Brian McClellan

Background

Brian McClellan was born on January 25, 1986, in Cleveland, Ohio.

Education

McClellan went to Brigham Young University to major in English with an emphasis on creative writing.

Career

McClellan, wanting his writing to be more than just art, was determined to become a full-time writer.

In 2006 he attended Orson Scott Card"s Literary Bootcamp. In 2008 he received honorable mention in the Writers of the Future Contest.

McClellan published his first book, Promise of Blood, in 2013. The second book, The Crimson Campaign, has been released in May 2014.

As of February 2015, his next novel, Autumn Republic concluded the planned Powder Mage trilogy, with its United Kingdom publication.

Promise of Blood (2013) The Crimson Campaign (2014) The Autumn Republic (2015) Eight novellas and short stories set in the world of were released: Hope's End (2013), The Girl of Hrusch Avenue (2013), Forsworn (2014), The Face in the Window (2014), Servant of the Crown (2014), Murder at the Kinnen Hotel (2014), Return to Honor (2015), Ghosts of the Tristan Basin (2016).

Achievements

• McClellan's debut novel, Promise of Blood, won the Morningstar Award for Best Fantasy Newcomer in 2014. He also was nominated for Goodreads Choice Awards Best Fantasy and Goodreads Choice Awards Best Debut Goodreads Author.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Uncanny Collateral

    (Alek Fitz is a reaper, a collection agent who works for t...)

    2019
  • The Crimson Campaign

    (Tamas's invasion of Kez ends in disaster when a Kez count...)

    2015
  • Ghosts of the Tristan Basin

    (Taniel Two-Shot is a powder mage with the Tristan Ghost I...)

    2016
  • The Autumn Republic

    (Field Marshal Tamas returns to his beloved country to fin...)

    2016
  • Siege of Tilpur

    (Sergeant Tamas, a young infantryman in the Adran Army, st...)

    2017
  • Blood Tally

    (Alek Fitz is the lead reaper for Valkyrie Collections, an...)

    2020
  • Promise of Blood

    (Now, Field Marshal Tamas and his lieutenants must confron...)

    2014
  • Forsworn

    (Erika ja Leora is a powder mage in northern Kez, a place ...)

    2014
  • Murder at the Kinnen Hotel

    (Special Detective Constable Adamat may be the most capabl...)

    2014
  • War Cry

    (A brand new novella from the author of the acclaimed Powd...)

    2018
  • The Mad Lancers

    (In the colonial cities and towns of Fatrasta, peace has n...)

    2017
  • Servant of the Crown

    (Captain Tamas is an ambitious young officer in the Adran ...)

    2014
  • Murder at the Kinnen Hotel 2014
  • Servant of the Crown 2014
  • In the Field Marshal's Shadow 2015

Views

"I don’t really write books with a meaning in mind. I write to entertain. This is a way for people to get out of our world and into someplace full of magic and adventure for ten or fifteen hours or so, and I wouldn’t press them with anything more than that.

I like to work in groups of scenes. I’ll spend about a week brainstorming the next four or five scenes in the book, which may end up anywhere between ten and twenty thousand words. I’ll write down little notes along the way and when I feel like I’m ready, I sit down and write.

I tend to write in spurts. Several weeks away from the keyboard, and then a flurry of activity with a third to half a novel being written in just a couple of months. It’s really a terrible way to work, and I’ve been trying to make myself be more consistent. But I tend to do most of my drafting in my head. If an idea for a scene isn’t fully realized, I won’t even start it. Now, it may change once I begin to put it on paper and that’s just fine. But I don’t like to get going until I know exactly where I sequence of scenes or a chunk of a plotline is going to end up.

I have a love/hate relationship with editing. If a scene is in good shape, editing it is so much fun because I’m looking at it with the eyes of a reader. If the scene needs a lot of work, it’s more of a grind as I go through and rewrite and change characters and all that stuff."

Quotations: "I didn’t begin writing as a habitual thing until I was about 15 and I discovered people writing Wheel of Time fanfiction online. I found that I really enjoyed it, and soon I was coming up with whole new worlds."

"Don’t hesitate to cut stuff - characters, chapters, even whole plot lines. Be realistic with yourself, and remember that everyone starts off pretty awful and only gets better by changing the things they do badly. Finally, that if you want to be a professional author, remember that the world has absolutely no patience for the suffering artist. They want fun, interesting, or thoughtful books and they want them now. So write them."

Personality

Brian said that he has far too many hobbies: "I like to cook, bake, and make my own jam. I do some gardening. I also have a crippling computer game addiction, which manifests itself in whole weeks spent playing games while my next project slowly percolates in the back of my head." Also, Brian started a new hobby keeping honeybees.

Interests

• honeybees, reading, computer games, gardening, cooking, baking

• Writers

  Brandon Sanderson, Joe Abercrombie, Steven Erikson, Mark Lawrence, Victor Hugo

Connections

Brian lives on the side of a mountain in Utah with his wife, Michele, where he writes books and nurses a crippling video game addiction.

Wife:

Michele McClellan

References

• Author's Brian McClellan Official Website