Sebastien de Castell's Blog, page 5

I used to run a few times a week – not crazy running, just, you know, normal guy huffing and puffing along. The most I’ve ever run was about 20k at a stretch, and that only once every couple of years just to build up to it. A normal run for me is between 8 and 12km. The great thing about running is that my mind gets so completely bored and my body so desperate for relief that I end up coming up with story ideas. Almost all of Traitor’s Blade was written in my head long before I put pen to paper, all while jogging around the park, laughing at my own jokes and crying at the sad scenes as I thought them up. Sure, people looked at me funny, but so what? I got a book out of it.

Back at home base for the summer months until my next European book tour in September. Usually Vancouver is remarkably lovely in June, but this time around it’s been a bit rainy.

Some interesting facts about Vancouver:

Vancouver is the third largest film production centre in North America after Los Angeles and New York. Okay, so you probably knew that already.
But I’ll bet you didn’t know that our Stanley Park is a massive 1001 acre urban oasis 10% larger than New York’s Central Park. Suck it, New York.
Vancouver has the mildest climate in Canada. Although, it receives on average, 1,589mm of rain per year. It’s also probably the place where people complain about the climate the most.

Oh, and it’s highly likely we’re infested by vampires. And elves. Vampire elves?

Soulbinder is the fourth book in the Spellslinger series.

Story Journals are where I talk about the writing of the books I’m working on. I update these with the latest content at the top, so start from the bottom if this is new to you.

August 15th, 2018 – Soulbinder is Done!

Kellen’s fourth adventure is complete! This was one heck of a hard book to write. Trying to balance light and darkness in a novel has never been quite this challenging. Kellen’s not the same innocent teen he was in the first books, but I needed him to discover that even when he thinks he’s ready to abandon his principles, that annoying Argosi training (and the influence of a certain squirrel cat), keep haunting him and pushing him to find the right path.

August 10th, 2018 – The Proof

The proofing stage is only supposed to be about minor tweaks to formatting, fixing the occasional spelling error, and maybe – maybe – changing a line or two. Guess I should’ve warned the poor proofreader that I was going to yet again change entire chapters . . . One day I’m going to get in real trouble for this.

July 24, 2018 – The Copyedit

The copyedit is only supposed to be about fixing sentences and maybe the occasional paragraph. So I guess I should have warned my excellent copyeditor that I’d be adding entire chapters . . .

July 15, 2018 – Rewriting Act 4

The last act of a book for me is all about connecting the climactic events of the plot to both the emotional journey of the main character and the underlying themes of the novel – making them come out in surprising ways. One of my favourite moments here is with Butelios, a character who was never supposed to be all that important but who kept coming back and finding his way onto the page. I think it’s because I once met someone just like him on the train to Luxembourg; an unexpected friend at just the right time.

June 13, 2018 – Rewriting Act 3

Kellen’s about to discover that even after losing that which is most precious to you, there’s always another shoe left to drop…

June 3, 2018 – Rewriting Act 2

Two years on the road with a snarky Argosi gambler and a homicidal squirrel cat has seriously challenged Kellen’s ability to get along with others…

There are so many unusual-yet-cool events in an author’s life. I remember the first time I saw cover art for Traitor’s Blade, the first time I got notes back from the inimitable Jo Fletcher (picture a word document covered in red ink), the first piece of physical fan mail…there are a ton of these moments and they’re all wonderful.

One I never really expected was to see actual merchandise based on my books. That changed with I was approached by the very nice folks at USBMemoryDirect who said they were interested in creating some new designs based on novels and asked if I was interested.

So we talked back and forth a bit, experimented with designs, and finally settled on the ones you see above. Since the Spellslinger series deals with strange and esoteric playing cards, it was only natural that the USB keys should follow suit (hah – see how I worked the word ‘suit’ in there? Who says I’m not a real writer…)

We wanted to keep these as something special, so they aren’t for sale. My lovely publishers at Hot Key Books have some for contests and special events, and I have a few as prizes for when people are kind enough to come to my readings.

It’s such a strange thing to see your book cover on a USB key, and such unexpected fun. So, thanks to Taylor Chastain at USBMemoryDirect for bringing a little more spellslinging magic into the world.

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Almost since the day Traitor’s Blade came out in 2014 I’ve been periodically bombarded by requests for the series to come out in audiobook. Now, at last, they’re on the way. The very talented Joe Jameson (who also voices the Spellslinger series), has recorded ALL FOUR books!

The entire quartet will be released in the UK and worldwide on Audible in the third week of November. For those of you in the United States and Canada, the the first book comes out in December and then the others will follow. Yes, I know this means North America ends up waiting again. It’s a curse, but we’ll all pull through.

I really, really hope you all enjoy the Greatcoats in audiobook!

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I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately from folks in the United States and Canada who are understandably a bit upset because they’ve been unable to buy Spellslinger. Worse, some were able to pre-order Spellslinger and the sequel Shadowblack on Amazon only to have those pre-orders suddenly cancelled. Here’s what’s happened, and here are some ways you can get hold of the books:

Different Countries, Different Editions

The rights to publish a book are based on individual territories. Often there are as many different editions of a book as there are countries publishing it. Want to see how weird that looks? Take a look at just a few of the covers for my first book, Traitor’s Blade:

U.K. Cover

U.S. Cover

Canadian Cover

Large Print Cover

 

(and these are just the ones in English!)

So every territory has its own edition. The way this worked in the old days was that the author’s agent sold the rights to different publishers around the world, making deals for each one. The way it tends to work today is that one publisher buys what are called “World Rights”. As the name suggests, these are the rights to sub-license the books everywhere on earth (and, believe it or not, anywhere in the universe, if you read the contract language.)

