Archive for category Travel

I promise I’m not dead, just retired

Mar 31

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

Well, for a week or two the jury was kinda out. But here’s a brief recap of what’s been going on since I’ve been out gallivanting around and doing a piss-poor job of telling anyone where I am or if I’m alive.

I went to the Southeastern Theatre Conference in Chattanooga for the 19th consecutive year. It was pretty apropos that I essentially ended my career with Barbizon at this conference, since it was at this conference in Norfolk, Virginia in 1995 where I first heard of Barbizon and met anyone from there. A year later in Louisville, KY I was working in the Barbizon booth!

Some of my best friends in the world were there, and my buddy T-Bone bought what amounted to a bottle of Patron to do a round of shots on Friday night. If you ever stay in Chattanooga for anything, I highly recommend the Chattanoogan. The rooms are lovely, and Alan the cocktail server was amazing. Which reminds me, I need to send him a book for taking such good care of us all weekend. We ended up with twenty people outside by the fire pit on Friday night because it was a lovely night and the band sucked. That marked another first for me – we helped get the house band fired because they were absolutely dreadful. The above pic if just a few folks that were part of the toast, but I wanted to commemorate them here. Thanks to Jeremy K for the pic.

Then I came home and turned up with bronchitis. This happens to me once a year or so ever since I caught pneumonia a few years back. My lungs are a little sensitive, and if I try to go too long without reasonable rest (like doing StellarCon then working a week and doing SETC right behind it), I get sick. This was a doozy, too. I ended up flat on my back for a solid week, and barely recovered for the following week. I was sick enough that it was Wednesday of MidSouth Con before I was 100% sure I was going to Memphis. I watched a lot of Supernatural, broke down and went to the doctor, got some antibiotics that kinda worked, got some hydrocodone-laced cough syrup that certainly made me feel better, then went to see John Hiatt and Lyle Lovett in concert.

Or at least most of John Hiatt and Lyle Lovett in concert. I’d paid a lot of money for those tickets, and there was no way I was staying home, but I only lasted about 2/3 of the show before it got too warm in the theatre and my cough came back with a vengeance. But they were still amazing, and I highly recommend their acoustic set to anyone, especially if you can see them in a converted church that still has the antique Tiffany stained glass windows. But I might be a little spoiled seeing as many shows at Spirit Square as I have. For those of you that have read Back in Black, yes, Spirit Square is a real place, and it’s one of my favorite concert venues ever. If you’re in Charlotte for anything, I highly recommend seeing a show there.

Then I went back to bed for most of a week. Then I tried to get moving again, because I still had a couple days’ worth of my notice to work out, an office to clean, and another con to attend. But more on that later. Now I’m up, I’m healthy (ish) and it’s time to get some writing done!

World Book Day Giveaway winners!

Mar 5

Posted by john in Promos/Giveaways, Travel | No Comments

Rafflecopter makes running blog giveaways ridiculously easy by integrating a random number generator into the plugin, allowing me to pick the winners super quickly and easily. So that’s what I’ve done – I’ve picked the winners, easily.

First Prize – Alex Aguilar

Second Prize – Sam Kamens

Third Prize – Sandee Barry

Congrats to the winners and thanks to everyone who entered! Don’t forget to enter the March is for Monsters giveaway where you can win a Kindle Fire!

I’ll have a StellarCon report coming before too long, then I’m off to Chattanooga for SETC for the rest of the week.

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!

 

Illogicon

Jan 14

Posted by john in Travel | No Comments

There will almost certainly be a blog post that comes out of this one, and it is highly likely that it will be called “Drinking Jolly Ranchers with Space Jesus.” My weekend started off with getting to my room too late at night on Day 1 of the con to pick up my badge, noticing that the door to the room across from mine was open, and realizing that meant I was NOT getting to sleep early. That’s something to understand about cons – if a door’s just standing open to a room, it means there’s a party going on in there. And that means it’s pretty fair game to just wander in. Especially if your room is directly across the hall. So that’s just what I did – I wandered in and found myself in Davey Beauchamp’s whirlwind of fun and Jolly Rancher-infused vodka for the next three hours. I love con folk.

