Blog

Haven’t really had much time for blogging lately, for myriad reasons. Cassie has reached a new stage of development, and is rolling over with impunity now. Crawling is right around the corner, but already we can’t turn our backs on her while she’s on the bed or changing table like we used to. She bores easily now, and needs constant stimulation and attention. She’s resistant to even the suggestion of sleep unless it’s 10PM, and even then, she’s not afraid to protest vehemently before knocking out for the night. It’s exhausting for me, and ten times worse for Dani, who, as a breastfeeding mommy, can never stray far from the little milking machine.

There’s payoff, of course. When she giggles, I feel this great big smile spread over my face, and when she laughs, there is nothing wrong in the world. She plays with toys now, and can sit in her high chair. She is fascinated with Jinx. Sometimes I love her so much I don’t know what to do with myself.

But mommy and daddy need to eat, and needless to say, having an infant in the house cuts deeply into my writing, and at a time when I am feeling a little overwhelmed with finishing The Desert Spear, promoting the Painted/Warded Man, and maintaining this blog, which I have been prioritizing in that order. Sadly, that means the Peephole suffers most of all. I have half-written posts on POVs, Writing to Sell, Stepsheeting, and other writing related stuff. I have pictures of Cassie I want to post, and a growing list of bookmarked reviews and the like to shout out.

Let’s deal with a few of those real quick, shall we? Then I’ll work on my interview for Fantasy Book Critic, and still try and make my Desert Spear writing quota for the day (hit it the last two weeks running! Whee!).

Dark Wolf posted a review of The Warded Man on his site the other day. I am working on an interview for him, too, which I will complete sometime in the next week or so. In the meantime, check out his blog. Some good stuff there.

Iscariot posted a long review of The Painted Man on the Malazan Empire forum. This was actually posted a while ago, but I bookmarked it on the laptop, which I seldom use anymore, so it sat for a while before I remembered it. It’s a pretty solid review, I think.

Ben Aaronovitch gives a brief review of The Painted Man on his blog, Temporarily Significant, wherein he pays it the greatest compliment he knows. It’s an honor.

And there’s an itty-bitty mini-review on Grasping for the Wind. Short and sweet.

That’s all for now. Hopefully I’ll have time to finish at least one craft post this week, and with any luck, there will be some major updates to the website this week, too!

Posted on December 7, 2008 at 1:23 pm by PeatB
Filed under Cassie, Musings, Reviews, Writing
4 Comments »

One of the amazing things that’s been happening recently are the messages I have been getting from readers of the book or my blog, coming quite literally from all over the world. E-mail and blog comments have made it easy for people to get in touch with authors, and I am really happy about that, and greatly enjoy the feedback. As a new author who is a control freak and his own worst critic, it really helps to hear from people as I struggle through the home stretch of book two, and try to keep a blog that is both enjoyable to read and helps keep people up to date with book-related nonsense.

Surprisingly, quite a few messages have come from people who have never read The Painted/Warded Man, and just enjoy my blog, be it for the baby pictures or my personal musings on the writing process and the transition of my work from a hobby to a profession. A lot of budding writers have gotten in touch with me about my craft-related posts (see the “Craft” category in the sidebar), and I am really happy that people are finding help and inspiration in my experiences. I only wish I had time to do more.

One of these blog readers, Courtney, wrote to me last week to thank me for my posts on writing, particularly the challenges of writing as a new parent with a baby in the house. You see, Courtney is in a family way herself, and is (justifiably) worried about how it will affect her writing time. Boy, can I ever relate.

In the midst of our conversation, I learned two things:

The first is that Courtney lives in the US, and The Warded Man doesn’t launch here until March 10, 2009, so she has yet to read it.

The second is that the due date for her son’s birth is, you guessed it, March 10, 2009.

So I am making this promise to Courtney, with all cyberspace as my witness. If she delivers on launch day, I am sending her a free autographed copy. I wish I could also send her the time to read it.

Oh, and Courtney? If you’re still considering baby names, you could do a lot worse than “Arlen”.

Posted on December 2, 2008 at 7:33 pm by PeatB
Filed under Events, Writing
3 Comments »

Oooh! Is that another cover? Yes it is! According to bookseller website Libri.de, it looks like my German publisher, Heyne, will be publishing their translation of The Painted Man in May 2009, right on the heels of the UK paperback and the US hardcover.

