Great news! Laser Books has just purchased rights to print Servant of a Dark God in Czech for their Masters of Modern Fantasy imprint (click on the link to see other authors being published by them). The Czech Republic has just won a special place in my heart, seeing it’s the location of my first foreign sale, ever. We luvs the Czech Republic, Precious. 

Here’s a photo of Prague, their capitol city.  

More lovely and interesting photos here. For those who need a little bit of help with their geography, click on the map below. The Czech Republic is right in the middle of Europe.

And here’s a wiki on the Czech Republic.

Two bits of news about Servant of a Dark God. I received the proofs for the paperback version in the mail this week as you see below. The cat is used because he deserves a cameo. This is Panther giving us either his “Sigh, whatever, I’ll submit to your weird human ways” or “Umm, scratches” looks. He’s the last of the original eleven cats we inherited when we moved to Laketown back in 2003 (nine of them were black, one was a gray tabby, another a sort of tortoise color). Dutchess, the one who liked to tear open our bread bags while we weren’t looking and eat the bread, got run over. Three others, including our talker Tabby, we think were stolen by a woman looking for “stray” cats because, golly, the rattlers keep getting all hers. Ours were obviously strays because we live in 2.5 acres surrounds by dozens and dozens of acres of open land around us and we let them roam the hills! A few were shot, we think, by a kid who came to visit his grandfather who lived 1/2 a mile down the road. We think coyotes might have gotten the rest. So Panther is the last survivor. 7 years old. We love the old man.

I have just a few days to go through the proofs and find any typos and punctuation errors and get it back. The paperback version is scheduled right now to be released in November. And here’s the cover the publisher is using on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. You can see the difference between it and the hardcover by comparing it to the image in the sidebar.

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As for Curse of a Dark God, I typed the last word of the final battle and climax on Saturday. As it now stands, the final battle required 34,429 words to write. Holy schnitzel! Again, many adult novels average around 90,000 – 110,000 words total. So this is a significant sequence. For those of you who like to think in pages, it’s going to be anywhere from 100 – 140 pages depending on how the publisher configures the book. I have one more short chapter to write and the draft is finished. Well, I have a few things to seed into earlier chapters so that the ending etc. works, but that’s small stuff. The next step is to have a few readers go through this draft. Make any necessary edits. Then get it out to my agent as quickly as possible. Once my editor accepts it, we’ll be able to set a release date. And I might feel the sword of editoral doom lift just a little from my head.

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Finally, just wanted to give folks a heads up about the following events I’ve committed to.

I’m totally blown away. No way. NO FREAKING WAY. No way.

Servant of a Dark God just won the Whitney award for speculative fiction. Look who the others were in the category–three New York Times best sellers and a book that had something like 11 or 12 printings in Europe before coming to the US. Holy crap. I’m thrilled the academy voters liked it so much.  

Servant of a Dark God by John Brown	The Maze Runner by James Dashner	Wings by Aprilynne Pike	Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson	I Am Not A Serial Killer by Dan Wells

When I informed the academy president, Robinson Wells, I couldn’t come, he asked if I had a speech should I win. There was no way I was winning. So I was like, yeah, whatever. So I wrote him this:

Yeah, like that’s going to happen (grin). But should something go wrong with the chads, you can simply say that “John told me if he won, that would mean the events in Revelations were probably upon us, and he’d be headed to his father-in-law’s underground bunker with his wife who was the brains behind the whole operation. He’s thrilled so many of you liked his story enough to vote for it. Thank you, thank you, thank you. But he’s also sad that you’ll all be toast before Fox News airs at 9 PM.”

Holy, heck. I’d better get to that bunker.

Here are the other categories and winners:

• Best Romance: Counting the Cost by Liz Adair 
• Best Mystery/Suspense: Methods of Madness by Stephanie Black (absolutely love the cover)
• Best Youth Fiction:  The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams
• Best Speculative Fiction: Servant of a Dark God by John Brown
• Best Historical: The Last Waltz by G.G. Vandagriff
• Best General Fiction: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
• Best Novel by a New Author: I Am Not A Serial Killer by Dan Wells and Gravity vs. The Girl by Riley Noehren (it was a tie, obviously)
• Best Novel of the Year: In The Company of Angels by David Farland

Of course, you had to have read all the books in a category to vote on them. You can see the finalists in each category here. So while Farland’s book didn’t win in his category (I”m assuming with the hard core historical fans), it did win with those who read every finalist.  Same with Dan Wells. So what this tells me is that depending on the cross-section of voters a lot of us could have been winners. I’m just happy I got the cross-section I did–ye speculative nut jobs :) Hooray for the Whitneys!!

If you’re interested in fiction by LDS authors, check out ldsbookcorner.com for an easy way to preview books. 

Their Daily Chapter is a feature that allows readers to sign up at no cost and receive the first ten to twelve pages of a different book each week. It’s a great way to sample books by a lot of different LDS authors. Of course, this month is oh, so special because they will be featuring Whitney Award Finalist Servant of a Dark God. I think we know a little bit about that book around here

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!