Bran Hambric

Posts about the Bran Hambric series of books by Kaleb Nation. Includes The Farfield Curse and The Specter Key.

Brandon Dorman Will Illustrate The Farfield Curse

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Brandon Dorman, the award winning illustrator of SAVVY and FABLEHAVEN, has signed on to illustrate the upcoming novel BRAN HAMBRIC: THE FARFIELD CURSE, by Kaleb Nation. Dorman’s cover art for SAVVY by Ingrid Law was chosen as the ” “favorite book jacket of 2008” by Publisher’s Weekly. His previous works also include covers for the FARWORLD and GOOSEBUMPS series.

THE FARFIELD CURSE is the first in a new series of books by Kaleb Nation. In THE FARFIELD CURSE, a boy named Bran Hambric discovers he is at the center of a plot that started years before he was even born: the plot of a deadly curse his mother created that her former masters are now hunting for him to complete. The novel is set to release in stores Fall of 2009 from Sourcebook Jabberwocky.

Kaleb Nation began writing THE FARFIELD CURSE when he was fourteen years old. Now 20, he attends college in Texas and blogs regularly at www.kalebnation.com. THE FARFIELD CURSE is his debut novel.

More info on the illustrator can be found at www.BrandonDorman.com. More info on Bran Hambric can be found at www.BranHambric.com

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I can’t even begin to say how long I’ve waited to announce this!

Here is how it happened. A month or two ago, I emailed my editor the names of two illustrators I really liked, hoping that he would take a look and consider them doing the cover. He wrote back saying they were already far ahead of me, and were in talks with my top pick for the illustrator before he even got my message! So in the end, and through wonderful fate, my publishers signed on my dream illustrator without even knowing.

Readers of my blog might recall me listing some of my favorite covers months ago, and it turns out that Brandon did one of them:

dorman22

dorman17

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His artwork is stunningly colorful, and I’m certain he will do a wonderful job for The Farfield Curse! This also means that Brandon will most likely do the entire series: just like Brett Helquist did all the Lemony Snicket books, and Mary GrandPre did all the Harry Potter’s, it looks as if Brandon will be the illustrator for Bran Hambric!

He has already finished the early draft sketches of the cover art, one of which will turn into the final cover for the book. I doubt it will be any longer than 3 months (and perhaps, drastically shorter) before the cover is finally ready!

Question for the comments: What do you think of Brandon Dorman’s art? Do you think he’ll do well for the Bran Hambric cover?

3/3/03 – 6 Years Later [Video]

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As part of this wonderful Branniversary, I will obviously be posting on my blog three times in a single day! This is a video I made earlier that goes back through parts of writing the book and the different drafts through the years. It’s NOT the big news I mentioned earlier, so check back later today for that post!

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3-3-09: Six Years After The Idea

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Today is the third day of the third month: and exactly six years ago, I had an idea that changed my life.

The photos above represent bits and pieces of those six years — from the first idea, to plotting the story, to the various titles, to the deal — and my first early steps in writing. Now, in about six months, the book will finally be out. When I first started on this story, I had no way of foreseeing that it would actually work out, and I would finish it. Now, I’m happy that I finally did.

Later this evening, I will be announcing the first bit of major news regarding The Farfield Curse. I plan to have it up here by 7 PM CST, barring any sudden distraction that comes up (I will Twitter the news immediately when it is up, so you’ll know). In the words of my project editor: Happy Branniversary!

The Wall Of Drawings [Music]

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NOTE: You can download this song for free. Click the link below the preview!

In the beginning of writing The Farfield Curse, I had a particularly hard time connecting with Bran. This, obviously, was not a good predicament, as the main character should usually be the one the author connects with the most.

I later realized that the reason for this was because I was suppressing who he really was, in favor of who I wanted him to be. When I came to this conclusion, all of a sudden Bran seemed to explode off the page in front of me with all these new facets to his character: one of these, which followed automatically, was his penchant for drawing. I discovered that Bran was actually more like me than any other character in the book – just as I connected with my writing, so also did Bran connect with his drawing. This small piece of Bran’s life, that has nothing to do with magic, is an enormous part of who he is.

In a way, this song seems to represent for me the wall in Bran’s room that is covered with drawings, and all the stories that are connected to each piece of paper.


