Agent!

After meeting Scott Hoffman at the Pike's Peak Writer's Conference and submitting an urban fantasy novel to him, he's offered representation! I'll be working with Folio Lit agency, and am excited beyond belief to have reached this next step in my writing career. Must now go jog a few miles to burn off all the jitters...

So this is why...

...I brainstorm stories better while on a long walk or pacing the living room.

Sense of Touch Shapes Snap Judgements

- from Wired.com

Do you find this to be true in your experiences?

New book reviews

I've got two new reviews up on my Speculative Fiction Examiner page. One is for Black Blade Blues, about a blacksmith who gets her hands on a legendary Norse sword and has to deal with girlfriend troubles and...draconic investment bankers.

The other is Cory Doctorow's For the Win, a penetrating look into the evolving world of virtual property and gold-farming sweatshops. Excellent book, and hit close to him in more than a few spots with my history of gaming as well.

Reviews coming up include Brandon Sanderson's Way of Kings, which bruises my palms at 1,000 pages, and so far has been an enveloping read. An unexpected treat that came in the mail is this upcoming release from Pyr: Burton & Swinburne in the Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack. The cover art alone made me excited to check this book out, and the story did not disappoint. It won't be out officially until September though, so the review will likely have to wait until closer to then.

Whew. Lots read. Lots more to read. And write, of course. Good thing I have all this--wait, where did all my free time go?

Preview Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings

Tor's publicity department has started releasing previews of Brandon Sanderson's upcoming novel, The Way of Kings. Over the next few months, they'll be doling out tour info, further excerpts, and more. For now, if you head over to Tor.com and register on the site, you can read the first three chapters of The Way of Kings to get a sense of this epic story.

Here's the official announcement from Justin Golenbock, Tor's Senior Publicist:

"Brandon Sanderson has fast become a man with little need for introduction. The New York Times bestselling author of critically praised novels like Warbreaker and the Mistborn trilogy, he is also completing the late Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time® series — arguably the definitive fantasy series of the post-Tolkien era —and his first of the final three novels, last fall’s #1 New York Times bestseller The Gathering Storm, garnered widespread national acclaim —along with equal measures pressure and expectation — for the young author.

Happily, I can attest that Brandon Sanderson has more than met the challenge with his newest project, his most audacious effort to date: The Way of Kings (Tor Books; August 31st, 2010) the door-stopping first novel in “The Stormlight Archive,” a monumental ten-volume epic fantasy saga written in the grand tradition of The Wheel of Time.

Here is a world with historical depths to rival Tolkien, a deep and compelling cast of characters to rival Jordan, and a complex and involving story with all the head-spinning twists and surprises the young fantasy master has become known for. Sanderson’s unique gifts for imaginative landscapes and distinctive systems of magic and technology have never been more apparent. The Way of Kings is an ambitious and immersive first novel in a series that could ultimately redefine the fantasy landscape."

Brandon Sanderson is the New York Times bestselling author of The Hero of Ages and Warbreaker. He is currently completing Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time. He also teaches at Brigham Young University, where he earned a master's degree in creative writing. Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, he lives in Utah with his wife and two children.

The future of fossils

An artist known as ThrowingChicken (listed on the deviantART website) has recently finished a project in which he has created fossils molds...from the future. Pictures such as the one below represent his vision of what might be dug out of the ground a million years from now.

Check out the link to his gallery for more pictures of Creatures of the Mechazoic Era.