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My friend Netta is a freelance editor who runs a website called wordwebbing, where she discusses writing, editing, and the the publishing industry in general. Netta was also one of the original test-readers of The Painted/Warded Man, before I even had an agent. Netta is great.

Recently, she sent me an interview for her site, asking for my thoughts on writng and the state of the industry.  We don’t always agree, but that makes for an all the more interesting interview, I think.  You can see my Wordwebbing interview here, and the review of The Warded Man that Netta wrote here.

There were also a couple the worst kinds of reviews this last week, the ones that I can’t read and walk away from, and end up responding to.  Both reviews center around the reviewer misunderstanding my intent regarding a certain event late in the story. MAJOR SPOILER ALERT!!! Reading these interviews will, in my mind, totally fuck up your reading experience if you haven’t read the book already. This isn’t me trying to tell you not to read a negative review; one of the two reviews is actually quite positive, but they give away plot knowledge  that I don’t want a reader to have before the proper time in the story arc. If you’ve already read the book, you can see the reviews and my responses here: The Book Smugglers and Diary of a Text Addict.

At some future date, I will discuss the topic at length on my blog, but right now with it freshly released, I want people to be able to read the story as I intended it presented before they read my dissertations on it.

In other news, the shortlist for the David Gemmell Legend Award was released, and I’m not on it. Some SF blogs, like Speculative Horizons and A Dribble of Ink feel I was robbed, but I’m really not surprised I didn’t make it. The award is a straight internet poll, and all the authors that made the shortlist are far more established and popular than I am. My first book only came out in hardcover in September in the UK, and voting was almost over by the time it came out here in the US, and it was closed when the UK paperback hit. The other authors all have entire series (serieses?) published. There wasn’t any way I was going to win, and even the shortlist was a longshot.

I haven’t actually read any of the books on the shortlist, though most of them are on my “to read” pile. Brandon Sanderson is in my literary agency, so it’s nice to see him on the list, as well as my new pal Brent Weeks, who is on the NYTimes Bestseller list three weeks running so far. Andrzej Sapkowski is with my Polish publisher, Fabryka Slow. Poland has a huge and largely unrecognized fantasy market, so it’s nice to see a Polish author on the list. I don’t really know much about Joe Abercrombie and Juliet Mariller, but I’ve heard nothing but good things. I wish them all well for the next round of voting.

Posted on April 14, 2009 at 6:24 pm by PeatB
Filed under Craft, Interviews, Musings, Reviews, Writing
11 Comments »

The other day a friend of my was telling me that he was contemplating a big move, leaving the city that’s been his home for over a decade and returning to the town he came from. During the discussion, he told that if he goes through with it, he intends to take the opportunity to divest himself of all his worldly possessions, save for his awards, diplomas, laptop and the best of his clothes. All the rest, his furniture, TV, stereo, CD’s, DVD’s, books, pots, pans, linens, etc., he will sell, give away or toss, making his transition quick and easy.

“Everything else is easily replaceable,” he said. “I don’t need much to get by.”

I could never do this.

In some ways, I am envious. It’s a very zen/Jedi mindset to divest yourself from the need for possessions and truly understand the difference between necessity and materialism. But it makes me wonder, where’s the love?

I am a hoarder. A packrat. The walls of my library are covered by floor-to-ceiling bookshelves filled with thousands of books, comics, and CD’s (even though all the CD’s have long-since been converted to digital). I have all my old term papers and college notes, the Playboys I stole from my brother when I was 11. Old albums of photos, toys, action figures, posters and paintings. I have literally hundreds of DVD’s and VHS tapes, two working computers and two obsolete ones. I have an entire closet full of broken electronics in case I need to cannibalize them for parts, and my pantry looks like I’m preparing to survive a nuclear winter.

And really, I don’t want to give any of it up, because I love it all.

When I was a kid, I used to watch a TV Show called Amazing Stories. Some of you may be old enough to remember it. There was one episode called “Gather Ye Acorns” that starred Mark Hammill, who was visited by a troll who advised him to “never throw away anything you love, even if your mother tells you to.” This led Mark Hammill to become a bum who never made anything of his life, until one day, when he was contemplating suicide, he tried to sell some of his possessions to buy gas money in order to drive his car off the Hoover Dam. Of course, all the things he collected as a child were now collector’s items, and he quickly became a millionaire.

That episode, and that advice, has stuck with me my whole life, and not just because Mark Hammill was like unto a god to me at the time. I still think back and curse when I remember my mother forcing me to give away all my Star Wars toys because I was “too old to play with toys anymore”. And what was I thinking, selling all my Todd McFarlane Spider-Mans and Walt Simonson Thors to have spending money to date whatsername back in 1990? Those things would be worth a fortune now.

Not that I would ever sell them.

