Bryan Camp
@bryancamp.bsky.social
460 followers 720 following 1.9K posts
(he/him) Author of THE CITY OF LOST FORTUNES. Teacher, spouse, New Orleanian, Critter, and Probably Running Late For Something. Clarion West '12.
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Hi folks! I'm the author of the Crescent City novels (no, the other ones) and some other stuff I'm cooking up now. I'm a teacher in New Orleans, D&D nerd, spouse to a math unicorn, and haven for wayward cats. Tyrants large and small can fuck off into the sun.
Reposted by Bryan Camp
"Pardo weaves a wonderful blend of hard-boiled noir, engaging characters, and imaginative world-building that goes far beyond the usual 'What if the U.S. lost World War II?'" Thanks @benfrancisco.bsky.social for putting THE SHAMSHINE BLIND in such awesome company
I had a scene in my head for Hermes/Mercury that I couldn't fit in the first 2 crescent city books, where meeting him is essentially greeting him at his arrival gate, riding in a golf cart, then him getting on a departing flight, because he has to be in constant motion.

Trains though! LUXURY.
City of Lost Fortunes: Rum, cinnamon, rust, cigars, fox musk.
Gather the Fortunes: 1st 1/2 "something died", 2nd 1/2 honey & apples
Novel on submission: Engine grease, rosemary, anise & menthol, burnt incense.
Novella on submission: pickle brine, hot metal
Novel I'm drafting: mold dust, oil paint
What would *your* book smell like if you engaged in a mega weirdo scented pages promotional campaign?
Reposted by Bryan Camp
Reposted by Bryan Camp
You gently run your hand through the rack. You can feel it—pure cotton, rich wool, Irish linen. The plump buttonholes are handsewn; the buttons attached with a firm shank. You flip the price tag over. It's affordable

You buy the jacket and go home, which is only 15 mins away. Your apt is $600/month
Headline reads: Altman says ChatGPT will soon allow erotic for adult users.
It is my understanding that you just put a sticker that says "Ceci n'est pas un portefeuille" on your wallet and it renders it invisible to the French.

Alternately, you can just introduce yourself as "un écrivain," loudly and often, and they'll know you have nothing in your pockets to pick.
Reposted by Bryan Camp
It’s almost like billionaires and strong vibrant institutions of civil society can’t coexist
Added it to the library list.
Have_You_Ever_Considered_Piracy_You'd_Make_A_Wonderful_Dread_Pirate_Roberts.gif
My most fan-fiction blorbo song is Florence and the Machine's "Delilah," for Laudna on campaign 3 of Critical Role.

My personal blorbo song is Shaboozey's "Last of My Kind," for the main character of the novella I'm shopping around.
Artistic Genius Who Was Once Before Her Time But Is Now Of Her Time, Isabel J. Kim
Aren't we all just faking about being an author, my friend?

Aren't we all?
Oh, um. Yes. I...that is...*sweats* Adrian Tchaikovsky has space octopi in Children of Ruin so...*flees in a nebula of space squid ink*
The "wrote note." Them pants ain't that fancy, it would appear.
Ha!

"I wrote a space octopus story once and never did anything with it because I'm incapable of writing a short story that's not actually a novel in a coat that's way too tight." doesn't strike the wrote note of humblebrag though, does it?
Me: What the hell was Salieri's whole deal?

Me, after reading The River Has Roots: Oh, yeah, I get it now.
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Ever read something and fall into dark despair because you will never ever ever be able to write something like that?

In related news I just finished up Amal El-Mohtar's THE RIVER HAS ROOTS, available from Barnes & Noble and other retailers:

www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-river-...
The River Has Roots|Hardcover
AN INDIE NEXT AND LIBRARYREADS PICK!The River Has Roots is the hugely anticipated solo debut of the New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award winning author Amal El-Mohtar. Follow the river Liss to th...
www.barnesandnoble.com
Oh yes. Precisely this. HOW? Just like, How. It's so brief. It's so simple. And yet, I got to the last scene and just wept.
I wrote this short story one week at Clarion West.
My guy in front of class all sheepishly like, "Now, I don't want to go so far as to call myself a Ruskin SCHOLAR..." and there's me way in the back inventing the Peele_Sweating_Profusely.gif meme about ten years early.
Grad school. Victorian Lit. Chose my term paper subject, John Ruskin, on a whim. Did no research, because who's heard of Ruskin? End of semester, prof tells us he'll miss a couple classes because he'll be in England. Viewing ORIGINAL RUSKIN MANUSCRIPTS.

2 days later I dropped an A- paper on him.
Editors hit novels when you've already made the shopping list, gone to the store, price checked, bought, bagged, and brought the groceries home, and are trying to get from car to kitchen in one trip.

Some just hold the door open.

Good editors grab a couple of bags and help rearrange the fridge.
Do you like books? Do you like scrappy underdogs? Do you want to be part of a positive publishing story?

Well do I have some good news for you:
If someone made an actual, physical robot that stole actual, physical art, they would be a supervillain and, frankly, a sympathetic one.

Maybe I'm just into analog stuff these days? But I'll take Dr. Guggenheist's mad science thievery over AI slop any day.