Category Archives: Generation V
End of August
Okay, so that was a long period of not much posting from me. The reason for that is because I’ve spent the summer plugging away at Book Four and doing periodic work on Tainted Blood (out in November — agh!).
My deadline for Book 4 is in October, so this lack of posting from me isn’t going to change anytime soon. But there’s been some pretty fun focus on Iron Night lately, so how about awesome links?
I did an interview with the fantastic Nick Sharps over at SF Signal — some great questions and fun answers — don’t you want to know whether Suzume would get along with Rocket from Guardians of the Galaxy (hint — of course she would!)?
New review of Iron Night from Notes From A Readerholic — it was part of their Book Bingo challenge.
Wendy from The Bibliosanctum did a livetweeting of Generation V that is simply not to be missed — how we got on the subject of Batman, I’m not certain, but it’s GREAT. She also followed up with a pretty great review, which you should also check out.
I also did an interview at the lovely site Between Dreams And Reality — which should definitely be on your reading list, if only because it is presented in both English and French! It’s bilingual, baby!
Finally, the Tainted Blood cover made it onto the All Things Urban Fantasy Cover Art Coverage — and I’m delighted to say that it was very well received! Hopefully this is a start of a trend for my covers!
I’ll try to swing back with some actual content a little later down the line — but I definitely have my hands full with Book 4. But I leave you with this disturbing thought:
BEWARE WORLD! @BrennanML AND I ARE PLOTTING.
— Stephen Blackmoore (@sblackmoore) August 28, 2014
BE AFRAID!
New Business Cards
Hey everyone, my new business cards arrived today from Moo.com! Check these out!
Okay, so I know that my business cards are not exactly breaking news (though, seriously, the covers look pretty fabulous in tiny pocket form), but I’m pretty stoked about this. Now when I go to cons in the future I can be all, “Oh, which card would you like? BECAUSE I HAVE THREE PUBLISHED BOOKS MOTHERFUCKER HAHAHAHAHA.”
Okay, so I shamelessly ripped off what Max Gladstone’s business card layout looks like. SO WOULD YOU, DAMNIT.
Or, slightly more restrained. That maniacal laugh will still happen, of course. (‘cuz, standards) And, while I do of course have great affection for the cover of Generation V, I have to concede to the vox populi at this point and accept that it is not quite my strongest selling point with, you know, just about anyone. I do think that the Iron Night cover is pretty neat, and the Tainted Blood cover is just made of awesome. I think the publishers are trying to move the cover art in a more Iron Druid direction, which is never a bad idea. Plus, I have assurances from some of my favorite bloggers that not only do they think the new cover is cool, but that they would actually be willing to be seen in public with it. Heady stuff, guys!
If you’re going to be at Connecticon this year, stop me and ask for whichever of the cards you’d like!
This leaves really just one question – what the hell do I do with the fifty or so old cards?
I mean, technically they’re still mostly accurate, but I just don’t feel that they fully express my THREE FUCKING BOOKS MOTHERFUCKERS awesomeness. Hm. I seem to be cursing a lot on this blog today. …. yup, still okay with that.
Whippets In Spaaaace, Week 3
The puppies continue to grow. With their mother as a convenient size reference, observe their terrifying growth rate. There’s starting to be a concern that these puppies are the whippet versions of Babe the Blue Ox. And we all know how that ended – in tragedy and a year’s worth of steak.
Tepper the puppy recommends that you read Grass. Clearly this puppy is wise beyond her weeks.
Asaro disagrees with Tepper, because Asaro prefers space sagas, ship battles, and quantum physics. It is hard to argue with those points, Asaro.
Scalzi disagrees with both of his sisters, because he prefers his sci-fi with Star Trek jokes!
Brin, stretching, feeling grateful that I didn’t try to pose him with books.
If they don’t get attention from humans, they’ve also discovered that crying can get them what they want. This is especially practiced by Scalzi, who, according to my mother, is the biggest crier of them all.
