Brian McClellan's Blog, page 34

Weekend Buys 9/26/2014

Haven't done a Weekend Buys for a while, so thought I'd throw one up.

“Each weekend I recommend three books. Some are books I’ve read and some are books I want to read. Some have been written by my friends. Or maybe I’ll just post a good deal I saw online. Just a little something to expose you to the kind of books that interest me.”

You might remember that back during the spring, when I last did these Weekend Buys updates, I mentioned Stephen Blackmoore's Dead Things and how it looked awesome, Stephen was a cool guy, and I wanted to read the book. Well since then I have read Dead Things as well as the sequel, Broken Souls, and both books are really freaking awesome.

I will give a content warning. The series is about a necromancer in LA, and all the horrible things that go with it. Lots of gore. But it's SO GOOD. Get both Dead Things and Broken Souls. They're $5.99 each, which really is a steal for an afternoon of fun.

This summer I took a big chunk of time to catch up on my reading, including the aforementioned Dead Things. One book I haven't gotten to yet, which I really, really need to get to, is The Emperor's Blades by Brian Staveley. Not just because he spells his first name right, but because everyone I've talked to who read it has really enjoyed it. Right now is a good time to get your mitts on the ebook of Emperor's Blades, because it's only $2.99. I have no idea how long it'll be that price.

 

Finally, we'll take a look at a book most of you have (or should have) already read. Mistborn: The Final Empire is the first book in Brandon Sanderson's first trilogy and it's currently on sale for $2.99. I read this book for the first time while taking his class a bajillion years ago and loved it enough to get in hardcover even though I was a poor college student. For those keeping score, the whole trilogy (Mistborn, Well of Ascension, Hero of Ages) has been out for some time, so you won't have to wait for a conclusion.

 

 

 

 

 

Portrait

While I was at Salt Lake Comic Con a couple of weeks ago, wifey was working on a secret (even from me) project. Imagine my surprise when I got home and found she'd done a very awesome portrait of Field Marshal Tamas. Check it out!

art by Michele McClellan

Review of the Short Fiction

Over the weekend, Fantasy Faction had a great write-up and review of all the Powder Mage short fiction so far. There are plenty of people still on the fence about whether to get into them, so this might help sway you!

Someone made a comment on my Facebook page that they'd love to see prequels to the Powder Mage Trilogy. FYI, the short fiction pretty much are the prequels. I don't know if I'll ever expand to novel-length works during that time period of the universe, but I'll definitely be writing more novellas. I think they work better for the purpose of expanding the universe.

Audiobook for The Autumn Republic

Audiobook listeners will be pleased to hear that Orbit will be doing an audiobook of The Autumn Republic. It will be read by Christian Rodska and released February 10th.

These things are always up in the air pending sales of the previous audiobooks and availability of the reader, so I'm very happy that this is the case. Everyone I've talked to has absolutely loved Christian's reading.

Don't forget that you can pre-order signed physical copies of The Autumn Republic directly from me through my store, as well as regular signed copies through a number of other venues as found here. I'll update that list as it grows.

Honey Harvest

Today I'm going to step away from your regularly-scheduled writing and Powder Mage updates for something a little different. As many of you know, I keep a hive of honey bees. Yesterday was our fall harvest and I thought I'd walk you all through it. If, like me, you find this kind of thing interesting then read on! If not, go grab a Powder Mage novella and read quietly in the corner.

The hive I harvested was a first-year hive (the hive from last year was sick this spring and has now died off completely). A first year hive means they have just a couple thousand bees to start off and probably won't make a lot of honey. We ended up having four (out of possible 6) medium supers filled, and I left three of those for the bees to winter over. That left me with a single super, plus a couple of choice frames from the next one down because I'm greedy.

Getting equipment ready. Plastic jars (in the bag), extractor, 5-gallon bucket, and uncapping tank..

A super full of honey.

I got stung once pulling the top super off the hive and emptying it of bees. One girl climbed up my pantleg and stung when I tried to gently shake her out. Sadness. Everything else went smoothly and I brought the whole thing inside!

A frame full of capped honey. Pretty much the ideal frame.

Doing the cleanup work.

The first thing you do is uncap the honey. You can see my uncapping knife in the picture below. One of these days I'll spring for an electric uncapping knife. The one I use has to be dipped in hot water between frames so it's hot enough to cut through the wax. I also use an uncapping scratcher to pick the caps off of any cells that the knife missed.

 

Uncapping knife in action.

I'm getting better. The last harvest (two years ago, as last year was a tough time for the bees) I wound up just butchering the wax. You can see below what it looks like post-uncapping. You do this to both sides.

Once I have three frames decapped on both sides, I put them into the honey extractor and give them a spin. If the weight distribution is even it's a breeze. If it's off a little, the whole thing wobbles and shakes all over the place and I have to hug it close.

This is the best part of the whole process because you suddenly go from having a wooden frame full of sticky stuff you stole from a bunch of bugs to a drum full of gorgeous honey.

Once you've spun the extractor for fifteen seconds or so in each direction, you lift the lid and check the frames. If they're clean, take them out and move on to the next trio. My extractor lets me get through six frames before it's too full to spin, at which point we open up the cap in the bottom and let it filter through a sieve to get all the bug bits and wax out.

