S.D. Smith's Blog, page 32

I’m very happy to share our excellent Christmas season sale with you. It’s the most affordable any of these items has ever been, I think. We have tried to make it easy for you to shop for those children on your list who are into fresh, fun adventures, with a deep well of meaning. We have books, audiobooks, shirts, swords, necklaces, and lots of great bundles. See them all here!

Get the series for a family you love in either hard cover, or paperback bundles.

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Get all the books with a t-shirt. 

There are plenty of options, lots more to see AT THE STORE and the prices have never been better.

And hey, welcome to the new website! I am very excited to share this with you and I hope you’ll share it with your friends. When we asked our friends, Phil and Erin Ulrich of Design By Insight (and also the excellent authors of The Growly Books), to team up with us to create a new site, we wanted it to be simple, attractive, and easy to access. I wanted as many obstacles as possible out of the way, so that readers/allies could find what they were looking for quickly. I think the site does that very well. I’m grateful.

Take a look around. And, as always, thank you so much for being on our side. We are certainly on yours.

The post Give the Gift of Stories this Christmas appeared first on S. D. Smith.

Dear Friends,

I have been asked a certain question hundreds of times. I’ve been asked it in person, in interviews, in emails, in blog and Facebook comments, and in letters from kids.

“When is The Green Ember sequel coming out?”

This question has served as both an inspiration to me and a force of pressure on me.

I spent nearly a decade in a long “rough draft” of The Green Ember, telling my kids aloud the earliest versions of what I would later write down for the novel. How was I supposed to follow it up at all, let alone quickly? On top of that, The Green Ember—this book I thought was likely only suited for an audience the exact size of my family—turned out to be kind of a hit with many others. We’ve reprinted more times than I can remember, seen many tens of thousands of copies sold, met with big studio executives about a possible movie, and spent days as the best-selling audiobook in the world. All in about 20 months. Holy cow! There’s been some real enthusiasm about the book, and so when people ask me about a sequel, it’s not like my kids asking for a bed-time story. It’s a lot of kids asking for a story. Pressure!

But it’s pressure because of a privilege. An amazing privilege! What author doesn’t dream about an audience eager to receive what he or she is creating next? What an incredible (almost unbelievable) honor!

So we tried to balance the urgency with a commitment to excellence. I hope we have succeeded.

There have been countless hours of work put into this new book. I don’t know if I’ll ever have the margin to write in the kind of environment where there is regular access to long stretches of uninterrupted, concentrated time. That’s pretty unlikely for a while. So, for critics of flawed sentences and my many other offenses against great writing, fear not. There’s more of the same here. I hope I have improved as a storyteller. For now, we are shipping before we’re ready. We’re hustling toward the possible and saying sayonara to the perfect. 

I haven’t done this alone. To everyone on the team (you know who you are), thank you so much. For something from my heart to be so cared for and curated, savored and shared, is a priceless gift. You’re on my side, and I’m profoundly grateful.

Today’s the day. Ember Falls is finally released. The Green Ember has a sequel. It’s out there, ready to be read by, and to, eager children. These young readers will walk through darkness with my imperfect guidance, holding on to hope in the middle of the fight. Thousands of kids will continue a journey that started in my heart and head over many challenging months. They will travel. They will have a harrowing adventure. I wish I could see their faces!

To those kids who I love dearly and for whom I have heaved my heart into this tale, God bless you.

I made this for you.

Sam

P.S. Some sales stuff:

You can get the new book (or rate and review) at Amazon. 

There are some genuinely great Launch Week Deals at My Store. Check it, yo.

There are sakes including Picket’s Swords, Heather’s Necklaces, and Book and Book/T-shirt Combo Deals. It’s dope.

Hello Again,

There’s a lot of excitement about the possibility of a movie version of The Green Ember, but there’s more to be excited about right now! I’m writing to say that my new book, Ember Falls (The Green Ember Book 2), is available for preorder from Amazon. It will ship September 13th! (Cool people say “drops.” Trust me, I heard someone in California who was certifiably cool say this.)

