by john | Feb 27, 2011 | Real Life, Travel, Writing
Last night Suzy and I went to see Hayseed Dixie at the Neighborhood Theatre, and the boys were rockin’, as always. We had decided to blow it off, but at the last minute, an actress from the show Suzy’s working on (The Princess Bride for Citzens of the Universe) called us to see if we were still going, and since I’d managed a long nap in the afternoon, I said “fuggit, let’s roll.” So I threw on my cowboy boots, my Cross Canadian Ragweed (RIP to one of my fave Okie bands) and we headed out to drink cheap beer and yell WHOOOOO at a bunch of bluegrassed-up hard rock covers.
If you’ve not ever seen Hayseed Dixie live before, I’ll pause while you cruise on over to YouTube and check out the madness.
You back? Okay, good. Well, the Hayseed Dixie boys were all that we expected them to be, but the surprise of the night for me was the opener, a little band from Charleston called Sol Driven Train. These guys were awesome! They were kinda like what you’d get out of a love child of OAR and Little Feat, plenty of hot percussion, cool horns and just generally fun, bouncy boogie. I bought both their CDs before we left and am looking forward to rocking out to them as I drive south tomorrow afternoon.
Yep, headed back to the ATL after being down there all week last week. I’ll be at our open house for the new office Tuesday, then the Southeastern Theatre Conference Wednesday through Saturday, heading home on Sunday morning. Or early afternoon at least. I’ll try to update the blog at least a couple times through the week, because I do have some awesome books I want to spotlight, and I’ll have a guest post on Nyx Book Reviews at some point this week. Celine over there is giving Hard Day’s Knight a review, and she’s letting me do a spot on character development as well.
Got the proof in for the print edition of Back in Black, and wasn’t exactly thrilled with it. There were some hefty pagination and header/footer issues, but I think I have those all resolved and have ordered a new proof. Hopefully that can get going quickly and I can get hard copies in hand before the Charlotte ComiCon on the 20th, but if not I’ll have plenty of copies of Hard Day’s Knight and The Chosen with me. The ebook of Back in Black is moving a few copies, but it hasn’t been the meteoric rise that I’d hoped. So get off your collective asses and go buy a book! 🙂
As we wrap up February it looks to have been a decent month, with almost 90 total books sold. That’s going to be my best month sales-wise to date, although not as strong monetarily because of the price drop on Hard Day’s Knight. But with things moving steadily along, maybe next month I break 100 units delivered! Still not quit my job money, but almost enough to buy a tank of gas at today’s prices!
by john | Feb 13, 2011 | Real Life, Travel, Writing
On account of I’m le tired.
Almost done with the second proof of Back in Black (and Blue), and the more I type it, the less I’m nuts about the title. So do you guys have any suggestions? The criteria are – must reference a rock song and must use the word Black or Knight in the title. Leave me a comment if you have a better title for a snarky-funny vampire book that fits those criteria.
Georgia Thespian Festival was fun, I got to meet some nice folks and get an idea of the scope of the educational theatre scene in the state. I was blown away by the fact that over 3,000 people registered. That’s a whole bunch of little actor-kids. With that many actor children in one place, there were certainly a whole lot of show tunes abused over the course of the weekend. Think of it as twenty episodes of Glee running all over a convention center and a hotel, all at the same time. And I’m the token straight boy in the middle of it.
And in two weeks I get to do it again.
SETC is one of my favorite shows that I attend each year, because I got my job through the conference. This is the 17th conference I’ve been to in a row, going all the way back to 1994 in Savannah. I’ll be teaching three workshops at this year’s conference, or at least leading three panels. One is on Things I Wish I’d Learned in College, focusing on the important life lessons we learn AFTER we get out of school. Another is on how to take care of a lighting system and what to do when it breaks, and a third is a new products seminar for lighting equipment, where all the vendors get to show off their wares. It’ll be a lot of fun, and I’ll be in the bar every night networking.
Yeah, that’s what we call it. Networking.
Sunday Spotlight is probably moving to Mondays, because I get more readers during the week anyway, so I’ll try to be back tomorrow with a little more focus.
by john | Feb 9, 2011 | Real Life, Writing
Hell if I know! This is one of those weeks where it gets to be hard to remember what town (or state) I’m in on any given evening, and you really get confused because the hotel room last night had the bathroom in the other direction and now you just peed on the air conditioner at 3:30 in the morning, and trust me that is NOT something you want to explain to the front desk at checkout.
