Tag Archives: beer

Blog, writing

Backstory

Careful where you point that sword! Available June 7.

Since Atticus O’Sullivan is about 2,100 years old, he has one hell of a backstory. (That’s most of our recorded history, right? At least the parts that were recorded without hieroglyphs?) Though his adventures are firmly rooted in the modern day, occasionally his past has to come up, and when it does, I have to make sure it’s at least somewhat plausible.

Without giving anything away, I had to do quite a bit of research on the World Wars for HEXED. I was trying to confine it to WWII, but then found out that certain details required going back to their roots in WWI. Most of that research didn’t make it into the book, but I enjoyed educating myself nevertheless.

One of the things I learned in the course of doing research is never to tell people it’s for a novel. They never react like you hope they will.

If you’re a nerd who’s into fantasy, you hope they’ll find you vastly interesting and want to buy you a beer in exchange for a story. And I mean a good beer, too, not “the Banquet Beer”—I’m talking something with a craft name like Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti from the Great Divide Brewing Company in a flagon.

Sadly, no one ever does that. I will cling to the fantasy that it could happen, but experience has shown me that the odds against it are pretty high. You will never get a free beer for telling someone you’re doing research for a novel. You will get polite indifference, outright disbelief, or glazed eyes. On the upside, you do get all of those for free. Free is good!

I think I was talking about backstory.

Researching a huge backstory like Atticus’s can take an inordinately long time. It’s so easy to get distracted. Did you know that the ancient Celts used to charge into battle naked? The idea was that they’d terrify their opponents because they weren’t afraid to let their naughty bits go flappity-flap. It’s not a bad idea, honestly. If I saw a few hundred naked men charging me, I would RUN. But then the Celts ruined the effect by wearing golden torcs around their necks; it was concentrated wealth and it tended to focus one’s gaze. Dudes would squash their terror of floppity man meat long enough to get a shot at scoring the gold.

Wait. Was I talking about backstory or distraction?

Once you realize that you’re sinking time into research you should be using to write, you might think it would help to ration your research or schedule it. You can do that, sure, but you might wind up missing something that way. Free association can lead one to spiffy discoveries. I recently discovered this band called Dark Moor on Pandora, by the way. They do this rocking version of Vivaldi’s Winter and their album cover has a bitchin’ squid dude sitting on a throne with a Corinthian helmet. I’m going to put a link to the video on YouTube below. Only about the first 3:36 or so is the real song…bunch of bonus track nonsense after that, but it’s brilliant up to there.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txwlKqt01TQ[/youtube]

Anyway. Backstory. It’s tough stuff. Rewarding, though, if you don’t let the research consume you. :)

Publishing Stuff, writing

To Thine Own Brand Be True

Dr. Nicole Peeler (also known as Nicole Peeler) asked me to whip up a blog post for her students about my experiences with author branding since I’m a newb to publishing, so OF COURSE I said yes. The fact that she threatened to shiv me in my sleep if I refused had no bearing on my decision to do it RIGHT AWAY; I want to make it clear that I’m doing this because I genuinely want to help aspiring authors. In fact, I have a wee series going called “Stuff They Never Told Me About Publishing,” and in the first post I talked a little bit about the author platform thing. Curiously, I now feel the need to expand upon that at length…

The truth is I don’t know what the hell I’m doing and I am deeply jealous that you get to take a class with Dr. Peeler. (She will give me chocolate for that later.) I’ve been told I need an author platform, and I’ve been reliably informed that I need an author brand, but neither of those terms has been defined for me and in my befuddled mind they’re sort of interchangeable. I seriously need to take Dr. Peeler’s class. So here’s what I was told to do by Del Rey: “Blog and tweet.” Okay, sure. What about? “Just be yourself. Look at what other authors do. Take advantage of social media.” And that was the sum of my instruction (or at least it’s all I can remember now—this conversation took place in October of ’09). I thought said instruction was a bit dangerous and bordering on irresponsible, because if I knew anything about how to be social I wouldn’t be a nerd. Still, I gave it my best shot, because if you get an opportunity to be published by the people in very tall New York buildings you don’t do things half-assed. So I started a blog, got myself a Twitter account, joined Goodreads, and created a Facebook author page. Then I sat down with a piece of paper and one of those really nice gel pens and tried to figure out what it meant to be myself. Those two minutes were the most introspective moments of my life. Here is what I discovered:
1. I like beer.
2. I am socially awkward.
3. If you don’t believe number 2, I’m 40 years old and I still collect comic books.
4. I like to make art and design jokes—usually absurd visual ones.
5. Once in a while I can’t stop myself from geeking out or being silly.