You can get it in handsome paperback or in VERY handsomer hard cover. Or get both?

(Writing Tip: Use “very” ALL the time. Emphasize it with all-caps. Add dozens of exclamation points!!!! Congrats. You are a very gooder writer now.)

If you are a hard cover lover (The Green Ember in hard cover at Amazon for the first time on September 13th. You can preorder that now too.

Kickstarter backers, your books (and associated swag) are still on schedule for getting to you in mid-August. I think you’ll be happy with the abundance.

Fun fact: Did you know that the word “abundance” came from a culture of people called the Weenahrohstees who cherished hot-dogs above all other sustenance? In the great bun famine of 1973, they lamented. All these hot dogs and no buns. #Sad! Then a cargo ship carrying 800,023 hot dog buns wrecked and every one died. But the good news was that the buns survived and floated magically to the island of the Weenahrohstees. They had so many buns, they immediately ordered a huge, island-wide dance. It was called, you guessed it, the bun dance. For years after, they organized “a bun dance” on the anniversary of their windfall. That’s how we got our word, “abundance.” We went to the island, killed all the inhabitants, stole their hotdogs, and dragged off several of their favorite words (including “abundance”). #Winning

Speaking of shipments and death, it’s unbelievably nerve-wracking to wait for a first look at our books. Our first experience in printing The Green Ember has left us scarred and scared. The hard covers were nearly all askew and far below our standards and we ended up fighting with the printers about it for months. But, I’m very happy and relieved to say that Ember Falls looks amazing!

Andrew Mackay (publisher/cover designer/etc.) and Zach Franzen (illustrator and cover artist) did a magnificent job. I think this book looks even more attractive than The Green Ember. I’m so grateful!

I hope you will preorder a copy today and tell your friends about it. We just want to find those folks who read the first book and wanted more. It’s a harder than it you would think!

Here’s a suggested social media post to copy and paste, if you need some help:

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Facebook, etc.:

Like me, many of you loved #TheGreenEmber, & now Book 2 is almost here! Ember Falls is available for preorder now! http://amzn.to/2aFa25h

Twitter:

Like me, many of you loved #TheGreenEmber by @SDSmith_. Now Book 2 is almost here! Preorder Ember Falls now! http://amzn.to/2aFa25h

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I would love it if you tagged me on Facebook or Twitter. Cheers!

Finally, I wrote something recently about my motivation for storytelling. It’s short and to the point. In case you missed it, I hope you’ll check it out: A Cathedral of Words.

Thank you, my friends!

Sam

Hello Friends,

I’m writing this from the skies above middle-America, on my way home from a trip to Los Angeles. I was in LA to meet with folks who want to make a film version of The Green Ember.

(Yay! Hurray! High-five! Okay.) 

I won’t get into a lot of detail now, but some veteran filmmakers with a passion for telling great stories contacted me about six months ago about the film rights. There had been some other enquiries, but this one had legs and these guys were doers, not just talkers. I’ve been in conversation with them ever since. (One of those early phone calls involved me trying to determine if this was a trick or not by asking questions that would reveal if they had actually read the book. I also displayed my brilliance in other equally stunning ways, I assure you.) I met them for the first time in person over the past few days and they are top notch people who I am delighted to be partnering with.

Yesterday, we had the great privilege of having a pitch meeting with executives at MGM, including Roma Downey. The meeting was great, and Roma particularly seemed to really resonate with the heart of the story. She gets it. Roma Downey is all the things you probably already know about her: warm, insightful, and just an all-around lovely person. But she is also clearly keen in business matters and a gifted executive. I got to share my story and, along with my (experienced, bright) teammates, I feel like we did a good job of communicating the project we’re eager to partner on. It was a special experience for me. Authors aren’t usually allowed near these meetings, so I felt privileged to be there and to be able to add my voice.

