Happy New Year!
Rather than share events from my past year, I thought I’d offer a bit of encouragement and advice to help with the coming year. While this is aimed primarily at my fellow writers, it also, I think, can be applied to life in general.
This weekend, I encourage you to sit down and do three things:
1) Create a calendar/schedule for your goals and tasks.
2) Create, or update, your list of goals and tasks.
3) BELIEVE and do what makes you happy.
I am pleased and excited to announce that FINN FANCY NECROMANCY will also be published in the UK!!! By Titan! I will, of course, need to brush up on my UnitedKingdomish so that I can read the translation, but I am pretty dang chuffed! And I think their cover is awesome, a perfect balance to Tor’s.
One more thing to be thankful for – Finn Fancy Necromancy will be recorded by Brilliance Audio. And the voice actor? Todd Haberkorn, who has done voices on Legend of Korra, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, Dragon Ball Z, and a bunch of other awesome stuff, as well as plays Spock in the amazingly cool TOS fan webseries, Star Trek Continues.
On July 20th, Clarion West is holding an “Ask Me Anything” online streaming hangout with me, followed by a round robin reading by other authors: https://plus.google.com/events/cbu3p5961d144cric4stpiu07vo
Although only 10 persons can actually actively participate in the hangout, anyone can watch it being streamed. I’ll be taking questions, and you can send them ahead of time to: communications@clarionwest.org with the subject line “Questions for Randy Henderson”. Ask me anything about writing, writers of the future, my forthcoming novel or my experience (to date) with getting it published, or anything really. I can answer any question (even if I don’t know the answer).
Thank you to everyone who came out to my signings/ readings at Kitsap Mall Barnes & Noble, Pacific Place Barnes & Noble, and University Bookstore, including several of the Clarion West class of 2014. I truly appreciate it.
A few shout outs regarding those who attended:
Caren Gussoff Sumption has an awesome post-nano-plague novel coming out in November called THE BIRTHDAY PROBLEM. I’ve read it and worship at the feet of her skill with creating interesting characters with depth. And just to be clear, the novel is about a post-nano-plague world, I didn’t mean it will be coming out after the nano-plague in November. I know nothing of that.http://pinknarc.com/books.htm
Julie McGalliard has a dark and kick butt werewolf novel coming out later this year (with some great spins on the genre) from Per Aspera press called WAKING UP NAKED IN STRANGE PLACES. http://www.perasperapress.com/forthcoming-books-for-2014/
The point of my readings and signings will not truly be to sell copies of Writers of the Future volume 30 (although that is encouraged), but to celebrate our love of the genre together.
All questions will be answered, many laughs will be had, and many words shared.
And I understand that many folks may have already bought the anthology by the time of the reading, possibly in e-form, or maybe don’t want the anthology for some strange unknowable reason (possibly involving alien probing and the suppression of human emotion through nano technology). If so, bring your copy, or buy something else! I’ll have Other Stuff to sign freely for you if you do.
Let’s share in a celebration of speculative fiction, and support other authors and the bookstore as well (ideally through sale of the anthology which does so much to support new writers, and is also of course a handy way to understand the market if you wish to submit to them; but if you buy any book, that is a good thing in my, er, book).
Perhaps you were wanting to buy awesome fiction from other local authors like: Forged in Fire by J.A. Pitts; or The Age of Ice by J.M. Sidorova; or Hild by Nicola Griffith; or Requiem by Ken Scholes; or The Thousand Names by Django Wexler; or the latest Greywalker Novel by Kat Richardson; or The Creative Fire by Brenda Cooper; or Reflected by Rhiannon Held; or Copper Head by Tina Connolly; or The Book of Joby by Mark Ferrari.
Or you wanted to pick up some mind-expanding goodness, like: Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor; or Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie; or Authority by Jeff Vandermeer; or 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami; or Sister Mine by Nalo Hopkinson; or We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler, or Cory Doctorow’s latest, Homeland.
