Thursday, February 26, 2009

New Annotation!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Various Notes

I’m afraid I don’t know when the Mistborn 2 audiobook will be out.  A lot of people have been emailing me about this.  I’d guess April (judging by the space between the book three release and the book one release.)

I did want to give another mention to the Hugo Awards.  I believe this is the last week for nominations, so if you have the inclination and are eligible (I.E. you went to Worlcon last year or have a membership to go this year) keep me in mind for Hero of Ages. 

My new computer is shaping up quite well.  I’m sorry, Mac lovers, but I’m firmly gripped by Microsoft.  I don’t philosophically oppose your OS, but Windows is what I know, and I’ve never had cause to change.  (My wife loves her Mac, though.)  Beyond that, I’ve got a shiny new version of Office 2007 courtesy of a certain individual that I’ve been playing with lately. 

Though if it sates any of you Mac folks, I DID work on a little of AMOL on my wife’s computer during some outages where my computer wasn’t reliable.  So you can content yourselves that a portion of the book was indeed written on your beloved OS. 

Annotation coming soon.  I’ve got a big deadline on these AMOL revisions coming in April, and so I’ve been pulling some long hours working on revisions.  I can’t really talk about a release date or anything else right now.  Harriet has asked me just to focus on the revisions.  I think she’ll be making a specific announcement about these things come April, perhaps at JordanCon.   

Monday, February 09, 2009

What has Brandon Been Reading?

Just a quick update here, something for those of you who are curious.  What's been on my reading desk lately?  Well, beyond a few advance copies of books I've been asked to look into for potential cover quotes, I've recently read two novels.  The first was Terry Pratchett's REAPER MAN.  I'm slowly working my way through some of the older Pratchett books that I never read when they came out.  Like always, his writing was excellent.  A good dose of humor, quirky characters, and philosophy all in one container.

Secondly, I read WATCHMEN.  And I'm still kind of reeling from the experience.  People had tried to prepare me for the book, but I don't think you really can be prepared for this novel.  It's unlike anything I've ever read before.  Literary, yet visual, with an excellent plot and characters.  Yet that doesn't really do it justice.  Like those who tried to prepare me, I can't really prepare you.  It's worth reading. Trust me.  (Note, it does have some graphic content, though I think it was handled with a great deal of skill.)

Of course, I picked the book up in preparation for the movie.  And now, oddly, I find I have no desire to see the movie.  The graphic novel was SO well done, that it seems there's little a film adaptation could add.  With a regular novel, it's always nice to see a visual take on the story you experienced in written form.  But with WATCHMEN, we already have the visuals.  I feel like I've already SEEN a film of the book--it was the book itself, in many ways. 

I don't blame them for making a movie, and I hope it is a good film.  But I don't know that I'll go see it.  Either they'll do it scene-by-scene, and faithfully adapt the graphic novel.  In that case, I think I'll be disappointed because I just got that same experience reading the book.  (I'm not one who goes to see movies a second time, or even one who tends to re-read books I've already read before.)  If they DON'T faithfully adapt the book, I think I'll be disappointed even more. 

Though, speaking of film adaptations, I did just go se Coraline, and I enjoyed it.  (I hadn't read the book.)

Thursday, February 05, 2009

New Annotation + Reader Mail

New Mistborn: The Well of Ascension Annotation.

As one might expect, I've had al of feedback about the cameo in AMoL charity drive.  Many people are excited, some people are concerned.  I'd like to take a few moments to answer a few general questions I've gotten.

First off, if you want to vote for the nationality of the group, it's happening right now on Tarvalon.net.  I won't say anything about who is winning here, though I'll link when the announcement is made.  Why?  Well, some people don't want to know. 

There are a LOT of hidden secrets in the Wheel of Time books like this.  Everything from cameo appearances by Robert Jordan himself, to the names of street near where he lived, to legends about people in our own world, to appearances by fans.  But I understand that some people don't want to know about most of these--they don't want to be pulled out of the world and the story.  Therefore, I'll stay away from mentioning specifics here.

The final cameos will be written in such a way that you won't be able to pick them out without knowing already.  The thing about a book like this is that you NEED a lot of new names.  You don't need to worry that the people who win will walk on and say "Hey, I won the cameo!  Neat!"  It will be more subtle than that. 

Remember, also, that there are very valid in-world reasons for this.  According to the Wheel of Time mythology, we all live countless lives, over and over again, woven and re-woven into the Pattern.  Because of that, people living on the Earth right now could very well be living again when the events of AMoL come to pass.  ;)

Anyway, thank you all for your enthusiasm.