Book Tour
I went on a short book tour back in May. My tourmates were Jonathan Friesen, Lisa T. Bergren, and Lorie Ann Grover. We went to Salt Lake City, Utah and Tempe, Arizona. Here we are in front of the Salt Lake City public library.
We spoke at schools, had our signings, and I even managed to write a little. In Salt Lake signing was at the public library, which was the biggest library I’d ever seen! In Arizona, we signed at the Changing Hands bookstore. I met a lot of new friends. If you haven’t read Jonathan Friesen, Lisa T. Bergren, and Lorie Ann Grover’s books, you should.
One Year Adventure Novel Summer Workshop
I had the pleasure of teaching at the OYAN Summer Workshop for the second year in a row. This is a writing conference of sorts for students who have completed the One Year Adventure Novel curriculum. It’s fantastic stuff. I’ve got my own kids doing the middle school program now, and they are loving it!
I spoke on high concept ideas, creating compelling characters, fight scenes and epic battles, and query/cover letters and book proposals. My friend Jeff Gerke was there, as was my friend and agent Amanda Luedeke. The three of us, along with OYAN creator and author Daniel Schwabauer and his wife Carrol presented a mock publishing board meeting that was quite a laugh and hopefully gave the students a good idea of the process of getting a book published.
Here is a montage of some pictures I took or was tagged in from the workshop. And, yes. I did, indeed, find both a medieval helmet and a TARDIS. Very good times.
Upcoming Events
Oregon Christian Writers- August 4-7, Portland, OR
Salt Lake Comic Con- September 4-6, Salt Lake City, UT
American Christian Fiction Writers- September 24-28, St. Louis, MO
Writing
Rebels is done and ready to release in 41 days! More on the Rebels release party soon.
RoboTales, the children’s book series I wrote with my son is currently in the slush piles of five New York publishing houses. Thankfully, my agent will follow up on the project at some point, but for now, we wait.
Remember that project I started back when I had to take a break from Onyx Eyes? The Evenroot/Land’s End/Kinsman Chronicles project? Well… I’m 99% sure that the publisher is going to buy it. Yay! As soon as the contract is signed, I’ll tell you all about it. In the meantime, I’ve been hard at work on the first book. It’s an epic fantasy series, and it’s planned to release like so: book one- March 2016, book two, March 2017, and book three-March 2018.
Since that is a loooong time to wait, I’m planning some fun stuff to release before then. For years I’ve talked about writing some novellas to go with the Blood of Kings trilogy. But it’s been difficult to know when to squeeze them with non-compete clauses with my various publishers. But I am currently free from all that and can finally proceed!
The first project will be to publish six ebook novellas telling stories that happened before the Blood of Kings trilogy. I’ve got a lot of people to choose from. Here are some options: Peripaso, Shung, Caleb, Inko, Gavin, Jibhal, Nathak, Macoun, Axel, Eagan, Dara, Nitsa, Kurtz, and Kenton. Whichever stories I choose, it’s my goal that they be fresh and avoid spoiling the original trilogy. Once I’ve published all six ebook novellas, I’ll publish a print anthology containing all six stories for people who prefer print over ebooks.
And should the Er’Rets Past novella project do well, I will write two more anthologies of six stories each: Er’Rets Present and Er’Rets Future.
And that should keep me plenty busy until that third book in my new series releases in March of 2018.
For stories of the past, which characters would you like to know more about? Let me know in the comments.
Hmm. Peripaso would be fun. I don’t think we ever learned much about Inko, so that’d be cool. Gavin would be interesting. Eagan and Nitsa would be kind of awesome. I LOVE them.
But ANYTHING with Er’Rets people/places would be awesome. 🙂
Your new thing you’re writing is adult right?
Thanks for the feedback! Yes, my new fantasy is being published for the adult market, but it has plenty of younger POV characters in it. 🙂
Hi Jill,
I’m here. Finally found your site. I love Salt Lake City!
I’ve only been there once, but I liked it too.
Tell me. . .are you going to be at the OCW this August?
Yes, I am. In just a few weeks!
I’m kind of late to the party here, but YES! I am so excited for more tales from Er’rets! I’m currently rereading/listening to the Blood of Kings trilogy, and remembering just how much I love it.
I would love to hear more about Eagan and Nitsa, and Caleb, and Inko, and maybe Macoun as well. But I’m sure that whoever you choose will be great. 😀
Okay, thanks, Sarah! I’m narrowing it down to five, then I’ll have you all vote which one I do first.
I’ve always wondered what would happen if one world, fiction or real, would meet another. For example, would Hitler and Sauron get along? Would a U.S. fighter squadron be able to take down a flight of Nazgul? I have been curious, would Spencer and Achan ever meet in Er’Rets or Los Angeles? What kinds of cultural conflicts would arise? Just throwing a few interesting ideas out there? The latter is one that only you could write. What do you say?
LOL! That would be a strange story, indeed, Steven. I’ll have to think about that one. 🙂