Worldcon 77!

I've spent the last few days roaming Northern Ireland waiting for Worldcon 77 to start. It's been cool. Evidence:

Tollymore Forest Park: an old-timey forest with loads of ruins and stuff. Very cool. Also apparently the filming location for many GoT scenes.

Ballygalley Castle Hotel. An old castle that has been converted into a hotel. Also, it's haunted, and I got to stay in one of the tower rooms RIGHT NEXT TO THE GHOST ROOM OMG. But, alas, I experienced no hauntings.

The North-east tower of Dunluce Castle. (Also, apparently, often the filming location for Winterfell in Got?)

Giant's Causeway. SO awesome. Finn McCool is cool, yo.

The Dark Hedges, aka the King's Road (apparently like all of GoT was filmed in Ireland...).

Had to pick me up one of these. If you don't know its significance, why do we even speak to one another?

Now, I'm headed south to Dublin for Worldcon! Friends, if you'll be there, let's hang out. My official schedule:

THURSDAY

12:00 (Wicklow Hall - 1) - "Writing Robot & Non-Human Intelligences"

19:00 (Liffey Room - 1) - "Building an Intelligent World"

FRIDAY

16:30 (Odeon 5) - "Riverdale and Sabrina: Small Town Gothic"

SUNDAY

13:00 (Wicklow Hall - 1) - "Wands at the Ready! Magical Worldbuilding in SFF"

Unofficially, I'll be hanging out at various parties in the evenings and hanging out with other folks, all when I'm not making progress on Dawnrise.

Yay!

Dark Fantasy

I usually classify my writing as Dark Fantasy, and people often ask me what exactly that term means. If you're one of those curious folk, check out this Uproxx article on "The Difference Between Dark Fantasy and Horror (And Why It Matters)"--it's pretty spot on as far as my own definition of the label is concerned!

Here's a great snippet:

"If horror is about people trying to escape monsters (both human and supernatural), dark fantasy is about people accepting that the monster may be within and deciding how to live in a world filled with wonder and peril despite that revelation."

Gen Con Next Week!

Next week I'll once again make the trek to Indianapolis, IN for Gen Con! Gen Con is one of the premier tabletop gaming conventions out there, but they also happen to have a superb writing track in the shape of their Writer's Symposium. Most of the Writer's Symposium events will take place at the Downtown Marriott, near the Indianapolis Convention Center, and that's where all of my panels will be. (My signings, on the other hand, will be in the massive dealer's room of the Convention Center.)

Check out my schedule, (mostly) complete with provided panel descriptions!

Thu 1 Aug

1:00 PM (Ballroom 3): What Are You Reading?

This one didn't have a description, but I assume it is The Panel in which we talk about what we're reading at the moment, and what we've read recently that is awesome!

4:00 PM (Ballroom 2): Who Said What? Clarifying Dialog

"He said, she said...does dialog always need tags? How can you keep readers from getting confused?"

Fri 2 Aug (Which is turning out to be an incredibly busy day for me)

10:00 AM (Ballroom 4): Scrivener Demystified

"So you've decided to ditch the notebook or Word to give this whole Scrivener program a whirl. Can this program make your process better? Come learn from LaShawn Wanak, A.E. Greenwood, Christopher Husberg, and more."

11:00 AM (Ballroom 1): Capturing the Creepy: Getting the Details Right

"Horror and suspense writers want to captivate their readers without grossing them out, or worse, boring them. Lucy Snyder, Richard Byers, Christopher Husberg, and others discuss how much detail is necessary."

12:00 PM (Ballroom 1): Business Plans for Writers

"Writing is a creative endeavor, but it's also a business. Which means...you need a business plan. Shanna Germain, Matt Forbeck, Christopher Husberg, and Keith Law discuss making one."

1:00 PM (Austin/Boston): Fractal Narrative: Understanding Story Structure

"Are you an outliner? then you need to understand story structure. A discovery writer? You need it, too. Archetypal structure is for everyone, and Christopher Husberg will tell you the basics." (This one's all me! It's also incidentally an adaptation of the presentation I gave in Brandon Sanderson's creative writing class earlier this year :-D.)

2:00 PM (Ballroom 4): Character Relationships in Stories

"Relationships are the backbone of your story. Our panelists Kristin McFarland and Christopher Husberg discuss writing realistic friendships, romantic partners, frenemies, and more."

