Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Thanks Hillary, Sommer and BComet!

HillaryJ wrote:I'm so pleased to finally be able to announce CARNIEPUNK, an anthology "which combines the carnival setting with the world of urban fantasy, a place of deception where monsters wait silently in the dark". My short story Recession of the Divine will be in it, alongside authors such as Rachel Caine, Jennifer Estep, Seanan McGuire, Kevin Hearne and Jaye Wells. It's coming from Pocket Books in August 2013.

*deep breath* Squeeee!

Well and TRULY impressive!

Oooh, shiny new toy!

Amazon just made it possible for authors to see their author rank (versus book rank). I'm pleasantly surprised to see my pen name is in the top 5000 (about 4750) for all authors on Amazon (that includes trad authors, by the way), the top 2000 (about 1880) for all fiction authors, and bouncing around between #100-130 for all authors of my genre.

Margo wrote: Well and TRULY impressive!

Thanks, Margo!

My SQUEE good news has nothing to do with writing, but here's the place to share it...

I GOT A NEW JOB!

When I returned from the BransforumFest in Vegas last March, I learned our research center was closing. After a few weeks of number crunching (and crazy amounts of stress), my boss thought he had enough $ to get me through June, 2013. I wasn't as optimistic and figured I had until the new year.

I had some leads and interviews and it all came together about a week ago. I start on Oct 31st!

trixie wrote:My SQUEE good news has nothing to do with writing, but here's the place to share it...

I GOT A NEW JOB!

Congratulations, Trixie! A new job and a Halloween start date to boot. Outstanding.



I'm pleased to announce that RUNNING IN THE DARK, the first novel in my urban fantasy Night Runner series will be released in a matter of hours. And I received word this weekend that DON'T BITE THE MESSENGER, the prequel novella, is a finalist for the EPIC e-Book awards!

http://regansummers.com/books

Almost a year ago, thanks to a post someone on this forum put up, I watched the 2010 BYU Brandon Sanderson lectures. I sent him an email, thanking him, and told him I had plans to be a writer, and that the information he gave me made me feel better prepared to go ahead and do it, to make it happen, and that one day, he might see my book somewhere because of him.

Yesterday... he responded, offered me more support and told me to keep at it.

Brandon Sanderson took time out to answer a cold email with encouragement for someone who he has never met, never made a nickel off of in the sense of his lectures. It was a small gesture, but it re-emboldened me after worrying that after 2 years of trying to get this WIP under control, I might actually be near the finish line.

I got convinced by a few friends to do WriteonCon this year despite last year not going so well for me (Still working on the same manuscript, into the 3d year for me)

I listed my book as a WIP, as per courtesy guidelines, and though excited for my friends showing off their nicely polished finished babies, I sat there on the sidelines feeling a bit despondent for not having finished in time to enjoy everything about the con.

Then I get home, check my phone, and saw I had a private message. I got a ninja's attention. I got a partial request from an unfinished manuscript and she's willing to wait.

WOOO!

Mark, that is fantastic! What a great thing to come home to. Please keep us informed with what happens, and what comes of it all!

Thanks, Beethoven.

Here's the full scoop.

I sent the first bit of my story, which was in rewrite mode and only had 13 pages. She was like "What? Where's the rest of it?" (In an eager way, not an insulted/insulting way). I explained that I had just started a rewrite because I had a bunch of changes I wanted to make to make the voice more distinct. I changed the opening recently. She was understanding, and I told her I'd understand if she wanted to back out now and there'd be no hard feelings.

She assured me she was still interested and wanted to get the 50 requested pages as soon as I had them. I hunkered down and got her the 50 pages in under a week, and didn't hear back. After I sent them, I decided I did not like a part of the magic system (very minor)

I informed the agent I had decided to make that change after she did get back to me... by upgrading her request to a full on completion.

I was happy with that. I'm not nearly as pressed to make it to the end, but only due to lack of time. I am hoping to get this book done (estimating about 85K words) as soon as say Dec.

She was so wonderful through this, understanding that she may not be ideal for me or vice versa, and that was what the process was about, and that we had to both be on board with the story, which she said she loved thus far.

Not exactly writing news, but I'm going back to school to get my master's degree in Library & Information Science. I'm almost done with my first semester, and I'm doing great; apparently it's all coming pretty naturally to me. The only problem is, while world-building continues (I'm up to Rowling and Tolkien levels of detail at this point), I never seem to have the level of concentration I need to actually write my American-folklore-fantasy-YA-adventure series, and I don't see it happening anytime soon. Well, anyway, at least I'm well on my way to a job besides entry-level retail.

I have been waiting a long time to post in this thread.

Several years ago I came here for answers on a novel I was working on. Since then, I have shelved that novel, written another one, and pressed publish for the first time. My debut novel THE REVERIE is now available on Amazon here:http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00L00WBE2#, and I couldn't be more proud of it. I've already started writing a series of novellas which I plan on publishing for $0.99 each, as well as another novel which I'm about 35k words into (first draft), but my debut is up and live.

It's been two long years shaping this novel, rewriting, editing, taking critiques, and repeating the process over again until it was just right. None of which would be possible without the help and support of fellow Bransford forum posters, so thank you all dearly.

Can't wait to publish more, but at least I have to all-important first book out.