Paksworld

We had seventeen entries at the end, after I found John McDonald’s in the moderation queue.    Alas for what I said in the comments to the previous post, I don’t really use hamsters to generate random numbers, and I used an online random number generator instead.    I wish I had seventeen ARCs to hand out, because, folks, every one of you wrote something that made me chuckle, or cry, or just sit there feeling Paksworld around me.    So in the midnight dark, I decided that three ARCs would find a new home in this thing. Read the rest of this entry »

OK, it’s less than 12 hours to the deadline.   Time for all who haven’t put their name in the hat for an ARC of Crown of Renewal to come up with a little “Midwinter Tale” (it can be short.  It’s not going to be judged on anything but its existence in the comments section of this post) and email it to the ARC Contest post by midnight tonight.

Each person who enters will have one chance to win one of two ARCs up for grabs, no matter how many tales you enter…though I admit a special glow of thanks to those who entered more than one.    A random number generator will toss me the numbers, and I will announce the winners tomorrow (if we don’t have a power outage or something else happens to prevent me…this is winter, after all, even in Texas.)    Winners will then have 48 hours to send me their package-mail address, and the books will go out by the end of the week (I’m not sure when our local post office will close, other than New Year’s Day, but it often has restricted hours around holidays.)

Ideas come not to those who wait, but those who set fingers to the keyboard and start.  9.5 hours is plenty of time for a couple of paragraphs.

Yarn spun from the wool of Herdwick sheep, purchased from Crookabeck Farm.

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The good news is that I heard from Editor that ARCs are on their way.   That’s right, plural.   We will have a contest & drawing for two ARCs of Crown of Renewal.    Here’s your challenge for this year… Read the rest of this entry »

Periodically there are online discussions (and arguments) about what constitutes epic fantasy, who can and can’t write epic fantasy, which books are or are not epic fantasy, why someone should (or should not) write or try to write epic fantasy, what settings work or don’t work for epic fantasy, etc.   Given my writing schedule, I usually hear about these weeks to months after they appear and far too late to add my two (hundred and thirty seven) cents to the discussion.   But a recent one (October of this year) in another venue, that I happened across by following links on Twitter about something else (you know how Twitter links jump topics, right?  It’s how I ended up following a bunch of shepherds in the UK) drove me to comment even though I was very late to the party.   It was a sensible, thoughtful, interesting discussion, and I thought I had something to add to it.

It also led me to think more analytically about my own thoughts on epic fantasy.    And here they are. Read the rest of this entry »

Whatever you do this time of the year,

Midwinter up here, midsummer down south

I hope you have joy and friends all around you

The taste of your favorite foods in your mouth. Read the rest of this entry »

Shattered Shields edited by Jennifer Brozek and Bryan Thomas Schmidt will be released November 4, 2014 to bookstores everywhere by Baen in trade paperback. Read the rest of this entry »

First careful run through the page proofs  for Crown of Renewal is done, finding only three errors–the usual clean job that Del Rey’s production team delivers.  Now for the backwards pass, because I have (though not with Del Rey) found truly awful problems only on the second, backward, pass, when I’m forced to see the page differently and cannot be distracted by the story. Read the rest of this entry »

So here’s the new page on the website: the Character Gallery.    Here’s where art depicting the characters will be displayed.   First up is Arvid in his earlier days, much as he was when Paks first saw him.    I hope you enjoy this page, as it grows with more artwork related to Paksworld, mostly characters but maybe (depends)  some decorative stuff.

If you prefer to visualize characters yourself, in your own mind, no need to go see what someone else thought a character looked like–but if you enjoy others’  visual imagination, go right ahead.   I’ve commissioned several sketches from Richard Hescox; this is the first up.   Aliam Halveric will probably be next.  As he’s fitting them in between other work, it’ll likely be months between new appearances.

Since Crown of Renewal’s  covers, US and UK, are on display at their respective Amazon portals…there they are side by side for your delectation.

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