I don’t know where it goes from here. So many different things could happen! I hope, in the end, there’s a movie we’re all proud of that can extend the reach of this story of anticipating and working for a Mending to families all over the world–many of whom wouldn’t otherwise be reached. MGM would be a great partner for the film, but there are other possibilities. I personally would love to work with Roma and I think she would be ideal as an executive producer, producer, actor, or all of the above. (How great would she be as the voice of Maggie Weaver?! Roma’s not old enough, but Mrs. Weaver kind of reveals the heart of the story and Roma could definitely pull it off.)

There are lots of reasons why it may or may not work. Animated films are expensive to do well. And even if it goes forward, these things take a long time. We are past some significant hurdles, yes, but big ones remain. Imagine hurdles ahead. Now bigger ones. Good. Imagine me, sweatbands poised in every possible location, socks hiked to unthinkable heights, safety goggles snapped in place. Visualize this with your brainparts! I’m leaping at a high hurdle, snagging it with the toe of my white Reebok shoes that look like I stole them off a 70 year old nurse. I’m falling, mouth agape, landing now, bouncing off the red track like a dropped potato in the grocery story parking lot. Now laugh. Laugh harder! Okay, you can open your eyes again. Hurdles. Lots of them. Ahead. See it? Okay. 

Hey, there’s a long way to go. This is definitely an underdog story. But you know who you should always bet on? Athletes who take steroids. But that’s another story. This is an underdog story and I love it. 

Smarter people than me are working on the film stuff, and I’m jumping in there as needed. I plan to be very involved and, yes, I’m working with people who really love the book and want to make the movie as close as possible (with obvious need for trimming, etc.). I know you care about that and I do too. I’m excited about this, but meanwhile lots of other exciting things are due up soon.

Ember Falls (The Green Ember: Book II) is shipping soon. September 13! And you can preorder it on Amazon NOW! (It’s available in paperback and hard cover.) I have more stories to write, a family to love and provide for, and more. I’m in no danger of getting bored!

I want to thank those of you who have helped in various ways, whether it was providing advice, supportive info, hospitality, sharing encouragement, or offering prayers. And I want to ask all of you to be in prayer about this. This journey has been one long series of answered prayers. May that continue! Please pray that God is glorified in whatever results and that he would guide our team to good partnerships that help tell the best possible film version of The Green Ember. And maybe pray that I can somehow occasionally resist the urge to name-drop Roma Downey in every single conversation I have from now on.

Hey, this was an incredible trip for a boy from the West Virginia hills. With The Green Ember Series, it’s been an amazing journey all along the way, including (now) in Hollywood. I’m amazed at how the story has resonated with so many families. What an incredible honor for me to see this story I told my own kids be invited into so many lovely homes and young hearts.

I will happily update you with any significant news on the movie front. I will also give you a high-five if, when we cross paths, you raise your right hand and swing it at me in a friendly manner.

Thank you, friends and allies. God bless you!

Bear the flame,

Sam

:: :: Sign Up Here To Receive The Green Ember Movie News Updates :: ::

I wrote this little poem in a minute while listening to a man talk about how bygone builders approached the architecture of angels. He spoke of how they built grand spires and sacred spaces with an expansive imagination for the ages. He challenged us to consider what we were building. Would it last? I thought, I am only telling stories to children. And this came out. It will have to serve for now as the best articulation of my ambition.

A Cathedral of Words

I cannot, I think, build a great building of any kind,

To last a thousand years.

Not with these hands.

So I will try, in my own way,

To make something that lasts a while.

I will try, I think,

To build a cathedral of words.

But that is too grand.

A cottage is more likely, with washing on the line.

A little home.

Simple meals.

A warm fire.

Happy kids.

A cottage of words.

May it last a little while and lend fire to a few tired travelers, moving through whatever darkness,

This industrious world manufactures for them.

A cathedral of words? Perhaps that’s too grand a spire. But I, bold as a mouse,

Aspire.

So I will build what I can,

And let my children, when they are grey,

Say what it was.

