Stephen Aryan's Blog, page 20
November 19, 2016
November round up
A general update on what’s been going on for the last month or thereabouts. Starting with some book news.
Book 4
The first draft of book 4 (currently untitled), the first book in the new Age of Dread trilogy, has been sent off to my publisher. Phew. I got it in a couple of weeks early and I had enough time to do a pretty solid revision with some input from a trusted source. As it was the first book in a new trilogy, and even though it was set in the same world, I was super nervous. Digging in and giving it a good polish before it went off to my editor, and getting some positive feedback, has helped a lot. So now I am cracking on with book 5. I should say, you don’t have to have read the first trilogy (Age of Darkness) to read this book, however, it does follow on chronologically from the first and there are lots of overlaps in terms of characters and so on. But it is possible to come in as a fresh reader and it will all make sense. Book 4 comes out next year in October.
Blog posts
I’ve recently done some guest on a few blogs. The first was My Book: The Movie, where I was asked who would I cast if they were going to make a film of Battlemage. My answers often change but right now these are the people I see in the roles, so it gives you a bit of an idea what they look like in my head beyond what you read on the page.
The second blog post was over on The Page 69 Test. This is where if someone were to open my book to that page, what would they find? Is it representative of the whole book or not? Would it give new readers enough to make them keep reading? It was an interesting idea to explore and in this case p69 of Battlemage gives a flavour for one aspect of the book.
Interviews
There are a couple of these coming up. One I did for Mur Lafferty on her podcast, I Should Be Writing. Once this goes live I will repost it. I also did my first video interview! Very nerve racking and tense. However, I got through it and the two people who interviewed me were very friendly and helped me relax. This was during my recent trip to the MCM Expo in London and it was for Solarstorm Entertainment. The video will be on YouTube soon and I will post again when it goes live. I was interviewed along with several other Orbit authors on the day.
Gaming
I don’t tend to talk much about games, but I thought I would add something for a change. I mostly say I’m a lapsed gamer, as I don’t have time to play as much as I used to. However, recently I have picked up the odd game from Steam and the best of them has been Fallout 4. This game is remarkable. It’s probably one of the best games I’ve played in the last 10 years or more. It has all of the elements that I like, exploration, a deep back story and world building, a sandpit aspect to the game, a strong storyline with some major twists that keep me guessing and also wondering about my actions and the choices I’ve made as my character. It is also massive. There is a lot to explore. It’s been a great way to unwind while wiping out a few settlements of Super Mutants.
That’s it for now. If you have read any of my books and would like to do me a favour, please post a review on Amazon or Goodreads, as it does help to me noticed by other potential readers.
November 6, 2016
Battlemage Audiobook 24 hour daily deal
The Battlemage audiobook is available via Amazon / audible for 24 hours only for £2.99. That’s over 15 hours of audio and booky goodness to enjoy.
So if you’ve not started the trilogy yet, now is a great time, but this offer ends later today.
Battlemage audio book daily deal
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Battlemage/d...
October 24, 2016
October news round up
The Age of Darkness
My first series with Orbit, the Age of Darkness, is now at an end. This first trilogy was many years in the making but for you lucky readers, it only took 13 months to come out (September 2015, April 2016 and now October 2016). So all three books are now out there. If you were waiting until the trilogy was done before dipping your toe in, then get stuck in now.
Interviews
I’ve recently done a couple of events to promote Chaosmage and the trilogy as a whole, including some blog posts and interviews. The first of which is with DJ over on his book blog where I talk about my influences for the series, give some general info on characters, the overall themes and the world. It’s a good introduction to the series and there are no spoilers.
I was also recently a guest on the I Should Be Writing podcast, with Mur Lafferty, so keep an eye out for my episode which will be coming up in a couple of weeks time, either on the website or via iTunes.
I also wrote an article for Sci Fi Bulletin which you can read here about Fantasy being an Umbrella, which makes complete sense, right?
The Age of Dread
The big news I’ve been sitting on for months is now out of the bag. I’m delighted to announce that Orbit books have signed me up for a new fantasy trilogy, called the Age of Dread. This series follows on from the previous one, and it is set in the same world a few years after the events of Chaosmage. I can’t say too much about the book, but I can reveal that this trilogy will be more closely tied together than the Age of Darkness.