And that’s pretty much it for this week of whippet development! In non-puppy news, there’s a giveaway for three copies of Iron Night, so you can enter to win one of those. I’ll also be signing the copies, so that’s kind of fun. Iron Night was also reviewed recently at Fantasy Book Café and All Things Urban Fantasy, and there’s also a fantastic review of Generation V over at Bibliotropic that I strongly recommend checking out. Finally, for those puppy-philes in the Rhode Island area – I’ll be doing a signing and reception at Books On The Square on February 28th. Since I’ve been told very specifically that they are “taking a chance on [me]”, spread the word if you live in Rhode Island and let’s see if we can change this bookstore’s mind about out-of-state speculative fiction authors!
The first rule about puppy fight club appears to be: lick everything in sight as much as possible.
Four Out Of Five Engineers Can’t Be Wrong
Four out of five engineers prefer Iron Night!
Like the picture? That’s from the release day of Iron Night — I went out with a bunch of friends and we bought out the entire supply of the Nashua Barnes & Noble, then went out for dinner. And, yes, all of those guys are engineers. (that’s how well crafted Iron Night is, people! believe me, engineers recognize good construction and materials!)
Let’s start with the fantastic news — Iron Night has ten reviews on Amazon, and Generation V is actually up to forty-one! This is just flat-out awesome, since the number of reviews apparently does something to the metrics that is good for me. Other authors have told me this. (what? I only KNOW engineers, people! you want an actual explanation of how site metrics work, you talk to Django Wexler, not me)
I’ve also been a busy little promoting author — two new guest blogs are up. You can read about how I designed the elves in Iron Night and also about how I developed the kitsune. Huge thanks to My Shelf Confessions and The BiblioSanctum, respectively, for hosting me.
Luckily it hasn’t just been me talking about the book — Justin wrote an amazing article about the publishing industry in general and Generation V in particular for his fantastic Under The Radar series at Tor.com. This not only gave me the coveted Landon Bump (seriously, two separate people have tweeted to me that they read the book because of this article), but also put me in excellent company, since Justin also wrote about Teresa Frohock’s Miserere .
What else fun is happening? Well, for one, I got a chance to be interviewed by one of my favorite bloggers, Julie at YM&KAC. Not only did we have a fun conversation, but she also got me to reveal seven hints about the upcoming third Fortitude Scott book, Tainted Blood.
Plus, new reviews!
Iron Night reaches Scotland! Lisa at Over The Effing Rainbow wrote:
I love finding urban fantasy that reaffirms why I love the genre so much, and that’s exactly what the Generation V series is doing. Given that the only two authors of urban fantasy books who have gotten me as excited about a UF series as Brennan has are Jim Butcher and Seanan McGuire – two of my absolute favourite authors, no less – I can say with gleeful certainty that Brennan is absolutely one to watch.
Tabitha at My Shelf Confessions wrote:
Vampires, trolls, elves, witches, foxes and ghouls. Just put down whatever other urban fantasy you were about to read and pick up Generation V and Iron Night instead. You can thank me later.
Bridget Keown at RT Book Reviews also had wonderful things to say:
Brennan’s second Generation V novel is a pitch-perfect addition to this imaginative, funny series. Balancing precariously between his painfully realistic, underemployed life and the paranormal world that lurks beyond the shadows, Fortitude Scott is an earnest, engaging hero with a heart of gold. Fans will delight to see the return of his sidekick, Suze, in all her wild glory, as well as the rest of this fascinating cast.
And Generation V is also getting some extra attention. Two new GenV reviews at Speculative Book Reviews and Fantasy Cafe!
Four days until Iron Night!
Look how awesome that cover is! Coming to a bookstore near you!
Happy New Year! Here in Connecticut, we celebrated with a giant snowstorm! (it’s our culture, don’t judge us!) So I got to spend three hours today shoveling. That was plenty of time to think about the Iron Night release — believe me, if I ever get crazy wealthy and famous (think GRRMartin), Crazy Wealthy Spending #1 will be to put my brother on retainer so that every time there’s a crazy snowstorm here, he has to fly out from California and shovel my driveway while I sit inside with a cup of hot cocoa. AND LAUGH.
