Adam Dreece's Blog

It’s amazing how one’s mental state bleeds into the words, characters, and pages of the stories we write. At least, it does for me. A few months ago, I put aside King’s Horse 2. It was half-written, the rest of the second volume of the trilogy well mapped out, but I couldn’t keep going.

There was a lot of stress in my life and I wasn’t having fun, so I moved on to ODIS Prime, my “Matrix meets Lord of the Rings” series that I wanted to get off the ground. At first it was to be on the plucky side, but the real story started coming through, shifting the Matrix to Inception so to speak, and I came to a decision point about where to go. Again, I needed something plucky in my life, and ODIS Prime had grown up very quickly, and for all the right reasons. Thus came along my Secret Project.

I only started it about three weeks ago, and the words are piling up like cord wood in autumn. During my trip to and from Toronto for interviews with Microsoft, the first 10k words spilled out. Since then, even with cutting things left and right, I’m now at a hair under 19k.

This new project, which I’ll talk about soon enough in my newsletter and a post here, goes against all that negativity of the news and the stresses of life. It’s plucky and silly and has plenty of moments where it is unabashedly fun. It’s definitely the emotional cousin of my first book in The Yellow Hoods series.

When I was at EdmontonExpo, I shared some details of the Secret Project with friends and fans, and everyone had the same reaction. Their burden lightened, they stood up straighter, they smiled and then they laughed. Even the name itself caused some of their darkness to be pushed back.

This is the first story I’m writing with the intent to give to an agent. It’s got a middle grade to young adult heart, but if you know anything about my writing, I never write solely for that audience. I like to wrap some complexity in a blanket of accessible silliness and puns.

And I find even when I’m feeling stuck, when I don’t think I have the mental energy to start, I put on the playlist and within a song or two, I’m back in the grove and the words are flying out.

So while I’m not sharing more details about the Secret Project, here’s some of the playlist:

1 Dare to be Stupid by Weird al

2 One Week by the Bare Naked Ladies

3 Some Kinda Wonderful by Sky

4 Grenade by Michelle Chamuel (The Voice version)

5 Party Hard by Andrew W.K

6 I will Wait by Mumford and Sons

7 Thunderstruck by AC/DC

Now you have to ask yourself, how can you stay down and grumbly when you’re listening to that? I can’t.

The post Inspiration for my new works appeared first on Adam Dreece's Blog.

There are a lot of moments in life where we’re faced with a barely-conscious decision. We’re tired and saturated with the world, and what’s happening isn’t that big of a deal, but there’s an opportunity to punch through all of that and create a wonderful moment. And the more we do those, the easier they are to see and do.

This week’s my youngest (5yo) son’s first week of full-day summer camp. His older brother’s attending as well, but in an older class. When LittlestGuy came home on Monday, he was bouncy and happy, until he realized that the sticker with his name on it (and Mommy’s name blacked out due to a clerical error), the one he had decorated with coloured pencils at camp, had come off AND had a tear starting. As he started to melt down, it got accidentally crumpled up and that made things, as you’d expect, far worse.

On top of having hit his limit with newsness, and being tired, he takes great pride in his art. I can often get him to pull himself away from screens by asking the simple question, “Hey, do you want to do some crafts?” He’ll arrive like Barry Allen (Flash). The great day at camp had suddenly turned into The Worst Day Ever. I tried talking to him, but ultimately, he was upset that Mommy wouldn’t get to see it how it was supposed to be when she came home from work.

I listened, tried to make him feel better, told him they would have more stickers there, worked at distracting him, and we made it through to bed time. But when he got up in the morning, after breakfast was done and I said they needed to get ready for camp, his eyes went wide. He was certain they wouldn’t have more stickers (and it later would turn out he was right). Rather than just telling him to suck it up, I looked at the clock (we had 10 minutes until we had to leave) and I came up with a creative idea.

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We got the crumpled up sticker, laid it flat, and I took a picture. Then I edited it in a really basic photo app, then printed it on photo paper and cut it down. Using some duct-tape, I put on his chest. He wasn’t certain about it, but he held it together. When we arrived at the camp, he asked for a new sticker and they revealed, to my surprise, that they didn’t have any more. The counsellors, told my Littlest Guy how much they loved his. He proposed that I go to Staples and buy a pack of the stickers, but knowing that nothing could ever replace the original one (I’ve learned something over the years), I told him to try this one out for the day.

