Archive for category Appearances

StellarCon 36 Update

Feb 21

Posted by john in Appearances | No Comments

I got my schedule this morning for StellarCon 36 in High Point, NC. It looks like a jam-packed weekend of geeky fun, so if you’re anywhere in the area, come on over and say hi! Here’s what I’m scheduled for -

Friday – 5PM – 5:30PM – Reading – I think I’ll pull out some Bubba stuff, maybe a little Black Knight stuff, and maybe even a little poetry if anybody shows up to see the reading.

Friday – 8PM – Prop Building – I’m a theatre guy, so I can talk a little about building props, but it’s not really my strong suit. This will be a rare chance to see me on a panel where I don’t talk a lot.

Saturday – 2PM – The Role of the Publisher in Today’s Market – this will not be a chance to see me be quiet. I’ll be the one championing small press and self-publishing. Should be fun. Too bad Mike Stackpole is doing an interview at this time slot, since this is kinda a hot button for him. With Misty Massey, so I’ll be polite at least. She’ll poker me if I misbehave.

Saturday – 6PM – Pushing the Limits in YA Fiction – What issues should YA lit deal with and what should the boundaries be? I feel like YA lit should deal with anything that young adults may actually have to deal with, but I’m kinda silly that way. On a panel with people who know way more about the genre than I do, like A.J. Hartley and Davey Beauchamp.

Sunday – 1PM – Where do you get your Ideas? And other stupid questions. – This oughta be entertaining

So I hope you’ll be able to come out and join me. In other news, I still have need of a minion for a couple of cons coming up this year. It’s not a paid position, but I’ll get you into cons for free. If you live somewhere that I’m going to be, and have interest in attending cons and helping out a scatterbrained author (or maybe two), let me know.

 

I just blew up a book, I think

Jan 24

Posted by john in Appearances, Business of publishing, Writing | 2 Comments

So I’m pretty sure that my editor and I just blew up Paint it Black, Book IV of The Black Knight Chronicles. I sent in my synopsis, and she did exactly what I want her to do – she poked holes in the book and called me on my BS. That, kids, is why I signed with a traditional publisher instead of continuing to do everything by myself. Having someone who’s worked on a ton of books to look at a sketch of a book and say “nothing is happening, where’s the excitement?” Is worth the chunk of royalty percentage I’m giving up. Especially at this point in my career. I’ve got five novels out, and I think I’m just learning to tell a story.

I’m not going to pitch everything I’ve written in Paint it Black, but I am going to blow up a fair bit of it. As I read my editor’s notes on the synopsis, I realized that there were a couple of things that made this book very different from the others in the series, and not necessarily in a good way. There was practically no supernatural stuff going, I was almost 20,000 words in and we hadn’t had a fight scene yet, and there was no Father Mike. These are problems. I love the character of Father Mike, and he needs to be in every book. The characters are vampires, and they fight supernatural bad guys, so there needs to be a supernatural element. And really, I went nearly a third of a book without a fight scene? God, I was doing some serious navel-gazing.

So I now have a totally new direction for the book, and I’m pretty excited about it. There will be supernatural stuff going on – fairies, trolls, vampires, and new monsters. There will be Father Mike. And there will be fighting. Oh yes, there will be fighting.

So that’s my lesson for the week for self-pubbed authors. If you don’t have someone you trust to bounce ideas off of, then go find that person. I chose a traditional publisher to fill that role, but it can be a critique partner, a friend, whatever. It’s usually not a great idea of it’s a spouse but your mileage may vary.

I’ll leave you with a scene from Chattacon, where I spent the weekend chatting with some awesome authors and publisher types, got to watch one urban fantasy bestseller’s phone leap unprovoked to its death in a vat of bourbon, and realized that writers drink even more than theatre folk. I gotta step up my game! And I got hammered on chocolate wine by mute writer with an iPad and an evil, evil soul! Lando says “Playa, please!”

Chattacon and sales update

Jan 18

Posted by john in Appearances, Business of publishing, Real Life, Travel | No Comments

I got my schedule for Chattacon this weekend – I’m on two panels and have a table in the dealer’s room. So if you’re in Chattanooga come on by the ChooChoo and say hello!

Saturday at noon I’m on a panel called “Out of the Closet and Onto the Page:Self Publishing” with Alan Gilbreath from Kerlak Publishing. As two of the most out-of-the-closet and out-of-bounds panelists in the building all weekend, it oughta be fun. Alan is a good panelist, he has opinions on everything, has experience in the publishing biz, is witty and articulate. And he’s fun to drink with. So I expect us to have fun there.

