Brian Beam's Blog, page 13
January 6, 2013
The Forgotten King Cover Reveal
So, with the Forgotten King's targeted release being mid to late April, there's still over three months until its release. However, I just got the final cover art in today and am too excited to keep it to myself. It was done by the amazing Janette Ramos and really blew me away!
As I continue revising The Forgotten King, new cover art for the 2nd ed. of The Dragon Gem will be in progress. I'm really looking forward to reworking The Dragon Gem and getting it out along with The Forgotten King. Again, The 2nd ed. of The Dragon Gem will be a free upgrade for those who have purchased the ebook copy already and hopefully a better experience for new readers. I just hope I can pull it off by April.
Check out the cover art below and let me know what you think!
Brian Beam
As I continue revising The Forgotten King, new cover art for the 2nd ed. of The Dragon Gem will be in progress. I'm really looking forward to reworking The Dragon Gem and getting it out along with The Forgotten King. Again, The 2nd ed. of The Dragon Gem will be a free upgrade for those who have purchased the ebook copy already and hopefully a better experience for new readers. I just hope I can pull it off by April.
Check out the cover art below and let me know what you think!
Brian Beam
December 31, 2012
The Forgotten King's Release and New Year's Day Tidings
Man, it's been a hell of a year. I self published my first novel, finished the first draft of the second, moved to a new state, got a new job, and have gotten to watch my infant son blossom into the most awesome toddler of all time(no offense to anyone else's kids :)).
So, to kick off the new year, or, rather, go out on the current one, I want to announce a change to The Forgotten King's release. I was originally going for a mid to late March 2013 release. I'm pushing the anticipated date to mid-April 2013.
Why?
Well, I've been at work on editing The Forgotten King after a wonderful proofread by JJ Proofing. One thing that stands out to me now is that The Forgotten King is going to be so much more polished than The Dragon Gem. When I got into the whole self-publishing scene, I was really naive, thinking I could do it all on my own. I quickly learned that no, I couldn't. Not if I wanted my books to be the best they could be.
Anyway, I have the advantage of hindsight now, having received tons of feedback for The Dragon Gem. Also, I have the advantage of having been distanced from it for the past year while working on The Forgotten King. I see how much better it can and should be.
Okay, I'm really getting to a point here. Seriously.
My plan is to do a MASSIVE edit on The Dragon Gem and release a Kindle update and a re-release in print on CreateSpace to coincide with the release of The Forgotten King. I'm even having a new cover done by the uber-talented Janette Ramos, the same artist working on The Forgotten King's cover now(which by the way, can't wait to reveal. It's looking incredible!). For those who have downloaded The Dragon Gem before, this will be a free update when released(though Amazon usually takes a decent amount of time to make an update available for previous buyers). I just feel in my heart that this needs to be done. I care for the story and want it presented in the best way possible. Any writers out there will understand.
Anyway, obviously, this will take more time. I am still going to devote 99% of my writing time to The Forgotten King revisions/edits so that if it looks like I can't hit the mid-April deadline I'm setting for myself, I can go ahead and release The Forgotten King anyway. I feel strongly that I can get them both out by then, though.
This also means my other projects are on a 100% hold until both of these are finished.
If you're still reading(this is really long, I know)I just want to say thanks for all your support and patience. Starting on March 1, I plan to post a chapter of The Forgotten King on here each week until its release for all those(read: all one) put off by the delayed release.
I wish each and every one of you(read: all two of you) an amazingly wonderful, successful, joy-filled, and productive new year.
Brian Beam
Happy New Year!
So, to kick off the new year, or, rather, go out on the current one, I want to announce a change to The Forgotten King's release. I was originally going for a mid to late March 2013 release. I'm pushing the anticipated date to mid-April 2013.
Why?
Well, I've been at work on editing The Forgotten King after a wonderful proofread by JJ Proofing. One thing that stands out to me now is that The Forgotten King is going to be so much more polished than The Dragon Gem. When I got into the whole self-publishing scene, I was really naive, thinking I could do it all on my own. I quickly learned that no, I couldn't. Not if I wanted my books to be the best they could be.
Anyway, I have the advantage of hindsight now, having received tons of feedback for The Dragon Gem. Also, I have the advantage of having been distanced from it for the past year while working on The Forgotten King. I see how much better it can and should be.
Okay, I'm really getting to a point here. Seriously.
