There are some new features to point on on my site, and a bunch of little updates that I’ve been meaning to post, but just didn’t seem to merit an entire blog to themselves! So without further ado:

- I added an entirely new Fans page, where I’ll be posting some of the awesome stuff that BranFans are making. Creative people are always sending in photos or pictures they drew, so I’ll be collecting and putting them on that page, along with all their cool fansites and videos and music,

- I now have an Official Facebook page, aptly located at www.Facebook.com/KalebNation. It is fan-run, but I will be dropping in at times to post updates,

- I have migrated the TwilightGuy.com Chatroom to jointly be a part of this site, so BranFans and TwilightGuy readers alike can hang out. I’ll be dropping in at random times and there are a ton of cool people there every day, so be sure to check it out,

- I uploaded a new song from the Bran Hambric soundtrack to YouTube, and you can also download it for free! Listen below:

Can’t see it? Click here.

Question time! Since there are only 85 days until Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse, I’ve been trying to think of cool stuff I should prepare as a countdown to the book release. I know that Stephenie Meyer always did some type of countdown where she would give quotes from the book a week or two leading up to the release. This would be a bit difficult for me to pull off since this is a first book, and nobody really knows who the characters are or what I’d be talking about. The only way anyone would understand it was if I forced them to read the preview chapters. FOR EXAMPLE:

“Oh terrible nights of woe and destruction, as I break down and blow up all forms of construction!” he screamed in delight.

If you had never read the book or preview chapters, you might think that Bran had said this under the guise of the pronoun ‘he’, and suddenly feel to your horror that the book you undoubtedly pre-ordered (because ALL GOOD CITIZENS have preordered Bran Hambric*) is actually about a fat brat who likes being brazenly destructive**. ANOTHER EXAMPLE:

“Blast the library,” Sewey said. “We’re going where we can be as loud as we want and not get thrown out!”

“Yay, the zoo!” Balder oinked.

“No,” Sewey snorted. “A bookstore.”

In this case, while the characters are obviously not Bran, you might come to the conclusion that Sewey and Balder are Bran’s pet pigs who happen to talk***, which he keeps in his bedroom closet. Or, to your utter disgust, you might assume that Sewey and Balder are two friends of Bran’s, and that the line afterward would be

“Yes! Let’s burn all the books while we’re at it, comrades!” Bran Hambric sneered, whilst throwing rocks at old ladies and bending over to punch a small rabbit.****

which isn’t at all the case, at least with the book I wrote.

I don’t even know how I got onto that tangent, but as some people have mentioned, there are some of you who would still like a quotes-countdown. You can at least be sure that I’ve got a bunch of plans together to make it lots of fun before the release date!

QUESTION FOR THE COMMENTS: What are some cool things and ideas you would like to see happen as part of the Bran Hambric countdown?

——NOTES——

*Obvious attempt at brainwashing

** No offense to those of you who are like this: I happen to have a character for you in the book, whose name also begins with the letter ‘B’.

*** Unfortunately, there are no talking pigs in Bran Hambric.

**** This does not appear in Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse. I am not barring it as a possibility from the sequel, however.

20 comments »
Posted in Bran Hambric, My Music
Tags: Bran Hambric, Emry Hambric, music

I just received news this morning from my wonderful foreign rights agents that the Russian translation for BRAN HAMBRIC: THE FARFIELD CURSE has been sold to Eksmo, one of the largest publishing houses in Russia. Eksmo is well known for many authors, but especially for being the first Russian publishers of the ARTEMIS FOWL series.

Of course, I am wildly thrilled at this news. I hadn’t expected any foreign interest in Bran Hambric until the book was out and selling in the United States. But as with most happenings surrounding this book, I was delightfully surprised to see things unfold even better than I had thought. In fact, it was so unexpected, that the first I heard about the deal was this morning in an email! It was quite a wonderful thing to wake up to.

Seeing the books that Eksmo has put out so far (Artemis Fowl being one of my all-time favorite series) I have great confidence in this deal. I don’t know their release date for the book or what the cover will look like yet — I’ll keep my site updated with anything I get on that, because I can’t wait to see how Bran Hambric looks in Russian!

Also, it is worth noting that once one country picks up foreign rights, it is quite common for many other countries to start reporting back from reviewing the advance copies they picked up at the London Book Fair. So for those of you who are eagerly awaiting Bran Hambric in your countries, I am more confident than ever before that we will soon get some good news for others around the world!

16 comments »
Posted in Bran Hambric
Tags: Bran Hambric, Russia

Now that I’ve finally slithered out of bed (after recuperating from jetlag thanks to hitting both US coasts in the same week!) I’ve been delightfully surprised to discover a whole wave of great new stuff from the BranFans! It has been a thrill seeing all the wonderful people already involved in the Bran Hambric fandom — with still just under 100 days left before the full book is even out!