Saturday at 2PM I’m on “Technology – Help or Hindrance for Writers?” with Mark Van Name and Stephen D. Rogers. Mark is a best-seller for Baen Books, and Stephen has a bunch of books out and teaches workshops on writing and publishing, so that should be fun. I’ve never met either of these guys before, but that’s pretty common for panels.

I’m still looking for a Con Assistant – and I’m willing to take on multiples for different cons. My friend Melissa has already volunteered to minion for me at ConCarolinas and DragonCon because I hang with the other authors she minions for, so adding one more kitten to herd isn’t that tough. Suzy will be my minion at MidSouth Con and Fandom Fest, and I’m sharing a table with folks at Heroes Con, so I really only need a minion at a couple of events. I can’t offer money, but I’ll cover your con costs and most if not all of your food for the weekend. You’re probably going to have to ride with me to the con to keep costs down, but if you already live where I’m coming for a con, then it’ll be easy!

Here’s where I’ll be and when -

March 2-4 – High Point, NC – StellarCon

July 20-22 – Chattanooga – LibertyCon (unconfirmed)

August 3-5 – Columbia, SC – RoundCon (unconfirmed)

Hmm, looks like I need less minioning than I thought – excellent! I knew I got married for something other than love and laundry.

 

Sales are going awesome so far this month – the Bubba the Monster Hunter Collection Monsters Beware is doing very well. I think it might have dipped into the individual short story sales a little, but since I make more on one collection than I make on all four short stories put together, I’m pretty happy with that.

Doesn’t make sense? Here’s the math – I sell the collection for $2.99, which qualifies for Amazon’s 70% royalty, so I get $2.04 per copy sold. Each individual short story sells for $.99, which qualifies for Amazon’s 35% royalty rate. So I get $.35 for each short story sold. There are four shorts, so $1.40 for each set of four short stories. $2.04 is better than $1.40, so I’m better off selling the collections. Of course, my hope it that someone buys (or freebies) the first one, then buys the collection, so I double-dip for an extra $.35. I know, thirty-five cents is less than a pack of gum, but in multiples of a hundred it adds up. I’m still not making Konrath money, but I’m making decent cash, enough so that I can still plan on quitting my day job in March.

Livin’ the dream, baby. Livin’ the dream. See you out on the road!

 

2012 – the schedule (so far)

Jan 9

Posted by john in Appearances, Travel | No Comments

I’ve got a lot of plans for 2012 – quit my day job, survive the end of the world, lose weight, write half a million words…the usual. But one thing I’m definitely doing is traveling a bunch (and while on the subject of traveling, leveling and other words that end in “el,” when did we stop spelling those words with two “l”s? I’m pretty sure it was travelling and levelling when I was younger, but the great god spellcheck says NAY). I’m currently booked for a bunch of different cons this year, and talking with the rest of the Musketeers this weekend (I got dubbed D’Artagnan, BTW) we sorta solidified our DragonCon plans. So in case you’re going to be anywhere in the SouthEastern US this year, or Vegas, or just anywhere that I’m going to be, here’s how track me down.

January 13-15 – Illogicon, Raleigh, NC. – This is the smallest show that I’m actually paying to go to. It’s a new con in the state, and it’s cheap, so I’m going to go hang out and see what it’s all about. Plus I like to drink and there’s a bar in the hotel!

January 20-22 – Chattacon, Chattanooga, TN – The first of my guest appearances for the year. I haven’t done this show before, but there will be a bunch of people that I met at Fandom Fest last year attending, so I can hang with them. Allan Gilbreath from Kerlak will be there, along with the fabulously entertaining Lee Martindale and a host of other folks. I don’t know what to expect from this show, but it has a decent reputation.

February 10,11,17,18,24,25 – Almost, Maine – Ballantyne Community Theatre – My first acting gig of the year. I’ll be performing in a small scene as part of a larger show for the first show by a new theatre group. The folks running it are some of my best friends, so it should be fun. Especially as they try to work around my crazy-ass schedule.