Spellslinger World Rights

As of me writing this post, the rights to Spellslinger have been sold to countries all over the world – in a dozen languages. As an author, this is fantastic, because it means people from all over get to read your work. Recently, for example, the first book was published in The Netherlands under the title “Vogelvrij” (which literally translates to “free bird” but is, regrettably, a term referring to an outlaw and not an homage to the classic lynyrd skynyrd song.)

Dutch Cover

Turkish Cover

Alas, while I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have Spellslinger sell in so many different countries and languages, a U.S. and Canadian partner hasn’t yet been selected for the series. I’m sure this will happen soon, but until it does, the Spellslinger series isn’t available in North America.

But Wait . . . What About Ebooks?

Ebooks, just like print books, have publishers for each territory. Sometimes those publishers are divisions of the same company, but just as often they’re different companies entirely. That ebook you bought on Amazon.com in the U.S.? It’s different from the ebook you might buy on Amazon.ca in Canada. In fact, often the text itself is different. In the U.S. versions of my Greatcoats books, words like “colour” and “flavour” are written as “color” and “flavor” because that’s how folks spell those words there. In fact, some books have even bigger changes (just take a look at the different words in the first Harry Potter book between the U.K. and U.S. versions)

There was a temporary glitch in which Spellslinger and Shadowblack were available on Amazon in the U.S. and Canada, but that was a mistake. As of right now, there’s no American or Canadian publisher with the rights to sell ebooks or print books of Spellslinger, which is why the books aren’t available digitally.

This sucks, I blame you, and I still want to get a copy of the book.

True, okay, and here’s how you can do it:

1. You can buy the audiobook

If you’re into audiobooks, the version of Spellslinger narrated by Joe Jameson is absolutely terrific. Joe’s an amazing narrator and brings the story to life in a way that I adore and hope you will too. The audiobook is available on CD in North America as well as on Audible. You can buy the Audible version here and you can pre-order Shadowblack which comes out on October 5th, 2017.

2. You can get the print version delivered to you

Watch out for some of the print versions you see on Amazon. They come from third-party sellers and are often overpriced and there can be heavy shipping costs. My own favourite way to buy books not yet available in North America is to see if Goldsboro Books in London has one of their terrific signed and numbered special editions. The ones for Spellslinger sold out within a few days but they’ll have signed and numbered hardbacks of Shadowblack coming out soon.

Another excellent source is Book Depository. They have free shipping and the process is very easy and smooth. I often find the prices cheaper than Amazon, and they’ve got copies of everything I’ve ever written.

3. See if your local library can get in a print copy

Libraries in Canada (and I think it’s the same in the U.S.A.) are allowed to buy foreign editions of books when they’re not available here. Some readers feel as if this isn’t fair to the author, but trust me, it makes us very happy to know our books are available in libraries for everyone to read.

4. But I still want an ebook, damn it!

Alas, I can’t help you on this one. The books will come to North America soon, I’m sure. Until then, it’s back to good old-fashioned print or developing the fine art of patience. If it makes you feel any better (and it probably won’t), it took me over twenty years to get a copy of Bard V: Felimid’s Homecoming by Australian author Keith Taylor. Twenty. Frickin’. Years.

Last But Not Least . . .

It means a lot to me that people have been so keen to get hold of Spellslinger. I promise I work incredibly hard to make each book in the series the best possible story it can be. Knowing that there are readers out there waiting for the books makes that work all the more satisfying.

Thanks!

The post How to buy Spellslinger & Shadowblack in North America appeared first on Sebastien de Castell.

One of the worlds greatest bookstores, Goldsboro Books, is once again hosting Fantasy In The Court on August 3rd at 6pm. I’ll be in attendance along with tons of amazing authors such as John Gwynne, Lucy Hounsom, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Zen Cho, Mark de Jager, Liz de Jager, Anna Smith Spark, Sue Tingey, and C.F. Iggulden. Come by to say hello!

I’ll also be popping in at Nine Worlds for a panel discussion on Wrestling, Fight Craft and the Art of Storytelling with some people who appear to be actual wrestlers, which kind of makes me think my only value will be to provide a victim for their shenanigans.

The post Fantasy In The Court & Nine Worlds Aug. 3-5 appeared first on Sebastien de Castell.

I’ll be at Worldcon 75 in beautiful (so they tell me!) Helsinki, Finland. Here’s where you can find me:

Aug 10 – Motivation Methods

Sometimes you need that extra push to keep writing/drawing/editing! What methods are being used?  Pomodoro, Word Count, Public Reporting, etc?

Aug 11 – Are Boys Left Behind in YA

Many YA novels have strong female protagonists. Does this mean boys are forgotten completely? What do boys read these days?

Aug 13 – Writing Fight Scenes That Work

Getting fights scenes right can be difficult. From figuring out each character’s fighting style to choreographing the fight itself in your head there are many details to track. Our participants demonstrate the best way to make effective fight scenes.

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I’m incredibly honoured to have been invited to speak at the Edinburg International Book Festival where I’ll be speaking with Jonathan Stroud as about our various Twists and Tricks, Doing a session on Spellslinger and participating in the Amnesty International Imprisoned Writers Series.

Hope to see you all in beautiful Edinburgh!

The post Edinburgh Book Festival August 20-21 appeared first on Sebastien de Castell.

Will be in beautiful Birmingham, England as part of the launch of Spellslinger on May 5th.

I’m delighted to be visiting this lovely bookstore, meeting readers, signing books, and generally telling tales both real and imagined. Come by to say hello.

Find out more here

Get your Free Tickets!

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