Anyway, snowmadness aside, there’s lots of excitement, because Iron Night is going to be published in FOUR DAYS! Here, click this link to see actual video footage of what I look like right now:
Yes, I am a sophisticated creature.
Some amazing reviews of Iron Night are already getting posted by some of my very favorite bloggers. Here’s what some of them are saying!
Candace wrote:
I’m definitely a HUGE fan of this series and I’m liking the direction it seems to be taking. I’m curious to see how it plays out and I NEED more Fort and Suzume!
Mogsy wrote:
I can’t recommend these books enough. This sequel was simply amazing, and it was everything I’d hoped for and more. Earlier this year when I read Generation V, I knew this had the potential to become one of my favorite Urban Fantasy series. Well, Iron Night pretty much made that official!
And Julie wrote:
If you are looking for an exceptional urban fantasy read, you must check out Generation V and Iron Night. These are some of the best urban fantasy books I’ve read…ever. The style, the pace, the voice, the characters, the world, the story…all outstanding. A MUST for your bookshelves.
How awesome is that? You’d have to made of stone to not be curious about the book now! And if you’re one of those people who hasn’t read Generation V (and yet strangely still visits my blog — hey, I’m not judging), check out Justin’s awesome inclusion of it as one of the 2013 Juice Box Awards Debut finalists! And let me tell you, when a guy is spending 1/3rd of the review explaining why he usually *doesn’t* like urban fantasy, and STILL recommending an urban fantasy? You should pay attention.
The Conclusion of Author Chat…. or is it?
What did we learn in the course of Author Chat? Well, we definitely learned about how much all of us love Dune.
The final round of author chat is live at Leigh Bardugo’s tumblr! Check it out to discover which author all of us lie about having read! (hint: it rhymes with Lonathan Spanzen)
Have you enjoyed these four rounds of author chat? Of course you have (I think?)! After all, it was Django Wexler, Teresa R. Frohock, and Leigh Bardugo in all their awesome glory, with me bringing up the rear like an adorable little caboose! (aw, look at those amazing fantasy authors — they’re so nice to let M. L. Brennan play along) (I kid, of course — though if you want to have your mind blown by amazing fantasy this holiday season, check out The Thousand Names, Miserere: An Autumn Tale, and Shadow and Bone. They make great gifts, too! And you can toss on a copy of Generation V to make it over the hump into the free shipping)
You know what all the cool kids are buying? These. You don’t want to be left out, do you? Succumb to peer pressure!
We did this author chat to try to capture a little of that experience of going to a panel at a con, and seeing authors answer questions and have a bit of fun. But we wouldn’t be able to fully capture a panel without the final, most crucial part — audience participation!
Do you have a question you’d like the panel to answer? Post it in the comments, and over the next few days, we’ll sift through and find the ones that are the most awesome. Then keep your eyes peeled in January for Author Chat II: Fan Service.
I leave you with this final bit of awesome:
Did you miss any of the earlier rounds of Author Chat? If so, check them out here:
Round One is right here on my blog!
Round Two was at Django’s house!
Round Three was hosted by Teresa!
And Round Four was rocked out on Leigh’s Tumblr!
Happy Halloween!
Happy Halloween with an ARC of Iron Night! This picture is courtesy of MMOGamerChick, whose review copy of Iron Night arrived today! Awesome pic, Mogsy!
Happy Halloween! Hopefully everyone has something fun planned for today, and not just what holiday-themed name they are putting on their Twitter account! (After succumbing to peer pressure, I’ve been ML BOOrennan this week.)
Ever wonder what Fortitude Scott, film major extraordinaire, thinks are the top ten scariest films to watch on Halloween? Ever wonder to what extent Suzume Hollis would mess with that list? Wonder no more, and go over and see it in my guest post for SheWolfReads‘s Creepy Classic Movie Challenge – Fortitude Scott’s Top Ten Scary Movies!
