Geek Club Books and Special Announcement!

I have a brand new interview up at Geek Club Books, a terrific multimedia site dedicated to creating a community of acceptance for special needs children and their families.

Sign up for their mailing list and then read the interview, in which I make a really cool announcement (spoiler after the jump!)

Indie Writers United

Book One was selected as the Book of the Week by Indie Writers United! Check out their Facebook page here.

And there's more cool news coming later this week. Stay tuned!

Rolling The Book Two Boulder

Here's a Book Two Status Update in graph form:

As you can see, the process has been somewhat Sisyphusian so far. After the initial "winging-it" attempt crashed and burned, the second attempt ended up being over-planned, so I had to scale it back quite a bit. But now I think I'm finally on the right track - cross your fingers - so hopefully we'll have a completed first draft sometime before the end of the year. Isn't the creative process fun?

Speech! Speech!

Here's a video of me talking about - and reading from - Book One at last month's Bards and Brews. Mahalo to Tonya Macalino for filming it! (Warning: contains fake British accent)

Favorite Book One Scenes

Sometimes I get asked what my favorite scene in Secret of the Songshell is.

It's hard to choose - any scenes that I didn't love didn't make the final draft of the book - but I would have to say that it's probably the climax. I actually had a rough draft of that scene written out when the whole book was still only in outline form.

Since that scene is chock full of spoilers, though, today I'm going to talk about another one of my favorite scenes - one that I actually re-read every so often just for my own personal enjoyment.

It's the part in Chapter 12 when it's Joel and Felicity's turn to watch their traveling campsite. It's a quiet scene in between some heavy action sequences where the reader gets a chance to know the characters a little better. It also contains one of my favorite lines in the whole book. I'm feeling generous today, so in case you haven't read it yet (gasp), I've included it in today's blog post...after the jump!

Bards & Brews

So Friday night was a blast! The following people rock:

- Tina from Jacobsen's Books
- Primrose and Tumbleweeds (seriously, try the spicy cole slaw)
- Tonya Macalino and everyone from NIWA
- Andy Bunch, author of Suffering Rancor
- Gary Reavis, author of The Telling
- Rory Miller, author of Meditations on Violence
- Gina Ochsner - The Russian Dream Book of Color and Flight
- Everyone who came out! Special thanks to those of you who bought a copy of Book One.

"You want to be a rock star, right?"

Be sure to check out the next installment of Bards & Brews, and the next one, and the next one, and the next one - in fact, check them all out! They happen every last Friday of each month. Did I mention the spicy cole slaw?

One-Two Punch

Here are a couple of fun things to do this week!

Thursday, May 30

Demure CD Release Party

w/Sawtell, Kings and Vagabonds, and Second Player Score

Alhambra Theater (formerly Mt. Tabor)

4811 SE Hawthorne Ave

8pm, 21+, No Cover*

Come and rock out with me and my band (Second Player Score) as we help our friends in Demure celebrate the release of their debut EP.

Friday, May 31

Bards & Brews

@ Primrose and Tumbleweeds

248 East Main Street

Hillsboro, OR

7-9pm, No Cover*

Then the following night, head on out to historic downtown Hillsboro where I and several other local authors will be reading from our books, signing autographs, and drinking delicious beer.

* Because there is no charge for awesomeness. Or attractiveness.**

** Bonus points if you know what movie that's from