Howard Andrew Jones's Blog, page 76

The New Year Dawns

We had the best New Year’s Eve we’ve managed for several years, one full of laughter with family and an old family friend. My wife and son and daughter and I spent most of the day preparing for a massive fondue extravaganza with a variety of chopped vegetables and meats, and a dessert fruit platter with a marscapone cheese dip and a chocolate dip. Our friend Daniel came by with home-made sushi, and one of my daughter’s friends joined in the festivities, along with my mom. My wife is a phenomenal cook and made all the dipping sauces from scratch, some concocted on the fly.

After the feasting we sat down for a hilarious game of Robo-Rally, then played Iron Dragon until late in the night. In recent years my wife and I have been turning in at 11:00 (after watching the NY ball drop with the kids) so this is the first time in ages that we were awake during the local year’s end. The night was a wonderful way to start the new year, especially because I can’t recall when I last laughed so hard, or so frequently, in a span of hours. Trying to get your robot across the factory floor/obstacle course that is Robo-Rally can do that for you. The object may be to win the game, but most of the fun occurs watching the mayhem, even if it involves your own robot. I cackled with glee each time my robot got nudged off course (or I mis-programmed it) and it sailed into one of the pits.

So 2013 begins. I remain grateful for all the opportunities 2012 presented me, and I hope I can go forward with clear eyes to better see the needs of my family, and with ears better turned to hear the muses. I sincerely hope that the New Year brings all of us good things. I could surely use a little less traumatic injury in the immediate family.

As the year dawns, there are still two Dabir and Asim contests underway:

There are two days left in the book giveaway at Jean BookNerd, so there’s still time to enter a drawing for a free copy of The Bones of the Old Ones by following the link here.

And my British publisher, Head of Zeus, has discounted the e-copy of The Desert of Souls. Until January 7th it’s available for only one pound by following this link!

 

 

Grab Bag

I woke up to a foggy Christmas Eve day here at Jones Central, but then here in our tower by the Sea of Monsters it’s often foggy in the mornings.

There’s an awful lot that’s been going on around here, so this morning’s post is a little scattered. Good press for The Bones of the Old Ones continues to roll in, so I’ve updated the official page with some new quotes that link to the reviews. And, as I mentioned yesterday, there’s an e-book promotion going on right now until January 7th. My British publisher is offering e-copies of The Desert of Souls for only 1 pound. (That’s a British pound, not a pound of, say, peanut butter fudge.)

Once my high-school-aged son finished finals he was quickly buried in The Bones of the Old Ones, which he snagged from the living room table. Anyone with kids knows that they don’t necessarily like the same things you do. My son is polite and well-behaved, so if he’d found my book dull or didn’t like it he might have pleaded that he’d gotten distracted or had lots of things he needed to do over the break. He would have saved my feelings. But he loved it. Now, there are lots of cool things about being an author — about being able to have the job I’ve dreamed of doing since I was a little kid — but listening to him talk about his favorite parts was a wonderful moment, and one I never expected.

Speaking of my son, he had a pretty vivid Star Trek dream the other night. Every now and then I’ll dream I’m tuning in the television to discover a new episode, and John O’Neill tells me he’s dreamed the same thing. Maybe a lot of geeks our generation (mid 40s) who grew up watching Star Trek reruns have them. I loved the show so much that I really didn’t want the adventures to end. Anyway, I’ve subjected my son and daughter to my favorite episodes over the years, and he woke up the other day having had a Star Trek dream complete with Klingons working behind the scenes to foment a war that Kirk avoided, and concluding with one of those patented Kirk anti-war speeches. My dreams are never especially coherent, but his had a complete plot arc and resolution, which made me a little envious.

Typing all the time without a desk or a table is starting to give me an arm cramp, and I’m going to have to do something about my work space. My mom’s living in the room I had been using for an office and we’re still nowhere close to having the basement ready as a little apartment for her, so I need to take action before I end up with carpal tunnel or something.

Over the holidays I’m hoping to step away from the laptop to spend some time with the family. There will be presents exchanged. My favorite part of the holidays is watching people open presents, which is why I’m usually the last one to open myself (I’m usually the guy with the camera). This year I’m not expecting as many “oh wow” moments. The kids are getting older and most of their presents are more practical things, but I’m sure that there will be some smiles.