TITLE: 		The Wall of Drawings December 2008
ALBUM: Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse [Official Soundtrack]
ARTIST: Kaleb Nation
STYLE: Classical/Soundtrack
LENGTH: 2:39
[audio:http://kalebnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/5-bran-hambric-the-farfield-curse-the-wall-of-drawings.mp3|rightbg=0x5b5ea4]
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD FOR FREE

As always, there are plenty more on my music page. Also, I have another song almost ready (the one I played a preview clip of in BlogTV last week) that might be in another video I’m working on. As usual, if you want preview chapters of the book, email me or check out BranHambric.com for more info.

Opinions in the comments are welcome!

The Box In The Bookstore [Music]

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NOTE: For two weeks, you can download this song for free. Click the link below the preview!

I always liked making songs that sounded somewhat mysterious, but as it happened most of music I’ve made so far has been slow and happy (besides the Prologue song on all the websites). On Saturday I had some free time, so I sat down with a specific part of The Farfield Curse in mind, and tried to set that part of the book to music — and surprisingly enough, the song came out all in a few hours.

In the beginning of The Farfield Curse, Bran is found locked in a vault with no memory of who he is. Years later, when he is 14, he is nearly kidnapped by someone who knows far too much about him, and he realizes there is something dark in his past he hasn’t yet discovered. Searching for the truth leads him to a bookstore, where he discovers something hidden amongst the very townspeople who try so hard to outlaw magic. This song represents the part in the book where Bran first begins to realize how big of a thing he is getting himself into: and how dark and sinister his past could be.


TITLE: 		The Box In The Bookstore December 2008
ALBUM: Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse [Official Soundtrack]
ARTIST: Kaleb Nation
STYLE: Classical/Soundtrack
LENGTH: 2:33
[audio:http://kalebnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/6-bran-hambric-the-farfield-curse-the-box-in-the-bookstore.mp3|rightbg=0x5b5ea4]
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD FOR FREE (Until Dec. 14)

If you like it there are plenty more on my music page (also, I have another one coming soon, so maybe subscribe in the sidebar or check back for that one). Also, check out the Bran Hambric music Myspace and as usual, if you want preview chapters, email me or check out BranHambric.com for more info on the book.

For the comments: What do you think of this song? Does it seem to portray what I was trying to show?

The Grave Of Emry Hambric [Music]

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I know that most of you have not read The Farfield Curse in its entirety yet (as it’s not out until 2009), and even those who have read parts probably do not know well enough about the characters to actually care who Emry Hambric is. I won’t attempt to explain it because I’d really have to write the whole book out for it to be understood, but hopefully my new song will help you imagine the feeling at the end of the first book:

[audio:http://kalebnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/bran-hambric-the-farfield-curse-the-grave-of-emry-hambric-end-score.mp3|rightbg=0x5b5ea4]

The ending is a mixture of hope and a little sadness, a happy ending but tinged a little, and in a way I feel this song echoes how the first book concludes.

If you like my music or my other songs, I have two that you can download for free on a hidden page at BranHambric.com. I’ll have more news on the book soundtrack closer to the release in late 2009.

There is some about Emry in the prologue of the book (and a song for the Prologue as well, on the Music page) so I can also email preview chapters of The Farfield Curse if you want to get a better feel of who she is. Email me and I’ll try to get previews out as quick as I can.

This song is a first draft so opinions are welcome!

[note: email subscribers must visit the site to hear audio]

Me Versus Impending Deadlines

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Yoiks, it’s been over a week since I have posted an update, and loads of stuff has been happening. To start off, I just landed an interview with a very famous author, who happens to own the number 1 spot on the New York Times, and has owned it for nearly a year. I asked half of my questions about the books and the other half about tips for writers. So, look forward to some really cool answers given by my mysterious interview shortly.

In other news, many of you probably know me by now as The TwilightGuy, thanks to Stephenie Meyer and her glorious millions of fans and readers (I think my Official Fan ID Number is #4,546,768– I got in on it late). Well, after three months of painstakingly slow reading, with my TwilightGuy.com commentary on each chapter, I’ve finished the first book in the series, and I’m now moving on to the sequel, New Moon, as evidenced in the following photos:

My professional portrait photographer, who only appears to be a broken lamp-pole converted into a tripod and a self-timing camera, posed a nearby gnome with my newly-purchased book:

Gnome Loves New Moon

The TwilightGuy website has been an enormous success so far, thanks to all the loyal readers and everyone who gave me a chance when I was just starting out. It’s passed 750,000 hits in just 3 short months, with emails in the hundreds and comments in the thousands. And to think the day I bought the site, I thought I was wasting my time.