While of course all my spazzy energy is being directed toward the release of Iron Night, people are still discovering and reviewing Generation V! Here are a few recent snippets:
The Troubled Scribe wrote that:
Brennan creates some interesting explanations and back story for vampire breeding and history. There are plenty of exciting fight scenes to make this a fast-paced read and some satisfying bloody gruesomeness that is so necessary for any vampire story.
And Lori at Romancing The Dark Side wrote:
The world building in Generation V is unique and breaks away from the traditional vampire lore. Vampires are not made, but born via “vampire-made surrogates” and are not immortal beings. The addition of the kitsune lore adds even more allure to the story and really speaks to the author’s creativity. I really love that Ms. Brennan introduced an unexplored supernatural being instead of sticking to the “usual” vampire vs. werewolf we typically see in this genre…bravo! The vampires in her world are stronger, darker and a bit creepy, giving the story an edge.
And Nick’s review over at Goodreads had some fantastic things to say:
Suzume Hollis is a character, not a love interest, and because Brennan takes time to establish a believable relationship between her and Fort I won’t feel put upon if they eventually hook up. In fact, I’ll probably cheer – Suzume is just that awesome.
And:
Generation V is unexpectedly awesome. Fortitude Scott manages to confront the issues of life after college and the struggle against genetics in entertaining ways. He’s not your average, hard-boiled urban fantasy protagonist. He’s not your average vampire either. What I find even more exciting than Generation V is the potential this has for a series.
Thanks so much, guys, and I’m so delighted that you gave Generation V a shot! Can’t wait to see what you think of Iron Night in January!
Remember, you can pre-order now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or wherever you prefer to buy your books!
Halloween Naked Mole Rat implores you to pre-order Iron Night!
NYCC 2013
Okay, so here’s part of the NYCC showroom floor. Now imagine trying to meet up with a friend. It’s okay if you want to cry in a corner at the thought, but just remember – the corners are all full of people. You’ll have to wait your turn.
Here’s the thing about New York Comic Con – it’s BIG. Everyone had told me that before, but it’s hard to really wrap your brain around what 100,000 people all converging on one space really means. That’s about eight times the size of the town I live in – and it’s HUGE. I tried to go to the bathroom at the convention once. Then I saw the line and decided to hold it. Just trying to go up an escalator is a challenge – you’re moving through just a sea of humanity, with different currents all around you. And on top of that, every three steps you see something so amazing that you want to stop and check it out – usually along the lines of some incredible cosplay – so there are constant traffic jams while everyone admires a costume or takes a picture.
That’s just the entryway – then there’s the showroom, which has SO MUCH stuff – every time I went through it, I saw a new booth with incredible stuff. I think my favorite discovery was when Django Wexler and I were trying to find the popcorn booth (om nom) and bumped into the Geek Chic That was some of the most amazing furniture I’d ever seen, and I now sincerely covet one of their customized gaming tables. I also now know what Django’s first purchase will probably be if his Forbidden Library series becomes the next Harry Potter. (which it really ought to, because I love it)
Then there was Artist’s Alley, which was packed with amazing talent, beautiful artwork, and more hordes of people. (I bought one amazing poster from Sara Richard for my home office – guess which one?) There were also the panels, which filled up really fast, so if you wanted to go to one (and these weren’t the TV ones, either) you had to line up about half an hour early. Plus there was the autographing section, which honestly terrified me. So while I really would’ve liked to meet Felicia Day, the line scared me off.
Then there’s the best part of the con – meeting people! I got to meet up with lots of people who I’d already met at other cons, plus lots of new people! It was fantastic. The first thing I got to do was at the Penguin booth, where Myke Cole, Benedict Jacka, and I were signing copies of our books. Now, I thought that this meant that we’d be kind of hand-selling a little, maybe meeting some people who had brought their copies. Oh no – that’s not how Penguin rolls. The first hundred people who lined up at the booth got free copies of each of our books, that we would then sign. It was SO COOL.