March 2-4 – StellarCon, High Point, NC – Patrick Rothfuss is the guest of honor, and it’s a small con, so the chances of me being able to buy a beer for one of my favorite writers is pretty high. Seriously, I’m not starstruck much anymore, but Rothfuss is a Big F’n Deal. His Kingkiller Chronicles books are some of the most amazing high fantasy I’ve ever read, and I’m tempted to buy hardbacks just to get an autograph. Plus our Aramis will be there as well, the lovely and talented Misty Massey!

March 7-11 – Southeastern Theatre Conference, Chattanooga – Back to Chattanooga for the last lighting convention as a full-time employee. SETC is a conference I’ve attended since 1993, so I’ll almost certainly make it a point to get there next year for my twentieth convention. I’ve made a ton of friends over the years there, and a ton of business contacts. There will be a few drinks consumed.

March 23-25 – MidSouthCon – Memphis, TN – Apparently this is quite the sizable con, so I’m looking forward to this one. A bunch of folks will be there, and Michael Stackpole is the Guest of Honor. I read his blog, and I enjoy his perspective on the current state of the publishing world. A bunch of folks I met at Fandom Fest will be there as well, so it’ll be good to see them again.

April 13-18 – NAB – Las Vegas, NV – The National Association of Broadcasters trade show will be more about marketing work than writing work, but since I plan to start a small business doing marketing work for entertainment lighting industry firms, this would be a place where I could grab them all at one time and pitch them. Unsure if I’m actually attending this show or not, it depends on the cash.

April 26-29 – Merlefest – North Wilkesboro, NC – If you need me the last weekend of April, I’ll be in the mountains. Either come with me to listen to amazing music, or lie down til the feeling passes. This is the 25th anniversary of Merlefest, and I ain’t missing this chance to recharge, reconnect with friends and get my karma bubble right for anything! You should come, it’s great fun.

June is ridiculous, just wanted to get that out of the way early.

First off we have ConCarolinas – June 1-3 – Charlotte, NC – I was accepted as a guest last year but couldn’t attend because it conflicted with Heroes Con, but the shows are not on top of each other this year, so I’ll be there. So will all my Carolinas writing pals – Misty, Kalayna, Faith, Stuart and tons more. This is a really writer- and fan-friendly mid-sized con right here in Charlotte, so it’s very much worth attending for any aspiring writers.

Then we have HeroesCon – June 22-24 – Charlotte, NC – the largest comic show in the Southeast, and a great way for a fantasy/horror writer to hit their target audience. I’m currently splitting a table with one or two other folks, and if we get one more, I think we might have to upgrade to a real booth. I’m not on any panels at this one, just hawking books for three days. And buying comics. God, the comics!

Finally, I’m going back to Fandom Fest/Fright Night Film Fest – June 29-July 1 – Louisville, KY – This is a con that has a sweet spot in my heart, because it’s where I first connected with BellBridge Books, my publisher. There were a TON of small press publishers there last year, making it the best opportunity I saw for writers to connect with the people who actually put their words in print. Stephen Zimmer does an awesome job putting the literary track together, and I made so many connections at that show it was ridiculous. Plus my wife grew up in Kentucky, so she’s excited about seeing old friends.

August 3-5 is RoundCon – Columbia, SC – I haven’t been officially invited yet, and I probably won’t head up the lit track this time, but if I’m asked I’ll happily attend. It’s a small con, but it is growing.

August 30-September 3 is the big one. Dragon Con - Atlanta, GA – This is by far the biggest con I’m doing, and I’m not even a guest! There will be about 45,000 attendees, and I’m working to get a part of a spot on the show floor with a bunch of other people. If that works out, I’ll go in with a few other folks and we’re working on a program ad to drive traffic to our booth, and I’ll likely end up on a few panels just because there are always opportunities to crash :) .

This doesn’t include the dates for the Charlotte ComiCon, which I will always do as long as Dave and Rick have room for me. It also doesn’t include the NC Writer’s Network Fall Conference, which I’ll likely attend again now that Red Dirt Review is up and running. One show I did last year that I’m unsure about for this year is the SC Book festival. I lost a few hundred bucks at that show last year, so I don’t think I’m going to attend at this point, but if something changes I’ll let you know. I don’t have any plans to buy a booth, because that was crazy expensive last year, and the crowd wasn’t really much for genre fiction.

I think that’s a good little year’s worth of cons, don’t you?

Last Shopping Days…

Dec 16

Posted by john in Appearances, Promos/Giveaways, Real Life, Writing | No Comments

If you wanna guarantee delivery before Christmas, and you want signed books, Monday is pretty much the last day you have any hope of making that happen. So put in your order now!

