Bryce's Ramblings

Well, now that it's official that we're going to Worldcon, I'm thinking it might be nice to set up a quick signing for those who live locally but won't be going to the convention.  I'll get my publicist on it, but I thought I'd ask here as well.  Does anyone reading the blog work at a bookstore (or know someone who works at a bookstore) in Montreal? 

Note that I'm more than happy to hear about your favorite stores and that sort of thing.  But I'm really looking for actual bookstore employees.  I always prefer to sign at a store where they've heard of me, and where there might be a reader or two on staff.  If you have a connection, send me an email!  Otherwise, we'll just have to take the luck of the draw.

Montreal is actually a special place for me.  You see, my first (and only) previous visit to the city came back when the World Fantasy convention was there in the early 2000's.  Myself and two friends--Peter Ahlstrom and Dan Wells--were bright-eyed, aspiring writers (or, in Peter's case, an aspiring editor) who were looking to make contacts and learn more about the publishing biz. 

It was at this convention that I met Moshe Feder, who eventually bought ELANTRIS.  Essentially, I was 'discovered' because of that convention.  So, Dan, Peter, Moshe, and I are all planning a reunion.  Should be fun times. Maybe we'll eat some Chinese Spaghetti.  (Ask me sometime about this one.)

Originally published at Eric James Stone. You can comment here or there.

We pretty much have more business than we can handle, so my company has posted a job listing on Craigslist for a Web Designer/Developer.  The job mainly consists of taking graphic designs by other designers and turning them into working web pages – often using a WordPress theme.  This is an in-house position at our office in Pleasant Grove, UT.

Heading off to my signing.  If you live in Utah Valley, stop by!  I'll be reading from Way of Kings.

I should probably have blogged this before now.  But I've got a signing tomorrow at the Orem Barnes and Noble from 2-4pm.  If you're in the area, come drop by!

Next, it looks like I'm not going to make it to Dragon*Con this year.  I had been planning on going to both Dragoncon and Worldcon, but looking at the amount of work I need to do, I was having trouble justifying going to both.  I was all set to drop out of Worldcon, then Dragoncon contacted us and regretfully informed us that the WoT Track's request to have me out had been denied.  (Partially my fault for getting my application in late enough that the money had all be spent.)  That left me with a choice.  Pay my own way to Dragoncon, or go to Worldcon? 

In the end, the fact that Pemberly wants to see Montreal, mixed with the fact that I'm on programming at Worldcon, made me choose that one.  I already had a Worldcon ticket, and so it seemed foolish to drop out of that and go to DragonCon.

The Dragoncon folks promised us that they'd bring me in next year, and I promise to get my application in earlier next time.  For now, you Atlanta people will have to wait a little longer to see me.  I'll be back for JordanCon next year though. 

Also, there have been questions about the WARBREAKER audio.  Well, Graphic Audio is doing the dramatic presentation of it (and you can read an excellent review of their Elantris Audio adaptation right here) and it looks like October is when it will be out.  The unabridged, non-dramatic reading will be out from Recorded Books about the same time. 

Drew worked a 13 hour day yesterday to finish up a particularly large project. I worked for 11 hours doing various business tasks and then cleaning our apartment, which was sorely in need.

It felt good. We've been playing hard lately, and so we were overdue for some hard work to go along with it.

That's my favorite way to live my life.

I haven't been posting much lately. This is because I've instead been out living my life. I don't have the energy left for an extended post, so here's the rundown.

There have been several lan parties, each resulting in thousands of slaughtered zombies and/or aliens.

Numerous trips to IHOP, the last of which resulted in a thirty minute inability to stop giggling. Could. Not. Stop. Apparently I actually go "tee hee hee" when I giggle that long at 3 AM. Who knew. (Okay, Drew did. He hears it all the time.)

A midnight walk down Center street in Provo. My random idea, actually.

An all-night Portal game. Man, that game is cool.