I’ve been a big fan of audiobooks for many years. I used to drive a van delivering bearings, sprockets, motors and more to coal mines and manufacturers around southern West Virginia. There was no tape-deck and certainly no CD player in the van, so I bought a crummy tape-player at Magic Mart and got audiobooks on tape from the library to play while I drove the hills and hollows of Appalachia.

I still drive a lot and now I have the Audible App, the Overdrive App, and I listen to books through the bluetooth in my car. I still love them and I agree with Orson Scott Card when he says that in many ways audiobooks are the most definitive versions of our books. I was delighted when my first novel, The Green Ember, was turned into an excellent audiobook thanks to the fantastic talents of Joel Clarkson. I was further amazed and grateful when the book was a finalist for Audible’s Kids Book of the Year last year. But today I’m really blown away.

The audiobook for The Green Ember has frequently been up to 8th place in the Kids bestsellers list, right behind all seven Harry Potter books (only recently added to Audible, so super fresh and always chart-topping in sales). But today, thanks to a big boost from being featured as the Daily Deal at $1.95, The Green Ember is the best-selling Kids Audiobook on Audible. Yes, it passed all seven Harry Potter books. But wait, there’s more…

The Green Ember is right now the best-selling audiobook of any kind on Audible, or Amazon. In any category.

My kids, also audiophiles like me, have been going bananas. I love it. Honestly, there’s so much hard work involved and a seemingly endless list of urgent things to be done, that it’s hard to take time to enjoy any little victories along the way. It’s a regular struggle to find joy in this work, even though I honestly love it so much. It takes major sacrifices from every member of our family, not to mention others (like Joel, illustrator Zach Franzen, and publisher Andrew Mackay). So I didn’t prudishly squash the joy welling up in our home today. Even with nightmares in the news, sadness in our community, and troubles seemingly everywhere we look, I welcomed the joy. I even felt a nice big bunch of it myself, which is a direct answer to prayer for me.

I am grateful to God, not just for this moment of success, but for giving us this gift of joy. And I’m grateful to you, among the many friends and allies who have given us a chance and welcomed these stories into your home.

I can’t wait for you to read and/or HEAR Ember Falls: The Green Ember Book II. Joel is working on it right now and it should be available soon.

In the coming days and weeks, The Green Ember will drop down again in the ranking to something more fitting. That’s okay. I’m just so grateful that so many people are finding the story, loving it, and sharing it with other families and children.

More than anything, I love to hear from families and kids who love the stories. And my kids, for whom the stories were, and always will be, written, still love them. And they love sharing in the story of the story.

“We’re ahead of Harry Potter!” my daughter said to her friends in a text message teeming with excessive exclamation points and exultant emojis.

How often to you get to say that?

“So, Daddy,” my son asked me a few minutes ago. “Does this mean that The Green Ember is the best-selling audiobook in the world right now?” I had to think for a second, then I told him that it most likely is.

He grinned.

 

Many of you probably know me as “that guy from West Virginia,” or “that West Virginia author.” I’m good with that. I love this state so much. As most of you know, we were hit hard by flooding.


 


(If you aren’t aware, here’s a story about it.)     


 


Prayer is needed. This beautiful state is already up against so much.


 


If you are interested in helping on top of offering prayers, here is another way you can, even if you’re far away.


 


The Greenbrier Valley Flood Recovery and Relief team has an Amazon wish list of supplies needed right now.


 


You can engage your kids and pick items your family wants to send to help. My kids were eager to share their own money and be involved in helping.


Bible Center Church and Union Mission are doing great work (many friends there in Charleston), and is another great option to consider. There are lots of people helping. A lot of my readers are from outside the state, so the wish list is a good option for them. If you know of a good resource helping, let me know!

There are possibly better ways, sure, but this is something. Thank you for considering it.

This is my niece. She brought me $3 and said, “Uncle Sam, I want to back Ember Falls!”

A wonderful end to a deeply encouraging 26 days. Speaking of the end…

Hooray, hurrah!

