Author Archives: Peter Darbyshire
The Black Quill Giveaway
You may have heard the legends of the Black Quill. That it can turn its wielder into the mightiest writer of all ages. That it is a weapon far more dangerous than any sword or spell. That it uses souls for ink. There is only one way to find out. Win the Black Quill for yourself!
Whenever you mention my new book, The Dead Hamlets, on social media, you’ll be entered into a contest to win the Black Quill and a free copy of the book. Any mention is fine — tweet a link to the book, share a review on Facebook, post this giveaway to your circles on G+, recommend it on reddit, whatever you like. Just make sure you tag me or otherwise let me know you’ve shared news about the book so I can add you to the contest. You get a separate entry for each mention, so share away.
Of course, if you don’t win the giveaway, you can still find out the secrets of the Black Quill. You just have to read The Dead Hamlets!
The contest runs until the end of February. Any mentions dating back to Feb. 1 will be automatically included in the giveaway. I’ll announce the winner here and on social media.
Good luck and thanks for reading!
Let’s launch this thing in style
I’m going to hold a couple of local launches for my latest novel, The Dead Hamlets. The first launch will be at the Water Shed Arts Café in Langley on Friday, Feb. 27, at 8 p.m. The Water Shed is a friendly, intimate place that’s home to a lot of the arts crowd in Langley — I like to go there those rare times I can escape the house. If you’re in Langley, come on out.
Langley launch
The Water Shed Arts Cafe
11-20349 88 Ave. (get map)
Langley, BC
Friday, Feb. 27, 8 p.m.
Facebook event
The second launch will be in Vancouver, when I read at the Storm Crow Tavern Thursday, April 16, at 7 p.m. I’m reading at the Storm Crow as part of the Storm Crow Tavern Reading Series – Season Two. It’s sure to be a lot of fun as long as we don’t wake the Elder Ones. If you’re in Vancouver, come on out.
Vancouver launch
Storm Crow Tavern
1305 Commercial Drive
Vancouver, BC
Thursday, April 16, 7 p.m.
Facebook event
I’ll have copies of The Dead Hamlets for sale at both events. In addition, I’ll have a special treat for those who make the effort to make it to either event. It’ll probably be a previously unpublished story, but I haven’t made a final decision yet. I’ve been known to give out lottery tickets at readings before, so you never know. Come on out and you could change your life!
I’ve created a Facebook group for the Langley launch. The Storm Crow Facebook event is here, although it’s the event for the entire reading series. The info for my event will be added closer to the date.
I likely won’t be doing any other launches for The Dead Hamlets. A four-year-old with asthma and a four-month-old with a heart condition that needs monitoring are keeping me close to home this year. If I manage to make it out to any other cities, though, I’ll post about it here.
Looking forward to seeing you!
The Dead Hamlets has a trailer
The Dead Hamlets is alive! It’s crawled from the open grave of my office, where dreams go to die, and is now lurching into our world. See it lurking on bookstore shelves near you! Read about its exploits in the reviews! Watch it terrorize the innocent on YouTube!
That’s right, YouTube. The Dead Hamlets has one of those eerie videos, with words and ghostly covers and more words. Watch it here and then share it if you want to avoid the curse!
(Curse not available in your viewing area.)
A tiny reminder
I just sent out my latest author update via the TinyLetter service. If you’re interested in getting updates by email as well as reading this blog, or maybe even instead of reading this blog — insert crushed author emoticon here — then feel free to sign up.
I only send out updates whenever I have a new project to announce, so don’t worry about getting spammed — think of it as an alert service. You can check out the archive of letters here if you’re nervous and not sure you want to commit.
Go have a look. I’ll be here waiting. I should be writing the new book, but I’m waiting for you. No pressure.
Whistles tunelessly.
Let me tell you about the Underdark
Is geeksplaining a thing? Because I made a thread about it over at reddit.
It’s not too late to sacrifice!
My new Cross novel, The Dead Hamlets, is making its way into the world. The official date when it’s available for purchase is Feb. 17, but some of the people who pre-ordered it have already received their copies. It’s not too late to read the first book in the series, The Mona Lisa Sacrifice. Here’s a little trailer I made to help convince you.
Everyone is dead!
I went to grab a link for The Dead Hamlets the other day and this made me smile. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is one of my favourite plays. Glad to be in that company, even if we were introduced by an algorithm.