Once again, all I have is a tiny thumbnail of the cover, but I gotta say, I kinda dig it. It’s peaceful and beautiful, but also kind of lonely and sad. I think it speaks to a lot of the themes in the story, as Arlen’s journey takes him to amazing places no one has seen in centuries, but forces him to do it alone, with no one to share in his triumphs, or mourn him if he fails.

The title will be Das Lied der Dunkelheit, which google translates as “The Song of the Darkness”. Not sure why they changed the title, but that’s a publisher’s perogative, and it could well be a translation issue. I was told by the head of Unicorn, my Greek publisher, that “The Painted Man” would translate into Greek as “The Transvestite”, which, not that there’s anything wrong with men wearing stockings and garters if that’s their thing, is not entirely appropriate for a book about a tattooed guy who kills demons. Song of the Darkness is a little pushbutton, but hey, sometimes that works.

And maybe the musical reference sounds way more badass in German. They are the people that gave us Ride of the Valkyries after all, and you don’t get any more badass than that.

Posted on November 28, 2008 at 12:09 am by PeatB
Filed under Craft, Events, Germany, Sales, World Traveler, Writing
5 Comments »

Google alerts (and my own obsessive hunt for reviews) has once again provided me with a plethora of links to share with everyone.

First up, my first Polish review is up on a website called CLICK!. You can read a (poorly google) translated version here. It’s an interesting review which compares me to a Polish fantasy writer and seems to be a big thumbs up, if the translation can be trusted.

On the UK side, the Student Union blog of the University of Gloucestershire put up a review of The Painted Man the other day, which describes the world as “hard not to like”.

As you may know, I am nominated for the David Gemmell Legend Award for Fantasy. While there were a great number of nominees and as a very new and unknown author I don’t really expect to win, it’s an honor to be nominated, and there is a discussion board on the award website where people have said some amazing things, like Andrew Guile, who picked up the book when he heard it was nominated, and blew me away with his comments. Voting for the award is open to all and sundry, and begins December 26. Expect me to nag everyone to vote at year’s end.

There have been, of course, a shortage of reviews of The Warded Man, mainly because it will not be released for months still. It seems like an eternity. But they are starting to trickle in, beginning with a mini-review by Liz from My Favourite Books which you can read here on a site called Grasping for the Wind.

Interestingly, the sequel to The Painted/Warded Man, which will (thankfully) be known as The Desert Spear in all English markets, is getting a lot of buzz lately, thanks to the amazing cover by artist Larry Rostant that I posted last week. It made the Cover Porn installment on NextRead, had a nice talk up on artist Aidan Moher’s blog A Dribble of Ink, and a mention on Dark Wolf’s Fantasy Reviews, where he says he will soon be posting a full review of The Warded Man, as well.

If I don’t post again before tomorrow, Happy Thanksgiving, all!

Posted on November 26, 2008 at 10:18 am by PeatB
Filed under Reviews, Writing
5 Comments »

Fabryka Slow, my Polish publisher, is launching Malowany Czlowiek, AKA The Painted Man, this Friday, November 28.

As if I didn’t have enough things to be thankful for this year.

It’s a little weird, having the book come out all over the world, in foreign languages even, while I am still waiting for it to come out here in the US, my home market. I guess it’s true that no man is a prophet in his own land.

But enough of that. Let’s get back to the Polish release, and how awesome it is. Poland has really gotten behind the book, taking the cover art from the UK and the wards I had designed and turning them into all sorts of backgrounds and animation. This morning I saw the ad for the book on EMPiK.com, one of Poland’s biggest booksellers, and I was blown away, even without being able to read a word of it!

I hope it is a huge success for them. I would love nothing more than an excuse to visit Poland to do some signings. Everyone I know who’s been there says it’s incredibly beautiful, and it would be great to meet the people at Fabryka Slow who have been so supportive and complimentary of my work.

More Polish hype!

And I’ve saved the best part for last! Check this out:

Posted on November 24, 2008 at 4:56 pm by PeatB
Filed under Events, Interviews, Reviews, Sales, World Traveler, Writing
5 Comments »