It’s not a very impressive list, is it? “Bugger me,” I thought, “if that’s all I’ve got, I’m bloody doomed.” But I didn’t have any choice. I had to go forward. So out of that list emerged some of my regular features. My “Still Life” series was inspired by all of those, and then I decided I’d kinda document what happened to me along the way and share my experiences with other aspiring writers (I won’t technically be published until April 19, so yeah, I still count myself as aspiring, and it’s taken me twenty years of trying to get on the shelves—I’m by no means an overnight success and I EMPATHIZE with the struggle to learn the craft).

I’ve been blogging and tweeting now for about a year and a half, not really sure if I’m doing it right, and then last month, BLAM, my editor surprised me by writing a really complimentary post about my social media efforts on Suvudu. I was flabbergasted. Like, WHOA. Did I go and build myself an author platform or brand or whatever? And did I do it using these things called channels? I guess I did. I don’t feel like I have a legion of followers or anything, but maybe they’ll start to show up and say howdy once the books come out. Here’s the funny thing: my most popular post by FAR is this one I did in the wee hours of the morning when I couldn’t sleep; I was only half-conscious and loopy as hell. I get hits on that post all the time, though, and it’s nothing but pure silliness.

I confess that I made another list back in October ’09 when I sat down with that paper and extremely nice gel pen, but I never wrote it down, because that list was about things I would never write down. What you won’t see on my blog or my other channels (Look! I’m using the correct terminology now!) are comments about political or religious issues. You will have to decide for yourself what’s right for you and your brand—I’m certainly not an authority on what you should or shouldn’t do—but I will share my reasoning behind that decision.
1. I’m a public school teacher, so in many ways the decision makes itself. As an employee of the state, I’m not supposed to talk about such things. Make a First Amendment argument if you wish, but in practice, public school teachers don’t get to say what they want.
2. Apart from number 1, as writer of fiction—specifically urban fantasy—I’m supposed to be providing people with an escape from whatever’s stressing them out. My observations of human behavior indicate that many people get stressed out when confronted with ideas that don’t match their own. So why would I risk stressing them out (or pissing them off) when I’m supposed to be entertaining them?
3. These days, it seems like you’ll offend half the country no matter what you say. I’m sure some readers will like you MORE if they know your views agree with theirs, but some readers WON’T BUY YOUR BOOK if they know your views contradict theirs. In terms of raw practicality, the readers who like you more are not going to shower you with the remainder of their disposable income, but the readers who actively decide not to buy your book based on a comment you made are depressing your bank account. If I am ever going to earn the money I need to pay tuition for Dr. Peeler’s class, I can’t afford to offend people by spouting off on this issue or that.

So what can you take away from this? Well, um, you’re kinda on your own in terms of marketing yourself. Did you SEE all that stuff my publicist is doing to create my author platform/brand thingie on multiple channel doodads? Nope, you didn’t, because it ISN’T THERE. My publicist sends out review copies to people who request them and he was nice enough to arrange my launch party for me. He might be doing other things on my behalf—I’m still over a month away from publication, so maybe he’s planning a party around the base of a volcano that erupts champagne—but if so he hasn’t told me yet. I’m extremely grateful for everything the publisher does for me—good reviews are invaluable, and the fact that they let me post on Suvudu is HUGE!—but the simple truth you need to know right now is that no one will ever build your platform or your brand except you.