My plan is to do a MASSIVE edit on The Dragon Gem and release a Kindle update and a re-release in print on CreateSpace to coincide with the release of The Forgotten King. I'm even having a new cover done by the uber-talented Janette Ramos, the same artist working on The Forgotten King's cover now(which by the way, can't wait to reveal. It's looking incredible!). For those who have downloaded The Dragon Gem before, this will be a free update when released(though Amazon usually takes a decent amount of time to make an update available for previous buyers). I just feel in my heart that this needs to be done. I care for the story and want it presented in the best way possible. Any writers out there will understand.
Anyway, obviously, this will take more time. I am still going to devote 99% of my writing time to The Forgotten King revisions/edits so that if it looks like I can't hit the mid-April deadline I'm setting for myself, I can go ahead and release The Forgotten King anyway. I feel strongly that I can get them both out by then, though.
This also means my other projects are on a 100% hold until both of these are finished.
If you're still reading(this is really long, I know)I just want to say thanks for all your support and patience. Starting on March 1, I plan to post a chapter of The Forgotten King on here each week until its release for all those(read: all one) put off by the delayed release.
I wish each and every one of you(read: all two of you) an amazingly wonderful, successful, joy-filled, and productive new year.
Brian Beam
Happy New Year!
December 24, 2012
Another Holiday Post
Okay, so I lied. I'm posting again before Christmas. But, I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who has given this fledgling indie author a chance this year. Thanks to all who read The Dragon Gem. Also, I am very grateful for all the kind words I have received from readers through reviews, emails, or Facebook. Your support means the world to me and really makes what I do worth it. I truly hope that The Forgotten King exceeds your expectations next year.
2013 is looking to be an exciting year for me with The Forgotten King and possibly both my short story collection and novella seeing a release. Korin's Journal will kind of go on the backburner for several months after The Forgotten King's release to allow me a chance to stretch my creative muscles with my other projects for a bit, but the third and final book's story is solidifying in my mind and I'm really excited about it.
I hope each and every one of you has a wonderful holiday, whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, etc.
2013 is looking to be an exciting year for me with The Forgotten King and possibly both my short story collection and novella seeing a release. Korin's Journal will kind of go on the backburner for several months after The Forgotten King's release to allow me a chance to stretch my creative muscles with my other projects for a bit, but the third and final book's story is solidifying in my mind and I'm really excited about it.
I hope each and every one of you has a wonderful holiday, whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, etc.
December 21, 2012
Happy Holidays!
For starters, The Game of Books which I mentioned in my last post was successfully funded. I'm really excited to see where they go with it. If you put money towards it, thanks!
Secondly, it's the 12/21/2012 and no signs of apocalypse just yet. That really would have put a damper on my day.
Thirdly, I have finished the second short-story/novellette for my upcoming short-story collection. My projects will soon be going on hold when I get The Forgotten King back from the proofreader this month, though. I'm going to put all my upcoming writing time into getting The Forgotten King out by sometime in March.
Fourthly, The Dragon Gem will be free on Kindle Saturday December 22 and Sunday the 23rd!
And to the point, I'll be mostly off the grid for the next week or so with all the holiday travel to visit family for the next week, so I just wanted to wish everyone a merry and safe Christmas! No matter what you celebrate this season, I hope you all have a wonderful time with your loved ones. And food, lots of good food.
Happy Holidays to all!
Brian Beam
Secondly, it's the 12/21/2012 and no signs of apocalypse just yet. That really would have put a damper on my day.
Thirdly, I have finished the second short-story/novellette for my upcoming short-story collection. My projects will soon be going on hold when I get The Forgotten King back from the proofreader this month, though. I'm going to put all my upcoming writing time into getting The Forgotten King out by sometime in March.
Fourthly, The Dragon Gem will be free on Kindle Saturday December 22 and Sunday the 23rd!
And to the point, I'll be mostly off the grid for the next week or so with all the holiday travel to visit family for the next week, so I just wanted to wish everyone a merry and safe Christmas! No matter what you celebrate this season, I hope you all have a wonderful time with your loved ones. And food, lots of good food.
Happy Holidays to all!
Brian Beam
December 16, 2012
The Game of Books
So, if you've seen my Facebook page recently, you've seen me trying to promote the Kickstarter project for The Game of Books. This is, in my opinion, a brilliant idea that has such great potential to get kids and possibly even adults into reading.
This Kickstarter is down to its last day of fundraising with less than $10,000 left to go to see it funded. I urge all fans of reading or writing to give it a look and contribute if you can.
To explain it all would take a while, so I'm going to be lazy and copy and paste the general info. from their Kickstarter page and embed the YouTube video about it.
