I loved attending the LDStorymakers conference this year. It was awesome, fun. I chatted with old friends and met new ones.  Got (stole) a great story idea from Donald Carey, the Conference King. Enjoyed Provo–love the weather down there this time of year! Attended some great presentations on writing. Gave some that seemed to help a number of folks. It’s a special delight to deliver a presentation that both entertains and helps. Furthermore, my family came down with me. So I got to hang out with them in the evenings. My daughters sneaked into the mass booksigning and got autographs from some of their favorite authors.  They were giddy with delight.

It was bliss.

I also worked with Isaac Stewart on a mock up of the new cover for SERVANT, and dude. DUDE.  If we can swing it, the covers for the Blacksword Books version are going to rock.

Anyway, I promised many people I would post my presentation slides here. Here they are in PDF format:

Vivid and Clear

Story Turns

And for those of you in the Story Turns class wanting that fine car chase clip, here it is!

Curse of a Dark God, book 2 of the Dark God series, can now be published!

That’s the short version.

Here’s the long version that will probably not be what you expect.  A little over nine months ago I initiated a contract termination with my publisher Tor Books.  A few days ago Tor reverted the rights. This means I have all the rights to all the books in the series back.

But why would I initiate such a thing? Tor’s like THE publisher of science fiction and fantasy.

There are a couple of factors, but I think the biggest issue is that we had differences in our vision for the story. This meant there were things I didn’t like about where the project was going and how it was progressing. It also meant there were things Tor didn’t like about the project and how it was progressing. This translated into some big delays. 

We could have hung together–Tor never raised the idea of termination. But I saw no benefit in limping along. If things aren’t working, I tend to want them fixed. So after I raised the issue, all involved agreed that a termination of the agreement would be the best option.

And although all of us were disappointed it didn’t work out, this was an amicable parting. Tor went to bat for me with Macmillan, their overlord, to get this thing done. And we ended up with, I feel, a fair agreement. Of course, my agent was a valuable resource every step of the way.

I don’t look at these last years as a loss. The series was introduced to thousands of readers. And I learned a number of valuable things about the business and craft working on this project with the folks at Tor. We’re farther along now that we were, even if we didn’t take the rocket ship to the stars.

Most importantly, the good news is that for those of you who have been waiting, I can now move forward! The series will be published by Blacksword Books, my own imprint. We’ll start with e-book and trade paperback formats. Both will be available online from Amazon, Barnes&Noble, and other retailers. Once that’s rolling, we’ll look to see if audio is feasible.

I’m very excited about CURSE. My agent loved it. I loved it. My early readers have loved it. I think all of you who enjoyed SERVANT will enjoy this just as much if not more.

Mokad is coming.  And bringing all its might to root out and obliterate the sleth in the New Lands.  And they’re not alone.  You’re going to meet a Guardian of awesome and cunning power who leads Mokad ‘s dreadmen army.  You’re going to meet the Dogmen of Toth.  And sleth who have rallied to Argoth’s call.  And a fearsome ally who lives in the Wilds.  All the main characters are back with Sugar and Talen learning new magic, facing new creatures, and discovering unsettling insights into what’s really going on.

I love this book. I can’t wait to get it into your hands.

But there’s a lot to do to get it out the door.

I need to make some edits to SERVANT. There are a number of maddening typos that crept into the manuscript. I’ll also be changing the sequence of the first eight chapters back to my original sequence, starting with Sugar and Legs and then moving to Talen. I know some readers like the sequence my Tor editors requested that starts the book with Talen sitting around in his under pants, but I structured it for him to follow Sugar for specific reasons, and starting with Talen undermines a number of those things. Finally, because I don’t have a word limit, I’m going to be adding some clarity to the ending that wasn’t in the Tor version. I also need to make some revisions to the last draft of CURSE, which has been done for almost two years, and then put it through a rigorous copy edit. And then there’s cover design, interior formatting for the print versions, and the publishing part.

So lots of work. But I think it’s going to be worth it. At the very least I will satisfy the young woman, soon to be a mother, dining at a pizza place I went to this last week who told me she loved SERVANT, thought it was awesome, and was angry at me because there’s no book two!

I’ll post a schedule soon. My hope is to have both books up sometime in August.

Oh, and when they do come out, please know that both the e-book and trade paper versions will be on sale for two weeks.  I’m going to put SERVANT on for a massive discount so those of you wanting the author’s cut can get it cheap. I don’t want you to have to buy the book twice at full price. And I’m going to put CURSE on sale as well because those of you who have stuck with me deserve a reward.  

Then it’s on to DARK GOD’S GLORY which I’ve already completed the working outline for. There might be another book in the same world about a team of fell-maidens (the female version of dreadmen) given a difficult task. And then there’s a whole other series—different world, different awesome magic—waiting in the wings. The first one in that series is tentatively titled LORD OF BONES.

Get zinged, Baby!  The Dark God is back in action.

