Okay, enough dithering. It’s time to pick some winners.

I’ve kind of been dragging my feet with this contest on purpose, hoping that my UK ARCs of The Desert Spear would arrive early in the month and I could add those to the pot, but I don’t know exactly when they are going on press, so I’m going to stop stalling, pick winners for the last two US ARCs now, as well as a couple of runners up, and then decide what to do with the UK ARCs when I get them.

Runners up:

First off, a signed copy of Das Lied der Dunkelheit to Elisa from Austria, who got the Austrian Tolkien society to pimp my book in a huge collage. That was a great entry:

Next, a signed copy of The Warded Man to “Joe” who risked life, limb, and campus police to get crazy pictures like these:

The two ARC winners:

One Advance Read Copy of The Desert Spear to AJ from Florida. AJ knows what it’s like to be in the desert in wartime, as I first got to know him as a pen pal during his tour of duty in Iraq. AJ also made some hysterical entries:

One Advance Read Copy of The Desert Spear to Kim Kincaid, who made two extremely strong entries, both of which continue to give me great joy:

Honorable Mention:

Finally, I would like call out Emily, who has entered the contest over and over in different ways, from photoshop heavy images to location shots. This is my favorite:

No one has worked harder than Emily to win, so I wanted to give her something special. Last year, my friends threw me a launch party for the US release of The Warded Man. My friend Fotini make beautiful bronze bookmarks, stamped with warding circles as a special gift to all attendants:

I still have a couple of these bookmarks saved, so I am going to send one to Emily, along with a promise. I have just decided that I will definitely be going to this year’s Worldcon in Melbourne Australia in September. While down under, I will probably do several signings. Emily, if you show up to any signing while I’m there, I will give you a free signed copy of The Desert Spear right there. Just flash the bookmark to prove you’re not your (evil?) twin sister.

Thanks so much to everyone else who entered! You are all still in the running when/if I get more advance copies to send out!

P.S.

This late entry came in from French Jess as I was finishing up this entry. She has made herself into the She-Hulk from Marvel comics, which I am totally geeking out about. Shulkie is a favorite of mine, ever since her seven foot green legs first walked into the Fantastic Four comic following the Secret Wars. What was that, 1984?

I am old.

Anyway, awesome!

Posted on January 15, 2010 at 5:34 pm by PeatB
Filed under Appearances, Australia, Contests, Desert Spear, Fan Art, Fans, World Traveler
6 Comments »

A few months ago, Patrick Rothfuss, author of the internationally bestselling epic fantasy novel The Name of the Wind and all-around nice guy, asked me if I would be interested in doing an interview on his blog.

Of course I said yes. To date, I have never turned down an interview request, but this one was particularly exciting because I read Pat’s blog all the time. It’s thoughtful and true and often laugh-out-loud funny.

Pat and I have a lot in common. We both took seven years to write our first book, and then struggled with a sudden transition from hobbyist to professional writer and all the changes it brought to our lives. We’re both also new dads, which is a bigger transition by far. I read The Name of the Wind last year in between baby feedings and changings, often late at night, and he did the same a couple of months ago with The Warded Man. Any book that holds the attention of someone that sleep-deprived is rare and wonderful.

The interview was different than any other I have done, and we passed it back and forth for months to give it a nice, conversational feel. It’s a fun read.

You can find the full interview here.

Pat is also in the final stages of his 2nd annual Worldbuilders fundraiser for Heifer International, so in addition to some signed copies of The Warded Man, I have added an ARC of The Desert Spear to the incredible list of signed books and other prizes that donors will be entered into a lottery to win.  I would like to point out that one of the many places Heifer is working to make a difference is Haiti, which, as you may know, suffered a horrendous earthquake earlier this week.

Disclaimer: Pat has NOT promised that he won’t read the Desert Spear ARC I sent before adding it to the pot, but he will include a signed written apology on the title page for any crumbs, bends, or fingerprints.

For every $10 donation at Pat’s Team Heifer page, you have another chance to win a prize, even as you help people in need and make the world a better place to live in. Pat has promised to personally match 50% of all donations, and some other donors, such as Subterranean Press and yours truly, are helping him out. The fundraiser ends TOMORROW, January 15, so get the hence if you in on it.

I haven’t forgotten that I will be choosing another DSAC winner tomorrow, along with two runners up who will get signed copies of The Warded Man in one of its various incarnations. If you have an entry you’ve been saving, now’s the time to send it!

Posted on January 14, 2010 at 1:07 pm by PeatB
Filed under Contests, Craft, Desert Spear, Fans, Interviews, Reviews, Writing
Comments Off on Patrick Rothfuss Interview (and another way to win a Desert Spear ARC)

They say you should never friend your boss on facebook. Or give them your blog URL. Apparently the same rule applies for authors and their editors. If you can get past Blake Charlton’s ranting about his swine flu-contaminated roommate, NYT Bestselling Author Brent Weeks and his editor Devi will illustrate this clearly:

Alternate title for this blog post: “The Eye of Sauron Buys Me Scotch”

Posted on January 12, 2010 at 5:30 pm by PeatB
Filed under Appearances, Events, Interviews, Musings, Tech
7 Comments »

You may recall that I took a ton of funny videos at the World Fantasy Convention this past October, and never posted them. My bad. In part it is because I came down with a flu son after, and then came my trip to Toronto, and then the holidays, and then Dani had the flu, etc.

But I have also been lazy because I switched to wireless internet rather than running new LAN cable into my office, which has cut my uploading speed down to like 1/10 of what it once was, despite my buying the top of the line in wireless routers. It took me over an hour to upload like 150MB to YouTube. That is unacceptble. I may need to drill walls and run cable after all.

