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I used to work in medical publishing. If I say so myself, I was pretty good at it. I made decent money, and got a merit-based promotion and raise every year without fail for 10 years. Even the year I got laid off because the company I was working for at the time was tanking, I found another job at a higher salary right away.

But I was never happy. I got an English degree because I loved fiction, and then got a job editing science. There is plenty of fiction in medical publishing, of course, like the clever ways they use to downplay treatment side-effects and overstate efficacy, but while I was editing fiction in science, what I really wanted was to be writing science fiction. I think that more than anything drove me to keep writing, even when I felt I had no free time and didn’t think anything would ever come of it professionally and the writing was hard.

But my hard work and perseverance paid off. When I sold The Painted Man and its sequels, I decided to try writing full time, despite a nagging sense of dread that I would fail and have to go back to a  job and industry where I was miserable and unfulfilled. I kept all my business contacts, just in case. Vendors I worked with. People who owed me favors. Head hunters.

It’s been two years now, and I still feel sometimes that there is a Sword of Damocles hanging over me. That this new career doing something I love is too good to be true, more than I deserve, and that it will end in failure and abject humiliation as some future book of mine is universally panned and I’ll have to go back to the cubicle farm to make sure Cassie can afford college.

When I first graduated college in 1995, I had NO IDEA what to do with my life. I wanted to be a writer, but I wasn’t kidding myself into thinking I was qualified for that, and I’d never had a “real” job. Just retail and my time with Parks & Recreation. While I was trying to figure out what to do with my life, I got a job managing a now-defunct comic book store in the Westchester Mall called, get this, COMIC ATTITUDES.

It wasn’t as fun a job as it sounds. Yeah, I got to be around comics all day and read books for free, but the owner was a very driven businessman, and wanted his staff to be actively selling at all times. This was a problem, because most comic readers (and his employees) were all introverts. The customers didn’t like to be harassed about how they should buy into the latest BS Marvel or DC crossover event, and the sales staff (me included) hated and felt phony doing it.

As a result, I never really got along with the owner, but there is one thing he said to me that I will always remember and be thankful for. We were unloading boxes and talking about how the comics industry was tanking and how it was affecting the business (the guy owned 4 CA stores at the time). He lamented the loss of the good old days from a few years before, when comics were booming. I asked him if he regretted opening the 4th store. He looked at me and said, “Peat, I’ve had a lot of failures in my life, and if I can offer you one piece of advice from my experience, it’s this: Look ahead. Looking back and second-guessing your decisions doesn’t change them. You need to keep your eyes on tomorrow.”

It was REALLY good advice.

I may never shake that sense of dread that I’ll one day lose this new career, but there is one thing I know now. I am never going back to medical publishing. That chapter of my life is over, and I am looking ahead. If I change careers again, it will be something different, even if it means my resume doesn’t apply and I need to start at the bottom of the totem pole.

So with that in mind, I just deleted a decade’s worth of business contacts from my Outlook address book. I’m working without a net from now on.

I feel lighter already.

Posted on September 16, 2009 at 6:24 pm by PeatB
Filed under Life, Musings, Writing
8 Comments »

Apologies for taking a while on this one, but judging turned out to be harder than I anticipated. There were a lot of names I didn’t recognize on the casts, and I had to do some research so I could consider them all in fairness. Thankfully, in the age of IMDB, google images, and YouTube, casting research is a lot easier.

Let me start by thanking everyone who took the time to submit an entry. It means a lot to me, really, and everyone’s cast lists were fun to read. I really had a blast with this contest. I’m really glad Matt thought of it. One of the wonderful things about books is how everyone imagines something different when they read.

Since some people used the same names twice, I decided to use a complicated point system to score the entries, which in retrospect made a lot of extra work for me. Without looking at names, I made my own ideal cast from the options all of you presented, and then scored the entries to see which entrants had the most matches. It took all day to compile and sort the lists, and some of the calls were very hard to make. Occasionally there will be runners up, and I will count those as a point as well.

Let’s start with the backup dancers:

BRUNA: Dame Judi Dench

There were a lot of great choices for this one, but while Glenn Close and Hillary Clinton were solid possibilities, there was really no other choice once I saw Dame Judi Dench on the list. Just thinking of her Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love playing Bruna sends a thrill through me. “She’s been plucked since I’ve seen her last, and not by you. Takes a woman to know.”

Awesome.

ARRICK: Colin Firth/Kevin Durand

Arrick was a hard one. There were lots of good entries, but none of them really spoke to me. I picture Arrick as a man who was once very handsome with a beautiful voice, but alcoholism, hair loss and age have taken much of it away. He doesn’t handle it well, using makeup and hats to desperately try and maintain some semblance of his former beauty. Dani and I were laughing, saying it should be Kenneth Branagh.

