Results tagged “sean williams”

Here are the other book, DVD and movie releases for the week!

HARDCOVER BOOKS

• Mercy Thompson: Homecoming by Patricia Briggs
• Sent by Margaret Peterson Haddix
• The Sword of the Lady by S. M. Stirling

• Bitter Angels by C. L. Anderson
• Bitten by Kelley Armstrong
• Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong
• Living with the Dead by Kelley Armstrong
• Stolen by Kelley Armstrong
• City at the End of Time by Greg Bear
• Ariel by Steven R. Boyett
• Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs
• Patriots by David Drake
• Quofum by Alan Dean Foster
• Matters of the Blood by Maria Lima
• In the Blood by Adrian Phoenix
• Exile—and Glory by Jerry Pournelle
• Stalking the Dragon by Mike Resnick
• The Last Centurion by John Ringo
• Wolfbreed by S. A. Swann
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed by Sean Williams

• Smallville: The Complete Eighth Season

• The Final Destination
• Halloween II

1500 Followers—take that, Branch Davidians.

I mean…hooray for us!

And, more importantly: hooray for you. Because, as promised, @bantamspectra is giving away books.

The rules are pretty simple:

1) Follow us on Twitter
2) Be a U.S. citizen (We’re so sorry—we love all of our foreign followers, but they kind of get antsy here when we have to send stuff international, which for some reason includes Canada. Yes, we realize Canada is a separate country, but, well…come on. It’s right there. Alas, our friends to the north, I can’t bend on this).
3) Send a tweet with “@bantamspectra” saying you want free books (or simply make sure it has “@bantamspectra” and “#15kbk”)
4) Do this (once) until 11:59 PM EST, Sunday, August 23, 2009.
5) Wait for us to put the entries into a random number generator (the order you respond is your number), and then pick the winners.
6) Win free books!
7) We will announce the winners by Wednesday, August 26, 2009 (but probably sooner), and ask that they DM us with their address.
8) Receive free books!

And which books, exactly, can you win? Let me tell you:

In the almost thirteen years I’ve been working in the publishing industry, that time spent frequenting publishers and bookstores and websites and writers’ lives, I’ve learned a great deal about the business of publishing—from editor in chiefs to readers.

The saddest truth I’ve discovered in all of that time from readers is this:

• There are a lot of people in the world who consider themselves writers.
• Few of those people actually finish a novel.

You would think with so many sitting down with a pad and pencil or before a keyboard that there would be more people completing what they have started. It isn’t the case though, at least from what I have seen. Every day I receive emails from fans of established authors broaching the subject. Those email discussions go something like this:

• “How do I get published?” the curious emailer asks.
• “Have you finished your book?” I write back, already knowing the answer.
• “No, I haven’t,” the curious emailer responds. “But I just want to know how to get published.”
• “When you finish your book,” I reply with, I have to admit, a snarky grin on my face, “I will help place you on the path to getting published.”

99.9% of the answers are similar to that very simple exchange. And despite my very sincere offer of helping those people get their work in front of agents and editors, only twice has someone written me back after completing their book. Twice! Out of thousands of emails I’ve received and responded to.

The sad part of that equation is that many people don’t know what it feels like to finish a novel.

And oddly, from what you will read, maybe they are the lucky ones!

Yesterday I finished the first draft of The Dark Thorn, a book I am calling an “urban quest fantasy,” as it has elements of urban fantasy and high fantasy thrown together in a hybrid incorporating Celtic mythology, the history of the British Isles, the history of the Vatican and Arthurian legend. Having finished one book before, I am also aware of the amount of work still needing to be put in. There are scenes that need to be rewritten. There is an overall line edit I need to complete. There is a query letter to write and rewrite until perfect. There is a summary and an outline I should create in case I am asked for them. There is a marketing platform I should put together to show why and where my potential sales will come from. All important.

While that forthcoming work hangs upon me, I am still giddy with the realization I finished my second novel. When I wrote the last word of the book and saved the file, I sat back in my chair, stretched, took a deep breath, and all other ills in my life went away. I had done it. I had finished it. There was not another word to write. A complete story had been saved on my computer—and backed up elsewhere. I left my apartment to visit my favorite watering hole. I didn’t take my laptop for the first time in a year. I had a glass of wine. I sat and watched the USA beat Trinidad & Tobago in a World Cup Qualifying soccer match and didn’t feel guilty about not working on a story centered around other characters. After all, that story was finished!

