by john | Mar 28, 2011 | Comics, Travel, Writing
I had bronchitis and was sick as a dog, but I made it down to the Crown Plaza hotel and hung out for the day with some cool peeps like the guy who got stuck being my neighbor, Bobby Nash. Bobby’s a comic writer among many other things, and he was gracious enough to snap the picture below and email it over. Check out his stuff and give him some love, he’s a great guy!
I sold a couple of books, but of course spent more than I made, thanks largely to finding the Sandman Dream Hunters hardcover, as well as the second and third collected editions of Echo by Terry Moore. If you’re not familiar with Terry Moore, then get on over to his website and snatch up as many copies of Strangers in Paradise as you can! SiP was one of those groundbreaking comics for me, in that it was a story of normal people (mostly) with normal loves, lusts, hates and issues (mostly). Okay, some of the issues were a little exaggerated, but it was a phenomenal comic, and I have the Omnibus edition sitting on my shelf at home. It has to sit on the shelf. I tried to read it on my lap once and my legs fell asleep for three days. The move towards Omnibus editions still leaves a little to be desired. But I digress. Anyway, Terry’s now writing and drawing Echo, and I’m way hooked. I’m not going to give away any of the story, but you should buy it.
But I had a good time, also chatted for a few minutes with the lovely Chrissie Zullo, who has done the covers for the Fables spinoff/limited series/whatever Cinderella. She’s cute as a button and incredibly talented, a real up-and-coming artist from right here in Charlotte! I think I heard she was moving to NYC, but she did mention she’ll be at the Heroes Con in June, along with Terry Moore and yours truly! I bought a small press table for the weekend and will be pushing books on unsuspecting comic book geeks June 3-5. This means that I won’t get to be at ConCarolinas, which would have been fun, but I think my profitability potential is greater at Heroes, so that’s where I’ll be this year at least. I’ve also submitted my applications to Dragon Con and the NY Comic Con, so that might book a lot of my travel for the fall. I dunno how those will shake out, but if Dragon doesn’t take me (they get a lot of movie and TV star types, as well as a ton of authors, so I’m only moderately hopeful on that front) I’ll probably grab a tent at the Decatur book festival, which is the same weekend. Either way I’ll be somewhere around Atlanta for Labor Day, and hopefully in NYC mid-October.
Started work on Knight Moves, Book 3 of the Black Knight Chronicles, last week. Should be ready to go sometime in June. Hope I get it finished before Heroes, but I’m not going to rush it. This book is going to add more characters, a new recurring semi-baddy, and see the boys actually contemplate something deeper than beer and blood bags.
And this is what I look like with bronchitis at a comic book show!
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 22, 2011 | Travel, Writing
Before I get into the beginnings of my RoundCon update, I have BIG NEWS!
Back in Black is now available for purchase! If you’ve enjoyed the first volume of the Black Knight Chronicles, this one is sure to please. It’s even more ridiculous than the first adventure, with vampires, fairies, trolls and a dragon! Yes, a dragon! And for the first time ever, my vampires sparkle!
Don’t worry, they get over it.
So go to Amazon and get your copy now. If you don’t have a Kindle, go to Smashwords and get your copy for other formats. And if for some reason you haven’t picked up Hard Day’s Knight yet, get off your ass! It’s only a buck!
Now – RoundCon –
Back at the day job after a fun weekend at RoundCon 25 in Columbia, SC. It was nice to sit on panels all weekend with “real” writers and pretend to be one of them/us/whatever. I met some great folks, sold almost enough books to cover my food tab, and generally had a great time, so I’ll try to share my impressions of all that briefly here.
