They be my eyes. I’m dragging a little, it’s been a hell of a few days. They were great, but busy, and I’m a bit wore out, as we say in the country.
Saturday I taught a workshop for Carolina Learning Connection on self-publishing. The small but enthusiastic class was awesome, and we easily used up the four hours allotted. I have another class coming up in two weeks on Self-Promotion and Social Media. If you’re interested in learning how better to promote yourself and your writing online, come on out and see me! Here’s registration info.
Saturday afternoon we went to a baby shower for a couple of friends who are expecting their first. It was cool, and since it was a theatre couple having the baby, I got to see a bunch of my theatre friends.
Then Sunday morning I went over to the Crown Plaza to the Charlotte Comicon, which was awesome! This is a one-day con that happens three times each year, and I’ve been attending for several years now. It used to be a small con, but there were probably 800 people through the doors this weekend! In a six-hour span! I sold a bunch of books, and I am now completely out of Back in Black and Knight Moves. I do not plan to re-order until they are available from Bell Bridge Books, with new cover and new contents.
By the way, I’ve seen the work in progress for the Omnibus cover and it is AWESOME!
And no, I can’t show you yet.
Yes, I’m that guy. I just did that. Sorry. I promise I’ll post it here and all over Facebook and Twitter as soon as it’s finalized and I’m allowed. And you can see it in person at Dragon*Con. Just the cover, though. We’re pretty certain that the omnibus will not be ready for Dragon. And it isn’t the publisher holding things up, they’re moving super-quick. But the revisions to Back in Black took a while, and that’s on me. But I’ll have them for NY Comic Con!
So Sunday after I left Charlotte Comicon, I drove down to my family’s place in South Carolina to celebrate those of us who have August birthdays (you can buy me shit off my Amazon wish list here, or just buy me Magic Cards. Damn you, Sanderson! I blame you for this new addiction!). We were also celebrating the engagement of my youngest niece, which is awesome! We had a great time, had homemade ice cream, hot dogs, burgers, and crap like that.
Then I cam home and worked on line edits for Back in Black, and today I drove my dad to the VA hospital in Columbia for an eye appointment. Which isn’t very far, except instead of going from Charlotte to Columbia and back (3 hours drive), I had to go get my dad, making the trip from Charlotte to Bullock Creek to Columbia to Bullock Creek to Charlotte (5.5 hours). We were both whooped when we got done, but it’s always awesome to spend time with my dad, so that made it more than worth it.
Tomorrow I’m diving in to the revisions for Knight Moves, and I’m reading stories for The Big Bad when I take breaks. Not that I get breaks. It’s a crazy time right now, pretty much from now ’til Dragon Con, but it’s the life I chose, and I love it.
Hope y’all are awesome, and you should totally go buy Blood and Silver, my buddy James’ new book. It released today, so go check it out!
Some folks have wondered where things are in the process of re-working The Black Knight Chronicles for re-release now that I’m working with a traditional publisher. And even more folks have wondered when they’ll be seeing Book IV – Paint it Black.
The short answer is – I don’t have a firm answer. The long answer is that the rewrites took me longer than I expected, and were more in-depth than I expected. These editors really pushed me, making me look long and hard at the boys and Sabrina and their motivations for doing things. “Because it seemed like fun” was no longer an acceptable answer, so I didn’t even bother with “because I was drinking when I wrote that scene.” They’ve done wonders for my writing, and I think that the books you get when you pick up the Omnibus of Books 1-3 will be so much improved that it’ll be just like reading whole new stories.
In some places, you will be. There are so many changes to things that I feel like a DC Comics editor! But these books are going to be amazing, and I’m prouder of them than I ever have been. But the truth is that I still don’t know if they’ll be ready for Dragon*Con. It’s almost August, and we’re all – me, my editor, my publisher, my copyeditor, the cover artist, the typesetter, the proofreader – everyone working as fast as we can to get the books out. I’m not sure we’ll have them for Dragon, which is a bummer. But if it takes a couple weeks to make it a better book, and the length of time of these revisions is all on me, not the publisher, then I’d rather take longer and have a better end product.