So we will follow the same characters through the series and it is one massive sprawling story. I’m currently hard at work, in the home stretch in fact, of the first draft of book 1 and am currently a little ahead of my deadline, for the moment! The first book, currently called Seeds of Destruction (although this might change), will be published in October 2017, which seems like a long way off, but from this side of the table, it’s not. With that in mind, I have lots of writing to do before then, so I better get on with it.
October 10, 2016
End of one chapter…and the start of another
So, this week Chaosmage comes out. Book 3 of 3 in the Age of Darkness trilogy. The last book in my first trilogy from Orbit books.
A quick aside…
For all of you out there waiting for the series to finish before picking it up in case a) I died in the middle of writing it or b) not believing it would actually come out every six months and there would be a sudden 2-5 year gap between books, well, you were wrong on both counts. I’m still alive and the trilogy is done. So now you can pick up all 3 books in one go. They’re all here on Barnes and Noble if you’re in the USA, or Waterstones if you’re in the UK. And there’s always Amazon of course.
Second quick aside, I’m at a big fantasy panel on Wednesday 12th October at Waterstones Piccadilly in London at 7pm, alongside 4 other awesome fantasy authors. They are Den Patrick, Jen Williams, Francesca Haig and Peter Newman. So please do come along and say hi. We’re doing a talk and then a signing. It’s free but you have to book a seat.
Anyway, so back in 2013, which both seems like only yesterday and also a long time ago, I wasn’t sure I’d really get to this point. Quite suddenly an agent had just said she was interested in representing my first book and then we were off, and I was editing book 1, writing book 2 and then what followed was two frantically busy years of editing book 1 with my publisher, while writing book 2 and planning book 3. Then once book 1 was completely done, I sunk deeper into book 2 and made more notes on book 3 and so on….which brings me to today where I’m done with my first trilogy.
Three years ago getting one book published was just the dream of an aspiring author. Battlemage was just another book in a long line of novels for me. I’d been trying to get an agent and then a publisher, doing it the traditional way, for many years. In some ways it was no different from some of the previous books I’d written. In other ways it was totally different, as it was a return to my favourite genre after dabbling in other areas and my desire to write a fantasy book that was full of the fantastic (magic, being set on another world, non-human races) which seemed to be lacking at the time. I wanted to both pay my respects to those who had come before, upon whose shoulders I was standing, while blending that with something new. Somehow, through some weird alchemy, I did enough things right for it to catch an agent’s attention.
With Bloodmage I did something completely different. I wrote a more intimate story in terms of scope and I wanted to pay homage to many of my crime influences, from Dexter to Columbo*, to Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden and Mike Carey’s Felix Caster, to all of the cop shows I’ve watched over the last 30 years and loved. It was a more challenging book to write in some ways and I think it’s currently my favourite, although my opinion may change tomorrow. I’m incredibly proud of it and I accomplished everything I set out to do with it, which is rare. Sometimes you write a story and the end result is close. Sometimes it’s not what you wanted and perhaps that means you can explore the same theme again in another book.
With Chaosmage, I went in a different direction again. I pulled through some of the threads from the first two books, tying the stories together, while also paying my respects to some of my thriller and horror influences, such as Dean Koontz and Stephen King. I set out to create something chilling and disturbing in a horrific and deserted city on the edge of the world. I never want to repeat myself or write the same thing twice and so far I believe I’ve achieved it as each book has a very distinctive flavour.
And now I’m looking ahead to the next story. It’s going to be something different again and it will hopefully challenge me in new ways and also prove interesting to the readers.
One final thing. If you have enjoyed any of my books, please post a review on Amazon or Goodreads, even a short one, as it helps other people find the book and helps spread the word. And nothing helps sell a book faster than word of mouth.
* – Bonus points if you spot the Columbo reference in Bloodmage. Send me a note if you do find it.
October 3, 2016
Fantasy event - Waterstones Picadilly
The authors in attendance are Den Patrick, Jen Williams, Peter Newman and Francesca Haig.
https://www.waterstones.com/events/se...
Francesca Haig
Den Patrick
Jen Williams
Peter Newman
September 19, 2016
Guardian Masterclass and Fantasycon
Yesterday I was at the sold out Guardian Masterclass on ‘How to find a literary agent’ in London, being run by my agent Juliet Mushens. For a portion of the afternoon she was ably assisted by two of her clients, Elodie Harper and myself.
