Friday, February 29, 2008

The Mob at the Sony Ebook Store

 

 

FellowEarthlings

I remember signing the contracts a while back and my short story, The Mob has appeared on the Sony Ebook site. The Mob is your basic meerkat mafia story . . .

Check out here to read an excerpt or purchase it for only 99 cents. It's a deal.

 

Happy Reading,

 

Paul Genesse

 

Author of the Golden Cord

Book One of the Iron Dragon Series

Five Star Books (April 2008)

Dead To Me

 

DeadToMe

 

I just started reading a cool book by Anton Strout. Dead To Me is a novel about a paranormal investigator with the power of psychometry: being able to touch an object and divine information about its history. Sounds great, but  for the main character, Simon Canderous, it's not that cool. Touching your girlfriend's belongings by accident can show you things you really didn't want to see.

 

Check out Dead To Me on Amazon.com where it's on sale for only $7.99.  If you're looking for something else, pre-order The Golden Cord save 5% on checkout.

 

Happy reading!

 

Paul Genesse

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Gen Con Writer's Symposium

 

Hello,

Here's the promo flyer for the Gen Con Writers Symposium. I can't wait.

Paul

image002

Friday, February 22, 2008

My Book Tour

 

GoldenCordCover

 

Well, here's the rough draft of my planned book tour. I've still got to set up a lot of signings and school visits, but it's all coming together. If I'm coming to your area please let me know and I'll make sure to get in touch.

 

Book Tour Plan (rough draft)

February 14-16: Life, The Universe and Everything--Provo, UT www.ltue.org

March 6 UELMA—Ogden, UT —Library and Educator Conference http://www.uelma.org/

April 4-6 I-Con in New York (they're flying me out and everything) http://www.iconsf.org/

April: Visit Idaho and do some school visits?

April 26 Fantasy Festival, University of Utah, Salt Lake City http://www.intothewest.org/

May 1, Library Assoc. Conference, Salt Lake City, UT http://www.ula.org/conference/2008conf/

May 2 School visits in Salt Lake? To be determined.

May 10 Book Release Party at the House of Genesse, South Jordan, UT. You're all invited!!! Please save the date.

May 11 Drive to Reno, 530 miles, 7.5 hours—dinner with family

May 12 School visits and signing in Reno, at the Barnes & Noble (4-6PM) on Virginia Street—dinner with family (B&N address 5555 S Virginia St, Reno, NV 89502)

May 13 School visit?, then drive to Antioch, CA. 200 miles, 3.5 hours: school or library visit and signing? Stay in Antioch

May 14: San Francisco, signing, school visit?

May 15: Sacramento area, school visits, signing?

May 16: Sacramento area, school visits and signing at the Borders Express in Citrus Heights

May 17 Antioch, signing and a family party?

May 18 Drive to Riverside—436 miles, 7 hours. Stop somewhere along the way?

May 19 Riverside—signing. Go to Orange County. Signings, school visits

May 20 Drive to Phoenix: 325 miles, 5 hours, school visit?

May 21 Phoenix, school visits and signing.

May 22 Drive to Vegas. 6 hours. Signing?

May 23 School Visits early and then signing in Vegas, Drive to Salt Lake, 410 miles, 6 hours

May 23 ConDuit starts in Utah--I'll miss the first day

May 24:ConDuit—arrive at ConDuit http://conduit.sfcon.org/

May 25: ConDuit

May 26 off

May 27: School visits in Salt Lake City area

May 28 School visits in Salt Lake City area

May 29 School visits in Salt Lake City area, then a signing

May 30 off

June 1 back to work

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Pedestal Magazine Review

 

Pedestal Magazine

 

I just read a review of The Golden Cord in Pedestal Magazine. Wow, I'm still in shock after reading it.