So the omnibus of Books 1-3 will be out sometime this fall. I’m not sure if Paint it Black will drop this year or not. The first draft is complete, but I’ll have to do some major rewrites on that as well once we finish the omnibus. There are story lines that need to be woven into the book, some that need to be enhanced, and continuity to be checked. Plus it’ll take several revisions just to get the story right. So I don’t know if I can finish with it this year, much less get it in the queue for a cover and a release from the publisher this year. But once we get this flood of four books out in short order, we’ll have a better idea of how much time it all takes, and can realistically schedule the following two books. This is a learning process for the publisher as well as for me – it’s not every day they buy six books from one guy, three of which have already been released.
But as that release comes nearer – the books will be removed from all venues other than Amazon. That’s because I only have ebook rights on Amazon as per my contract, so to make sure the books aren’t for sale in two versions, I need to pull them from the other online venues to make sure they’re down before the release date. So if you need to get them for your Nook, either haul ass or wait for the omnibus. Or do both. I won’t mind.
So that’s where we are with the books. I hope this was a satisfactory answer for you guys, and please don’t get grumpy with my publisher for delaying the release. They’re not. It’s me, and my editors, polishing the books until they shine brighter than you’d ever believe!
Featuring Lauren “Scribe” Harris from the Pendragon Variety podcast. We got together at Concarolinas and talked about all kinds of books, why I’m such a fatass, and booze. Enjoy!
I’ll give you my LibertyCon 25 wrap-up later in the week. It was way better than I expected, I had a great time and met some great folks. But I want to talk briefly about what happened last week in Aurora.
I’m not going to talk about guns, or gun control. For the first time in recorded history, I agree with a statement from the NRA, that this is not the time to make statements for political gain or to advance an agenda. This is a time to mourn, a time to reflect, a time to honor the heroes, a time to heal our wounded, and a time to burn these days into our memories.
Because we are all Aurora. This was not simply an attack at a movie theatre. This was an attack on fandom. These are our people. These are the people who were lined up to be there first. To be with fellow fans.
These are the same type of folks that went to Harry Potter release parties. The same type of folks that camped out for the Firefly Reunion panel at ComiCon. The same type of folks that line up an hour before Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle are supposed to start signing just so they can get their Lucifer’s Hammer autographed.
I was surrounded by fandom all weekend, and I was thrilled to be with my people. But my heart hurt as well for my people in Colorado that were dead and bleeding. MY people, motherfucker. So yeah, I was angry, too. I still am. I’m angry that something as innocent and quintessentially American as going to the movies was attacked by some batshit crazy sonofabitch with a bunch of ammo and an axe to grind. I’m angry that the next time I see a guy cosplaying an Umbrella Corp. soldier, that I’m going to be a little cautious. That the next time I see any militaristic cosplay the first thing that pops into my head will be “copycat” and I’ll look for my weapons and the exit. That pisses me off, that one cowardly fuckbag with bad hair dye can touch me from thousands of miles away, and corrupt something that I love.
But then I look for something better in all this. And I find it. I find Stephanie Davies, who saved her friend’s life and wouldn’t leave her side even though it might have cost her life. I find Matt McQuinn, who gave his life to shield his girlfriend from gunfire. I find Christian Bale, who spent today in the hospital in Colorado visiting the victims of the shooting. This was a terrible, terrible tragedy. The cost to fandom everywhere is incredible. I’m still angry. I’m still concerned about security at the next major event. But then I remember that I am surrounded by fans. And fantasy and science fiction fans are the best in the world. These are the most giving, most caring people I’ve ever known. And I know that we will take care of our own.
This week I will weep for Colorado. But I also know that there are heroes in all of us, and sometimes it takes the darkest night to bring them out.
The following people lost their lives last weekend. Never forget. I won’t.
