Bradley P. Beaulieu

My Clarion classmate, Stephen Gaskell, has a touching new story up at Clarkesworld. It’s a near-future, hard science fiction story about a man dealing with the ghosts of his father and mother as he struggles to find a balance to the violence that seems always to pervade mankind.

It’s a great story. Give it a read. You’ll be glad you did.

Via Pat Rothfuss’s blog… This was too good not to pass along.

My suggestion to you? Watch it without the sound the first time through. My sound happened to be muted on my laptop when I watched it first. Not realizing this, I thought it was like a silent film. It works incredibly well this way. When you’ve run through it once like that, then turn the sound up and you’ll find that it’s still brilliant.

While I was emailing a few people that have ties to the Writers of the Future writing workshop, I realized that it starts today. What a great time that I had when I was there. I can't believe it's been six years already–it's been over seven since I found out I'd placed in Quarter 1 of the 2003 contest year (the anthology came out in August of the next year). It was a week filled with great instruction, wonderful company, a lot of charged, optimistic conversation, and an unforgettable ceremony at the end of the week. Those kids have no idea what's lying in store for them.

Good luck to them all…

Roughly 3,000 words the last two days on The Straits of Galahesh. That's caught me up for missing last Friday. That's pretty good for me. Steady Eddie. Straight's the ship that stays the course.

You know what would be really cool, though? If someone told me they'd written like 4,000 words today. Ever read Cherie Priest's blog? She writes like 18,000 words per freaking day. What's up with that? Does she have a pod of imps chained to a bunch of old Mac laptops in her basement? It wouldn't be so bad if she wrote crappy books. But she doesn't. She writes cool books. Really cool books.

Sigh.

So, yeah, someone please tell me they wrote like three times as much as I did in the past few days. That would be wonderful.

I've come to a decision on the title for Book 2. It will be called The Straits of Galahesh, though I reserve the right to change it at any time. It's important for me to have titles, though. For whatever reason, they help me shape the book. With The Winds of Khalakovo, it captured both the Russian feel I was shooting for and a bit of the of sense I was trying to give the reader: that something was amiss. Change was on the wind. And I used that to good effect throughout the writing of the book.

With Straits, I'm shooting for more of a flavor of the Empire that stands to the west of the Grand Duchy. They're loosely based on the Ottoman Empire, and they're a major player in this book, so I wanted to get them in to the title right away. On the island of Galahesh are, well, straits. They come into play quite a bit in the story, but I also wanted to again, make it a harbinger of the danger that lies ahead, which helps me to shape the story.

I'm about 48k into the book so far. I'm shooting for 20k per month so that I can finish around the February timeframe and then begin immediately edits for my May due date next year. It's a little aggressive because of the size of the books I'm writing (roughly 180k or so each), but it's doable. I usually get in about 1k per writing session, and I write most nights, so I think I'll be able to do 20k a month without much trouble.

My daughter, nearly three years old in this picture.

I'll be sitting on a number of panels, giving a reading, and signing books while at GenCon this weekend!

Here's the lowdown:

• Thurs 9am – Plotting in Reverse - Craft the end at the beginning! Work your story backward! Simply decide how you want your tale to conclude, and we’ll help you figure out how to get there from page one.
• Thurs 10am – Plotstorming from Character - In some cases the plot of a book drives the characters. However, characters that instead drive the plot can make for a more compelling story. In this hour, we focus on how to grow your plot from your main characters.
• Thurs 1pm – Creating Conflict - Make war, not peace! Ruffle the feathers of your characters. Stir the pot of emotions. Add a fistfight or two. Craft a clever and entertaining argument among your heroes. Not all conflict has to be bloody or increase the body count, but it does have to keep the reader turning the pages. Our panelists discuss the art of adding a dash of conflict to your pages.
• Thurs 3pm – Pick My Brain (no zombies, please)
• Thurs 9pm – International Get Your Editor Drunk Night (don't ask)
• Fri 9am – The Protagonist - We’ll teach you how to turn an ordinary hero into an extraordinary one. Spend an hour focusing solely on your main character, a good guy who doesn’t necessarily have to wear a white hat. We’ll tackle the villain in a later panel.
• Fri 10am – The Antagonist - Mold a truly remarkable villain, a character memorable to your readers, devoid of clichés, and one who can go toe-to-toe with your protagonist. For one hour, no heroes are allowed.
• Fri Noon – Reading with Tim Waggoner, with special guests Paul Genesse and Kelly Swails, who will be assisting in my reading of The Winds of Khalakovo
• Fri 1pm – Signing at Author's Alley

Out of necessity, I've been sitting on this news for a while, but now I can finally let the cat out of the bag.

I've sold a book! Check that. I've sold three books. A trilogy, even… The Winds of Khalakovo, The Straits of Galahesh, and a third book yet to be titled (and written, for that matter). I'm proud and excited to be with Night Shade Books, who are well known for publishing high quality fiction in a number of speculative fiction genres. Night Shade are a passionate group, and they have a beautiful sense of style when it comes to the artwork and layout for their books, which, as strange as it sounds, is a major key to attracting an audience, especially for a budding writer.

