I realize it’s been quite a while since I’ve given a real update on my writing side of things, and people are probably wondering if

A) The book is still coming out and,

B) It’s still set for Fall 2009

(answers: A. Yes B. Yes).

There is this interesting thing in publishing where everything appears to the untrained eye to be going painstakingly slow, and yet in reality there are a couple hundred tiny gears turning in the Great Book Machine, each one pivotal in producing a book consisting of the most epic win possible. At the moment, there are few surviving photographs of this machine, though I suspect it looks similar to this:

The Great Book Machine

To my knowledge, this machine has gone through many versions and been remodeled multiple times over the past few decades, in keeping up with the latest trends (like those cool choppy-edged pages that became suddenly popular with Lemony Snicket books, or the single-photograph-over-black-background covers that are wild now thanks to Twilight). Just because I am under contract does not mean I know everything about this business. THE MACHINE IS NEWS TO ME. In fact, with further research, I discovered what I believe to be more photographs of early designs of the Great Book Machine, dating back as early as 1918:

The Great Book Machine - 1918 Version

Many people believe that the publishing business is made up entirely of editors who edit, designers who design and artists who art. NOW I AM NOT SO SURE. As I am in the midst of scheduling a trip to see my publishers and their epic offices sometime in the beginning of next year, I will report back on the current state of events regarding the machine AKA whether it exists and is hiding in some back office or this is just another salty lie making rounds in the writer circles.

Meanwhile, I’ve been writing on the sequel to The Farfield Curse, a.k.a. BOOK TWO: code named BRAN HAMBRIC: THREE SHINY KIWIS (go ahead and try to guess what title TSK is for, which is a hard acronym to guess, especially with me who likes MADE UP WORDS, and especially since your efforts will be in vain if I change it, which I doubt). There are a great number of advantages to writing book two before book one is out: namely, since I will be done in a good amount of time, the Great Book Machine can begin churning its process whilst people are still picking up the first book. Also, and maybe the best part of it, is I’m still a fresh and pure writer whose soul hasn’t yet been tarnished by bad reviews and hatemail that insist Bran be a headless horseman and Astara be renamed to Lamey Pinehouse. So, I’ll at least get some good footing before I start to doubt the worth of my very existence.

Cool stuffs going on though: I’m still working things out with the book soundtrack. I have two more songs that I’ve laid out the concepts for, though they need some work before I finish them up. Also, certain overly perceptive persons might have said things to me along the lines of,

Picture this in Elmer Fudd's voice and receive epic lulz

No, I actually changed the title to one of my songs. I won’t say which one it was, since part of the point is not to call attention to it in the hopes nobody notices (they will anyway). But as I was going down the songs and listening to the soundtrack as a whole (the songs I have now, and the ones I’m still working on) I realized that one of the songs really had been titled wrong. As I thought about it more, it seemed to fit with a different, yet similar, part of the story (this will probably happen again as I get closer to finishing all the songs). I’ll leave it up to you to find which one.

I should probably mention also that my blog TwilightGuy.com just passed over 2 million hits, and they’ve almost doubled the daily numbers since the movie premiere. If you’re a Twilight fan, keep an eye on my Youtube since I have some cool stuff I want to give away (real celebrity autographed things, nothing cheap or tawdry). Speaking of Youtube, I just passed 4,000 subscribers this week, which means I got my latest 1,000 in less than a month. And this week some cool person set up a fan page for me on Facebook, and some other cool person is already getting set with the Bran Hambric Lexicon. Fansites getting ready this far before the book is even out = good times.

So in essence, I’m still writing lots and things are moving right along. Also, I’m making a point to post here a bit more often now that the Twilight premiere has passed, especially since there’s only about 10 months until the book comes out, which means about 7 months until you can pre-order, and about 4 months until we have a cover (oh my).

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Posted in Bran Hambric, Writing
Tags: Book 2, Bran Hambric, Elmer Fudd, Twilight

I just got back from the Twilight movie premiere a few days ago, and it was honestly a blast. For the trip, I had to be up around 2 AM in order to catch a flight and arrive on time. I was coming a day early so that I could be a panelist at Twilight Live, which was a podcast they were doing before the premiere. People had been lined up around the block for the event since the night before. Lucky for me, I had badges.

There were a lot of firsts on that trip. It was my first movie premiere, my first time to California, and my first time to stand on a red carpet. It was my first time to meet any fans, first time to be recognized in public, first time to be asked for an autograph, and first time to meet actual celebrities. It was also my first time to have passes to a green room, where the stars hang out while waiting for the event to start. I will allow everyone to imagine that it looked like this:

Our Green Room (note the green, hence the name)

During the premiere, I got photos with nearly everyone involved, including the main woman herself, Stephenie Meyer (who I wanted to see more than any of the other stars). I’ve been wanting to meet her in person for a while, after I missed her in an epic fail by not going to her Dallas, TX, book signing (the subsequent emails from people chiding me for not coming when my name was called over the intercom were punishment enough to make me set on being in LA). We even got video and photos together:

Me and Stephenie Meyer

I have loads of photos with people there, which you can see here.