Thanks to 1,096 backers who pledged $55,508 to help bring this project to life, we’re over the finish line in a victory!

This was so special. It’s hard to adequately express how thankful we are for your generosity and help. Thanks to everyone who backed this project at whatever level. We are delighted and grateful.

So many of you jumped in and helped in various ways above and beyond backing the project. You were part of the team that helped get the word out and encouraged others to join in and share this adventure. There were EF Launch Groupers, Potato Peelers, Read-Aloud Revivalers, Story Warrenites, and many other gangs of allies who made an incredible coalition that never failed to deliver encouragement and support to our little project.

I would love to name every name and list every blessing, but I can’t here. But you know who you are. You were on our side, and I will remember it.

For our team, we’ll take a moment to enjoy this tremendous gift tonight. Then we’ll get right back to work.

We have a book to deliver.

–Sam

Clarkson at C. S. Lewis’s home, the Kilns.

I’m so happy to share this news! My friend Joel Clarkson will return to narrate Ember Falls, available to order for only 3 more days on Kickstarter! (Ends June 11.) Here’s the release from Story Warren Books. –Sam

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Story Warren Books today announced that Joel Clarkson will narrate Ember Falls, the highly-anticipated sequel to Best-Selling and Audible’s Children’s Audiobook of the Year Finalist, The Green Ember.

The Green Ember has sold tens of thousands of copies and been a top-seller at Audible and beyond. Ember Falls, including the new audiobook, is available for order on Kickstarter until June 11, and is scheduled for worldwide release later in 2016.

This news has delighted series author, S. D. Smith. “Joel Clarkson’s performance in The Green Ember was excellent. His careful attention to each character’s voice and his serious way of approaching the story resulted in a top-quality narration that is a gift to listeners. I’m grateful for that because most of the listeners are kids (including my own kids), and Joel’s performance is respectful, warm, and engaging. Along with thousands of others, I can’t wait to hear his narration of Ember Falls.”

On top of narrating the beloved middle-grade adventure, Joel Clarkson also composed and performed new original music for the beginning and end of the audiobook. A composer, arranger, and conductor, Clarkson has done orchestrations for films and released several albums of solo music as well as contributing one half of the Two Benedictions, a musical collaboration with Joy Clarkson, his sister.

Joel Clarkson is happy to return to the world of Natalia, where The Green Ember Series is set. “After being immersed in S. D. Smith’s delightful and compelling fantasy, The Green Ember, I am thrilled to be able to bring these wonderful characters to life in audiobook form again. The world Smith has created is chock full of key elements that make up a great tale—striking, multifaceted landscapes in an alluring world, a gripping narrative full of heroism and excitement, and of course, brave, adventurous rabbits! S. D. Smith has a distinct gift for old-fashioned storytelling of the finest sort.”

Order your copy now!

Yahoo! We reached 900 backers for our Ember Falls Kickstarter! That is really wonderful. More readers and more opportunity to spread the stories further. Thank you! That means EVERYONE who backed (and will back) the project over the next 5 days will receive an audiobook download card for the best-selling, fan-favorite adventure, The Green Ember! (You can keep, or share it, as you like.) This audiobook is performed brilliantly by Joel Clarkson, and was a finalist Audible’s Kids Book of the Year! And you’ll all receive 2 brand new propaganda-style stickers of Heather and Picket. Pretty sweet.

Let’s do it again!

This time, if we reach 100 more backers—1,000!—we’ll throw a download card for The Black Star of Kingston audiobook, read fantastically by stage actor Eric Fritzius, into EVERY BACKER’S shipment. (To share, or keep.) I love this audiobook and I want more people to hear it! Along with that, we’ll add in a fun sticker set of the characters from Black Star, created from Zach Franzen’s amazing illustrations. 8 stickers in all!

So, keep spreading the word, friends. Only 5 days to go! Please tag Sam on his Author Page, or on Twitter. Thank you!

–Sam and Andrew