This week is a busy one, culminating in my first trip to LibertyCon in Chattanooga. I’m excited about meeting some folks like Brandon Sanderson, creator of the Mistborn series and host of the Writing Excuses podcast, which is one of my favorites. He also does some series about wheels, I think. 🙂
Tonight I’m heading down to Rock Hill to hang out with my friends Faith, Kalayna and D.B. Jackson at their signing event at the BookKnack. Kalayna and D.B. both have new books out, and Faith is previewing some stuff from the next Jane Yellowrock book, even though it won’t be out for a while. If you don’t already have Grave Memory and Thieftaker, get your ass out there and pick them up, then get them signed! If you already have them (like me!) get them signed.
Seriously, Thieftaker is easily one the best historical fiction book I’ve ever read. The descriptions are lush, the characters are well-drawn and believable, and the magic system makes perfect sense. It’s a fast-paced book that never left me feeling rushed, and yet held my attention throughout. All in all, an excellently crafted book that I think you’ll enjoy.
And Grave Memory is the third book in the Alex Craft series, one of my favorite urban fantasy series. I love the characters, and Kalayna has really stepped up the stakes in this third installment. It just hit the USA Today bestseller list, a well-deserved accolade.
Then Thursday I’m headed to Chattanooga for LibertyCon. The con starts Friday, but I’m getting in a little early to see what’s doing, and to make sure I’m not late for my first panel Friday.
Here’s the schedule for LibertyCon.
Friday 3PM – Autograph Session
Friday 5PM – Opening Ceremonies
Friday 6PM – Writing a Series
Saturday 10AM – Self-Promotion Tips & Tools
Saturday 1PM – Self-Publishing as a viable career option
Saturday 5PM – Autograph Session
Saturday 6PM – Reading
Sunday 11AM – Autograph Session
Sunday Noon – Tech Tools for Writers
Sunday 2PM – Why are vampires ALWAYS a hot ticket?
I don’t have a table in the dealer’s room for this con, so the only chance to pick up my books or a Read Recklessly t-shirt is to come to one of the autograph sessions or the reading. Hope to see some of you there!
This will be a weak-ass show report, largely because I was mostly focused on living the show and not a whole lot on taking a ton of pictures and recording stuff. I don’t do very well at striking a balance, I either veer to one side or the other. So I either have an awesome post-show report and didn’t really get much done at the con besides take pictures, or I have a great time, get a lot accomplished and don’t have shit for photos.
This con I got a LOT done. There will be two new episodes of Literate Liquors to come out of the con, one featuring the lovely Janice Hardy, who happened to wander through the break room at the Galt House during a shooting and I roped her into the interview. The other is the awesome Richard Kadrey, who I actually scheduled an interview with. Richard is the author of the Sandman Slim series of urban fantasy books, and if you haven’t read those, then for God’s sake get yourself to a bookstore post haste and buy that shit. It’s completely amazing and I’m only proud of myself for managing to be not too much of a fanboy while discussing the books and booze with Richard.
But I had a great time at Fandom Fest/Fright Night Film Fest. As I said on Facebook in a group for us writer types, this is rapidly becoming a con where I get business done. I sell a few books, sure, but the biggest deals were cut at dinner and at bars, and there were quite a few deals struck that I can’t talk about yet because we’re working out the details, but let it suffice to say that after the conversations I had this weekend I plan to be working with my current publisher for at least the next five years on at least two different projects, and I have five projects of varying sizes percolating within the next eighteen months with a completely different publisher. So I got a lot of work accomplished.
I was programmed pretty heavily, which I love. I was on two panels with Deb Dixon, my editor and the publisher at Bell Bridge Books. People like to put the self-pub guy who’s transitioning to trad pub on panels with his publisher just to see if he gets in trouble. So far I’ve been good. Deb and I don’t always agree on every point about the publishing business, but we do see eye-to-eye on most points, and we both can present our arguments relatively cleanly and without getting grumpy, so it’s always good to be on a panel with her.
I also continued my streak of panel-crashing when I suddenly appeared on the Humor in Speculative Fiction Panel. I saw a panel I’d be good on, populated by a host of authors whose work I respect, and moderated by someone I adore, so I crashed.
PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS. It is bad form, and I made a point to get permission from the moderator of the panel AND the lit track organizer before I did it, so it wasn’t really crashing. Unlike ConCarolians, where I really did crash.
