The stories of Bryan Young

I've been doing a bunch of press lately, so let's start at the beginning and when we get to the end we'll stop. First, I did a lengthy interview for the Hello, Sweetie Podcast. You can listen to it here . We covered everything under the sun, including the books and, of course, Star Wars. Secondly, Andy Wilson over at Huffington Post was kind enough to include God Bless You, Mr. Vonnegut on his list of 5 books and apps you have to try for the Kindle and Nook , saying this of the book: "Young displays here both his depth as a writer and passion for the art itself--much of which he traces back to Kurt Vonnegut. In a chapter devoted to teachers, Young recounts both experiences in his own public schooling and his feelings for Vonnegut as a passive teacher of sorts. Young also touches on the incredibly personal and political, recounting painful dealings with the US "health care system." There's a little bit of everything in here. And something for everyon...

I want to wish everyone who reads this site and my material a Happy Holiday, Christmas, or whatever else you might celebrate. For those of you who are fortunate enough to be opening an eReader, don't hesitate to pick up stories and books from indy authors like myself. You can check out the complete list of my books and stories and most are available for all major eReaders. I've also published a brand new selection short stories today that you can check out: The Accidental Date contains four short stories: The Accidental Date, One Last Kiss, The Night Sky, and the Girl With Green Eyes. They're all on the romantic side of the scale I get with my work, so if that's not your thing, I won't mind if you skip them. It's available for Kindle , Nook , and on Smashwords . Either way, I hope your holiday is a great one, filled with friends, family, and plenty of relaxation.

For the next 24 hours, Lost at the Con will be available for free on the digital Kindle format. You can pick it up here. If you like it, I can't stress how much it would mean to me for you to rate and review it just about everywhere you can think of and to tell your friends about it. There is nothing more important to the life of a book or the well-being of an author than word of mouth for their projects. Be sure to spread the word and feel free to take a gander at my other written works. And if you're still on the fence, here's an interview I did talking about the book on the week of its release:

For the next 90 days, Lost at the Con will be part of the Kindle Lending Library, meaning that you can go to Amazon and check Lost at the Con out as though it was from the library. And with their new fund for their library, I'll get paid for you to go read my book for free. But it gets better. If joining up on Amazon Prime isn't your thing, I'll be giving Lost at the Con away for Kindle this weekend. On Saturday, December 17th, for one day only, you'll be able to get Lost at the Con digitally FOR FREE. No strings attached. (Though I'd love it if you reviewed the book and told your friends about it.) Just visit Amazon this weekend and download the book. If you're still on the fence, feel free to read what the critics have been saying about it: Andy Wilson, Huffington Post: "Young's style is terse and crisp. He writes in a way that compels you to keep flipping pages as you delve deeper and deeper into what is either the strangest of cultures ...

Saturday is a big day for a number of reasons. One of the biggest, though, is that I'll be at a book signing with Tracy Hickman, signing copies of Man Against the Future and Lost at the Con. Here's the information from the press release: SALT LAKE CITY, UT -- Eborn Books at Valley Fair Mall will be hosting a signing of science fiction authors on December 17th, just in time for the holiday season.    Headlining the event will be New York Times Bestselling author Tracy Hickman Hickman is a bestselling fantasy novelist and has worked extensively in the Dragon Lance universe. Other authors signing include Mills Crenshaw, author of “The Christmas of ’45”, and Bryan Young, author of “ Lost at the Con ” and “ Man Against the Future ”. Crenshaw is a local radio personality. Young is the editor-in-chief of Big Shiny Robot! , the writer behind Salt Lake City Weekly’s regular geek column, and a contributor to The Huffington Post.  There is no better gift than a signed and p...

As some of you may know, I'm a huge fan of Kurt Vonnegut. Disciple might be a better word than fan. His body of work might have influenced more than anyone else (including George Lucas). Over the years I've been collecting short stories, letters, and essays published elsewhere that have been directly about or inspired by Kurt Vonnegut. I've finally put together a book's worth of material and it is now available to you. It includes: Kurt Vonnegut is in Heaven Now - essay To Be Me - short story A Good Case for Universal Healthcare - essay The Train From Hell to Heaven - short story Tony Snow's White House Press Briefing 9/1/2007 - news satire George Bush's Farewell Address - news satire Late Term Abortion - short story A Simple Country Murder - short story All Life's a Game - short story Forlorn - short story God Bless You, Mr. Vonnegut - essay It also contains various letters and other connecting material. You can buy it digitally right...

