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Fantasy and sci-fi cons and other author events

Posted on March 1, 2019 (Subscribe to Blog)

I meant to post a couple of weeks ago to say, "Hey, if you're in Chattanooga on the weekend of February 22-24, be sure to check out the Con Nooga Multi-Fandom Convention!"

But I didn't.

So, for those who live locally, I'm sorry I never got around to letting you know that I was there doing author panels and selling my books. You might have been itching for the chance to meet me and get my autograph, and I let you down by failing to give you advance notice. (Okay, maybe you weren't itching to meet me, but...)

Anyway -- so I went to Con Nooga and did pretty well with my books. I also did eight author panels, half of which were well attended. To my pleasant surprise, the biggest audience was at 10 AM Friday morning, a panel devoted to mythical creatures and how unlikely they are. This panel came about after my discussion with fellow author Kenyon T. Henry, a friend of mine in nearby Ringgold. We got talking about the internal structure of a centaur, trying to figure out if it had one heart or two, how it could possibly function, whether it was a vegetarian or not, and so on. I find it amusing that a centaur is half-human but three-quarters horse, yet it still makes a whole. Math at its most illogical!

Con Nooga 2019 Panel

Most of the other panels were about publishing and the writing process, and those were not so well attended but still fun to do. There was a time when the idea of doing a panel -- sitting at the front with two or three other authors and talking to the audience as if we're experts -- filled me with horror. But after going to Dragon*Con for four years and attending a mixture of panels with famous and not-so-famous authors, I started to realize I might know a little about what they were saying and could possibly match their wisdom. And as it turned out, I found I could waffle on quite easily and sound halfway knowledgeable.

I had a table filled with my books, and I sold more this year than last. One particular customer bought Island of Fog and both Fractured books, which I thought was a good result... but then she came back the next morning after reading part of Island of Fog and bought Books 2-10 in that series PLUS the five books in the Island of Fog Legacies series! That's 14 books in one go. My very best sale of the day, and I'd like to say "thank you" again to Mary if she happens to be reading this. (And Mary, to our dismay, we realized you'd walked off without your $10 change, so you actually paid a little more than you were supposed to. Let me know where to send it!)

Con Nooga 2019 Books

I love Con Nooga. A great atmosphere, and a great venue, not to mention close to home. It's literally 30 minutes from my house to the convention center, and the parking is simple and under cover, a bonus since it rained the whole weekend. This was my second year, and I intend going again.

But where will I be next? Announcing...

The 2nd Annual Local Author Fest

I went to this last year as well, and it was great! Looking forward to it. This is a much simpler event, a collection of maybe 20 authors with their books on tables. Short and sweet. You can find us here:

Dalton-Whitfield County Public Library
310 Cappes Street
Dalton, GA 30720
Saturday, March 23, 2019 at 10 AM -- 12 PM

And now, introducing...

Next Chapter -- a Books and Author Convention

The friend I mentioned above, Kenyon T. Henry, decided a little while back that he'd like to start and host his own convention. And he's not only doing it, but he seems to be doing very well getting things off the ground. He has the venue booked -- The Colonnade in Ringgold, GA -- and it's scheduled for September 7 this year. It's primarily an author event with panels, but I'm sure he has a few fun things up his sleeve, and he mentioned artists as well.

I'm pleased to say I'll be creating the website, since web design is my day job and the single most meaningful contribution I can make to this worthy cause. I have a quick temporary page up for now and will be working on the site in the background and making it live sometime in April.

https://www.nextchaptercon.com

More on this event later.

From Glossy to Matte

Seeing so many authors over the Con Nooga weekend, along with their wares, made me realize how much I wanted to update my glossy book covers to matte. Seems like a silly thing to worry about, but books just look that much more professional with a matte cover. Plus, they don't curl up as much.

So, with that mind, I've already changed the Sleep Writer covers to matte, and also the cover for the first in the Island of Fog series. I now need to change all the other Fog books. There's not much to it; I just go into Amazon's publishing dashboard, select "matte," and republish. But still, there's a process of waiting for files to "prepare" and then proofing them and so on.

Anyway, this is just a heads-up to anyone halfway through the series and planning to buy the rest of the paperbacks. You have a couple of days to do so if you want matching glossy covers. Otherwise, wait for the mattes!

New Cover for Caleb's World

I got sick of looking at that old Caleb's World cover. I've hated it for a long time. Now, after coming up with new covers for the Sleep Writer Journal serial, I decided to combine two of them to produce a new one for Caleb's World. You can see it already live on Amazon here:

Caleb's World (Sleep Writer Book 3) on Amazon US (or on UK | AU | CA)

"Crazy imagination, fun to read, really good pacing, kept my sons interest right 'till the very end."
—Ken Zacharias

The boy on the front is perfect for the role of the young, magical, and terrifying Caleb.

And finally...

Three Down, About Fifteen to Go

I now have three Sleep Writer Journal ebooks online, at $0.99 each or free for Kindle Unlimited readers. Three more are on pre-order. As part of this process of serializing the Sleep Writer series, I've been re-reading the books and making a few small edits here and there. I have to say I'm thoroughly enjoying them! There are always bits and pieces that I might frown upon, which is always the way when an author looks back on previous work, but there's nothing I would change.

I've finished the first three books and am about to start reading the fourth, Warp Giants. Each book is being split into three, so by the time I get to the end of Warp Giants, I will have 12 parts of the serial completed. After that... well, that's all new material, and it's my very next project starting in March, with a goal to publish these brand new parts of the serial from July onward.

See my previous post for more information about this episodic sci-fi serial.

And that's all for now, folks. :-)



Comment by ARANTZA on Saturday, March 2, 2019...

That's so funny, I was recently working on the chapter from Lake of Spirits where Simone, Molly and the kids are talking about what a centaur's internal structure would be like. Really enjoying reading this book again, so good!!

Comment by KEITH ROBINSON on Saturday, March 2, 2019...

Ha! To be honest, I was thinking of that book, and that discussion, when I was on the panel. But I didn't remember they'd talked about the centaur.

Comment by ARANTZA on Sunday, March 3, 2019...

Oh yes! Molly talks a bit about the centaur, and also, according to Simone:

"They actually have two fairly ordinary hearts, one human and one equine, and a twin set of internal organs [...] And their human halves have no stomachs; all that kind of thing is handled by the equine half. Food literally passes right through the human torso and into the equine intestinal tract....”

Just in case you need to be on another panel, you know you can't argue with Miss Simone... :-)

Comment by KEITH ROBINSON on Sunday, March 3, 2019...

Haha! No, can't argue with her. :-)

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