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We’ve collected the books debuting on Indiebound’s Indie Bestseller List for the week ending Jan. 31, 2016–a sneak peek at the books everybody will be talking about next month.

(Debuted at #2 in Young Adult) The Siren by Kiera Cass: “Kahlen is a Siren, bound to serve the Ocean by luring humans to watery graves with her voice, which is deadly to any human who hears it. Akinli is human—a kind, handsome boy who’s everything Kahlen ever dreamed of. Falling in love puts them both in danger…but Kahlen can’t bear to stay away. Will she risk everything to follow her heart?” (Jan. 2016)

(Debuted at #9 in Children’s Illustrated) Ollie’s Valentine by Olivier Dunrea: “Ollie is looking. Looking for a valentine. Gossie, Gertie, Peedie, and BooBoo all have valentines, but Ollie wonders who will be his. His search leads him to a special valentine of his very own—a surprise for Ollie and readers!” (Dec. 2015)

(Debuted at #10 in Hardcover Fiction) The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson: “The Bands of Mourning are the mythical metalminds owned by the Lord Ruler, said to grant anyone who wears them the powers that the Lord Ruler had at his command. Hardly anyone thinks they really exist. A kandra researcher has returned to Elendel with images that seem to depict the Bands, as well as writings in a language that no one can read. Waxillium Ladrian is recruited to travel south to the city of New Seran to investigate. Along the way he discovers hints that point to the true goals of his uncle Edwarn and the shadowy organization known as The Set.” (Jan. 2016)

You'll lose yourself in this riveting post-apocalyptic series in which the villains all have superpowers and the rebels committed to fight them are a motley crew of humans. If you haven't read Sanderson's Steelheart, DO IT — so you can dive into Firefight. Books mentioned in this post Firefight (Reckoners) Brandon Sanderson New Hardcover $18.99

Google has analyzed the searches that took place during 2014. The company has unveiled the ten books that were trending throughout this year.

Helen Oyeyemi’s Boy, Snow, Bird claimed the top spot on this list. The other nine titles come from a variety of different genres; almost all of them have become hit bestsellers and award winners.

We’ve collected free samples of all the books on the list for your reading pleasure after the jump. What do you think?
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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Paul Stevens has been hired as an acquisitions editor for Quirk Books. His start date has been scheduled for January 2015.

Throughout his career, Stevens has held positions at Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine and Tor Books. In the past, he has worked on projects with authors Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson, Marie Brennan, Hilary Davidson, and Alex Bledsoe.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

We’ve collected the books debuting on Indiebound’s Indie Bestseller List for the week ending March 09, 2014–a sneak peek at the books everybody will be talking about next month.

(Debuted at #3 in Hardcover Fiction) Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson: “Six years ago, the Assassin in White, a hireling of the inscrutable Parshendi, assassinated the Alethi king on the very night a treaty between men and Parshendi was being celebrated. So began the Vengeance Pact among the highprinces of Alethkar and the War of Reckoning against the Parshendi. ” (March 2014)

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

After wrapping his work on the final book of Robert Jordan‘s Wheel of Time series, fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson will let his fans watch him write a chapter of his new book online.

Using the Camtasia screen recording software, the novelist has begun to videotape his entire writing process for a chapter, starting with his initial notes (video embedded above). Would you do this for your readers?

Here is more about the process: “New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson writes a chapter from the sequel to The Way of Kings, to be published in late 2013 (hopefully) or early 2014. This is the real-time version. After all of the videos have been uploaded we’ll make a high-speed version of the chapter.” (Link via)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

In a long Google+ post, novelist Brandon Sanderson revealed that he has finished his last set of edits on A Memory of Light, the final book in The Wheel of Time series (an epic fantasy created by the late Robert Jordan).

Tor Books has set a January 2013 release for the book. Jordan died in 2007, and Sanderson used his notes to finish the series over the last five years, publishing The Gathering Storm in 2009 and Towers of Midnight in 2010.

Sanderson revealed that he will not return to The Wheel of Time universe: “I step away from being pilot of this series, and toward once again being just a fan. I will never cross back over that line—whatever else happens, I will have written three books in this series.”