We all have different methods at getting us through those dark, dreary days of a first draft. They're not so dark, I find I actually have a lot of fun writing, otherwise I wouldn't do it, but sometimes you get stuck. When you get stuck, the worst thing you can do is just to give up. I'd never have completed a single manuscript if I gave up every time it got hard. Over the years, I've come up with little shortcuts to help me get through those times that are harder than others like we all do (or should do.) My brain sees stories as movies playing in my head. I came from a world of screenwriting and I'm a very visual, cinematic writer. That method of writing poses its own challenges since you can't just follow a logical chain of events in a novel the same way you would in a movie. At my most recent writing critique group (With Janine Spendlove and Aaron Allston ), I was torn a new asshole because of all of the random POV shifts in the rough draft of my manuscri...

I had the chance to do an exhaustive interview with the author Max Allan Collins about his new book from Mickey Spillane's manuscript, The Consummata . It's a fantastic read and a sequel to the top selling Delta Force. For the portions of our interview regarding Spillane and The Consumatta, those will be appearing on The Huffington Post. For the portions of our conversation that had to do with Collins's time at DC Comics and writing Batman, they will be appearing on Big Shiny Robot . I'll link up to them as soon as they go up. This portion of the conversation had a lot to do with writing and the state of the book publishing world from a writers perspective, so I felt this was an appropriate forum for it. Bryan Young: How much of your time as a writer do you divide between producing collaborations with Spillane’s work, which are popular and excellent, and your own work which I think is just as unique and important for a reading audience? Max Allan Collins: I’ve...

I did an interview on Park City TV's Mountain Views with Portia Early about my books and my upcoming projects. It was a great spot and I hope you guys check it out. We talked a lot about Man Against the Future and Lost at the Con , but we also talked about the book I have coming out next month, God Bless You, Mr. Vonnegut, and my next two novels.

I've put out another pack of short stories for the Kindle and the Nook. For $2.99, you'll get: The Shadow of Dream - Protecting your children can sometimes be a nightmare. Bryan and the Case of the Disappearing Playboys - A true story from my youth. The Cruel Kids - If you found out a kid you mistreated in your past killed someone, would it change you? Hungry - Sometimes you can still be a kid and have lived through horrible things in this story from World War II. The thing that unifies these stories together in a way I think makes sense for a collection is that they've all got an element of lost innocence to them.  People don't often talk about the darkness in the lives of kids these days, and these all shine a light on that in some way or another. You can get The Cruel Kids for the Kindle or the Nook .

One of the projects keeping me busy is recording (with the help of renowned musician Mark Dago ) the audiobook of my first novel, Lost at the Con. We'll be done with the final product by the end of the month and it should be available by the beginning of November, but we have Chapter One finished and I wanted to share it with you guys for free. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD (or listen) TO CHAPTER ONE of LOST AT THE CON, as read by me. If you like what you hear, you can pick the book up at the Lost at the Con website (click the "Order Now" button to buy signed copies, or there are links to the digital copies). If you'd prefer to wait for the rest of the audio book, you can preorder it by clicking the link below. There are two options, one for digital download and one for having a CD shipped to you. The CD will have the eBook copies included. It should ship by the first week of November.

I will be signing copies of Lost at the Con , Man Against the Future , and The Colossus at Dr. Volt's Comic Connection on Saturday, October 8, 2011 from 12pm - 3pm. Dr. Volt's is located at 2033 East 3300 South in Salt Lake City, Utah. Also signing will be Tyler Kirkham (who is working on Green Lantern: New Guardians) and Jake Black (Ender's Game, Supergirl, and he's written episodes of Brave and the Bold and Ben 10). I hope to see you guys all out there.  The staff at Dr. Volt's has been a big supporter of the books and have been carrying them since day one.  Since everything is on sale, this is the best time to pick up comic books, graphic novels, and get books signed by the three of us.

Some of you might know that I have been hosting a weekly Pub Quiz (along with Shannon Barnson from the Geek Show Podcast ) for the last couple of years. I write forty questions a week and I didn't realize how much material I'd come up with until I put it all together. Writing trivia is a learned skill and I can definitely say that I've gotten better at it. In my early days of the Pub Quiz, I looked high and low for resources I could go for trivia questions and no good options existed. Now an option does exist. I've divided all of the Pub Quiz trivia questions I've written into 4 books of trivia questions now available for the Kindle and Nook. The books are as follows: Pub Quiz Trivia Volume 1 - History and Current Events ( Kindle and Nook ) Pub Quiz Trivia Volume 2 - Wildcard Rounds ( Kindle and Nook ) Pub Quiz Trivia Volume 3 - Geek Trivia ( Kindle and Nook ) Pub Quiz Trivia Volume 4 - Film Trivia ( Kindle and Nook ) I'll be compiling all fo...