I’ll be signing at the Charlotte ComiCon this Sunday, come on out and say hi!

Don’t forget that the Win a Kindle Fire contest ends Monday, so get your entries in!

One of my other sites, Red Dirt Review, has a new print and ebook out – check it out. Red Dirt Review is a literary magazine dedicated to bringing you the best in Southern-themed poetry, short stories and memoirs. And you can earn the same number of Kindle fire entries by buying the print or digital edition of that magazine as any of my other books!

And since ’tis the season, here’s my favorite Christmas song of all time, by the Pogues and Kirsty MacColl.

 

New Bubba story forthcoming!

Nov 14

Posted by john in Appearances, Fiction, Real Life | No Comments

Yep, he’s back and bigger and badder than ever. This time Bubba faces his most deadly challenge yet – the ballet!

I intentionally went with kind of a cheezy font for this, because it’s kind of a cheesy little fun story. Bubba goes to the ballet to investigate strange occurrences, as usual things are not what they seem, and as usual there ends up with significant bloodshed and property damage. It’ll be out in ebook form sometime later this week.

I’ve also created a new print book that will primarily only be available at signings. It’s a sampler of sorts, with a Black Knight short story (Movie Knight), a Bubba story (Voodoo Children), a few of my literary fiction stories, and a few poems. It is actually available for order in print online (here’s the link), but I won’t be making this an ebook. The stories are all already available in other things, so I don’t see a lot of point in creating the ebook for this one. I just wanted a cheap sampler for people to pick up at art shows and things like that. Speaking of which, I’ll be at the NoDa All Arts Market this Friday night, so if you’re around, come on out to the Neighborhood Theatre and come see me!

Had a great weekend of music and theatre, starting Thursday night with Don Dixon and Marti Jones performing at The Evening Muse. Those guys are just awesome together. Then spent the weekend at the SC Theatre Association meeting, catching up with old friends and making new ones. Then last night I went back to the Muse and saw Bleu Edmondson and Roger Creager. They put on an awesome show in front of only about 60 people (sorry, it’s a bank town, what can I say? Nobody goes out on a school night). I’m a big Bleu Edmondson fan, and Creager killed it. It was a lot of fun, and a lot more dancing and jumping up and down than I’m used to at the Muse. Most of the stuff I go see there is pretty sedate, but most of the stuff I go see anywhere is pretty sedate.

So that’s what’s up. Genesis is gathering some good reviews, and starting to build some excitement, and I’ve already come up with my next bright shiny idea for a trilogy, so I need to get some writing done, fulfill some obligations, and get on with all these novels I have rolling around in my head!

The next couple of months

Nov 9

Posted by john in Appearances, Real Life | 10 Comments

Are going to be busy.

I know, broken record and all that. But I’ve got quite a few things going on, and some of them are even exciting, so I figured I’d tell y’all about them. But first, I just deleted about 450 spam comments in one fell swoop from the blog here, so if you left a comment in the past week and it didn’t show up, please let me know what it said, because I probably just nuked it. Sorry.

Next week I’ll be hanging out at the NoDa Arts fest again, showing off new samplers of my short stories and the new canvas promo print. These samplers include a few stories from Returning the Favor, a few poems from Red Dirt Boy, as well as Voodoo Children and Knight Moves, which have never seen print before. It’s only $5, but the only way to get one is to see me in person.

Then the week after Thanksgiving I’m doing a signing at Park Road Books in Charlotte. I don’t do many signings, and even fewer in real bookstores, but Park Road Books is a great independent bookstore and they’re giving me a couple hours to do my thing. Come on out and get some Christmas shopping in!

I’m probably doing the 2-Day Noda Arts Fest in December, right after I get back from my annual Vegas degenerates’ gathering. If any of you guys want books, you gotta let me know how many to bring!

Then in January I’ll be a guest at Chattacon in Chattanooga. And I just got notice today that I’ve been accepted by ConCarolinas as a guest, so I’ll be there this summer.

Then at the end of March I’ll be quitting my day job to write full time. I stuck that at the end of the post to see who reads this far. After sixteen years with the same company, I’m going out on my own in the spring to scribble for a living. Wish me luck!

Chicken Dinner?

