by john | Jul 13, 2011 | Appearances
Saturday night I headed down to Columbia, SC to hang with Faith Hunter, Kalayna Price, Rachel Aaron and Misty Massey for the first ever Fantastical Mystery Tour multi-author book signing and extravaganza! It was a whole bucketful of awesome, as it is anytime I get to hang with those folks. This whole thing came about from Kalayna and Faith having a brilliant idea at the SC Book Festival, and me being in the right place at the right time. They wanted to do a big signing with a bunch of authors in Columbia to celebrate the release of Kalayna’s new book, Grave Dance.
I just started it, but so far it rocks. Not surprised since it’s the sequel to one of my Top 5 books of 2010.If you haven’t bought it yet, what are you waiting for?
So they wanted to do this thing, and they asked Misty to join. Then they looked over at my booth right next to theirs, and asked me to join. Then they added Rachel, and it was all set. This is just another case of the world being run by those who show up. I was in the right place back in January at RoundCon to meet Faith, Misty and Kalayna. Then I was in the right place in May to get invited into this signing. Then last Saturday night I was TOTALLY in the right place, because we had around 50 people at various times through the signing. It was a fantastic crowd, we had two lively panel discussions, with great questions from the audience, and we all sold a bunch of books.
Kalayna had a bunch of friends and family present, because this was her book release party, but the great thing about fantasy fans is that they don’t lock into one author. When they hear something they like, they’ll buy stuff from anybody who tells a good story. So all the rest of us were able to pick up a few of Kalayna’s stragglers, which is always fun. It never hurts to have a New York Times bestselling author (Faith) at the end of the table, either. I had a great moment chatting with one of my oldest childhood friends, who I haven’t seen in probably twenty years. He now lives only about 15 minutes from the store, so he came over to hang for a while.
It’s always a little tough being the only self-published guy in an event full of traditionally published authors, because the natural inclination is to segregate based on experience. That’s where I have to give a huge thanks to Faith, Kalayna, Misty and Rachel. They’ve never once made me feel like a second-class citizen or an inferior writer because my books are self-published. I read about folks getting snubbed by traditionally published authors just for being self-pubbed and have to report that my experience has been totally the opposite. All the people I’ve met who are traditionally published have been welcoming to me as a writer, regardless of how my books go to market. It might help that I put some of my typical arrogance aside when I’m around other writers because I assume that I’m the least experienced person in any roomful of writers until I’m proven wrong. And since I’m seldom proven wrong in that, it pays for me to be a little humble. I know I’m new to this whole game, and am learning different things every time I get to hang with other writers.
Now back to working on lines, because I’m now in a play. As if I didn’t have enough to do. It’s called The Irish Curse and runs the first three weekends of August. So if you’re in Charlotte around that time, I hope you’ll come by and check it out.
by john | Jun 22, 2011 | Appearances, Real Life, Writing
This was originally going to be a sad piece about not having the right words at the right time. You see, a young woman I went to high school with died last night from leukemia. It sucks. She was a sweet person, and even though I hadn’t seen her in 20 years, she was good people growing up and her older sister (who I was much better friends with because we were in the same grade) is still good people. She left behind a loving family including three young kids, all under ten.
So I had a post written (twice) about how sad it all is that she’s gone and that her kids don’t have their mom anymore, and I scrapped it. Twice. Because of course I’m sad. A very nice person is gone way too soon and her family has to live with that loss. But that’s not the point. The point is I’m pissed off about it. If I were just a little more religious I’d be pissed off at God, but I’m not quite there. I’m pissed off that we as a society have not made this enough of a priority to fix it. We can put men on the moon, land a space shuttle (most of the time) and drop a bomb down a chimney easier than beating Legend of Zelda, but mothers are still dying of cancer before they see their 40th birthday.
It’s bullshit. And I’m going to try to do something about it. For the last several years I’ve ridden in the 24 Hours of Booty charity bike ride to raise money for cancer research and treatment. This is a great cause, one that’s touched me personally more times than I care to think about – from my friends that are survivors (Yay Roz & Lou & Lydia!) to my friends, relatives and acquaintances that are gone (Blair, Caroline, Breana, Joe, Ed, Debbie, Mr. C, Laura and more than I care to name). 24 Hours of Booty is a national and local-level organization – half the money raised goes to NC cancer treatment and research organizations, and half goes to the Lance Armstrong Foundation, which regardless of whether or not you think he doped to win the Tour de France, is a great national organization dedicated to keeping more people alive.
So do me a favor – help me raise money for a cure. There are a lot of people I’ll be riding for this summer at the 24 Hours of Booty ride to fight cancer, and unfortunately now there’s another name to add to the list. But rather than whine about not having anything comforting to say, I’m going to let myself be pissed off, and we’ll test the load rating on my old road bike one more time. Screw cancer.
I’ll even throw in a few incentives for people who donate –
For a $25 donation I’ll email you a copy of any book you want in either Kindle, Nook or iPad format.
For a $50 donation I’ll mail you an autographed paperback copy (continental US only).
For a $100 donation I’ll name a character in an upcoming novel after you (or someone else of your choosing), and I’ll mail you an autographed book.
For a $500 donation I’ll send you autographed copies of all of my books, name a character after you or someone of your choosing, and buy you a nice dinner (scheduling might take a while unless you live in the Carolinas or the Atlanta area).
