Monday, March 30, 2009

IMM Screening and Exodus Gate Contest!

A couple of nice updates. First of all, please note that we will be screening The Sirens along with Murderer as part of the Indie Movie Masters screening and DVD release party. It takes place Thursday, April 9th at the Kentucky Theater on main street in Lexington, beginning at 7:30 pm. Great venue, and we will be showing trailers and music video from other indie filmmakers.



Secondly, I have a new contest running for The Exodus Gate. Win a signed copy! Just visit my website at www.stephenzimmer.com and look at the instructions on the home page, under news for March 30, 2009. Very easy! Just put up a web banner and you are entered for a chance at the book with alot of goodies or a couple runner up packages.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Shadows Light hits cable video on demand services

Just got word that my indie feature film, the modern fantasy Shadows Light which was released last fall on DVD, is going to hit a number of cable services in the USA and Canada. It will be available in services such as On Demand, and will usually be found on the channels featuring indie films. It kick's off on April 1st.

If your cable provider is any of the following, then you will be able to get Shadows Light on demand.

Armstrong, Bend, Broadband, Blue Ridge, Cameron Communications, Charter Cable, Cincinnati Bell, Clear Lake, Click Community Television, Echostar, Guadalupe Valley, HTC Conway, INS Des Moines, Massillon, MUS Fiber, OneSource, RCN, Rogers Communications (Canada), San Bruno Municiple Cable, Verizon, Wave

I've already gotten reports that trailers are being run already.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

MidSouthCon 27 -First-Class Experience

What can I say? Other than that the MidSouthCon 27 staff, organizers, and event itself are simply first rate.

I just got back in from Memphis, and the trip reinforced why I like Tennesee so much. Everyone was extremely hospitable, from the staff members that checked me in to the Ops room to the individuals such as Dan Gamber that were involved in the panels and programming itself.

At a convention like this, there is so much to choose from. As a guest, I had two panels that I was scheduled on (Film and Editing, and another on Paranormal, Supernatural, and the New Gothika). I also was given a reading and an hour slot in the professional's row for signing The Exodus Gate.

Beyond my scheduled items, I tried to attend as many panels and workshops as I could, and there were indeed some fantastic ones.

Jeff VanderMeer and Matt Staggs had a workshop called Explore Your Book Life which centered around a new book they have coming out called Booklife: Strategies and Survival Tips for 21st Century Writers. With backgrounds in publishing, writing, and publicity, Jeff and Matt were the perfect duo as they delved into the things involved in developing a sustainable writing career. They covered a wide range of elements, from time management, to new media tools, and much more. This workshop had something for everyone from beginning writers, to newly published ones (like myself) and well-established writers.

Another fantastic panel was Folk Dance in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Dee Birnbaum, who is a world-traveling dance expert with a tremendous expertise in Middle Eastern cultures and dancing, was joined by Kirk Stevens (this guy is a renaissance guy if I ever met one. Conducted a very intruiging creativity panel that I had to miss due to schedule conflicts) and Sara M. Harvey (who is also a very talented writer and costume designer). They discussed the use of dance in science fiction and fantasy, and approaches for fictional settings. As someone who is not, to put it mildly, very skilled at dancing, I found this panel very informative and accessible.

My panels were really enjoyable. On the film panel I was joined by the great Luke Ski, a very outgoing and entertaining music and parody performer. Guest of Honor John Hudgens, creator of many Star Wars parody films, was on hand, following his screening of his new DVD documentary release American Scary (check out www.americanscary.com ). Paul Robinson, a producer and editor of numerous tv productions and a former Rolling Stone contributor, and Tim Brown, of Inked Monkey Productions (who are doing the online adult puppet show Them F#@%ing Puppets)rounded it out.

For the Paranormal/Supernatural/Gothika panel, I was joined by Angelia Sparrow, who writes GLBT romance/speculative fiction (you won't often see werewolves and vampires like hers in the mainstream too often!), Rickey Mallory, a very established Romance and speculative fiction writer, and Ruth A. Souther, author of Immortal Journey: The Death of Innocence. It made very a very interesting and diverse discussing of supernatural elements and trends in current fiction, filtering a little over into the movie/television side of things.

It was wonderful to see some faces I'd known before, such as Tyree Campbell of Sams Dot Publishing, Bill Snodgrass of Double-Edged Publishing, and writers such as Elizabeth Donald and the aforementioned Sara M. Harvey. Also got to visit for a few minutes with the legendary Glen Cook (of the Black Company series), one of fantasy's best writers ever. (and I also had the opportunity to attend some panels that had C.J. Cherryh on them. Wow!)