But what is it like when an already published author finishes a first draft?

How do they feel?

What goes through their head?

I asked several of my writer friends last night what they feel upon finishing a first draft. Here is what they had to say:

What can I say about Sean Williams?

The man’s bibliography reads like a works list of a man three times his age—which would put him over a hundred! Sorry, Sean, it’s true!

Sean has been writing since the early 1990’s and represents what every aspiring writer should be: tenacious, hard-working, creative, wanting to explore new stories and new means to tell them, and unyielding to the pressures of an industry filled with them. He has written hundreds of short stories, two dozen published novels and every year writes two or three of these. Tireless is a word I’d use to describe him, one of those writers who simply must tell a good yarn if he is to function in the rest of his life!

Sean has won numerous awards and has written stories in almost all of the genres, a talent many writers simply don’t have or wish to have, and it speaks to the breadth of his ability. His newest work was his fourth foray into Star Wars as he released a novelization to the Lucas Films video game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

Below is Five Questions with Sean Williams. Enjoy!

Suvudu: When did you start writing? Why do you write?

Sean Williams: I write because I have to. It’s been that way since I was 10 years old or so, when I discovered that telling my own stories was as much fun as reading someone else’s. Once I’d got a taste for it, there was no turning back. Now, 30 years and almost as many books later, I’m still just as hooked.

S: Describe your writing day? How many words/pages do you write a day on average? Breaks? How much time do you spend editing and how do you go about it?

When Lucas Arts revealed they would be creating a new game that would allow you to be Vader, I already could not wait. Then we learned more about the story and many of the cool force-related techniques we’d be able to employ while playing and that just made it all the more cool!

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is now unleashed upon us all!

Now, I haven’t played the game—waiting for a long weekend to fully immerse myself into it. But someone I trust has played it and reviewed it: Quint at Ain’t It Cool News. Quint and I see eye-to-eye when it comes to the Star Wars universe and gaming, so I have a feeling I am going to enjoy The Force Unleashed as much as he did!

And don’t forget about the book! Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was novelized by the very talented Sean Williams, out in bookstores now!

In less than a month, LucasArts will release their much-anticipated next generation Star Wars video game, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed — a bold new chapter in the expanding saga that tells a never-before-told tale of Darth Vader’s secret apprentice. (And in case you missed the news, a downloadable demo will be available this Thursday!)

For those who cannot wait to explore this story, this is the week to visit bookstores and add The Force Unleashed to your Star Wars bookshelf, as three major titles are unleashed: a novelization, a graphic novel, and a behind-the-scenes book.

The hardcover novelization by bestselling author Sean Williams (co-author of the Force Heretic trilogy of The New Jedi Order series) uses the video game story by Haden Blackman (read an interview with Haden) as a foundation for an original novel set in the dark times between Episodes III and IV. While the video game itself presents a player with myriad options and story paths, this novel can be thought of as the “true story” of the Starkiller. Here is an link to Chapter One.

We interviewed Haden Blackman, the Project Lead for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed video game from Lucasfilm. He told us what it’s like to write the screenplay for a game and how his vision translated into novel format—all from a gamer engineer’s perspective.

Question: Can you first tell us a little bit about your role in the creation of the FORCE UNLEASHED video game?

Haden Blackman: I was the project lead, which is basically a hybrid between creative director and executive producer. I was responsible for setting the overall vision for the game, and rallying and managing the team throughout the development. I directly managed all of the leads, worked very closely with the design staff, and wrote the “shooting script” for the cinematics.

Q: As the lead writer of the game story, how much input were you able to give Sean Williams while he was writing the book?

Haden Blackman: He was on a pretty tight schedule, and I was deep in crunch on the game, so we only had a few opportunities to talk and exchange notes. Fortunately, he was able to use the game’s shooting script as his starting point, which I think gave him a strong foundation. After he finished his first draft, I was able to take a few days reading it and providing notes, most of which he incorporated into the final draft. A great deal of my feedback was centered on keeping the characters true to the way they are portrayed in the game. This was really important because, in the game, we can’t get into the characters’ heads the same way a novel can, and there were thoughts and feelings expressed by the characters in the first draft that weren’t always true to our vision of the characters. Juno was probably the toughest character in this regard: The novel spends a lot of time exploring her character, and I really wanted to make sure that it was aligned with our take on her personality, motivations and psychology, even in areas that aren’t explored in depth in the game.