PEG stands for Pinnacle Entertainment Group, as in the people who make Savage Worlds. I went on to talk about game stuff. It was a fun conversation.
All posts by correia45
February Update Post
Yes, I know. It’s been over a month since my last blog post, but I’ve been kinda busy.
Appearances
I will be a guest at TupeloCon in Mississippi in a few weeks.
At the end of March I will be at FantaSci in North Carolina.
If you are anywhere in the area, stop on by. It should be fun.
LTUE was last week. For those of you not familiar with that, it’s a writing conference held every Valentine’s Day weekend in Provo Utah. I think this was my 11th year in a row. It’s probably the single best writing con there is (that doesn’t cost a bunch of money, LTUE is like $20 or something to attend for 3 days).
LTUE is focused more on writers trying to get better at writing, than fannish stuff, though there is that too. I was on a bunch of panels on various topics. I did a two hour solo presentation on crunchy business stuff for writers, like contracts, taxes, incorporation, advertising, scheduling, etc. It was basically the When Can I Quit My Day Job class for writers who have figured out how to sell their work, but now what? Then I did the Larry Show kaffeeklatsch thing, and then since Tony Daniel had to leave early to take care of a sick kid, I took over his presentation on contracts (which I’d just touched on earlier that day, and now got to spend an hour on things like advances, royalties, remainders, sub rights, foreign translations, audio, reversion of rights, and what to look out for from crappy predator contracts). So Saturday was 4 straight hours of me talking.
I did a reading on Thursday, of the first half of the story I did for Laurell K. Hamilton’s Fantastic Hope anthology coming out in April. Judging by audience reaction, it’s actually pretty funny. Good! Because I think I’m hilarious when I’m making this crap up, but I can’t tell until you guys actually see it!
This year my friend Brad Torgersen was the writer guest of honor, which was pretty fun to watch. He’s earned it. He’s extremely talented, has supported LTUE for a decade, and he just won a Dragon Award. The very best part of Brad being GoH however was that it caused several of the Shrieking Harpies of Tolerance to throw a temper tantrum and declare that they were going to boycott the event (and they did, yet absolutely nobody missed them). Upon hearing that I asked if they could make Brad emeritus GoH every year forever, because that’s like putting a tick collar on a dog.
From what I heard on Saturday, this was the biggest LTUE there’s ever been, with a record number of attendees.
Writing Stuff
Last year was a busy year, with Monster Hunter Guardian, Target Rich Environment, and Tom Stranger 3. (and Dead Six was rereleased as an Omnibus!)
This year my big release is in October, because that’s when Destroyer of Worlds comes out. Originally the Saga of the Forgotten Warrior was pitched as 3 books, but when I told Toni the story I had planned, she’d laughed and said there was no way that would fit in a trilogy. She’s right. It’ll probably be 5 or 6.
I’ve also got a bunch of shorts in various places this year, but I’ll post about each of those when they get closer and I’ll put up preorder links.
I didn’t get as much writing done in 2019 as I normally would, but that was because of the epic house building/moving project. It turns out that developing a big chunk of mountainside in the middle of nowhere and then building a really big house on it is time consuming. Since that’s been wrapped productivity is back at normal levels. (I’ve averaged about 2 books and change a year for ten years now)
Right now I am working on a sci-fi collaboration with John D. Brown. This is the one that was originally brain stormed live on an LTUE panel years ago, based on ideas given to us by my (at the time) 11 year old son. I’m hoping to have it wrapped in March.
After that I will either be working on the next main series MHI novel (back to Owen’s perspective) OR the first book of the next Grimnoir trilogy. I’ve got them both planned, so it’ll just depend on what makes more sense to get out to the fans sooner.
Gunpowder & Embers out today
This isn’t an official Book Bomb just because I’ve not had a chance to read it yet, but I thought you guys would like to know that this book is out today.
This is the story that I talked about back when I was a newbie writer that I was going to collaborate with John Ringo to write. We started working on the outline, but then both of us just kept turning out our own novels, and during that time period my career kind of blew up and my own series took off, so this project just kept getting back burnered. Years later the contract we had for a collaboration with Baen got turned into Monster Hunter Grunge instead.
But John had a really good idea with this world, so he enlisted two up and coming authors to collaborate with instead. I know Kacey and Chris and they’re both awesome. Kacey was my co-editor on Noir Fatale (which came out amazing, because she did fantastic work) and Chris was one of the authors (the very first opening story in fact, with Michael Ferguson, which was great).
Kacey is an Air Force helicopter pilot by day and has a couple novels out, one of which has been nominated for a Dragon Award (which is a pretty big deal), Chris is beer expert out of Texas, and all around great guy. The two of them have collaborated on several projects already, and they’re both very talented.
I got my copy already, but I’ve not had a chance to read it yet. I’m really excited to see what they’ve done with this idea.
December Update Post
This update is going to be late and short!
Book Stuff
Target Rich Environment 2 is out now in stores everywhere, and #1 In Customer Service (Tom Stranger 3) is available on Audible.com.
I finished Destroyer of Worlds (book 3 in the Saga of the Forgotten Warrior) and sent that off to my publisher on Friday. It came out awesome.
Next up is the untitled sci-fi collaboration with author John D. Brown. This is the one where we plotted the whole novel on the fly during an LTUE panel on how to create plots, and all the basic ideas were given to us by my (at the time) 11 year old son.
We cleaned up the plot and characters we came up with during that 2 hour panel and made an actual outline and world building. John wrote the rough draft and has been waiting for the last five months for me to catch up with all my other deadlines (building a house and moving really screws up your writing schedule). Now it is my turn to work on it.
It’s a whole new universe for me and the first time I’ve done straight up sci-fi. It’s action adventure about smugglers stealing giant robots and fighting monsters with them. I think you guys are going to love it.
Personal Stuff
And now I am going to try and avoid the internet as much as possible from now until New Years.
Merry Christmas!
The MHI Role Playing Game is on sale now, and I have a book signing in Utah tomorrow
The Kickstarter has shipped, so the new MHI RPG (and accessories like cards, dice, and patches) are available now :
It came out really good. Even if you’re not into gaming, but you’re just a fan of MHI the book is filled with fluffy goodness about the company’s history.
And I’ve got a book signing tomorrow at the Farmington, UT Barnes & Noble. I’ll be there from 1 to 5 with two other great authors, Brad Torgersen and Dave Butler. December book signings are awesome because you can pick up autographed books as Christmas presents so you can seem super thoughtful and literate to all your friends! 😀