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Tor Books has set a January 8, 2013 release date for A Memory of Light, the final book in The Wheel of Time series–concluding the epic fantasy created by the late Robert Jordan.

After Jordan died in 2007, novelist Brandon Sanderson (pictured) used his notes to write the conclusion to the series, publishing The Gathering Storm in 2009 and Towers of Midnight in 2010. When the news hit the Internet this afternoon, Tor.com and Sanderson’s site both struggled to handle the rush of traffic.

Sanderson posted a frank essay about the writing process on his Facebook page: “I turned in a 360,000-word book. That’s 20% longer than what they wanted, and that means each step of editing and production will require 20% more time than they had set aside. In addition, while I’ve set my own deadlines, I’ve come right up against them and (in a few cases) tiptoed across. For example, instead of sending a revised book at the end of December, I only had a first draft. That’s the length pushing me back and making me revise expectations.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Tor.com and Barnes & Noble will create a monthly list of recommendations for science fiction and fantasy readers.

Barnes & Noble buyer Jim Killen will curate the list. The inaugural edition will focus on the opening volumes of popular fantasy series. Some of the titles that will be spotlighted include The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan, Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson and Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie.

What would you like to see on this list? Tor.com’s Irene Gallo had this statement in the announcement: “We are very excited about this new series. We’re constantly reminded of how engaged our readers are, and we can’t wait to see the conversations sparked by these knowledgeably-curated lists from our colleagues at B&N.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Alcatraz Versus The Shattered Lens Brandon Sanderson

This is the 4th book in the Alcatraz Smedry Series. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, start with Alcatraz Versus The Evil Librarians.

Alcatraz, Bastille, Kaz and Aydee are off to Tuki Tuki, where the Mokian kingdom is fighting its last stand against the Librarian invaders. There are giant robots, a Librarian sect that hates all types of glass, coma guns, teddy bear grenades, and worst of all, Alcatraz's mother.

This is the fourth book in a projected five book series (I think five. I'm often wrong on such things) And as such, most things go completely pear shaped (even more so than usual.)

But, it's a solid entry in the series. I love Alcatraz's voice, especially when addressing the reader. In this book in particular, he orders us to act everything out. He also numbers the chapters very oddly, to make Hushlander librarian's heads explode. And, there's still the same mad cap zaniness the series is known for. I mean! TEDDY BEAR GRENADES! An entire chapter where the dialogue is all quotations from Hamlet.

In short, if you like the series, you should like this book. If you haven't read the rest of the series, this is not the book to start with (it won't make any sense). If you don't like the series, this one won't change your mind so go read something else!

And beware the teddy bears. And the librarians.

Book Provided by... my local library

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It’s a week after Comic-Con and I’m still working through my notes! Two more panels and another booklist to post, and then it’s likely to get quiet around here for a spell.

I scrawled a crazy amount of notes at the Once Upon a Time panel—six authors of epic fantasy discussing their craft—but the odds of my being able to translate the scrawl to English are slimmish, so never fear. This was a fascinating panel. (Hence the 12 pages of notes.) Have I mentioned I love hearing other writers talk about their work? Yeah.

The panelists, in order of seating: Brandon Sanderson, Brent Weeks, Lynn Flewelling, Megan Whalen Turner, Christopher Paolini, Patrick Rothfuss. The moderator: Maryelizabeth Hart of the awesome Mysterious Galaxy bookstore. She was great. They were all great.

Hart’s first question was about the everyman character vs. the larger-than-life superheroic character. In epic fantasy, with these sweeping adventures and grand-scale worldbuilding, does the main character also need to be larger than life?

SANDERSON: talked about Bilbo and Frodo, everymen, little guys, ordinary, small. “If Tolkien did it, it must be okay.” (Gave context of Tolkien as originator of high fantasy.) Made interesting point about Sam having superheroic loyalty—i.e. Sam is not a typical everyman. But came back to “at core of every everyman there is something exceptional.”

WEEKS: If we can follow them [everyman characters] through that journey, we are great too. We know there is something great within us, potential; as the everyman becomes great, we become great with him.

