the website of author and local favorite blake michael nelson | about | contact: theblakeshow@gmail.com
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NEWS AND VIEWS - APRIL 2022
WRITING NEWS I started working on the bonus short story for the new edition of the Visitor's Guide this month -- it's called Going Viral. It's about a kid named Kieran, who accidentally becomes famous after a video of him being rescued by the patriotic superheroine Patriette goes viral. Annoyed by all the attention (Kieran's got it pretty rough), he decides to seek her out and give her a piece of mind, and in the process he gets caught up in another one of her adventures. Not sure when I'll have it done; I'm working on it concurrently with A City Burnished Silver, which I've got up to about 63,000 words now. I know, I know, that's not a lot of progress from last month. Sorry, folks. I'm doing the best I can here. * * * * * * * * CHARMING SHARRA I finished reading Lawrence Watt-Evans' latest Ethshar novel this month -- Charming Sharra, it's called (that might not be the final title, though). This book's protagonist is a minor character from Stone Unturned -- Sharra the Charming, aka Sharra the Petty, a shallow, unlikeable woman in her late thirties who tries to win back her husband (unsuccessfully) by buying a very expensive youth spell in order to make herself look eighteen again. When she can't pay the wizard, however, he turns her to stone, and she spends the next thirty years as a statue until Morvash from Stone Unturned changes her back. Her adventures are not particularly interesting; apart from these incidents nothing really exciting happens to her. The book is more about her personal journey, as she reflects on her life, and as she gradually begins to grow and change. I really enjoyed it. These smaller, personal stories just really appeal to me for some reason, and they've definitely influenced my own Signalverse stories to some degree. If this kind of fantasy sounds interesting to you -- there's really nothing else like it out there -- be sure to check out Charming Sharra when it comes out later this year (I think). Now, where's Azraya of Ethshar? * * * * * * * * APRIL VIEWS The weather up here in Minnesota has been really terrible this month -- I don't think we've had a single nice day. It's been rainy, cold, and windy, which sucks for me, because I'm out in it most days, working on this big project for the local power company. Ugh. Anyway, here's some random pics I took this month, while out and about. 
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