Please check out the review at http://www.thepedestalmagazine.com/Secure/Content/cb.asp?cbid=5315

Also, the number one reviewer from Amazon.com, Harriet Klausner also posted a review on Barnes and Noble.com. Amazon doesn't allow reviews yet, but she'll post there eventually. Here's the link to the reviews on B&N.com. The other one is also quite good.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9781594146596&itm=1

I'll tell you what, it's strange to be reading reviews of my book. It's exciting, and a little surreal.

Things are going good though. I'm planning my book tour and set up a couple of book signings today, one at a Barnes & Noble in Reno, then one in the Sacramento area. I'm doing a West coast book tour in May, hitting the cities where I have lots of friends and family. I'm going to be speaking at a bunch of schools as well. I can't wait.

It's going to be so fun to see everyone. I'll reveal the dates of the tour in another post. Stay tuned.

Paul Genesse

Author of The Golden Cord

Book One of the Iron Dragon Series

Five Star Books (April 2008)

Saturday, February 16, 2008

World Building--Geography and Maps

 

World Building: Geography & Maps

By Paul Genesse

www.paulgenesse.com

 

The world you create is an important character in your fiction.

Develop the personality of the place where your story is set.

 

●Write a biography on your setting from the land’s point of view. Here’s a sample from a bio I wrote for my fantasy novel, Medusa’s Daughter.

“I am Kastaros, the island of the cursed. Once I was the home of a great people, but they have gone now, killed or scared away when the fire and vapors within me boiled forth. Only those cursed by the gods live upon me now.

The sea tries to cool my shoulders, but it will never tame me. Storms and rain may come and slowly erode my slopes, but I will rise again if need be. Perhaps someday I will tire of this existence in the windswept sea and explode until there is nothing left of me. I will spread out across the world, hide the sun and choke the world with my ash.”

 

● Keep in mind the most important geographic and other features that influence the people who live where you story is set. Please read Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond to learn more. Decide if the land has:

Stable agriculture?

Navigable rivers?

Mountains, deserts, or bodies of water that close it off from other areas?

Plants that are easily domesticated?

Animals that are easily domesticated?

A mild or harsh climate?

Deadly diseases that are endemic to the area?

A population that has been there a long or short period of time?

Natural resources that benefit the local population?

 

●Resources to help you draw maps of your world.

Fractal Mapper www.nbos.com

Campaign Cartographer by ProFantasy Software Ltd. www.Profantasy.com

Autorealm www.autorealm.sourceforge.net/index.php (free)

Or hand draw it, scan it, put it in Power Point and type on it, or use a drawing program.

Great places to study maps:

National Geographic Atlas of the World and www.nationalgeographic.com

Google Earth at earth.google.com or Google Mars at google.com/mars/

Study maps in novels and games at the bookstore or library

Life, The Universe, and Everything Recap

 

What a great convention! I loved LTUE! (www.ltue.org) It was my first time attending and I can say for sure that I'll be there next year. It was very academic and filled with readers and writers of the highest quality. Having it at BYU was excellent. The organizers did a wonderful job and it came together well. I enjoyed my panels very much. I was the moderator of the World Building panel today and we had a really fun time. It was hard to cover things in an hour, but it worked out. (I'm posting a panel hand out pretty soon--for those of you who are interested. Maybe later tonight.)

 

Anyway, I met lots of new friends and got to hang out with three of my writer buddies: Rebecca Shelley, JoSelle Vanderhooft, and Patrick Tracy. We had lots of fun hanging out. They are so great, mostly because they put up with me.

I had such a fun time and at the very end I ran into Orson Scott Card. We had a great chat and he wanted to read my work, so I gave him a copy of Fellowship Fantastic. It was surreal signing the book to him. Wow. I hope he likes it. Maybe I can write a story for his magazine? Anyway, things are good.

The big news is that JoSelle was nominated for a Stoker award for her poetry collection, Ossuary. She's an amazing writer and poet. I'm so proud of her. The awards will be handed out at the World Horror Convention here in Salt Lake City in March. It would be so cool if she wins I am so going to be there pulling for her. Visit her online at http://josellevanderhooft.com/ and get a copy of Ossuary. It's dark and scary and you won't soon forget the poems.