[image error]Imagine a game where you - the reader - are the main character, and every book you read earns you points and rewards. The Game of Books is a game for adventurous readers where the books you read earn you points based on what they are about.The Game of Books combines the physical world of books with the digital and imaginary. It is a website and mobile app that combines "Foursquare for books" and Xbox Live-style gamer achievements, earning you badges and points for the rare themes you encounter in books.At its heart, The Game of Books allows those of us that love reading to earn something extra for what we already love, to become the master of themes that we visit more than others, to discover books we'd otherwise miss, and to track how we have grown as readers over time.The Main Points of The Game of Books:Readers earn points and badges for the books you read.Play The Game by yourself, or with friends locally or on social media.Each book in The Game has its own unique digital game card. There are more than 100,000 game cards in the Game of Books today.Open Access: The Game of Books is intended to be easily connected to existing reading communities, such as Goodreads.com. Play The Game in the places you already read,---------------------------------------------------------------------------
I personally believe this to be a cause worth supporting and Aaron Stanton, the man behind this Kickstarter, truly is invested in getting this game into libraries and schools to get kids to participate and have fun with reading. Plus, Aaron has some heavy hitters supporting his cause:-New York Times Bestselling Authors Patrick Rothfuss, Rachel Van Dyken, and Warren Adler -Former CEO of barnesandnoble.com - Jonathan Bulkeley-Lulu.com made a $30,000 donation.
Okay, that's the last of my pushing for supporting causes this year. Though, next year I will wholeheartedly be supporting the cause of supporting a fledgling indie author by buying The Forgotten King, the exciting sequel to The Dragon Gem and the middle volume of the Korin's Journal series. :-)
Hope all are enjoying the Christmas season!
Brian Beam
This Kickstarter is down to its last day of fundraising with less than $10,000 left to go to see it funded. I urge all fans of reading or writing to give it a look and contribute if you can.
To explain it all would take a while, so I'm going to be lazy and copy and paste the general info. from their Kickstarter page and embed the YouTube video about it.
[image error]Imagine a game where you - the reader - are the main character, and every book you read earns you points and rewards. The Game of Books is a game for adventurous readers where the books you read earn you points based on what they are about.The Game of Books combines the physical world of books with the digital and imaginary. It is a website and mobile app that combines "Foursquare for books" and Xbox Live-style gamer achievements, earning you badges and points for the rare themes you encounter in books.At its heart, The Game of Books allows those of us that love reading to earn something extra for what we already love, to become the master of themes that we visit more than others, to discover books we'd otherwise miss, and to track how we have grown as readers over time.The Main Points of The Game of Books:Readers earn points and badges for the books you read.Play The Game by yourself, or with friends locally or on social media.Each book in The Game has its own unique digital game card. There are more than 100,000 game cards in the Game of Books today.Open Access: The Game of Books is intended to be easily connected to existing reading communities, such as Goodreads.com. Play The Game in the places you already read,---------------------------------------------------------------------------
I personally believe this to be a cause worth supporting and Aaron Stanton, the man behind this Kickstarter, truly is invested in getting this game into libraries and schools to get kids to participate and have fun with reading. Plus, Aaron has some heavy hitters supporting his cause:-New York Times Bestselling Authors Patrick Rothfuss, Rachel Van Dyken, and Warren Adler -Former CEO of barnesandnoble.com - Jonathan Bulkeley-Lulu.com made a $30,000 donation.
Okay, that's the last of my pushing for supporting causes this year. Though, next year I will wholeheartedly be supporting the cause of supporting a fledgling indie author by buying The Forgotten King, the exciting sequel to The Dragon Gem and the middle volume of the Korin's Journal series. :-)
Hope all are enjoying the Christmas season!
Brian Beam
December 9, 2012
An Author's Christmas Wish
So, I should probably do the whole, "Hey, The Dragon Gem would make a great Christmas gift for you and your love ones" thing, but instead, I'd like to bring your attention to Patrick Rothfuss(author of The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear)'s yearly Worldbuilders fundraiser for Heifer International.
I would take some time to explain what Heifer International is all about, but their self-stated mission pretty much sums it up - "Heifer International's mission is to work with communities to end hunger and poverty and care for the Earth."
And Rothfuss describes the charitable organization on his World Builders 2012 site: "It helps people raise themselves up out of poverty and starvation. Heifer promotes education, sustainable agriculture, and local industry all over the world. They don’t just keep kids from starving, they make it so families can take care of themselves. They give goats, sheep, and chickens to families so their children have milk to drink, warm clothes to wear, and eggs to eat."
