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    Mythos Academy updates …

    8 Comments

    So I thought I would do an update post for the Mythos Academy young adult urban fantasy series and let everyone know what’s going on with the series:

    1) Kiss of Frost, the second book in the series, will be released on Nov. 29. Gwen and the gang are back for more adventures and run-ins with Reapers of Chaos and mythological monsters, this time during the academy’s annual Winter Carnival weekend. Here’s the back cover copy for the book:

    Logan Quinn was trying to kill me. My Spartan classmate relentlessly pursued me, swinging his sword at me over and over again, the shining silver blade inching closer to my throat every time. A smile tugged up his lips, and his ice-blue eyes practically glowed with the thrill of battle …

    I’m Gwen Frost, a second-year warrior-in-training at Mythos Academy, and I have no idea how I’m going to survive the rest of the semester. One day, I’m getting schooled in swordplay by the guy who broke my heart — the drop-dead gorgeous Logan who slays me every time. Then, an invisible archer in the Library of Antiquities decides to use me for target practice. And now, I find out that someone at the academy is really a Reaper bad guy who wants me dead. I’m afraid if I don’t learn how to live by the sword — with Logan’s help — I just might die by the sword …

    You can read an excerpt here. The book is up for pre-order at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other booksellers.

    2) I’m happy to announce that some foreign rights have been sold for the Mythos Academy series. Shown with this post is the German cover for Touch of Frost. I’m not sure when this will be released, but I’m guessing sometime in 2012. I’ll let you know when I get more information.

    3) Dark Frost is the title for the third book in the series, and it is set for a June 2012 release. The on-sale date will be May 29, 2012.

    4) I’ll be doing a blog tour for Kiss of Frost, starting in mid-November and probably running through the first week or two of December. I’ll link to the various posts here on my blog.

    5) I have bookmarks for Kiss of Frost now, along with the ones for Touch of Frost, so if you want some of those, send me an e-mail to find out how to get them. Please note that I ask folks to send me a self-addressed stamped envelope with two stamps — 88 cents — on it. I ask overseas folks to include at least $2 worth of U.S. postage or international postage coupons with their return envelope. This helps me cover postage costs.

    Those are all the updates that I have at this time. I’ll post more information here on the blog as it becomes available.

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    And the book goes to …

    And randomly chosen winner of the copy of The Hum and the Shiver by Alex Bledsoe is:

    Jen Wylie

    Congrats! Please e-mail me your snail mail address so I can forward it on to Alex. If I don’t hear from you by Sunday, Oct. 23, I will have to pick another winner.

    I want to say thanks again to Alex for taking the time to guest blog and to everyone who commented on the post. Thanks, everyone!

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    Guest blog: Making it real …

    15 Comments

    I’m a fan of the Eddie LaCrosse fantasy series byAlex Bledsoe. So when I saw that Alex had a new book out, The Hum and the Shiver, I asked if he’d be nice enough to guest blog, and he said yes.

    WARNING: The post gives away a plot point or two from the book. So if you don’t want to know what happens, skip to the giveaway info at the bottom.

    Take it away, Alex:

    All authors, if they’re serious and honest, put bits of themselves into whatever the write, and that includes authors of fantasy, science fiction and horror. These most unrealistic of genres, in fact, demand the realism of the author’s personality in order to work. Would horror greats like Poe, Lovecraft and King be the same if their individual childhood landscapes and adult difficulties weren’t evoked in their fiction? Would Tolkein be as vivid without his intense interest in languages?

    In The Hum and the Shiver, I wrote about variations of my own Southern background. The rhythms of speech, the priorities, the way of life was familiar to me, and I had no trouble recreating it and then adding the story’s fantasy elements. Further, like secondary character Don Swayback, I’d worked in small-town newspapers, so I understood how they operated within their communities. I don’t actually play music, but I know a lot of musicians so I’ve observed them, talked to them and internalized their experiences enough to, I believe, recreate them.

    There was one scene, though, that constantly defeated me. A character finds out her child has died. It’s a crucial moment, and obviously a dramatic one, but each time I tried to write it, it rang false. It was a moment that had to be real for the book to work.

    So I took it from life. My life.

    When I was ten, my older brother died. I was in my room playing when my father told my mother, and I remember the wail she let out as vividly as if it happened yesterday. I also remember what my father said to me when I came out to see what had happened. It was my first experience with the death of someone close to me. So I used it to make the moment real.

    When my mother read the book, she didn’t even blink at the scene. No doubt her memories are completely different from mine. But for me, it’s the kind of detail that makes a crucial moment in the story work far better than any fictional version I could conjure. Far from being exploitative, as a writer it’s both my right and my duty to use my own unique experience to bring my fiction to life.

    I don’t consider The Hum and the Shiver to be a “realistic” novel. It is fantasy, after all. But to make that fantasy believable, to make the broad strokes work, you have to ground it in realistic detail so that the reader doesn’t notice the line between what’s real and what’s not. And for every author, the best detail comes from his or her own life, from your own unique treasure of moments and emotions.

    GIVEAWAY INFORMATION

    Thanks so much for guest blogging today, Alex! I appreciate it. To celebrate the release of The Hum and the Shiver, Alex is giving away one copy of the book. The giveaway is open to US/Canada residents. To enter, leave a comment on this blog post talking about a fantasy book or world that you’ve enjoyed or a book that you are looking forward to.

    The giveaway will be open through noon, Wednesday, Oct. 19 EST. I’ll post the winner here on the blog on Friday, Oct. 21. Happy commenting!