That’s the start of the line, brilliantly played by my friend Rob. Rachel is right behind him. If you want to learn how to come home from a convention with sixty-five free books, learn from the masters, grasshopper. Photo generously provided by Richard Shealy, SFWA-registered copyeditor
It was a lot of fun meeting so many excited readers, and all of whom now had shiny copies of Generation V for me to sign! Hopefully people really enjoyed reading it, and also will then post reviews to Amazon and Goodreads. (hint. hint.)
This is what it looked like to be on the author side of the booth – lots of people, and Myke Cole’s derriere, preserved for posterity.
There was this weird feeling that we were being observed at all times… Photo generously provided by Richard Shealy, SFWA-registered copyeditor and giant eyeball.
I was going to lunch with Django right afterwards, so here’s a picture of all of us – and Myke couldn’t resist pretending to write on Benedict’s face. (probably: “For incredible British cheekbones, see above”) You can also see Django making sure that his model Swarmer from The Forbidden Library made it into the photo.
Photo generously provided by Richard Shealy, SFWA-registered copyeditor, and the time-honored tradition of tormenting British people. Benedict’s thought-bubble should be: “Cursed colonials.”
But Benedict ended up going to lunch with us, so all was forgiven. He also did me a huge solid late that night of helping me navigate the subway back to Forest Hills, where I was staying with family. Now, if you’re a New Yorker, you might be saying to yourself – “Manhattan to Forest Hills? That’s stupid-easy – get on either the E or the F and it takes you straight there.” And, valid point. Except for the part where my powers of navigation are so horrendous that I routinely (routinely!) get lost in parking garages. And just to find my car again in parking garages, I usually draw a little pirate map for myself. It takes me a long time to orient myself to areas enough to just find my way along a regular route comfortably, and as for making logical variations on that route? Such as, “Well, if I’ve been getting on the E train at 34th Street, why not just pick it up further down the line?” – yeah, that takes a while. (my navigation was so insanely shitty the second night that Django Wexler actually asked how much I’d had to drink – three sodas. Epic fail.)
The next day was the Geek Geek Revolution panel – very fun! It was me, Django, Myke, Anton Strout, Andrea Cremer aka A. D. Robertson, and Alex London. (Mia Garcia did a fantastic job as moderator, but I unfortunately don’t have a picture of her)
And there we all are! The loser of the contest had to wear the Jar Jar mask of shame. Sorry, Alex. But Myke was pretty intent on not losing. Photo generously provided by Richard Shealy, SFWA-registered copyeditor.
Other highlights include an absolutely delightful author dinner where Diana Rowland made me laugh so hard I nearly fell out of my chair. So a really fun convention! I’m bummed that I won’t be able to attend NYCC next year, but one of my best friends has decided to get married that weekend, and since I’m in the bridal party, I’ll be somewhat busy. This was my last con of 2013, and I really had such an amazing time at all three that I attended. I’m putting together my list of cons that I’m hoping to attend in 2014 – mostly drivable within the New England/Tri-State area, but I’ll probably do one travel con. I’m giving serious consideration to DragonCon, so I’ll post my con schedule when I have it.
In other news – this is the release day of my friend Matthew Quinn Martin’s debut urban fantasy/horror novel, Nightlife! So definitely go check it out! Fun fact, Matthew and I used to teach at the same college, and we shared office space. We got very little actual work done, but we did have a fantastic time talking about writing and constructing monsters. I have it on excellent authority that Matthew’s take on vampires is nightmare-worthy.
My favorite cosplay at the con. Look how adorable she is! And as soon as her mom gave us permission to take pictures, that was exactly the pose she struck. Loved it. Photo generously provided by Richard Shealy, SFWA-registered copyeditor.