But I saw a chance to get on a panel with Laura Resnick, John Scalzi, Jim Hines and Ernest Cline, moderated by Lee Martindale. So I took it. And we had a lot of fun, and I got to meet most of the awesome Guests of Honor at one fell swoop, so it was some good networking. And funny for the audience, too, I believe.
But NOTHING compared to the audience we got for the Book Tasting/Literate Liquor Live! Event. We packed the room and developed some awesome book/tea/booze combos. Jackie Gamber did an amazing job with her tea pairings for the books, including one with Hitchhiker’s Guide that tasted and smelled like gummy bears. Then I broke out the booze and we all got hammered. But for the record, the cinnamon tea that Jackie likes with her books Redheart and Sela, tastes AMAZING with a splash of Disaronno in it. There are pictures on my Facebook. It was a blast, we’ll do it again sometime.
I also met some awesome folks and reconnected with some old friends. I spent the weekend sharing a room with my buddy Sean Taylor, and it’s always great to hang with him. I shared a table with the always-lovely Kalayna Price (she has a new book out TODAY – buy it!), and I shared a lot of meals with my long-lost brother James R. Tuck. I also met some awesome new folks like JH Glaze, with whom I share a couple of initials. It was great getting to know him a bit, along with the beautiful Delilah Dawson, who I’m signing books with on Saturday in Columbia.
As always, there were too many people I spent time with to mention, but there’s always room for Jell-O, and you can’t do a post-show recap in the Mid-South without mentioning Allan Gilbreath. The man with the devious laugh is always great to spend time with, and he’s got a business brain that doesn’t quit. So if you do cons in Tennessee or Kentucky and don’t know Allan, fix that ASAP.
So yeah, I had a great time, made some more good connections, solidified some others, sealed a few deals and started the process on some others. So it was a great con, and I missed the wreck on I-65 South that stranded a bunch of my friends on their way home for six hours, so that was a win for me even if all the hotels in West Virginia were booked and I had to make the whole drive home instead of splitting it up like originally planned.
I have two friends with book releases this week, and I’d like all y’all to go out today (or this week) and buy their books. I’m going to go a little deeper than some of you will like about the publishing business, but that’ll come later in the post. For the first little bit, I’m just going to talk about the books and why you should get your happy ass down to YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE and buy them this week.
Yeah, I make a lot of money off Amazon, but if you’re going to buy print books, go to a bookstore and support a locally owned business. That shit’s important. I’ll be heading out to Park Road Books tomorrow afternoon to pick up a couple of these titles myself.
First off we have Kalayna Price’s Grave Memory. This is the third in the Alex Craft series, and to say I enjoy these books is a huge understatement. This is one of my top 5 urban fantasy series of the last few years. There are some must-buys in my reading life, and Kalayna’s books are definitely among them. They’re witty, with awesome characters that are totally relatable, believable magic systems and world-building, and awesome plots. I don’t have enough good things to say about them, except to say get your ass out there and buy the books!
And if you want to buy them direct from the author, come to Columbia, SC this Saturday and join Kalayna, me, James R. Tuck, Rachel Aaron, Delilah Dawson and A.J. Hartley for the second annual Fantastical Mystery Tour. DB won’t be with us, but he’ll be rolling through the Carolinas in two weeks, so you can get your books signed then. Once again, I am the smallest fish on the lineup, and am so flattered to be with these awesome writers.
DB Jackson’s new book is called Thieftaker and is the first book in its series. I haven’t read it yet, but I’m looking very much forward to it, because DB is also awesome fantasy author David B. Coe, whose work I really enjoy. This is a new venture for him, branching out into Historical Urban Fantasy and giving his advanced degree in history a workout. You can hear more about this in the video below.
Now that you’ve had a giggle, here’s why it’s important to buy these books THIS WEEK. For mid list authors, which is the vast majority of the writers you read about here, and most of my friends, there’s pretty much a two-week window to make a list. And by “make a list” I mean get a book onto the New York Times or USA Today bestseller list. And this means a lot to a writer. Not just because it feels great (I assume, since I have never made a list) to see your name up there in print where you grew up reading the names of your writerly heroes, but because there are some serious economic things behind making a list.