Oct 10

Posted by john in Appearances, Real Life, Travel | 1 Comment

This past weekend the wife and I ventured out in public more often than is natural for us, with great results. You see, we’re kinda boring nowadays. We like to be at home, and aren’t much for going out in crowds. That’s more me than Suzy, because while I love meeting new people and don’t ever mind getting up in front of people, I kinda don’t like crowds. I get a little freaked out when I don’t have a clear path to an exit, and I really don’t like hanging out too much with my back to an open door. But this weekend presented us with multiple opportunities to be social, and this time we actually participated.

Saturday I lit the second wedding I’ve designed at Theatre Charlotte, which also happens to be the second wedding that’s taken place in the 80+ year history of the facility. Our friends Nick & Kaddie got married, and I designed and ran the lights for the wedding, and also dealt with the pipe and drape to hide the set in progress that was on the stage. Suzy did all the flowers for the wedding, which kept her working for pretty much 48 hours straight. But the wedding went off almost without a hitch, the bride was lovely, the vows were lovely, and the reception was fun. I even danced, something my knee are reminding me about today in an unpleasant fashion.

Then Sunday the Metrolina Theatre Association hosted the annual theatre awards gala, and Suzy and I were both nominated for awards. She was nominated for two different costuming awards, and I was nominated for best lighting design for RENT. IT was a good night for the home team, as we both brought home new hardware for the trophy case. Suzy’s costumes for King Lear won the prize, and I received my award for RENT as well. It was nice hanging out with theatre people away from the stress of a production, and remembering why I like these people in the first place. We had a good time, but my ass is dragging this morning. And getting Facebook reminders from my banker friends about having Columbus Day off doesn’t really help.

I go back into the theatre this afternoon for tech rehearsals for You Say Tomato, I Say Shut Up, a new play that I’m designing. We’re in tech and previews this week, then my high school reunion is this weekend, then the show opens next week, then I go to Columbia for RoundCon. It’s an exhausting month, but I’ve got all November to sleep, right?

On the weight loss front, I backslid a little in week 2, putting back on four of the first six pounds I lost. But I got back on the horse last week and am down a total of five pounds since the beginning of the bet. Five pounds in three weeks isn’t great, but with my schedule right now it’s as good as it’s going to get, and it’s five pounds that I don’t have to carry around anymore. So overall I’m pretty happy with that.

How was your weekend? What are you working on? I’m still revising Genesis for a November launch, so hopefully we’ll still be good for that.

Back to reality

Sep 8

Posted by john in Appearances, Business of publishing, Real Life, Theatre, Writing | No Comments

Or whatever most closely approximates reality for me these days. Looks like September will be the calm before the ridiculousness that is October for me, as I  think I’m home most of this month, and gone most weekends next month. I spent a large portion of the morning looking at regional cons and trying to figure out which ones I want to attend next year, and then looking at budgeting for all that travel, which is no small feat.

Cons are one of those things that some people love and others loathe. I’m still trying to figure out where I need to be at a con, and what makes the most sense for me. There are almost always at least a couple of panels that I can get some valuable information out of, but frequently only a couple. I went to close to a dozen panels at Dragon*Con and actually took notes at two. It’s certainly not that I think I’m such a great writer that I don’t need more information, but with an hour-long panel most of what people go over is going to by nature be very basic. I did pick up some recommendations for good resource books and some networking sites that may prove useful, but that was more me grabbing little nuggets of wisdom out of the air than the panel itself being hugely useful.

So I’ve looked at all the remotely local cons that I could find, from as close as right here in Charlotte to as far away as Memphis, and tried to see which ones are worthwhile. I’ll definitely do Dragon again, and ConCarolinas would be a good one. I made back my table rental at Heroes Con, so we’ll give that one another shot, and since I’m kinda putting together the lit track for RoundCon in Columbia I figure I should plan on attending it. ChattaCon looks good, as does MidSouthCon, but damn, Memphis is a long way from here! Fandom Fest is a yes for me for next year, and the SC Book Festival is a maybe, if I can share a booth with someone and get a better location. Being all by myself and way on the back wall made it very hard to make any sales. And if I can’t get on any panels it won’t be worth attending.

But that should be easier, now that I have a publisher behind me. That’s another major reason I wanted to sign with a publisher – it’s a lot easier to get on panels and things like that if you’re not self-pubbed. So having BellBridge in my corner will give me a legitimacy in a lot of eyes that I can’t get on my own. Ugly truth, but truth nonetheless.

