Okay, so SERVANT is still in Smith’s. Get them before they’re gone. If you were thinking of purchasing, now’s the time (and let’s hope the trial run is a success and they take it national in their stores). They have it cheaper than anywhere else in the Utah area. I think it’s $17 or $19. That’s a great price for a new hardback.  I know it’s in these stores.

• Heber, UT
• Jackson Hole, WY
• Park City, UT
• Provo, UT (by the library)
• Orem, UT (State and Center)
• Sandy, UT (benches, Bengal Blvd.)
• West Jordan, UT
• I’m sure there are other Smith stores that I’ve missed. You can check your local store to see. Let me know here if you spot it.  

Yea! Thanks to those of you who nominated. The judges have chosen Servant of a Dark God as a Whitney Award finalist. Of course, the four other books in the category are great. Here’s the list of finalists in my category:

Check out all finalists in all categories here. If you click on the Whitney Academy link on the top of that site, you’ll see all the folks who will be voting on the finalists.

SERVANT has been spotted in the Orem, Pleasant Grove, Salt Lake City, and West Jordan Smith’s stores. It appears we’re still running, folks. Fingers crossed. Please post a comment if you see it in your local Smith’s.

As for CURSE OF A DARK GOD, I’m moving along. I’m such a slow writer. But I had to yank about 50-70k words from draft 2. Just yank them right out and start over. I’ll give a full report when I’m done, but I’m very excited about this new version. Sugar is becoming a fell-maiden. Talen is becoming more heroic. And I’m just having a great time.

I’ve just learned that Kroger Food has decided to carry Servant of a Dark God on a trial basis in its Utah Smith’s grocery stores. If it sells well, they will take it nation wide.

Folks, this is a BIG opportunity for SERVANT. To put this in perspective, Barnes & Noble, the biggest book retailer in the nation, currently operates 775 retail bookstores. For first time novelists in my genre, they usually stock 2-6 copies of a hard back book. (BTW, if after eight weeks the book has sold decently, they will model the book for the store which means when they sell out, they order some more.  Other books that aren’t modeled are not reordered or are sent back to the publisher.) Kroger, on the other hand, operates 2,500 + grocery stores with book sections in them. That’s more than three times the size of B&N! That gives so many more readers the chance to preview the book. Heck, to even know it exists.

If you know someone in Utah who was thinking of buying SERVANT, let them know now’s a good time to get it at Smith’s. My fingers are crossed.

Also, if you spot the books while shopping at your local Smith’s, please let me know. I’d like to know how widely they’ve been distributed.

The Legend Award

I was informed today that Servant of a Dark God is on the Longlist for the David Gemmell Legend Award for Fantasy and the Morningstar Award for best fantasy debut. I believe this means the Rapture is close at hand, folks. Or maybe it just means Cthulhu has taken over the North Pole. In either event, Hunger, Sugar, Talen, Hogan, Nettle, Legs, River, the Mother (and the kick butt Hag’s Teeth) can win an award for general awesomeness. They can because voting is open to the public.

Kind of Like American Idol

You may ask: Is this like getting the Nobel peace prize? No. You have to have actually done something like take out a group of speedy Somali pirates or write a fantasy novel. These awards are not given out as scratch away prizes at McDonalds (you can get them at Wendy’s). This is an award given to:

• A full length novel published for the first time in the English language during the year of nomination (2009)
• Traditional, Heroic, Epic, or High Fantasy and/or in the spirit of David Gemmell’s own work

The nominees were submitted by editors working within a commercial genre fiction publisher (kind of like Hollywood week at American Idol). All the nominations are then put on the award’s Longlist.  The public then votes for their favorite on the list. The poll opened December 26, 2009. Voting on the Longlist will close March 31, 2010. You’ll notice it is indeed a looong list. But you don’t have to have read all the novels. You just vote.

The top 5 novels with the most votes will be put on the award “Shortlist.” Then in April the public voting for the winner out of those five will begin, open to all.  See, American Idol, except you can’t vote two gajillion times for the same girl/guy just because of the her/his drool inducing factor. 

How to Vote

1. View the list of Legend nominees here: http://gemmellaward.ning.com/page/legend-1
2. Cast your vote by hovering over the Legend menu item as shown below; you’ll see a red Vote link; click it and select the book you want to vote for
3. View the list of Morningstar nominees here: http://gemmellaward.com/page/morningstar-1
4. Cast your vote by hovering over the Morningstar menu item and clicking the red Vote link.

Who is David Gemmell?

David Gemmell was a British writer of heroic fantasy. I’ve pasted two of his covers below. You can read more about him here.

For those of you interested in LDS authors, nominate SERVANT for the Whitney

Now that you’ve done your part to restore world order in the fantasy genre, if you’re interested in LDS authors/fiction, you can also nominate the Sugar, Talen, Hunger and the gang for The Whitney Award.

This is an award for novels by LDS authors. It works in the opposite way of the Legend award. In this one, the public nominates novels by LDS authors they like. Then a “panel of industry professionals, including authors, publishers, bookstore owners, distributors, critics, and others” vote on the nominations. Of course, because I’m one of those Carrier Monkeys of Evil Mormons (a future post, folks), Servant of a Dark God is eligible.

