Check out this fun interview I did with the awesome people at ClevverTV! I talk about Bran Hambric, writing the books, and why I have so many creepy gnomes!
Also, the preorders for the Kindle edition of Bran Hambric: The Specter Key have opened! You can find them here.
Wow, we’re so close to 10/10/10 and the release of the second Bran Hambric book, BRAN HAMBRIC: THE SPECTER KEY! Less than two months now before it’s out! I just heard from my publishers that they’ve started getting stuff ready for the national tour, which means that in the coming months I’ll finally be able to post the dates and cities I’ll be visiting.
For now, here’s the third chapter in the series of previews I’m doing leading up to 10/10/10. Hope you enjoy! Remember, you can now preorder the book online and in stores, so if you like it so far, you’ll want to make sure you get it the day it’s out (or, like last year, a few days earlier than the stores get it!).
I’m glad so many of you enjoyed the preview of Chapter 1 of my upcoming novel BRAN HAMBRIC: THE SPECTER KEY! Now that we’re one month closer to 10/10/10 and the giant launch, here’s another free preview from the book with Chapter 2!
Hope you enjoy it and be sure to check back for more previews coming soon. You can read it below or click here to download a PDF:
Many years ago, when I finished the first draft of BRAN HAMBRIC: THE FARFIELD CURSE, I launched BranHambric.com and posted the first few chapters as a preview of my novel-in-progress. Now, nearly 10,000 downloads and a real publisher later, those preview chapters (in various degrees of editing) have crawled their way across the internet, and worked as a wonderful introduction for thousands of readers to the world of Bran Hambric.
I like the idea of letting readers preview a book before they buy it. If you were buying the book in a store, you’d be able to read as many chapters as you wanted. That’s why unlike most book previews, mine are usually a good chunk of the novel (the first one was the whole first 50 pages!). So I’ve decided to keep this tradition up with my next book.
In honor of June 17, Bran Hambric’s birthday, I’ve uploaded the first preview chapter of my upcoming sequel BRAN HAMBRIC: THE SPECTER KEY. This book is the second part in the Bran Hambric series. I will be uploading ONE preview chapter a month, leading up to 10/10/10 — the release date of the novel.
This is one of the most amazing things that a BranFan has made for my books. “Dying Breath” is a new song by Adrienne Frailey, which was inspired by my book Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse. Adrienne has made some songs for Bran Hambric before, but this time she’s gone totally pro with a real studio and seven new and original songs.
It sounds like something that might be on a Bran Hambric movie soundtrack. Adrienne continues to amaze me with her talent and the stuff she creates. She writes about “Dying Breath”…
This is a song inspired by the end of the prologue of “Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse” by Kaleb Nation, during the part where Emry has to quickly decide how to save Bran, who is at the time six-years-old. I imagined that if she’d had any time at all to sing a lullaby to her sleeping son, knowing she wouldn’t be returning to him, this is what she might sing.
Adrienne is even letting BranFans download the song for free AT THIS LINK.
There are seven more songs like this that were inspired by my book on her Youtube channel, so be sure to listen to the others! I have a clip in my video above, but to hear the full thing, watch her video:
When writing a book, I have the tendency to write too much book. My first novel had at least 20,000 words knocked off before it was published, and even then it probably could have been scaled back another 5,000. For BRAN HAMBRIC: THE SPECTER KEY, my editor chopped out 30,000 words right from the start: literally severing about 1/4 of my novel. I suppose writing too much is a far better issue than writing too little: except, of course, when you have to watch 30,000 of your little children meet their doom 😀
BRAN HAMBRIC: THE FARFIELD CURSE took nearly six years to write. The original story was finished in about six months, leaving the remainder to editing and rewriting — so much that little of the original wording was left in the final draft that was published, though the story and plot were closely the same. Commonly, there are certain scenes that are taken out of the book entirely, usually because they simply have no place. If the book can stand on its own without a scene, then there’s no point in that scene being there.
So for the BranFans, I’m posting a very old, barely edited excerpt from the original BRAN HAMBRIC: THE FARFIELD CURSE (then it was, THE FARFIELD PLOT). As you will see, this is an example of the type of thing that doesn’t belong in a book. It’s a scene I had fun writing when I was 14, but inevitably does nothing to further the plot.
I’ve prefaced this so you don’t take this as an example of my writing and go “Fah! What nonsense! I’m tossing this book in the trash compactor immediately!” or something similar. Also keep in mind if you haven’t read the book, you won’t understand this at all. Without further ado, you can download it here(PDF) or read below:
In celebration of seven years since 3/3/03, I’m very proud to finally show off the cover art for BRAN HAMBRIC: THE SPECTER KEY!
Most BranFans already know this, but I started writing the first book (Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse) late at night on March 3 of 2003. Every year I try to do something special to commemorate the day that in some ways started this entire journey!
The artwork is by the amazing Brandon Dorman, who also did the cover for my first book. As you will see when you finally get to read BH:TSK, the color green is very fitting for many, many reasons 😉
Be sure to head over to BranHambric.com for more details on the book. As always, you can follow me or @BranHambric on Twitter for the latest news. Happy Branniversary!
FINALLY: the NATIONEERS shirts have arrived! I’ve had these designed for a week now, but I wanted to order them myself before I opened the shop, to make sure they were good quality. And as you can see, they turned out amazing!
You can order these and many others, including a Bran Hambric logo or emblem shirt, at
In a few days, I’ll be making a video showing the shirts. Keep an eye out for that, because there’ll be prizes 😀
IF YOU BUY A SHIRT and want your photo possibly featured on my site or in my videos, send pictures to [email protected].
ABOUT THE SHIRTS: one of the important reasons I ordered these shirts first is because I wanted to see what type of cloth it was actually printed on. Sometimes, with these print shops, they’ll use cheap shirts that are really thin and unwearable. HOWEVER: these shirts are VERY high quality. They aren’t like the thin undershirt you might get other places: they’re comfortable enough to be worn for pretty much anything. I’m wearing one now (yes, it is weird looking down and seeing my own face).
This is a photo frame that the girls from Remakers Productions just posted from their upcoming Bran Hambric video. It’s Shambles. Wowwww.
I tell you, all the BranFans on Youtube keep surprising me. I’m waiting around for this video as if it was the real Bran Hambric movie or something. Check out some of their other videos so you can see why I’m so excited for this one 😀
And while I’m talking about BranFans: here’s one from last year that’s still super awesome, which Adrienne has on her site for a free download.
It feels a bit odd finishing your second novel. It’s almost as if when I finished the first one, for some reason I thought I was done. And even now that THE SPECTER KEY is complete, there are still four left to write. You’ll be seeing lots of Bran and I for the next few years 🙂
This video was shot with my new Canon EOS Rebel T1i. I made it all myself. The new camera is just that good 😀
