I'm in Portuguese! I'm in Portuguese!

Thanks to Editora Jangada, I am now in Brazil! I'm thrilled to be published there, and I can't wait to get my hands on copies. It looks like Frostborn has been retitled Journey on Ice. Cool!

The World's Most Beautiful Thrones & Bones set

Readers of my Thrones & Bones series know that each book's appendices includes rules for an original board game, games that actually appear in and are important to the plot of their respective story. For the very first book, Frostborn, the game was called Thrones & Bones. A popular pastime among the people of Norrøngard in the world of Qualth, it is inspired by a real-world Viking game called hnefatafl. The rules borrow from several hnefatafl variants (no one knows how the actual Vikings played the game but there have been many diverse reconstructions) and add some new-to-Thrones & Bones elements that make it a unique game in its own right. In fact, I was deeply honored when Board Game Geek created a page for it christening Thrones & Bones a real game!

But one of the best things about being an author has been interacting with my fans and a real delight has been seeing the amazing Thrones & Bones fan-made sets that readers around the US and in the UK have created! Then, earlier this year, my good friend and fellow author J. F. Lewis (Staked, Grudgebearer) decided he wanted a really nice, wooden Thrones & Bones set. He commissioned an artist named Jack Windsor of Ignited Arts & Design to craft one. And suddenly the world's most beautiful Thrones & Bones set was born. And it held that position... until now!

Behold! This is a custom hand-made Thrones & Bones set, created for me by the very same Ignited Arts & Design. The board and pieces are all built and decorated by hand; all components made from hard maple wood.

The playing pieces are based on the designs done by Justin Gerard for the novel itself, while those dragons in the corner are inspired by a shield carried by my character Ynarr Ulfrson of Norrøngard, as drawn by Andrew Bosley. The Shield Maidens stand on raised spaces decorated with, what else, their shields, while the throne where the Jarl starts play features the Norse rune known as the Ægishjálmr, the Helm of Awe, a powerful symbol of protection. Meanwhile, the barrow mounds, the starting position for the Draug attackers, are decorated with the swords and axes that the playing pieces themselves wield.

Frankly, I'm blown away! Grateful to Jack Windsor for his talent and J.F. Lewis for being driven to finding him.

(And I'm happy for Lewis' set and mine to jointly hold the title of "Most Beautiful Set(s) in the World.")

Wow!

The 22nd Annual Norfolk Public Library Literature Festival

This past Saturday, July 30th, it was my privilege to be a guest at the The 22nd Annual Norfolk Public Library Literature Festival. The event was held at the Lifelong Learning Center and featured three current nominees for the 2017 Golden Sower Award, myself,  Jill Esbaum (Teeny Tiny Toady), and Sally M. Walker (Winnie: The True Story of the Bear Who Inspired Winnie-the-Pooh), along with Alan Gratz (Prisoner B-3087), a 2015 Golden Sower Award winner.

All four of us flew into Omaha on Friday, where the wonderful Karen Drevo, Youth Services Librarian and general festival head honcho, picked us up and drove us the two and a half hours north to the city of Norfolk. After checking in to our hotels, we went out for a great dinner along with more library staff and volunteers.

After dinner, Alan Gratz and I got a ride to downtown Norfolk. As it turned out, it was "Cruise Night," a couple-times-a-year event where classic cars, muscle cars, and, well, just car-cars drive up and down the main street and the whole town turns out on lawn chairs to sit and watch the parade. There was live music and food trucks, although we were both stuffed from dinner so we didn't sample. After walking up and down the strip several times, we ducked into Black Cow Fat Pig, where I sampled a local stout. Then Alan and I walked the 45 minutes back to our hotel, catching several Pokemon along the way!

Then it was Saturday and time for the festival! Things kicked off at 9am with attendees choosing between five offerings, writing workshops taught by the four guests or a preview of all the Golden Sower nominated works. I taught a permutation of the writing workshop I perfected in the trenches in my recent sojourn in Columbus. The room was full and the students were great. Special shout out to two particular fans, the brothers who came in early and talked Pokemon Go with us!