Or grab the latest (or first) book in a series you are interested in, be it the Dresden Files or Game of Thrones or Divergent.
Perhaps you prefer the comic stylings of Jim C Hines, John Scalzi, or Terry Pratchett, or the magic realism of Charles de Lint?
Or heck, come in and place pre-orders on books like: Hurricane Fever by Tobias S. Buckell; or The Ultra Thin Man by Patrick Swenson; or Last Plane to Heaven by Jay Lake; or Prophet of Bones by Ted Kosmatka.
But again, of course, the hope is to sell many copies of Writers of the Future Volume 30, officially called by The Critic** “The besterest volume ever.”
Hope to see you there, with (some) book or eReader or receipt in hand*.
*No purchase required to participate as a viewer. Mileage estimated based on in-city reading. See book dealer for additional details.
**That’s me. I’m The Critic. I may be biased, but I’m also completely biased.
See my Schedule page for details on upcoming readings/signings/Q&As.
Want to know what goes on at the Writers and Illustrators of the Future workshop, what the awards ceremony was like, advice on how to succeed as a writer or illustrator, or my favorite flavor of milkshake?
On May 13th the writer and illustrator winners of this past year will be coming together to answer these and any other questions. This giant question-and-answer period will take the form of an AMA (ask me anything) on the Reddit fantasy forum.
The AMA will be posted here on May 13th: http://www.reddit.com/r/fantasy/
Those participating in the AMA are:
Megan E. O’Keefe (Writer Winner and the AMA organizer) : Website | Twitter | Facebook
Randy Henderson (Writer Winner): Website | Twitter
Anaea Lay (Writer Winner): Website | Twitter
Bernardo Mota (Illustrator Winner): Website | Facebook
Shauna O’Meara (Writer Winner): Website
Trevor Smith (Illustrator Winner): Website | Twitter | Facebook
Terry Madden (Writer Winner): Website | Twitter | Facebook
C. Stuart Hardwick (Writer Winner): Website | Twitter | Facebook
Cassandre Bolan (Illustrator Winner): Website | Twitter | Facebook
Liz Colter (Writer Winner): Website | Twitter
Oleg Kazantsev (Writer Winner): Facebook
Sarah Webb (Illustrator Winner): Tumblr | Portfolio | Facebook
Michael Talbot (Illustrator Winner): Facebook | YouTube
Paul Eckheart (Writer Winner): Website | Twitter | Facebook
Leena Likitalo (Writer Winner): Website
Kirbi Fagan (Illustrator Winner): Website | Facebook
Vincent Coviello (Illustrator Winner): Tumblr
On Sunday, April 13, 2014, I was honored to accept awards from the Writers of the Future contest both as a first place quarterly winner, and then as the Golden Pen grand prize winner.
I’ll post more about the workshop and the experience itself, but for now, here is a link to the award ceremony.
TRANSCRIPTS of my acceptance speeches (I left out the “ums”) are included below.
My introduction and speeches begin at 02:07:00 and at 02:46:05.
I was interviewed for the North Kitsap Herald about winning the Writers of the Future, my novel, and general writing advice.
http://www.northkitsapherald.com/lifestyle/252750391.html
Author, relapsed sarcasm addict, Clarion West graduate, milkshake connoisseur, winner of Writers of the Future, and member of Dungeon Scrawlers.
Randy’s humorous contemporary fantasy series from TOR (US) and Titan (UK) includes:
Bigfootloose and Finn Fancy Free,
now available for purchase, reading, and use in questionable acts.
In this sequel to Randy Henderson's acclaimed debut novel, Finn Fancy Necromancy, Randy Henderson spins another tale full of adventure, magic, and laughs, exploring in more depth the magical world and characters introduced in the first book.
More info →
“… it’s an urban fantasy, one that takes place in and around present-day Seattle. But even though it deals with sinister magic and family tragedy, it counterbalances that darkness with something that’s become increasingly rare in fantasy fiction: laughs, laughs, and more laughs.” -- NPR
More info → 
