I’m delighted to announce the The Night Angel omnibus, coming in trade paperback from Orbit in April.
You can go here for some thoughts from Kirk Benshoff, the cover designer, and here, here, or here to pre-order. The omnibus will also feature a deleted chapter, an extensive glossary and a character list.
First, congratulations to the winners of the Goodreads Contest: to both Theresa and Irwin in California, Carola in the Netherlands, Tyler in Ontario, and Maria in South Australia — congratulations! Your signed copies of The Black Prism are on their way.
Now about the photobomb contest: we had some spectacular entries. Here are some of the best:
Fans of the infamous “chicken nuggets” scene.*
Abe? I’m one of your favorites?! No way. You’re one of mine, too!
This is totally how the boxed set should have come:
Assassins-in-training also use my books as training manuals!
Want texts that will engage college freshmen? μολὼν λαβέ!
Assassins particularly like working (and reading) at twilight:
Not so easily killed:
It was a hard decision. But since I gave my “muhaha, there can only be one!” Highlander vow, there could only be one:
Congratulations to Gloria N.! We’ll do our best to get you your copy of the sold-out, limited edition Perfect Shadow from Subterranean Press in time for Christmas.
*No, there’s not really a chicken nuggets scene. But now that you mention it, maybe in the 10th anniversary edition…
A graphic audio book of The Way of Shadows (part 1 of 2) is coming out in April, with installments following it monthly.
But Brent, I thought you already have an audiobook.
Yeah, I do. But GraphicAudio does something different. GraphicAudio performs books with actors and sound effects and a sound track. The books ARE abridged: say if I wrote “It was raining,” instead of hearing someone narrate those words, you’d hear the sound of rain. In my mind, abridging or adapting is a creative work in itself. For example, remember that Leonardo DiCaprio movie “Romeo + Juliet“? A bit different than Shakespeare probably imagined the action–and yet totally cool in its own way. That’s how I feel about adaptations. GraphicAudio will bring its own vision to this book. And I, for one, am eager to see what they’ve come up with.
One geeky bonus: If you want to know how _I_ pronounce everything, this should be the authoritative source. As an author, I try to make my made up words look different on the page–among other considerations, of course–but I don’t care too much how you pronounce them. Take Vi. Pronounce it Vie, or pronounce it Vee. Your call. You might even think one is cool, and the other sucks. Naturally, I’d like you to choose the one you think is cool. To me, this is part of the co-creation of a world that happens between a reader and an author. I’m just an architect, folks. You get to pick out the drapes yourself.
A graphic audiobook has different demands, so I was delighted when the director called me up and went through a list of names and places and recorded how to say every single one of them. We had a great chat. He even asked my opinion on some of his creative ideas for music, accents, and the whole nine yards. This doesn’t always happen–once he buys the rights from my corporate overlords, he can do WHATEVER he wants with those rights. That’s how it works. So I appreciate the level of craftsmanship and passion he showed. It makes me eager to see the result. If you want to get a taste of what it’s like, they’ve posted THIS SAMPLE which is the first nine minutes/the first chapter of the book. Go ahead, you can go listen.
So here I am, writing a book, trying to stitch together a subplot, when I oh-so-innocently launch Twitter. (Always a mistake. Always.) Turns out I have just been scooped. Some blogger posted my new, not-yet-supposed-to-be-released cover. In short order, in the way of the internet, so had someone else, with mild snark added. I’m not one to begrudge a legit scoop or a free side of snark, so a tip of the hat to The Mad Hatter Review and A Dribble of Ink. My lawyers should be contacting you any minute. (Just kidding. I don’t have lawyers; I’ve only got a crazy house elf who likes to sign Esquire after his name.)
Did I ever say that the internet age has weirded publishing? (Apologies to Bill Watterson.) I’m suddenly posting things on the internet about a book I Haven’t Even Finished Writing. I had a publication date before I had a delivery date. Things get out before they’re finalized. Amazon posts the book blurb that I made up Before I Wrote the Book. So…uh, the blurb on Mad Hatter’s page and on Amazon is all wrong. And spoileriffic. Not anyone’s fault. Orbit asked me what the book was about–you know, before the bought the book–and I told them as well as I knew at the time, including spoilers.
Strangely, I like to finish writing the book before I write the back cover blurb–then I know silly little details like What The Characters’ Names Are.
But hey, I’m just The Man, tryin’ to keep you down, Internet. (See, this is why I can’t begrudge free snark.)
And no, I’m not sure why I’m capitalizing random words. Pending German release, perhaps?
Anyway, here it is, in higher definition than you can find it anywhere else! If you can’t do it first, do it better, right?
(click if you can handle the awesomeness)
Did I mention I’m taking cold medicine right now? I think posting on the internet while taking cold medicine probably isn’t covered in my contract–but it will be next time.
