Out and About: My Virtual Book Tour Schedule

Today’s the first official day of publication for my dark fantasy novel Brutal Light! In support of it, I’ve managed to cajole, wheedle, and otherwise convince a group of fantastic folk to lend me their blogs over the next week-and-a-half or so. It wasn’t easy–I had to promise to keep the llama in line–but here’s the list:

12/1/11: RJ Sullivan — “The Story Behind Brutal Light”

12/2/11: Greg Chapman — Interview

12/3/11: Tim Marquitz — “Brutal Light and My Path to Dark Fantasy”

12/5/11: Lee Mather — Interview

12/6/11: Lincoln Crisler — “If It Doesn’t Make You Squirm…”

12/7/11: Sally Franklin Christie — Writerly Wednesday Interview

12/8/11: Su Halfwerk — “On Fighting the Internal Censor”

12/9/11: Sean A. Lusher — “These Books Made Me Weird(er)”

12/10/11: Kelly A. Harmon — Interview

I also have an interview with Keira Kroft, as yet unscheduled, and may be adding another stop before this is over.

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Gary W. Olson is the author of the dark fantasy novel Brutal Light and several previously published and forthcoming short stories. He can be found via his website, his blog A Taste of Strange, as @gwox on Twitter, and in many other far-flung places on the Internet.

Brutal Light Debuts Tomorrow–Here’s Where To Find It

The day has finally arrived. Brutal Light, my debut dark fantasy novel, will be published tomorrow, 12/1/2011. You are, no doubt, filled with questions. Possibly also turkey, or some other post-Thanksgiving foodstuff of choice. Read on, to learn where you might acquire a print or electronic edition, and some sales that will be going on.

First, let me cover print editions, for those of you who desire the paper. There will be no hardcover edition; paperback editions will be available from Amazon.com and BarnesAndNoble.com. Note: they are not currently, as of this writing, there, but the pre-order links should be up before the week is out. Print editions should be available for shipping by mid-December. Also note: they may not be listed for the same price, for reasons I can’t control. I recommend you check both and pick the lowest-priced one.

You can also go to any brick-and-mortar bookstore that does special ordering for its customers and have them special order the book for you.

Next: Kindle editions. These are available from Amazon (no surprise). In fact, the Kindle edition of Brutal Light is already listed here.

But what of the Nook, I hear you cry! What of iTunes? What of other sellers? A Nook edition will be forthcoming from BarnesAndNoble.com, and I believe an edition will be available through the iTunes store before the year is out. I’ll be keeping an up-to-date list of all these vendors and links here, and will be announcing them as they come in on my blog and in my newsletter.

Lastly, I am working on the all-Semaphore edition, and will be unveiling it on YouTube as soon as the monkey learns not to go off-script.

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Gary W. Olson is the author of the dark fantasy novel Brutal Light and several previously published and forthcoming short stories. He can be found via his website, his blog A Taste of Strange, as @gwox on Twitter, and in many other far-flung places on the Internet.

Brutal Light pre-release trailer 2.0, Free Short Story, and Food for Thought

Here’s what I’m calling the ‘2.0’ version of the ‘pre-release’ of my book trailer for Brutal Light. ‘Pre-release’ because it contains an enticement for signing up for my e-mail newsletter that expires on 12/1; ‘2.0’ because I’ve incorporated Dawne Dominique‘s great cover art.

(Edit 12/1/2011 — I’ve replaced this with the ‘final’ trailer version, which no longer contains the newsletter enticement.)

The ‘enticement’ is that I will be drawing from the list of those signed up for the newsletter by 12/1 for the following: 1 person will win a signed trade paperback copy of my book Brutal Light, plus an electronic copy in PDF format. 2 second place finishers will get electronic copies in PDF format.