Out of the choices given, Dani is voting Colin Firth, but I am having trouble picturing him blonde and balding. I was thinking Kevin Durand, whose name I didn’t recognize, but when I looked him up on IMDB, I was like, “Oh! The squinty guy! I love the squinty guy!” I think he could do a pretty good job of being drunk, bitter, and abusive.

I’ll count either one.

RAGEN: Jeremy Irons

I picture Ragen as a rough kind of handsome, late thirties/early forties with a thick beard, and a powerful (but not bulky) build. He is half knight and half cowboy, a hard man no one in their right mind wants to fuck with. I’ve always wanted him to be Viggo Mortensen.

That said, out of the choices at hand, I’d go with Jeremy Irons, despite the fact that every time I think of him, I remember the Dungeons & Dragons movie and throw up in my mouth a bit. Eragon wasn’t much better. Maybe this would redeem him to me.

ELISSA: Rachel Weiz

Elissa is not the biggest character in the book, but she is one that is very important to me. I’m very picky about who I would let play her. I was having a tough time choosing until I saw Rachel Weiz on the list. She is so underrated. I think her stellar performances shine in even bad movies, and she has a unique beauty that is refreshingly outside the plastic Hollywood mainstream. She is a perfect Elissa.

I wanted to pick Felicia Day because she is awesome and I have recently become obsessed with The Guild, not to mention Dr. Horrible. I agree that she can portray a great range of emotions, which is not surprising since she is Joss Whedon approved, and he is very demanding on his actors. However, I think she looks too young. Elissa should be 35-40 and terrified of losing her ability to bear children before she can have one. While Felicia is like 30, she won the genetic lottery and still looks 22, and will likely continue to do so until she is 50.

COB: James Cosmo/Ray Winstone

I always pictured Cob as Oliver Reed (Proximo from Gladiator), but he died a couple of year ago. There were a lot of great entries for this character, and most of them would probably fly, I think. In the end I went with James Cosmo, the dad that has his hand chopped off in Braveheart, but I am granting runner up status to Ray Winstone, as well.

ELONA: Monica Bellucci

There were a lot of funny and creative choices for this key role, but none better than Monica Bellucci. I have long maintained that Ms. Bellucci was as beautiful a woman as the human race has to offer (and believe me, I’ve looked carefully). She is also a brilliant actor. My only reservations with her in this role would be a possible accent trace, and the fact that Elona is supposed to be less beautiful than Leesha, waning as Leesha waxes. You’d need a lot of makeup to make MB less attractive than anyone. Whoever plays Leesha would have to be stunning.

And now for the stars:

ARLEN: Chris Hemsworth

I’ve been joking for months that Arlen should be played by Chris Pine, who was Kirk in this summer’s Star Trek reboot. Ironic, then that I should be choosing Chris Hemsworth, the guy who played his dad in that same movie.

Dani says he’s hunky.

LEESHA: Odette Yustman / Anne Hathaway

I’ve always imagined Leesha as Jennifer Connelly circa 1991 (The Hot Spot/Career Opportunities/The Rocketeer). She could have held her own against even Monica Bellucci, and she’s a fantastic actress who could totally bring the strength and brilliance of Leesha to the role.

Out of the given options, though, I’ve voting Odette Yustman though I’ve never actually seen her in anything. I looked at pictures of her on IMDB, though, and if she can act worth half a damn, she’s in.

I did seriously consider Anne Hathaway, who I’ve been very fond of ever since she hosted SNL. I’d let her read for it, but I’m not convinced she could handle the role. I’ll accept her as an answer anyway.

ROJER: Rupert Grint

Not really a lot of options came up for Rojer. I guess there are only a limited number of young ginger actors to choose from. The general consensus was Rupert Grint, and I’ll go along with that. Dani thinks ROjer should be Elijah Wood.

JARDIR: Oded Fehr / Naveen Andrews

Originally, I was all about Naveen Andrews for this part, even though he’s a little short for Jardir. I’ve been converted to Oded Fehr, though. I think he would be good in the role, has the right face/body type, and can handle both the cultured leader and badass warrior aspects of Jardir well. I’ll accept either answer.

Ghassan Massoud would definitely get a part in The Desert Spear, though. Lots of roles for him. I like Alexander Siddig, but he is permanently typecast in my mind as dorky Dr. Bashir. I don’t think I could ever get past that, and he’s not hard enough to be Jardir anyway.

WINNERS:

So counting the above at a point apiece, we have two entrants tied at 5 points (Chad Vernon and Melanie), and two tied at four with extra credit (Dwayne and Lisa Childs). Everyone please feel free to double-check my math if you think I short-changed you.

Being the magnanimous type, I’ve decided to up the # of prizes from 3 to 4 to avoid having to choose. I wish I could give prizes to everyone. So now there will be TWO Warded Man hardbacks, a German version, and a UK paperback. Chad and Melanie get first pick of the lot, and then Dwayne and Lisa can claim what’s left. I will of course inscribe the books however you like.

