Philippa Ballantine - Author

Award-winning Author of fantasy, science fiction, and steampunk

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News from near and far

December is going to be a fun month. I hope everyone recovered from their turkey (I cooked my first one!) and ready for the next assault on the waistline.

With all that lies ahead in 2013 my husband and I are on a new regime of healthy eating and exercise, and I highly recommend it for keeping the creative juices flowing. I’m currently finishing off the first round of edits of Harbinger, and as always my wonderful editor at Ace, Danielle Stockley has done a bang up job of pointing out the weaknesses of the story.

That’s the funny thing about editors, they usually end up telling you things you already knew in the back of your mind. The nice bit is they usually give you suggestions how to get around that blockage. I think Harbinger is going to nicely tie up loose ends for Sorcha, Merrick and Raed. I don’t think I am doing spoilers by saying Danielle might have teared up at the ending…

Harbinger has no cover yet, but does have a release date of July 30th 2013 over on Amazon.

However there is more Sorcha news sooner than that. First the Science Fiction Book Club now has the order page up and running for the hardcover Omnibus edition of the first three books. It’s called the Order of Deacons. I haven’t got a really good quality version of the cover image, but what I can see I approve. It apparently was not done by Jason Chan, but the artist has done a great job of capturing Sorcha, Merrick and the Rossin in all their glory. I can’t wait for January when the hardback arrive.

You can pre-order from here—but you have to be a member. (I really enjoy my membership!)

In more news from the Order, the German edition of Geist is now also available for pre-order. Interestingly the German publisher decided not to go with the American title, and instead it is called Der verfluchte Prinz (The Cursed Prince) which I am totally fine with. The series is also called something different Die Runen der Macht (The Runes of Power). And then there is the cover. Personally, I nearly always love the German covers. There is something of a different sensibility to them, and luckily this is one of those times when I was blown away.

The hair colour is darker than in the American version, but that really doesn’t bother me, because of the totally Sorcha attitude on display. The little details, the background, and the sense of movement and purpose in it, very much captures my heroine.

You can pre-order Der verfluchte Prinz from here

 

And in December the Janus Affair comes out in Germany.

 

And finally, the anthology I have a novella in is available for pre-order on Amazon. Clockwork Fairytales: A Collection of Steampunk Fables should be out in June.

Phew! Looks like 2013 is going to be as busy as 2012—if not more so. So what do you think of the covers?

Win the Eye of the Dragon

To celebrate me turning in the first draft of the sequel to Hunter and Fox (which is titled Kindred and Wings), I’ve decided to give away some really neat swag.

Hunter and Fox came out in July this year with Pyr books, under the careful eye of Hugo award winning editor Lou Anders.

The world of Hunter and Fox is inspired by New Zealand, and contains some characters I have had a blast playing with. Oh yes, and slight spoiler….there are dragons…but I bet you won’t see them coming!

RT Reviews said “Ballantine draws readers into a fascinating new world, peopled by characters you will genuinely care about. In this first volume of the Shifted World series, she draws from classic fantasy traditions but makes them wholly her own…. Talyn is a heroine to cheer for and treasure.”

The Miami Herald said “Weaving a tale of a world on the cusp of physical and social upheaval, Ballantine tells a story of mighty magics, pacts made and broken, betrayal, sacrifice and redemption. Hunter and Fox is a worthy feat of world-building, with Ballantine cleverly giving new clothes to old fantasy tropes so that those familiar trappings (recognizable only under close scrutiny) come across fresh and wondrous.”

But I would like to hear what you think.

What to do: You get two entries into the drawing by a review of Hunter and Fox. It can be on your blog, Amazon, Goodreads.com, Barnes and Noble.com (or any of the online bookseller sites). And/or you can tweet about Hunter and Fox.

What do you get: When the competition has run its course, I will draw two names to win. I have two wonderful Sightmares from the delightful Dr. Brassy Steamington. I personally have two of these wonderful creations that have been getting lots of comments and love wherever I wear them. They are handcrafted (even the glass eyes) and will get you noticed. If you love dragons, or know someone who does, the craftswomanship on these will blow you away. So two lucky entrants will be getting one of the Sightmares and a personalized and signed copy of Hunter and Fox each. This is open to anyone in the world, since I know how annoying it is to see a cool competition and be in say…New Zealand.

How long do we have: Since I want you to actually read the book, and there may be some of you who haven’t, I am keeping this competition open until December 4th. (Wouldn’t this prize make a great Christmas present?!)

Naturally, if you’ve already read and reviewed it, then you can jump right into this!

So use the Raffelcopter below, and I look forward to hearing what you thought about the book.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Times like this…

…I fantasize about having a PA. Someone to write witty blogposts, and let people know I am still around, just working really hard.

But since I don’t, and I still have to travel, write, do laundry, write, and scoop kitty litter, this will have to be my wave from deep in the writing waters. Yes…I am waving, not calling for help.

Back to back deadlines are hitting me hard and all those fun blogpost things have had to be set aside, along with podcasting. Yet I wanted to drop you a quick note to tell you I am indeed still here, just with my head down.

Hopefully, in the next two weeks I will be back on deck, breathing deeply, and very proud of myself for handing in two books in as many months. And then I will have hopefully some news I will be cleared to share with you. It’s been so full on this year.

As you all gear up for Nano, think of me…I am planning a No Nano this year. Yep, not working on a novel at all. Just short fiction, and polishing up a couple of new series proposals for my agent of awesome Laurie McLean to shop around.

On the game plan are some blogposts about what I have learned in these last madcap two years. (Yep, it is only two years since Geist came out!)

