Blog

Lots of things going on these days. The Great Bazaar and Other Stories got its first online review yesterday on Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist, and it was quite positive. One more reason to enter the Fan Art Contest for a chance to win an advance copy 2 months before the book comes out. Why not enter today?

Since Subterranean Press mentions it on their own site, I guess the cat’s out of the bag and I can let out the news that another Arlen Messenger novella will be published in their upcoming dark fantasy anthology:  Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy 2

What’s “Dark Fantasy”, you ask? Hell if I know, but apparently I write it. How about that?

Anyway, the story will be entitled Brayan’s Gold and tell the tale of Arlen’s first solo Messenger run, a trip to the distant Milnese mine of Brayan’s Gold, which lies well over a weeks travel from Fort Miln, high upon a steep mountainside. Still an apprentice, Arlen is riding as sidekick to a licensed Messenger, but when an unexpected bandit attack leaves him alone on the road, stubborn Arlen decides to press on, despite the fact that the indestructible and vengeance-driven rock demon One Arm continues to hunt him. At about 19,000 words, it is around 20% longer than the Great Bazaar novelette.

For my German fans, even better news! Both The Great Bazaar and Other Stories and Brayan’s Gold, in addition to some additional new maps and supplementary materials, will be combined in a German language edition by my fantastic German publisher Heyne. Not sure how they will translate the title yet, but it is tentatively scheduled for release next summer, a few months after Das Flustern der Nacht (The Desert Spear) comes out, as a treat for readers hungry for more and to help tide them over until I finish The Daylight War.

The Painted Man has also recently sold to publisher Varrack in Estonia who will translate it into Estonian. Another addition to the list of countries I need to color as “conquered” on the RISK map…

Also, great progress on the Hobbit-hole. I can see the floor now after alphabetizing and organizing all my books. Pretty soon my as-yet unnamed writer’s studio will be ready for me to actually WRITE in.

The latest update:

Posted on October 16, 2009 at 11:47 pm by PeatB
Filed under Brayan's Gold, Fan Art, Fans, Germany, Great Bazaar, Hobbit-hole, Interviews, Life, Reviews, Sales, World Traveler, Writing
11 Comments »

I’ve been putting this off for too long. I have a spare advance read copy of The Great Bazaar (on sale in January 2010, limited print run, pre-order now!), and I’ve been meaning to do a fan art contest for some time, but I keep delaying because I worry there won’t be enough entries.

But I am proven wrong time and again as fans the world over send me their art just for the heck of it, like Superfan Iris from Germany, AKA Rainbow Sword, who just sent me another character portrait, this time of Leesha Paper:

Awesome, right? No one has ever drawn Leesha before, and I was delighted to see it. It’s a beautiful portrait.

So I’m done putting it off. Fan Art Contest starts now and will run for one month. The rules are simple:

1. Create a piece of fan art. Anything you want. Pen and ink, digital, photography, mock book cover, 3D Poser art, comic strip, jewelry, warded weapon, customized action figure, crayon, etc.
2. Send a .jpg of the art to peat@www.petervbrett.com
3. Enter as many times as you like
4. All submissions must be received by November 15

Winner gets the autographed advance of The Great Bazaar. Two runners up will get signed copies of The Painted/Warded Man. If you read the book in translation, I may even be able to get you a signed book in your native tongue. Winners will be announced on or about American Thanksgiving (Nov. 26).

Unless there is an unexpectedly great deluge, I will be posting entries as they come in, so expect to see them in the coming weeks. I’ll also try to post everything in my website’s Fan Art section.

Good luck to all!

Posted on October 14, 2009 at 6:21 pm by PeatB
Filed under Contests, Fan Art, Great Bazaar
13 Comments »

Still not sure what to name this new studio. My old office was, perhaps a bit ostentatiously, referred to as “the Library”, since it has always been my dream to have a huge personal library with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and a little ladder on wheels like Lex Luthor had in Superman the Movie. Of course, I would need a lackey to push me on the ladder, but first things first.

Right now the new place is being referred to as “the Studio”, “the office”, “next door”, and “the Hobbit-hole”. As any PR strategist will tell you, this is a bad idea. Clarity of message is essential. I’m open to suggestions for a final name. There’s a prize in it for anyone who comes up with a winner. If not, I may start using the title of this blog.

Here’s my latest progress report:

Posted on October 14, 2009 at 1:03 am by PeatB
Filed under Contests, Hobbit-hole, Interviews, Life
14 Comments »

I haven’t been doing a lot of these “Hobbit-hole” updates lately, but don’t let that fool ya. I’ve been working round the clock for the last 2 weeks to get the new office studio up and running, and keeping the video diary. The only reason I haven’t been posting them is that I’ve been too exhausted each night when I call it quits. Here are some updates from the past week:

I’d like to thank all the people who came to help me: Darragh, Joshua, Jay, my dad, and most of all Myke who took days off work and drove up from DC to help, hanging through a 14 hour day of painting and two more days of back-breaking labor.

The most wonderful thing is that I didn’t actually ask anyone for help. I felt that would be too much to ask of people, and was prepared to do it all myself. Everyone listed above just heard I closed on the place and was working and volunteered to come help. That’s love.

Posted on October 13, 2009 at 6:36 pm by PeatB
Filed under Hobbit-hole, Interviews, Life
1 Comment »

The Portuguese translation of The Painted Man, O Homem Pintado, is publishing on October 20. My last post showed the video trailer my Portuguese publisher, Gailivro, made, a live action bit of video to rival Fabryka Slow’s video trailer in sheer awesomeness.

Also, someone translated the Gailivro promo video and posted it to YouTube. As I expected, it’s awesomeness remains undiminished in English. Check it out:

But the greatness of Gailivro doesn’t stop there. I just found out they also designed a promotional t-shirt, which they are giving away FREE with an advance online purchase of O Homem Pintado made before October 15, 2009.

The front of the shirt is the book title, O Homem Pintado (The Painted Man), and the tagline, Entra Num Mundo Onde a Noite Pertence Aos Demonos (Enter a World Where Night Belongs to Demons).

Sure, that’s not so impressive, but wait. There’s more. Pull it over your head to reveal a demon face printed on the inside of the shirt to act as an instant demon mask! How fucking cool is that?

So FYI, if you think that’s even half as awesome as I do, you still have seven days to order one.

Galivro is also offering the first chapter of the Portuguese translation for free on the internet with a really cool flash interface.

Also, a few Portuguese blogs have been mentioning the book:

Planetmarcia: Portuguese / English

Booktailors: Portuguese / English

Odisseias Fantasticas: Portuguese / English

Estante de Livros: Portuguese / English

O Cantinho da Tati: Portuguese / English

Posted on October 8, 2009 at 6:12 pm by PeatB
Filed under Events, Fan Art, Fans, Portugal, Reviews, Sales, World Traveler, Writing
5 Comments »