Obviously I still plan to self-publish some stuff. The money is really good, and some of my stuff just doesn’t fit, even in the small press world. Plus there are only so many publishing slots out there in a year, so just like no writer can keep up with the speed of a reader, no publisher can keep up with the speed of a fast writer. So now I’ve got a foot in both worlds, and we’ll see how it all works out. I can’t wait to get my first massive revision letter so I can go through all the cursing, weeping and drinking that my friend Misty describes. I’m sure I’ll be just as distraught as she was, because after all, how could anyone not LOVE my Black Knight Chronicles books?

Heh. I got that answer in spades this morning when Hard Day’s Knight got its first 1-star review on Amazon, and it was pretty ruthless. Unfortunately, there have been enough recent incidents of sock-puppet reviews that the first thing I did after reading it was to check the person’s other reviews and see if it looked like a fake review. Even more unfortunately, it looked like the review was legit, just from someone who hated the book.

I thought it would hurt more. You know, getting the first bad review was supposed to have me all devastated and stuff, right? Nah. I’ve gotten bad reviews before, because you can’t do theatre for any length of time without getting them. So I’m used to seeing people in print say I suck. But I did find a great trick for dealing with bad reviews. Other than ignore them and not read them at all, which is the best advice that I try to follow (and fail miserably). I went to one of my favorite books, Book 1 of The Dresden Files, and read one of his 1-star reviews. Yep, no matter how much a lot of people like something, somebody out there will hate it. So now I’ve gotten a 1-star. Won’t be my last, and I lived through it.

On a completely different note, the nominations for the annual Metrolina Theatre Awards are out, and both Suzy and I got nominated! I got a nod for my lighting design on Rent, and Suzy got nominated for her costuming of The Princess Bride and King Lear. So I guess we’ll break out the monkey suits on October 9th and go see who takes home the lucite statues. That is, if I’m not in rehearsal for another show. I did mention October was a little nuts, right?

 

 

Freewrite Friday

Aug 26

Posted by john in Appearances, Business of publishing, Writing | No Comments

So here’s what’s up in the Hartness-land on a Friday.

Happy to be home in Charlotte after working out of our Atlanta office this week. Yes, not all of us self-published authors are superstars who sit around chatting and posting monkey videos online, some of us still have day jobs. But you can fix that by buying more books (and more and more of you have been, so thanks!). So yeah, I got home yesterday and hung out at home last night watching my Panthers suck against the Bungles and catching up on Season 2 of Glee (don’t judge). I think the Panthers could be better this season than last (can’t be much worse!), but they need to start Derek Anderson for at least a little while and let Newton get his confidence and skills more NFL-ready. The kid isn’t ready, and in a win-now league he could get wrecked by a bad start. I hope not, but it could happen. Look at last year with Jimmy Clausen, or David Carr, or Jamarcus Russel (ok, probably a bad example there, but you get my point). Newton will be an amazing player someday, but today ain’t that day.

I’ll be playing a little poker this evening, and I’ve really missed hanging with the guys and flinging cards around. Hopefully I can recoup some of my nasty losses from a few weeks ago, or at least hold my own.

Book sales have been great – the release of Knight Moves has gone better than I had ever hoped. To date the new book has sold over 800 copies, which is way better than my hope of 500 in the first month, so I’m ecstatic about that. It’ll unfortunately be a while before I get back to the Black Knight boys, because I have at least two other books to knock out before I get to Volume 4. But I’m amazingly pleased with the first month sales of the book, especially since everyone tells me August is the slowest month for e-book sales. So I’m really interested to see what happens in the fall!

Next week I’ll be in Atlanta for Dragon*Con, which I’m very excited about. There are a few people I’ll be autograph-stalking, including James Marsters and Stan Lee. And I just saw that they added Bill Sienkiewicz, who was one of my favorite artists back in his New Mutants days. I’ll also be going to a bunch of panels, readings and parties. If you’re there and want to hook up, hit me up via a Twitter DM (@johnhartness). That’ll probably be the best way to find me.

Once I’m done with Dragon, it’s on revisions of Return to Eden: Genesis. I think I’ve figured out the big problem with the book, now I just need to make myself sit down and do the edits. It’s a huge change/rewrite, so I’ve gotta make myself remember how to eat an elephant – one bite at a time. That’ll probably take the rest of September, then I hope to have it out by November 1. When it’s out I’ll spend November and December working on Copycat, then get to Black Knight Vol. 4 the beginning of 2012. That’s unless a shiny object catches my eye, of course :) .