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?

Home again

Dec 7

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

And home for a while, this time. I got back from Vegas a few dollars lighter, but with some great times and great memories, as always. A bunch of my friends ran the marathon, and I went down to cheer them on. I drank a little, but less than on most trips. I lost some cash, but less than on a lot of trips. I spent a lot of time with Suzy just chilling out, and that was cool, especially since we coupled this trip with our 16th wedding anniversary. So for an anniversary gift I got her a pedicure and foot massage at the hotel spa, which she loved.

December’s looking like a good writing month – I’ve got a couple of short stories I want to work on, plus a couple of novels that I think I can make significant progress on if I focus. I don’t have much out of town travel planned, so I should have little or no trouble getting dialed in to those projects. In Atlanta next week, then home the rest of the month, and I’m taking the week between Christmas and New Year’s off to write, so that gives me plenty of time.

And play Skyrim, which is awesome! Definitely game of the year material. I knew a little better what I was getting into with this game than I did with Morrowind, so I’m having a lot more fun this time around. Still low level right now, but I can definitely see at least a hundred hours of gameplay in this one. I’ll catch up with you guys a little more thoroughly later, but for now it’s time for some lunch.

It’s coming…

Nov 30

Posted by john in Poker, Real Life, Travel, Vegas | 3 Comments

Picture 078If you know where this picture comes from, then you’re either a degenerate gambler or you’ve done waaaayyyyy too many drugs. Or both. In any case, you might recognize the Chihuly sculpture that lives in the lobby of the Bellagio. Or maybe not. But if you’re looking for me for most of the next week, I’ll be closer to that sculpture than I will to any of my normal haunts. I’m heading to Vegas for my annual pilgrimage to the city of sin to hang with some of my best friends that I don’t see nearly often enough.

I started making this trek in December of 2005, and haven’t missed a year. Next year looks a little cloudy because of my impending self-employed status, but something tells me all the poop will miraculously form into a group at the right time and I’ll be there anyway. In those six years we’ve all laughed, cried, drank, overindulged, gambled and won, gambled and lost, married, divorced, lost and found loved ones and generally lived life, gotten older, not a damn bit wiser, and richer for the friendships we’ve made. This is a special group of people I’m privileged to be part of, and this weekend is just like Merlefest for me, only completely different. It’s going home. Only a different home.

Where Merlefest is a chill weekend punctuated by great music and great friends, this blogger gathering in Las Vegas is a frenetic maelstrom of drunken hijinks, crazy prop bets, gambling on anything that moves (or doesn’t) and great meals punctuated by the magical quiet moments among the storm where you connect with someone you don’t really know, but know you should. It’s less about the poker for me nowadays, and a lot more about hanging with my friends. And I can’t wait.

If you’re anywhere near Vegas, this would be the weekend to come out and hang. I’ll be at the Sherwood Forest Bar in the Excalibur tomorrow night starting around 8-9PM. Friday I’ll be at The Pub at Monte Carlo in the late afternoon/early evening drinking and munching with buds. Then Friday night we move to the Aria poker room for mixed game goodness. Saturday we have a private tournament at noon, then I’m wide open after that. Hopefully I’ll run a little better than I did last year, but I’m not holding my breath :) . My poker is teh rusty. No real plans so far for Sunday, but I’ll be betting on some football and watching some games. Sunday night I have a bunch of friends running a half marathon, so I’ll be at the finish line cheering them on. Then Monday we come home, and Tuesday I detox. So you kids behave while I’m gone, and maybe I’ll even hook you up with a scheduled post or two.

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.

Is it Christmas?