First – the people. Sean organized a very fun Con, even if there was a lot of competition for people on that particular weekend. He’s working on that for next year, though, and I think he and his team have a great event going. This was the first year they’d ever had a Creative Track, which consisted of half a dozen panels with myself and the other writers at the con. We had small audiences, but they were very appreciative and having the same couple of faces in all the panels throughout the day really did give us as writers the chance to bond with our readers a little, which was great. Listening to the other folks on the panel, they saw it as a welcome change to other cons they’d done, where the rooms were so packed they couldn’t really get a sense of the audience, and didn’t often have that chance to make a personal connection. For me, it was fun to be on a panel and not have to be the expert. Like I mentioned in one of our discussions, in my day job I’m one of a very small number of people in the world who do what I do. So if I’m on a panel, I’m an expert. It’s just how it goes. But here I was able to sit back and soak in a bunch of knowledge from the ladies I was on panels with.
Yeah, ladies. I was the only guy writer there, which I loved, because what’s better than being surrounded by a bunch of saucy, sexy writer chicks? And these girl are good at their craft, lemme tell you. I’ve already finished one of the books I bought this weekend, and I’ll be picking up the rest of the series as budget allows. Here’s a rundown on my co-panelists –
Faith Hunter – The official bio goes like this – Faith Hunter, fantasy writer, was born in Louisiana and raised all over the south. Her Rogue Mage novels, a dark, urban fantasy series-Bloodring, Seraphs, and Host-feature Thorn St. Croix, a stone mage in a post-apocalyptic, alternate reality, urban fantasy world. These novels are the basis for the role playing game, ROGUE MAGE. The Skinwalker series, featuring Jane Yellowrock is taking off like a rocket with Skinwalker, Blood Cross, and Mercy Blade.
Under her pen name Gwen Hunter, she writes action adventure, mysteries, and thrillers, and is tweaking a screenplay with a co-writer. As Faith and Gwen, she has 21 books in print in 26 countries.
The unofficial bit would have something to say about how charming and funny this chica really is. I had a great time getting to know her and her Renaissance Man this weekend.And seriously, get your ass over to Amazon and get her book, Skinwalker. It rocks!
Misty Massey – Misty Massey is the author of Mad Kestrel, a rollicking adventure of magic on the high seas from Tor Books. She has short stories in the recent anthologies Rum and Runestones and Dragon’s Lure. When she’s not writing, Misty studies Middle Eastern dance and is a member of the Beledi Beat dance troupe. Kestrel’s Dance, the second volume of Kestrel’s exploits, is in production, and Misty is currently working on a Weird Western novel. Misty is one of the featured writers on the Magical Words blog (magicalwords.net).
Misty was probably born in the wrong time, because I could totally see her as a pirate wench packing her own saber and pillaging the high seas with a bottle of run in hand. Oh wait, I’ve already seen her with a bottle of rum in hand!
Kalayna Price – Kalayna Price is the author of the Alex Craft Novels, a new dark urban fantasy series from Roc, and the author of the Novels of Haven from Bell Bridge Books. She draws her ideas from the world around her, her studies into ancient mythologies, and her obsession with classic folklore. Her stories contain not only the mystical elements of fantasy, but also a dash of romance, a bit of gritty horror, some humor, and a large serving of mystery. She is a member of SFWA and RWA, and an avid hula-hoop dancer who has been known light her hoop on fire. To find out more, please visit her at www.kalayna.com.
I just got started on the first Alex Craft book this morning, and am loving it so far. Her heroine is so wonderfully fallible that you can’t help but fall in love with her from the very beginning of the book. And seriously kids, when was the last time you saw a writer that was really as cute as her pictures?
Elysabeth Williams – Elysabeth Williams is the author of the paranormal/historical romance, DEVIL IN A RED KILT and the steampunk historical adventure, THE ELECTRIFYING EXPLOITS OF THE ENGLISH THREE. A retired LARPer turned avid WoW addict, Elysabeth lives and plays in the suburbs of Atlanta with her husband and two kids and two birds and two, no three cats. When she’s not writing, playing or chasing small children, Elysabeth likes coffee. Lots of coffee…oh. and sweet tarts.
I knew I was going to like her when she said one of her books was a Steampunk Charlie’s Angels. I was right, she’s a doll. Haven’t started the book yet, but if I can judge by the cover, then YUM!
So give these fantastic writers a minute of your time, and check out what I learned at RoundCon!
