Blog

Probably one of the most gratifying things about being a writer is seeing how one’s work inspires other people, either creatively or in their daily lives. There is no author I know that doesn’t love reading their fan mail, and who doesn’t have some prized letter or gift displayed in their office that came in the mail from a reader. Back in the day, this correspondence was usually done by way of the author’s publisher, and was often delayed and sometimes never reached the author at all.

I am incredibly fortunate to live in a time when technology has allowed me to easily interact with readers all over the world. Between the Peephole, Facebook, Myspace, and plain old email , Painted Man readers from all over the world have a way to interact with me and with each other. Still, I am continually amazed when people who speak a different language than I do, or who live across the ocean, or on the other side (or underside ^^) of the friggin’ planet take the time to write to me, or to blog about my book, or make their own warded items, or to create art or poetry based on the Painted Man’s world.

Writing is a lonely and often frustrating business, and these rays of sunshine are my personal wards. As someone who was always the wallflower at the party, words fail when I try to describe how much they mean to me.

Take Jessica and Marilia from France, for instance. Both bilingual (and then some), they read The Painted Man in English months ago, and are totally excited about the recent French release, l’Homme Rune, because now their friends who don’t read English can finally enjoy the book. They wrote and asked permission to create a French Fan Forum for my work. Of course I said I would love it, and you’ll have to agree it is awesome. They have included TONS of stuff, including discussions of the book, talk of the upcoming movie, translations of my old blog entries, and even Leesha’s Recipe Book.

Literally something for everyone.

To celebrate the new forum, they threw a party, and warded their faces. No, seriously. This actually happened:

Cat demon. Vicious little beasts.

These next two are my favorites!

And of course the Forum Plug:

Jess, the warded woman in gray, also just sent me two more entries in the Painted Man Fan Art Contest (submit entries to peat@www.petervbrett.com by Nov. 15!). Check them out:

Young Rojer with his talisman:

And beautiful Leesha:

In other French news, there have been a few early reviews of the book on le Blog de Stupidboy as well as the Milady Blog review, the Bragelonne Forum, and the Library Critic. The blog If is Dead claims the book is this year’s Bragelonne Coup de Coeur, which I’m not sure how to translate exactly. Maybe Punch the heart? Heartstopper? BMFG?

Anyway, I assume that’s good.

I have more blogs updates planned to mention some of the exciting things going on in Germany, Poland, Portugal, Spain and more, but for now I’m off tomorrow to the World Fantasy Convention in San Jose.

Merci beaucoup.

Posted on October 27, 2009 at 5:18 pm by PeatB
Filed under Contests, Craft, Events, Fan Art, Fans, France, Germany, Musings, Portugal, Reviews, Sales, World Traveler, Writing
6 Comments »

Two more fantastic entries in the Fan Art Contest to win an advance read copy of The Great Bazaar, these from Jess in France:

The first pic of Elona:

And of course, The Painted Man himself:

Keep the great entries coming everyone!

Posted on October 24, 2009 at 11:14 am by PeatB
Filed under Contests, Fan Art, Fans, France, Great Bazaar
3 Comments »

What?! Peat is doing not one, not two, but THREE blog updates in one night?

It’s true.

I just wanted to post a reminder that I am accepting submissions for the Fan Art Contest up until November 15, with the winner getting my one spare advance copy of The Great Bazaar, my limited edition collection of Arlen and Leesha short stories coming out in January from Subterranean Press. Contest details here.

Below are some of the initial entries:

“Rojer” and “Leesha and Arlen” entered by Iris, AKA Rainbow Sword.

“Jardir” and “Arlen timeline” (click to enlarge the latter) entered by Dwayne, who some may remember as one of the winners of the Casting Call contest.

Step on up, people! Don’t be shy to enter. To make you feel more comfortable if you don’t think your art is very good, here are my initial avatar designs for the Painted Man, both of which I later discarded because they sucked so hard:

Also, if art isn’t your thing, there is an informal contest to name my new office. The winner gets… like, a prize or something. Or maybe at the end of my final video diary will say your name and tell the world you are awesome. I dunno yet. Like I said, it’s informal. There have been lots of great ideas so far, though!

Posted on October 22, 2009 at 1:21 am by PeatB
Filed under Contests, Craft, Fan Art, Fans, Great Bazaar, Hobbit-hole, Writing
Comments Off on Contest Updates/Reminders

Je parle… un peu.  Un petite peu.

I know just enough French to tell people my name, and that I don’t speak French very well.

There was a time when I was a little better at it. I got an A- on my French NYS Regents exam, and then took another year of it in college, scoring myself a nice 5 credit “D” my freshman year that ruined my GPA for years.

It wasn’t entirely my fault. When I was growing up my school district didn’t even offer classes in foreign language until 7th grade, at which point we were all 13 and much too interested in the opposite sex and hair growing in funny places to want to waste our time memorizing basic verb conjugations.

Such was the suburban public school system in 80’s America.

But I always liked French. It is a beautiful language, and there were always pretty girls in French class to flirt with. There was a time I could hold a decent conversation in it, but I never practiced over the years, and what little skill I had faded away like smoke, which I learned much to my chagrin on my trip to Paris last year.

Still, I read much better than I speak, and I had hopes that, since I am so close to the source material, that I could read l’Homme Rune, the French translation of The Painted Man, which went on sale recently from the new Milady imprint of publisher Bragelonne.

I love Bragelonne. France was the first country to step up and buy translation rights of my books, and not only that, but their illustrious leader, Stephane Marsan, wrote a long personal note about how much he loved the book, and talked it up to everyone he met. It was a huge show of support at the beginning of my career that I will be forever grateful for.

He also took half a day off work to show me and my buddy Myke around Paris. Can you believe that? A gentleman and a scholar. I met the whole staff at their office, and you’ve never met a nicer bunch of people, and they all love fantasy and that passion shows in their work.

For instance, I got my sample copies yesterday, and the book is beautiful:

So I sat down and tried to read it. And it’s weird. I can kinda understand it, but kinda not.

That is,  the French is totally beyond me. I’ve forgotten FAR too much. If I was reading anything other than my own book, I would be totally lost.

But it IS my book, and I know the corespawned thing backwards and forwards with my eyes closed and music blaring. For the most part, I can stare at each sentence, remember its English equivalent, and then use what little French I know to figure it out. It’s an exhausting process, though. Takes like an hour to read a couple of paragraphs, and it feels like I’m cheating on a test somehow.

I think if I were left on a desert island with only this book for a year, I would probably speak passable French when I was rescued. It is my Rosetta stone.

I know my monolingualism is due as much to my own laziness as the lack of schooling, but as an adult I really feel like I’m missing something. If I do nothing else right as a parent, I am going to make sure Cassie has access to foreign language classes at an early age. She’ll thank me when I take her to Paris as my translator in 2020.

Posted on October 22, 2009 at 12:45 am by PeatB
Filed under Cassie, France, Life, Musings, Sales, World Traveler, Writing
3 Comments »

O Homem Pintado, the Portuguese translation of The Painted Man, went on sale yesterday! I am very excited about that. Portugal’s marketing campaign has been stellar. The publisher, Gailivro, created a TV and web trailer for the book that was fantastic, and meshed perfectly with the powerful cover art. They made awesome reversible demon t-shirts, and sent me a stack of books to sign for them to use as giveaways, giving me a couple of extra copies to give away myself.

So Portugal, I really hope you enjoy the book, and if the Portuguese out there make some noise, I’ll raffle off some signed copies!

Não temas a escuridão!

Posted on October 21, 2009 at 11:39 pm by PeatB
Filed under Portugal, Sales, World Traveler
5 Comments »