It was a really great event where the engaged audience listened intently as we answered some questions about our individual journeys to publication, and also learned about some of our mistakes that they will hopefully avoid.
Juliet Mushens, Elodie Harper, Stephen Aryan
There was just enough time for a short Q and A session, before the break. The time flew by and I had a great time and even managed to coax a few laughs from the audience.
Looking back I wish there had been something similar when I had first started searching for an agent, but such a thing didn’t exist. The internet was in its infancy and all agents only accepted paper submissions. If you’re getting ready to submit or will be in a few months time, I would definitely keep an eye out for similar events like this in the future.
This weekend coming I’m off to Fantasycon in Scarborough. On Saturday I’m on a panel at 2pm called ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ asking – Should we be killing off our main characters?
In the evening, from 7pm-9pm, I will be attending the David Gemmell Awards for Fantasy, where Battlemage has been shortlisted for the Morningstar Award, the category for best debut. I have a one in six chance of winning, so fingers crossed everyone.
Apart from that I’ll be wandering around the event and you’ll most likely find me either at the bar in the evening, talking and drinking, or pottering around the dealer room and sitting in the audience at some other panels as there are some wonderful guests of honour. Hopefully I will see some of your there.
September 9, 2016
Win an early signed copy of Chaosmage
I’ve received a few early copies of Chaosmage from my publisher, Orbit. It’s not officially published for a few weeks (Oct 12) so I’m going to run a simple competition.
The winner will be chosen at random and I will sign and personalise a copy of Chaosmage and post it to you, anywhere in the world.
In order to enter the competition, all you need to do is donate some money to the following charity, Leeds Cat Rescue, via PayPal, and send me proof via email (stephenaryan56[AT]gmail.com)
How much you donate is up to you. Amounts will not be posted anywhere and no-one will know except me. The money will be used to help the charity, which is run by volunteers, to rehome and care for cats and kittens. They are also trying to raise money for special equipment for critical care.
For whoever is the most generous, I will also send out a signed full set of the trilogy.
If you are unable to use Paypal, then as an alternative you could buy something from their Amazon wishlist here, and again let me know via email.
Deadline for entries is midnight Wednesday 21st September. Any questions in the meantime let me know.
August 23, 2016
Suicide Squad Review
This review has spoilers, small and large. You were warned.
I’m writing this a few hours after having seen the film, so that it is still fresh, but I’m probably not going to post it for a while. This is so that I can come back to it and add anything I’ve missed in my haste.
My last three cinema trips have been to see Tarzan, Star Trek Beyond and then Suicide Squad. Much to my surprise I would have to say that I enjoyed SS the most out of the three.
The film isn’t perfect but overall it’s a lot of fun. I’m a lifelong DC comics fan so I know this comic and I know the characters. Visually the film is stunning, it’s epic in scope, the colour tone is perfect and how all of the characters look is amazing.
Some of the characters get a lot more screen time than others, but that is to be expected in a film with such a large cast. That is probably one of its main weaknesses. I think all of the characters are interesting, and done well by the actors, but some of them had so little screen time they felt superfluous at times. They were there to fill out the numbers and look cool, but didn’t do a lot.
Will Smith was great as Deadshot. I was afraid the film would become a vehicle for Will Smith and he would takeover, but this was an ensemble film. He brought heart to the character and made you sympathise with him, despite what he’s done.
Margot Robbie. Utterly amazing in the role. She stole every scene. She was mesmerising and this might sound weird to say, but I forgot it was Margot Robbie. In every film with Tom Cruise, I can see Tom Cruise playing a character. The best actors, in my opinion, disappear into the role so you forget you’re watching them. Tom Hanks is perfect at doing this because he is kind of an everyman in terms of his looks (sorry, Tom!), not that he’ll ever read this. Robbie was Harley, body and soul. She was just enough over the top without it being a caricature. She had lots to do in the film and she was great.
Jay Hernandez was Diablo and there again, a cracking performance. You really felt for this horrible, tattooed, vicious gang-banger, who has gone from a life of crime and violence to one where he’s almost a pacifist and doesn’t want to hurt anyone else with his gift, or curse. There were some great scenes, and oddly, hints at other bits we’ve seen in the trailers that were cut from the final film. Nevertheless, lots of good stuff.
