by john | Sep 4, 2012 | Uncategorized
I promise there will be a Dragon*Con report here in the next couple of days. As usual there will be fewer pictures that I’d like, but I was pretty busy. It was an awesome time hanging with some awesome folks and I learned a lot about things I should and shouldn’t do to work a super-con like this in the future, and hopefully some of that will translate into big results at NY Comic Con next month.
So if I met you at DC – thanks for stopping by and there will be new content coming soon, I promise. But right now I gotta go check out of the hotel and drive home.
Peace!
by john | Aug 24, 2012 | Uncategorized
But it looks to be productive as a mofo.
You might have heard that there’s a little political convention rolling into Charlotte over Labor Day weekend. Well, the DNC (and RNC for that matter) brings with it a flaming shit-ton of media, parties, and other types of gig work for your friendly neighborhood theatre types. And since I’m not yet so wealthy that I can just randomly turn down lucrative work, I’ll be spending Monday – Wednesday working 8-12 hour days helping set up the Google tent and whatever else they’ve got going on.
Yeah, so the three days before I go to the biggest fantasy con of the year, I’m working my nuts off on things that have nothing to do with getting ready for Dragon*Con. I did mention this gig pays well, right? Because that’s the only thing that makes it smart for me to do this. But do this I shall.
Then I’m off to Dragon*Con. I’m sharing a booth in the bottom of the Marriott with a bunch of other fantasy writers, many of whom you know from Magical Words. I’m only on a couple of panels so far, but I may end up on more and may end up stepping in to do some moderator duty if needed.
I will definitely be at the following –
Saturday – 11:30 AM – Westin International Room BC – Pulp History with Bobby Nash, Van Allen Plaxico, James Tuck and Barry Reese.
Sunday – 2:30 PM – Hyatt Embassy Room D-F – Spotlight on Bell Bridge Books
Otherwise, look for me in Booth 100&102 in the Marriott, or hit me up on Twitter if you want to get together. My mornings are pretty free, and I plan to be in the booth every afternoon but Sunday, when I’m booked at BBB stuff.
I’ll have bookmarks with the new Hard Day’s Knight/Omnibus cover and Read Recklessly buttons to give away, plus t-shirts and books to sell. Hope to see you in Atlanta!
by john | Aug 17, 2012 | Uncategorized
Hey folks, just a quick heads-up on availability of the Black Knight Chronicles books. Part of my book deal was licensing the rights to the existing Black Knight books to Bell Bridge. That’s why we’ve spent all summer polishing them, revising them, working on new covers, etc. That does mean that at the end of this month, the books will be going away from all sites for a little while. They’ll be off Amazon for a day or so while I get the new files uploaded. They’ll be off Barnes & Noble and Smashwords starting when I leave for Dragon Con. So if you’re desperate to have the original editions, you should grab those now. But you won’t hurt my feelings if you wait for the new editions to come out, especially if you’d rather have them all in one place, like the omnibus. This is mostly a “don’t freak out, I’m not dead or retired” post to let you know what’s going on if you want to order the books one day and can’t find them. They’ll be back in a day or so, it’s just part of the transition. I’m really, really happy with how the revisions have gone, and I think you will be too. The guys are the same guys they’ve always been, only better. We’re almost done revising Knight Moves, then I’ll dive back in, rewrite Paint it Black, and you guys should have that in the first half of next year. Sorry for the delay, but in the long run it will make it a better book, and make Books 5 & 6 even better still!
Come see me at Dragon Con in two weeks! Oh God, Dragon Con is in two weeks! I gotta get ready.
by john | Aug 10, 2012 | Appearances, Business of publishing, Real Life, Vampires
Still pushing for the finish line on Black Knight revisions. Also up to my ass reading submissions for The Big Bad, and learning a new respect for editors the world over. So far my co-editor and I have picked five or six stories out of fifty or so to go into the anthology, but there’s still a LOT of reading to do. I’m bouncing between reading stuff for my critique group, reading submissions, and revising Knight Moves right now, so no progress has been made on any new work. I plan to be done with critique group stuff and Knight Moves this week, so then I can focus on reading subs and writing new words between now and Dragon Con.
Speaking of Dragon Con, that’s rushing toward us faster and faster, and I’m so far from ready it’s ridiculous. Last week at Charlotte Comicon I sold out of Back in Black and Knight Moves, and I’m not going to re-order those until the new versions are ready from Bell Bridge. I have about two dozen copies of Hard Day’s Knight that I’ll take with me, and once those are gone, they’re gone forever. I need to order a few more copies of Headshot, Genesis and Bump in the Night, but I’m not sure exactly how many to order yet. And I have to do new bookmarks and postcards. My publisher is doing Black Knight Chronicles bookmarks, so I need some to promote my other stuff. I was thinking one for Bubba & The Chosen and one for my YA work. That seems to make the most sense, to me at least.
I have plenty of t-shirts for Dragon, so at least I don’t need to order any more of those. But I definitely need to get a new episode of Literate Liquors out to y’all this week. It’s technically AJ Hartley’s turn in the hot seat, but since Richard Kadrey has a new book out next week, he might get moved ahead in the queue. Or I could get off my ass and edit both of them, what a concept!
And I still wanna go see Batman. Maybe for my birthday. Yeah, my birthday is next Tuesday. Y’all can click here to give me presents! I don’t really expect my blog readers to give me presents, but it’s awesome if you want to (thanks!) and it never hurts to ask. Besides, as I near the big 4-0 I find myself even less shy about asking for shit that I want.
But here’s something you want – the cover for the Black Knight Omnibus. I love it, I think it captures a darker feel, but still got some funny stuff going on.