After the morning, the rest of the festival was only one programming item at a time. This was solo presentations from each of us, two before lunch and two after. I don't often get to listen to
my fellow authors talk, so I was thrilled to be able to be in the audience for all three of them. And Alan's "Choose Your Own Adventure" style presentation was inspired! (We got killed by a tornado.)

The day ended with a huge signing where we all autographed for long lines of fans.

Then we drove to Omaha --thanks Sam for the ride; hope we didn't drive you crazy with authory-businessy talk! Finally, our weekend ended with dinner on the upstairs outdoor patio of the Upstream Brewing Company.

A huge thank you to Karen Drevo, all of her staff and volunteers, my fellow authors, and all the enthusiastic readers who make the Norfolk Public Library Literature Festival a great time for all! I'll have to get nominated for another Golden Sower one day so I can come back!

Pottery Barn Kids Presents Author Spotlight with Lou Anders

Yesterday, I was the guest of Pottery Barn Kids at The Summit Shopping Center in Birmingham, Alabama for "Pottery Barn Kids Presents Author Spotlight with Lou Anders." I was there from 11am to 3pm, selling and signing copies of Frostborn and Nightborn at the front of the store.

I have never done an event at Pottery Barn Kids before. Thus far, I have appeared in over 40 schools around the Unites States, as well as numerous bookstores, libraries, literary festivals, and conventions. But never a Pottery Barn. I had no idea what to expect.

Also, it should be mentioned that I have a Viking helmet that has gone with me on most of the aforementioned travels. But there's a full costume with it that I have never worn publicly anywhere but Trick-or-Treating with my kids. At the last minute, on my way out the door, I decided to break it out, because if you can't go The Full Viking at Pottery Barn Kids, where can you?

Well, the day was great. I spoke with a lot of great kids and parents, sold and signed a lot of books, meet several educations interested in school visits, and had a blast!

Though, mind you, the choice to wear a fur-lined cape in July in Alabama might not have been the wisest.

Thurber House Interlude: Upcoming Events

In Columbus, Ohio? Well, come see me then.
On the last night of my residency, I'll be doing a casual meet & greet and signing of Frostborn and Nightborn at The Book Loft of German Village.

This is an amazing independent bookstore with no less than 32 rooms of books! I've been inside several times now since first arriving at Thurber House, and it's a maze of goodness with endless shelves across multiple stories. It's exactly what a bookstore should be.

So check it out and come see me on:

Friday, July 15th, 2016 at 6 PM
The Book Loft of German Village 
631 South Third Street
Columbus, Ohio, 43206
(614) 464-1774

Thurber House: Day One

Today was my first full day as Children's Writer-in-Residence at Thurber House!

I got in around 5pm yesterday, where I was met at the airport by the very nice Meg Brown, Director of Children's Education. Meg took me to drop my bags off at the house before heading out to do the necessary grocery shopping in preparation for my living on my own for a month.

Now, let's pause here in the Adventures of Lou for a bit on the house itself,  a three-story historic building which served as the home of author, humorist, and New Yorker cartoonist James Thurber and his family from 1913 until 1917. Since 1984, (the year, not the book or the album by Van Halen), the house has served as a non-profit literary center and museum of Thurber materials. The first floor of the house has a bookstore, which currently has a very nice display of Frostborn and Nightborn titles, while the second floor is home to the Thurber Museum (the lights of which flickered when I came in, though not ominously). The third floor is more modern and has been converted into a small apartment for the writer-in-residence, in this case me. So...

After dropping off bags, we went to Kroger, where I was delighted to find I could get New Holland Brewing's Dragon's Milk, a bourbon-barrel aged stout that I love and cannot get in Alabama, as well as essentials like cereal, yogurt, jalapeños, pop tarts, stuffed mushrooms, the ingredients to make a killer ham sandwich, tea bags (iced and green), coffee, and a variety of microwavable frozen foods. Unfortunately, somewhere in that smorgasbord of easy to make necessities, I forgot toothpaste!

