a day of books and cool things

Coming up this Friday, August 21st, 2020, Adventure Worlds Press is hosting a virtual book launch! Celebrating The Space Between Houses, Broadcast Wasteland, and A Place That Used to Be, this all-day event will take place on Facebook, featuring readings by the authors, Q and As, and more!

I’ll be posting throughout the day, including details about the Patch series giveaway! Also, if you order a copy of A Place That Used to Be from me directly during the event, your copy will come with a sticker featuring the stunning cover designed by Christian Laforet!

I’ll also be hosting a FB Live reading and Q and A at 7 pm (EST). If you can’t make it, feel free to send questions beforehand!

Hope to see you there for a day of books and cool things!

festive times

It’s the last Patch Project appearance of 2018! I’ll be running a vendor table at The Green Bean Festive Market, happening this Saturday, December 8th from 11:00 – 5:00 pm. Drop by, say hi, and enter the free draw for a chance to win a signed copy of The Patch Project!

There will be buttons and copies of “Showing Her Teeth” as well as copies of The Patch Project available for purchase. Plus, a ton of amazing local creators and crafters are going to be there!

After Saturday wraps up, I’ll be taking a break from events for the holidays. I’ve set a deadline for editing the sequel to The Patch Project – final draft by the end of February! – which is exciting! It’s been a different kind of writing process from the first book, which I may consider posting about in the new year. I’ve also been more intentional about reading lately, and am working on getting the last book of Ursula K. LeGuin’s incredible Earthsea cycle. It amazes me that I’d gone so long without reading them!

I’ll be back next week to announce the winner of The Patch Project holiday draw!

 

Are you taking a break for the holidays? Or is it a more productive time of year for you creatively?

road trip reading

After a couple of days of adjusting to the lack of ocean in Windsor, I’m finally sitting down to write about the reading I did in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia.

If you’ve never been to the east coast of Canada, it is an absolutely gorgeous place. My husband’s family lives in Nova Scotia, and I love visiting them.

This year, we did the road trip thing, driving there and back again with a van full of friends. There was surprisingly little drama for a group of six people stuck in a vehicle for 23 hours!

But it wasn’t all sightseeing and ocean times. I had work- a reading!- to do.

Every event I read at, I’m always struck by how distinct each reading is from the others. Maybe it’s because I haven’t done a ton yet (I think this one was reading number 5), but so far the people, the setting, and the way each reading goes gives it a character all its own.

The reading at the New Glasgow library was in a community room featuring these incredible wall-spanning charcoal drawings by Curtis Botham. The library staff gave us a warm welcome, and were super accommodating when we asked for a group photo. I read a couple of sections, and answered some questions about the book. Some people had read The Patch Project, and some had not, so I had to make sure I didn’t give out any spoilers!

A wonderful time, with wonderful people! Thanks to everyone who bought a book this past month, making my trip out there possible ❤

Now that I’m back in Windsor, I’m looking to the fall and what kinds of things I’d like to accomplish before the end of the year. A few more readings? Finish writing the sequel? Complete NaNoWriMo?

In any case, it will be an adventure!

the fourth thursday, wrapping it all up

Here it is: the last post of the Windsor writers blog tour. It’s been a great month of sharing, interviews, and discussions that have spanned blogs and Facebook pages (check out Justine Alley Dowsett, Sharon Ledwith, and Ben Van Dongen‘s blogs for a full recap) and I’m very happy to have been a part of it!

This week, we’re supposed to post about our own books, some aspect of our own work that we want to delve into.

The Patch Project is a post-apocalyptic novella about five strangers who develop even stranger powers in the wake of a mysterious event. The story isn’t so much about an exterior threat as it’s about how each character re-negotiates their identity and their relationships throughout the book. I wanted to try something that would be a little different from the incredible volume of post-apocalyptic media and literature currently out on the market. But writing the book was only the first step.