As for me, I have a new alibi for becoming an increasingly-invisible blogger over here. My new excuse is that I have a deadline for my revisions that is impending. If you don’t know what impending means, think of a steam train rapidly approaching around the bend, while your car is stuck between the crossing guards (people who have read my book snicker here).

Impending

In the above example, the train is impending. My deadline is approaching in a similar fashion, except instead of being brought with steam and locomotion, my deadline is surrounded by the awful, wretched, pounding, abysmal, never-ending beat of the music from the apartment nearby (see, Trolls). Word from someone else on campus is that our resident trolls converted a car stereo into a home sound system. My poor head. Their poor eardrums.

Between beats of their bass box, I have managed to get a lot of revisions done either here or at the cafe. And it is in that I have a confession to make. I, unfortunately, was forced to axe a character.

Oh the woe: this character who was formerly in a scene and now is not. What makes it worse, though, is that I chopped her entire scene clean out. So not only is the character gone, but her car as well- and her sister garbed in purple furs, her sister’s car, and Sewey’s sandwich, and Ben’s sandwich, and Trolan’s sandwich, and the dust bunny Sewey found under the chair and threw at Trolan. All of it is gone, like a bunch of ghosts who will now wander somewhere in the space-time continuum, that were there one second and now suddenly are not. None of you have any clue at all who she is, or rather who she was: but from now until eternity I will be haunted by her ghost when I read the place where she formerly was: Fool! You dare to remove me from the story? Have you no mercy? Feel my wrath!

Luckily, she was an unpleasant character. And, my consolation is that she actually does appear in the second book (if I don’t axe her from that as well), which makes it not like turning her into a ghost, but more like tossing her into jail for a short amount of time: right next to the dozens of other characters I’ve edited from the story over the years. Sometimes, everyone simply does not fit. Chop chop! No character is safe when my editing axe is sharp.

You should be hearing from me again soon, when I get that interview finished. I’m really excited about it.

Pizza, Revisions and Trolls

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There are many very important stages in getting a book published, and one of them is known as Editing.

Since this is my first book I’m very new to all of this, and thus parts of it are slightly painful as my body adjusts to 2AM nights, all meals comprised of microwave or delivery foods, sheer lack of outside communication besides instant messenger, and headaches from screen-staring that no amount of Tylenol will drive out. My alarm clock is set to noon, or not at all.

I’m certain that not all writers out there subject themselves to these torturous routines (if my editor knew he’d probably remind me calmly that my deadline is NOT next week or anything). Still. I’m new, and if I gain twenty pounds, earn blue circles under my eyes, and never eat another delivery pizza again, this book will be finished before deadline and it will bloody well be edited to perfection.

Speaking of delivery pizza, heard of the Domino’s Gotham City Pizza? It’s a large with crust-to-crust cloaking in pepperoni. It was on sale. I thought it would be good.

Pizza

Um…yeah. I discovered something: you can have too much pepperoni. Just warning you. Next time I’m sticking with the regular: Brooklyn with a rational amount of pepperoni. Safer that way.

Anywho, what bothers me the most as I write is the fact that due to living in a college apartment, there is a certain house of trolls a few apartments over who thinks it is their duty to their fellow humans to play their music at the highest, bass-iest volume possible. It is so bloody loud it is rattling my keyboard. It angers me much. This is how writers get reputations for being violent.

Music Trolls

I would not be bothered if this was just a party or even a multi-day celebration. But it seems that these particular morons absolutely must run the stereo from six in the evening to two in the morning, the hours in which I do my best writing (note: the future source of circles under my eyes) and even sometimes from two to past daylight (the hours in which I do my best staring-at-the-ceiling-trying-to-sleep).

In the times I can ignore their racket, I’m working hard on the edits, getting the big stuff worked out and all the word-count cuts. Thankfully my other writer friends have been through this and know how to console me. I think I nearly made one of my friends faint when I told her how much we were aiming to cut from the book. See, the number of words I’m trying to cut happens to be nearly the length of her entire novel (!).