I’m most hoping for some rare books, a CD of the band Tinted Windows (with one of the guys from Fountains of Wayne,) and the most recent Conan graphic novel. One of my sisters and her daughter sent a care package that included peanut butter fudge –made with the proper peanut ratio that almost all store-prepared fudge seems to get wrong — but, alas, it has already been devoured.

It is hard to believe that it will be 2013 soon, and that before too long after I’ll be heading to Terre Haute for a book signing, and then to Detroit for the ConFusion fantasy and science fiction convention. The days are just shooting by.

Here’s my sincere wishes to all of you to have a safe and happy Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Robonica, or whatever else you have!

Desert of Souls E-Book Exclusive

For a limited time, the e-book of The Desert of Souls will be available for  £1.00!

My British publisher, Head of Zeus, is offering the book for one pound through January 7th! All the details and links to sites like Amazon.co.uk and Waterstone’s (among others) can be found on their web site by clicking this link.

I hope all of my British and European friends can help me spread the word.

Also, Head of Zeus has cooked up a pretty nifty series introduction for The Chronicles of Sand and Sword. I like it so much I wish I’d thought of it:

THE CHRONICLE OF SWORD & SAND: Baghdad, AD 790. Caliph Harun al-Rashid presides over the greatest metropolis on Earth, ruler of an empire that stretches from China to Byzantium. His exploits will be recorded in Alf Layla or, as we know it, The Book of One Thousand and One Nights.

But The Thousand and One Nights are silent on the deeds and adventures that befell two of the Caliph’s subjects: the renowned scholar Dabir ibn Kahlil, and his shield and right hand, Asim el Abbas. For their story, we must turn to the Chronicle of Sand and Sword…

 

 

All Over the Place

It’s been a busy week, so I thought I’d just point visitors to a grab bag of posts. It being barely over a week since The Bones of the Old Ones was released, some new reviews have been released, but I wanted first to talk about an excellent series of essays about the Edgar Rice Burroughs Mars series.

Black Gate’s excellent essayist Ryan Harvey (really, why doesn’t this guy have a paying gig doing this kind of thing?) read every single Burroughs Mars book over the course of the last year, detailing highs, lows, weirdest moments and generally providing the kind of overview that I have always wanted. Me, I’ve read and enjoyed a little over half of the eleven books, and thanks to Harvey’s reviews I now have a pretty good idea about which ones I will probably skip. Harvey’s talented, honest, and funny, and any fan of the Mars Burroughs stuff –or anyone curious about the series- should visit these, pronto. Here, Part 11 links to all of the preceding sections.

And now let’s see what’s going on out there that’s about ME.

First, Mary Robinette Kowal invited me to her new essay series “My Favorite Bit” and I briefly borrowed her blog to talk about my favorite part of The Bones of the Old Ones. During this whole promotional push, this is one of the essays of which I’m most proud.

Over at Booklife I wrote a three part series on getting published professionally and then what to do after, starting with The First Glimmers, moving on to the actual book deal, and finishing with a look at marketing.

Fellow crafter of sword-and-sorcery William King invited me over to his place to talk about sword-and-sorcery, which I did — it’s hard to get me to shut up about classic heroic fiction, actually.

Five contestants were chosen at random from a book give away contest at Reddit and will be receiving signed copies of both The Desert of Souls and The Bones of the Old Ones. All participants were there to discuss their favorite fantasy setting, world, or culture, and a few of them asked me questions. I offered my two cents on some of my favorite settings throughout the thread.

I was asked to write about what was happening on page 69 of The Bones of the Old Ones as part of an ongoing series about that very page number involving a wide variety of writers, and then asked to contribute an essay to a series titled “My Book, The Movie.”

Finally, while I have been drafting away on writerly projects and aiming at deadlines, a whole new set of reviews have flowed in:

Fantastical Imaginations

Sword’s Edge

Adventure’s Fantastic

A Dribble of Ink

If you find any other Bones sightings, please drop me a line here and let me know! And do help spread the word if you have enjoyed one or both books. I will sincerely appreciate it. If you happen to like, or love, The Bones of the Old Ones, I hope you’ll stop by Goodreads and Amazon — which tend to be the places where people surf to find reactions — and record your reaction.

Pulp Virtues

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about some of the treasures I had in the form of one-of-a-kind pulp adventure books. In amongst the mad rush of promotions week and holiday activities, I’ve escaped into some of those adventure tales to relax.

