by john | Sep 3, 2013 | Uncategorized
I dunno how many of these parts I’ll actually get done, but hell, it’s still better than I’ve done posting here in months, so let’s accept the baby steps, okay?
We got down to Atlanta about 6PM on Thursday, since I’d told the wife that I wanted to be rolling out of Charlotte around 10 or 11AM.
Yep, I know it only takes 4 hours to get from Charlotte to Atlanta.
Nope, we didn’t get rolling by 11AM.
No, it didn’t matter in the end.
Because loading into the AmericasMart was a clusterfuck! Of colossal proportions. I dunno what type of trade shows that place typically hosts, but it was not in any way prepared for the number of vendors that were trying to get into the doors for DragonCon. We parked on the street, offloaded onto the sidewalk, and walked our stuff in once they told us that the wait for a spot at the loading dock was 5 hours.
At 6PM.
You do the math. Once we got to the booth, everything went fairly smoothly. Our location was good, except for the huge column blocking a couple of feet of our booth from the aisle, but it was still a good location. And I sold an amazing number of books (although not as many as David B. Coe) over the weekend.
I also did a bunch of panels, including a Men of Urban Fantasy panel with David, Kevin J. Anderson, Jim Butcher, Jonathan Maberry, James Tuck and S.M.Stirling. That one was awesome, and I was seated between Maberry and Butcher, so I got to thank Jim Butcher for all his influence and inspiration. Later on I fanboyed out and gave him a copy of the Black Knight Omnibus. Probably unprofessional, but fuggit. I also got a chance to sit on a Pulp panel with Tuck, Bobby Nash, John Ringo, Van Allen Plexico and D. Alan Lewis.
Those experiences solidified for me that being on panels at cons is pretty damn instrumental in selling books. David and I both had people coming into the booth all weekend saying that they saw us on that panel and wanted to pick up our books because of it. It makes me even more convinced that just attending cons and sitting behind a table is kinda pointless, it’s getting in front of people that makes them want to read your work. And that’s what we’re all working towards- getting people to read our work!
Next up for me – Atomacon, a first-year convention in Charleston, SC. This one isn’t until November, so hopefully I’ll have enough time to get some work done on a few other projects, including a new Bubba story and finishing up this dragon story I’ve been cooking on.
by john | Jun 18, 2013 | Uncategorized
Here’s a little taste from the next Bubba the Monster Hunter story. Currently untitled.
“Skeeter,” I said in my best “be calm so you don’t cuss out your best friend in front of the entire kitchen staff of the hotel” voice. “Do we know anything new about the L-E-P-R-E-. . . The thing we’re after?” My attempt to spell out leprechaun ended in miserable failure when I realized I couldn’t spell “leprechaun.”
“There was another attack last night. And underground poker game just outside of town. I’ll send the address to your phone.”
“Okay, I’ll head out there as soon as I finish breakfast.”
“You mean you ain’t finished? Damn, Bubba, even hobbits only eat two breakfasts Save something for lunch.” I flipped off the air and pressed the button to hang up the phone, then headed back upstairs to shower and get dressed to face the day. Somewhere in Greenville, SC there was an Irish mythical creature killing people and raiding poker games. I needed to find it, and kill it. And maybe stick around for more grits tomorrow morning.
by john | Jun 6, 2013 | Uncategorized
Come see me this weekend at HeroesCon 2013! I’ll be in booth AA-2017, near the concession stands and the restrooms. Yep, I get the best tables in restaurants, too. Nah, that’s just what I get for registering late. But near the loo is actually a pretty good place to be at an exhibit hall. And I’ve got some new product to share with folks, including The Big Bad: An Anthology of Evil, just released from Dark Oak Press. This horror anthology features 30 stories where the only restriction on the subject matter was – the protagonist must be a “bad guy.” So we’ve got werewolves, vampires, zombies, wizards, dragons and plain old humans. It’s also available on ebook for only $2.99 and trade paperback and hardcover wherever books are sold.
by john | Jan 18, 2013 | Uncategorized
I’ve been pretty buried this week, and I’ll be almost totally radio silence next week, so don’t lose hope, I’m still alive, just working my ass off trying to pay the bills.