Additionally, anyone who subscribes to the newsletter will get a download link for a PDF copy of The Body in Motion, one of my early ‘science fiction horror’ short stories (revised and hopefully improved). I do caution in the link that it is violent and bloody, and contains mature subject matter (though not presented in excessively graphic form). The only thing I really remember about its genesis was that it was written in the weird, fiery state I was in for maybe a day after reading Harlan Ellison’s Deathbird Stories for the first time, and that the first draft was done in a day, which virtually never happens with me.

And if you don’t like it… hey, that’s okay. Just stay subscribed, as I’ll be making other stories (and other kinds of stories) the ‘free’ enticement in its place as the months and years roll on.

One other note, on another topic: I’ve made it so you no longer need to be registered to this website in order to comment on blog entries. Just enter your name (real or pseudonymous) in the top bar (and the bar below it), then your comment, then the CAPTCHA. At this point, I’d rather make it easier for the casual visitor to drop in and say something, and just take the increased risk of being spammed.

One still another note: while browsing through the site of Bryan Thomas Schmidt, whom I befriended (in the old, pre-Facebook sense of the term) at ConClave, I found the second half of a dialogue between him and another author (Anthony Cardno, whom I have not yet met) that resonated with me. I’ll link to the first half of the dialogue, on Anthony’s site. I encourage everyone reading this to go there, think on what they are saying and how it reflects on your own life and conduct… it’s certainly given me much to reflect on as far as my own is concerned.

Two Writers in Dialogue: A Conservative Evangelical and a Gay Liberal

Back from ConClave!

I had a great time at ConClave over the weekend, participating in four panels, attending a few others, and in general chatting with old friends and new. I neglected to take much in the way of pictures this time around, so words shall have to suffice.

On Friday I was on two back-to-back panels — “The Death of an American Author” (a panel on the impact e-books and e-publishing has had and will have on readers, writers, and the industry) with Bryan Thomas Schmidt, Jim C. Hines and Doug Lugthart (a.k.a. L. Warren Douglas), and “Self-Promotion and Networking” (a fairly self-explanatory title) with Bryan Thomas Schmidt and Jim C. Hines. They were the first panels I’d done in fourteen years (since the one panel I did at a con in Virginia in support of the late, lamented Mythic Heroes project of the 90’s, which has nothing to do with the current RPG game of the same name), and happily, thanks to both my preparation before the panels and the welcoming atmosphere created by my co-panelists, I managed to speak up fairly regularly, and managed to sound, much of the time, like my train of thought had actually finished boarding at the station before I let it depart. (This will startle people who know me as either being quiet or as someone who starts sentences with no idea where they’re going to end. There’s a reason I gravitated to being a writer instead of a speaker.)

After that, I got to enjoy part of a wildly entertaining concert by Seanan McGuire, who, in addition to being a very prolific author (both under her own name and as Mira Grant, author of the Hugo-nominated ‘Feed’), is an amazing singer. Some chatting and wandering about rounded out the evening before I headed home (as I live reasonably close to Romulus–the Detroit metro area city, not the Romulan homeworld–I’d decided to skip getting a hotel room for this convention).

Saturday, ordinarly the prime day for any convention, turned out to be a bit truncated for me, as I had to leave mid-afternoon to attend the wedding of two friends. Still, I managed to take a couple spins around the Dealers’ Room, chatted again with Bryan Thomas Schmidt and his publisher (picking up his book, The Worker Prince, in the process), and chatted with more people in the ConSuite. I managed to return late in the evening to be in the audience for a panel on “Michigan’s Most Haunted” locations–of interest more to me as a writer than as a potential believer, but nonetheless fun. And that finished day two.