Several rpg games, one of which involved an all-night zombie apocalypse. My players all played themselves. The game started at Dragon's Keep, and then spread up through Orem. (The characters did, anyway. The players all stayed at the Keep.) And I attacked them with various zombies. We only had one casualty, and that was at the end. (I had to hand over the zombie stats I'd prepared at least once, after all.) We played for ten hours--8 PM to 6 AM. I was really, really nervous about running this, but I think everyone was happy with the result. There's talk of doing it again, which I think we probably will. Just not overnight. Unless it's next fourth of July.

We've been visiting with family--Drew's parents were in town, so we drove up to Salt Lake four times last week. Got to see the extended family, too.

Friends who've been in Japan for a year are in town. We spent a lot of time hanging out with them.

I love my friends. All of them. I haven't had enough sleep in the last several weeks, but my soul feels fed.

Several of my friends are exploring (or awaiting results of) business ventures lately. And I find myself eager for everyone to succeed. Every last one of us. My community is so full of bright, capable people with big dreams. And I want good things for every one of us.

Here's hoping for many great things in the future--both fun and business related.

Okay, let's get this rolling.  First off, remember that I'll be doing #tweettheauthor here in about 40 min.  (Starting at 12:00 Mountain.)  It's going to be interesting.  Can Brandon answer questions in 140 characters?  We shall see.  Feel free to start shooting me questions right about that time.  Just post them and include #tweettheauthor at the end.  I'll start sending out replies on my Twitter account, and they'll be targeted @ the person who asked the question.  So if my answer is confusing, you can click on their name to find the original question.

And, in conjunction with this, let me ask you this:  How clever are you?  My readers have a long history of posting fake reviews of THE WAY OF KINGS on Amazon.  (Since they have an entry for the book, and have had one for a good five years now, even though the book wasn't scheduled to come out until recently.)  To commemorate finishing the novel--and because I think it would be fun--I'm putting out a call for fake Twitter-length reviews of the book.  Post them today on Twitter, any time, and use the tag #FakeKings.  I will collect the best of them and post them on my blog, like I did with the Scaliz thing last week.  If you use Twitter and want a little more attention for your account, this would be a great way. 

If you don't have a Twitter account, and have no real interest in getting one, you can still follow along by doing a search on Twitter's site for one of the tags above.  You can watch my Twitter feed here.  If you want to post a fake Kings review Tweet, you can drop it onto my LJ, which allows anonymous posting.  I'll look there when I'm collecting my favorites.  (Just keep the posts short.)

So...why all of this Twitter stuff?  Is it just a fad?  I don't know.  It's fun for the moment, and if it all dies down eventually, I'll feel I've gotten what I want out of it.  I like how micr-blogging allows me to give a few updates each day for my readers.  I don't feel as much pressure to create blog posts, so when I do blog, the content is usually is a little more substantial.  Twitter works for me, as I have a feed going on my desktop and can watch what other authors and my friends are up to.  (Though, to be honest, I like the micro-blogging via facebook better, as people tend to post replies there and it feels more interactive.  With Twitter, you just send a tweet out there, and never know what people are thinking when they see it.)

Housekeeping first.  Remember that I'll be doing on-line appearances tomorrow, where I'll be answering questions.  The one on Twitter will probably be way busy, so that should be interesting.  I'm getting to the odd state in my career where there will probably be far more questions than I have time to  answer, but I'll do my best.    Also, have you not seen Howard and Tracy Hickman's Extreme DM book?  If not, you're missing out.  It's awesome.  Some sample pages are here.

Now, the big news.  At about 6:00 am this morning, I finished THE WAY OF KINGS rewrite.  It ended up at 380k words, which is almost double the length of Mistborn.  (It's almost as long as THE SHADOW RISING, by Robert Jordan.)  Now, before you get TOO excited about that size, know that I tend to write too much on a first draft intentionally, and now plan to trim it down by at least 10%.  The final book should  be between 300k and 350k.  Either way, though, it's going to be a meaty book.  (Not long for long's sake, mind you.  That's just what it took to tell the story the right way.)