You make a list, you get a little better promotion from your publisher. You make a list consistently, you can negotiate a little better contract next time around. You make a list, your next two or three books will get picked up by that publisher. You make a list, and it becomes easier to make a living as a traditionally published author. It never becomes easy, but making a list helps. And in the way books are sold and marketed in today’s world, the vast majority of lists are hit in the first or second week of release. And if a book doesn’t hit when it first releases, it never will.
So this post is asking you to go out and spend about $35. DB’s book is a hardcover, and lists for $24.99. Maybe your bookstore discounts, maybe it doesn’t. But buy local. And Kalayna’s book is a mass market paperback, an absolute steal at $7.99. It’ll be the best $35 you spend this week. These are incredible writers, and they deserve your support. And if you want to buy for the Kindle, that’s cool, too.
And if you want to buy some of my shit while you’re buying, that’s cool, too. But these books come with my 100% stamp of approval. Check them out, and let me know if you love them.
Last weekend I was at HeroesCon 2012 in Charlotte with my good friends Tamsin Silver and Stuart Jaffe. We sold some books, bought some art, and pretty much broke even except for the buttrape of Sunday parking because they were charging $25 at my preferred lot thanks to the Tim McGraw/Kenny Chesney concert that night at the stadium. Bastards.
But I had an awesome painting commissioned by the amazing John Hairston, Jr.
Then this weekend I’ll be in Louisville returning to the scene of the crime at Fandom Fest 2012! Last year we dubbed this con Sweat-Fest because the AC died on one of the hottest weekends of the year. I drove eight hours knowing pretty much NO ONE at the con, and over the course of the weekend and more than a few drinks created some awesome friendships with people I’d met briefly before, and some folks I met that weekend, including my publisher, who is awesome. This year the con has upgraded to the super-awesome Galt House in downtown Louisville, so there’s no worries about the air conditioning, and Stephen Zimmer has put together an incredible slate of panels. I’m committed to right around 12 hours of programming, and I’m really looking forward to it.
Here’s where to find me –
Friday – 5:30 PM – Taylor Room – Self-Publishing Panel – I might know a little about this.
Friday – 8:30 PM – McCreary Room – Shrewsbury Night Live! – Me, Steven Shrewsbury, James R. Tuck and Brady Allen – The Steel Curtain of Fantasy Fiction in a free-form free-for-all. There will be beers drank and poetry recited.
Saturday – 10AM – McCreary Room – Publishing Paths – Making smart choices regarding your career and watching me try not to piss off my publisher who will be sitting right next to me on the panel 🙂
Saturday – 1PM – Beckham – Humor in Fantasy Fiction – I’m technically not on this panel, but I’ve warned everyone that I’m crashing, so if you see a big dude wearing a luchador mask sitting behind the table, it’s probably me.
Saturday – 5:30PM – Morrow – Best YA Characters – Because if you don’t have good characters, nobody gives a shit.
Saturday – 7PM – Collins Room – Book Tasting/Literate Liquors Live! Jackie Gamber and I will pair books with different teas and liquors, then we’ll tag-team some books and pair them with each. There will be shots for the audience. I will be drunk by the end of the panel. Someone should video this. For realz.
Sunday – 10AM – Beckham Room – Ebooks and Hangover remedies – the hangover remedy part is unofficial, but it’s a con on Sunday morning, so we’ll all need them.
Sunday – 11:30AM – McCreary Room – Writing a Series – how not to suck at it. I suggest lots of beer. For you, and your readers.
I’ll also have a table in the Dealer’s Room where you can probably find my long-lost brother James Tuck hanging out, as well as the always beautiful and charming Kalayna Price (I have no idea why she hangs out with me, but I’m glad she does!). We’ll be there from Friday afternoon on.
I’ll be in the bar every night, and I hope to tape several episodes of Literate Liquors while I’m there. By the way -tomorrow afternoon – Faith Hunter on Literate Liquors!
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