Among the bright new faces that I met were Dan and Jackie Gamber of Meadowhawk Press (I can't wait to dive into Jackie's new book Redheart), Windsong Levitch (Fascinating individual with a very courageous personal story), Kirk Stevens (who I harassed often throughout the weekend), publicist Matt Staggs, and many other wonderful individuals. I sat next to Haley Elizabeth Garwood during my signing hour and had a great visit with her, and got to meet author H. David Blalock as well.

The event itself was run very smoothly, with excellent organization, generous hospitality, and a very good layout for the size of it. The Con Suite was always stocked with Red Bull, Bawls soft drinks, and loads of food, the program was easy to follow, the staff were always polite, and the programming featured excellent topics and outstanding guests. Evidently, this was the first year that they had MidSouthCon at this facility, and I found it to be a very good and efficient location.

Yes, this is a rather long blog posting, but I wanted to give props to the MidSouthCon and the wonderful folks I got to meet and hang out with last weekend!

I now have lots of good new books to read (yes, I went over my intended budget!)

Thursday, March 19, 2009

New Reviews, MidSouth Con 27, and More!

Hey everyone, I'm off to Memphis to visit MidSouthCon 27. I am very excited to be back down in Tennesee, and based on what I've heard about MidSouthCon I am confident that it will be a great experience. I will be fairly busy down there, with 2 panel appearances, a signing, and a reading (Reading is on Friday at 5 pm in the Redwood Room Panels are on Saturday's schedule with a 3 pm signing window).

Right at the cusp of leaving, I found out that our first Exodus Gate review was posted by Yellow30 Sci-Fi. They have posted it on their main site at www.yellow30scifi.com, their two blog sites, as well as under our Amazon.com listing. Here are direct links to the two blog sites. Check it out when you get a chance.

http://www.yellow30scifi.wordpress.com/2009/03/18/exodus-gate/

http://www.yellow30scifithereview.blogspot.com/2009/03/exodus-gate.html

...and that wasn't all! on the movie side of things, we got a nice review of Indie Movie Masters Presents Festival of Horrors Vol 1 DVD (which has my short film The Sirens on it) over at Cinegeek.com It is a review that not only covered the films, but also really caught the concept of the series itself. Here is the link:

http://www.cinegeek.com/?p=769#more-769

I will definitely be giving a full report on MidSouthCon and the trek when I get back.

Lots of updates about The Exodus Gate shortly. One tidbit is that the Kindle Version is now up and available on Amazon.com!

Monday, March 16, 2009

Off to MidSouthCon!

The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind. The Exodus Gate is finally available, and starting to pop up at sites like Amazon.com. I have a number of new things on the appearance schedule, over at stephenzimmer.com This includes a couple of events on the homefront, and appearance at Joseph Beth Booksellers in Lexington on April 17 from 7-9, and a screening of my short film The Sirens as part of an Indie Movie Masters DVD party at the Kentucky Theater April 9th at 7:30 pm.

I love the Kentucky theater, and I am really looking forward to being back there, as this will be my first local screening since the Shadows Light premiere a ways back. I am especially ecstatic about the Joseph Beth night, as this will be my first appearance there as an author, and this has been my favorite bookstore ever since I was a kid buying books at the first (and much smaller) incarnation of Joseph Beth when they first opened up at Lexington Green. I hope those in the area can drop by and say hi sometime between 7 and 9, as this is a special evening for sure.

This week will be an adventure as well. Heading down to Memphis for the MidSouthCon. I heard a ton of good things about this Convention when I attended Hypericon in Nashville last year (Hypericon is a wonderful event, by the way). I will be on a film-related panel, a book related panel, a signing for The Exodus Gate, and possibly a reading for The Exodus Gate.

On the way down and back I will be visiting with some Barnes and Noble stores, and look forward to meeting many new people, as well as catching up with some of my favorite friends such as the unrivaled Lackeys in Nashville TN. (Stephen and Suzie are, without a doubt, two of the nicest folks you will ever encounter in the worlds of independent film/books/etc. They did an exceptional documentary on SciFi/Fantasy conventions called Fans and Freaks, by the way).

I will be sure to give a full report on MidSouthCon when I get back.

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