Get all of ChiZine’s 2015 books for just $99
I got a message today that people who take advantage of ChiZine’s subscription service are receiving their copies of The Dead Hamlets early. It’s worth checking out if you love ChiZine books — and who doesn’t love ChiZine books? For just $99 you can get ebooks of all 36 titles they’re releasing this year. That’s less than $3 per book! You can’t get a coffee that cheap, unless it’s gas station coffee, which we all know isn’t really coffee anyway. But hurry — the price goes up to $139 in March. Nearly $4 for a book? Outrageous!
Check out the books included in the subscription:
- Imaginarium 3: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing edited by Sandra Kasturi and Helen Marshall [anthology]
- The Yellow Wood by Melanie Tem (novel)
- Angels & Exiles by Yves Meynard (novel)
- The Dead Hamlets by Peter Roman (novel)
- A Telling of Stars by Caitlin Sweet (eBook only; novel)
- The Silences of Home by Caitlin Sweet (eBook only; novel)
- Probably Monsters by Ray Cluley (collection)
- Point Hollow by Rio Youers (novel)
- Quaternity by Kenneth Mark Hoover (novel)
- Against a Darkening Sky by Lauren B. Davis (novel)
- The Acolyte by Nick Cutter (novel)
- The House of War and Witness by Mike Carey, Linda Carey, and Louise Carey (novel)
- The H.M.S. Bad Idea by Peter Chiykowski (ChiGraphic; graphic humour collection)
- Infinitum by GMB Chomichuk (ChiGraphic; graphic novel)
- Dead Girls Don’t by Mags Storey (ChiTeen; novel)
- The Good Brother by E.L. Chen (ChiTeen; novel)
- What We Salvage by David Baillie (novel)
- Lament for the Afterlife by Lisa L. Hannett (novel)
- Imaginarium 4: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing edited by Sandra Kasturi and Jerome Stueart (anthology)
- Almost Dark by Letitia Trent (novel)
- The Worm in Every Heart by Gemma Files (eBook only; collection)
- Kissing Carrion by Gemma Files (eBook only; collection)
- The Book of David by Robert Boyczuk (novel)
- The Flame in the Maze by Caitlin Sweet (novel)
- Wrapped in Skin by Mark Morris (collection)
- The Humanity of Monsters edited by Michael Matheson (anthology)
- The Lady Paranorma by Vincent Marcone (ChiGraphic; graphic short story)
- Northern Frights: Volumes 1–5 edited by Don Hutchison (eBook only; anthologies)
- Experimental Film by Gemma Files (novel)
- One Nation Under Gods by Jerome Stueart (novel)
- Licence Expired: The Unauthorized James Bond edited by Madeline Ashby and David Nickle (ChiDunnit; anthology)
- Derby Cavendish Stories by Don Bassingthwaite (eBook only; collection)
I hate you! Wait, why are you getting so upset?
I lost some of my precious writing hours today because I got pulled in by a thread on reddit about when to tell writers you don’t like their work. My first thought was “never,” but then I realized I have taken the odd positive thing out a negative comment. So I wrote the following in response:
I’ll acknowledge that I’ve taken readers’ criticism to heart and changed things about my writing because of it. But so much depends on the nature of that criticism. There’s a huge difference between “This book had a magic sword and magic swords are stupid. ONE STAR!” and “I didn’t really understand how that rib from the dead god became a magic sword, so I had trouble believing any of the scenes with that sword.” The first comment just kind of ruins my day. The second makes me pause and think about what I wrote. (“Ah damn it, I forgot to write the scene with the dragon blacksmith! Better get that in the sequel.”)
Receiving a message like the creator of HE did would be nothing but hurtful. I mean, that’s the direction Watson wants to be taking with his comic. I wouldn’t respond like he did — I’d probably reply with a “sorry to hear that but thanks for writing” or ignore it if I were having a really bad day — but there’s no way that doesn’t hurt. It makes your day when someone tells you they like your work. But it can also wreck your day when someone goes out of their way to tell you they don’t like what you do.
I really appreciate social media for the way it connects me with readers. Those connections really make a difference to me, and they keep me writing some days when I’m down on myself. But it’s a double-edged sword, etc. A writer I know recently had someone tweet a negative review of his book to him several times in a week — “Hey, just in case you didn’t see this yesterday…” Nothing good comes out of that.
If I find something I love, I let the creator know. If I don’t love it, I spend my time finding something else to love.
There’s a lot more I could say on the subject, but I’ll have to leave it at that for the moment. I’ve got a book to finish!
peter darbyshire 