The Unremembered Give-Away

The Unremembered, by Peter Orullian, a Give Away.

It's O.k.  Get excited!

TOR has graciously donated this copy of The Unremembered for me to give away.  I'll be taking submissions for the give away from now until December 5th, 2011.  (So that if you want to gift this for Christmas you'll have time to do so.)

The point system will be simple and allow you extra opportunities if you'd like to expend a bit more effort for a better chance to win.  (I'll only be shipping to United States addresses for this give away.)

To enter the give away:  Post a comment saying that you're interested in the give away.  This is worth one point.  Bonus points available below.  Share with me your total points in your comment please.

• One Bonus Point:  Share point.  Use the tags (Twitter, Facebook, etc) below this blog post to tell everyone about this give away.  You can also use any other social network on your own.
• One Bonus Point:  Referral point.  Did you refer someone who joined in the give away?  Post a comment after their comment to claim a referral point. 
• One Bonus Point: Bloggers Pet Point.  You can follow my blog or twitter for one point each.  (This is really easy.  Use the 'Join this site' link over on the right sidebar under Followers or 'follow me on twitter' at the bottom of the Twitter Updates panel in the right sidebar.)

*Please be sure to comment about your points if you have any updates so I won't miss them.  

I do need to contact you if you win.  Please click here to fill out the contact form.  If you win I'll contact you for your address.  The winner will need to reply to their award contact with a postal address within 3 days of the award notification.

That's it!  See, really easy.

If you want to know more about Peter, you can click here to visit his awesome website.  Or here to read about when I met him this last summer.  Even if you don't win, I hope you check his book out or buy a copy.

Have you heard of The Unremembered yet?  Let me tell you a little about it.
The Unremembered is an epic fantasy.  Epic fantasy doesn't have to mean big fat fantasy book, but this time it does.  Hooray!  The Unremembered is 669 pages in this hard bound First Edition, that I'm giving away.  It takes place in an original world (Aeshau Vaal).  You'll discover it has it's own powerful life and mood.  It is full of great histories and powerful legends.  If you visit Peter's website, linked above, you'll find teaser videos that will introduce you to the characters in the novel, some history and some vital plot points.
The story begins as a great threat rises through rumor.  The people who would fight that threat pull themselves out of their simple lives, some at a significant cost, to quell it.
Take a journey with me into a world that can swallow you whole and spit you out at 3am in the morning wondering where the night went.  Open the pages of The Unremembered today.

October's Advice

I was able to sit in on the West Valley Library author panel Wednesday, October 19th.  Authors Emily Wing Smith, Bree Despain, and Sara Zarr answered questions and had some great advice.

Sorry about this poor photo.  I showed up late having gone to the wrong library and end up with a seat in the back.

They all shared their 'How I Got Published' stories and they were remarkably similar, which hasn't been the case most times I hear panels answer this question.

Sara Zarr published her 4th novel she wrote.  This was after 10 years of writing with the intent to be published. She thought the whole time she had to know someone to get her in... but really it just turned out she needed to work hard, improve her craft, get an agent, submit and keep working hard.

Bree Despain published her first novel after 9 years of writing.  She decided to be a writer and took all kinds of classes in college.  In one of these classes she met Emily Wing Smith, became fast friends and here they are today.

Emily Wing Smith published her book after 6 years from finishing her first novel.  She went to Vermont college to study writing.  There she wrote her first novel that would later be published.  She met Sara Zarr there who suggested she speak to her agent, she did and after that things started to move more quickly to her becoming a published author.

Sara said that writing is like a sport. You have to work hard at it to develop skills that are valuable enough to market.

Bree commented on choices. Your characters will make them. There are consequences to these choices and pursuing them in your plot will bring out the human story and condition. Depth is in the humanity of choices, rather than injected with some secret writing formula.

Emily said she likes to avoid moral statements, but rather let the whole story tell any lesson learned, else a preachy character will come off sounding cheesy. They all agreed one of the best perks of becoming a published author is meeting with the authors you read and followed as a reader and to be accepted by them as a colleague.

 I did take a few moments to speak to Bree Despain. I asked about writing warm up practices that help ensure her precious writing time was successful.

• She shared with me that she enjoys a small daily allowance of chocolate to enjoy while writing. 
•  She keeps a writing space. 
• A musical sound track to listen to while in certain moods/scenes. 
• She also uses 15 minutes to get started where she has to be dedicated and writing. However as promised to herself if she's just not feeling it after that time then she stops for a while. Mostly by the time 15 minutes are up she's well on her way and doesn't need to stop. 

The library event was nice and I hope to see more authors again soon. Mean time I'm off to a solid start on my current work. It's taken the longest to write. I've had my struggles and this one is my most challenging story yet. I'm over 60,000 words into it. I absolutely must finish it this year! Wish me luck.

Another book give away!

Coming soon, I'll be giving away The Unremembered by the amazing 2011 debut author Peter Orullian.

The winner will enjoy this fantasy mood rich novel in time for Christmas.

Details to come.