The first book is set to come out spring or summer of next year. Fast, I know! We've only just signed the contracts, so I know there's a roller coaster ride ahead of me. Right now I'm going through that early, chug-chug stage as the car heads for that first big drop…

I'll be posting more about the whole process and my thoughts on it, but for now, I'll close with this one simple thought: I've sold a book! Check that. Since it's a trilogy, I'll close with three thoughts: I've sold a book! I've sold a book! I've sold a book!

I had an interview earlier tonight with the kind people over at Writers of the Future. Well, with their production company, anyway. It was for a video they're compiling to celebrated the 25th anniversary of the contest. I suppose if I managed to say anything witty or interesting they'll put me into the final product. I'm not sure when it'll come out (I got a few conflicting messages at the interview itself) but my best guess is in August.

I didn't think I would get nervous, but then I did. Not sure why. I guess being put in front of a camera has the knack for doing that to people. When I got there, things were running late because the production crew were late getting into Milwaukee. They were heading in from North Carolina and staying for a few days in Chicago/Milwaukee before heading out for Cleveland and then back home to LA. They hit some delays in O'Hare, apparently, and then some traffic. Oddly, or perhaps not so oddly, this just made me more nervous. I was all ready to sort of sit down and, well, "get it over with" is not the right sentiment, but I did want to have it done so I could relax. Joanne had already dropped me off at the hotel, so I called her up and had her come back, and then we went to The Hollander, which serves some good food and some better beer. Yes, I had a beer. A Hoegaarden if you must know. A big one. Figured it would calm me down a bit. And that it did for the most part.

Very oddly, I saw Lynne Marie and Michael Damian Thomas while I was there. It was very surreal. I saw Michael, and we both stared at one another. You know, the look you give people where you think you recognize them, but then you go, nah, can't be, so you both look away. Then you both look back again. So while Michael and I were doing this little dance, Lynne goes, Brad! And then I'm like: OMG, WTF, it's you guys! I'd just seen them at WisCon in Madison the weekend before, so it was, well, just weird to see them in a place I never expected them. But it was very nice, too. I didn't get a chance to talk to either of them much at WisCon, so hopefully I can catch up with them a bit more at World Fantasy.

So, anyway, back to WotF. I head back after dinner, and I get up to the room that they've got for the taping. I fill out a bit of paperwork, and I'm chatting with the perfectly lovely Haley (the preproduction gal), and I realize that the other interviewee is being interviewed as I sit there in the other room. Hold that thought.

I continue shooting the breeze with Haley, and it occurs to me that the other interview is going on for some time. Eventually the other interviewee finishes up after, oh, I don't know, 20 minutes? And she was there being interviewed before I arrived. Then she comes in to say goodbye to Haley, and she's very personable, outgoing, easy to talk to. And then it's my turn at bat. The nerves aren't terribly bad, but they're getting there now. I go into the interview room and sit down. Surrounding this little chair are these big Chinese lantern lights. It feels like I'm about to be given the third degree. Drew starts asking me a few questions (to warm me up, I suppose), I get a bit more makeup, and then it's on. Drew starts asking me the real questions, and I start answering them as well as I can, but going through my head is the thought that the other gal, the one before me, the horribly personable one, she was in this room for a long time. She was probably saying all sorts of witty things that I'm not. She probably went on and on for minutes on each question, telling these cool little anecdotes. And as I'm thinking this, a nervous reaction I get from time to time crops up. My throat starts closing up. I thought this was a myth, but four or five years ago, the exact time that I started reading either for Joanne or in public, it started happening to me. And it started happening again. Years back, I would have to swallow like a bajillion times to keep speaking. I'd have to clear my throat. I sounded like a buffoon, which of course only made things worse. Luckily, I've learned tricks over time. The instinct is to speed up your cadence, but in that direction lies ruin. Instead, I slow down. I take pauses instead of swallowing. And in time–if I can just allow myself to live in what I'm saying instead of thinking about my fracking throat–things eventually loosen up, and I can talk like a normal human being again.

Luckily this worked. I only lost a few questions to this malady, and I even managed to tell some, if not witty, at least heartfelt tidbits of when I first learned that I'd won the contest, when I'd gone for the WotF workshop and the amazing awards ceremony, and the things I've built upon since attending the workshop. Hopefully it didn't turn out too bad. I think it didn't. Then again, what do I know? Maybe I'll end up on the cutting room floor.

Could be worse, though. There's plenty more-famous people than me who ended up on the cutting room floor. I'll consider myself in good company…

The Winds of Khalakovo, book two, has begun in earnest. I'm still playing with the title, but for now I'm going with The Straits of Baiyaal.

I'm buzzing with excitement to get moving on this book. Things always move slowly for me in the beginning of new projects, though. I suppose this is par for the course for writers tackling new projects, but I get pretty hung up on things like names. I can't write a character until I know their name. Same with places. I have to get that down before I can move on. It sort of defines the character or the place for me. Cements it. There are several new characters coming into play in this book from the neighboring Empire of Yrstanla, which I'm loosely modeling after the Ottoman Empire circa 1600. One of the main characters will be the Emperor. After steeping myself in the names of people and places during that time, I think I've finally found something I can work with. His name is Hakan ül Ayese, Kamarisi of Yrstanla. It was common to tack on tons of honorifics, to sort of aggrandize their status, but in this case, at least for now, I think I'll largely forgo those things.