Then it was back to the house, where Meg gave me a quick tour, handed me the keys, and taught me the alarm code. Then I was alone in the house for the first time. Which is very alone, in a dark, old house with very little happening on the street outside. At this point it should be noted that Thurber House is very creaky. Every footstep I took last night didn't just cause the floorboards to squeak, but started a cascade of echoing creaks that rippled down through the house, so that it sounded like every step was followed by an answering step. Truthfully, it was a bit unnerving, but I found a solution: planting my butt in one spot and largely not moving! Also playing lots of David Bowie. And the aforementioned Dragon's Milk.

Still, I spent the evening working on an outline for the new project and dining on some sushi that I was somewhat strong-armed into buying at Kroger by a very persuasive and persistent chef (but it was very good). I ended up working quite productively until 2am, though I got hit once by a wave of intense missing-of-the-family. Then I woke up this morning, mastered the art of pouring milk over cereal, and met Meg downstairs for a visit to the Homeless Families Foundation's Dowd Education Center, where I gave my talk on understanding story construction using Hollywood blockbusters. The kids there were great, very enthusiastic, very cinema-knowledgable, and very smart. (I'll return tomorrow to take them through some writing exercises based on today's concepts.)

I returned to Thurber House where I met Erin Deel, General House Administrator and Barbie Tootle, Interim Executive Director, both very nice. Then lunch (pot pie), after which the aforementioned lack of toothpaste was just too much. Erin kindly took me back to Kroger, where I picked up everything I forgot to make yesterday. I walked around the house some more, reading the placards for the self-guided tour and looking at all the historical items. At five, everyone working at the house left, so I shut myself upstairs and continued working. Which is where I am now. Though I think I'm about to pause and begin the good work of catching up on Game of Thrones.

More tomorrow! Meanwhile, here is a picture of what I believe to be an ancient iPod:

Thurber House: Day Zero

Today is the day! I'm standing with my laptop propped in a windowsill overlooking the runway of the
Birmingham International Airport, drinking a Mocha-Not-Sure-This-Is-Light Frappuccino I certainly don't need and waiting to board the first leg of a flight that will take me to Columbus, Ohio. When I arrive, I'll be heading to Thurber House and starting my month-long sojourn as the 2016 Children's Writer-in-Residence.

While there, I'll be living in the third floor of the historic building, teaching up to ten hours a week of writing workshops to kids in a variety of programs across Columbus (including Thurber House's writing camps), exploring the city of Columbus, and enjoying the longest sustained period of writing seclusion I've ever had in my life.

It's going to be "an experience" from all kinds of angles. First, I've never left my family for so long (my daughter cried all the way to the airport, expressing the hope that they wouldn't let me in when I got there and I'd have to come back). Two, I'll be teaching some new workshop material I've never used before. Three, I've never had such an uninterrupted period to emerge myself totally in my work before. Four, it occurred to me the other day that a month is a lot longer to be in a place than just a vacation or visit. Columbus will join the lists of places I've actually lived. (I know that's a nebulous, subjective thing, but I figure when you are shopping for groceries, doing laundry, and cleaning your own bathroom, that counts as living there.) Of, and the house is reported haunted! (I don't believe in ghosts, but if there are any, I sure hope they like David Bowie.) I've already spotted a brewery that serves dinner about ten minutes walk to the west of me and a craft beer store two minutes to the southeast, so, you know, while I did forget my toothpaste, I've got the essentials covered.

Another thing that's going to be interesting. The plan was for me to finish a first draft of the current project two months ago and spend the time between then and now outlining something new. Instead, life got in the way and I only wrote "The End" earlier this week. And it was a very rough "The End." Meaning there is a LOT of rewriting and restructuring to do before anyone else can see it. But I really want to use this opportunity to write something else and produce two manuscripts this year. So while I'm polishing the previous project, I'll also be working on a new one. And where it usually takes me one to two months to outline my stories, I'll have to condense the outlining into the first few days I'm there or the time will be wasted!

So, Lou's got to plot and write faster than he ever has before, while making the previous manuscript shine, while living alone, without his family (who I'll miss terribly), in a potentially haunted house in a city I've never visited before.

I'll be making daily or near daily reports here on this blog and blabbing on social media. Feel free to comment, and if you are in or around Columbus, come by! They'll be selling my books the entire time I'm there, with several signing opportunities. And I know where the beer is!

