BRENT WEEKS
Guest of Honour

BRENT WEEKS was born and raised in Montana. After getting his paper keys from Hillsdale College, he had brief stints walking the Earth like Caine from TV’s Kung Fu, tending bar, and corrupting the youth (not at the same time). He started writing on bar napkins, then on lesson plans, then full-time. Eventually, someone paid him for it. Brent lives in Oregon with his wife, Kristi. He doesn’t own cats or wear a ponytail.

          

Brent is the author of the New York Times best-selling “The Night Angel Trilogy”, featuring master assassin Durzo Blint, who practices his fatal art in a world of dangerous politics, strange magics and sudden death. The first volume in the series, The Way of Shadows, was published in 2008. “I was mesmerised from start to finish,” declared fantasy writer Terry Brooks. “Unforgettable characters, a plot that kept me guessing, non-stop action and the kind of in-depth storytelling that makes me admire a writer’s work.” The first book was quickly followed by Shadow’s Edge and Beyond the Shadows later that same year.

Just published in trade paperback is Night Angel: The Complete Trilogy, a stunning omnibus edition that includes The Way of Shadows, Shadow’s Edge and Beyond the Shadows. Also included are a glossary, character guide and two never-before-released bonus chapters.

Perfect Shadow is a prequel novella to the events in “The Night Angel Trilogy”. It was released last year in e-book and digital-audio versions, and published as a limited edition by Subterranean Press.

Brent’s new “Lightbringer” series concerns Gavin Guile who, as the Prism, is the most powerful man in the world. A high priest and emperor, Guile also knows that he only has five years to achieve five impossible goals. The first book in the series, The Black Prism, launched in August 2010, and it will be followed by The Blinding Knife, which will be published by Orbit in time for this year’s FantasyCon.

               

“Things labelled ‘Writers’ Conferences’ are often good,” explains Brent. “There are a lot of these. You’re looking for things with seminars or talks by prominent agents or editors about the business of writing – both the writing, and the business. If you’ve done you’re homework, you’ll start to see names pop up. If you see one of the agents that reps an author you think is very similar to you is going to a con near you, GO. I met one agent who looked like a great match for me on paper – and in person, I was like, no no no no no. That personal connection is really important – even though when you’re poor and desperate, you feel like you’d take any agent with a pulse. Don’t do that.

“Nobody cares what your credentials are when you try to get published. They care if you can tell a great story. So if you have the right personality to read a lot of books and teach yourself, there’s no reason for a university directly. However, it is also extremely difficult to get published and to make a living writing books. So an education is a helpful thing for getting a real job while you are trying to write. (And you may have the good fortune to meet amazing friends and brilliant people, in addition to wracking up a ton of debt.) There are trade-offs to be made either way, and you have to figure out what is going to work best for you.”

You can read more of Brent Weeks’ writing advice on his official website: www.brentweeks.com/