Kaleb Nation | Official Website

Official website for Kaleb Nation: producer, TV personality, entrepreneur, and author of Harken and the Bran Hambric series.

Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse BOOK TOUR

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I am very pleased to announce that Sourcebooks has put together an official BRAN HAMBRIC: THE FARFIELD CURSE Book Tour! I will be traveling to bookstores and schools all across the country, and hopefully I’ll be heading to a city near you. We only have two more weeks until 9/9/09, and the book will finally be in stores! So without further ado, here are the dates (if you’d like, you can download this as a printable PDF and stay updated on any changes through the Calendar page or BranHambric.com).

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OFFICIAL BOOK TOUR with KALEB NATION

Northridge, CA

Wednesday, September 16

7:00 PM

Borders (Northridge-LA)

San Jose, CA

Tuesday, September 22

3:00 PM

Hicklebee’s Children’s Books

Tempe, AZ

Thursday, September 24

7:00 PM

Changing Hands Bookstore

Austin, TX

Friday, September 25

7:00 PM

BookPeople

Houston, TX

Saturday, September 26

4:00 PM

Katy Budget Books

Houston, TX

Sunday, September 27

2:00 PM

Murder By the Book

Oak Park, IL

Tuesday, September 29

7:00 PM

Magic Tree Bookstore

Naperville, IL

Wednesday, September 30

7:00 PM

Anderson’s Bookshop

New York, NY

Friday, October 2

3:00 PM

New York Public Library

New York, NY

Sunday, October 4

1:00 PM

Books of Wonder

Torrance, CA

Thursday, October 8

7:00 PM

Borders (Torrance-LA)

Salt Lake City, UT

Monday, October 12

7:00 PM

King’s English Bookshop

Huntington Beach, CA

Saturday, October 17

2:00 PM

Barnes & Noble

California and Red Bull Give Me WINGS! [Video]

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As most of you probably know, I’m moving to California this week! It’s taken a lot of Red Bull to keep me going 😀

For the curious, I am moving right outside Los Angeles. I’ll have more videos and updates from the move as it goes along (and plenty of photos on my Twitter!).

Due to the move, my mailing address has been changed to the one provided by my publishers. It is:

Kaleb Nation
C/O Sourcebooks Inc.
PO Box 4410
Naperville, IL  60567-4410

Because it has to be forwarded to me, keep in mind that it could take a while before I get to read it (this is perhaps the part of the post where I mention that things that melt, i.e chocolates, chocolate gnomes, candles, icicles, etc… probably shouldn’t be mailed!). I am heading to my PO Box here in Texas one last time today before I close it, so if you sent something in the past two weeks, I’ll still get it 😀

“Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse” To Be In Brazil

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book-imageI’m very excited to announce that BRAN HAMBRIC: THE FARFIELD CURSE, the first novel in my Bran Hambric series, will now be published in the Portuguese language in Brazil. The publisher will be Panini Brazil. I’d like to give more information about the publisher, but unfortunately I don’t speak Portuguese, so I can’t even tell if this is their official website or not!

I am extremely happy about this news, of course, which means that as of now Bran Hambric will be available in the US, UK, Canada, Russia, and now Brazil, among other countries which import. It’s always good news when another country picks it up!

If you need to find which store in your country will carry the book or has it open for preorder, visit BranHambric.com. Only 35 days left until the book is finally in stores!

“Four Months” [Music]

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I wrote and recorded this song in 2009. You can download it for free at this link.

Reading Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse [Prologue]

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During my live BlogTV show yesterday, I read the prologue of my novel Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse to about 300 people. It was great because even though I was reading a book on a video show, I actually gained about 30 viewers by the end! Luckily, I was able to record this part of the show, for anyone who wasn’t able to make it. Hope you enjoy!

In this video I am reading from the ARC version of the book, which means it will be a little bit different when it is in stores on 9/9/09. If you’re looking to download preview chapters of the book (the four following the prologue!), head over to this page and you can read the first few chapters for free.

You can also download one of the two songs in the background of this video, titled “The Grave Of Emry Hambric”, at BranHambricMusic.com.

10,000 Is An Epic Number!

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I just passed 10,000 followers on my Twitter, and to celebrate I’m doing a live show tonight (July 18) at

6 PM CST on my BLOGTV CHANNEL

Watch the video for info! Thanks to all my loyal followers at Twitter.com/KalebNation

Bran Hambric In The New York Times & WSJ

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It isn’t exactly the New York Times bestseller list (yet!), but my publisher’s recent decision to push back the e-book release of Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse has been causing a lot of buzz this week. The Wall Street Journal was the first to report:

bran-hambric-line-logoIn an interview, Sourcebooks’ chief executive said it will delay by at least half a year the e-book version of “Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse,” a young-readers title in the vein of Harry Potter that goes on sale Sept. 9. While the book is a debut novel, the author, Kaleb Nation, has a following with his Twilightguy.com blog.

