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Real Life Fantasy: Mirror Spiders

Purple mirror spider on beech leaf; Peter Woodard
Peter Woodard

These stunning spiders may be as close to real-life drafters as we will see in this universe. They have the unique ability to make brilliant reflective plates on their abdomen, using guanine. Even cooler is their ability to make the plates expand and contract at will!

mirror spider, Australia
Nicky Bay

Perhaps it’s appropriate that British entomologist William J Rainbow was the first person to catalogue and describe these surreal, tiny spiders.

We took one look at these clever critters and immediately thought of Andross Guile… Even though they’re kind of the opposite of Andross, in that they’re beautiful and harmless.

Mirror spiders, or Thwaitesia argentiopunctata, live in Australia, and can be found in every state in the country. Ahh, Australia: land of frilled-neck lizards, quokka, and platypus. I mean, where else would they live?

Oh, wait, they’re also in Singapore? UGH, you southern hemisphere folk get all of the fun creatures, don’t you? I suppose it’s a fair trade for having upside-down seasons and your toilets flush backwards.

(I do enjoy a good game of two truths and a lie.)

Most of the images we found were taken by Singapore-based photographer Nicky Bay. For more beautiful images of mirror spiders and other fascinating insects around the world, you can also check out Nicky’s website (link above).

Australia, mirror spider
Robert Whyte

Thank you to our sources, for sharing information about our beautiful world: Australian Geographic, This Is Colossal, & Strange Animals.

mirror spider, Australia
Robert Whyte

Fan Art Tuesday: Brandon Sheppard

A while ago I found this stellar image of Kylar becoming the Night Angel over on DeviantArt:

Kylar Stern becoming the Night Angel from the series by Brent Weeks.

The artist, o85cur3d on DeviantArt, created this gem years ago. I’ve only just recently stumbled onto it…. Which means I can’t find the guy! If anyone knows Brandon, tell him how much we enjoy his work.

New Feature: Real Life Fantasy–Tetrachromats

Hi friends!

We’ve created a new feature on the wesbite that (for now) we’re calling Real Life Fantasy. In it, we will be sharing stories, news, and other documentary media that echoes some of the ideas, concepts, and imagery found in Brent’s books.

Our first post is about tetrachromacy: the ability to see TEN TIMES as many colors as most humans.

What It’s Like to See 100 Million Colors

Tetrachromacy, Fantasy IRL, Brent Weeks

This particular article has been making the rounds for a while now, and it shows up in our inboxes occasionally. Which is to say, it’s a perennial favorite. It demonstrates that reality can sometimes bleed into the fantastic; more importantly, it shows that our man Weeks did his homework when it came to writing about females being superior chromaturgs. You can’t fight biology, dudes.

Feel free to discuss in the comments (just remember, we’re all friends here). And if you see something IRL that bears a resemblance to something you’ve read in Brent’s books, pass it along to us!

September Q&R Video: Brent’s Recommended Reads

Hi friends!

Since Brent mentioned a number of fantastic books for everyone to check out in today’s Facebook Q&R video, we put together the list (with links!) of authors & titles here.

What? You may be asking yourself. More reading that’s not Brent’s books? Come on!

Think of it this way: now you have a whole list of books to read to help you procrastinate writing that Physics paper.

It’s an English paper? We got you covered, fam.

Ditto History.

You’re not in school, you say? Well then! You should have NOTHING but free time for the books below, right? Right?!

Now get reading!

 

Lisa Cron, Wired For Story: 

http://wiredforstory.com/

 

Thomas Asbridge, The Greatest Knight: 

http://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/The-Greatest-Knight/Thomas-Asbridge/9781847396419

 

Ian Mortimer, Time Traveller’s Guides: 

http://www.ianmortimer.com/books.htm

 

Robert Crais, Suspect & The Promise: 

http://robertcrais.com/books/book_suspect.htm

 

Neil Gaiman, Trigger Warning

http://www.neilgaiman.com/works/Books/Trigger+Warning%3A+Short+Fictions+and+Disturbances/

 

Dan Jones, The Plantagenets: 

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/312497/the-plantagenets-by-dan-jones/

 

Søren Kierkegaard, Fear & Trembling: 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24965.Fear_and_Trembling

 

And the website for HEMA, the Historical European Martial Arts Alliance:

https://www.hemaalliance.com/

Fan Art Tuesday: Salomé Bisson

Motion design student Salomé Bisson (who is studying in France) created this awesome trailer for Way of Shadows:

Here’s a translation of the text:

Pour Azoth survivre est une lutte de tous les instants
For Azoth survival is an every day struggle (battle)

Son seul espoir,
His only hope,

la voie des ombres,
the way of shadows

en devenant l’apprenti
by becoming the apprentice

du maitre assassin
of the master assassin

Durzo Blint

You can see more of Salomé’s work on their YouTube page.

Throwback Thursday: Night Angel Edition III

It’s already Thursday again, mateys! As this is being written, there are 2 weeks, 5 days, 3 hours, and 15 minutes left until the 10th Anniversary NIGHT ANGEL Hardcover Omnibus is released. Not that we’re excited or anything.

This week’s Throwback Thursday post on Brent’s official Facebook page features a rough draft of Brent’s pitch for MORTAL, a version of the story that eventually became WAY OF SHADOWS.


Remember to pre-order your copy of the Omnibus! Also you can enter the BattleWorn Books competition for a chance to win some sweet, sweet Night Angel swag! Also I’ve been told that exclamation points are most effective as triptychs!

Throwback Thursday: Night Angel Edition

Hi everyone!

We’re rolling out more sweet throwback photos to celebrate The Night Angel Trilogy’s tenth birthday! They tell the story of how Night Angel came to be, and how a clever guy named Brent became The Brent Weeks.