3:00 PM (Atlanta): Midpoint: How to Get This Pivotal Moment Right

"Midpoint is considered one of the most important moments for character development in a story. Christopher Husberg, Kristen Britain, Bill Fawcett, and Elizabeth Vaughan tell you how to get it right."

5:00 PM (Vendor Hall): Signing

Sat 3 Aug

2:00 PM (Vendor Hall): Signing

Surprise! PARALLEL WORLDS Anthology!

If you thought Fear the Stars was the only Christopher Husberg release this year, think again!

I've also got a short story coming out in the Parallel Worlds: The Heroes Within anthology!

Parallel Worlds is an awesome collection put together by the phenomenal writers L.J. Hachmeister and R.R. Virdi, and as you can see from the cover, it includes stories from a number of exceptional authors, including Jody Lynn Nye, Christopher Rucchio, D.J. Butler, and a new,  never-before-seen Dresden Files story from Jim Butcher.

It's going to be awesome.

I'm excited about my entry into the anthology. It is NOT a Chaos Queen story (or a story related to any of the other projects I've been teasing--this is something completely different and new), but sort of an epistolary post-apocalyptic existential crisis story with monsters. So, if that sounds up your alley, or any of the above authors strike your fancy, pre-order the anthology (it'll be officially available 8 October of this year).

Pre-orders are actually going quite well so far--we're already at #1 for Fantasy and SF Anthologies, and #541 of all books sold on Amazon. So, that's neat. (Also, right now it's only available in ebook format, but we're working on a print version if that's what you'd prefer. Stay tuned for more news on that.)

Anyway, cool news! Order the anthology!

Promotional Thingies for FEAR THE STARS

Now that Fear the Stars is finally upon us, I've been doing some things here and there around the inter webs to promote the book, and figured I'd compile them here for your convenience.

In Which I Talk About Music, and Writing While Listening To It

In Which I Talk About Writing with Rituals, and Not Just the Demon-Summoning Types

In Which I Answer a Smorgasbord of Questions at the r/fantasy Subreddit

In Which I Answer More Questions with Words At the Thoughts Stained With Ink Blog

With perhaps more to come as they occur!

FEAR THE STARS is available NOW!

Fear the Stars, book four in the Chaos Queen Quintet, is available in the US today!

It already came out a couple weeks ago in the UK, so it's now available in most English-speaking areas.

Order it from Amazon, order it or buy it from your local B&N, or get it from a variety of other places (namely Powell's!).

I'm hosting an AMA (Ask Me Anything) over at the r/fantasy subreddit all day today, so if you have any burning questions for me (Who is the Chaos Queen? Why do I like Taylor Swift so much? Whose blood did I drink to become so awesome? etc.!), head on over and ask them! Also upvote the post, if you don't mind, so more people can see it :-D.

And, of course, we've got the release day event tonight at Weller Book Works in Salt Lake City! If you're in the Utah area, come on by! Starting at 6:30 PM we'll do a reading, a Q&A, and a signing. There will probably be official Fear the Stars t-shirts and other swag. It'll be fun time.

I'm very excited for Fear the Stars to reach the public. I love this book, it's my favorite I've written so far, and I can't wait for everyone to read it!

FEAR THE STARS available in the UK!

If you're in the UK, you can pick up Fear the Stars, book 4 in the Chaos Queen Quintet, TODAY! What are you waiting for?!

If you're in the US, you'll unfortunately have to wait until the 18th. But that's still soon! REJOICE!

The UK blurb is even better than the US blurb imo:

IN THE PITILESS VOID, EVEN THE STARS ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM

Many forces converge on the great city of Triah, bent on its destruction. By sea, Empress Cova of Roden sails with her armada, determined to bring the rival nation under her yoke. From land, Winter, the Chaos Queen, brings her tiellan army, set on revenge. And their advance brings a yet more terrible army still: awoken by the Chaos Queen’s powers, daemons mass on the border between worlds, waiting for a way in.

Caught between the encroaching foes, a small group holds the key to saving the Sfaera from destruction: Knot, the former assassin; Cinzia, the exiled priestess; and Astrid, the vampire-child. But the only way to do so is to step into the Void beyond worlds—from which no one can return unchanged.

You can check out Fear the Stars on Amazon UK here.

Or you can pre-order the US version here.