When I used to think about what it would be like to be an author, I imagined hours hunched over a desk scribbling out stories, wired on coffee and ideas. I imagined it would end with a triumphant stack of pages accompanied by a sense of relief and accomplishment. That the book would come in the mail from the publisher and that moment would be the fulfillment of the writing experience. The end.

But as I’m learning now, even if writing the work does involve a lot of coffee and scribbling, receiving the first copy of the book is far from being the end. It’s really the beginning of the book’s new life. What used to be something you maybe shared with only one or two friends, is now out in the world.

People you have never met will read it. Some of them will leave reviews on Amazon or Goodreads. Some of them will like it, some of them definitely will not. You’ll read it aloud in front of audiences. You’ll talk about it with other authors, you’ll post about it on social media. It’s very exciting, but can also be draining. In the three and a half months since The Patch Project came out, I’ve learned that getting your book published is just the beginning of a long term commitment.

And it absolutely helps to have a community of people to share that journey with. Whether they’re readers, fellow authors, event planners, publishers, or friends, their support is invaluable. Sharon, Justine, and Ben didn’t have to do this blog tour with me, but they did. Finding creative ways to build up a writing community is part of what we can do as authors.

So thanks to all of them, and all of you, for creating connections and for reading.

Want to know more about The Patch Project? Visit www.brittnibrinn.com or Brittni’s Facebook page to stay up to date with events and readings.

The Patch Project is currently available in digital and print formats on Amazon, and can be ordered through bookstores like Chapters. In Windsor, The Patch Project is available at Juniper Books.

 

 

 

the first thursday, featuring Ben Van Dongen and The Thinking Machine

For the next four Thursdays, I’ll be featuring a different book by a local author – and they’ll be featuring The Patch Project! It’s our version of a book exchange-style blog tour, and should be a lot of fun!

First up is Ben Van Dongen, with his new cyberpunk novella, The Thinking Machine!

The Thinking Machine follows an outsider named Zed, a new arrival to the massive metropolis that spans most of the Eastern seaboard. The purpose of his visit is to hunt down a machine who, strangely, shares his name. A cyberpunk novella infused with Zed’s personal sense of mythos, this tale of humanity’s relationship with technology is full of suspense and intrigue.

It reads like a detective novel. Zed follows leads, passing through the less frequented corners of the bustling city. Ben Van Dongen’s cities are usually gritty and unforgiving places, riddled with back alleyways and dangerous doorways. This city is no different. The distinct locations of each scene create an impressive thematic atmosphere. Zed’s impressions of the city and the intermittent thoughts of his home in the forest, along with references to why he entered the city in the first place, really put muscle on the bones of this story for me.

The beginning of the book includes a couple of stereotypical side characters you would expect from an 80s dystopian film like Bladerunner, and there is a lack of multi-dimensional female characters. Until Belle, that is. I found that the interactions between Zed and Belle kicked this story up a notch, and created another layer of tension.

Also of interest is the implant which Zed receives in the city. I asked Ben about the role of technology in this book. “I write a lot from the hip,” he replied, “so the implants came from me thinking it was a neat idea that could push the story forward during an early writing session for the book. The idea of mechanical and technological prosthetics terrifies me. I am excited for the possibilities for people who need them, but when fake eyes out perform real eyes, how long will it take before people opt to get the new tech? Will that keep the people who don’t want augmentations behind? It’s a personal fear that I can see on the horizon.”

Overall, The Thinking Machine is a well-paced and engaging read. I’m really excited to see what Ben writes next!

Ben Van Dongen was born in Windsor Ontario. He likes to think that if he tried harder he could have been an Astronaut, but he is happier writing science fiction anyway. He co-authored the books No Light Tomorrow and All These Crooked Streets, and is one half of the founding team of Adventure Worlds Press. You can read more crazy notions on his website BenVanDongen.com

**Next Thursday’s featured author is Justine Alley Dowsett with her newest co-authored novel, Mirror’s Deceit! **