For starters, check out this song from the wonderfully talented Adrienne Frailey, who wrote it as a tribute to Bran Hambric and recently recorded it between studio sessions for her upcoming album:

Can’t see it? Click here.

Not only that, but a ton of BranFans have been using music from the soundtrack in their own YouTube video creations! Here is one by HideTheMushrooms on YouTube that uses my song The Box In The Bookstore (which you can download for free) to make a music video interpretation of the song (I like how since no one has read up to the actual box-in-the-bookstore scene in the preview chapters, the video makers invented their own ending ):

Can’t see it? Click here.

I’ve been using Google recently to help keep up with the Bran buzz, and I’ve spotted a whole assortment of really cool startup fansites for the book: like the BranHambricLexicon.com, BranHambricFansite, BranHambricByKN, TeamBranFans on YouTube (complete with another original song by Ethan, inspired by The Farfield Curse!), and a couple Bran Hambric and Kaleb Nation fan pages on Facebook. I’m amazed at how much all of these sites (and any I might have missed!) are doing to help spread the word about Bran Hambric!

And as for all the music: I’m so happy that there are already so many songs inspired by the book, when all anyone has read so far is the preview chapters! If you missed it, the Twilight-inspired band Bella Rocks! also has a song called “Emry’s Farewell” based on the prologue of the book. As an author, who created these characters and names and places, it feels wonderful seeing others find creative ways to take on my world.

A lot of the art that is used in these videos and websites is available for free from BranFans.com, including special computer wallpapers, buttons and widgets. Plus, at BranHambricMusic.com, you can now download four of the songs from the Bran Hambric soundtrack (and listen to nearly all of the others!). Kudos to all the great people for using their talents to make all this cool stuff

FOR THE COMMENTS: What do you think of all the great Bran Hambric music and sites that are appearing?

9 comments »
Posted in Bran Hambric, Videos
Tags: Bran Hambric, music

Can’t see it? Click here.

Book Expo America 2009 was a BLAST! It is quite an amazing thing to go into an airplane-hangar-sized conference hall, and be surrounded by others from your own world of writing and publishing. I met countless authors and got a stack of books (including an advance copy of Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, a signed copy of the Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, and loads more).

My book signing for The Farfield Curse started at 11:00 AM, and there was already a short line formed. Once the time hit, people began to come from everywhere, and the signing didn’t really stop! There were so many people, we actually ran out of books, so that by the time the signing was over I simply couldn’t sign any more because there were none left to hand out. Hopefully this is a good sign for how it will do in stores

I was interviewed for Borders Media by the one and only Pel from the Twilight Lexicon. It was a bit odd since it was my first film interview, and I had never been in a studio set up like it. There were five cameras, all set up at different angles, and they wired me up with a microphone and had lighting hanging all around. I also had to get film makeup put on — a first for me, and a bit itchy (it had to be explained to me that you actually have to wash it off afterward, ha ha). After BEA we headed over to Books Of Wonder, where I saw Tiger Beat play. Tiger Beat is a rock band entirely made of YA authors, with my editor Daniel Ehrenhaft on lead guitar and Libba Bray doing vocals. YES they were very good.

Even more exciting was the nearly-half-page article about me, TwilightGuy.com and my Twitter/Youtube stuff in Publishers Weekly. As with the opening of pre-orders and the signing of Brandon Dorman, publishers generally tell their authors nothing until after we’ve read about it in the papers: I learned via the article that Bran Hambric will have front-of-store placement at Borders bookstore and a 75,000 copy first printing! There are no extra zeroes in that number. It was easily 4 times what I was expecting!

Here are some photos from the event (special thanks to my friend Becka for taking them!)

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THIS POST >>>

18 comments »
Posted in About Me, Bran Hambric, Photos, Videos
Tags: BEA, Book Expo America, Book Signing, Borders, Bran Hambric, Maureen Johnson, Publishers Weekly, Twilight Lexicon

As you can see, the Advance Reader Copies of BRAN HAMBRIC: THE FARFIELD CURSE have finally arrived! Here’s video of me opening the box from my publishers and going a bit nutty when I hold my book for the first time

Can’t see it? Click here.

This moment was truly one of the biggest in my life: getting to hold this book was somewhat symbolic of six years of work on this story and the characters. Of course I’m thrilled to finally be able to see it in print: and very soon, it will be in bookstores all across the country (in hardcover, of course!).

These ARCs and those my publisher still have will now be sent out to key media people and reviewers who will help to promote the book before it comes out. There will also be many ARCs available at Book Expo America coming up at the end of next week, where I will have my first book signing! I’ll make sure there’s plenty of video of that for those of you who can’t make it

If you’d like, you can download the first five chapters of the book completely free at BranHambric.com, as well as pre-order it from nearly any bookstore!

50 comments »
Posted in Bran Hambric, Videos
Tags: ARCs, BEA, Books, Bran Hambric