Until then…let me share with you my new friend. A lucky tiki I found at Goodwill. He was only 99c, but is a little battered, and lost his friend. I imagine he and his friend were bought from New Zealand by some holidaying Americans, as souvenir salt and pepper shakers. So, we found each other. Ex-pat kiwis, far from New Zealand, and no we are traveling companions. I plan on taking him to all my conventions, and maybe even back to New Zealand some time soon—just for a visit.

His new name, thanks to the unlikely event of us finding each other, is now #luckytiki

More stories from him when I return!

I’m a Writer, and I Study History

Today I welcome K T Bryski to my blog. She’s about to be newly minted author, and I am sure we are going to hear much from her in the future.

Hi, everyone! Pip has kindly invited me onto her blog to talk about a subject quite near and dear to my heart, and important to my writing: history.

Right now, I’m finishing up a degree in history (of late, it seems to be equal parts medieval and Victorian). When I tell people this, I tend to get one of two responses:

So, you want to be a history teacher?
Are you going to be a professor?
Inevitably, I squirm, and say something along the lines of, “No, actually, I want to be a writer…” whereupon I get asked why I’m not studying English.

I tried. Really, I did. However, midway through my second year, I realized three things.

1.      History is incredibly useful for fiction.

2.      The English department cares less about art and craft, and more about what the author meant.

I don’t just like history. I love it.

In essence, history is a collection of stories, complete with characters, plot, and setting. Studying history, you study how events link from one to the other, what factors drive people to act in certain ways, or how a single, “pivotal” moment may well have been centuries in the making. Plus, history professors like it if you can write coherently.

Sounding familiar, yet?

And that’s not even touching the practical side. Two words: primary sources. My high school history teacher first taught me how to find and use primary sources, for which I am eternally grateful. These are the newspaper articles, diaries, images, letters, papal bulls, edicts, court proceedings, and so forth that offer a window directly into the period. Not only are they often highly entertaining, they’re great for world-building and sparking ideas.

Some illustrative tidbits: medieval monks occasionally added obscene doodles in the margins of their manuscripts, and one poor seventeenth-century Englishman was prosecuted for “likening the Trinitie to a football player.”

I love it.

Looking at my bookshelf right now, the top shelf is stuffed with history books, the middle with science fiction and fantasy, and the third with everything else. To me, that sums up my writing education. Other authors show me their tools; history offers a wealth of material.

Besides, it’s fun. While researching for my upcoming novel, Hapax, I got to read heaps of cool sources. I studied floor maps and chronicles of cathedrals (I poked around some real cathedrals, too). I read an awful lot of patristic theology. In one very old and dusty book, I stumbled across Civita di Bagnoregio: a walled city atop a plateau that became the model for my City.

And so, one grey November afternoon, I took a stroll to the registrar’s office. I switched programmes, and became one of that rare breed: the history specialist with no plans for a career in academia.

For me, it was definitely the right choice.
Thanks, Pip, for letting me share my history with history. And thanks to you, readers. Whatever your interests may be, I wish you all the best in following them!

About K T Bryski

K.T. Bryski was born and raised in Toronto, a city she grew to love after venturing south of Bloor. The writing bug bit her early, and some of her earliest memories include pounding out stories on her father’s (then very cool, now very obsolete) computer.

Photo Credit: Donald J. Woodbury, Jr.

Since then, she has written both prose and plays. Her playwriting includes Key of D Minor (2009), Dracula (2009), the libretto for East o’ the Sun and West o’ the Moon: A Children’s Opera (TBD), and various scenes and monologues for Black Creek Pioneer Village, Toronto (2011).

Her first novel, Hapax, will be published by Dragon Moon Press in October, 2012. Her first podcast, also Hapax, will be available in September, 2012.

At the moment, she is pursuing an Hon. B.A. in History from the University of Toronto. As such, she spends her days writing, acting as Black Creek’s “Jill-of-all-trades,” and doing each and every one of her assigned readings.

She is @ktbryski on Twitter, and you can find her website at ktbryski.com

In the mouth of DragonCon

So my husband Tee Morris and I got back from DragonCon yesterday, and I have pretty much been asleep all day today.

It was 2008 since we were last year, and oh my the convention which was already huge has exploded…all over Atlanta. The convention is now over five offical hotels and is in the region of 50,000 attendees.

This year, as an official guest I was on panels, and did four signings (two at book shops in the dealer room, and the other two at the Pyr booth). This meant hoofing it around four of the five hotels, dodging photographers taking pictures of cos-players, and trying to get through the press of people. It was honestly more like the feeling of New York Comic Con than the DragonCon I remember.

That being said, it was still a fun event…just very, very tiring. Tee and I recorded a Shared Desk episode on the way home in the car, but needless to say, DragonCon is quite an event.

However, one of the highlights was definitely winning a Parsec Award for my story The Precarious Child, which was part of Season One of the Tales from the Archives. Tee had two stories, as did Grant Stone and Jack Mangan—so it was amazing to win the Short Fiction, Small Cast Parsec.

Then later on, PC Haring of Cybrosis fame, won for his story The Seven, in the Short Fiction, Large Cast category. So very, very pleased with the win for Tales from the Archives—a project Tee and I have loved doing, and are very proud of too!

So after getting a boost from all the fellow writers and readers and listeners at DragonCon, I am back to the grindstone, and should have book Three of the Ministry done and dusted shortly. Kindred and Wings, the sequel to Hunter and Fox is on the final approach, so still much to do. However, events like this are certainly part of the enjoyable aspects of being a writer. Thanks to all those who voted for the Ministry…you all really made my year!