How did it turn out?  Well, to be honest, it's FANTASTIC.  This is a monstrous, beastly, awesome epic of a book.  And so I'm going to give Tor the official thumbs up so they can put it on the schedule for release next year.  The series title, if you haven't heard, is going to be called THE STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE. 

The book does everything I wanted it to, and then some.  It was a lot more work to revise it than I'd anticipated.  I essentially ended up writing the thing all over again, not keeping any of what had been written before.  But knowing the characters already helped a great deal.  (And if you guys ever see my wife at a convention, make sure to give her a thanks and a hug for deal with a husband who has been essentially working two full time jobs for much of this year--one on KINGS, one on THE WHEEL OF TIME.) 

Like any time I finish a book, there's still that itching, authorial paranoia that nobody is going to like what I've done.  I have chosen a career path where, instead of releasing all of my books in one series, I jump around.  I've done this partially because I want the freedom to reinvent myself.  Some of my favorite authors growing up seemed unable to give new life to a series when they started it, and ended up repeating the very same story and tone over and over.  I wanted to train myself to be doing new things, and wanted the freedom to write different books in different ways. 

I know I'm not as wildly different in my variation as some other authors, but at the same time, there's a different feel to each book/series I've done.  Hopefully, all will have great characters, a fun setting, and a compelling plot.  But there will always be those who prefer Elantris's thoughtful contemplativeness to Mistborn's action or Warbreaker's reversals and humor.  Each time I've released a new book, I've worried.  Will my audience follow me in this (slightly) new direction?  What will they think of what I've done?

KINGS is no different.  In fact, it's got me even more worried.  My goal for this book was to give it SCOPE.  The setting is the most distinctive I've written, with the largest world and the largest number of cultures and peoples.  The book (though mostly linear) involves flashbacks to character pasts, and sometimes firsthand looks at the deep past of the world.  At the same time, because of the enormity of what I'm trying, I found that the book couldn't telegraph as easily what it was about.

What does this mean?  Well, Mistborn and Elantris both did excellent jobs of telegraphing to the reader--right off--what the story was going to be about.  After the first few chapters of Mistborn, you pretty much knew that it would be a book about Kelsier's attempt to overthrow the Lord Ruler, mixed with Vin's training as a Mistborn.  Elantris was about Raoden trying to restore Elantris, Sarene investigating his disappearance, and Hrathen's attempts to convert the people.  Because of the scope of these books, I was able to get across very easily what they would be about  and what the central conflict would be.

KINGS...well, I have trouble describing what the heck KINGS is about.  While there are a number of plots bouncing around in those 380k words--and many of them do get resolved--the larger storylines are only just beginning.  The book isn't about one or two things, like Mistborn was.  It's about dozens.  And yet, the main character's plotline is simple: survival.  He's in a terrible, brutal situation, and he just wants to live.  

Anyway, the book needs a lot more revision, but it's in a state where I think we'll make it.  So send a little good will my way as I dig into it over the next eight months.  Maybe I'll be able to come up with a way to describe this beast. 

I am now co-owner of a business that paid all our bills last month.

This thing I'm feeling? I think it's a cross between amazement and relief.

For those of you who are RPG players or DMs, here's a book for you. Back in April, I got the chance to line edit/copyedit X-treme Dungeon Mastery, a new book by bestselling fantasy author Tracy Hickman and his son, who is a magician in his own right, Curtis Hickman, and illustrated by Howard Tayler. It's now available for pre-orders through the Tayler Corp. If you are familiar with Howard Tayler's excellent webcomic Schlock Mercenary (and the books they publish from that content), you'll already know about it. For those of you who don't know the Taylers, well, you should. 