If you need to know other simple truths later, feel free to contact me. No, wait, that’s not worded strongly enough. The fact is, friends, I desperately want you to ask me questions, because if you don’t then Dr. Peeler will confiscate my spleen. Email me at kevin@kevinhearne.com or simply comment below. I hope (for my sake as well as yours) that this was somewhat helpful; I wish you all the best and look forward to picking up your book in the store someday.

mental flotsam purge

Mental Flotsam Purge #2

I have been graced with my first pro review of Hounded! It’s from John Ottinger, who gives it five stars (squee!). “A must read for fans of Celtic and urban fantasy. Hilarious and fun!” He says he’ll have a full review up on his blog in March—which I can’t wait to see—but what he wrote in January sure did make my day. Very grateful!

In pursuit of our own happiness, a modest proposal: Let the pizza delivery guys deliver beer. The happiness this will bring to me and all like-minded Americans should be one of those famously self-evident truths. But there’s an economic reason to do it, too—there might be a state budget crisis or two we can solve here! Beer delivery equals more tax revenue, guaranteed, without raising taxes. How? Well, pizza joints jack up the price of beverages anyway. If a six-pack costs them $7, they’ll charge $10-12 (or more) to deliver it. 9% of $12 is more than 9% of $7—boom, you just increased revenue without raising taxes. And people will pay it—yes, I will pay it! Because $2 a bottle is still cheaper than what I’d pay at the ballpark or in any bar, and the convenience is simply awesome. You can curtail abuse of this in the statute—food must be ordered, for example, or only one six-pack per customer. I don’t see a downside here—pizza companies will enjoy more profits; states will enjoy increased revenue; people who run out of beer in the middle of a game won’t be out driving to get more at halftime, and people who are drinking at home are obviously not out on the road after drinking at the sports bar. I’m not a legislator (thank goodness), but surely this can be crafted to work for everyone’s profit and public safety. Who will lead the way? I am fairly certain it won’t be my state…damn it.

Got some work done on my epic this weekend (see the progress bar on the right; it was at 5430 but I scrapped that and started over, so I wrote 7K), and I’ve finally come up with a name that I like, but I think I’ll keep it a secret for now…we’ll see if anyone wants to publish it before I trumpet its nimi (that’s Finnish for name—I keep coming up with excuses to use Google Translate).

My tree has been getting lots of hugs on behalf of people who have pre-ordered Hounded, and I’ve mailed off quite a few signed bookplates. If you’d like to get in on this deal (there’s one place in the UK selling the whole series for $5.99 each and FREE shipping to the US), then head on over to the HOUNDED page, click on any red link you like, pre-order and send me an email! Part of this deal is that my dogs get hugged when you pre-order. It’s in the contract. Have you seen my dogs?

I can haz pre-order hugz?

That’s Sophie on the left and Manley on the right (named after the British poet Gerard Manley Hopkins). They are regularly loved and petted, but they are delighted by the BONUS love they’re getting as a result of all these pre-orders. (I think I may have given them an extra snack or five as well in the fulsomeness of my joy.)

I have cats too. Their names are Huckleberry and Lucky (Lucky because we saved him from CERTAIN DEATH), but they are quite adamant on the point that they not be photographed. Or maybe it’s just that the dogs follow me around and thus they keep hiding from me. The cats will only be hugged by your special request, because it takes some effort to chase them down.

After hearing about it for years, I have finally given myself the gift that is The Big Bang Theory. Nerds are so awesome—but especially Dr. Sheldon Cooper.

Currently I’m hammering out details for a couple of appearances. One will be the launch party for Hounded at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe on April 19—the date is pretty solid since that’s my release day, but I’m still working on the times. I will also be at San Diego Comic Con in July—specific time and location to be determined. Soonish, I’ll have an extra page up on the site called Events & Appearances, and I’ll update that every time something concrete comes in.

I just saw Black Swan and oh my goodness. It’s not a movie to see with your parents, but if you’re a creative person and you have little creative neuroses (or big ones) it’s a powerful, moving film full of questions for artists of all kinds. Natalie Portman definitely deserves the Oscar for this one. And my flotsam is hereby purged…

Uncategorized

Still Life with Dwarfs and Beer #5

I think there’s probably this preconceived notion out there that miniature dwarfs only defend meat and beer. But that’s a vicious lie—probably spread by miniature elves. Dwarfs acknowledge that consuming the occasional vegetable fends off scurvy and aids digestion. Hence the following:

 Still Life with Dwarfs and Beer #5

My good friend Sigurd Kneecapper is guarding my Greek salad and a delectable brew called Easy Street Wheat in an Ommegang Witte glass.

