Stephen Aryan's Blog, page 11
August 6, 2019
Magebane is published!!!
Magic is the only weapon against the gods in the powerful final novel of this epic fantasy trilogy about battlemages and sorcerers in a world that fears their powers.
US: ow.ly/lGwM50voKRl
UK: ow.ly/HD5b50voKRF
July 30, 2019
July 4, 2019
Battlemage Kindle deal for July – Amazon UK
Battlemage (book 1) in the first trilogy (Age of Darkness) is currently on offer at Amazon (UK only I’m afraid) for 99p for the whole of July!!
So if you’ve not read it yet then now is the time. Tell your friends, tell your colleagues, tell strangers in the street as well! Just as long as it’s before the end of the month. If you started with Mageborn, now is the perfect time to go back and see where it all began, back in the dark historic days of….2015.
July 2, 2019
Battlemage Kindle deal
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Battlemage-A...
June 30, 2019
How many pages do you give a book to grip you before giving up?
Having just put down a book before reaching the end, I asked this question on Twitter as I was curious about how others felt.
To my surprise the majority of people stop reading if they are not enjoying a book, rather than persisting to the end. There was a range of answers related to page count and chapters, with the most extreme answer, I think, coming from Philip Pullman:-
About 100 usually. Sometimes much less. I’ve given up after 2 before.
— underjoyed (@rosserger) June 29, 2019
First chapter
— josephine horman (@2013Horman) June 29, 2019
About 50.
— Melinda M. Snodgrass (@MMSnodgrass) June 29, 2019
If it's a pronoun, one word. Apart from 'I'.
— Philip Pullman (@PhilipPullman) June 29, 2019
Sometimes the answer was proportional to the length of the book
Well, it depends. If a book has 100-200 pages, than probably 20-40 pages. If it has like 800 than 100 is max. But if a book is really good it usually gets me from first two pages, like Fight Club or Catcher in the Rye.
— ᗷEᗩᑕK TᗩEEᖇOᗯ (@biktairov) June 29, 2019
Sometimes the answer was related to cost
My endurance is tied to my costs. I'll stick with purchased books longer before bailing. But I'll ditch a library book in a hot minute.
— Karen Dawn Zachary (@KarenDZachary) June 29, 2019
So, here’s a follow up question as a poll. I wonder, if the general stance has changed because in 2019 we have TV and films on demand, whole TV series arrive in one chunk and can be binged, hundreds of cheap digital books available at the press of a button, and there’s more content than ever before.
Are we less patient with books? Do we want them to get to the good stuff sooner? Has all of this impacted your reading attention span? Are you less forgiving?
Take Our Poll
June 21, 2019
Magebane events
[image error]To celebrate the publication of Magebane (available to preorder from all good bookshops now, hint hint!) I’m going to be doing a few events online and in person.
Thursday 8th August
The book is officially published on Monday 5th August so to coincide with that I’m going to be doing my first signing event in Scotland. On Thursday 8th August in the evening I will be at Waterstones Argyll Street in Glasgow on a panel discussion with Cameron Johnston and Shona Kinsella, moderated by Cat Hellisen. We’re going to be talking about wrapping up a series, saying goodbye to characters – potentially forever, the joy and terror of starting something new and writing in general. You need to buy a ticket for this event, so please visit their website for more information or pop into the shop if you are local. Come along and join us. You can find more information here.
Tuesday 13th August
If you’re not in the UK and not able to attend one of the events I’m going to be doing a Reddit AMA over at reddit.com/fantasy. If you’re not a member then Reddit is free to join and an AMA is an opportunity to Ask Me Anything. This could be about the books, characters, writing in general, hobbies, pets, whatever really. I’ll be there online for roughly 24 hours and will regularly check in on the thread throughout the day and night to answers questions as best as I can. If you have spoilery questions you can ask those too but there are ways to conceal the text on Reddit, so it doesn’t spoil it for others. If you have questions anyway, but don’t want to be on Reddit, you can just email me. Info is in the about page on my website.