The book is a hilarious and enlightening look at how to make your game nights more entertaining and fun for both the dungeon master and your players--including how to wow your players and bring the magic in your game to life with step-by-step instructions on a number of magic tricks. Howard's excellent illustrations enliven the already-fun text. Here's a taste of what you'll learn, from the marketing copy:

Throw off your chains! Too long have your role-playing games been held in the bonds of substandard gamemasters, bound in needlessly complicated rule sets, and enslaved by players who will avoid doing anything unless it counts toward leveling up! It is time to take a stand!

Learn from the masters the ancient secrets of how to:

• Become a certified XDM and impress dates (Do-it-yourself secret initiation rites included.)
   
• Design epic adventures that tell stories.
   
• Perform magical feats to amaze your players, and even make them disappear!
   
• Employ actual combustion (yes, "fire," and yes, it's dangerous) to enhance your games!
   
• Hijack any game as a player, and deal with any player revolution as an XDM!
   

God does not play dice with the universe. We do.

______________________________________

Also, for those of you who are writers, you'll be interested to know that editor Cheryl Klein--she of the Arthur Levine imprint at Scholastic, who keeps an informative blog and whose writing advice is excellent--has announced that she's going to collect her many helpful speeches into a book. She's decided to self-publish this book (remember how we talked about how some projects lend themselves well to self-publishing?) and is raising the money for the initial print run through Kickstart.com to make sure she has enough interest to pay for the project. I'm sure there are enough people in this world who would love to have a copy of her wisdom in a collected form (especially talks that have not been shared on her website), so if you're interested in getting a copy of the book or just want to support the project, wander on over to Cheryl's post explaining the details, and she'll link you to her project page.

______________________________________

I'm forgetting someone. There was someone else's book I wanted to plug here, but it'll have to wait for another post when I remember. Instead, I will just tell you that I'm in the middle of (finally) reading The Hunger Games, and BOY is it good. I bought the book way back in February or March, but was so busy I hadn't had a chance to read it yet. Then I took it to the seminar I taught in March to use as an example of a great opening line (I had gotten that far), and then when the seminar was over, I brought my big tote bag of books home but never got around to putting the books back on the shelves. I spent most of May and June wondering if I'd dreamed buying the book! Thankfully--because I was in the bookstore mulling over whether to buy it a week before--I'd put the book down to wait for the King's English's sale a few days later and then never made it back up to Salt Lake to buy it, because in preparing for my seminar last week I finally found the book at the bottom of that tote bag from March.

Whew! So now I'm reading it, and though I'll save a real review until after I've actually finished it, I just have to say--she already had me tearing up in the first three chapters! It's that good.

Originally published at Stacy Whitman\\\\\\\'s Grimoire.

Happy birthday, distress_bacon!

We've been feeling bad about the fact that I can't get many places on tour.  Even this fall, with the WoT tour, I'll only be hitting a fraction of the places where people want me to visit.

So my wonderful publicist Dot has set up two events for me.  First off, the Barnes and Noble book clubs website (run by Paul Goat Allen, the author of several interesting recent blog posts) has kindly invited me in to do a three day Q&A session on their forums.  I'll be focusing on two threads in specific. 

1)  Questions for Brandon Sanderson
2)  Talking about Warbreaker

(Most of my time will be on the first thread.)  So, feel free to ask me anything you want.  I can't promise that I'll get to everyone's questions, but I'm going to give it a try.  I'll be there the 8th-10th of July, so next Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

The second event we'll be doing is a "Tweet the Author" session for those on Twitter.  Essentially, we'll be working this like a gigantic chat room session, where for an hour people are firing tweets at me, and I'm answering them on my twitter account.  Details are right here.  If you don't use Twitter, and have no intention of using it, you can follow the session without an account.  Just watch my twitter page or do a search for #tweettheauthor.  We'll be doing this 1-2pm CST on the 8th.  (Next Wednesday.  Also, I DO plan to do something like this on my own forum here soon, but we'll do the B&N one first, as to not compete.)