I found this piece of good writing advice from Brian K. Vaughn. You might remember him from Y: The Last Man and as a writer on Lost. According to him (and I agree completely) the secret to being more successful as a writer is as simple as can be: WRITE MORE, DO OTHER STUFF LESS. That's it. Everything else is meaningless. You can take all the classes in the world and read every book on the craft out there, but at the end of the day, writing is sorta like dieting. There are plenty of stupid fads out there and charlatans promising quick fixes, but if you want to lose weight, you have to exercise more and eat less. Period. Every writer has 10,000 pages of shit in them, and the only way your writing is going to be any good at all is to work hard and hit 10,001. He also said that writers block was just another word for video games. I found this piece of advice a long time ago and I've had it tucked away. Since then I've all but given up video games and I can vouch fo...

I have twenty or thirty notebooks and journals filled up with snippets about writing, my plans for stories, bits of dialogue, interesting ideas, plotlines, scraps of short stories, and a dozen other things. I carry one with me at all times and it takes me a couple of months to fill one up. One of the things I've kept in one of my notebooks was a collection of writing tips and rules that I've collected over the years in my travels. From teachers, from books, from wherever. Most of my career has been spent screenwriting, so a lot of these are most applicable to that, but I wanted to present them so they might be of use to you as well. I've never stopped collecting these over the years and I never will. To start the list are Kurt Vonnegut's eight rules of writing. They are the first in my notebook and, I think, the most useful. I'll add a star to those I think are applicable most to screenwriting. Some of these aren't applicable to everyone in every situation...

So, I moved too late to get a table for the show (I was numbered in the hundreds on the waiting list), but I did manage to find myself on a panel with my good friend Janine Spendlove ( author of the ridiculously popular and very fun to read War of the Seasons books ). Mon 1:00pm Self Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing in YA - In this era of instant media, what are some advantages and disadvantages of self-publishing your YA novel, vs. the traditional path often taken? Janine Spendlove, Bryan Young, Jonathan Maberry, Jackson Pearce A707 It should be a very fun and interesting panel. And I think there are distinct advantages to each method of publication, so I'm not for one side or the other. I'll be roaming the convention the whole time (tweet me if you want to meet up) and I'll have books on me in case you wanted to pick some up. (I'll be carrying Lost at the Con , Man Against the Future , and my convention only versions of The Colossus.) If you see me, f...

I got into the early beta for Pottermore this morning and I've spent a lot of time messing around with it.  It's immersive and fun and I've spent way too much time there. You can read my full thoughts about the experience itself on Huffington Post or Big Shiny Robot ! But there's something else about it that excites me as an author:  I'm not even the biggest Harry Potter fan, but sitting there trolling through all the behind the scenes content of the books, I was dying to get the digital versions to make it easier to follow along with the experience. That's their next big step, launching the eBooks.  I've already bought copies of all the books, but something about the experience of Pottermore made me desire the digital versions. Imagine that happening to the millions expected to be using this free service and want to buy an eReader to buy the digital versions of the books proper?  These readers aren't going to be buying just seven books.  They...

I have a brand new three-pack of short stories available for .99 cents on the Kindle and Nook today. This one is called " The Whiskey Doctor and other stories about the new Great Depression ". It contains three stories: The Way It Is The Whiskey Doctor By the Bootstraps Included below is from the introduction to the collection: Some of my favorite art and stories grew out of the plight of the “working class” and those affected by the Great Depression. From Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath to every Three Stooges short and Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times and a hundred other examples, in that era there was an overwhelming amount of art in the popular culture that brought attention to the horrible things going on in the country because of its economic realities. We’re living in a very similar period, but I haven’t seen the art reflecting the times. Every show seems to be about highlighting what it’s like to be rich, and our shows, movies, and magazines adore those who...

