out as well as it did. I am immensely proud of it, and think it is the best thing I’ve ever written. That alone would have been enough to make all the suffering worthwhile. But this…

This show of Easter love makes me so psyched for my trip to the UK next week. Maybe I’ll get to wear a tiara.

Posted on April 4, 2010 at 10:18 am by PeatB
Filed under Appearances, Desert Spear, Events, Fans, Life, Reviews, Sales, World Traveler, Writing
14 Comments »