FLEWELLING: likes to see the process (of becoming great), doesn’t like to see heroes from the start. Wants backstory. If protag is superstrong, etc, can be boring.

WHALEN TURNER: Likes themes of “extraordinary performances of ordinary people.” Talked in terms of flavors—her favorite flavor is a book about an extraordinary person, but it requires careful handling to maintain dramatic tension. Spoke about the Mary Sue character, two different definitions of that; one is “squicky,” where the character represents the author; but in another sense a Mary Sue character is an everyman who can represent the reader. She likes that, thinks it makes for satisfying story.

PAOLINI: Basically it comes down to: “Batman is better than Superman.” (Gets huge laugh.) Talked about the difference between the extraordinary SETTING and the extraordinary CHARACTER. You can put an extraordinary character in an ordinary setting (like Superman in Kansas corn field) or vice versa, ordinary guy in extraordinary setting (Frodo in Mordor). Over time, the ordinary character becomes larger-than-life—best example, he says, is Arthur Dent in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, “a larger-than-life doofus” with flaws and weaknesses.

ROTHFUSS: 1) Paolini beat him to the Batman thing. 2) He’s a contrarian so has to reflexively disagree with what everyone else said. (Big laugh.) For him, a really big story (and epic fantasy is always a really big story) needs an everyman for people to relate to. He also spoke about the Mary Sue—my notes say “Your main char is one”—was he talking to Paolini? I think so, think it got a laugh, Paolini nodding in agreement. Rothfuss likes characters like Cyrano, Odysseus—unusually cool and clever.

PAOLINI: discussed “hereditary vs earned skills” (again Superman—hereditary—and Batman—earned/learned). “Escalating powers” can make problems for a writer—if the guy can simply “snuff the sun,” no story left. He too likes CLEVERNESS in a character.

SANDERSON: talked about origin of epic fantasy, founded by Tolkien, before that there were heroic tales (Conan, Tarzan, the guy starts off as hero). Tolk

Wow, what a weekend…  you’ll have to forgive the name droppage, but I will only have my very first week as a children’s author once, and it was pretty exciting, so I cannot help but share!

But before the author stuff even began, there was festivity– in the form of a BAR MITZVAH!  On Friday morning I flew to West Palm, for the single largest gathering of Snyders I have ever attended, my cousin David’s Bar Mitzvah (Yasher Koach, David!).  I took Lew, and he was a doll, though a plane ride with a wiggle-worm is never a vacation. But it didn’t matter a bit.  It was wonderful to see everyone, and there is always something astounding about circle-dancing and kosher wine.

30 hours later I flew back home, to attend the Saturday night party at the Decatur Book Festival. Man, what a night!  I got to see Sarah Prineas, and ZZ Packer (it had been a decade, and we mostly swapped baby pictures) and the DBF guys, and Jamie Allen. I met fabulous folks like Rob Scotton and his lovely wife Liz (Scotton? Not sure…) and Adam Rex and Cheryl Klein .

I drank in moderation, but should have eaten more.

In any case I was tipsy enough to rant (like I do), and tipsy enough that when ZZ and Amber Dermont walked over to the Brick Store, I joined them, and so ended up ranting further, with/at some McSweeney’s guys.  I stayed out way too late and ate a soft pretzel, and it all felt very summery   very free,  and…

very tired this morning.

But that wore off when I got to have brunch with Da Chen, and Julie Bloemeke and other members of the Atlanta Writers’ Club, at Sage.  YUMMMMMMM!  Da did a lovely calligraphy inscription in my very own copy of Scratchy Mountains. He wrote, “Gold Pen.”  I will keep it FOREVER.  It was really a delight, and the members of the club were all so smart and interesting.  I need to get more involved!

After that I was off to my panel with Brandon Sanderson and Adam Rex, who are both old pros, funny and witty and comfortable on stage.  Then I stammered at Deborah Wiles, signed some books, and ate a big gyro, before I  came home on Marta.

After that I  I fell asleep on the couch until Lew hit me in the face with a toy car.  But even that was okay.  Because  I’m so so so so so satisfied right now, with everything.  I’m on a little desert island of happy.

Please don’t come and rescue me.