Rothfuss has provided a couple of options to contribute to this wonderful charity. You can straight up donate money, every ten dollars earning you an entry into a random drawing for one of hundreds of books, some signed by the authors, and other random things. Secondly, you can buy anything from his online store, The Tinker's Packs(appropriate if you've read his books), with all proceeds going to Heifer. With this option, you can help out the organization while also getting a Christmas present for a friend or loved one. I'm sure we all have a geeky fantasy friend or two who would love the Fantasy-Themed Pinup Calendar that showcases a different amazing fantasy author each month from Neil Gaiman, to George R.R. Martin, to Patrick Rothfuss himself(no worries, the authors aren't the ones depicted in the pinups). Thirdly, there will be auctions regularly posted in which you can win some cool stuff with the money going to Heifer.
I just love seeing such a prominent author set up such a well-organized, annual fundraiser for such an amazing charity and just really put his heart and soul into it. Last year Worldbuilders raised $310,000. This year, it's going for $500,000. Anyway, they've got my support this year.
So, my Christmas wish is not necessarily for everyone reading this to immediately go and drop money towards this charity. I simply ask you check it out and, if you feel you support the cause, donate.
In writing news, still putting small bits of time into my side projects as I wait to get The Forgotten King back in my hands. My first side project will be a collection of (mostly) fantasy short stories which is trying its darndest to become a collection of novellas. Getting close to finishing the second story on it. The other will be a semi-short(50K words or so) fantasy story revolving around the unexplainable deaths(murders) of a group of people who are supposed to be immortal, and basically unkillable. I'm having a lot of fun with both, but will probably not really dive into them until after The Forgotten King is out.
To end this, I will now post an irrelevant picture of my son "enjoying" his second birthday a little over a week ago. In all fairness, he just hated the birthday hat. Once it was back off, the world was well and right again :)
Brian Beam
I would take some time to explain what Heifer International is all about, but their self-stated mission pretty much sums it up - "Heifer International's mission is to work with communities to end hunger and poverty and care for the Earth."
And Rothfuss describes the charitable organization on his World Builders 2012 site: "It helps people raise themselves up out of poverty and starvation. Heifer promotes education, sustainable agriculture, and local industry all over the world. They don’t just keep kids from starving, they make it so families can take care of themselves. They give goats, sheep, and chickens to families so their children have milk to drink, warm clothes to wear, and eggs to eat."
Rothfuss has provided a couple of options to contribute to this wonderful charity. You can straight up donate money, every ten dollars earning you an entry into a random drawing for one of hundreds of books, some signed by the authors, and other random things. Secondly, you can buy anything from his online store, The Tinker's Packs(appropriate if you've read his books), with all proceeds going to Heifer. With this option, you can help out the organization while also getting a Christmas present for a friend or loved one. I'm sure we all have a geeky fantasy friend or two who would love the Fantasy-Themed Pinup Calendar that showcases a different amazing fantasy author each month from Neil Gaiman, to George R.R. Martin, to Patrick Rothfuss himself(no worries, the authors aren't the ones depicted in the pinups). Thirdly, there will be auctions regularly posted in which you can win some cool stuff with the money going to Heifer.
I just love seeing such a prominent author set up such a well-organized, annual fundraiser for such an amazing charity and just really put his heart and soul into it. Last year Worldbuilders raised $310,000. This year, it's going for $500,000. Anyway, they've got my support this year.
So, my Christmas wish is not necessarily for everyone reading this to immediately go and drop money towards this charity. I simply ask you check it out and, if you feel you support the cause, donate.
In writing news, still putting small bits of time into my side projects as I wait to get The Forgotten King back in my hands. My first side project will be a collection of (mostly) fantasy short stories which is trying its darndest to become a collection of novellas. Getting close to finishing the second story on it. The other will be a semi-short(50K words or so) fantasy story revolving around the unexplainable deaths(murders) of a group of people who are supposed to be immortal, and basically unkillable. I'm having a lot of fun with both, but will probably not really dive into them until after The Forgotten King is out.
To end this, I will now post an irrelevant picture of my son "enjoying" his second birthday a little over a week ago. In all fairness, he just hated the birthday hat. Once it was back off, the world was well and right again :)
Brian Beam
December 2, 2012
Origins Of A Name
So, this is a tad random, but at least it ends with a cute baby video...of course, I'm biased, though, since it's my baby.