But with a few exceptions like that, I’ve held onto all the childish things I love, and lo and behold, I’ve managed to make a career out of it, writing and selling books of the sort I cherished so dearly as a child, like this:

The above picture is my personal copy of The Hobbit from 1982. It was the first book without pictures I ever read that wasn’t assigned by school. I’ve read it dozens and dozens of times. It set me on a path that made me the person I am today, and I love it like an old friend. It’s beat to shit as you can see, taped and glued to try and hold the broken spine and torn pages together, but it’s more valuable to me by far than the nice deluxe hardcover edition with color illustrations that my UK publisher sent to me last year. The scars this book carries tell the tale of decades at my side, in my knapsack, in my pocket, lying on the grass or in my bed, on vacation or in the car.

I even marked it, so everyone would know it was mine:

I’m all for electronic books. Once I see who wins the e-reader wars, I will run right out and buy a Kindle or Sony Reader or whatever. I love the idea of having thousands of books on one device I can take anywhere. And I expect that when I do buy one, the first book I purchase and read will be The Hobbit.

But that doesn’t mean it can replace the original in my heart. And who knows, maybe one of my paperbacks will have that same effect on some kid now. I can’t think of any greater compliment:

Speaking of things and people dear to my heart, it was with much sadness that I learned yesterday that Dave Arneson, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, died at the young age of 61. After the passing of Gary Gygax last year, this leaves a great hole in the gaming world. Rest in peace, fellas. I’ll throw a D20 in your honor.

Posted on April 10, 2009 at 4:45 pm by PeatB
Filed under Musings
10 Comments »

Observant New Yorkers with a penchant for free newspapers may have noticed the article on page 18 of AM New York yesterday, entitled ‘Warded Man’ author Peter V. Brett writes novel on the F(antasy) train. Sorry for not posting something about it in time for anyone to grab hardcopy. I did the interview a couple of weeks ago, but I had no idea when it would see print. I haven’t even seen hardcopy myself yet, though the above link has the full article.

In other news, I had a reasonably good time at I-Con this weekend. I say reasonably because while the convention itself and the company of my entourage (agent extraordinaire Joshua Bilmes and writer/pal Myke Cole) was quite enjoyable, I started coming down with a head cold on Friday, and became progressively sicker as the weekend wore on. Even now, I am still trying to rid myself of a lingering cough, and Dani has caught the bug and is in the “use a whole box of tissues every day” phase.

Thanks to the wonders of nursing, though, Cassie seems immune. Praise be to mother’s milk.

I-Con was a bit scattered this year, with events divided over three locations (Suny Suffolk College Campus, The Marriott, and the Holiday Inn), but armed with my badass Honda Civic and GPS navigator, we were in a better position than most. We headed out bright and early on Saturday from Brooklyn to Queens, and then on to Islandia Long Island to the SSC campus to pick up our badges. Then we had to rush across town to the Marriott for the first panel of the morning, which Joshua was on. I was just attending to support my agent, but it proved an unexpected boon as Joshua held up a copy of The Warded Man, and the woman next to him said “Hey, I copyedited that!”

And that’s how I met Terry McGarry, my copyeditor, who is really nice, even though she put back in that indefinite article on page 347 that I TOTALLY left out on purpose, forcing me to stet the change. The nerve.

After that it was back to the SSC campus for a “signing”. Since TWM has only been out for 4 (albeit fantasy bestselling) weeks, and since I was once again lax about promoting my appearance, I didn’t really expect to do too much actual signing, which was just about how it turned out. I did have one reader (left) seek me out, though, after having already bought a signed story copy in Manhattan! Now that’s fricken’ cool.

I also signed some books at the Larry Smith Bookseller booth for Larry’s wife Sally, and we actually sold a few copies to browsers who saw me at it and asked about the book. My rap is getting better with experience, though I still stutter a bit when hawking my own work. I’m an introverted writer, not a salesman.

Following the signing we went back across town to the Marriott for a panel called “My Personal Gateway”, where I and the other panelists discussed the books, TV shows, and movies that pulled us into genre fiction. It was a fun panel that touched on a lot more than it’s original topic.

After that we went to another of Joshua’s panels and then headed out. Joshua took the opportunity to crack the whip and made us hit all the local bookstores for me to sign my shelf stock (more on that topic later), followed by dinner out.

By Sunday I was feeling pretty sick, but I had two panels to attend, and I was designated driver, so there was no rest for the congested. I got back to the con and dropped Joshua off at SSCC before heading to the Marriott for a great panel entitled “How Will We Read in the Future?” It was pretty full as these things go, and we had a really great discussion about e-readers, illegal downloading, and whether the love of paper is nature or nurture. I enjoyed that panel the most.

After that we hung out in the green room a while, and chatted up some hot redhead actress from Battlestar Galactica. If I ever watched the show, I could tell you who, but I haven’t, so I can’t. She was cute as a button, though.