Some things about this cover MAY change. But that will have to wait for another post. What do you think?
Like Punxsutawney Phil, Brent will soon be poking his head out of his hole. Except he’ll do it in November instead of February. Brent would be delighted to meet you, sign your books, and chat with you at Borderlands Bookstore in San Francisco, California on Monday, November 2nd or at Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing in Beaverton, Oregon on Sunday, November 29th (click here for details).
Channeling the predictive powers of the most famous groundhog in the world, will Brent see his shadow? (Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.) Will he finish writing Black Prism on time, or will there be six more weeks of writing?! Nevertheless, the two multi-author book signings will be great (although Brent gets nervous about signing his name and talking at the same time).
Thanks to Jude Feldman and Peter Honigstock for organizing the events!
On a side note that has nothing to do with groundhogs, have you seen The Night Angel Trilogy boxed set? It’s in stores now and we’re pretty excited about it. That line at the top still warms our hearts!
PLAZA, a Random House Mondadori imprint, has just acquired the world Spanish language rights, hoping to publish all in 2011. The way I understand how this is likely to work is that they will release in Spain, and depending on sales, will export to other Spanish language markets. They even can export to the US, which strikes me as very cool. I, of course, have no control over any of this, but I will post updates as I learn more and cover art when they send it to me and allow me to show it.
The “and finally” in the title here isn’t because I’m being snarky–no, really! It’s because I had quite a number of emails from people asking when I would publish in Spanish–which I appreciate, but I don’t really publish anything. A publisher has to come to an author first and say that they want to publish your book in language X. Like it seems happens a lot in publishing, we had no interest, followed by no interest, followed by a sudden flurry of interest from numerous corners all at once.
I’m pleased to announce that Tantor Media has purchased the rights to produce audiobooks of the complete Night Angel Trilogy. They have contracted actor Paul Boehmer to narrate. Work is already underway and the audiobook of The Way of Shadows will be available July 16th, followed by Shadow’s Edge on August 13th, and Beyond the Shadows on September 13th. Audio samples should be available on the linked pages soon. The books will be available both as audio CDs and mp3 CDs. They’re also available for pre-order HERE at Amazon.com and doubtless elsewhere as well.
This week, I scrambled up two more spots on the New York Times Extended Best Seller List. I am now perched at #29. Whoo hoo! I also figured out that “best seller” is two words. I’m told it behooves a writer to know how to spell. Compound adjectives confound.
And I got this very cool picture (thanks, Heather H.!) this week, taken at a Borders. Nice folks to rub shoulders with, huh?
Fictionwise, Stanza, and Ereader have ironed out their issues, and will be selling The Way of Shadows for $1, but only until the end of the month! (Joining Amazon and Sony — where I’ve got the #1 best seller!
So yes, this means you can now read my book on your iPhone. Just read fast. That battery dies quick.
Oh, and if it helps… A fan writes in, “The Way of Shadows was written in Oregon! And you know how they write quality books in Oregon!” [Insert more breathless shilling here.]
I’m happy to announce I’ve signed a deal with Eksmo Publishing (Эксмо) to publish The Way of Shadows and Shadow’s Edge. And of course I hope we sell well enough that they’ll buy Beyond the Shadows as well. I’d hate for a reader to never get to read Beyond after SE’s ending. It’s just cruel. (But it’s not a cliff-hanger. Really. There’s a satisfying ending. It’s just that there’s a big twist in the epilogue. Don’t peek!)
I’ve also had lots of queries about what’s next. I’ve addressed this on the forum, but you don’t want to pick through posts on some forum, your mouse-clicking finger is tired, you just want the deets, man. Fair ’nuff.
I’ve signed a new three book deal with Orbit. I submitted an outline, and so much happened in the story, they were like, “Looks like three books to us, but do what you think is best. We just want your next three books.” Sweet. “And we want them fast. Your deadline is a book each November.” Gulp. So the trilogy is (extremely) tentatively titled Black Prism. I’m working as fast as I can, and I’m really excited about what’s forming. It’s set in a new world. Think more 1500 Mediterrean Sea, rudimentary fire arms and magic together. Woot. But don’t worry, it’s not a pirates-and-their-peg-legged-mateys book. Cross my heart. But there are awesome characters, lots of action, much cooler magic this time out, secrets, lies, betrayal, and butt-kicking. You know, the good stuff. After this trilogy (if it is indeed a trilogy), I will be returning to Midcyru with a new series. And yes, numerous of the important characters who actually survived the end of the Night Angel Trilogy will show up. 🙂
Next week, I hope to be able to announce another foreign deal, announce the pub dates of the foreign deals we’ve already got, and maybe post a cover or two…