(Oh, and the Frappuccino was a distraction to take my mind off the TSA guy who set my tennis shoes, soles down, on top of my laptop's sleeve. I had set my laptop on its sleeve so it didn't have to sit on the filthy bottom of those plastic bins. He moves my laptop to another bin and then puts my shoes on top of my case! Gross! Gross! Gross!)

Thrones and Bones Stop Motion

This is the Coolest. Thing. Ever. 

Students playing Thrones & Bones, the board game from my novel Frostborn, in stop motion.


The Jarl wins in part two:

Is This The World's Greatest Thrones & Bones Set?

I saw something utterly stupendous this week. My good friend and amazing author J. F. Lewis (Staked, Grudgebearer) decided he wanted his own Thrones & Bones set, Thrones & Bones being the board game played in Frostborn, the first book of the series of the same name. And he didn't just want any set. He wanted a beautiful, wood-carved set that could be an objet d'art as well as a playable game.

After some scouting, he found Ignited Arts & Design, the company of an artist named Jack Windsor. Jack does amazing work, and he specializes in hnefatafl boards, the real world Viking game that served as inspiration for Norrøngard's Thrones & Bones (though there are a few differences between Earth's game and the Qualth game).

And just look at the result! Notice the shields marking the spots for the shield maidens, the barrow mounds with broken corpse doors, the design on the edges! I think they've put my own prototype to shame.

Reflections from the Road: Dacula Elementary and Mulberry Elementary

This week, I made a return visit to Gwinnett County, Georgia for two school visits. On May 11th, I was a guest of Dacula Elementary School. I previously visited Dacula for an evening appearance at their Scholastic Book Fair. This time, I came back during the day to give three separate Thrones & Bones book presentations to their third, fourth, and fifth classes respectively. It was a great time, and all together I spoke to around 560 students across the three grades. What's more, the students had made some fantastic Thrones & Bones fan art--always a highlight of school visits!


That evening, I was treated to Jim 'N Nicks Bar-B-Q by Media Specialist Paul Carey and his wife Dea, where we had great food and wonderful conversation (everything from Terry Pratchett to Babylon 5.)

Then it was up early on May 12th for my first visit to Mulberry Elementary School, marking what is my 40th school since I began touring with the debut of Frostborn. (If you want to see the full list of my travels, click here.) I did three back to back presentations for their 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classes as well at Mulberry, and had an absolute blast! Thank you very much to Media Specialist Susan Noland for having me in her fine library  and making it such a fantastic visit!

Roleplaying in the World of Thrones and Bones

For the past year or so now, I've been running a role playing game for my son, my nephew, and other boys. We play using the wonderfully customizable Fate Core System rules from Evil Hat. And we play in the world of my Thrones & Bones novels. All the boys have read the books and are well verses in the universe (as, one hopes, is the GM).

We've been playing using the mostly unmodified rules in Fate up until this point, but after we finished our last campaign in November, I've spent my time customizing the rules using some options in the Fate System Toolkit, and the result is something a bit removed from the no-alterations Fate rules. We tried it out last Saturday for the first time. (The differences are mostly in character creation and the use of magic).

Also, for the first time, we played with miniatures and terrain. Fate doesn't require this at all, but I wanted to do something special to fire everyone's imaginations. Initially, I'd planned to use Rainn Studio's utterly magnificent TerraTiles (I have both the Misty Moorlands and the Coast & Rivers sets). And we will use them. But the way this campaign started, the team was supposed to get their marching orders in the elven city of Fair Shadow, a location that is mentioned but not visited in my novel Nightborn. Since I was going to have an amazing terrain set up after they left the city and started their quest, I wanted something to show them when they arrived. I hunted around and I found the incredible Faewood Loft and its expansion set from Heroic Maps. Well, I got a little carried away and ended up printing all the tiles out and gluing them to foam boards. The result was a large battle map of a city in the trees. And having such a large map, I couldn't just use it for five minutes while the characters were given their quest and sent on their merry way. Something obviously had to go down there to justify all this time and effort, right?

