Bryan Young's Blog, page 16

Of Trademarks and Space Marines

What do you think of when you hear the term "Space Marine"? For many, it conjures images of Heinlein's Starship Troopers. For others, it's the tough hombres of the Colonial Marines in the Alien franchise. For a certain sort of gaming nerd the image conjures one of a tabletop miniature in a war game published by Games Workshop.



It's a term that's been part of science fiction for decades, but one greedy corporation is now making a grab to associate it with their use and their use alone, and si...

Writer's Rules Revisited #13

It's been a while since we've done one of these. Aside from being busy with revisions and work and new writing, things have been hectic.



I've got a couple of other posts to point you to in case you're interested. The first is a small talk about writing I had with comics legend Walt Simonson. His take on fairy and folk tales really opened my eyes about some things and reinforced others. The other thing you might be interested in checking out is my series on Gamemastering on Big Shiny Robot! G...

Walt Simonson on Writing

Those who know me know how much I love Marvel's Thor character. Those who know me well know how much I utterly adore Walt Simonson's run with that character. It's one of the most formative reading experiences I've ever had in comics and I really loved everything about it since I was young. 




You can imagine my excitement when I was given an opportunity to speak to Mr. Simonson last year for The Huffington Post and for Big Shiny Robot!




We talked about quite a lot of things, but the...

7 of 7

Once again, my friend and author R.T. Kaelin has got me on another one of these chain things and this one proved too interesting to ignore. It's called 7 of 7 and it's very simple. You go to line 7 of page 7 or page 77 of your current work in progress and reveal the 7 lines that follow. 





I have three unpublished books and I thought it might be fun to do this with all three of them. I figured I'd tell you a bit about each of them.




The first is 'The Serpents Head." This book is...

Guest Post: Janine Spendlove on Interacting with Readers

My good friend and fellow author, Janine Spendlove, is taking over this space to talk to you about interacting with potential readers. She's written the incredible War of the Seasons trilogy, a YA Fantasy that's definitely worth your time. But for once, you're not here to read what I have to say, so I'll let her take it away:




Bryan Young and I met camping in line for Star Wars: Episode I. This
should tell you most of what you need to know about our friendship. I
count myself blessed that no...

Writer's Rules Revisited #12

It's been incredibly busy 'round these parts lately. I've finished two more short pieces for eventual publication since last I posted. And I've been working with the artist for the cover for the next novel I'm putting out. I've also started revising that book pretty heavily based on notes from a couple of trusted advanced readers who saw...lots of room for improvement. 



I've also been pretty focused on launching a new project. It's a Star Wars based podcast called Full of Sith. Our thir...

2013 Convention Schedule

I'm trying to cut down on the amount of conventions I'm doing, but nothing seems to work. I keep getting invited to cons. That's a good thing and I won't complain.



At this point, here is my schedule:






2/8-10- ShevaCon - Roanoke, Virginia
3/22-23 - Anime Salt Lake - Salt Lake City, Utah
April - SLCNerd - Salt Lake City, Utah
5/24-26 - CONduit - Salt Lake City, Utah
5/31-6/2 - Denver Comic-Con - Denver, Colorado
6/12-16 - Origins Game Fair - Columbus, Ohio
8/30-9/2 - Dragon*Con - Atlanta, Ge...

Writer's Rules Revisited #11

I've taken some time off of this series. I'll be honest: I was using this column to procrastinate on a difficult stretch of my novel. I'm still doing it, but whenever I write one of these I turn around and put another significant dent into it. I'm almost done with it and  a couple more short stories. And I've begun revising the novel I'm going to be putting out next.



Things are getting busier for me, but that's always a good thing.



For those new around these parts, a brief explanation...

Triumph Over Tragedy - Available Now

Triumph Over Tragedy, an anthology for the victims of Hurricane Sandy, is officially out now. Not only does it have a new, original science fiction written by me, it also has stories by Michael Stackpole, Robert Silverberg, Michael J. Sullivan, Jean Rabe, Maxwell A. Drake, Timothy Zahn, Elizabeth Bear, Marion Zimmber Bradley, and dozens of others. 40 authors had donations accepted into this collection and I'm quite proud of the piece I contributed.



R.T. Kaelin put the whole thing togeth...

The Next Big Thing

Fantasy Author R.T. Kaelin (check out his books, you'll like them) got tagged (by Michael J. Sullivan, no less) and he, in turn, tagged me.



What does all of that mean? What is "The Next Big Thing?" I'm glad you asked that. It's a sort of meme (explained quite eloquently by Mr. Sullivan and rather comically by Mr.Kaelin) where an author answers 10 questions about his next book and asks five other authors to do the same. It's a way for people to link to me and tell their audience to check me o...