Today is the day.

Nightborn, the second book in the Thrones & Bones trilogy, is out in paperback!

Nightborn is identical to the hardcover in every way, except that:

a) it's cheaper! and

b) it has a preview of book three, Skyborn , in the back!

We authors love first week sales, and our publishers love them even more, so if you've read Frostborn but you haven't picked up the sequel yet, today's as good a day as any and better than most!

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For fans of Lloyd Alexander and Brandon Mull comes Book 2 in the acclaimed Thrones and Bones fantasy-adventure trilogy that began with Frostborn.

Karn Korlundsson is a gamer. Not a riddle solver. But in order to rescue his best friend, Thianna Frostborn, he will need to travel to the faraway city of Castlebriar (by wyvern), learn how to play a new board game called Charioteers (not a problem), decipher the Riddle of the Horn, and tangle with mysterious elves.

Meet Desstra. She’s in training to join the Underhand—the elite agents of the dark elves. When she crosses paths with Karn, she is not all that she appears to be.

Everyone is chasing after the horn of Osius, an ancient artifact with the power to change the world. The lengths to which Karn will go in the name of friendship will be sorely tested. Who knew that solving a riddle could be so deadly?

The novel includes instructions for playing the board game Charioteers. Visit ThronesandBones.com for additional games, maps, character profiles, and more!

Praise for Nightborn:

“Anders presents a captivating world.” —Kirkus Reviews

”[A]n adventure story with good pacing, well-drawn characters, and engaging action scenes.” —Booklist

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.

I'm back!

Back you say? Where did you go?

Well, last Thursday, I flew home to Birmingham for the weekend for a family event, and I returned yesterday to Columbus to complete my last week as the Thurber House Children's Writer-in-Residence. So, if we're counting full days in the house, this is Day Eighteen. Or if we're counting days since I got here, this is Day Twenty-Three!

How to count? What to count?

I'm going to go with Eighteen, just like Steve Moffat says Matt Smith is Doctor Number Eleven, and we can just ignore John Hurt, that Doctor-Donna created from a disembodied hand, and my brief interlude away from Ohio.

But worth noting...while I was home, I got my authors copies of the Nightborn paperback edition! And you can all get yours later this month when it drops July 26th! Yay!

Meanwhile, today, for a complete change of pace, I wrote a short story. It just came to me, and I had to get it out. It's short. Something on the order of "Kori and the Troll," which was my story for Boy's Life. I think there are going to be more of these sort of things, including a follow up to "Kori and the Troll," because the wheels are spinning. They are spinning, yes.

Meanwhile, because I have plans tomorrow for a long lunch, two courses to teach Thursday afternoon, and two signings on Friday (including one at The Book Loft of German Village), today was my Long Walk. I may get another Long Walk in, but I wanted to get at least one more before my time here ends. (((Sob.)))

I did the same walk I'd done before--going downtown then taking the Scioto Mile around the river, then walking back. Only last time it took me two hours, but because I had to teach tonight, I did it in one hour thirty minutes. Which was some power walking!

Then it was back here to teach a workshop at 6:30 P.M. at the Young Writers’ Studio, which is Thurber House's high school writing group that meets every other week at the Thurber Center. The students were really great, and after my presentation, I sat in for the weekly critique of one of their fiction samples (which was quite lush and evocative in its description). Smart students. Great talk.

And now I'm back in my apartments, where I should be writing, but I'm thrilled to see that something I've been working on for a while has just become public, and that is the Young Adventurers programming track at the Alamo City Comic Con (held in San Antonio on October 28th-30th). What is Young Adventurers you say? Well, Friday it's a day long writing workshop featuring instruction from some cat named Lou Anders, along with such luminaries as Holly Black, Matthew Cody, Bruce Coville, Melissa Marr, and Obert Skye! Then Saturday and Sunday are two days of middle reader kid fic focused programing featuring the same stellar lineup! Tickets for the workshop aren't on sale yet, but tickets for ACCC are. This is something you are going to want to check out! And if you are a beginning or wannabe writer, don't miss the workshop! Yay!

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

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!)

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!

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?

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).

With Spring Break just behind me, I've been remiss about reporting on recent school visits for the Nightborn tour. But last month, I visited both The Altamont School and Hilltop Montessori School. This was my second time speaking to both schools.

On March 15th, I spent a day with students at Altamont. In the morning, I spoke to the entire middle school, then I had lunch in the library with a group of about twenty students. Then, in the afternoon, I drew on my ten years as an art director to give a presentation about how book covers are commissioned, illustrated, designed, and produced to the 5th and 6th grade English classes. It was a fantastic time with some great kids.

Then, on March 23rd, I visited Hilltop Montessori School during their Spring Scholastic Book Fair. I didn't speak this visit, but sat at a table at the end of day signing the Scholastic edition of Frostborn. The school had also purchased several copies of Nightborn for sale to the students, and I'm thrilled to say we nearly sold out of both books.