Pulp magazines have a pretty bad reputation, and I have to say that it is fairly well deserved. A lot of what they printed is pretty dreadful, and some of what passes for exciting popular entertainment in one era leaves a pretty bad taste in another. Take the story “Death’s Domain” shown in the picture to my left. Wow, was it a cracking good mystery story with all sorts of eerie elements… until the final third, when it became the most astonishing “beat you over the head with ugly race hatred” tale I’ve yet found in my pulp adventure reading. I’m pretty good at looking past stories as a product of their time and still enjoying them, but the depiction of… well, never mind.

My point is that I want to focus on some of the stuff these pulps did right, not what a lot of them did wrong. For instance, I recently read though a minor Argosy tale of the Yukon titled “Mail Boat” by Frank Richardson Pierce. Owing to the way I inherited these stories, and the fact that I do not have an index to Argosy, I am unsure as to when the tale first appeared, but it is by a writer I’d never read, and it is fairly minor.

It is also short, so I kept reading despite it’s somewhat wooden character depictions. I would describe the writing as “workman-like.” Yet, by the end, it got me thinking about writing more than the last several of these pulp tales I’ve read.

Written as they were many generations ago, these pulp adventures give us a window into a different understanding of man’s relation to the world. When the protagonist, deputy marshal Gordon, learns that he has to get back to town faster than the roundabout way the mail boat he’s on will take him, he just matter-of-factly heads off into the wilderness to find another way. He doesn’t bemoan his fate. Listen to what Pierce has him do:

Rupe Gordon, bent under the weight of his heavy pack, pushed through the mountain pass and dropped down to the headwaters of Mineral River. He shed his snowshoes and took to one of the ice-coated creeks. When the ice grew thin, he followed the bank to a point where stout willows grew thickly. He shed the pack and spent several hours cutting willows. He constructed the framework of a boat, which he bolted and wired together. He covered the frame with a canvas tarp; he melted paraffin, rubbed it into the canvas, making it just about waterproof. He found a heavy chunk of wood which he placed in the bow, to weight it down, then he pushed off and climbed in. Sitting crouched in the stern, he steered the craft with the heavy wooden paddle he’d packed over the summit.

It’s not pretty writing, but it gets the job done, and it has a vivid immediacy to it that a lot of today’s writing lacks. Many writers for Argosy and Adventure actually had been adventurers and described this stuff well because they’d done it themselves.

I am in no way suggesting that we all need to go out and learn to build canoes and shoot some rapids, but I do think I need to remind myself from time to time that when we create characters from other times that we need to recall that they have a different mindset. This character from a minor story takes simple, practical actions that most of us wouldn’t know to do, and the author doesn’t make a big deal about it, or the character’s emotions while it’s under way. Gordon just does what needs doing here. The journey back isn’t even the main focus of the plot!

Film Option

I am delighted to announce that a major studio has optioned the Chronicles of Sword and Sand (AKA the Dabir and Asim novels) and that they’re looking for screenwriter. I’ll release further updates about that as events warrant.

Over at TOR, at their Pop Quiz at the End of the Universe series, I answered some pretty wild questions. Between that and the interview over at Jean Book Nerd I think it’s possible to get a better than usual idea about who I am and what I’m really about. These weren’t the usual “where do you get your ideas” kind of questions, and I had a lot of fun with them.

Also, there a new book give away AND another glowing review of The Bones of the Old Ones, over at Jean Book Nerd, on the same page as the interview.

I WAS going to post today about a great pulp story I read last night from one of those old collections I posted about last week, but I figured everyone would be interested int his news. And to be perfectly honest, I was dying to tell someone!

Lest I forget, there are still a few days left to sign up for the chance to win a free copy of The Bones of the Old Ones and The Desert of Souls, at Reddit. I hope you’ll swing by!

 

Welcome

Traffic to my little corner of the web is skyrocketing today, and I can only assume that’s because today’s the launch of the next Dabir and Asim novel, The Bones of the Old Ones.

If you’re new to the site, and me, welcome.

If you’re curious about The Bones of the Old Ones, there’s a chance to win a free signed copy of the book  and its standalone predecessor, The Desert of Souls, at reddit, so I hope you’ll drop by.
If you’re wanting to see a sneak peek of the book, the first chapter and a half are live at Black Gate, and can be found by clicking on this link.
And if you’re curious to see what people are saying about the book, I’ve collecting all of the reviews in one place on the web site. Short form is a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly, enthusiastically positive reviews from BookPage and Staffer’s Book Review, and two 4.5 (out of 5) star reviews from SF Signal (here and here).