But first – big news for Black Knight Chronicles fans – Book 4 has been delivered! To my publisher, that is. But the fact is that the long wait is almost over, we’re getting ready to start edits on it, and I really hope to have it delivered to folks this summer. In my dream world, I’d have print copies for ConCarolinas in June, but I haven’t even started that conversation with my publisher yet, and it depends on how much work the book needs before it gets to you fine folks. But the first draft (that they’ve seen, about the third draft for me) is in the hands of the fine folks at Bell Bridge Books, so we’re moving forward!
I’m still writing Bubba stuff, and there will be a Bubba story this month, but it will be the last week of January, because I’ve been covered up and see no end to that in the near future. Which is good, but it does slow down some of my output.
The editing thing is starting to take off. I’m currently full for the next four weeks, so if you have a manuscript you’d like me to work on with you, understand that I won’t touch it until Mid-February. I only work on one book at a time, so that slows me down a little, but it gives my undivided attention to each project, so I think it’s a fair trade.
Next week I’m not writing or editing, I’m playing lighting designer again. I’m working on two shows at the same time – Seasons for a local dance company and Next to Normal for a small theatre company here in town. If you’re around, come check them out. Both shows are pretty innovative in their own way, and Next to Normal features some amazing actors. I watched rehearsal last night and was blown away. So I’ll be living in the dark all next week, except for my post on Magical Words, which honestly, I’ll probably write this weekend and schedule it so that I don’t forget.
So there we are, a brief update, but an update nonetheless. And yes, Paint it Black will happen sometime this year, I promise!
by john | Dec 17, 2012 | Uncategorized
And this time, I don’t mean the Jonathan Swift type of modest proposal. I actually mean that I have an idea for gun control in the US. If you’re of the opinion that no one should have guns, or that everyone should be able to have any type of gun they want for whatever reason, then don’t bother reading this, because you’re just going to think that I’m an idiot, and there are already enough people with valid reasons to think I’m an idiot, so we don’t need any more.
Let me start by saying that what happened in Connecticut was terrible, and it’s just the latest in a string of terrible things, and there should be something we can do as a society to make terrible things stop happening. And I’ll also be brutally honest and tell you that I’ve wondered a lot since Friday what part, infinitesimal as it may be, that I play in continuing the problem. You see, I worry about my characters. It may not seem like it, but I do. I worry that when people read about Bubba shooting it out with a monster in a parking lot and spraying lead around like it’s candy at a Christmas parade, that I’m doing nothing more than glorifying guns and the “shoot ’em all, let God sort ’em out” philosophy. I’m fairly certain that my sales are small enough not to have any grand influence on society as a whole, but I am concerned that in some small way, I may be part of the problem.
And as such, it’s incumbent on me to be part of the solution as well. I jokingly said to someone on Friday that we have to do something. I said “I mean, I don’t want anyone to take away my guns, but we need to do something about these assholes shooting kids.” I meant it. I own two guns – a Ruger 10-22 .22 rifle, and a 12-guage shotgun. I don’t own a handgun, but probably will at some point. I enjoy shooting. I’m pretty good at it, and it’s a skill that I enjoy exercising. I don’t hunt, because I don’t like getting up early and don’t need to hunt to survive. Plus I don’t really like getting messy, and there’s a lot of mess involved in field-dressing things.
But my point is that I am a gun owner. Neither of my guns are registered, because in North Carolina you don’t have to register long guns. I’ve never taken a class in gun safety, because I don’t have to. I received no instruction when I bought either gun, because no one had to provide it to me. And I bought both guns completely legally, one in a gun shop in Georgia, and one at a gun show in Charlotte. And if I wanted to, I could go to Walmart today and buy as many rifles and shotguns as my credit cards and cash would allow.
I would like to see some of those things change. And here is my proposal to put in place some gun controls in the US – treat them like cars.
There are about 250 million cars in the United States. There are about 270 million guns. There are about 311 million people. Cars and guns are very similar in number – statistically, almost every person in the country owns one. Obviously, that’s not true, since studies show that most people that own one gun, own multiples. Like me. I guess it’s like tattoos. I mean, how many people do you know with one tattoo? I have four. Yes, if you ask nicely, I’ll show you all of them. The only one that’s inconvenient is the one on the back of my leg, and it’s on a calf, so it’s still pretty easy to whip out.
