Big, Big Announcement! Really, REALLY BIG!

If you've ever read fantasy or science fiction, you're probably aware of Dave Farland. Or Dave Wolverton. Both one and the same. Here is his bio:

Known as the “Wizard of Storytelling,” writing sensation and author of fifty novels, David wrote short stories as a child and dreamt of growing up to become a fantasy writer. He gained experience in a number of career paths but never lost sight of his goals. Finally, after saving money for years, he decided to risk it all and go to Brigham Young University to study.

While there, he became ill and feverish started having some fantastic dreams. In one such dream, two futuristic mercenaries were taking shelter in the skull of some giant beast and talking while waiting out a rainstorm. His dreams became so vivid and lifelike that he had to put them in a story called “On My Way to Paradise.”


He entered it into the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future contest and won the grand prize for the year, the Gold Award. He was immediately contracted by Bantam Books to turn the short story into a novel of the same name, along with a contract to write two more books. The novel, My Way to Paradise spent several months on the Locus Science Fiction Best-seller list, and won a Phillip K. Dick Memorial Special Award for being one of the best science fiction novels of the year.


He wrote science fiction for ten years under his given name of David Wolverton, during which he wrote several best sellers. After having mastered science fiction, David decided it was time to take another risk and try writing fantasy, hoping to realize his childhood dream. So as not to confuse his readers, he writes fantasy under the name David Farland.


He had to work hard to achieve notoriety in two genres, but eventually his fantasy books started hitting the New York Times Best Seller’s list right out of the gates, beginning with the third book of the Runelords series entitled Wizardborn.


He had not only achieved his childhood dream, but in doing so, became popular in two genres and has amassed many awards for his short fiction in particular, and set a Guinness Record for the world's largest booksigning–a record that he still holds. In 1991, David became a judge for one of the world's largest writing contests, the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest, and for the next several years he read thousands of stories each year, edited an annual anthology, and taught writing classes to new writers.


To date, David has written and edited fifty published books. These include novels for adults, young adults, anthologies, middle-grade readers, and picture books.

Among his numerous other accomplishments, David eventually returned to BYU as a writing professor, for several years. It was getting in the way of his writing, so he ended that and decided to fill his need to share by lecturing, giving workshops and seminars to those who would be writers. He is known for having taught many great emerging writers and had a part in their success, including Stephanie Meyer, Brandon Sanderson and Eric Flint. In many cases it was his influence and words of wisdom that caused a new author to sell their first story. Now he has the privilege of helping other struggling would-be writers to achieve their success. He says, “Nobody makes it alone. We each build on one another.”

As part of his continuing desire to help struggling authors with their craft, he sends out periodic (ranging from daily to weekly depending on his schedule) "Daily Kick in the Pants", an article or essay with always interesting and informative things to say about the industry or about writing. I love them. I've learned tons, just from these little snippets. I would love to be able to attend one of his "Death Camps" one day. Go check out his site. There is a lot to peruse.

Okay, now that there is that huge lead up, guess what????? Mr. Wolverton has a new book coming out, a YA fantasy called NIGHTINGALE. On Friday. But...not from a traditional publisher. Mr. Wolverton is self publishing. (For the record, he actually got a SIX-FIGURE offer for this book, but he turned it down because he didn't like the digital rights clause. He saw it as that important.) But he's not just slapping it up on Kindle. He's doing something completely new and innovative. A MULTI-MEDIA E-book. What is that, you ask? Oh...it just has fabulous artwork. And videos. And a MUSIC SCORE. All part of the new reading experience. He calls them "enhanced books".

So, drum roll please.......as part of his blog tour to promote his new book and its release on Friday, October 28th, Mr. Wolverton is COMING TO OUR BLOG!!!!  ON FRIDAY!!!!

That's right, he is posting a great article on our blog on Friday about...well, you'll just have to come back and find out.

Squeeeeeee!!!! Sorry, I know I'm gushing, but I'm really excited, not only to get his amazing insight into the publishing industry right now, but I think that the more writer absorb his information and benefit from his years of experience, the more prepared we'll be when we get the chance to "hit it big".

So stay tuned...very exciting stuff happening around here!