Sunday got me out early for a panel on “When Should a Series End?” (a panel on that magical time in any book series, movie series, or tv series, when it’s time for a graceful exit, and how it looks when that time goes by without such an exit) with Seanan McGuire, Emmy Jackson, and Jim C. Hines. It was the best attended of the panels I was on, likely because of Seanan’s presence–not just because she was the Guest of Honor, but because she’s a very fun and outgoing person, someone I’d love to listen to in any setting. I managed to get through this panel without actually saying ‘derp derp derp de derp,’ despite the dullness brought on by the truncated sleep I’d gotten. Between that panel and the next, I chatted with folks some, and took one more spin around the Dealer’s room. My last panel, “What Makes a Book Unreadable?” (the varying things that readers might consider to be ‘deal-breakers’ in their enjoyment of a story), with Charles P. Zaglanis and Emmy Jackson. Very sparsely attended, both because it was getting on in the afternoon, when many people had already left, and because we were up against Seanan’s book signing, but also fun, because it went from being a panel to a freewheeling discussion on anything and everything that annoyed us about different books we’d read or movies we’d seen. Once the panel was over, I had to depart right away (to assist with de-walnutting my in-laws’ back yard), so after buying a copy of Emmy Jackson’s book Empty Cradle: the Untimely Death of Corey Sanderson, depart I did.

(Note: Bryan Thomas Schmidt posted his con report earlier today, and it includes a picture of me with the other panelists from the “Death of the American Author” panel. The other panelists were chatting, while I, having noticed the camera, adopted a pose and smile that makes it look like I have a thought balloon with the word ‘derp’ in it–which makes it pretty average for my photos, I’m afraid.)

Behold! The cover art of Brutal Light!

Brutal Light Cover
(Click the image for the large version)

This incredible cover was done by artist Dawne Dominique. It’s my first ever book cover… very exciting!

While I’m here, I also now have my panel schedule for Conclave:

The Death of the American Author – Fri 6:30pm-8:00pm – Ballroom 5
Ebooks. Anyone with a computer can format a novel and sell it on Amazon for download. What does this mean for the future of books, for the future of publishing? Why should it matter? Do we need to redefine what constitutes of literature? And will the democratizing of publishing redefine what is what it means to be a writer and a reader?

Self-Promotion and Networking – Fri. 8:00pm-9:00pm – Ballroom 5
It’s not just about the promoting writing, it’s about promoting yourself, whether it’s in search of a new job, or keeping the one you have. What is your digital footprint? How can you clean it up? How can you get people to “like” you online? What are some do’s and don’ts for Twitter and Facebook? How can you build a circle of professional and personal contacts?

When Should a Series End? – Sun 10:00am-11:30am – Ballroom 5
With a new novel in the Harry Dresden series, and an ending of the Harry Potter and Twilight series, the question must be asked: is there some point where a writer needs to close the door and move on? Should Laurel K. Hamilton or Charlaine Harris bring their series to a close? Did Stephen King do one Dark Tower too many? Should 007 put away his Walther PPK and take a desk job?

What Makes A Book Unreadable? – Sun 2:00pm-3:30pm – Ballroom 5
Bad grammar? Bad characters? Bad ideas? Each person has their own ideas as to what constitutes acceptable fiction, but are there some deal-breakers? And do we hold different standards for books based on film or video-games, or other existing franchises? And should we? Should we be more demanding? Or are we programmed to feed at the corporate trough? Is bad literature a statement about our culture? Is it what we deserve?

Hope to see you there!

Brutal Light trailer is GO!

The trailer for my upcoming novel, Brutal Light, is now up! Feed your ravenous eyeballs with it!

For those of you who aren’t going to play this right this second… in addition to hopefully piquing some interest in my upcoming novel, this trailer announces that, if you subscribe to my newsletter between now and December 1st, you’ll get a chance to win a signed paperback edition of the book (plus a PDF edition) (with two runners up getting PDF copies).

In other news, it looks like I’ll be on panels at ConClave after all… I’ll post an update when I know dates and times.

Edit 10/6/2011: Updated the trailer link to pre-release version 2.0. Mostly the same as before, but now with the book cover art included!

Edit 12/1/2011: Updated the trailer link to final version, removing the newsletter enticement and updating other text.

Edit 1/3/2017: Updated the trailer link to the post-publicaton, pre-republication version, removing the old publisher citation.