Jon’s Comments (group member since Aug 04, 2010)

Jon’s comments from the Q&A with Jon Sprunk group.

Just an FYI: I'll be at Dragon*Con this year. Pyr has a booth where I expect to spend much of my time.

Justin is good people.

And anyone who loves Iron Maiden is, by definition, an intelligent and thoughtful human being.

Welcome, sir.

I'm an outlininer at heart. It helps me to know where a story is going. Otherwise, I just write and write and nothing ever reaches a conclusion.

One note about outlines: don't be afraid to change your plot if you have some better ideas as you write. In other words, be willing to explore tangent ideas, at least for a little while, to see where they go.

Jason: first, thanks for checking out Shadow's Son. I appreciate it.

As to research, I suggest writing a tight, entertaining story first, and worry about the research later. In fact, unless you need a pertinent detail that simply cannot be fabricated, I don't know if you need any hard facts (caveat: unless you are writing historical fiction or hard sci-fi).

For Son I relied on 30 years of reading fantasy, a couple decades of martial arts study, and a day job where confronting physical violence is a regular occurance. That's about it.

Welcome, Mihir. Thanks for stopping by.

The trilogy will wrap up "this" story for Caim & Kit (and don't forget Josey!). But I have some ideas for another series beyond that. I would like to write something else in between, though.

Dray/John: Some of it just comes to me as I'm writing, others I have to work on a little bit. Maybe I'll get an idea of how describe something, but upon reading it back I feel it just isn't "there," so I go over it until I think it sounds right.

Hey, John! Good to see you.

Not much for the US cover art. I was shown a couple drafts early on, but that was about it.

For the UK cover, the publisher (Gollancz) actually gave me some options. I didn't have total control or anything, but they did listen.

I just sent the manuscript for Shadow's Lure to my agent today. Feels like I just finished a double-marathon.

This was my first time writing a sequel, and it was challenging. I already knew most of the characters, obviously, but I also knew they needed to change and grow... again. To me, that's the difficulty of a good series. And how to keep things fresh.

Welcome to my Q&A group. Look around, kick the tires, and make yourself at home.

In some ways I'm a new kid on the published block, but in others I'm a seasoned vet. I've been writing and submitting for going on 20 years now. If you want to talk about the publishing world, this is your place.

This is a good place to ask questions about my writing process. I figure most people won't give a rat's ass, but feel free to ask away.

Shadow's Son is my debut fantasy novel. It was published in June of this year by Pyr Books in the United States, and it became available in the U.K. in July. It will appear in France sometime in October with other countries to follow.

Please feel free to ask me anything about the book here.

Hello everyone,

This is a group where people can talk about (and trash) my debut novel, Shadow's Son.

Please introduce yourself and have fun. The keg is in the corner beside the replica of Frodo's sword, Sting.