I have finished the final drafts of my two presentations for the LDStorymakers conference which will be held next Friday and Saturday, May 10-11, 2013 in Provo, UT (usually a glorious time along the Wasatch Front in Utah).

“Vivid and Clear” – Despite the often repeated 11th commandment for writers—show, don’t tell—writers NEVER show. They can’t. It’s all tell, tell, tell. The trick is to tell in a way that helps your readers imagine the situation (action, thought, dialogue, description, etc.) with such vividness and clarity it can trigger an emotional response.  In this hour we’ll explore a number of simple but powerful prose techniques that help you do just that. That includes:

• The three main types of telling
• What “showing” really means
• 5 key techniques for making that telling vivid and clear
• Lots of examples so it’s all clear

“Story Turns” (they’ve got me scheduled to do this one twice) – Story turns, cliffhangers, rugpulls, plot twists, reversals, surprises, revelations (and more)–are a core part of an exciting plot, pacing control, and making a reader want to turn the page. In this workshop we’ll explore the main types of story turns and how they work so you can use them in your writing.  This includes:

• A clear definition of what turns are and do in general
• The 5 main types of turns
• A whole bunch of examples to make it all clear
• 3 tools I find helpful when developing turns
• A session where we actually will use the tools to develop turns for a scenario I’ll bring

I’ve got to run through both presentations to make sure they have the zing I look for in these things and that I don’t have too much content for the time allotted. I’m very excited about both. And, as always, I learned a lot bringing all my ideas together on these topics.

I’m planning on having a great time giving these AND listening to the other presenters AND chatting with folks I know AND meeting others. Last year was fabulous! This year looks to be even better.

For those of you who haven’t heard about the conference, it features 2 days of excellent programming focuses on helping writers who are serious about writing but who also want to have fun doing it–let’s call them hard-working, laffy bees.  Special guests include goddess of mystery Anne Perry plus a bunch of great agents and an editor from Harlequin’s new line focusing on “wholesome contemporary romances that celebrate traditional values, strong communities, family connections and true love.”

Although I have to say that if I were thinking of submitting to Harlequin, Kris Rusch’s posts would give me pause:

• “The End of Reversion Clauses: Deal Breakers 2012″
• Anti-Published” (read in the comments of this one)

I think registration is still open. For those of you already planning to go, please come up and say hello.

BTW, I’ll post a PDF of both the presentations and my notes here afterwards.

My daughters have introduced me to Studio C, a comedy program that started with The Divine Comedy troupe on the BYU campus who all growed up and were given a gig on TV. They do these  hilarious skits.

Like “Drivers Ed”

And “Blind Date“.

And “Shoulder Devil”.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.  BTW, Studio C airs weekly on BYUtv.

My oldest daughter introduced me to Olan Rogers. Who is crazy.  Here’s “Ghost in the Stalls”

If you loved that, I think you’ll enjoy “Midnight Claw”  

Sock slouch . . .

Next is John Branyan’s brilliant “Three Little Pigs”. My family and I have been enjoying this for months.

Finally, here’s something to think about. You know I enjoyed Jonathan Haidt’s book The Righteous Mind. Matt Wolfe pointed it out his TED talk to me. The one that preceeded his book. If you’re conservative, like I am, this talk will, at times, annoy you.  But the ideas behind it are great.

If you want to be equally enlightened but less annoyed, let me suggest you watch Bill Moyer’s interview of Haidt instead.

It was date night with daughter number 4. I asked her what she’d like to do.

She said she wanted to play a computer game. She likes the ones on friv.com. Probably because there are a couple hundred to choose from, and they’re free.

Every time we’d play games before, we’d play Miragine War. Warriors, monks, zombies. My army against hers. Sometimes I’d win. Sometimes she’d win. It’s a fun game. It gets a little tedious with the back and forth, but we always had a good time with the slaughter.

This time she wanted to play something new called FireBoy and WaterGirl.

The animation is done in a style similar to FancyPants, which I just love. Not as exaggerated, but still fun movement. The two characters are cute. FireBoy dies in water. WaterGirl dies in fire. Both die in the green mud. And the interesting thing is that it isn’t a competition. I don’t have anything against games that pit players against each other. I love them. But this one was a nice change. The two players actually have to help each other to progress. Part of the fun is figuring out exactly what each of you have to do and in what order to make it through the scenarios.

So daughter 4 and I laughed and yelled and cheered when we didn’t die. We had a great time. We must have played for at least two hours.

If you’re looking for a good date, give FireBoy and WaterGirl a try. Oh, and if you go to Friv.com to play it, it’s the little guy with the burning head.

You’re waiting. I’m waiting. And I’m going nuts. I initiated a process last summer that I thought for sure would be completed by October. Well, that was six months ago.

I was told in January to give it six weeks.

We blew past that.

And so I’m waiting.

The oxen are slow, but the earth is patient.