So next up, using a female wood elf drawn for me by the incredible Andrew Bosley, and supplementing with some found art, I made my own pawns and populated the city. We added a small number of Paizo's Pathfinder Pawns from the Beginner Box, and we used a ton of Pathfinder Pawn Bases. I picked up some pickle barrels from a craft store (and stained them with paint pens) to add some obstacles to the environment. And, because I saw one and it got me thinking, I picked up a Bunch-o-Butterfies too, because if there's one thing that's better than a crowded market high in the trees in an elven city, it's a crowded market high in the trees in an elven city during the festival surrounding the biannual giant butterfly migration! 

The game went incredibly well, with highlights being when Thurso Greenback, a wulver, ran across a giant butterfly's back to get from one wooden platform to the next, and Blitz Ironfist, a dwarven artificer, blasted across the market using his single-use jetpack. Also, Isha the cat person did some crazy parkour. 

Ironically, we never made it out of the city in this first session, so I still haven't used the gorgeous TerraTiles from Rainn Studios that inspired me to add terrain and miniatures in the first place. They'll have to wait till our next game. Meanwhile, they were represented at the table by the use of their foam risers, which gave some parts of the city more elevation than others. (Q-workshop's awesome dice tower and Paizo's Pathfinder Combat Pad also aided in play).

But we all had a magnificent time. And that's the point, isn't it?

Boy's Life Fiction: "Kori and the Troll"

Huge news!

I have a short story in May 2016 issue of Boys' Life, the official youth publication of the Boy Scouts of America!

"Kori and the Troll" is a story set in the world of my Thrones & Bones novels. In fact, the Kori of the title has a special relationship with one of my two lead characters in Frostborn. I don't write many short stories. I'm very proud of this one, and I'm absolutely thrilled to be in Boy's Life.

Plus, Antonio Javier Caparo provides the art and it's fantastic!

The story is currently behind a subscriber wall, but if you are a scout or have a scout in your life, I hope you'll check it out!

Reflections from the Road: Alabama Library Association 2016 Annual Conference

With my handler Annabelle. Thumbs up!

Last night, I drove to Gadsden, Alabama for the Alabama Library Association 2016 Annual Conference. I was there for the Author Expo, which was held at 210 at the Tracks, an event venue in downtown Gadsden. I got there an hour early so that I could visit Dragon Quills, the local comic and gaming store. Dragon Quills even has a small SF&F book selection, and I was tickled to see some fantasy books I edited on their shelf.

4pm saw a reception for the attending authors, about thirty of us, and then we were paired at booths with an equal number of exhibitors from 5pm to 8pm to mingle with librarians from around the state and sign books. Booksamillion was on hand with copies of Frostborn (in paperback) and Nightborn (in hardcover). I signed lots of books, met tons of wonderful librarians, and nearly sold out of Booksamillion's stock.

Afterwards, I got into an intense discussion with Joshilyn Jackson (The Opposite of Everyone) about Grant Morrison's best work and her peculiar "every other Doctor" preference for actors in Doctor Who (a bit like even numbered Star Trek films).

Thanks to Amanda Jackson, Director of the Gadsden Public Library and Gadsden Museum of Art, everyone at the Alabama Library Association, Booksamillion, and my wonderful handler Annabelle Barrow (check out her design work here).

Frostborn, "a ridiculously fun, super-exciting adventure" !!!

Frostborn just showed up on io9 again in a list of "16 Fun, Escapist Books To Get Your Mind off This Crazy Election Year."

Says the wonderful Charlie Jane Anders:

"OK so this is a middle-grade book, which means it’s technically for kids. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s a ridiculously fun, super-exciting adventure. Karn is a nerdy kid whose dad expects him to run the family farm—but Karn just wants to play a complicated, fancy board game instead. And meanwhile, Thianna is a half-frost giant girl who gets bullied by all the other frost giants because she’s so tiny. (Only seven feet tall.) In other words, it’s about a gamer and a weird girl who have to team up to save the world. And it’s just non-stop fun."

Thrones & Bones in the Wild

The Spring 2016 Scholastic Book Fairs are in full swing. This week alone, I've received four photos of Frostborn sightings at schools in New York and Pennsylvania and two in North Carolina. I love seeing these! And I really love hearing the reports that they are selling out in these fair! Thanks for everyone who alerted me to the sightings!

