Dark Faith: Devotions and ALL THINGS ME!!!

As the promotional efforts for Dark Faith begin in earnest, Apex Book Company has been running a series of mini-interviews with some of the contributors called Dark Faith: DEVOTIONS. I’ve been loving the responses and want to collect the links to them here. And take a moment to appreciate how much my friends love and respect me…

DEVOTIONS

Alethea Kontis - “The God of Last Moments”

Mary Robinette Kowal – “Ring Road”

D.T. Friedman - “Paint Box, Puzzle Box”

Wrath James White - “He Who Would Not Bow”

Tom Piccirilli - "Scrawl"

Jennifer Pelland - "Ghosts of New York"

Nick Mamatas - “The Last Words of Dutch Schultz Jesus Christ”

Ekaterina Sedia - "You Dream"

Lucy A. Snyder - “Miz Ruthie Pays Her Respects”

Linda D. Addison - "The Story of Non-Belief"

Rain Graves - "Lilith"

Richard Dansky - "The Mad Eyes of the King Heron"

Lavie Tidhar - "To the Jerusalem Crater"

Geoffrey Girard - "First Communions"

Kelli Dunlap - "Good Enough"


Related Posts

Flames Rising - Dark Faith Preview (including my introduction to Dark Faith)

Kelli Owen - "Dark first, Faith second"

Jason Sizemore - "The Ups and Downs of an Anthology"

INTERVIEWS

On my end, I have the unprecedented (in my career thus far) problem (and hopefully this will be a recurring “problem”) of promoting two projects at a time. Thus, the latest bouts of interviews (though King Maker was mentioned in Publishers Weekly all on its own):

Examiner.com - Maurice Broaddus has 'Dark Faith'

Random Musings - Interview with Maurice Broaddus

Innsmouth Free Press - Interview: Maurice Broaddus

Omnivoracious - Jeff Vandermeer - King Maker Maurice Broaddus on the Anthology “Dark Faith”

The Occult Detective - Soul Searching with Maurice Broaddus


AAAAAAAND, reviews of Dark Faith are already rolling in:

REVIEWS
Shroud Magazine

Publisher’s Weekly


P.S.

Rounding out this “All Things Me” post, I’d like to point to two more items:

1) Zoe E. Whitten, hysterically funny writer and tweeter, was wrestling with my novella, Devil’s Marionette in this moving piece.

2) My story “Hootchie Cootchie Man” was listed as an Honorable Mention in Ellen Datlow’s list of notable stories for the year.

Between Brett and Brooks... (King Maker Reviews)

Right now, King Maker is only available over in the U.K. and in Australia, but thanks to Jim Mcleod, I know what it looks like on the book shelves. And in the hands of rabid fans.



For those especially anxious to get their hands on a copy of King Maker, here's a place that offers free worldwide shipping. Here are some early reviews:

-Science Fiction and Fantasy (a review I'm particularly proud of though I swear I'm not going to live and die by the reviews)

-Fantasy Literature
-gillpolack
-Adam Christopher - Steampunk, Superheroes, and Science Fiction
-Civilian Reader
-Neth Space

On Setting (aka King Arthur in Indianapolis?)

I ran across a blog entry the other day which seemed to take issue with my series The Knights of Breton Court. First off, here’s the book description (from the Angry Robot website): On the streets of Indianapolis, the ancient Arthurian cycle is replaying in the lives of rival street gangs. Told through the eyes of King, as he gathers like-minded friends and warriors around him to venture into the fastness of Dred, the notorious crime lord, this is a stunning mix of myth and harsh reality. A truly remarkable novel.

I understand this book won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, after all, what's a few pimps, trolls, drug dealers, elementals, homeless teenagers, and the occasional dragon between friends? However, that was the element of disbelief said blog writer couldn’t suspend. His issue was the setting. Indianapolis, specifically selling Indianapolis to British readers.

When it comes to American cities, Indianapolis is nothing special. My apologies to the Hoosiers but it's true. It may be the 14th biggest US city but in terms of defining characteristics or geography or culture, there isn't a lot to talk about.

(It’s a great blog, btw. The author goes on to do an informal survey asking people what their impressions of various big cities were. Indianapolis is … yellow and average.)

I debated briefly about whether or not the story would fly in Indianapolis. But considering what all inspired the story, it was ultimately a no brainer. And I’ll admit, I’m a lazy researcher. I had to go all of around the corner to find this tag:
(This really was taken around the corner from my house. If you know what you're looking at, you know exactly which gang sets, or which gangs someone is claiming to be tagging for, are represented)

Now, the Indianapolis I write about is not the Indianapolis of the tourist brochures. I'm not trying to do anything exploitative or take folks slumming, either. One of the theses of the story is that any city has a shadow side. An invisible side to it that most people choose not to see, a whole world which may be playing out right under our noses that we have no idea is going on. Sometimes that world is poverty or homelessness. Sometimes that world is magic. Sometimes that world is filled with monsters. But it’s our world to explore.

Indianapolis is actually a perfect place to set the story. It’s a blank enough canvas that I’m betting even native readers will have their eyes opened by much of the story’s locales. And frankly, be it Indianapolis, The Shire, or Gallifrey, the important isn’t how familiar the world is to us, but how real the author makes it to us. Here’s hoping I made the Indianapolis haunting, real, and terrifying. If not, you at least have a gorgeous cover to enjoy.

EDITED TO ADD:

Here is the response from Stomping on Yeti and a King Maker inspired contest from them.

God gave us children to bring us back to earth...

So I got a package today from Angry Robot. Inside was a card that read:
First one hot off the presses? Whatever could he mean? Oh yeah ...

So yes, there was much happy dancing in the Broaddus household. But before my ego could swell to unbelievable, "I am Author" proportions, my boys came in to find out what the ruckus was about.

Reese: "What's that?"
Me: "It's my book."
Malcolm: "You wrote that?"
Me: "Yep. Here's my name and everything."
Malcolm: "You wrote that? But ... that's a real book."

And with that, my feet remain firmly on the ground. But I'm happy inside.