And, speaking of Twitter, I don't know if you noticed me being silly last week and sending everyone out to tweet about Scalzi (Link goes to my original post), but I thought I'd mention some of my favorites here on the blog.  My additions are in parenthesis.  (And these are by no means all of my favorites.  You people are quite clever.)

@Ryshon Scalzi uses a piece of his own hair as a quill, dipped in blood to write, when he runs out of hair or blood, game over

@nethspace Scalzi reveals Ayn Rand tattoo on inner thigh - world wish's it didn't have to see that

@Qurtyslyn Feeding Strawberry Lemonade to six aardvarks and letting them run free in a crowded mall was not Scalzi's best Idea.

@zediir Scarlzi is the real mastermind behind the great kitten conspiracy of 2008. (Bonus points for referencing an Alcatraz book, Zediir.)

@jdack Scalzi secretly hates bacon. (I knew it!  If you're confused, google Scalzi and Bacon for an explanation...)

@MCaron1234 Scalzi is, once again, minding his mash potatoes with a lemon zester. AS EXPECTED.

@dressagegrrrl When I ran into Scalzi at the Natl Clog Dancing Faire (der Klompen), he insulted my lederhosen! THEY WERE MY MOTHER'S, JERK. (I cannot explain why this one makes me crack up every time I read it.  Props, Dressagegrrrl)

jddennis Dinosaurs were originally around 10k yeras ago, but that was too close to Scalzi. They travelled back in time to escape him.

@Ockhamdesign scalzi writes under the pen name Stephanie Meyer. That woman in Utah is just a prop. He needs to finish Midnight Sun.  (Brilliant!)

@Sorsha76 Scalzi's shoes TOTALLY don't go with his pants!!!! ...and he commits genocide on Tuesdays.

@dragonmount Scalzi killed Asmodean. (My personal favorite.  Jason, you rock.)

@Fiirvoen @scalzi 's mother was a hampster and his father smelt...of ELDERBERRIES! (Someone had to do it.)  (Yes, yes they did.  That last parenthetical was part of the original post, by the way.)

@jbrodman @Scalzi lives off the tears of @wilw.

@ru3 You know, BaconCat was actually Scalzi's THIRD attempt. A moment of silence for ShishCatbab and Baked Angora.

@cjent77 Scalzi fixed the Iran election!  (Wow!  Was this before or after he committed genocide and killed Asmodean?)

@RobertAvi Scalzi reads the last page of a book first

@Tryndakai John Scalzi likes the taste of Soylent Green.

@miss_emmeline If Scalzi was ever cast as the Doctor, they'd have to change the name of the show to Doctor Who Cares?

@Tryndakai @Scalzi came up with midichlorians!

And, one final sin to top the others:

@Tryndakai @Scalzi had Firefly canceled!

There are dozens more, and I didn't even get to post all my favorites.  Go read everyone's clever words here.  Thank you all for being so cool about this.  It's got me thinking that I need to do something like this to make fun of myself, maybe alongside the #tweettheauthor thing.  Perhaps a game of "140 character faux reviews of Way of Kings...?" 

Actually, that sounds kind of fun.  We'll start it off next week under the tag #kingsway.  I'll post to kick it off.

Then hide under a rock.

Originally published at Eric James Stone. You can comment here or there.

AnthologyBuilder is having a 50% off sale until noon EST today.  That means it’s the perfect time for you to get my new anthology, Eric James Stone & Company, Volume II. (And if you don’t have Volume I, you can get both volumes for the price of one.)

Here’s the introduction:

Like the previous volume, this book contains stories by me and by some of the great authors who also happen to be friends of mine.

"Tabloid Reporter to the Stars" is by me.  I first submitted it to the Writers of the Future contest, but I got disqualified by winning with another story.  The original title was "The First Ambassador."

"The Box of Beautiful Things" is by Brian Dolton, whom I have never met in person, but I know him from the Hatrack River writers’ forum (and later from the Codex Writers.)  But my first direct communication with him was emailing him after reading this story to tell him how much I liked it.