This is a Banana

I got some wonderful fan mail today from a school in Delaware. One of the letters was written as comic book panels, so I thought it was only fair to reply to that one in kind. 

Podcast: The Once & Future Podcast interview

Today, I am a guest on Episode 108 of The Once & Future Podcast. Host Anton Strout gets me to open up about a lot of things, from my time in Hollywood, to my time as an editor, to the recent passing of David Bowie, to the Muppets, Star Trek, Babylon 5, and the fantastic effect of playing Spider-Man 2 video game. And of course we talk a lot about the Thrones & Bones series. Please, check it out!

Round Up of the Round Ups!

Over the holidays, Frostborn and Nightborn popped up on several Best of the Year lists, while Skyborn got some love as well.

Frostborn makes the" My Favorite Books of 2015" on Stainless Steel Droppings: "Anders expertly weaves mythological detail with contemporary styling to create an intriguing world that he populates with characters that should appeal to young female and male readers…as well as those of us who remain young at heart....The entire time I was reading Frostborn I was thinking about how much fun this book would be to read aloud."

It also makes the Reading Hedgehog's "Best 2015 Reads of All." They say: "(4/5 strawberries) The best new Middle Grade fantasy adventure I've read in a long time. It feels like a fairy tale straight out of Norse mythology."

Aleksandra's Corner listed Nightborn at #7 on the Top 10 of 2015: Best Books I've Read in 2015!
Aleksandra's Corner also lists Skyborn as #9 on the Top 10 of 2015: Top 10+ Books I'm Looking Forward to in 2016!

Rita Allen, of the Shelbyville-Bedford County Library (Tennessee), has an article in the Shelbyville Times-Gazette in which she suggests, "For middle grade readers, I would suggest Lou Anders' "Frostborn," about a boy who would rather play the game "Thrones and Bones," than work on the family farm. Then, he meets a mythical beast and goes on an adventure that changes everything."

And the Librarian of Snark reviews Nightborn saying, "the characters are immensely relatable, the

action is non-stop, and the pacing is excellent."

Board Game Geek created an official page for the Thrones & Bones boardgames. This thrills me no end!

SF Signal calls Justin Gerard's cover for Skyborn "utterly stunning."

Frostborn is reviewed is from T-Bird Times, from Harmony Middle School (Overland Park, KS): "Immediately after reading this book, I wanted to read the next one. Fantasy and action is a mix that can keep people reading for hours, especially if the story is as creative as this one. Lou Anders was able to create a land full of people who were different from humans in the real world, but still had relatable problems that could pull readers closer to them. Thrones and Bones discusses real problems in the world such as bullying and making your own choices, but it was written in a way that could make sense to kids of many ages. This book is definitely a good read for anyone looking for fantasy or adventure books that they can relate to."

And finally the Alabama Book Festival is linking to my blog summation of last year's event on their homepage.

Frostborn: 2016-2017 Young Hoosier Book Award Nominees

My novel, Frostborn, book one in the Thrones & Bones series, has just been listed as a nominee in the 2016-2017 Young Hoosier Book Award Nominees in the Middle Grade category. The Young Hoosier Book Award is administered by Indiana Library Federation. Each year the YHBA committee selects twenty titles in the category of Picture Books, Intermediate, and Middle Grade. Indiana students serving in grades K-8 then vote on their favorite book. Any Indiana student can vote, provided they have read 5 of the 20 books in the Middle Grade category. I'm thrilled to be on this list, alongside many great works, including books by friends Jonathan Auxier, Holly Black, and Brandon Sanderson.

This is the third awards nomination for Frostborn. The novel was previously nominated for Children's Literature Association of Utah's Beehive Book Award and is a current nominee in the Nebraska Library Association's Golden Sower Awards.

Interview in The Leaf

A wonderful article about my visit to Riverchase Middle School in specific and my books and school visits in particular has appeared this week online in The Leaf. 

Thanks to journalist Angie Bell for a great piece! 

“I like fantasy,” said sixth grader Haniya. “This book has really good characters. I like the dragons and giants.”