Pennwriters Conference 2010

This year's annual conference was held at the beautiful Best Western Eden Resort in Lancaster, PA. I've got to say upfront that I think this conference gets better every year. Big kudos to Ayleen Stellhorn, this year's conference organizer.

As before, the conference offered a program of workshops and seminars about writing, marketing, publishing, and such. I was able to attend a few of these and found them all excellent. I was also able to volunteer more this time around than in previous years, and I really enjoyed that.

But the best part was reconnecting with people I hadn't seen since my last PW conference (in 2008). I was given some awesome marketing advice from NYT-bestselling author Maria Snyder (I also snagged an autographed copy of Storm Glass). And I had a wonderful conversion with agent Jennifer Jackson (of The Donald Maass Literary Agency) in the hotel lobby. Pennwriters does a lot of things right with their conferences; getting top-flight agents and editors to attend is one of them.

So now that the conference is ended, I'm left feeling a little sad that it's over, but I'm also energized to dive back into my work-in-progress.

Thank you to all my fellow Pennwriters.

Iron Man 2

My wife and I saw it on Saturday. I was prepared to be underwhelmed because, well, it's a sequel, but I came out feeling quite good about the movie. I like how it extended the mythic structure of the "maker-warrior," delving deeper into Tony Stark's internal demons while at the same time introducing new challenges.

Robert Downey Jr. does an outstanding job as Tony. Don Cheadle is solid as his best friend Lt. Col. Rhoades. Sam Rockwell is both funny and swarmy at the same time.

That's not to say the movie was without flaws. In my humble opinion, IM2 suffers the same setbacks as the original, namely (A) a lack of chemistry between Stark and his love-interest/girl-friday Pepper Potts, and (B) epic fail on the big "boss" fights.

Overall, I highly recommend Iron Man 2.

Stylish Advertisement

Check out the back cover of the June issue of Realms of Fantasy. Shadow's Son is hanging out in pretty good company.

Shadows from the British Isles

Today I received a very cool package in the mail from my agent: two brand-new ARCs (Advanced Reading Copies) of Shadow's Son! Thanks, Eddie, and thank you to everyone at Gollancz.

First Book Signing

Hey folks,

I will appearing at the Camp Hill Barnes and Noble on June 16th at 6 pm.

If you find yourself in the area, swing by to keep me company. There may be a surprise (hint: it might be cake!).

The final cover is revealed!

Looks like Caim and Kit are about to step off the page!

Special thanks to Lou Anders of Pyr Books for all his hard work in getting this project together, to Nicole Sommer-Lecht for the cover design, to Michael Komarck for his superb artwork, and to everyone else at Pyr/Prometheus Books.

Clash of the World of Warcraft?

I saw Clash of the Titans tonight, and the good news is that it’s not another In the Name of the King (which still holds the title for worst movie ever made).

For those of you who have never played World of Warcraft, and have no interest in ever playing it, skip the next paragraph for the sake of your sanity.

Nutshell: it wasn’t so bad for the first movie in a WoW franchise. I mean, it had beautiful and often ridiculous scenery, a rich storyline that no one cared about (including the characters). Everyone’s on some kind of quest, but the details are vague and no one feels like tabbing over to Wowhead to get the right coordinates. There were the usual fights over loot. (Draco: Hey Perseus, take that sword. It’s way betterz for your dps. Perseus: No way! I’m hoarding my DKP for a shield upgrade.) Like so many raids, Perseus’s crew has too many melee-types and not enough healers, but they did manage to pick up a warforged warlock. (Ooops, my bad. I’ve drifted off into D&D territory.) And the game . . . I mean, movie . . . ends with a bad-ass Boss Fight. Too bad the Kraken was nerfed to hell in the last patch. (And his drops were crappy, too: a doe-eyed damsel that no one wants to nail and two sets of pally leggings.)

In all honesty, I expected very little out of this remake, and I got my wish. I despise things in movies that make no sense, and every scene had at least one bit of silliness that couldn’t be ignored. The short list: flying horses that wander around the forest grazing aimlessly waiting to be found by equally aimless heroes, vast deserts in the middle of ancient Greece, bronze swords that can pierce stone pillars and hold up the weight of two grown men, and a main hero who learns how to be an expert swordsman in less than forty-five seconds because, like, he’s a demigod. (Thank goodness we can skip the training sequence montage!) Let’s not even get into the plot. (Transformers + Dungeons&Dragon + semi-Greek mythology = Clash.) The acting was . . . well, I give the performers credit for getting through their lines without laughing.

Did I like anything about it? Sure. For one, I took my wife, and any time spent with her is worthwhile. Second, Hades (God of the Underworld) was given a very slick appearance—understated (for this movie) black armor and smoky wings. I just wish Ralph Fiennes had dropped the annoying gravely-whisper affectation. Oh, and the black Pegasus was a nice touch.

But none of this matters because Clash made a bajillion dollars in its first weekend, so the geniuses behind this fiasco are probably being feted like ancient Greek kings by the Hollywood crowd. Get ready for Clash 2: Rise of the Fallen Lich-King Underworld God.

Hey, no one ever said life was fair.