Onward and upward!

My story, "In the Eyes of the Empress's Cat," will be printed, along with many of my fellow GenCon Writers Symposium members, in the Stalking the Wild Hare anthology, which will be released just in time for GenCon this year. More info, like a solid publication date, will be available soon.

Man, am I behind the times…

I consider myself still relatively new to parenting. My daughter, Relaneve, is four years old. My son, Rhys, is four months. I have learned a few things, though. I'm not a complete neophyte. For example, I used to think that as your children grew, that you would teach them. Train them, so to speak. I mean, when they're really young, you're not so much communicating with them as you are making examples for them, right?

Wrong.

If I've learned anything about parenting, it's that the children train you, not the other way around. Case in point. I went to the Betty Brin Children's Museum last weekend with my wife and two kids. Relaneve was having a grand time playing on this massive slide/jungle gym/fort thingy. she'd run up to the top, slide down in the innards of this contraption such that we couldn't see her, and then exit from the bottom chute, exaltant. Then she'd go after it again, determined to beat the slide one more time.

Meanwhile, Joanne and I were sitting, keeping Rhys occupied. And to do so I was wagging my wedding ring by a ribbon to make something shiny and fun to look at. And then I thought: hey, I have this fancy Blackberry. Why don't I take a video as long as I'm here. So, I did, and then I started babbling to him, much as I do at home, to get him to make some fun sounds. Training him, right? But then it occurred to me that I'd had the relationship wrong the whole time.

Case in point. The video evidence. Yes, that's me babbling away like an utter fool completely oblivious to whoever might be watching. Sometimes I tell myself that I'm just being a good parent, ignoring the noise and focusing on my child and his needs. But in the back of my head, I know the truth…

My friend and Clarion classmate, Vincent Jorgensen, has a new website called the Bay Area Minimalist, where he focuses on living large without spending a lot. It's worth checking out.

http://bayareaminimalist.blogspot.com/

My friend, Ian Tregillis, has a new baby book. It's called Bitter Seeds, and you can find out more about it on his website. The best pitch for this that I've heard is Watchmen meets Inglorious Basterds. If you have even a remote interest in alternate history, WWII, or realistic takes on super-hero stories, then I strongly recommend this book.

I was lucky enough to read a very early version of the ms. It was already great, and I know it's gone through a ton of revisions since then, so I can't wait to read it. (I will be waiting for the Kindle version, though. I think I'm largely done with buying physical books.)

Congrats, Ian!

I've added two new stories to my free fiction page. They're two stories that I'm very proud of. They're just sitting there now, dying to be read. Go. Read…

I'm very excited to announce that I've sold a story to DAW's Steampunked anthology, edited by Jean Rabe. I really like how this story turned out. It's set in the late 1800's (natch), and it's about an augurist, Maks, who foretells the future for a mining outfit that scours the Ural mountains in a steam-powered walker for meteor strikes to mine. When his auguries begin to fail him, Maks finds himself adrift, unable to navigate the world without them. With danger growing from the pirates who plague the miners, Maks must find the key to the mystery surrounding his young apprentice before the crew suffers a terrible fate.

There's no publication date yet for the antho, but I'm guessing it'll be late this year or early next year. More info as I have it…

My story, "Sweet as Honey", is now live in Issue 15 of the Intergalactic Medicine Show. This was one of my Clarion stories from a few years back, and I’m proud to have it in print.

My story, "Shadows in the Mirrors," (which appeared in DAW’s Dimensions Next Door anthology) was mentioned recently in Ellen Datlow’s list of stories for her Best Horror collection. Pretty snazzy…

I know, it’s been a while. Work has been a bit crazy. That’s an understatement. It’s been some of the most demanding work in my professional career. Not bad work, not bad people to work with, either, but it’s taken a *lot* of my time. Any extra time has gone to family and writing, so I haven’t had extra cycles to drop by here. I hope, hope, hope that this is going to change soon.

But I do have news… I had a story, "Sweet as Honey", that sold to IGMS a while back. I got the galleys for that and sent them back. I’m excited to get that story out to the world. It was written at Clarion in 2006, and it’s gone through several major iterations, but it’s a story I’ve always believed in, so it’s going to be nice to see it out. It should be up in November.

Similar story for "In Memory Of," which sold to the Spells & Chrome anthology from Catalyst Game Labs. That is hopefully going to be out early in 2010. No firm date yet, so I’ll update as I know more.

I did sell one more story, but I’ll hold off on that news because I don’t actually have the contract in hand.

I’m headed to World Fantasy this year in San Jose. My wife, Joanne, is coming with me for the early part of the trip. We’re going to go to Big Sur, to Muir Woods, San Francisco, and then JoJo’s heading back home while I continue on to World Fantasy. I’m not planning on much besides relaxing and networking a bit. I hope to shop around Winds, which I’m just finishing up now. If anyone else is going, I hope to see you there!