Anyway, a year and a half ago or so, when I was writing The Dragon Gem, I was trying to come up with a name for the demonic-ish creatures of the god of death who eventually were named eldrhims. The first name I came up with, however, was strahdrhims. During this time, I was a stay at home father with my son, Jonas, and when I came up with names, I would say them aloud while feeding him to get a feel for what I thought about the names after hearing them a few times. Strahdrhim just didn't seem to roll of the tongue so well, so the name was scrapped. Given Jonas' reaction, maybe I should've stuck with it...
hhhs
Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! Here's to a great week!
Brian Beam
Anyway, a year and a half ago or so, when I was writing The Dragon Gem, I was trying to come up with a name for the demonic-ish creatures of the god of death who eventually were named eldrhims. The first name I came up with, however, was strahdrhims. During this time, I was a stay at home father with my son, Jonas, and when I came up with names, I would say them aloud while feeding him to get a feel for what I thought about the names after hearing them a few times. Strahdrhim just didn't seem to roll of the tongue so well, so the name was scrapped. Given Jonas' reaction, maybe I should've stuck with it...
hhhs
Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! Here's to a great week!
Brian Beam
November 29, 2012
The Forgotten King V1.0
A certain someone sure is excited about The Forgotten KingWow. It's taken almost a year, but the first draft of The Forgotten King has been finished and sent to the proofreader - all 231,000 words of it! I only point out the word count to show that compared to The Dragon Gem(142K words), this book is a bit of a beast. You can blame my love of epic fantasy. Surely some things will get chopped, but it will still be much much longer than The Dragon Gem.
I still feel that The Forgotten King will be out by March at the latest and I will update about that frequently on here. I've been bad about posting anything this month with the amount of time I was putting into the book. This has been a labor of love and I'm really excited about this story and can't wait to get it out there!
I'm hoping to hear back soon from the cover artist with a preliminary sketch. Other than that, I'm planning on taking a small break and maybe get a few words in on one of my other projects.
I'm truly looking forward to getting The Forgotten King into your hands. If you have any questions about it that won't make me spoil the storyline too much, just post them on here or on Facebook( http://www.facebook.com/brianbeamauthor ) and I'll be happy to answer.
Thank you all for your support!
Brian Beam
November 17, 2012
Want Your eBook Copy of The Dragon Gem Signed?
I had signed up with Authorgraph, a site that allows readers to request eBook autographs from authors, a while back. They now have this handy widget that you will see hovering on the right side of my blog page.
So, if you have any desire for a digital autograph and/or personal message, click on the Authorgraph widget below the progress bars or at the following link:
http://www.authorgraph.com/authors/Br...
Of course, if you request an autograph, it will look like a 5 year old did the signing. It's kind of hard to make a signature with a mouse pad. Honestly, though, my real-life signature's not much better.
In The Forgotten King news, I'm rapidly approaching the end. Going to finish up another chapter this weekend, and then there's just a couple closing chapters left. Then, it's off to the proofreader (who I will probably have to pay more since I think it's going to go over the word count I quoted them). Oh, well.
Hope everyone's having a wonderful weekend!
Brian Beam
So, if you have any desire for a digital autograph and/or personal message, click on the Authorgraph widget below the progress bars or at the following link:
http://www.authorgraph.com/authors/Br...
Of course, if you request an autograph, it will look like a 5 year old did the signing. It's kind of hard to make a signature with a mouse pad. Honestly, though, my real-life signature's not much better.
In The Forgotten King news, I'm rapidly approaching the end. Going to finish up another chapter this weekend, and then there's just a couple closing chapters left. Then, it's off to the proofreader (who I will probably have to pay more since I think it's going to go over the word count I quoted them). Oh, well.
Hope everyone's having a wonderful weekend!
Brian Beam
November 16, 2012
TIny excerpt
So, not feeling great and work on The Forgotten King is going to go nowhere tonight. I thought I would share the one paragraph I did write because I'm pretty sure it was birthed directly from how I feel. Well, it fits the story too :)
I really want to put down my quill and tuck this journal away for good. There are just some events I have no desire to ever relive, not even as memory through writing. There are times that I wish to completely forget. My reasoning is selfish; I don’t want to put myself through the pain of putting these points into words. To leave this next part out, however, would be a grave injustice to everyone involved. So, here goes nothing..
I really want to put down my quill and tuck this journal away for good. There are just some events I have no desire to ever relive, not even as memory through writing. There are times that I wish to completely forget. My reasoning is selfish; I don’t want to put myself through the pain of putting these points into words. To leave this next part out, however, would be a grave injustice to everyone involved. So, here goes nothing..