There was so much that happened there, it is impossible to sum it up into words. After the premiere, I was taken to the Twicon afterparty, where I got to hang out with lots more awesome people at the top of the Hotel Angeleno, where a jazz band was playing live music. I got to meet some fans who won a contest for entry and talk to Michael Welch’s made-of-awesome mom, as well as a bunch of people involved in the Twicon planning (at which I will be a special guest next year).

One of the best parts was finally meeting all these people I know online and from Youtube in the Twilight community — of which I have only been a part for 7 months, and yet have been welcomed into so warmly. I was also shocked to find how genuinely nice the movie people and their agents were (I don’t know why I expected everyone in the movie business to be beastly trolls):

Beastly Troll

When we got back to our hotel, we realized there was a desperate demand for videos, so I immediately uploaded my Rob and Stephenie clips (this is only possible through the use of a Flip camera, which is one of the most awesome devices on the face of the earth). The Robert Pattinson interview got about 33,000 views in 1 day, and the Stephenie Meyer one isn’t far behind.

My video blog about the event is here if anyone wants to see footage of the event and exactly how much screaming was going on:

So it was honestly one of the greatest days of my life, and later on I saw the movie, which was hilarious and far better than I was even expecting (see my review here).

Someone on my other website pointed out to me how strange it was: how I’ve come from writing about how Bella should drive a fire truck, to being on the red carpet for the movie. What would have happened if I had decided to take my blog down months ago, as I had planned? How would things be different for me? It is strange how things happen the way they do.

Just in today: they announced there will be a New Moon movie. I guess that means I have another premiere to look forward to

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Posted in Stephenie Meyer, TwilightGuy, Videos
Tags: Robert Pattinson, Stephenie Meyer, Twilight

For those of you who do not follow my TwilightGuy blog, I was recently invited to the red carpet at the Twilight movie premiere. If you don’t follow TwilightGuy, then you probably aren’t a Twilight fan, and thus I’ll explain that Twilight is a film based off a book by the same name, by Stephenie Meyer, and is the most-hyped film of this season. The books have been at #1 on the NY Times for a gobzillion weeks. If you haven’t heard of them, you must really live in a cave.

Where you might live

I will also be appearing at an event at Borders Westwood the day before called TwilightLive. Multiple hundreds of people are expected to show up, so if you are planning to stalk me or Bailey, show up early. They are handing out wristbands, and once those run out they won’t let you in. Don’t worry, it’s not just me there — a ginormous amount of the cast from the movie will also be showing up. And, it’s free. And, since I am flying out at 3 AM, you will get to see me in as close to a vampiric/zombie state as ever.

I will be uploading loads of videos from the premiere to my Youtube channel, so if you’re into that sort of thing (AKA as close as you can possibly get to people like Rob Pattinson, Kristin Stewart, Stephenie Meyer, etc) then you might want to subscribe. I’ll only post them here when I get back home, so you’ll see them first on my channel.

And, I might do a live BlogTV from there. So, for any of that stuffs, you might want to regularly check TwilightGuy. Wish me luck!

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Posted in Stephenie Meyer, TwilightGuy
Tags: Stephenie Meyer, Twilight

Yesterday, I was able to talk to Robert Pattinson as a part of an interview conference call, and ask him one question. Rob plays the lead role of Edward Cullen in Twilight, the upcoming film based on the novel by Stephenie Meyer.

My question (and its follow-up) are in the video below or on my Youtube channel:

It is so funny, since months ago I didn’t know who this person was, and in fact announced my own (fake) part in the Twilight movie just days before he signed on (and months before I even started reading the books). Never thought I would actually get to talk to him on the phone one day.

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Posted in Interviews, TwilightGuy
Tags: Edward Cullen, Robert Pattinson, Twilight

This was one of the hardest songs for me to write, and I very nearly threw it out completely on the first day. But I came back the next morning, rewrote the piano and added a guitar, and ended up making one of my favorite pieces.

The reason I think this song was so hard to make is because Bran’s character is so complex to me — and like many things in The Farfield Curse, his story is both happy and sad at the same time. I feel that this song helps to set him and his history to music, and fits especially well after the Prologue, when I imagine Bran would be growing up without any idea of The Farfield Curse — a time when he is just a boy named Bran, and yet is destined for great things he has yet to discover.

Listen below, and if you like it, there are more songs I’ve composed on the music page:

TITLE:	A Boy Named Bran	November 2008
ALBUM:	Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse [Official Soundtrack]
ARTIST:	Kaleb Nation
STYLE:	Classical/Soundtrack
LENGTH:	2:57
	DOWNLOAD NOT AVAILABLE

Also, check out the teaser site at BranHambric.com to download two of the songs for free, or the Bran Hambric Music Myspace for more.

For the comments: tell me what you think of this song — and for those who have read the preview chapters, do you think it fits well with Bran ?

(ADDED: if you haven’t read the preview chapters, email me and I can send them)

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Posted in Bran Hambric, My Music
Tags: Bran Hambric, music, Soundtrack