Nick Bryan's Blog, page 23
February 2, 2014
Hobson & Choi Podcast #23 - "Our Awesome Enquiries"
From Lettie to Emily to Jacq, loads of suspects get a good probing this week. But did any of them do it? Meanwhile, I've been watching House of Cards and starting a mailing list. Sign up now!
You can play the episode in the player below, download the MP3 here or subscribe on iTunes to have it thrown at you every week. Or if you hate iTunes on principle, you can point your RSS reader at our Libsyn page to get every episode.
Hobson & Choi Podcast #23 - Our Awesome Enquiries by Nick Bryan on Mixcloud
February 1, 2014
TWO new stories by me in Seventh Star Press anthologies!
It's been a while since I had any new fiction out there except for regular Hobson & Choi updates, but the wait is over. Pleasant genre-merchants Seventh Star Press have included my stories in two (yes, two) of their upcoming anthologies. They've done cover reveals at their own blog in the last few days, we're definitely all public now, so let's talk about it a bit.
First up, in the Hero's Best Friend anthology, I have a story called The Violet Curse. The theme of the book is animal companions - all manner of hero-helping creatures from cute internet-ready cats to that armoured lion thingy on the cover. Find out more here.
My specific piece is about a loyal dog who wants nothing more than to help its owner - the resident fantasy hero - but discovers she might be a crucial part of his undoing instead, thanks to a pesky purple magic spell. Bummer, right?
Elsewhere, in A Chimerical World: Tales Of The Unseelie Court, there are some evil fairies about. Note that this is a two-book set of anthologies, with the good section of the fey appearing in Tales Of The Seelie Court, but I am only in the Unseelie volume. This is because I am a terrible person. Full details of both books right over here.
My story is called The Fool And His Money and is thoroughly contemporary. You know how that economic crash happened recently, and everyone explained it as "Well, they thought there was all this money, but it didn't really exist"? It turns out there's a fairy-based explanation for that...
Both books should be on popular ebook stores in a week or so, and available for print ordering a week after that - rest assured I will be posting the links up when that happens. In the meantime, if you want a brief preview from the actual text of both stories, I intend to put out such a thing on the new mailing list within the next week, so definitely subscribe to that, either in the blog sidebar or by clicking on this link right here.
Woo! Publication again! Twice! Pretty excited by this, guys. Now, back to angsting over my editing/synopsis/choice of socks...
January 31, 2014
Man Vs Synopsis (WriteBlog #14)
In the near future, I am going to an event where I will be presenting a synopsis and a short sample of my novel to Important People. This, logically, means I will need to write a synopsis, which is what I've been doing for the last week. I have now completed a version I can read without wincing, so it's time for the inevitable blog-hashing of what I feel I've learnt from this.
And for anyone who is actually worried, my synopsis itself does not feature in this post, so there will not be any spoilers for my half-edited unpublished novel about Satan. Furthermore, if you have a scary dream which you think would serve as a good ending, absolutely post details in the comments - there is still time for me to use it. Thanks.
Read more »January 30, 2014
Hobson & Choi #51 - "Excuses, Excuses"
Yes, we've moved past #50 and it feels weird, but lots of good story-stuff coming up, so hopefully we'll learn to live with it.
Meanwhile, back home, I have started a mailing list for news of my writing, and you should totally consider joining it. Form on the left side of the blog, or just click here if you're reading this in a non-site context...
January 28, 2014
Join the mailing list! Stuff will happen!
So, the other day I started a mailing list, but somewhat buried its announcement in my Hobson & Choi #50 retrospective blog. So, here's a post of its very own.
There is now a mailing list. The form to sign up can be found in the left sidebar of this blog, or I'll embed it at the bottom of this post. Mailings will be infrequent, once a month at the absolute most, and I'll only use it when something of substance happens/is about to happen. You will not get an inane message every week announcing when H&C goes up, don't worry.
In fact, if all goes well, there will be some news/preview material regarding an upcoming "thing" out there on the list in the next few weeks. So yeah, totally sign up. If the embed form below isn't working for you, you can also click here to get to another one. Ta very much.
January 26, 2014
Hobson & Choi Podcast #22 - The Private Life of Voles
The third day of the story dawns properly, as Hobson and Choi go after the Vole family at home. Meanwhile, out back, I discuss living in a post-Chapter-50 world.
You can play the episode in the player below, download the MP3 here or subscribe on iTunes to have it thrown at you every week. Or if you hate iTunes on principle, you can point your RSS reader at our Libsyn page to get every episode.
Hobson & Choi Podcast #22 - The Private Life Of Voles by Nick Bryan on Mixcloud
January 23, 2014
Hobson & Choi #50 - "It Bites Back" PLUS Author's Thoughts At Fifty
Click on the above link to find out. Meanwhile, since it's the glorious 50th episode, a pretty big achievement and very round number, this seemed a good time for some thoughts on the serial, how it's gone, where it's going, etcetera.
So that's all below - beware, spoilers for the story so far. I'll refrain from spoiling the new episode itself but anything up to #49 seems fair game.
Read more »January 19, 2014
Hobson & Choi Podcast #21 - Two Escapes
Both the heroes have to escape from their places of rest to join in the action! Can they defeat some journalists and Choi's Mum? Meanwhile, as #50 of the H&C prose serial hovers into view, Nick gets quite excited in the outro.
You can play the episode in the player below, download the MP3 here or subscribe on iTunes to have it thrown at you every week. Or if you hate iTunes on principle, you can point your RSS reader at our Libsyn page to get every episode.
Hobson & Choi Podcast #21 - Two Escapes by Nick Bryan on Mixcloud
January 17, 2014
When the going gets tough, Nick Bryan goes on Tumblr (WriteBlog #13)
I don't know if I ever posted about this on here - I have a Tumblr account, it used to be my main website before I moved to this one. A couple of months ago, I chose a better theme and started using it in the same way as other Tumblrers do - mostly reblogging images and commenting below them. Feel free to follow if you like. A lot of it is comic-related, but sometimes not.
Anyway, I never started using it regularly - I had a starting spurt but died off. To be honest, Tumblr isn't entirely my thing. I'm more a words person than a pictures one, and I don't get emotionally attached to fictional characters in the animated-gif way. Until the last week or so, just as I reached the first genuinely hard part of my novel edits. What a remarkable coincidence.
Read more »January 16, 2014
Hobson & Choi #49 - "Go Ahead"
And yes, I know it's going to be amazing because I'm still in the middle of writing it - well, the tail end. A few hundred words to go. Certainly, it's going to be long.
Anyway, enjoy, there's at least one good joke about toilets in #49 alone. And as ever, feel free to celebrate the arrival of #50 by telling your friends how awesome we are or something. It all helps.