Long time site visitors, thanks for sticking with me. Things are apt to be a little wild here for a few weeks as I run around trying to work promotional miracles. I don’t know whether guest blogging or mailbox stuffing with flyers about my upcoming book signing or podcasts help, but it does keep me out of trouble and gives me some illusion of control.

I will be appearing at the Evansville Barnes & Noble at 2:00 on Saturday the 15th of December to read from The Bones of the Old Ones, and sign copies, and I’ll be heading to ConFusion in Detroit for three days starting on January 18th.

Booklife Now just published the first of three linked essays I penned about the writing process and getting the book deal, so if you’re not already sick of me you can check it out. Even if you ARE sick of me but want to find out about how book deals happen, you might find it of interest.

Finally, because newcomers don’t know about my deadly powers of poultry (but mostly because I am suffering from lack of sleep), here is a picture of me with a rooster.

Ninja Delivery Service and Other Tales

It’s going to be a busy week here at Jones central. I have a book reading at the local Barnes & Noble at 2:00 Saturday the 15th of December, and today is the official book launch day. I’m doing my best to spread the word to as many corners of the web as I can reach.

Yesterday, to help spread the word about the book reading, I drove all over my community, stopping at more than 200 mailboxes so my daughter could lean out the truck window and pop in flyers. Those who saw us might have been curious about what we were doing, but they were perhaps more curious that my daughter was dressed like a ninja.They saw that we had flyers. I was wondering if they assumed we were passing out information for a new Ninjitsu dojo.

My daughter had been thinking ahead for next Halloween and putting a pretty cool all-black ninja outfit together when I asked her if she could help. She bounded down the stairs, looking for all the world like an extra from a martial arts film. Okay, well, a  pale, red-haired extra from a martial arts film, but, still, she definitely looked like a ninja, or, because of her age, perhaps a ninja-in-training.

She was more than glad to help and no, she did not want to change. As she leaned out to drop off the first few flyers I told her she was like a ninja delivery service, whereupon she invented a jingle that didn’t quite get old with repetition and had us both laughing.

 

Contest Winners Announced

Later today I’ll announce another The Bones of the Old Ones giveaway contest. For now, though, it’s my pleasure to reveal the winners of the Goodreads giveaway contest. Each of the three winners will be receiving a signed copy of both The Bones of the Old Ones and its predecessor The Desert of Souls. More on that in just a moment.

In other news, I was invited to write about my current reading choices over at the Campaign for the American Reader, and why I’m reading them. Naturally I discussed the glorious Shanameh first, because I’m always in the midst of reading some part of it. Click here to read my essay, along with those from a great many talented writers.

Friends have been writing or calling to let me know of sightings of The Bones of the Old Ones out there on bookstore shelves, even though tomorrow’s the actual release date. That’s right, today’s the last day that the book is available for pre-order. If you follow this link and scroll most of the way to the bottom, the book can be ordered through Macmillan, Barnes & Noble, Powells, Books A Million, Indiebound, Amazon, or Walmart.

Alright then, here are the contest winners from Goodreads. Watch this space for details on another book giveaway, starting soon.

Congratulations to Paul Poirier of Canada, Kayla Ruble of the United States, and Mary Hawkes of Australia. I’ll be putting your boxes in the mail today. It’s going to be a busy week!

 

Filling the Notebook

Well, I finally did it.

Usually I fill up one of my Paperblanks notebooks in one year, but this time it took a year and a half. The back half of the notebook on the left there is full of various scribblings related to the third Dabir and Asim novel and my second Paizo novel. Both have changed a lot since their initial conception.

I discovered that some of the themes I’d hoped to cover had been addressed by someone else’s Arabian fantasy novel, not in the way I was planning to address them, but with some features that were similar enough I was starting to worry that I’d be accused of lifting plot elements. I think I’ve finally got some ideas that aren’t just a cut and paste with a new monster kind of solution.

I absolutely love the Safavid Paperblanks notebook. I try to get a different notebook every year, so you’ll notice that the one my wife picked up for my birthday is Black Moroccan. It’s pretty cool and all, but I’m now wishing I’d just asked for another Safavid, which is incredibly well suited for Dabir and Asim, seeing as the style is associated with the Islamic golden age. These days I always have a Paperblanks mini-notebook on me, as I discussed in probably too much detail at Black Gate.

I’ve been experimenting with some new (to me) techniques for outlining. I’ll probably talk about those next week some time. For now, here’s to a good weekend.