"I’ll Gnaw Your Bones, the Manticore Said" is by Cat Rambo, whom I know through Codex.  We’ve met several times at conventions, and I’m never sure what color her hair is going to be.

"Taint of Treason" is one of mine. I originally wrote this as a craft writing exercise: show, don’t tell, dignity.

"The Adjoa Gambit" is by Rick Novy, another Codex writer.  I met him at the Nebula Awards in Phoenix a few years ago.  We share a love of puns and hard SF.

"Premature Emergence" is mine.  I wrote the first draft in 24 hours at the 2005 Writers of the Future workshop.

"Through the Obsidian Gates" is by Aliette de Bodard, a Codex writer living in France.  I got to meet her at a Writers of the Future workshop when she won.

"Accounting for Dragons" is mine. I wrote it at the Odyssey Workshop on the morning before we had the Odyssey Slam–where I had to read it aloud at a Barnes & Noble.  It holds the record as my quickest sale: Edmund Schubert, editor of IGMS, bought it about three hours after I sent it to him.

"The Sell Your Soul to the Devil Blues" is by Tom Pendergrass, a Codex writer I met at the 2004 Writers of the Future workshop.  He used to work for the CIA.  (Don’t let him know I told you that.)

"Salt of Judas" is mine.  I wrote the first draft in 24 hours at the 2004 Writers of the Future workshop.

"Rival of Mars" is by David Walton, a Codex writer I got to know because he had the title story in the final Phobos anthology along with one of my stories.  I don’t think we’ve ever actually met.

"Loophole" is by me.  It’s my only clearly Mormon story that has been published.

"The Big Ice" is by Jay Lake and Ruth Nestvold.  I know Ruth through Codex.  Jay is not on Codex, but I first met him and his Hawaiian shirts at the 2004 Writers of the Future workshop, and I’ve seen him various times since.  I occasionally respond to the blatant liberalism on his blog.

"The Six Billion Dollar Colon" is a story I wrote for a special anthology after Jay Lake was diagnosed with colon cancer.  (He’s okay now.)

"The Prophet of Flores" is by Ted Kosmatka, a Codex writer I finally met at WorldCon in Denver.

The final story, "The Ashes of His Fathers," is mine.

So why are you still here?  Go read the stories.

I just finished a couple of revisions on a couple of books.

Readers of mine, please remind me if I've said I will send you the new draft. Because I promise you I have forgotten.

Now it's time to start something new, so that I don't go crazy while waiting to hear. I'm thinking of finishing a book I started ages ago, and then doing a revision of an older project.

Of course, the ultimate goal is to be interrupted from all that at an editor's request for revision. Still, can't wait around for that to happen. Have to keep writing, or I'll go insane.

While my going rate for a full developmental edit is $50 an hour due to my own needs to pay the bills (based on the market rate for developmental editing ($50 is actually at the low end), what I made as an in-house editor, my years of experience, my master's degree, and my going rate on other editorial services), I realize that most authors are in the same position I am, strapped tight for cash. I've been thinking about this for a while, and I'm going to go ahead and reduce my hourly rate on full developmental edits permanently until I no longer do critiques.

What's that, you ask? I might be ending my critique service? Yes, but not right away. It's definitely helping me to pay the bills (and I hope helping the authors I'm critiquing!) while I work on the number of other things I'm working on, but once I either get an in-house position or officially start looking for submissions for my small press (which won't be agented-only submissions), I will of course be discontinuing the paid critique service for ethical reasons. Right now, I keep the critiques and the submissions for Tor separate by requiring agented-only submissions for Tor.

But until the time comes for that -- which I don't have a timeline on; I'll definitely announce it when the time comes -- I will continue to do full-manuscript developmental editing for authors at $30 an hour. The submission packet will still be a flat $50 fee because it often takes me much more than an hour to critique them.