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 | 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 | Dec 15, 2010 | Poker, Travel, Vegas
This will be a multi-part trip report, spread out over several posts, over several days. Don’t get all impatient when I get sidetracked by – Oh look, squirrel! – and it might take me a while to get back to it, but all the stories I remember will be told eventually. Let’s start at the beginning.
My flight sucked.
Let’s be really clear, here. My flight suuuuccccckkkkkeeeedddddd. I t was crowded, hot, bouncy, and I was uncomfortable for most of the four and a half hours. It’s times like that when I’m supremely jealous of friends like Special K, who get upgraded all the time. Then I think about how much time they have to spend in airplanes to get said upgrades, and I get less jealous. So I got there, and headed to the MGM to crash for a couple of hours before I kicked it into high gear in the evening.
And kick it into high gear I did. The IP is where they’ll stick the hose if they ever give Las Vegas an enema, but for some reason we all congregate there at the Geisha Bar every year to drink like college kids. Since our visits typically coincide with the National Finals Rodeo, there are pretty good drink specials going on around town. So I end up taking extreme advantage of said drink specials, and doing myself grievous bodily harm. Last year I started a tradition, a particularly unhealthy tradition, of drinking cheap beer out of buckets until I pass the blood alcohol content of an Irishman at a Dropkick Murphys concert. So I did.
Then I made my mistake – I decided to play poker. Now I’ve played a lot of cards at the IP over the years, a lot of it with bloggers. But little if any was played when I was as obliterated as I was Thursday night. I bought in for the table minimum ($60) for the first orbit, and blew that away pretty quickly. Then I reloaded for $300, the table max, and tried to play reasonably while also trying to remain upright in my chair. Neither of these things proved easy. But I managed for a little while, and after I’d bled through around a hundred bucks, I decided to get up and join the 8PM tournament as a late entrant.
This is my new strategy for tournaments in Vegas – never play the first level of blinds. Every tourney allows registration for at least two levels after the event begins, and some allow it for up to four levels. And the only saying about not being able to win a tournament in the first level, but being able to lose it then is certainly true. As long as I can come in with a reasonable stack relative to the blinds in level two or three, I’m going to skip the first couple of levels every time. This strategy has proved solid for me a couple of times at the Venetian, and also paid off last Friday at Aria. It didn’t really help at the IP, because although I doubled up on the first hand (of which I recall zero details as I was on pitcher #4 of 7 at that point), I ran into aces with ATo at the final table and resumed my drinking.
Somehow a couple of hours later I found myself back at the IP poker room, seated at a table that included CaityCaity and some other folks that I recognized and am sure were more than happy to relieve me of my money but whom I don’t remember. Apparently at some point there were a lot of people warned and/or tossed from the poker room, but I missed all of that. I may have taken a nap or two between hands. Really, that was napping. I swear it. I left that table because I fear CaityCaity’s poker drunk or sober, and went to sit next to PokerGnome. This was not my best move, because even though I had position on him, the Gnome can also outplay me when I’m sober, much less biblically inebriated. But somehow I managed to triple up at that table, I think at the expense of the civilians to my left, because I’m a drunken out-of-position ninja. Or because I was too drunk to fold. One of those.
I did find myself playing second pair a lot stronger when drunk than I have been sober, which was something I specifically wanted to work on this trip. The playing second pair thing, not the drunk thing. The drunk thing was a given. I’ve been playing second pair like a nutless wonder, folding to obvious c-bets, but after pitcher #6, that didn’t happen. Of course, after pitcher #7, I have no idea what happened. But I did manage to cash out a small profit (if my recollection of only buying in for a hundy is correct), and staggered off to bed around 4:30 in the morning. I made it back to the MGM and did something I haven’t done since college – not puke, but I fell asleep with my contacts in, which led to all sorts of festivities on Friday morning and a huge pile of grateful to the fact that I always travel with a spare set of contacts.
End of Day 1 – down around $200 in poker, probably another $200 in food, booze and cabs.
Still to come – my annual donation in mixed games, tournament silliness, bounties galore, and Full Tilt Food!