Winners please e-mail me from the address you used for your entry with a mailing address, your order of preference for the prizes, and anything you would like me to write in your copy.

If you didn’t win this time around, don’t be discouraged. There are more giveaways and contests to come!

Don’t forget I will be at the Brooklyn Book Festival today (Sunday Sept. 13)! Stop by if you can!

Posted on September 13, 2009 at 12:50 am by PeatB
Filed under Appearances, Contests, Desert Spear, Events, Fans, Movie, Musings
13 Comments »

Made a lot of updates to the site yesterday, particularly on the Creations and News pages. There are a few more yet to come, but the hardest ones are done, including posting all the black and white ward symbols, a new character avatar, a ton of fan art, and some new covers.

In other news, Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist is hosting a contest to win a free Advance Read Copy of The Great Bazaar, my limited edition collection of  short stories, set to be published in January 2010 by Subterranean Press. All you have to do is e-mail Pat your address to to be entered to win. Details on his site.

The Great Bazaar is a wonderful introduction to my series for new readers, but also has a lot of new information for people who are already fans. It ties directly into events both in The Painted/Warded Man, as well as The Desert Spear.

If you don’t win, don’t fret. I will he holding a new contest sometime in the next month or so with another ARC as the prize. I just need to think of a cool contest idea.

Suggestions are welcome!

Also, a nice little Warded Man review on the blog Notes from Camp Swampy. (Mild character spoilers in the review, but nothing big.)

Posted on September 6, 2009 at 12:02 pm by PeatB
Filed under Contests, Great Bazaar, Reviews, Tech, Writing
11 Comments »

Attention all Tri-Staters! I will be appearing at the Brooklyn Book Festival, Sunday September 13, at the Brooklyn Borough Hall. This is a free, one-day event celebrating books of all kinds with a number of esteemed literary guests.

New York ComicCon will have a booth at the event, and I will be appearing at their Sci Fi and Fantasy in NYC panel from noon to 1PM with fellow panelists SC Butler, Anton Strout, Brian Slattery and Dave Roman. We will do our best to make the vague topic into something interesting. Failing that, we will make bad jokes and banter for the remaining time.

Following the panel, I will be at autographing table #3 from 1PM-2PM, and then I will be wandering the festival with an adorable red-haired baby.

If you’re in the area, stop by!

Posted on September 3, 2009 at 4:47 pm by PeatB
Filed under Appearances, Craft, Desert Spear, Events, Fans, Great Bazaar, Interviews, Sales, World Traveler, Writing
Comments Off on Brooklyn Book Festival Appearance

I haven’t had time for one of these link-heavy posts in a while, and a bunch of stuff has built up in my Firefox bookmarks. I’m going to try and be swift:

A couple of months ago I contributed to a piece on Suvudu by Shawn Speakman called The Healthy Writer. I don’t know why I never plugged it at the time, but here it is.

Here’s a Painted Man review I found in Norwegian, which isn’t even one of the languages I’m being translated into. That’s pretty damn cool. What’s even cooler is that I can read it, thanks to Google Translate. English Version.

This fantastic German review suggests that I am a legitimate heir to the Tolkien throne. I would never be so hubristic as to agree, but it’s certainly a wonderful compliment. English version.

Here’s a really long but very positive (I think) German review on yopi.de. You can see the poor translation here.

Continuing the German theme, here is a review of the German audio book, which was released just last month. It is the first audio representation to date, though they are actively editing the US version as I write this. English autotranslation.

This Polish review, from what I can tell from the English autotranslate, is fairly neutral. Some compliments and some complaints.

Here’s a nice Polish Forum discussion of the book. Lots of comments. English Translation.

This tag-team review (SPOILER ALERT!) on Red Hot Eyebrows is generally positive during the brief moment when the reviewers can stop mooning over Brandon Sanderson. They also imply that there is FAR more sex in the book than there actually is, and that it is gratuitous (none of it is). One of the reviewers even asks if she’s just being a prude. No comment. They do some great movie casting, though. Geena Davis as Elona is an inspired choice, and I’m certainly down with Viggo Mortenson as Ragen.

Sweet Book Delights calls The Painted Man both “addictive” and “funkilicious”. That’s more like it.

Nice short little review from Adam Tilston. Also one on the blog Can U Play Guitar With Paws? Short, spoiler-free and extremely positive reviews on Words for Words and CS Fantasy Reviews, as well.

Solid Warded Man review on Ezine @rticles. Slightly more reserved one on A Fantasy Reader, though still overall quite positive.

And my Firefox bookmark list is now empty! Huzzah!

Posted on September 2, 2009 at 11:17 pm by PeatB
Filed under Interviews, Reviews, Writing
2 Comments »