Theoretically speaking, of course.
Sunday I flew to Wisconsin for some work training, and got home Tuesday night a little after midnight. It’s now Wednesday and I’m in Atlanta, because I thought driving for 4 1/2 hours today was about all I was good for, rather than the 6+ it would have taken me to get all the way to Columbus, GA, which is where I’ll be heading tomorrow for the rest of the week. Then I get home Saturday night (or Sunday late morning) and we go to take my parents out for their collective birthdays (Mom today, Dad Saturday). I also have some additional work travel next week, but that’s all day trip stuff, nothing overnight.
And then there’s a Charlotte Writers’ Club meeting next week, with novelist Heather Newton, and then off to RoundCon next weekend! Hopefully the folks there will be able to look up from their d20s long enough to buy a few books. If you’re in Columbia, stop by and say hello!
Just got the site update to the Charlotte ComiCon site, which now lists me as an official guest, and I’m very excited about that. I used to buy comics from Dave when I was in college, so now that I can be a guest at his show, that’s pretty cool. He runs a very nice little show with some amazing deals on comics, so check out their site and stop by on March 20th if you’re around Charlotte.
Alright, I’m off. Just a quick post tonight before I get to proofing Back in Black (and Blue). Gotta get that rolling for the March release date!
by john | Jan 28, 2011 | Real Life
Every generation has one or more of those “Where were you when…?” moments. For my parents there were many – the bomb in Japan, V-E day, V-J Day, Kennedy’s assassination. Those are the same ones for most of my peers’ grandparents, but my folks are older than most. It’s one of those things that people go to when they’ve had that one drink too many and gotten maudlin, or when a song comes on the radio that reminds them of the day, or something.
My generation went a long way without having one. I was born in 1973, and the onslaught of the modern televised news broadcast number a lot of that “where were you when” feeling. It wasn’t enough to just have something happen – it had to be BIG. I was too young to really remember the Iran hostage crisis, but I do remember the yellow ribbons. I was only four when Elvis died, and only seven when John Lennon was shot, so those didn’t have much impact. Until a bunch of assholes flew airplanes into buildings ten years ago, I had only ever had one “Where were you?” moment.
I was in seventh grade, and it was January. It was cold, and it was after lunch, so I was in the middle school auditorium playing Dungeons & Dragons with Billy D. and Bradley. There might have been someone else, too, but I’m sure those two were there. I’m fairly certain that at some point one of the popular girls turned around in her seat in the row ahead of us and called us nerds, which stung, but was unavoidably true. So we were rolling up characters, or rolling attacks, or just generally goofing around, when the intercom box on the wall squawked to life.
The Challenger, the space shuttle carrying seven souls, exploded 73 seconds after liftoff from Florida, killing all aboard. Among the crew was Christa McAuliffe, a teacher selected as part of a national competition. This was to be the first in a series of educators in space, a program that ended with McAuliffe’s death.
I remember the shock, the dismay that I felt. Our country had failed at something. It was a big deal to me, the first time I had known the USA to not be the biggest and best. My twelve-year-old mind didn’t quite comprehend everything that was happening. I had missed Vietnam, and Watergate, and was just beginning to understand the impact those events had on our national consciousness. This was the first time I had seen our country reach for the stars and miss. Shuttle launches were ordinary by 1986, so commonplace that while the TV in the library was on and tuned to the event, it was no longer mandatory viewing for every schoolkid. But then it went wrong, and my perceptions of the world changed.
I don’t remember much about the Reagan presidency, but that night he was the President we needed. Just like George W. Bush, who I have blasted on these pages on more than one occasion, was exactly the President we needed in the days after 9/11. Reagan’s words from that night’s speech, quoted from John Gillespie Magee Jr.’s poem High Flight, were perfect.
Today, 25 years later, I still remember.
“We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and ‘slipped the surly bonds of Earth’ to ‘touch the face of God.'”
by john | Jan 26, 2011 | Comics, Real Life, Travel, Writing
On the Southern front. I’m in Atlanta for work this week, and I’m still kinda floating around doing not much of anything writing-wise. I’ll be kicking it into gear tonight on my short story, pretty sure I know where it’s going. I think I’m going to let Greg be the lead in this story, because he’s always the sidekick and never the superhero. I might be a little skewed because I just got finished reading the comic series Countdown to Infinite Crisis, which puts Jimmy Olsen in a leading role for a change. But you know, you see a good idea and you steal it, right?