Still, I can’t sit on good content forever, so here are some funny video plugs I made for a couple of great new authors I met (and got drunk with) at the con.

Starting off is Blake Charlton, author of Spellwright, his debut novel from Tor books. In this video, NYT Bestselling Author Brent Weeks and I interview Blake about why you would want to spend your last $25 on his book rather than using it to feed your starving grandmother. We also give his head a spit-shine:

Spellwright doesn’t come out until March, but I’m currently reading an advance copy Blake gave me at WFC (just check my bathroom), on the title page he wrote:

To Peter, Great to meet you. It’s an honor to hand this to you. Hope it doesn’t suck.

-Blake Charlton

Gail Carriger, on the other hand, is the hottest new author (in more ways than one) from Orbit books. Her debut novel Soulless, book 1 of The Parasol Protectorate, is selling up a storm and garnering one glowing review after another. She had a wonderful Steampunk-themed launch party at WFC on Halloween, with costumed serving ladies and her Armenian lovers working security.

So of course, we crashed the party:

In truth, Gail is not actually signing a copy for me in this video, because I thought already had a signed copy at home from the first time I met her at this year’s Book Expo. Sadly, it was nowhere to be found when I got home. I must have given it to one of the many book lovers in my life. Ah, well. I ordered a new one, and it came today. I will give it a read soon.

I also screwed the plug up the first time, because my cheap hand-held digital camera couldn’t compensate for the glare of the lamp Gail was sitting in front of. Here’s my first attempt:

Posted on January 12, 2010 at 3:07 pm by PeatB
Filed under Appearances, Events, Interviews, Reviews, Sales
6 Comments »

I haven’t been updating the website so frequently lately because I’ve been making really good progress on The Daylight War, the book that will follow The Desert Spear in the Demon Cycle. Still, the deadline for the next giveaway in the Desert Spear ARC Contest (DSAC), January 15, is soon to be upon us. I will be giving away another ARC and some other prizes to lucky entrants, and then setting a date for the next giveaway. The entries were starting to pile up, so let’s have a quick review of what’s come in over the last week or so, starting with Mike G, who didn’t give his address:

Firstly… read and loved your first book. Ok that is taken care of.

Secondly… I started reading your blog even before reading The Warded Man, and got a real giggle when I saw your post about the first year of your daughter in photos as I also have a daughter of approximately the same age (July 2008) and have many photos of her in similar poses as you have with your little one

Okay, down to business… My entry… oddly focused on my daughter! 🙂

First picture of her investigating the book… Getting ready for her first fantasy novel

Second picture… disappointment… No pictures. Just blank paper… Hopefully it gets better than this!

Next up are another couple of live-action entries from Emily in Australia:

I went to Melbourne a little while ago and brought the Painted man with me 😛

I’m standing on one of the bridges that goes over the Yarra River. In the background is the big ferris wheel. Theres the MCG, where (beacuse I do not like cricket) we go and scream at Geelong to win the footy. And then there is the white bridge behind me, which is the white bridge that is in Ghostrider. I felt like this would be a good photo because I mean, come on, Nicholas Cage stood on that bridge.

A couple of entries also came in from Elena in St. Petersburg Russia, who won the Great Bazaar Fan Art Contest, and even references Arlen’s adventure in that book in one of her captions:

Due to bad weather it is almost impossible to take photos in SPB, Little illustration, what is going on the streets) yeap, my car is still somewhere Out There…. snow,snow, endless snow.

End of december I spent in Moscow, (situation there is even worst) but Painted man traveled with me during all my trips between capitals of Russia and some baltic capitals, therefore I have a couple of interesting photos from Tallinn.

With 46 towers, medieval Tallinn was known as one of the most fortified burgs in all Northern Europe, here I am inside Old Town city wall, in search of wards, like Arlen in Baha kad’Everam (hard to chose another ancient place like this, where history become every day life):

And another photo, trying wards against snow demon))) look, its working)) very effective)))

After Elena’s entries came two more from 2-time prizewinner Dwayne from the UK, who tapped into the Power of Grayskull this time, and gave in to the endless temptations of Photoshop with two badass additions to the contest:

Just a couple more pictures, I decided to take after my 3rd viewing of avatar. In the first one, I am fighting off Corelings trying to take my book of wards, yes I am using swords and have noticed that noone in your novel actually uses swords (was wondering about that actually) sorry for the error.

And in the second one, I am a Na’vi fighting to protect my home and my book lol.

Also leaping into the fray is Lisa W from the UK, who sent in two great entries:

I’m so very glad I picked up Painted Man in the library a month or two back now. I actually got the book for Christmas! One is a few snaps using my webcam – I usually have my nose in a book and ignore the outside world, so it seemed to fit.

I’m afraid I don’t have anything from an exotic location, from spending most of my time at the moment at the computer working on my dissertation. Instead, I took the book with me when I walked into town with my brother and mum this week. I may not have travelled far, but it looks strange to me, as we usually don’t get any snow! In any case, I thought a bonus point or two for having the church and some of the older parts of the high street in the background, and general winter-festivness. The church was founded in 1220 (yes, I just checked on Wikipedia) and some of the buildings along the right from about 1400 or 1500, or a bit later. Not totally creative, I admit, but worth a try.

This last picture is really beautiful, with the blue and pink hues on the snow and old feel of the High Street. But Lisa, the sun is setting! Get inside before the corelings start to rise!

Posted on January 9, 2010 at 9:48 pm by PeatB
Filed under Contests, Desert Spear, Fan Art, Fans, The Daylight War, Writing
3 Comments »