Posted by Nicky Drayden on Jul 26, 2016 in
Writer's Life 
So for the first time, I’ll be participating in panels at ArmadilloCon! I’m not tooooooooo nervous. I’ll be on panels with people I know well, and hopefully there will be lots of friendly faces in the audience. I’ll be reading the first few chapters of THE PREY OF GODS, talking about my experiences being an editor for the Drabblecast, discussing my research methods for writing a book set in South Africa, and detailing how to create a tight story that satisfies. Plus Pictionary, where you will see why I’m a writer and not an artist!
I’m super pleased with the panels I’m on, and am excited for this weekend.
Hope to see you there!
My Schedule:
- Sa1100A The Art of Editing and Why It Matters
- Sat 11:00 AM-Noon Southpark A
- Antonelli, Chang, Drayden, Rose*, Thompson
- Panelists discuss what editors do, and why we want them to keep doing it.
- Sa1230B Reading
- Sat 12:30 PM-1:00 PM Southpark B
- Nicky Drayden
- Sa1600D Writing What You Don’t Know
- Sat 4:00 PM-5:00 PM Ballroom D
- Chu, Drayden, Leicht, Lynn, Maresca, Thompson*
- Panelists will explore the challenges of writing fiction from viewpoints other than your own, and talk about how to do it well.
- Su1100F Flash Fiction Discussion & Reading
- Sun 11:00 AM-Noon Ballroom F
- Cherry*, Clevenger, Drayden, Eudaly, Goldsmith, Muenzler,
- Panelists take a few minutes to talk about what makes for good flash fiction, then conduct a round robin flash reading.
- Su1300E Pictionary
- Sun 1:00 PM-2:00 PM Ballroom E
- Bobo, Campbell, Drayden, Fotinos, Hess, Martinez*, Oliver
- Come be part of the audience team as our artists draw their hearts out to win for your side.
Posted by Nicky Drayden on Jun 22, 2016 in
Writer's Life
Photo by Alan Levine, Creative Commons
Yesterday I had the pleasure of chatting with Patzi (with a z) on her radio show Joy on Paper. She was an amazing host, and I few times, I forgot I was doing an interview! It totally felt like I was talking to an old friend. We talked about my book deal for THE PREY OF GODS, and about a lot of my short fiction. She even played song snippets of some of the songs I mentioned by name in my stories. I’d never really noticed that I had a tendency to do that. There’s a LOT of music in my novel, too. (One of the characters is a pop diva.)
She also made me promise that if my book ever becomes a movie, I’ll have to invite her to the premier. Deal!
Listen to the interview here.
Posted by Nicky Drayden on May 8, 2016 in
Writer's Life 
Photo by ellenm1, creative commons
I’m thrilled to announce that my debut novel THE PREY OF GODS has sold to Harper Voyager!
See the official announcement here.
THE PREY OF GODS is a near future thriller set in South Africa in which a diverse set of characters imbued with supernatural abilities by a street drug called Godsend must band together against a disenfranchised goddess who intends to remake their world and change the fate of humanity forever.
I’ll be working with Editor David Pomerico at Harper Voyager, who’s just excited about this book as I am. Editing is already underway, and I’m looking forward to the book’s release next summer.
Special thanks to my awesome agent Jennifer Jackson at the Donald Maass Literary Agency for working so hard behind the scenes to make my dreams come true! Thanks also to Slug Tribe, the Austin SF critique group, for their feedback and encouragement on the first few chapters of this, and the Bat City crit group for their support, along with the support of all of my friends (writerly and otherwise) and family over my journey towards publication.
Oh, and sign up for my newsletter if you want to keep up with the latest happenings and such!
(Also to note, the Publisher’s Weekly blurb mentions that I’m the Editor-in-Chief of the Drabblecast, which should say Editor-at-Large, my current project being the special anthology entitled “Women and Alien’s Month.” The first story in the series is out right now! Check it out here.)
