The stories of Bryan Young

This Thursday will see another reading at the Salt Lake City Library, but this one is a little different. Sure, I'm reading stories, but it's an open invitation for you to come read along side me. It's something we've been doing for a while and it's booked consistently on the third Thursday of every month, 7:00-9:00pm in the 4th floor conference room at the Downtown library . Here's the official rundown from the event : Interested in science fiction, creative writing, or just looking to make connections with other like-minded geeks? Local author Bryan Young, who is also a prominent national Star Wars aficionado and editor-in-chief of Big Shiny Robot! (a geek news and reviews blog), invites you to a monthly series of fiction readings featuring visiting and local authors, as well as readings from you!   On the 3rd Thursday of every month, Young will invite authors from around the state and country to read selections of their work. After that, he’ll op

Tomorrow, I'll be at the Utah Humanities Book Festival doing a reading from The Serpent's Head (or Andy Wilson, Boy Super-Genius) and then answering questions about writing and publishing. I'd love to see you all there. It's at the Downtown Salt Lake City Library and I'll be speaking in the 4th floor conference room at noon. Some of my books will also be around and on sale. Here's their official write-up: The City Library will play host to authors Bryan Young, Barry Deutsch, and Matthew Kirby. SCHEDULE OF EVENTS Noon   Bryan Young Level 4, Conference Room Bryan Young works across many different mediums. As an author, he’s written the bestselling comedic novel  Lost at the Con  and the critically acclaimed sci-fi adventure  Operation: Montauk  and most recently,  A Children’s Illustrated History of Presidential Assassination . As a film producer, his last two films ( This Divided State  and  Killer at Large ) were released by The Disinformation

Hot on the heels of Dragon Con last week, I'll be at Salt Lake Comic Con this week. Both conventions have kept me very busy, and I'm looking forward to Salt Lake. I'll be sharing a booth with the rest of the guys from Big Shiny Robot! and some other great artists. I'll have plenty of books and will be signing them, including The Serpent's Head. For those interested, here's my panel schedule: Thursday 4:00 pm - An Hour With Sam Witwer 5:00 pm - Room 250a - What we know and what we think we know about Episode VII (Moderator) 7:00 pm - Room 255c - Salt Lake Comic-Con Film School Part 1: Development, Screenwriting, and Pre-production 8:00 pm - Room 255b - The Big Shiny Geek Show Pub Quiz Friday 1:00 pm - Room 250a - Star Wars Rebels (Moderator) 2:00 pm - Room 151g - The Future and Legends of Star Wars Canon (Moderator) 8:00 pm - Room 255f - The Cinema Behind Star Wars (Moderator) Saturday 2:00 pm - Room 255b - Nerds vs. The News 3:00

After two years and two drastic rewrites, The Serpent's Head, is finally coming out. It officially comes out in time for release at the Origins Game Fair, though the paperback has already found its way onto Amazon.   It should be up on the publishers website soon ( Silence in the Library .) Here's the official synopsis: The man called Twelve is a hired gun, taking his laser pistol from planet to planet, hiring his services out to the highest bidder. He finds himself on Glycon-Prime, a new colony at the edge of space. On the hunt for work, Twelve blows into a small, frontier town only to find a massacre. The only survivors? A trio of young children, devastated by the murder of their families and hellbent on hiring the gunslinger to help them get revenge on the leader of the vicious mutants responsible, the man known only as "The Serpent's Head." I'm really excited for you all to read it. You can also preorder it here from me to get a signed copy. A

I've been thinking about this a lot lately and just wanted to get this out there. I think the reason female characters seemed so hard for me to write was that I live in a society that made me think they were the incomprehensible (and sometimes irrational) "other." Writing women was supposed to be hard. But it got a whole lot easier when I stopped thinking of them as this alien species and more just like people. They have the same wants, needs, desires, thoughts, flaws, and defects as everyone else. They just have it harder because everyone seems to forget that. And it was because of the constant attention that's being drawn to this phenomenon lately that was able to change my pre-programmed and automatic thinking about this. Otherwise, I'd have continued living blissfully unaware. This is why we need more stories about women and featuring women, and not just in the "strong female protagonist" role, but as bad guys, side characters, main character

I have my tentative FanX schedule. Things are subject to be added or subtracted, but this is, for the most part, the schedule I'll be sticking to. For the rest of the time at the convention, I'll be at my booth signing books or haunting the Big Shiny Robot! booth. As far as I know, "A Children's Illustrated History of Presidential Assassination" will be available at the con. I'm not on as many writing panels as Star Wars panels this year, but there are still a couple in there. Star Wars fans coming to the convention should be excited, though. Hit the Salt Lake City Comic-Con website for tickets. Thursday, April 17, 2014 1:00 pm : Why Who Framed Roger Rabbit is One of the Greatest Noir Films Ever Made 2:00 pm : The History of Robin and Why Batman’s Sidekick is Great (M) 5:00 pm : The Boba Fetts – Daniel Logan and Jeremy Bulloch (M) 6:00 pm : The Corporate Takeover of Geekdom: Is Disney’s Owning Marvel and Lucasfilm a Boon or Ba

Things are still completely crazy in my neck of the woods. The documentary I'm working on for KUED (called "Normal, UT") is supposed to be done this week. That means that pretty much all of my available time is being sunk into that. But that doesn't mean there aren't other things going on. First: A Children's Illustrated History of Presidential Assassination is just about out. Kickstarter backers have received PDF copies of the book, the proofs from the printer are arriving tomorrow, and all of the other backer rewards are completed. It's going to be great. At this point, you can pre-order it on the Silence in the Library website, or you can enter to win a copy from Goodreads: Goodreads Book Giveaway A Children's Illustrated History of Presidential Assassination by Bryan Young Giveaway ends April 16, 2014. See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

I've been swamped lately. The PBS documentary, the two books, another documentary, and just... everything. It's kept me buried under water. I'm still keeping my writing routine, though. And I'm averaging 400-500 words a day on my book and another 1000 words a day in other writing (my various columns, pieces for magazines, etc.) I have a few short stories due as well, and I'm editing a pair of anthologies, too. Add to all of that the passing of Aaron Allston , and I'm not sure how I'm still going. About the only social media type stuff I've been able to make time for is my Instagram, Tumblr , and Twitter , where I've been dropping pretty frequent writing prompts to get people thinking. Here are a couple of recent examples. Until I'm out from under the weight of everything I'm up to, feel free to follow my  Instagram,   Tumblr , and  Twitter , to keep up with stuff like this.

Hello, everyone. It's been a while. Too long, maybe. But that's just the name of the game. I've been off doing and making things, working my hardest on my craft and creating new things for you to enjoy. I've got stories coming up in more than a few anthologies, but the one I'm most proud of at the moment is the story I'll have in Apollo's Daughters . There's a Kickstarter (still going on right now, video below) for a project called Athena's Daughters  that Silence in the Library is putting together. It's a collection of sci-fi and fantasy stories, all with female protagonists, and all written by some of the best women writing in sci-fi and fantasy. Well, Apollo's Daughters  was a stretch goal at the $24,000 level (which was blown through in 10 days). It's a collection of sci-fi and fantasy stories with all female protagonists written by some of the best men in the genre. I was asked to curate the authors and I'm proud to say I&#