The others, hmm. Captain Boomerang brought some comedy, had some great one liners, was pretty clear cut and you knew what you were getting. He had one very interesting line of dialogue that I won’t spoil, but it showed he’s a bit more astute than the loud idiot he seems to be. Katana was fine and the actress was great, but she didn’t have a lot to do. Same with Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje who played Killer Croc. You might know him as Mr Eko from Lost and other stuff, but here he was unrecognisable with all the prosthetics and big teeth. The character of Waylon Jones is one worth exploring, but there was so little for AAA to do. He stood around a lot, looked mean, had a couple of lines (when I could understand him through the big teeth) and smiled a lot. I think they just ran out of time. You could have lost Katana, trimmed the love story with Flagg and June a bit and given more screen time to AA and Hernandez as Diablo.
Viola Davis as Amanda Waller was fantastic. She embodied the utterly terrifying, ruthless and relentless Wall. This is someone without superpowers who had faced down the Batman and got him to back off. In some ways she is far worse than all of the Squad put together and we see this in the film. The creator of the character, John Ostrander, gave his view of the film and the character over on his column over at Comic Mix.
Ok, so I’ve touched on some of the good, here’s the bad. As I’ve said the film has too many people on it, so some of them stand around to fill the screen and don’t do a lot. Jared Leto’s Joker is different, which is good, but it is so over the top it’s almost a parody of someone playing the Joker. I should be terrified every time the Joker comes into a room. People should freak out and freeze like deer in the headlights as he is utterly unpredictable and he scares even the most hardcore criminal. They tried to do this, but personally I wasn’t that convinced by his performance.
The film also suffered from a bit of the dumbed-down idiot syndrome. There was a fair bit of repetition, hammering the point home, then getting a drill and driving it even further into your skull. We know that they are bad guys. They tell you and show you, with an intro on each at the start and their crimes, then later Will Smith’s character says things like ‘We’re the bad guys’, well, duh! We (the audience) know and everyone other character in the room in the scene knows, so who was his character talking to?
Early in the film it is implied what happened to Diablo’s family and the aftermath was shown, then they revisited it and showed us more detail, and then they still had a character ask the question about what happened and another answer it. Really. They went that far at times. It’s like using a sledgehammer to drive a tack into a wall to put up a picture. We get it!!!!
They also had some characters spout some lines simply because they sounded cool, and didn’t really add anything. Like Harley stealing a handbag and saying ‘We’re bad guys, it’s what we do’. A fun aside, an amusing bit, but incredibly dumb dialogue. Or Deadshot toasts everyone in a bar and says ‘To Honour Among Thieves’ and Katana objects, saying she is not a thief. This is true, but then again Deadshot, Diablo, Crock and Harley are also not thieves. The only thief is Captain Boomerang. The rest are assassins, murderers and sociopaths.
So, I know the director, and others in the past, have said the theatre release is their cut, however, I hope there is a director’s cut of this film. I’d like more of the small moments that have been hinted at and shown in the trailers. The action is great and all of that, but to really make us care about the characters, it would be great to see more of their interplay and bonding.
Overall, it was a fun film and I had a fun time at the cinema, far more fun than my previous two trips. I felt something for the characters, I cared about their well being and I would be interested in seeing them in another outing in the future. From the way the box office is looking, it might happen too in a few years time.
August 17, 2016
Guardian Masterclass – How to Find a Literary Agent
Next month in London, I will be taking part in a Guardian Masterclass all about How to Find a Literary Agent. The event is being led by my agent, Juliet Mushens, on Sunday 18th September.
Below is a snippet of information about what to expect during the event, but there is a lot more information on the Guardian website. I will be one of the guest speakers alongside Elodie Harper, another of Juliet’s clients. If you are interested I would book early as places are limited.
“If you’re a new writer, the process of getting your book into print might seem a bit daunting. This unique masterclass with leading literary agent Juliet Mushens will demystify the publishing process and reveal what agents look for in fiction submissions.
In the space of three hours, you’ll learn everything from how to prepare the perfect submissions package to how to edit your manuscript and pitch your novel to an agent. On the evening, Juliet will be joined by two of her most exciting authors, who will discuss their journey to publication. With plenty of time for questions and some practical activities, this is a class budding authors won’t want to miss.”
If you are serious about wanting to know how to find an agent and what they are looking for, and you are getting close to submitting your novel, then I would definitely consider it.