Thursday 5th September
A few weeks later I will be at Birmingham Waterstones on Thursday 5th September in conversation with Anna Stephens and GX Todd. This will be to celebrate the publication of Magebane but also Bloodchild, the third novel in Anna Stephens Godblind trilogy. We’ll be talking about books, finishing series, starting new stuff, and the general highs and lows of writing. It should be a lot of fun. More info and a link on this event when it’s available.
May 14, 2019
May TV and books
Busy working on the new NEW book. Currently editing it and at the end of that process it will be a second draft. I’ll then send it back to my agent for her feedback. After that, we’ll see. I might need to do another edit (which is likely) or it may be ready to go out on submission. Who knows.
In the meantime, I’m continuing to feed my brain lots of good content. TV, comics, films and books. No spoilers and I’m not going to be discussing Game of Thrones even though I am watching it. Some people are not up to date and I hate spoilers.
Sneaky Pete – Not a genre show at all, but this con-man drama is actually quite heart warming and I found myself really caring about the whole cast of characters, even the annoying ones. Giovanni Ribisi is excellent in the lead as Pete, and to be fair, the whole cast is wonderful. It’s a little bit family drama, a little bit Leverage or Hustle, depending on where you live, as Ribisi sweet talks his way around people using his astute skills and observation. Funny, surprising and always interesting. Currently on Amazon and definitely worth a watch.
Knightfall – While desperately waiting for the next series of The Last Kingdom I thought I would give this a go as it seemed like my kind of thing. Created by the History channel at first I thought it would be a very dry retelling of events surrounding the Knights Templar. Two minutes into the first episode and that preconception was shattered. This is a saucy, violent, action drama with larger than life characters. It involves Templars living in France after the fall of the Holy Land and their quest to locate the Holy Grail. Yes, that very special cup that was lost. As well as the Knights getting up to no good there is also the interwoven intrigue and drama of the French court where Philip rules with an iron fist. It’s fun, and I’m sure not at all historically accurate but it is always entertaining.
Stumptown Vol. 2 – This comic book series written by Greg Rucka was recently optioned for TV. A pilot was made with Cobie Smulders in the lead role as Dex Parios, a PI operating out of Portland, Oregon and it has now been picked up for a full first series. Each volume of the comic book focuses on a different case and this down on her luck PI is reminiscent of the Rockford Files, which Rucka has said was an influence on this book. Quirky, funny and unpredictable, Stumptown takes the time to build its characters, which means when it comes to the TV adaptation which is probably due to air later this year, they have plenty of source material to draw on.
Joyride – Remember when comics just used to be really light-hearted fun with some drama? I say that as a lifelong comic book fan. Sometimes I just want to watch or read something light, exciting and enjoyable that’s not challenging anything or commenting on anything in today’s society. At least, not in too obvious a way. Joyride tells the story or 3 teenagers who steal a spaceship and go off into space to have adventures. That’s it. Drama and excitement follows.
Mister Miracle – This twelve issue comic book series (now collected into one volume) by Tom King and Mitch Gerads from DC comics is one of the best comics I’ve read in many many years. It’s also very difficult to describe. It is self contained, so even if you’ve never read any DC comics before or are not familiar with the characters you can read it and the story will make sense. What it is actually about beyond the surface story is for you to decide. I’m not going to tell you what I think it is about because there’s a lot going on and if I try to outline what I think it is about I will probably miss a bunch of stuff and then later want to add to it as I think about it. This is also a comic I will be able to reread multiple times in the future and get something different from it. I believe it is Tom and Mitch’s finest work to date, not that either of them have been slouches up to now.
The Ember Blade by Chris Wooding – This is the first fantasy novel in a new series by Wooding who is already a very accomplished author who has written YA, fantasy, a SF steampunk series about space pirates, amongst many other books. I’ve written a longer review on Goodreads about it but here is the start – This is a mighty beast of a book, clocking in at over 800 pages. To be fair, Wooding handles the story with his usual balance of cracking action, rich characters that you genuinely care about and wonderful worldbuilding. If Grimdark is a thing in publishing, and maybe it is just a label for the tone of a book, this is the opposite, it is Noble Bright, or whatever you want to call it. Full review is here but in short, read it. You won’t be disappointed.
What have you been watching? Read any good comics?
April 17, 2019
Talking books with….