After that there was a panel on “Starting to Sell Your Work” which I expected to be packed, as all the panels for would-be writers seemed to be well-attended, but I guess everyone was hunting for bargains in the SSCC dealer’s room, and not interested in wasting half the day 5 miles away at the Marriott. No one showed up, and we eventually ditched and went to blow some money at the dealer’s room ourselves.

Then the whip came out again, and it was off to more bookstores. Joshua needs no iPhone or GPS. It’s like he has a built-in map of the world with an overlay of Barnes & Nobles and Borders stores. They can’t hide from him. If you live in Long Island and are interesting in scoring an autographed copy of The Warded man, we hit the B&Ns in Bay Shore, E. Northport and Huntington, and the Borders in Bohemia, Commack, and Syosset.

It was on the way to the store in Bohemia that things got interesting. We took a secret back path into the Borders shopping center, and there was a pothole in the road (left). Seems innocuous, right? Well that car up ahead of it is mine, and if you squint, you can see me changing the tire after it fucking EXPLODED from hitting that deep-ass hole.

Ever try changing a tire with a bad head cold? I don’t recommend it.

But I’ve changed some tires in my day, and we were only out of commission for 15 minutes or so. Then we had to rush to a Costco to buy a new tire so we didn’t have to drive all the way back from Bohemia on the friggin’ donut. $170 down the drain. Certainly any profit from increased sales from the signings, and then some.

We made one more stop after that, at the Borders in Syosset. That was actually a fun stop, as the guy at the infodesk made me pose like the picture in the back of the book to prove I was really the author:

And the lovely Laura agreed to pose for a picture.

Good times.

Posted on April 9, 2009 at 11:37 pm by PeatB
Filed under Events, Interviews, Life, Sales, Writing
1 Comment »

No, not that 69. Get your mind out of the gutter.

I did an interview last week for The Page 69 Test, a site that asks the question of whether page 69 of The Warded Man is representative of the book as a whole, and whether a browser reading the page would be tempted to continue. The page is quoted at the beginning, followed by my essay. It was a fun exercise, and I enjoyed doing it.

In other news, I got a shout-out for the second month running in the Del Rey Newsletter, DRIN. This one has some pix from my book launch party. Also received nice reviews on Mark Chitty’s SF blog, Walker of Worlds, and Todd Newton’s blog Initial Draft.

If you’re interested in discussing the book on internet forums, there are a few ongoing discussions of The Warded Man/The Painted Man that you can pop into. Beware of spoilers, though, if you haven’t read the book. The forums can be found here.

The official Random House Forum: http://www.randomhouse.com/rhpg/features/wardedman/

SFFWorld: http://www.sffworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20642

Bookspot Central: http://www.bookspotcentral.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=7313

A Song of Ice and Fire: http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php?showtopic=30895&st=0&start=0

Shocklines: http://shocklinesforum.yuku.com/topic/10174/master/1/?page=1

Posted on April 7, 2009 at 1:40 pm by PeatB
Filed under Craft, Interviews, Reviews, Writing
1 Comment »

The word still kind of sticks on my tongue in the way things do when you are afraid that giving voice to them will be a jinx and make them untrue, but after making the bookscan bestseller lists for hardback fantasy in both the UK & US, I suppose the term is apt. My agent certainly thinks so.

The Warded Man made it up to # 8 it’s first week on shelves, and held a respectable # 10 its second, and # 11 its third. Hopefully I’ll keep hanging on when I get last week’s numbers tomorrow. Even if I’m not making the London or NY Times like my new friend Brent Weeks did last week (Congratulations, Brent! Time to set a new life’s goal.), it’s not too shabby. Brent had a head start, anyway, putting out all three books of his Night Angel Trilogy in one year. I’ll be lucky to publish three books in five years.

Across the sea, things are going even more spectacularly, with the paperback of The Painted Man selling over 200 copies the week BEFORE it went on sale, and blowing through the entire Amazon.co.uk stock in just under 18 hours when it went on sale last Thursday. If it had been a day earlier, I would Have thought it was an April Fool’s joke. TPM has been sold out all weekend, but it looks like the stock is finally back. It is also the paperback book of the month at Waterstones, which is awesome. The first printing of the hardback is sold out most everywhere, and the second printing has become scarce as well, with limited availability on the internet and only a small quantity scattered in bookstores throughout the British Isles.

The Painted Man was also apparently was nominated to the longlist of the British Fantasy Awards. We’ll have to see how that develops.

Between this and my beautiful, healthy baby girl who is starting to walk and say “Dada” at only 8 months old, I feel like I am using up all my good karma for the next decade.

You can see Cassie (left) going through daddy’s comics for the first time this morning. Granted, she is more interested in eating them than in reading them, but hopefully it is a sign of more good things to come.

Posted on April 7, 2009 at 1:13 pm by PeatB
Filed under Cassie, Musings, Sales, Writing
3 Comments »