Sourcebooks is issuing 75,000 copies of “Bran Hambric,” a sizable print run in this economy, and has arranged a substantial marketing campaign and book tour for Mr. Nation. (read more…)

This turned into more than a dozen big blogs getting in on the discussion. Now this evening, an article in the New York Times reported it as well:

nytlogo152x23Sourcebooks, an independent publisher, is releasing “Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse,” a novel aimed at children, in September in hardcover. It will hold back the e-book until six months later. (read more…)

For those of you not in the publishing biz, this basically means that Sourcebooks will not release an e-book or Kindle edition until about 6 months after the bookstores get it on 9/9/09 (only 56 days left!). At the same time, the hardcover goes for about $12 in most online stores, as opposed to the usual $20 or so for others, so all of you who have pre-ordered or who are waiting won’t notice the difference.

Thanks to the articles, there was a huge pre-order’s spike this morning for Bran Hambric. As if all that good stuff isn’t enough, Borders recently posted an interview they did with me at Book Expo America — this came the same day as the news that Borders is giving the book front-of-store placement (all you people waiting instead of pre-ordering, this means it’ll be VERY easy to find at Borders!). I talk about gnomes and writing and some creatures in the books (including winx, one of my own creations that you’ll find in The Farfield Curse). Click below to watch it:

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And for anyone who didn’t catch it, the Wall Street Journal gave out a little bit of information that I haven’t mentioned before — that Sourcebooks is planning a book tour! I’ll have updates on that as soon as I know all the details 😀

For the comments: any suggestions of where I should go on that tour? (note: I don’t really get to pick, but it’ll be great to know where people are!).

More Awesome BranFan Stuff!

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Much to the annoyance of my local post office, I only get to check my PO Box about twice a month because it’s so far away from where I actually live! Because of this, my mail gets VERY piled up (this is part of the reason I don’t reply for months!) and I have to carry it all home and dump it on my bed to sort through it. Example:

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My favorite part about coming home from the Post Office is when I finally get to open all the packages and check out all the awesome stuff people have made for me and Bran Hambric. I think everyone has finally caught on how much I love gnomes. Who would have thought that in the 80’s there would actually be a Star Trek comic book with GNOMES:

gnomestartrek

I’ve uploaded the rest of the photos and some of the cool stuff (including a gnome pillow!) to the Fans page. Thanks to everyone who wrote all those great letters 😀

How To Spot A Fake Twitter

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After a while of being part of the Twilight fandom with TwilightGuy.com, I noticed a huge and enormously irritating trend of obsessive fans or attention-seeking creeps creating fake Twitter accounts for movie stars, and acting as if they are the celebrities themselves. To my greatest annoyance, these fakes gather lists of all-too-eager celebrity-chasers, sometimes 20-30,000 followers thinking they are following the real Robert Pattinson/ Taylor Lautner/ Miley Cyrus, etc.

rpattz-fakeThis morning, I was amused greatly when ‘Robert Pattinson’ sent an @ reply to my Twitter account saying “@KalebNation geez i talked to u on the phone =O” from an account called @BobbyMcMurphy (the Fake Rob was referencing my interview with the Real Rob). It struck me that this person had actually fooled 170 people into thinking he was the real thing — and even worse, was chastising other Robert Pattinson accounts which had already admitted to being fake! Not surprisingly, when I called the fake Rob out on my own Twitter, he suddenly stopped following me. Oh epic laughs.

Before I go on a rant on how crazy someone must be to actually follow a Robert Pattinson on Twitter who can hardly write a decent sentence, I must admit that I was once hoodwinked myself by a fake Stephenie Meyer account (then, twitter.com/stepheniemeyer, now suspended). This is in spite of me knowing Stephenie, Stephenie’s publishing people, and many of Stephenie’s fandom-gurus, none of whom had ever mentioned any ‘real’ Twitter even once. I thought I was poser-savvy: but I WAS STILL TRICKED. Also, just a few months ago, I myself, in all my unknown-ness, was plagued by a smart poser who went as KaiebNation (in Verdana font with a capital ‘i’, that looks exactly like KaIebNation). This fooled my friends and even my own brother (but look what happened to Fake-Kaleb). To save you from similar embarrassment, I’ve made this 10-item checklist of How To Spot A Fake Twitter:

1. If the account is a mixed up spelling of an actor’s name that appears to be the name but isn’t (for example, RobertPattinzon or DakotaF@nn1ng) it is almost certainly a fake (exception: Rachelle Lefevre’s account).

2. If the Twitter is not linked on the official website of the actor (or on a reliable entertainment website) it is probably fake. NOTE: There is a HUGE RING of FAKE Twitter accounts, that actually create fake Myspace pages just to link to the fake Twitters. Make sure it is the real website!

3. If the Twitter only links to press photos of themselves and never any personal photos, it is probably fake (unless they are very obsessed with seeing themselves Photoshopped).

4. If the Twitter discusses their personal relationships when said relationships are currently HUGE NEWS in entertainment (for example, if a Kristen Stewart account says ‘I am not dating Robert Pattinson‘). Stars usually are smart enough not to discuss this on a Twitter (this rule is not always reliable).

5. If the Twitter talks in Chatspeek or in some other broken form of English. This is especially true for British movie stars, who usually don’t write stupidly.

6. If the Twitter links to other accounts that are obviously fake (for example: on @BobbyMcmurphy, a fake Robert Pattinson account, the poser links to @kristensss, saying that Kristen Stewart told him it was her new one). Twitter-fakes will make a huge network of poser accounts and have them ‘talk’ to each other, to make them appear real.

read more

New Features And Songs And Stuff

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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:

bran-hambric-line-logoQuestion 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.