Aug 31

Posted by john in Travel | No Comments

Or just feel like the night before? I’m so ridiculously excited about going to Dragon*Con tomorrow that it’s like a kid at Christmas. This is kind of a big deal for me, and I don’t really get wound up about much anymore. Not that I’m all that blase by nature, but anymore I really have been there and done that. I mean, in my work life I’ve worked for some of the biggest names in entertainment and seen their foibles. I know that big rock stars put their pants on one leg at a time. I’ve done the comic con stuff and seen the biggest creators in the world, and it’s really not a big deal.

But what is a big deal is that now I feel almost like I belong there with these folks. I’m not a guest, or even a participating artist, but I’m still a peer to these folks. We all sit down in front of a keyboard in our underpants and try to spin magic out of thin air. Okay, I usually wear pants when I write, but anyway, you get my point. I really feel like a new chapter in my life is opening up right f’n now, and this is kinda the beginning of it. Yeah, I’m a little more than a year into this writer’s journey thing, but this is my first BIG con. So I’m excited, and anxious, and nervous, probably more like a kid going to his first day of high school than a kid at Christmas.

The last time I was this excited about going anywhere was right before I headed down to Greenville for Brad-o-ween, way back in 2005. Six years and a couple weeks ago I walked up on Brad’s lawn and met some folks who have gone on to become my best friends in the world, even if I do see some of them only once a year. From that grew trips to Vegas, legendary benders involving drinking beer from buckets, and bonds that are stronger than any of us would have dreamed of back then. If this weekend goes half as well, it will be a remarkable success. I do have a little bit of an edge going to Dragon that I didn’t have going to Brad-o-ween – I actually already know a few people that will be in Atlanta this weekend. And Suzy will be with me, which makes any trip better.

And I’m guaranteed a parking spot at the Marriott, ’cause I’m Platinum. That’s right, I’m a Marriott Elite, bitches. That’s how I roll. I live the glamorous life, spending at least three months out of every year sleeping in hotels. But at least I get a parking spot, even if my cats don’t recognize me. I’ll be posting updates throughout the weekend on Twitter, so you can follow me (@johnhartness) there if you’re interested in me geeking out over shaking Stan Lee’s hand or something like that.

 

Return to Eden update

Aug 29

Posted by john in Travel, Writing | No Comments

So this weekend I got off my ass and got back to work. This time the project was Return to Eden, the apocalyptic YA fantasy novel I’ve been working on for what seems like forever. I figured out what some of the problems were with the book, and started to address them. One of the key issues was too many characters – I had something like nine principal characters in the thing, and no way to focus on any one of them! Since I always thought the book’s protagonist was the one teenage girl, I went through the first seven chapters or so this weekend and chopped out a bunch of characters. So now instead of five kids running from their high school together, there are three. And instead of them picking up five more people through the first half of the book, they’ll pick up three. And a couple of those will be really secondary, so I can focus the narrative more on Christin and her feelings about the situations they find themselves in.

I’m no Martin or Jordan, so cutting a bunch of characters lets me focus more on the lean type of storytelling that I prefer. And since I really want to get into this girl’s head (albeit from third person), trimming extraneous people from the team will be good for that as well. I realized once I finished the first draft that I didn’t have a novel, I had the first year of an X-Men comic, and that wasn’t what I was going for. This time. I’ll be spending the rest of the month working on rewrites for this book, hopefully finishing it up by October 1. I’ve got a bunch of description to add into the book as well as a bunch more people to cut, so it’s going to keep me pretty busy.
Sales are continuing to go up and up. I think the combination of new covers and a new Black Knight novel are working together to really drive things. August is my best month ever for sales, and everyone on KindleBoards says that August is the worst month of the year. That makes me hopeful for the rest of the year, which I’m loving since I won’t have any new releases until the end of the year at the earliest.

I’m heading to Dragon Con on Thursday, so if you’re in the area, look me up. You know how to find me, and if not, look on Twitter or Facebook.