If you've been interested in picking up a digital version of Lost at the Con but haven't yet, you might be interested in a new three pack of humour books. I've teamed up with Warlizard and Jen Ashton to put all three of our books together in one collection. It's called " An Orgy of Laughter: Three Books from the fringe of society " and you can pick up all three books together for $9.99. Separately it would be a lot more than that. The link to get it on the Nook will be up shortly. I'm going to assume if you're here that you know what Lost at the Con is about. ( If you'd rather just pick up my book, you can do so at this link. ) As for the other two books in the collection: THE WARLIZARD CHRONICLES by Warlizard My new fiancée Betty and I were sitting on the couch, watching the Westminster Kennel Club dog show when she looked over at me and casually said, "My first orgasm came from a dog." As I sat there stunned, trying...

There are three stories in a .99 cent pack now available for your reading pleasure on Kindle and Nook . The stories collected are: A Simpler Time Respiratory Alert The Reckless Abandon of Youth All three are mostly true stories from my childhood. I hope you enjoy them! A Simpler Time: Three Stories by Bryan Young - For Kindle and for Nook .

The redoubtable comedian, Marcus, saw fit to grace me and my books with a hilarious video. You can obviously buy my books from these links: Lost at the Con and Man Against the Future . You can pay Marcus a visit on Facebook and Twitter .

I met with my editor today about the next book I'm publishing and as much as we talked about the editorial direction the book needed to take, we talked just as much about the marketing strategy we'd need to embark on to make it successful. The next book I'm publishing is tonally different than any of the other books or stories I've ever published.  It's not comedic fiction like Lost at the Con , nor does it resemble the science fiction collected in Man Against the Future in any way.  It's tentatively titled Interstate-15  and is the coming of age story of a pair of teenage boys.  It's a very close, personal book to me and I've been hesitant to publish it at all.  In fact, it was actually the first book I ever wrote and helped me deal with a lot of personal issues in my own "coming of age" story. But my editor and I both feel that there's a great book in there with just a little tweaking and some modest rewrites.  In fact, I'd love ...

For those of you who have been following me over the years (since 2005!) this space has been devoted to providing you a free short story every month.  It's kept me sharp with my writing skills and you guys have been instrumental in helping me become the writer I am today. A couple of weeks ago, I released my first book and my first collection of short stories into print. The book, Lost at the Con , tells the tale of Michael Cobb, a scotch-soaked political journalist who has given up on life and his dreams.  He's assigned against his will to cover a sci-fi/fantasy convention in Atlanta, Georgia and his life will never be the same afterwards.   Huffington Post called it "Required Summer Reading" and of the book they said, "Young's style is terse and crisp. He writes in a way that compels you to keep flipping pages as you delve deeper and deeper into what is either the strangest of cultures you will ever enjoy or something warm and familiar to all geeks who...

I've slowed down a bit on my short story writing because I've been preparing two books for publication.  One is a collection of all of my science fiction short stories (more on that in a week or two) and the other is my brand new novel. (I will be posting a new short story next week.) You can read the write up from Big Shiny Robot! below, but it is now available for pre-order.  It will be released on June 17th. From Big Shiny Robot !: Bryan Young, the editor of Big Shiny Robot! has a new book and physical copies are now available for pre-order. Lost at the Con tells the tale of a drunken political journalist and his dangerous assignment to a sci-fi/fantasy convention.  It's a blend of fictional Gonzo journalism and geek culture in a way that is sure to please audiences inside and outside the geek community. Physical copies are available for pre-order (eBooks for the Nook, Kindle, and other devices will be available upon the release of the book on June 17th.) ...

            The whistle signaling quitting time was always his favorite time.  It was the high water mark for the rest of the day, representing that first moment of freedom matched with the highest level of energy he’d have for the rest of the night.  He turned his dirty earth-moving machine off, ceasing the rumble in his seat and in the engine.  Quietly, he pulled the earplugs from his ears, and collected his gloves and cooler.  The cooler held remnants of his lunch which had consisted of two ham and cheese sandwiches, a dill pickle, a bag of chips, and an apple.             Each step back to his truck, parked four blocks away, ached down into his core.  Shifting his weight right, he could feel the burn on his ankle and knee.  Shifting his weight left provided the same effect on the other side.         ...

            "You," he called out to me from across the bar.             I tried my hardest to just shut him out and take another drink.  I couldn't tell who was shabbier between the pair of us.  Neither of us had shaved in a few days or more, we both poured sweat from the unmitigated heat, and I couldn't tell if it was him or me I could smell over the sweating glass of iced whiskey.             The stranger took his hat off and wiped his brow with his sleeve before beginning again.  "Are you the one they call the Whiskey Doctor?"             "Whiskey Doctor?  Who says that?"             "Everyone."             "Do they?"    ...