The stories of Bryan Young

It's time again for Salt Lake Comic Con and I have another packed schedule. This is where I'll be occupied for much of my weekend. I would love for you to come out, see me on a panel, catch me at my signing, or just say hello. Thursday, September 1, 2016 3:00 pm  Fixing Fandom and Ending Bullying and Gatekeeping :: 150G 4:00 pm  Fauxthentic History - Star Trek :: 151G 6:00 pm  Star Wars Trailer Park :: 151G 8:00 pm  The Life and Times of Ahsoka Tano :: 151G Friday, September 2, 2016 12:00 pm  Palpatine's Rise: The Cautionary Tale of the Star Wars Prequels :: 255C 1:00 pm  Star Wars: The Life and Times of Han Solo :: 251A 3:00 pm  Jeremy Bulloch :: 250A 5:00 pm  Stuff You Missed in History Class Live: How Does Historical Fiction Get Made? :: 250A 6:00 pm  Bryan Young Signing :: Shadow Mountain - Booth 1807 7:00 pm  Adventures in Podcasting :: 251A 8:00 pm  What is the Balance of the Force? :: 255F Satur...

In my latest livestream, I tackle how I name characters, how I keep my daily life separate from my writing, what resources I've found to hone my craft, and how I deal with influences from a variety of sources. As I gear up for Salt Lake Comic Con (I'll be posting my schedule this week) I find that I'm having far less time than I'd like for blogging. I'll be back in a regular pattern as soon as the convention is over. It's a big one. I'm doing 18 panels, including interviews with Famke Janssen and Jeremy Bulloch. I hope to see you there. In the meantime, feel free to leave questions for future videos or blog topics. -- I finished today my next Patreon story, the first draft anyway. If you're so inclined, you can kick in a buck to the Patreon and get the stories as their released. The one this month is a story about Twelve and Zeke, the two main characters from my novel The Serpent's Head. I also published a new piece at StarWars.Com. I...

What is it that keeps me writing? I think it's a fair question. I write a lot. Not just stories for novels or short stories, but non-fiction. Journalism. Criticism. I write every day. Today is my 408th consecutive day of writing. The artsy answer that I'm supposed to give you is that I write because I have to. I'll die if I don't. Why do I breathe? Same answer. While that's certainly true, I often feel that need,  it's not the only reason I write. It's just some of the reasons I have for writing aren't the easiest to talk about. We all carry reasons for writing that never come up in conversation. Not because we don't believe them or they're not true, it's just easiest not to get into it. That's what we're going to talk about today, though. The deeper reasons. Well, the deeper reasons I write. They may be different for you. For me, there are many. I'll be honest: I try to remain humble and I constantly assume I'...

I'll be honest. I've been putting off writing a blog post for about a week now. Why? Between being overwhelmed by the writing projects I'm working on and the fact that I'm querying three different books and getting almost daily rejections, I'm just not in a place where I feel like I can offer any advice whatsoever. What do I think I have figured out that I could possibly teach you? But then I realized that maybe showing that vulnerability is exactly the thing I could show you. Because we all have it. No matter how hard we try to make it appear as though we have things figured out, no matter how put together we seem to be, we're all still just tearing a piece of our soul and smearing it across a page. That makes us feel like a raw nerve. Vulnerable. Exposed.  I feel it every time I put a book out. I feel it every time I read a note from someone who didn't like a story I published. I feel it every time I have a column go live. I feel it...

The view for my morning writing. #paris #amwriting A photo posted by Bryan Young (@swankmotron) on Jul 21, 2016 at 12:20am PDT While I was gone, I spent sixteen days in London and Paris. While I was there I saw all kinds of historical sites, museums full of some of the most important art in the world, went to a Star Wars convention, and even got to have a birthday dinner at Disneyland Paris. It was a great time and creatively recharging for all the right reasons. For one, I had sixteen uninterrupted days where I didn't have to go into my day job, which has been increasingly draining this year. I was able to see real castles and histories of those castles. I got to see Roman artifacts left over from the founding of London. I got to see sculptures from the Parthenon. I saw paintings of Caravaggio and Rubens and Warhol and Van Gogh in person. I got to walk in the footsteps of Jack the Ripper. I was moved almost to tears at the tomb of Sir Laurence Olivier in Westminst...