But back to my point. In the US, if you own a car, it’s registered. If you are operating a car, you pass a basic operating exam. And you renew the registration every year, and you renew the operator’s license every few years. And if you’re operating a car, you carry liability insurance against the chance that you do something foolish and injure someone.
Now, let’s replace the word “car” with the word “gun.” There’s nothing about car ownership in the Constitution, because there weren’t cars when the document was written. But I’ve never heard anyone say that they felt there were governmental barriers to car ownership. I don’t see how this proposal for gun control really infringes on people’s ability to own a gun. You can still buy a dozen guns if you like, you just have to pay to have each one registered. Not a ton of money, but a percentage of the value of the firearm. Maybe 5%. Maybe 1%. Whatever, that’s math.
There should be some way to grandfather in existing gun owners so they wouldn’t have to register each gun they already own, but they would have to have a license to operate the guns they already own. And we’d have to pass an operator’s test. What happens if you flunk the test? I dunno, maybe your guns are confiscated for 30 days, until you re-take the test and pass. There are a lot of things to still be worked out, but even I, as an owner of multiple guns, think it’s too easy to get a gun right now.
I’m not going to bother with assault weapons, because most of the worst shootings aren’t done with assault weapons, but restricting magazine size to ten rounds is fine with me. Because if you can’t bring down anything you’re shooting at with ten rounds, you’ve got either bigger issues with your aim, or you’ve brought the wrong weapon to the boar-hunt.
So that’s my modest proposal. I expect a lot of people will hate it, but if you hate it, take a second and really think about it – if you’re a law-abiding gun owner (and several of my close friends are), what’s the real issue here? I’m not saying you can’t own whatever you want, I’m just saying that once every certain time period, you have to prove you’re competent to own a gun.
And don’t give me this BS about criminals will break whatever gun laws are put in place. I know that. But the people who have recently gone batshit and shot up schools and malls and movie theatres were otherwise law-abiding citizens who might have been stopped by a few barriers to entry to gun ownership.
Yes, you have the right to keep and bear arms. But you do not have the right to endanger others. The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are considered inalienable and self-evident, and the document those rights are called out in is older than the AMENDMENT that gun ownership is guaranteed in. I love the Bill of Rights, and I love my guns, but I’m willing to jump through a few governmental hoops if it keeps one person alive that would have been killed by a gun in the wrong hands.
by john | Dec 13, 2012 | Uncategorized
So in my ongoing efforts to avoid getting a day job, I’m going to start offering more services to other writers here on this blog. There is a huge gap missing in the independent writing scene, and that’s developmental editing. This is the hardest type of editing, the kind that makes writers willing to give up the vast majority of their revenue to New York publishers. This is the kind of editing that every writer needs, and very few places offer.
So I’m offering it. Call it book doctoring, call it developmental editing, call it comprehensive story development, whatever. Here’s the long and the short of it. I offer the following editorial services, all quoted on a per-project basis built on an hourly rate and how long I think the job will take.
Developmental Editing – multiple passes to get the story right. This isn’t a line edit, or a copy edit, and it certainly isn’t a good proofread for grammar. This is taking the book apart and putting it back together. This might include killing off a character that’s not working, reworking point of view, adding or removing fights, nothing is off limits. This is going to be expensive, and time-consuming, and I can only do a few books each month.
Line & Copy Editing – This is where we make sure that the book is written well. We go through and make sure character names are consistent, that weapons tech is correct, that people are the same height throughout the book, that the sentences make sense and we know who is talking and who they’re talking about. This is a lot easier than developmental editing, and I can do a couple of these each week.
Proofreading – This is the grammar edit. We’ll go through the manuscript twice to make sure that everything is spelled right, the commas are in the right places, and that the place names are correct.
Formatting & Ebook Conversion – I can do this, too, and quite inexpensively. I can format for Barnes & Noble, Amazon and Kobo. I can job it out for Smashwords. I can also format your book for print.
I don’t do cover design. You can look at my Bubba covers and see the truth in that statement. That said, if you like the Bubba covers and would like something in that vein, let me know.
If you’re interested in any of these services, contact me at johnhartness AT gmail DOT com.