 

Best wishes,

 

Paul Genesse

 

www.paulgenesse.com

 

Author of The Golden Cord

Book One of the Iron Dragon Series

Friday, February 15, 2008

Book 13 of the Wheel of Time Series

 

Hello,

 

I had a great day at Life, The Universe, and Everything today (www.ltue.org). There were hundreds of people at the panels and I really enjoyed meeting people. There were some really good panelists as well. Orson Scott Card gave a great main address. He's a skilled writer and an orator of renown. I also loved talking with Brandon Sanderson, who told me the inside scoop on how he got the call to write book 13 in the Wheel of Time series. As you may know, Robert Jordan passed away and left the last book unfinished.

The story is this: Jordan's widow asked Brandon Sanderson to complete the book, which was partially finished. Brandon said the beginning and end are already done--by Jordan, and some of the parts in the middle are done, plus there are quite a few notes. Now, Brandon has to fill in all the rest of the details and cap it off. Brandon is rereading the series now, and starting the work. I think his deadline might be December 2008? I can't remember what he said. Anyway, Brandon has some time.

More of the story, Tom Dougherty at Tor books put Brandon on the short list of writers who could complete the book and Jordan's widow picked him. Brandon got a call from Tom to ask if he was interested, then a month later got the call to say they had chosen him. It's so cool that Brandon is going to be the man. He's a great writer. Elantris is really good and I'm loving Mistborn as well.

As for me, I have a couple of signings tomorrow and one panel, on world building. I sold some books today and met lots of cool people. I was also on a fun panel, about putting romance in your fiction. We talked a lot about Han and Leia, then I got to perform one of the greatest romantic lines in science-fiction history: I came back in time for you, Sarah.

What movie was that?

Remember, that was in the first Terminator. Kyle Reese tells Sarah that before they make love. It was amazing and got you right in the heart. The case can be made that Terminator was a love story disguised as a sci-fi movie. Anyway, I just love a subtle love story in my fiction and movies.

 

Well, I'm off to bed and will head back to LTUE in the morning.

 

Best wishes,

 

Paul Genesse

 

www.paulgenesse.com

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Life, The Universe, and Everything

 

I'm off to a writing conference on Friday and Saturday. It's called, Life, The Universe and Everything. It's being hosted by the humanities department at BYU in Provo, Utah. It's free and it's going to be very fun. I'm on a few panels and will be doing a signing on Saturday at 1:00.

 

Here's the link to the conference, http://www.ltue.org/LTUE_home.html. It's totally free and please swing by for the fun if you're in the area. I'm going to be handing out promo posters with the cover of The Golden Cord if you'd like one.

 

Best wishes,

 

Paul

 

P.S. I was supposed to be there on Thursday, but a snowstorm practically closed the freeways. The weather is better now and I'm off to the conference with my friends, Patrick Tracy and JoSelle Vanderhooft. Life is good.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

First Review of The Golden Cord

 

tgcposter

 

 

I got my first review of The Golden Cord. It's on Barnes and Noble.com. Check it out.

 

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9781594146596&tabname=custreview&itm=1

 

Paul Genesse, Author

 

www.paulgenesse.com

 

Author of The Golden Cord

Book One of the Iron Dragon Series

Five Star Books (April 2008)

Testing my new toy

 

Well, here I am trying to post on Blogger and LiveJournal at the same time.

 

I hope it works.

 

Paul Genesse

 

www.paulgenesse.com

I sent it in

 

Hello,

 

I sent in my story, Revenge of the Little Match Girl. The editor liked it and life is good.

 

Also, I'm experimenting with Windows Live Writer, software that allows you to publish to several blogs at once. Here's my first attempt.

 

Paul

 

www.paulgenesse.com

 

Author of The Golden Cord

Book One of the Iron Dragon Series

Five Star Books (April 2008)