The Greek salad is simple stuff: Roma tomatoes and cucumber, chopped basil, sprinkled with feta cheese, olive oil, and fresh-ground black pepper. Easy Street Wheat is from Odell Brewing in Ft. Collins, CO, and it was recommended to me a couple weeks ago by Anonymous in the comments after I sampled 90 Shilling Ale from the same brewer (in Still Life with Dwarfs and Beer #3). Best Anonymous tip I’ve ever received—this beer has won five medals, including two golds, so you don’t really need me to tell you it’s freakin’ good! It’s exponentially more drinkable than that mass-produced beer that makes claims to drinkability, and it has just a whisper of sharpness to its taste that keeps it refreshing. Ommegang is a brewery in upstate NY near Cooperstown, and their Witte is very good. Their Three Philosophers Ale makes a guest appearance in my third book.

And now let’s take a closer look at the stout sentinel, Sigurd:

If you try to score some of my Easy Street, Sigurd isn’t going to make it easy for you. He aims low, you see—and I don’t mean because he’s a dwarf. He’s swingin’ for the knees first, and then when you’re down and screaming, he’ll leisurely swing that hammer at your squishy parts. You won’t be thinking about my awesome beer at that point.

I pay Sigurd very well to guard my grub. That’s why his (pick one) gromril/mithril/yourmomril armor is gold-kissed, from the chain to the plate to the spectacle helmet.

Remember to come back on Tuesday, when I’ll have my 3:2 Interview with Gail Carriger!

Uncategorized

Glimmerglass & Cooperstown

Sigh. Today’s my last day in NY. Heading back to the dry heat tomorrow and trees with many thorns instead of leaves.

But I visited a couple of cool breweries down near Cooperstown I wanted to talk about for a bit. One is called Ommegang, and they have a beer there called Three Philosopher’s Ale that they sell for $3.50 a bottle. Yeah, that’s a 12-oz. bottle. They age it in a cellar like wine. It’s unusual stuff—might not be for everyone—but I know that some people find it to be divine, and I give it a free cameo appearance in Hammered in a scene featuring Atticus, Gunnar, and Leif. You can find Ommegang’s beers in some stores back east and finer liquor establishments all over. The tour of the brewery is cool and the grounds are immaculate. They have a really large grassy area behind the brewery suitable for concerts, so they occasionally have concerts there since they’re cool like that.

That’s my cute kid and my sister in-law around the Ommegang fire pit. The tree-lined grassy area extends (quite extensively, natch) to both the left and right of this picture. Very pretty.
We also visited another brewery in the area called Cooperstown Brewing, which is actually located in nearby Milford. Here are their beers, from light to dark: 

I like the Nine Man Ale, a very clean pilsner. That Back Yard IPA is kind of neat because they grow the hops to finish it right on the property. Here’s their hop vines:

Yesterday we went to Glimmerglass State Park, which is really Otsego Lake that James Fenimore Cooper called “Glimmerglass” in his books. It’s a glacial lake fed by springs beneath the surface. When you go swimming in there you can sort of feel where the springs are, because there are colder patches of water. The swimming area is lovely and so are the grounds around the lake, with lots of benches and trails and remarkably friendly trees.

Yeah, I’m going to be leaving all that and return to this:
That’s a creosote bush, by the way, for those of you who have never seen one before. They’re the dominant desert scrub, and they give the whole valley its distinctive smell when it rains. I happen to love the smell, but I know some people don’t dig it. These things can grow forever, cloning themselves. There’s one that’s dang near 12,000 years old. Anyway, they can grow pretty close together at times and they provide quite a bit of shelter to plenty of desert animals. I mention them a couple of times in Hounded, so I thought I’d provide the picture here to aid the imagination. :)
Working through my TBR pile and fiddling around with outlines for book four and an epic fantasy trilogy while I wait for my editors to take a look at Hammered. Life is good.