To nominate Servant of a Dark God go here: http://www.whitneyawards.com/nominations.php 

Whew.  Be happy. I’ll keep you updated to let you know if SERVANT makes the short list for either of these.

This Saturday is the FINAL scheduled book event for Servant of a Dark God. If you’ve been wanting to chat, have me sign your book, or get a signed book for someone for Christmas, this is the one to come to. Bring friends and family who are interested. We’ll have a good time. And if you don’t want to come for me, come for the B&N bookseller whose name is Shasta Way. Now, that’s a name!

Here’s the report of what happend on the Larry and John tour of Denver.

On the way out:

1. We met in Evanston, WY at 8:00 AM
2. On a lonely stretch of I-80 we passed a semi that was on FIRE. Didn’t stop because Larry and I wanted to see the driver burn.
3. Was freeze-dried in a parking lot in Rawlins by Arctic winds in the four seconds it took to open the car door, say “Holy schnitzel! It’s freezing,” and then run to the Subway. It was cold. COLD!
4. On another lonely stretch of I-80 we passed a truck driver out in that wind with a knife. He was down in the median trying to hack off the antlers of a bull elk that had obviously been hit by a vehicle.  His truck was slowly rolling forward. Someone had to be driving, but I didn’t see anyone.
5. Because it was soooo cold the snow didn’t stick. So in various stretches the wind would blow the snow across the road in long trails that looked like ribbons of fire or snakes. Totally awesome!
6. Then we started hitting stores all the way down to Denver–Cheyenne, Fort Collins, Boulder, etc. I can’t tell you how much I like Barnes & Noble booksellers. Everyone was happy to see us and nice to work with.
7. Oh, and Larry bought treats. Wal-Mart trail mix, cookies, and beef jerky. When he opened the beef jerky, he said, “Holy cow, did you just fart?” I had not. It was the jerky. You have been forewarned.

Other highlights:

1. A number of the stores ordered extra copies of our books for our driveby signings. But the Barnes & Noble in the Aurora Southlands Town Center beat them all hands down. They rolled out a hand truck stacked with books.
2. Had a great time in Loveland at the B&N there. Vivian Tapp was a peach with a Santa’s hat to boot.
3. We had a bunch of folks show up at the Lone Tree signing. Thanks to everyone there. I’ve forgotten all the names except that of James, the store’s fantasy nut.
4. Then we went out to dinner with a great crowd. Larry had a bunch of his interesting friends. I got to hang out at the other end of the table with my sister and her man Mark, Rachel Dryden, and Ken and Rachel Kao (who both do parkour–cool!!).

On the way back:

1. We almost died. You can read Larry’s version of the story here.
2. More of that fine smelling jerky and road crawling with snow snakes.

Larry and I will be in Lone Tree (South Denver) and Loveland Saturday, December 5th. Drop by and say hello, buy one of our books as a gift, or just show up with your Klingon outfit and gun.

John Brown events at Barnes & Noble

Yes, you read that right. Valerie Moore, an Arizonan bead maker, read the book and loved it. After coming to the Poisoned Pen signing, she was inspired with a new bead design that she calls ”The Grove,” after the Grove of Hismayas.

She says, “I like when other people’s work speaks to me and I can release it in my form of art (which happens often enough through books or music). . . The Grove is a design, inspired by your work, made from polymer clay and 22k gold. The colors and design evoke a sense of depth, much like The Grove in Servant of A Dark God. It runs deep and true; like a network of roots. Earthy, deep and calm is what they “feel” like to me. The gold glints out like the sparkling of a soul, pure and shining and as yet untarnished. And in a way, think of the dragonfly “zinging” around. It must have gotten some funny cookies to eat.”

I say “hear, hear!” to funny cookies! I’m so stoked my story inspired her. I think the beads look great. More importantly, so do my girls, who are true bead heads (we dropped $50 on Black Friday at a bead shop, ack!). Check it out. If you want some for yourself, you can get them online.

This was a fun interview with Donna of Fantasy Dreamer’s Ramblings.

Just a reminder. Larry and I will be in the Phoenix area this week on book tour. If you’re available, we’d love to see you Thursday night at the Poisoned Pen or earlier that day at the informal Barnes & Noble meet-n-greet!

The three amigos (David Farland, Larry Correia, and I) have locked down venues for Phoenix and Denver.

Servant of a Dark God on Deseret News Bookmarks. The article, well, it’s more of a notice, is open for comments.

James Maxey is a writer I admire. For his work ethic. For the quality of his prose. For his imagination. His story “To Know All Things That Are In The Earth” is one of my favorites. So you can be sure I was pleased to find and read this today.

I will say, in utter candor, that Servant of a Dark God is a work that truly stands out from other fantasy books on the market. What makes this book work so well is that it’s a story about family first, and a fantasy adventure second. Full review.

Mette Harrison is the author of Mira, Mirror, The Princess and the Hound and The Princess and the Bear (Orson Scott Card simply loves her work.) So she’s a great writer, but she is also someone who does not blurb books if she doesn’t like them. Heck, she has a hard time doing PR for her OWN work. So I was so very happy to see this review of  Servant of a Dark God.

John Brown’s book has all the great things about epic fantasy that I love. Full Review.