When I picked him up at the end of the day, he said that some kid wasn’t going to invite him to the kid’s birthday because my son didn’t have a proper name sticker. Though I talked with him about the kid being jealous, he listened and accepted it after Mommy talked to him. The next morning, Daddy made a new and more amazing one. Well, he was impressed and willing to wear it. Even that kid who bugged him the day before said how cool it was. Even his big brother (7yo) was impressed and a bit jealous. So today, I created one for each of them.

And I made another one, a variant of Littlest Guy’s for his best friend at camp (who isn’t the kid I mentioned). So now, there’s two Bat-boys in one class and a Flash in another. Thank goodness there’s only one day left of this camp, because otherwise I’m going to run out of their favorite super heroes. I’m certain tomorrow’s either Superman or Spider-Man day.

The best part was my Little Guy realizing that what started as a sad thing had the opportunity to turn into a wonderful opportunity. His Big Bro got to see that there was a moment to make a difference, despite knowing that I had a million things on my mind. And me? Well, I learned that sometimes it just takes a moment to breathe in order to change someone’s world.

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It says something about how hectic your life is, when you realized that you haven’t shouted about the release of your latest book to the world ON THE DAY IT RELEASES. *clears throat* It’s launched!

The King’s Horse – Book 1 is my new steampunk-meets-fairy tale series of heart, duty, and legacy.

Christina Creangle stared at the smoldering ruins of her life’s work. When the Moufan, an ancient secret society, offered to take care of her senile father as repayment of an old debt, she agreed. The idea of isolation with both her protege and her legendary inventor father, was too compelling to question.

But the winds of history are blowing fierce after the first airship battle, spreading radical ideas to the ambitious and the fearful. Can the Moufan resist the temptation to use everything in their possession to seize power?

Elsewhere, in the ruins of a presidential palace, an old, mechanical horse is discovered that could tip the continent’s delicate balance of power.

Discover this new epic tale that Readers’ Favorite called “Dazzling” – 5 Stars.

The post Launch Day! Horses Unleashed! appeared first on Adam Dreece's Blog.

With 2 days left before the eBook release of The King’s Horse, I’m happy to share the release of my return interview on Josh P’s Just Joshing podcast! We talk about health, sanity, rediscovering my voice, and of course, The King’s Horse.

Give it a listen! (and also, check out the book)

The post A King’s Horse Podcast interview! appeared first on Adam Dreece's Blog.

It’s T-3 days and I’m happy to share the music that inspired me.

Hell to the Liars by London Grammar, for me, is Christina’s song about the relationship with her father, and with the world at large.

PLAYLIST

Hell to the Liars – London Grammar

Brave Enough (album) – Lindsey Stirling

I don’t know why – Imagine Dragons

Whatever it takes – Imagine Dragons

Believer – Imagine Dragons

Rise Up – Imagine Dragons

Oh Woman Oh Man – London Grammar

.Lithium – Evanescence

Big Picture – London Grammar

Rooting for You – London Grammar

Did you check out yesterday’s pre-release post?

Get more details about picking up The King’s Horse here.

The post The King’s Horse – Playlist appeared first on Adam Dreece's Blog.

Leading up to the launch of The King’s Horse, I thought I would share a few fun tid bits.

When I was revising the ending of The Yellow Hood’s fifth and final installment, The Day the Sky Fell, I had a scene that bid adieu to Christina Creangle and Mounira that bothered me. They’d written them out, stage left, at the end of Book 4, Beauties of the Beast, sending them to take care of the senile and frail old Christophe Creangle. I debated whether or not to write Books 6 and 7 of The Yellow Hoods, focusing on getting Mounira back to her home and resolving a few lingering story lines, but it felt like I would be stretching out the series in a way that didn’t make sense. But that said, the scene saying goodbye and quickly wrapping things up for Christina and Mounira didn’t feel right either, so I deleted it.

My plan, at that point, was to write short story, or a novelette (like Snappy and Dashing), so that fans and I could see what happened to Christina and Mounira. I was supposed to write a series based on the Little Match Girl (which will come) with a publisher, but that fell through and so I went back to thinking.

Three stories started to form (all of which had scenes deleted from the end of The Day the Sky Fell: one centered around the Cochon brothers and Egelina-Marie, another about Amami and her brother Richy, and last but not least, Christina and Mounira’s adventures in getting Mounira back to her family. The last won out, and as it formed in my mind, I realized that it was a lot more rich than I had first thought. And from there came the basis for The King’s Horse.

