Fandom Fest lands John Carpenter, and a few other cool updates!

It has been a busy week, as I've been immersed in work on the 3rd Rising Dawn Saga Book, working on the broadcast team for the January Thoroughbred auctions at Keeneland, and continuing with the million and one activities involved in the efforts to raise awareness of Seventh Star Press titles, not just mine but also Steven L. Shrewsbury's new book Thrall. And... Fandom Fest landed John Carpenter...but more on that later.

Dream of Legends has been arriving with reviewers, and the first major Dream of Legends event looms on Friday, January 21st, at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Lexington at 7pm. I am looking forward very much to next Friday, as we will have a full night of fun and activities for everyone coming out to visit and celebrate the new book release. New exclusive print, door prizes, possibly some Swordbearer footage, an after-party at a restaurant next door, and more. Definitely going to be a full night.

As far as Steven Shrewsbury's Thrall goes, we got some very welcome news in that he got not just one, or two, but three excellent reviews, the very first three to be published in fact. I have a TON of faith in Steven and his writing, so I'm not surprised, but it is really good to see the reception that this book is getting. The folks that got limited edition packages have been sending in a torrent of extremely positive feedback on the contents of the packages (as others have for Dream of Legends), which is really cool as I know how hard it is, and how much sacrifice has been involved, to bring out these kinds of premium packages for prices that are a fraction of what's charged for other offerings that don't include the wide array of content that these do.

I've gotten up a couple of nice new author spotlights on the SSP blog too, such as one with David J. Guyton, another with Scott Sandridge, and a third one looming with steampunk star Nick Valentino. Some very cool visits with some interesting insights on the state of the publishing world today.

Things are moving full steam on Swordbearer. We are planning to do test screenings the first week of February in Memphis and Arkansas, with screenings later that month in Chattanooga and Roanoke (ConNooga and Mysticon, respectively).

I will definitely be keeping everyone posted on that for sure.

Fandom Fest landed a MAJOR guest this week, when it was announced on DragonTalk Radio that film legend John Carpenter is confirmed for the July event in Louisville. This follows the recent announcement of Henry Winkler's attendance, so the event is certainly rocketing out of the gate in 2011. I have been making great progress with the Literary Track, and we are at a little over than 60 participating panelists on what is going to be an extensive, very multi-faceted track! Be sure to visit www.fandomfest.com and get ready for an incredible summer convention event.

Pic of the 2010 Pluto Award

I was asked by the kind folks behind the Pluto Award to take a pic with the award. I complied, of course, and thanks to my sister, who has a good eye for pics, I ended up with one that I could live with! lol

Anyhow, here's a pic of me with the 2010 Pluto Award!



Things have hit the ground running already in 2011. Progress is being made daily on the post-production of Swordbearer, great progress is being made on the 3rd RDS book, progress is being made on the 2 Cons that I'm doing programming for (FandomFest and Duckon), and much more. I'm getting good at keeping lists, needless to say!

Have some cool new blogs coming up at the Seventh Star Press Blogspot, where I do periodic reviews, interviews, etc. of other authors and publishers. The last two were with Dave Mattingly of Blackwyrm Publishing and the unrivaled Elizabeth Donald, author extraordinaire, though this post largely focused on her visionary Literary Underworld project. Upcoming authors include Dave Guyton, a very cool guy who has an incredible book trailer that has almost 50,000 hits for one of his novels, Scott Sandridge, who may hold the record for number of panels participated on at a Con, and Nick Valentino, a rising star in the world of steampunk.

Stay tuned for some cool announcements from SSP too, involving a new anthology, a novel release on the horizon from Jackie Gamber, AND a whole new wing of SSP involving eBooks... ;)

I am also going to do a blogpost shortly regarding ways that readers can help raise awareness for authors that they like...not just my readers, but for readers of any author in general, as I do get questions about things like that from time to time and have some insights on that.