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.

Cover Stimulus Package

This is the cover art for The Knights of Breton Court Book Two: King's Justice by the incredible Steve Stone (the model’s name is Lloyd Nwagboso*). Now contrast this with this news item:

Last year, Bloomsbury chose a white cover model for a YA novel about a black girl. They fixed it — but now they've done it again. Outcry over the white-washing of Justine Larbalestier's Liar prompted Bloomsbury to issue a new cover featuring a black girl, and to apologize (kind of).

Lavie Tidhar’s already done a great blog that lays out the situation. For the sake of staying focused, we’ll ignore that Bloomsbury’s new cover featured the lightest black person they could find. Though, this was a fact noted by Ellen Datlow (who is quite white) and she goes on to point out in her open letter to Bloomsbury.

I was trying to explain this scenario to a friend of mine who is not connected to the publishing world at all. He found it stunning that in this day and age such racism is openly practiced. The idea that white people won’t buy books with black people on a cover or that there’s not a book buying public among the black community who would purchase books borders on the irrational. Yet it seems that once again it seems like racefail is in full effect.

Now would be the time when I would point out that not all publishers buy into the cycle of reinforcing racist ideas. I would point to Angry Robot’s cover for South African writer Lauren Beukes' second novel, Zoo City (art by John Picacio). Or my own novel from them, Knights of Breton Court: Kingmaker. Instead, I will point to the just released art for my second novel, Knights of Breton Court: King’s Justice one more time because it’s just so pretty:
We’ll soon find out whether or not black people on a cover will hurt sales. Nevertheless, having this conversation won’t hurt. Apparently it’s long overdue to happen.

*Lloyd was actually the second model chosen. In an interesting parallel to the Bloomsbury debacle, Angry Robot asked me what I thought of the first model the artist was leaning towards. I said that I thought he was too light as I had imagined King as much darker. The folks at Angry Robot immediately, and I mean, IMMEDIATELY agreed and changed course. You can't ask much more than that from your publishers.

Look Upon My Cover, Ye Mighty

I love what Angry Robot has to say about Cover Love.

KNIGHTS OF BRETON COURT Book One: King Maker

U.K. debut ... March 2010
U.S. debut ... September 2010
from Angry Robot/Harper Collins UK

It's Official

ANGRY ROBOT IS PRESENTED TODAY BY THE LETTER “M”

Hide us! Something seriously spooky just happened. Today, the planets all being in the correct alignment, we are announcing the signing of not one, not two, but three authors whose names begin with M. Only our devious Robot overlord master (you know, him, whose name begins with… M! Aye caramba!) knows how the hell that happened, but check this trio out:

Maurice Broaddus* is one of the real good guys, so why the hell his fiction is so terrifying is beyond our understanding. The three books of the KNIGHTS OF BRETON COURT series is a modern retelling of the King Arthur cycle, set among the drug gangs of inner city America. Told through the eyes of King, as he tries to unite the crack dealers and do the right thing, it’s a stunning, edgy work, genuinely unlike anything we’ve ever read. Cheap movie analogy for you: Gilliam’s Fisher King meets The Wire. The first volume will be published by Angry Robot in summer 2010, with the remaining parts at six month intervals. Extraordinary.

continue reading to see whose company I'm privileged to be joining!

*All author pics taken by Surreal Image Photography