Sometimes in the revising process, there comes a point where certain scenes must be added and others taken out (the removed scenes I’ll hopefully get to post on the website eventually). I did have a particularly wonderful revelation of a new scene which is turning into one of my favorites in the book. It involves the same setting as what has been in the scene for years, but now suddenly, Bran notices a secret door across the room. A secret door is a very, very useful device when writing. In fact, you can pretty much just throw a secret door in anywhere and it works. Example:

Pamela Pinkersnort was delivering one of those abysmal Gotham City pizzas to somebody’s apartment. She knocked on the door. It was hard to hear herself knocking, because of the horrid rock music coming from an apartment nearby, which obviously housed moronic trolls.

“Psst!” a voice came. “Over here.”

Pamela turned, and saw a secret door.

Pretty much immediately, Pamela’s gonna wonder how the secret door got there, why it’s a secret, what’s behind it, and if the person there will tip nicely or be a scrooge.

Great. As I wrote that last paragraph, the music trolls just turned it up even louder. Thanks, I surely needed that.

TNT

Sheesh.

On a side note, my publishers have a news blog. This I did not know, until this week. So someday in the next-yearsy-future I might get to see my name on it 😀

Five Things

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Starting Monday, I hit the notebooks, staying at the local Pub That Is Not A Pub from morning until near closing time, editing and revising The Farfield Curse. I managed to walk in and get my usual, favorite spot that is one table away from the corner, so that I don’t appear to be hiding in the shadows, my laptop cable will reach the building’s only plug, The Writer Is Workingand I can still occasionally get a glimpse of the sun (which is very quickly becoming a faraway memory: the sun? What sun? Where? Surely you jest). I’m almost beginning to feel like an old, reclusive witch <—-

Things have thankfully been going smoothly. I am doing things in an order, first working on a bit of cutting in the length department, so it’s easier later when I need to add certain things that were missing. This is where the writing of the book turns into a labor of love: editing those words is really, really hard, but entirely worth it for the end result.

I have a goal of cutting a certain number of pages. To do this, I must take a fine-toothed comb to every line, trying to cut any odd words and condensing paragraphs in order to save one or two lines. One or two lines do add up. So far, just by combing the first 120 pages, I was able to cut 20 out in the first few days. It was all vicious (and slightly wicked) glee search-and-destroying those superfluous words. I spent almost an hour trying to condense two lines out of one chapter, so that I could cut the last page of it, which only had two puny lines dangling there.

The best part is that it’s like trimming back a big ugly tree into an Edward Scissorhands-esque plant sculpture. By the time we’re through, this book will be loads ahead of where we started out.

While taking a much-needed break, I decided to answer a question put to me recently: what will you do if you become a really famous author? It sounds thrilling, odd, scary and wonderful at the same time. So, I decided to make a video in response, which includes Lemony Snicket’s head, a phone call to J.K.Rowling, the Electric Light Orchestra, my bookshelf and more. Also, sunburn.

Hope you like it 😀

Contracts, Advances and a Stack of Paper

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There is something special in a writer’s first advance check. Many of you probably have an idea what that is: when a publisher makes a deal with an author, they lay down what is called an advance. This is money paid in advance to the author, in the hopes that his or her book will earn it back; following publication, the royalties an author earns off book sales slowly repays it. The original concept of an advance was probably so the author of old, being intrinsically penniless, might at least avert starvation long enough to finish the book.

Though I signed the contract a while back, and sent it in, there is such a long process on the publisher’s end that it usually takes a few months to get it back with their signature, as well as the on-signing advance. By getting those back in the mail, all has been signed and sealed, and now all that’s left is to prepare the book for publication! Some photos:

Me, signing the back of my first advance check. The Unwritten Manual of Authorly Proceedings & Conduct dictates (Section 2, Article C) that an author should always use a unique pen to sign their checks and contracts, as here seen in the pen-made-of-awesome my agent gave me:

Signing the first advance

While I was writing, I read dozens of writer blogs, and I always wanted to know what exactly a full manuscript looked like, before all the edits. Never finding one, I told myself I’d put one up for anyone else out there like me (by the time I’m through editing, picture about 2/3 this size):

The Manuscript

There is one line in this book deal that represents 6 years of work, a box of notes, a dozen notebooks, two drawers in a filing cabinet, and countless days and nights spent with characters and ideas. That line is this:

AGREEMENT made by and between Kaleb Nation…hereinafter referred to as “author”

Contract and advance

The signed contract, with the check hiding in the back.