Above you can see a video of the honey pouring out of the bottom of the extractor. Very satisfying moment! Once we've gone through all the frames, it's time for cleanup, wax processing, and honey bottling.

All the honey dripping out of the wax cappings. Saved a good two pounds of honey this way!

The final result after all the filtering. About three gallons (36 pounds) of gorgeous wildflower honey.

After the extraction, I put the empty frames outside in front of the hive and the bees come and clean them all up for me so I can put them in storage for the winter.

The final product!

Signing in Willoughby

Local friends!

I'm participating in an "Author Expo" at the Willoughby Hills Community Center in Willoughby Hills. That's happening this coming Saturday, September 13th, from 11AM to 3PM. I'll be hanging out signing books and chatting with fans. There will also be several dozen area authors in attendance, if you're looking to support the local crowd and find something new!

They'll have copies of Promise of Blood and Crimson Campaign. Drop by and get a book or just say hi!

Salt Lake Comic Con Wrap-up

I've spent the last three days at Salt Lake Comic Con and let me tell you, it was a crazy experience. The initial number I heard for attendance was 150K people, which would put it at the very top of the pile with San Diego Comic Con and New York Comic Con. That's pretty amazing for just their second year.

Let's start with the bad: Thursday wound up being a disaster of registration and lines. Something about too few volunteers on registration, and those not quite handling things properly. I honestly don't know the whole story so I certainly won't point any fingers. A lot of people wound up being pretty angry about it. My aunt, uncle, and cousins waited in line for hours in the sun before giving up. Contrast that to inside the center where we were wondering where everyone was.

The good news is that the line management seemed to go a ton smoother on Friday and Saturday (little condolence to those that only had Thursday passes). The worst I heard was a half hour in line on those days, as opposed to 2-5 hours on Thursday. Inside the center, most of the crowds were manageable, though mid-day on Saturday was shoulder-to-shoulder.

Moving on to my own personal experience. This was my first time participating in a big convention as a vendor. I spent most of my time either at panels or the Schlock Mercenary booth (thanks again to Howard and Sandra for having me!), with just a couple hours spent walking around. I thought being on this side of things was a lot of fun, if exhausting, and I was shocked to find out how many fans I actually had in the region.

A blurry photo of the booth during set up.

I was fortunate enough to have friends like Brandon and Howard who sent new fans my way, and I had a fairly steady stream (better than most of my signings) of people come by and say they had read my books and ask about Autumn Republic. For three straight days!

I took several boxes of hardcovers with me, expecting (based on experiences at PHXCC and Gen Con) to sell about half of them. By Saturday morning I was taking mail orders. Based on my early math, the convention paid for my entire 11-day trip as well as a little bit on top and I won't have to ship anything home.

My Uncle John with his '65 Mustang

A few words on the rest of my trip: outside of SLCC, the highlights were getting to see the friends and family I left behind after wifey and I graduated school. I saw wifey's sister (who is working on a cool Powder Mage project for me) and grandparents, and hung out with my aunt, uncle, and cousins. I also got to attend Brent Weeks' signing alongside Brandon Sanderson. Spending time with two of the modern giants of epic fantasy was pretty awesome.

Over all, both Salt Lake Comic Con and the trip itself were a giant success, but I'll be happy to be back to wifey and my own bed and office.

Salt Lake Comic Con Schedule

Next week I'm going to be at Salt Lake Comic Con. I'll wander the Dealer's Room, hang out and sign/sell books at the Schlock Mercenary table, and do a handful of fun panels with some very cool and talented authors. Really looking forward to it.

You'll be able to find me at the Schlock Mercenary table (booth #1600) Thursday 4-6 PM, 11 AM to 1 PM and 3-4 PM and Saturday 11 AM to 1 PM. I might be there at others times as well and if I'm not they'll have signed copies of both my books.

My panel schedule is:

Friday, 1 PM: The Monster or the Man, Who Makes the Best Villain? RM 255FFriday, 2 PM: Is Epic Fantasy Still Relevant to the Genre? RM 255BSaturday, 4 PM: Religion in Science Fiction and Fantasy. RM 255ESaturday, 5 PM: Building a Move-in Ready World. RM 255BSaturday, 6PM: The Business Side of Your Dreams. RM 255B

Weller Book Works Signing

I'll be signing at Weller Book Works in Salt Lake City on August 30th, from 2-4PM. This is my "for people who aren't going to Salt Lake Comic Con" signing, as I have tons of friends, family, and fans in the area who won't be at the big event (for those of you who are attending SLCC, I'll post my schedule early next week).

Come on by Weller Book Works to get your copies signed or just to say hi and chat! I look forward to seeing you all! Here is the Facebook page.

Gen Con Schedule!

I'm going to be at Gen Con this week in Indianapolis! It's going to be a wild ol' time, so come on by and say hi. There will be plenty of copies of both my books at the Author Alley bookstore, or I'll sign one you bring with you.

I'll probably be bouncing around between Diet Cokes at the bar and loitering in Author Alley with my friends. Otherwise, you can find me at these panels:

Thursday

11AM signing in the Dealer's Room. Probably at the bookstore.7PM Writer's Craft: Non-Medieval Fantasy. Room 244

Friday

7PM Writer's Craft: Twists vs Gimmicks. Room 2458PM Writer's Craft: Character Backstory. Room 244

Saturday

8PM Writer's Craft: Death of a Hero. Room 243