So go to my 24 Hours of Booty page and donate something. Cancer touches all of us, and I’m tired of it touching me. I’ve decided to smack it back. You can help.
by john | Jun 7, 2011 | Appearances, Comics, Writing
I’ll post more from HeroesCon/ConCarolinas later, once I’ve had a little more sleep and time to process. Needless to say it was a great weekend, and I even sold enough books to make back my table fee! The coolest thing that happened all weekend is at the end of this post, so you’ll have to read the whole thing to get there.
We’re not going to discuss the pile of money I spent on comics, we’re going to call it a win and be done with it.
No really, that’s what we’re doing.
Regardless, I’ve got some great stuff coming up, and I hope some of you will be close enough to come out and join me for it!
This Saturday night, downtown (uptown) Charlotte, I’ll be reading poetry and maybe a selection or two from my novels (but mostly poetry) as part of the Festivities with Collaborative Arts. They invite local artists to participate in their Charlotte Shakespeare Festival as opening acts, and then we get a chance to hawk our wares at intermission. I had a great time doing this last year for their production of Othello, and I’m excited to be asked to return. I go on at 7:15 at The Green, and I’ll have copies of all my books with me for sale.
But I’ll only have two copies of Hard Day’s Knight, because that’s all I have left after HeroesCon.
You like how I snuck that in there? Yeah, it doesn’t get any more stealthy than this.
Then next month I’m participating in a killer mega-signing at Barnes & Noble in Columbia, SC with Kalayna Price, Faith Hunter, Rachel Aaron and Misty Massey. We’re working on a cool name for the event, and I’ll get you more info as we lock down the details, but we’ll have books to sign, a badass giveaway, and a couple of panel discussions as well, so that will be super-cool.
And in September I’ve used up a year’s worth of Marriott points to pay for my hotel room at Dragon*Con in downtown Atlanta. I don’t have a table or anything that cool, because I’m still the new kid, but I’ll be there hanging out, drinking and going to panels. I’ve only ever been to one Dragon*Con, and that was in the very early ’90s, so I’m looking forward to seeing how the show has grown in almost 20 years. I also have some hopes of meeting a few of my favorite writers, like Mercedes Lackey, and getting at least a little bit of useful information out of the panels.
I don’t have much booked for the fall, need to get my ass dialed in on the writing front. I had what I think was a cool idea for a YA series the other morning, so I’ll start playing with that once I finish up Knight Moves. It’s about a kid in a world where most everyone has magic, except for her, and what happens when she finds out that she really does have a gift of her own.
So the coolest thing that happened all weekend – I went to ConCarolinas to hang out with a few friends and sit in on a couple of panels. The first panel I went to was called “The Future of the Printed Word.” Obviously something I have a vested interest in. After all the panelists had their say, I raised my hand to comment, and Faith Hunter (NY Times bestselling author of the Jane Yellowrock series – totally badass shapeshifter series) told me to introduce myself before I got to my comment. So I did, and mentioned that I had three self-published novels, and she then told the room that Hard Day’s Knight was one of the best self-published novels she’d ever read. I blushed, and was touched, and flattered, and all those things. I didn’t even know I knew how to blush anymore! But it was super-cool to get that kind of vote of confidence from someone who I count as a friend, and someone I respect a hell of a lot as a writer, too. That kind of affirmation doesn’t come along very often, and not very often in a public forum, to boot. So needless to say that was the highlight of my weekend.
by john | May 30, 2011 | Appearances, Real Life, Travel
As a matter of fact, they’re on 7th Street most days, but this weekend they’ll all be downtown at the Charlotte Convention Center! Yep, it’s one of my favorite times of the year, time for the Heroes Con! With this year, I’ll have hit almost hit the cycle with this con, having worked the con as an employee, attended as a fan, and now I’ll be there with my booth selling and signing books!
I’ve got what I think is a killer booth location, Booth AA-65, right along the front wall of the show, on the end really close to the Silent Auction area. I don’t know who my neighbors are yet, but there are some awesome folks coming to the show from all aspects of comic-dom.
From the webcomic world, Chris Flick of Capes N’ Babes will be at the show, as well as Kevin Freeman of Subculture. Those are a couple of webcomics that I subscribe to, as well as Charlotte’s own Rich Barrett, creator of Nathan Sorry. Those are all worth checking out whether you come to the con or not.
In the print world, the lovely Chrissie Zullo will be there (Cinderella), Neal Adams (Green Lantern) will be there, Jeremy Bastian (Cursed Pirate Girl) will be there (and seriously, if you haven’t checked out CPG, what kind of nerd are you? Every year I go to the Heroes Con and give myself permission to be a total fanboy geek over one and only one artist or writer. Last year it was Bill Willingham, and I got lucky enough to get him to sign my Fables hardcover with no one in line. This year I’m so totally stoked at the chance to meet Terry Moore that it’s not even funny.
You don’t know Terry Moore? Jebus, how are we even friends? Go buy every trade paperback edition of Strangers in Paradise that you can find, because it is teh hawesome! Seriously, shut up. I know they’re expensive, but they’re that damn good. SiP is so good I bought the omnibus edition. Which is pretty much too big and heavy to actually read, but it’s still awesome! And his new stuff, Echo, is also awesome.
I’ll have all my books there, and a drawing to win a chance to name a bad guy in Book 3 of Black Knight Chronicles (don’t sweat it if you can’t make it to Charlotte, you’ll get a chance, too!). And thanks to the fine folks at Square, as long as I can get cell service (always iffy in the bowels of the Charlotte Convention Center), I’ll be able to take cash, Visa, Mastercard, Discover and American Express!
I hope I see you there!