I got chapters 1 & 2 back from my proofreader, but haven’t even opened the file yet. When I finish a project, I just want to avoid even thinking about it for a few days, you know what I mean? I’m planning cons and booking exhibitor tables at book shows, and that’s getting a little spendy, but I really think it will be of benefit in the long run. I think my outlay for the year will be about a grand in table fees, and that’s without Dragon*Con, which looks like it’s going to have to wait until I’m a big enough deal to be an invited guest. I’ll probably attend and drink, but I can’t float the $1,100 for an exhibitor table there.
Here’s my current schedule of cons and appearances for the year (as it stands in January).
February 18-20 – RoundCon – Columbia, SC
March 20 – Charlotte ComiCon – Crowne Plaza Hotel, Charlotte
April 14 – Sensoria Literary Festival – Charlotte, NC
May 14-15 – SC Book Festival – Columbia, SC
June 3-5 – Heroes Con – Charlotte Convention Center
September 3-5 – Decatur Book Festival – Decatur, GA
October 14-16 – NY Comic Con – Javits Center, NY NY
And I might try to do the NC Comicon again this year, and if things go well, the VA Comicon as well. That keeps me pretty busy, especially with all the work conferences I’m committed to. Those look like this so far –
Feb 6-8 – Rigging Training – Madison, WI (Yes, I’ll be at Quaker Steak and Lube in Madison watching the Super Bowl, should be entertaining!)
Feb 10-12 – Georgia Thespian Festival – Columbus, GA
Mar 3-6 – Southeastern Theatre Conference – Atlanta, GA
Mar 9-11 – US Institute of Theatre Technology – Charlotte, NC
April 9-13 – National Association of Broadcasters – Las Vegas, NV
And let’s not forget things like –
Merlefest – April 28-30 – North Wilkesboro, NC
Rent – May 1-12 – Theatre Charlotte, Charlotte NC
24 Hours of Booty – July 29-30
World Series of Poker – June 16-20 – Las Vegas, NV
So I’m not home much this year, apparently, but that’s nothing new. That’s why I have a laptop and not a desktop computer. Put three more books in the mix for the year, and it should be a pretty busy twelve months, ya think?
by john | Jan 12, 2011 | Real Life, Writing
I forget how often I’m supposed to check in on this thing, but I’m writing the hell out of Back in Black (and Blue), the sequel to Hard Day’s Knight. I pounded out a little over 10,000 words this weekend, and got another 4-6,000 words between Monday and Tuesday, to put me past the 35,000 word mark. I’m pretty happy with where the book is going, and I’m thinking now that it will probably top out at around 60,000 words, or roughly the same length as The Chosen and Hard Day’s Knight. I like that, because that’s where the stories feel right to me. I could certainly go back and put in more filler, flesh out some descriptions, but I’m no Tolkien, so don’t look for that in my work.
Since I didn’t go to West Virginia this past weekend, I’ll probably head out Friday and go hole up in the mountains and write. Depending on what I get done this weekend, the potential for me to finish up the first draft by Sunday night is pretty real. Then I’ll go back through it at least a couple of times and then send it off to a couple of beta readers for review.
Book sales are slow but steady, I’m averaging better than a book a day, which is an improvement. I uploaded two new books last weeks, Red Dirt Boy and The Christmas Lights. RDB is a poetry collection, and I’ve gotten one sale out of that. The Christmas Lights is a holiday short story, and I don’t expect to see much movement there until next winter. I also cleaned up and re-uploaded Returning the Favor, my first collection of poetry and short stories. Scrivener is turning out to be a really great tool, and my trial period is expiring soon, so I’ll have to bite the bullet and pay for it.
We’ve been digging out of the Snowmageddon down here, which makes my friends in the North poke more fun at the Southerners. But it’s not the snow that’s the issue, it’s the ice that fell after six inches of snow that has made travel tough. I’ll drive through snow all day long, as proven by my presence at the office Monday, but when the ice starts to fall, my ass is staying home. Then this morning I used a CD cash and a plastic putty knife to try and scrape my truck’s windshield, because I don’t own an ice scraper. I live in North Carolina for a reason, and the fact that I only have to do this crap once a year is a big part of that!