As some of you may know, as well as writing, I am also involved with podcasting. I’ve been doing it for 11 or 12 years now. At the moment I’m doing a few different ones (more info on all of them here) but perhaps the most relevant if you follow me for book stuff is Crash Landing.
[image error]There is where I talk to other writers about books. In particular their favourite 5 books. These are their most cherished if they were the only 5 books they had access to in the entire world. It’s a tough challenge to whittle down all of the books you’ve ever read to 5, but so far everyone has managed it, more or less, although RJ Barker did cheat slightly by claiming if he taped two books together they were technically one book.
The most recent episode was released this week where I talked to Tasha Suri about her books, writing, her inspirations and through the process of discussing her favourite books it revealed some interesting facts about her too!
Other people I’ve spoken to on the podcast already include, RJ Barker, Francesca Haig, Jamie Sawyer, GX Todd, Niel Bushnell, Al Robertson, Anna Stephens, Taran Matharu, Barry Nugent and Cameron Johnston.
[image error]I’ve also been setting up a YouTube channel for Bags of Action, which is where a friend and I discuss and review action movies. These are classic and modern and this is now on YouTube here so if that’s your thing too then check it out.
Right, I’m off to edit the new book and more news on that when I have it.
March 20, 2019
Class is in session: Fantasy world building
I’m delighted to announce that starting in May I will be teaching an online writing course with LitReactor. This will be a two week course, available to anyone around the world, on fantasy world building.
As you can imagine I’ve spent a lot of time creating fantasy worlds and thinking about all of the elements that contribute to making a memorable setting. In addition to this, the world needs to be populated with interesting characters to make it feel like a real place. LitReactor has given me a great opportunity to share some of the lessons I’ve learned over the years. My goal is to provide my students with a range of tools and open their minds so they start thinking about fantasy world building and characters in new ways.
I’m really excited to be doing this and it’s going to be a fascinating experience. Places are limited to 16 people for this two week course. So if you’re interested I suggest you sign up as quickly as possible on the LitReactor website here.
February 12, 2019
Something new and doubt
I’ve just sent in the first draft of something totally new to my agent for her feedback. This is still fantasy, but the story is not set in the same world, there aren’t any mages in this book and it’s a bit different in terms of style and pacing. Now comes the waiting.
It was both refreshing and scary to start something brand new. Clean slate means no preconceptions and a totally new world where everything is shiny. There’s so much for me to discover and build. New characters to create. A whole new continent to populate with towns and cities. I spent so much time thinking about random things like heritage, architecture, trade and industry, weapons and armour. The list is endless.
It’s liberating but I also need to make sure that everything I create fits together in a cohesive and logical manner. It always baffles me when people who don’t read fantasy think we can basically write without rules and do anything we like, as if readers won’t mind that none of it hangs together. If anything fantasy authors have to work harder, especially when it comes to things like magic. It has to make sense, there have to be rules and costs, otherwise any time there’s any kind of a threat in a story someone can just wave their hand and the problem is solved.
The scary part comes from the little voice inside that wonders if I know what I’m really doing and if the first time was a fluke. That little voice of doubt is healthy, but it’s also a jerk. I think every sensible writer has doubts (any sensible creative person really) and if they don’t then we’ve all seen what kind of monsters they turn into (see Hollywood for example). Whether it’s your second book or your twenty second, if you don’t have doubts then it means you think you’re perfect and everything you write is gold and that is scary. Doubt is fine, it keeps me sharp, it keeps me hungry and it keeps me moving forward. But there are times when I have to point out to that little voice that I’ve gone a lot further than thousands (maybe millions?) of other people.
Even now I meet an endless stream of people who when they ask what I do and I tell them I’m an author their response is ‘Oh, one day I’m going to write a book.’ That one line has many connotations. When people say it now I just smile back, because I’ve done it. I wrote the book. I got the agent and then the book deal, and as of June this year I will have had 6 books published.
It’s not arrogance. It’s me reminding myself of how far I’ve come and what I’ve achieved. I put my money where my mouth was and I did it. It took a long time. Many years. Many failures. Many false starts and rejections. A lot of sacrifice and effort. But I’ve done it. They really can’t say the same.
So I still have doubts, but for now I’m going to ignore that little voice, put my head down and get on with writing a new book.