For those who attend my seminars, I offer a discount on my critique services on full manuscripts, as well. When the going rate was $50 an hour, I was charging only $30 an hour for seminar attendees. Now that I've decided to lower the rate, the discount for seminar attendees will drop to $25 an hour (sorry, I can't afford to discount it more; when you're self-employed you can pretty much count on half of that money going to taxes, so my take-home rate is actually much, much lower than that).

So, if you decide that you need the services of a freelance editor (and that's very much a personal decision), hopefully that will help you to better afford my services.

Originally published at Stacy Whitman\\\\\\\'s Grimoire.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Green Dragon Codex"][/caption]

I keep forgetting to post that the last book I edited for Mirrorstone, Green Dragon Codex, is now out. The book, written by R.D. Henham with the "assistance" of Clint Johnson (check out the critique he's offering at Cynthea Liu's Take the Dare auction!), is also the subject of a new contest from Mirrorstone. Libraries and kids 8-14 can write lyrics to a song about any of the dragons in the Codex books, and win a big prize for your library -- two copies each of

• A Practical Guide to Dragons


• Red Dragon Codex


• Bronze Dragon Codex


• Black Dragon Codex


• Brass Dragon Codex


• Green Dragon Codex (newly published this summer!)


• 2 Practical Guide calendars and an assortment of bookmarks.


• Plus each member of the winning team will receive one copy of A Practical Guide to Dragons and the Green Dragon Codex!

Check out the contest--looks like they've provided the music to set the lyrics to and advice on how to write lyrics, so you've got a lot of tools at your disposal.

Originally published at Stacy Whitman\\\\\\\'s Grimoire.

One of my authors (Amie Rose Rotruck, who wrote Bronze Dragon Codex) is also the head of the ICFA children's literature division. She's looking for published YA and middle grade authors of speculative fiction who are interested in attending the conference next March. (whoops, originally that said June--not sure what I was thinking. It's every March!)

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="160" caption="Bronze Dragon Codex"][/caption]

More information about ICFA, from Amie's blog:

In one sentence: IAFA is a scholarly organization dedicated to the study of the fantastic in the arts. Let's break down those terms:

"Scholarly" refers to academic papers, most grad school level or above, although every once in a while there's some good undergrad papers.

"Fantastic" refers to anything outside the realm of reality. This includes high fantasy, urban fantasy, horror, science fiction, science fantasy, and basically anything that doesn't fall under realistic.

"Arts" refers to literature, film, graphic novels, picture books, fanfic, visual art.

Now for some some FAQs:

What do you do?
Currently I am head of the Children's and Young Adult division. This means I receive and evaluate scholarly papers and determine which belong in the conference (and some other boring behind the scenes stuff). Deadline for papers is October 31; official CFP will be posted here later. I am NOT in charge of deciding which writers get compensation for attending and how much; I'm just looking for names to pass along at this point.

I don't write papers, I write fiction. What can I contribute?
There are also author readings at the conference (usually one block of readings per session; there's about 4-6 sessions per day). I'd love to get some new children's and YA writer blood into those readings. In addition to readings, you can also do signings and book sales. A great chance to interact with people who have an academic interest in your genre (who knows, you may even get to meet someone who wrote a paper about your work; there's a lot on recent books!).

What do I get for attending?
Compensation varies and is, I must warn you, competitive. Later this summer the person in charge of arranging visiting writers will be emailing out conference info and what you need to send to get compensation. If you're interested, give me your name and contact info so I can pass it on to her.

Who else will be there?
This year the Guest of Honors are Lawrence Yep and Nalo Hopkinson. For an idea of other writers who've attended in the past, this past year's program is available at www.iafa.org (to find names quickly, just to a search on "Reading")

Why should I come?

• Hear papers on current issues in children's literature such as "Twilight" or ancient issues relating to fairy tales, or anything in-between.


• Talk with some amazing writers and scholars in a very friendly environment (I call this a "conference with training wheels" when encouraging grad students to attend).


• It's in Orlando in March, so if you live in a cold climate it's a chance to warm up and maybe swing by Disneyworld.