More school visits coming up later this month! Stay tuned. And if you are a teacher, librarian, or student interested in having me visit your school, see the "For Educators" page of my website for information on how we can make this happen.

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.

Last week, I visited Mountain Brook Junior High School, where I taught my ScripTips writing workshop to around 24 students from their writing club. This is a presentation where I use examples from contemporary films to teach plotting and outlining. It went over very well, though it is sad to me that the Matrix is now a classic film and not something junior high students know!

Today, I returned to Mountain Brook Junior High to give a Thrones & Bones presentation to about 60 students drawn from the writing club, the book club, the drama club, the art club, and the graphic novel club.


There were maybe 10-15 students from last week coming back and the rest new, but all with an interest in various things creative.

Both visits were a blast! This was largely due to very smart students who asked very good questions and made very clever observation. I was really impressed with all of them and had a great time interacting. And I'm sure I've met the next generation of writers.

And we sold out of Frostborn and Nightborn! So I'll be making a return visit in the next week or so to sign books for students who wanted books but couldn't get them. Thanks to Little Professor for facilitating book sales and to Librarian Susan Zana for hosting!

This past weekend, I was honored to be a guest of Mythicworlds 2016, which was held at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Seattle Airport. This is a music-and-costumed focused, Celtic and other mythologies themed weekend. I participated on two panels, gave a Thrones & Bones presentation, ran a demonstration of the Thrones & Bones board game, and taught my ScripTips writing workshop.

The convention was a blast, in no small part because friends Duane Wilkins (bookseller extraordinaire at Seattle's University Book Store), Pierce Watters (of Paizo and the Pathfinder Role Playing Game), and Todd Lockwood (world famous artist and author of the upcoming and brilliant novel, The Summer Dragon) all came down to hang out. And my friend, fabulous author Melissa Marr, was already there as a fellow guest!

As an added bonus, I got to spend some time Sunday morning chatting with Einar Selvik of the band Wardruna about his work with Norse runes and his music, which is played on reconstruction of Viking instruments.

Thanks to Robert Gould, Emilio Miller-Lopez, and Jason Pitzl-Waters for putting on a great show! And thanks to everyone came out and everyone who picked up copies of Frostborn and Nightborn !

This coming weekend I am a guest of Mythicworlds 2016, to be held at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Seattle Airport (18740 International Boulevard, Seattle, Washington). I'll be giving a Thrones & Bones presentation, demonstrating a game of Thrones & Bones, teaching a writing workshop, and appearing on world building and cover art panels with the other great guests! If you're in the Seattle area, come say hi and get a signed copy of Frostborn or Nightborn!


Here is my convention schedule:

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!

Friday, I raced the weather to go to Huntsville and give two talks on writing to about eighty 7th graders at Randolph School. I visited Randolph last year as well and it was fun to return. Although the then-impending weather meant the school had an early dismissal and I was in a hurry to get out of there. So after the second talk, I quickly signed copies of Nightborn, thenleapt in my car and raced to beat the snow and make it home. The snow started coming down when I was minutes out of Huntsville, but I got ahead of it. It turned to rain and didn't snow again until I reached home.



Meanwhile, Saturday was a great day. My son and I went to meet two 5th grade fans from Vestavia Hills Elementary Central at Starbucks who wanted to have hot chocolate with the author. We talked about the books, and we played two games of Charioteers (from Nightborn ). Fun!

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."

Thrones and Bones books have popped up on two lists at Aleksandra's Corner.

Nightborn , book two in the series, is #7 in her list of the Best Books I've Read in 2015.

Skyborn , book three in the series, comes in at #9 on her list of the Top 10+ Books I'm Looking Forward to in 2016.

I'm thrilled to be on both these lists, and also to show off the Skyborn cover (art by Justin Gerard), which has started popping up online.

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

On Tuesday, November 10th, I visited Fultondale Elementary School in Fultondale, Alabama during their Scholastic Book Fair. The moment I walked through the door, I was impressed by the library. It's a huge, bright space, dead center of the school, adorned with beautiful white columns and glass bricks. Nice!


I presented after lunch to the entire fourth and fifth grades, who were a very enthusiastic bunch (with a high percentage of Skyrim players in attendance. Fus Ro Dah!). Then I signed in the library for those who had bought books. The kids were great -- one boy said he was so excited he was going to faint. Fortunately, he didn't. But they were all very enthusiastic about Frostborn and it was great fun meeting them!

Thanks very much to Librarian Laurie Purser for arranging such a great visit! And for asking me to sign a Viking helmet!

And a huge thank you to Fultondale Elementary for giving me a place on the Wall of Visiting Authors!