This week’s installment can be found on Facebook (and also Instagram).

You can pre-order a copy of the 10th Anniversary Omnibus from one of these fine retailers:

Barnes & Noble

The Signed Page

Amazon

You can also enter to win a copy of the Omnibus, The Way of Shadows graphic novel, and other great prizes by submitting your BattleWorn Books to us by September 12.

Throwback Thursday: An Agent Finds Brent

It’s likely true that Brent Weeks was presented to the world on one balmy summer night in New York in 2006. Legend has it his agent was enjoying a nightcap on a sidewalk patio in Brooklyn that fateful evening and—according to an anonymous friend sitting next to him—wondered aloud when the Next Great Novelist would emerge from the dark recesses of unpublished obscurity. By some accounts, a choir of angelic voices could be heard singing a wistful “Ahhhhh” in C minor when the sky opened up, and Weeks fell from the heavens directly into his agent’s lap.

But we’re not here to discuss legends, per se. We’re here to present a more believable story of writing, revision, research, rewriting, blood, sweat, tears, aphorisms, more revising and rewriting, and landing your dream agent.

First, Brent wrote a novel in college, a sprawling manuscript full of… words. Then he revised it. Then he revised it again. Then he abandoned the book entirely. But one particular character stuck with him, and he decided to take that character and…. Write a screenplay.

Which he then abandoned.

Then he wrote another novel, focusing entirely on this one kid. He called it Reaper of Shadows Mortal. He went through every word to the point where he was changing things back to the way they were before his last editing pass. The manuscript sparkled. The climax shattered expectations, broke hearts, moved mountains.

Brent, being an industrious and intelligent fantasy reader, found some 40-odd authors whose books were similar to his and looked in the acknowledgements. The result of this research was a list of 33 agents who he thought he would be happy to have represent him. Some were longshots that he knew were too big for him. He tried anyway.

Fifteen never wrote back. Fifteen rejected him. Three were interested enough to ask to see more. Two dropped out after seeing the whole MS.

While waiting to hear the wet squish of rejection from those agents, he looked into writing conferences. As luck would have it, two agents from his list were going to the Willamette Writers’ Conference–and they both were accepting pitches! He almost didn’t go. The cost was a huge stretch for him and his wife. He went anyway.

He walked into that conference with a checklist of weapons:

great novel (or so he thought).

extrovert mask–Check.

logline– wait, huh?

one paragraph pitch–what?

two minute pitch–ummmmm…

anti-perspirant. Check.

At this conference, one of the agents was… well, a little too strange for Brent. But the other one gave a talk that blew Brent’s mind. Donald Maass asked, “What is the one thing your main character would never do?” Brent imagined his response, and the agent followed with, “Now what happens to your novel if your main character does that?”

It was at that moment a small, hard shell in Brent’s brain cracked open with a faint “Ahhh, shit.” Because inside that shell lay the key to making Mortal Then Dies A Hero twice as good. (What would Kylar never do? What would Durzo never do?)

He’d come to the conference thinking his novel was ready to sell. Now, knowing he needed to do a major re-write, he had to pitch it anyway.

Ouch.

The first pitch to Don Maass went something like this: “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon meets Pulp Fiction meets Batman.” Don gave Brent a very puzzled look, like he was really trying to follow and just had no idea where he was going. Weeks had blown it.

But the inimitable Maass knew that the people with whom he met at writing conferences were serious about treating writing as a profession. (Unlike many of the other 300 pitches that cross his desk every week.) So he told Brent to remind him that they had met at the Willamette Writers’ Conference in his next query letter. (Brent didn’t mention Don had already rejected this book.)

Nine months later, Brent was ready. He sent a second query. The blacker-than-black sky parted, and Don heard what may have been bells ringing—the sweet, tinny chime of a cash register. A mere two years later, Don sold the book to Orbit. It became a New York Times bestseller, and continues to sell well to this day. Oh, did you want to see some of this legendary correspondence? Well, I happen to know where you can get an exclusive look.

We’re celebrating Night Angel’s 10th birthday with a special edition Hardcover Omnibus, to be released in the US on September 18, and in the UK on September 20, 2018. (Because 10/10 would read it again.) If you haven’t already, pre-order a copy today!

THE BURNING WHITE cover reveal

Here it is–the stunning cover image for Lightbringer 5: The Burning White.

Brent Weeks, Lightbringer, Burning White

EDIT: Here’s a description of the visuals, written by CAPSLOCK.

The Hooded Man is standing on a rocky beach, facing away from us. He is facing an enormous, circular stone tower several yards away (we can only see the first two stories of it). He is brandishing a large sword in his right hand, wearing a red cape, and looking to his left. From our perspective, there’s a white glow coming from his left hand (which is obscured by the cape), and a bolt of orange light emanating from his right side (near his arm). He is surrounded by a warm glow of light in every color, with red, blue, violet, and orange being most prominent. The rest of the image is shades of gray. It looks to be nighttime. The phrase on this volume is “Every legend shines a light…”

How’s this for gutsy? I love it! With an appearance by our good friend The Hooded Man! (Hey, buddy, fancy seeing you here!)

An enormous thank you to Lauren Panepinto (design) and Gene Mollica (illustration)–Lauren has worked to create beautiful covers for all five Lightbringer novels. The Burning White will be released in late summer/early fall 2019. (Yes, that’s next year. Patience, grasshopper.) If you’d like to leave your fulsome praise for their work, please do comment below.

This is the first I’ve let CAPSLOCK see it. (It’s fun to keep her out of the loop sometimes.) I think her head just exploded. Oh, MAN! Who’s gonna clean that up. CAPSLOCK 2, where are you?!