Iron Night: Locked Off
On Monday night, I scanned and emailed my corrected page proofs to Roc, so Iron Night is now officially locked off! I’ve made my last changes, hopefully I’ve caught all of the biggest problems, and now it’s out of my hands. I remember being at this place before with Generation V, but it felt different then – at the point when I was finally hands-off with Generation V, I had to move straight back into work on other projects. Right now, just because of where things fell, I actually am getting a bit of a breather. The manuscript of Book 3 is with my editor, and I won’t get notes back on it for probably another month or two. I already have a bit of a list of notes on it from my readers and my agent, so I have a feeling that I’ll probably be doing some more extensive fixes on this one, but I’m happy to take a break from it (just for a little while!) so that when I come back to it later, I can have look at it with fresher eyes.
This is also a bit of a nervous point in the process, because while I’ve spent about a year in total working on Iron Night, and my direct involvement in the writing has now come to an end, it won’t be hitting bookstores until January, and since the ARCs (advanced reader’s copies) haven’t been produced yet, I haven’t gotten any “real” reader feedback yet. I’m really excited about this book, and I’ll definitely be doing more posts and dropping more hints about its content as we get closer to the release date, but mostly I can’t wait to see what people think about where I’m taking Fort and Suzume.
I’m going to be starting to work on publicity for Iron Night soon, so I’ll be getting a chance to talk with all my favorite bloggers again, and hopefully also try and get some bookstore events scheduled as well. Should be exciting, and I’ll get going on that next week.
Also coming up – New York Comic Con! I’m so excited about this! Thanks to support from a local businessman (my uncle in Forest Hills is letting me sleep on his sofa – thanks, Uncle Alan!) I’ll be in town on Friday and Saturday.
Here’s my schedule right now:
Thursday, October 10
Work ends at 6:50pm, head down to New York.
Friday, October 11
11:00am – 12:00pm: “FRIDAY FIRSTS” PENGUIN SIGNING (BOOTH 2129 )
First in series signing with M.L. Brennan (Generation V) and Benedict Jacka (Fated)
If you’ll be anywhere in the area, come and say hello to me! I’d love to sign your book or even just give you one of my cards!
That’s a real inducement, isn’t it? Yeah, look at it. This could be yours!
7:45pm-?: Private dinner
Saturday, October 12
12:00-1:00 PM: GEEK GEEK REVOLUTION (ROOM 1A17)
Speakers: Mia Garcia, A.D. Robertson aka Andrea Cremer, Django Wexler, Alex London, Myke Cole, Anton Strout, M.L. Brennan
Description: GEEK REVOLUTION is a no-holds-barred geek culture game show featuring six science fiction/fantasy authors competing for the chance to be TOP GEEK. In addition the audience members will be asked to ‘write-in’ questions in hopes of stumping the authors and winning a prize pack of books. Hold onto your hats, nerf herders, this might get ugly.
This is looking like so much fun, and I’m really looking forward to it! If you are going to be at NYCC, this had better be one of your required stops!
So that’s what’s planned so far – if you have an event or a party that you think I should be attending, tell me about it!
In other news, after working pretty frantically all summer, I actually had some downtime after I submitted the Book 3 manuscript. This meant that I was able to get some reading done! I love writing, and it’s very exciting when I’m in the middle of a project, but it does mean that my reading time gets pretty significantly cut back! Here is a list of the books I read since finishing the Book 3 manuscript:
The Age of Ice – J.M. Sidorova
Redshirts – John Scalzi
Who Gets What: Fair Compensation After Tragedy an Financial Upheaval – Kenneth Feinberg
Throne of the Crescent Moon – Saladin Ahmed
Parable of the Sower – Octavia E. Butler
Dushau – Jacqueline Lichtenberg
House of Zeor – Jacqueline Lichtenberg
Old Man’s War – John Scalzi
Shades of Milk and Honey – Mary Robinette Kowal
Darkborn – Alison Sinclair
Shadow and Bone – Leigh Bardugo
(currently reading) The Summer Prince – Alaya Dawn Johnson
Have you read any of these books yourself? If so, what did you think?
The evolution of Fortitude Scott. I mean that in every sense, but more specifically, in the evolution of his cover model. Hiyo!
M. L. Brennan 