• It's a networking opportunity; I met </a></strong></a>slwhitman there and she ended up being the editor for my first book.


• Because this is one of the most amazing, fun conferences in existence.

If you're interested, contact her directly with the information she's asking for.

Originally published at Stacy Whitman\\\\\\\'s Grimoire.

Several weeks ago, we had an Enrichment meeting that was about finding beauty in the small things. For a couple of weeks in advance, people were encouraged to write down things little things that made them happy, or that they thought were beautiful.

At the activity, they were written on paper flowers scattered across the tables, and we all read them out loud. They ranged from "I love to find creatures in the clouds with my daughter" to "I love watching butterflies flutter around my flowers" to "Hearing my husband come through the door at the end of the day" to "I love the dandelions that struggle through the cracks in the sidewalk."

It was a really nice activity, and they encouraged everyone to think of ways to stop and find the beauty in the small things in their own lives. I'm really lucky, I think, because *usually* I don't have a problem finding the beauty in things. It's much harder when finances are tight, and children wake up multiple times in the night, and I'm lonely, but even then I can usually find *something* beautiful or happy.

I figured I'd list some of my happy things so I can more easily remember them in the harder times.
I have two awesome kids who are smart, and fun, and healthy--I love that Jonas lights up when he sees me, and Brenna will shout from the other end of the house "I love my Mommy!" She's a delight about 80% of the time, which is fantastic for a three-year-old girl (the other 20% is the whining. Oh, good grief, the whining! I haaaaaaaaaaaaaate whining), and even when she does whine, she's very good about apologizing and being extra sweet.

I have a husband who loves me and thinks I'm beautiful, even when I don't; friends who laugh at the random phone messages I leave them, and don't mind talking to me or sharing their talents with me, even if they're far away.

My family is close enough to visit for smaller holidays, like the Fourth of July; my father-in-law and brother-in-law are super sweet to me; I love my house and my new garden, kindly filled with beautiful flowers from the previous owner; I am losing weight in a healthy way; I get to learn about random things like "where do ladybugs live" and what birds live around our house, so I can answer Brenna's questions.

I get to win at Go Fish and lose at Memory, and take silly pictures and go on quests; I also get to do freelance work to keep up my editing skills and put aside little bits here and there for larger purchases that might not fit in our normal budget. I get to read fantastic stories, published and unpublished, created by my creative friends.

I get to watch bumblebees pollinate my tomato plants (thank you, bees!), and watch my house become our home as we do things like put up artwork or make curtains for the kids rooms (I am very proud of the curtains I made--very simple, but cute and functional).

When they encouraged us to find some way to better see the beauty in the small things at the activity, I decided that I wanted to be braver in sharing the nice thoughts I have with others. I often think "I should tell that person how cute they look in that skirt" or "I bet they'd love this *insert homemade treat/craft item*. I should make that for them," but I don't always do it. I do try, but I could do better.

I want to be the dandelion that insists on growing, even when the sidewalk seems like it will win. I want to help other people find that spark of beauty when they really need it. I want the love I feel for my friends to scatter out to them like dandelion fluff on the wind, seeding hope and love in hearts all over the world. Sounds a little cheesy, probably, but the concept is what I really feel, so there you go.

My happiness today was talking to my friend Janci. Hearing her voice always lifts my spirits. Also, I was cleaning out some old papers yesterday and came across some really nice notes written to me. They made my day. Those kind notes mean so much to me, even though it's been years since they were given to me.


What makes you happy? Or, have you been able to find anything beautiful today?

( Cute baby! )

Last week, BSC review was giving away Goblin Quest minis?  Well, this week they're giving away a full set of Mistborn Minis in a contest.  I believe the entry method is pretty simple--all you have to do is send them an email.  So head on over and give it a try!

In other news, Orson Scott Card unexpectedly reviewed the Mistborn Trilogy in one of his review columns.  It's near the middle of the page.