Here’s something an awesome BranFan just uploaded to YouTube! Bella Rocks!, a Twilight-inspired band, has released a brand-new song — but this time, it is inspired by my own book, Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse:
This is just another example of how wonderful the Twilight fandom has been to me, when barely over a year ago I was a complete outsider who knew nothing about the books! Words just cannot express how it feels to see someone so inspired by my writing that they create works of their own based on it. Even more so, as the book isn’t even OUT yet for another FOUR months, the song is based entirely on what happens in the first four preview chapters! Please go send some love Katie’s way and check out her awesome Twilight music.
Katie will be appearing at Summer School In Forks on June 25 – 28 (I will also be there to deliver my Keynote Address). Be sure to check out the event if you want to see her live!
QUESTION FOR THE COMMENTS: What do you think of Katie’s song (if you’ve read the preview, do you think it fits well with the prologue?). Also, what should we call this genre of music: gnome rock? A Bran Band? 😀
Yes, I am taking trapeze lessons next month, with world-famous celebrity superstar YA author MAUREEN JOHNSON. Wish me luck (and plenty of ropes, nets, supports and cushions).
As part of school finals for my Digital Photography and Design class, I am required to present a twenty-photo body of work to show off the skills I’ve learned this semester. Never one to veer far from the predictable, I chose Gnomes In The Home as my subject:
To get these exactly right, I had to take nearly 300 photographs, and pick the best ones for the project. Anyone who has read the preview chapters of my book will catch tiny inside jokes mingled in with the photos. Special thanks to those fans who have mailed me gnomes over the past few months. They look quite nice staring back at me from my bookshelf!
My publishers have announced that they will be bringing me to Book Expo America this year, which is the largest annual book trade event in the US. It will be my first appearance as a writer, and my debut into the professional literary world. My publishers will be showcasing Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse in their booth (currently #3977) to countless booksellers, librarians, teachers and publishing insiders who will be attending. Excitement? MUCH.
For those of you who might be wary of approaching the Sourcebooks booth, I’m told there will be a collection of Advance Reader Copies of my book sitting out that are Completely Free Of Charge. Yes. Free books. For the taking. BEFORE 9/9/09.
I haven’t actually been told how many books will be available, so if you’re one of those people who happen to be in the book business, and absolutely, positively NEED a copy of Bran Hambric NOW or you’ll lament in sackcloth and ashes, then please come see us at your earliest possible convenience. I plan to wear a very large coat, which will end up with a bit more stuffing than when I came in, and multiple ARC’s having mysteriously disappeared from the Sourcebooks booth. Shhh. Don’t rat me out.
Since there will be ARC’s, which are basically paperback versions of my book, I will also have my very first book signing on Friday, May 29, at 11:00 AM! If you are at the event, or are interested in registering, I really hope you will stop by. Of course, I’ll have plenty of photos and YouTube videos from the event, too.
(For those who are wondering just how big this event is, check out this video). (ADDED: here’s a video:)
This is awesome. Katie from BellaRocksMusic is writing a song for Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse called “Emry’s Farewell”! I absolutely love what she’s done so far, because it really captures the feeling of Emry leaving in the beginning of the book (you can see this in the preview chapters and compare for yourself).
It amazes me that already, someone is writing a song about the book, when it isn’t even out until September! Watch the video above for a preview.
The Bran Hambric Soundtrack hasn’t yet been released (and there’s still one more song for me to finish!) but I’ve decided to give away my own proof version of the CD! To enter, all you have to do is follow me on Twitter. I will pick a winner after midnight on Tuesday April 28. After that, I’ll do a contest a month for my Twitter followers!
I will have news about the Bran Hambric soundtrack coming soon. However, I do know for certain there will be a CD, and it will be released sometime before the book.
For those of you who haven’t been following every slight movement of my book on Amazon.com (as I certainly have 😀 ), I am very pleased to inform you that BRAN HAMBRIC: THE FARFIELD CURSE went all the way up to #350 on the book rankings (#89 in the 9-12 age group)! This happened a mere four hours after I put my Youtube video up about it, causing the absolute best fans and readers in the entire world to go pre-order the book in a huge rush. Seriously, I’ve never seen ANYTHING like this before (as you can probably tell by my reaction when the number got that high!).
The biggest and most awesome thing about this is that my publishers haven’t even begun: in fact, I’m not even listed as their author on the Sourcebooks website! So, if the book is getting this much exposure this early on, with hardly any promotion at all, it is dizzying to imagine what might happen when things really get rolling.
There’s even more awesome stuff still in development that we’ll be pushing out in the next few months. This week, I just completed a page for BranFans.com. In the future, this will be a full website of its own for the fans. At the moment, you can download awesome Bran Hambric wallpapers, three of the songs from the soundtrack, buttons, images — if you see the page, it really is stuffed! But the best part in my opinion are the widgets:
That’s one of them, like a mini Bran Hambric website for your page, and you have probably seen the other tall one in the sidebar. Right now there are three awesome ones to choose from, so if you run a blog or have a website, you can help spread the word about the book! Visit BranFans.com to check them out.
Also, if you haven’t already noticed, I’ve totally transformed my site into Bran Hambric territory, as well as my Youtube channel (you’ll only see this really if you’ve got a widescreen monitor). How’s it look?
I don’t know what kind soul was linking to the Amazon listing, but I’m told it went all the way past #5000, which is unheardof for an unknown, gnat-sized writer such as myself. Most of my friends tell me they started out in the 1 millions. This is entirely thanks to you devoted people who actually found it and started ordering before I even had the chance to pass it around! So thank you for kicking this off so perfectly — it gives me the confidence I really need as we get into the hard work of promoting it 🙂
If you’d like to pre-order, head on over to BranHambric.com/buy (Borders, B&N and others will be forthcoming as soon as they have it on their sites). As I said in the video, how can you possibly buy a book without sampling it first? So check out the preview chapters if you haven’t already. And, my sincere thanks to everyone who invests in my dreams early on 🙂
I am away from my computer with all my files, and the internet here is super slow: but, I’ve been informed that PREORDERS FOR BRAN HAMBRIC: THE FARFIELD CURSE have officially OPENED A MONTH EARLY on Amazon.com! If my great usage of CAPS hasn’t yet convinced you, I will say this is super exciting and means that finally, my book is actually on sale:
Links on BN and Borders will be coming very soon, I’m told (as well as a better post, when I’m home). But for now, I’ve been cleared to tell everyone about the Amazon.com link! Enjoy 😀
NOTE: I told people on my BlogTV show yesterday not to order the book until May 9, but my publishers told me today you can order it ANYTIME.