The idea of exploring the “dark side of Santa Claus” as represented by Christophe Creangle through his contrast with Nikolas Klaus, and as his mind degenerates, was intriguing. And then layering on top of that the complicated set of desperate decisions and unflinching belief in protecting society from his own genius, gave me an exciting way to form a complicated relationship between Christophe and his daughter,.

Another idea I loved was the idea of getting to know this very strong, gay, female lead. She is formidable, brilliant, and she has a big sister relationship with this one armed girl, Mounira, that grounds her in a way she desperately needs. Christina would go from seeing her life in ruins, to finding new purpose in the series, and would bring us along the way for every precious moment of that personal journey of self-forgiveness and transformation. Mounira would be both teenage foil and Christina’s morale compass, herself tested in terms of loyalties and convictions, ultimately being left with the question when she’s returned to the family she’s been separated from, of who is she and what is family. The more I thought about it, the more I couldn’t get away from it.

At first, I called the story Unfinished Business. Then it evolved to Unfinished Business: The King’s Horse, and then finally to The King’s Horse – Book 1 as I realized this was a series unto itself. With a more mature tone, though still clean and friendly, it was a tale that was going to need time to breath and flex.

In a few days, the eBook will be out and I’m already 27,000+ words into writing the second book. It’s amazing to think that this story almost didn’t happen.

Stay tuned for other behind-the-scenes bits as we lead into launch day!

Check out The King’s Horse page for more details!

The post The King’s Horse – It almost didn’t happen appeared first on Adam Dreece's Blog.

I share a bit of my amazing experience at CreativeInk Festival (also see my blog post about why you need to be there in 2019!), read the blurb for The King’s Horse, and answer a great question!

The post Episode 12 of Adam’s Updates! appeared first on Adam Dreece's Blog.

With the amazing moments of this year’s CreativeInk Festival already feeling like comfortable memories of a time long past, I can’t help but think of next year. More importantly, of all the people that should be at it. So here are my 5 reasons why you need to go.

Every conference has a personality, and as someone who is “secretly” an introvert, I don’t do well with bonding with people and just making myself part of a group. But CIF has been different, very different. This year, I had breakfast and lunch with guest of honor, C.C. Humphreys, joked around and drank with our other guest of honor, Kevin Hearne, and founded a friendship with incredible thriller author, Jonas Saul. BUT, there’s more. As much I these guys gave me some of their time to pick their brains, I spent time having coffee with others who wanted to pick mine or just chatting in the hallways. There’s very much a feeling of giving as much as you get.

And as for that introvertive side? When a number of us were heading for an after hours drink, I heard someone almost whisper “Can I come?” I spun around and replied “Absolutely.” Why? That’s part of the spirit of CIF.

The funniest part for me is that I got to laugh and spend time with some of my Calgary friends in a way that we never do here.

As much as we like to keep our Maple-coated secrets to ourselves, it was great seeing those who’d been willing to hope over the border and benefit from our 30% cheaper content and friendship. Conversations were richer for having people from all over, bringing together thoughts on everything from LGBTQ support/openness, to reader assumption due to political context, to swearing.

Like I said, every conference has its own personality, and CIF is open, welcoming, and inviting. Though, maybe it’s just the 159 people of the 160 attendees that I met with who were like that…

Last night, I delivered a half-hour keynote speech at the 3rd annual CreativeInk Festival. It was an honour to be asked, and was the second keynote I’ve ever done. The PDF of the slides are below.

Every speech I give focuses on three things: Informing, Entertaining, and Inspiring. Keynotes for me have these elements in reverse order (inspire, entertain, inform), and so they are harder to craft. I had hoped the speech would go well, and apparently it was a “knocked it out of the park” level. The best comments came from a few people who said “I really needed to hear that today. You’ve inspired me to get up and keep going.” Other great comments came from those who have known me for a few years, but only now realize some of the iceberg that’s been below the sea the whole time.

Here’s the PDF of the file if you’d like to have a look. Please note that I have licensed all of the images for viewing, so please do not reuse them without licensing them yourself.

Adam Dreece 2018 – Keynote

The post My Keynote at CreativeInk Festival 2018 appeared first on Adam Dreece's Blog.

This time, it’s Librarians and Key Notes! Also, if you missed the last few, I’ve posted them here so you can catch up! They are short and packed with little bits of Adam-y goodness. I promise.

Episode 11 – Librarians, Key Notes, and More

Episode 10 – Post-Convention breakdown

Episode 9 – Getting Ready for Day 2 of the Con

The post New Video Updates! appeared first on Adam Dreece's Blog.