And so it begins....

2014 is underway, and I must say it has definitely not started slow. Tonight I just finished up another session of working on the broadcast team at Keeneland for the big thoroughbred auctions held there. As I've always said, it tends to be quite surreal being in the middle of the kind of money that goes flying about from all over the world at these auctions. This one isn't as big as the September/November auctions, which generate several hundred million dollars in sales each, but it still generated over $41 million in just 4 days.

In the midst of this, I still have a full workload on the press front, including the Star Chamber Show, Imaginarium business, book releases, planning for new blog tours, and that's not even getting to my own projects and writing. Needless to say, I'm usually pretty whomped by the ends of these kinds of runs, but it is made all the better by the great team that works there. (Keeneland has won the International Simulcast Award six times, and now three times in a row).

 The week started with zero degree weather, to the point that I had to hold my frozen car door shut on my drive into Keeneland, but ended with things moving above 30, which felt like summer in contrast.

 I plan on getting a little rest tonight, and am ready to have a very busy home office day for Friday. Going to be a lot happening in the course of the next few weeks!

Kentucky Book Fair

Off to the Kentucky Book Fair in Frankfort, Kentucky tomorrow. 200+ authors and 5,000 plus attendees, this is regarded as one of the 20 best book events on the lists of many industry folks. This will be my third year, and I am really stoked about coming back again.

I will have 3 more titles with me than I had last year, with Dream of Legends, The Seventh Throne, and the Dreams of Steam II: Brass and Bolts anthology.

I was honored to receive one of the 12 live reading slots, and have decided to read from the latest Harvey/Solomon story from Dreams of Steam II. Will be a celebration of Harvey/Harry, and I think I can get through it okay.

I want everyone to know I've been hard at work, writing daily. Polishing and tweaking the third Fires in Eden book, and working on polishing or finishing out some short stories for an exciting new series coming up via Seventh Star Press. Readers of the two book series are about to get much more to explore in the two worlds, and horror fans will have something new to check out as well. I will have details very soon.

My schedule has been very tough, as I've been working with Keeneland Broadcast for the massive auctions and the October racing meet. The past several days have been at the November sales, which brought in over 167 million dollars the first week alone. Going very well, but it means that I get up early to do a writing session, tackle my Keeneland responsibilities, use every spare moment I get during the day and then at night to attend all business responsibilities, keep up with all emails and messages, and then try to squeeze in a little more writing at night. Pretty intensive, and I'm looking forward to the end of the sales on November 17th just to get a little breathing room, LOL.

Get ready for a very active finish to the year! And if you are in the area, come out tomorrow to the Kentucky Book Fair at the Convention Center on Mero St. in Frankfort Ky. 9-4:30 are the hours, and except for the 2-3pm window I have for my reading I will be at my booth. Come by and say hi! :)

Horses, a New Harvey and Solomon Tale, and Other Adventures

It has definitely been a busy week, as I'm doing my work as one of the two directors for the broadcasts of the thoroughbred sales at Keeneland here in Lexington. It is a big money event, as in the first week we crossed the $165 million mark in sales, after 20 million in sales yesterday. Definitely a surreal environment, to say the least. Not exactly a crowd that is feeling the pinch of the economic mess going on right now!

Things have been going well on the writing front. Knee-deep in the new Fires in Eden Book,and working on some special short stories that we will have an announcement about very soon.

I finally got my hands on the new Dreams of Steam II: Bolts and Brass, which has the new Harvey and Solomon story. Obviously, with Harry's recent passing (for those of you who don't know, Harry is the basis for the Harvey cat character in these stories), there is a bittersweet aspect, but there is also something elating and enduring as well.

Pulling up into the driveway on Friday, I saw that one of the cats that used to come around and talk with Harry through the front windows was lounging where the UPS box had been set down. I get lots of UPS boxes, and I haven't seen them at the boxes before, so this was both unusual and intriguing. It was almost like Harry's friend was watching over that box until I got home, because I found out later that the UPS truck had arrived not long before.

It was a little emotional opening up the box and holding the new book, but I am so relieved to have this specific story and book, as these stories are a real tribute to Harry. I am going to come out swinging with a big Harvey and Solomon story in 2012, even though I know it will be a very hard process to write it on an emotional level.

I'll be anchored here in Lexington over the next week, but the week following I will be heading out to ARCHON in St. Louis, an excellent convention that is returning to the site it was at in 2009. I hope to visit and spend time with a number of my author friends like Elizabeth Donald, Jimmy Gillentine, Jon Klement, and Georgia Jones, who just got picked up by Blackwyrm Publishing.

Keep an eye on the SSP Blog too, as I'm doing some posts there about the publishing business (and there are some great new regular contributors with the SSP Blog, such as Rodney Carlstrom, Frank Hall, and Ren Garcia.) The addy is
http://seventhstarpress.blogspot.com

DemiCon and a Brand New Interview at Up Around the Corner

To say things have been busy is an understatement. As many know, I am an active part of the public relations outreaches for Seventh Star Press, working with C.C. and the others who help in this area. This month involved the launch of Jackie Gamber's Redheart, the first YA fantasy novel for SSP. As most of you probably know, YA, or Young Adult, literature is huge. The outreach took a herculean effort to reach out to the great number of potential reviewers and sites with possible media opportunities for Jackie.

All of that was piled on top of doing full time hours for the broadcast team at Keeneland, working hard every morning on the third book of the Rising Dawn Saga, and duties as the programming director for the Writers Track at Duckon and the Literary Track at Fandom Fest.

Has been a little crazy, the average night of sleep was around 4 hours, and I apologize for being sporadic lately on the blog. Thankfully, Monster Energy keeps me rollin'! :)

I will be hitting the road hard again starting this weekend at DemiCon in Des Moines, Iowa. The four week run at Keeneland wraps up this week and I am heading out for my second visit to DemiCon. This Con was superb to me when my mother went into the hospital with an emergency health matter last spring and I had to cancel with only a few days notice. They invited me back, and we're first class and understanding about my situation. I just love this crew for how cool they've been. A couple of them, Mandi and Rachelle, even got together a large number of SCA clothes to lend to the production of Swordbearer!

I am looking forward to seeing two very special author friends, Lettie Prell and Shirley Damsgaard. Lettie hosted me on my trip west to Beaverdale Books for a signing later in the summer last year, and Shirley has been a very dear friend, and a person that I consider a mentor in many ways. Shirley's just a great lady, and she's got some big things on the horizon. It will be a lot of fun to see both of them!

There will be a screening of Swordbearer on Saturday, and I will be doing some panels and a booth this weekend. Can't wait to get back into the DemiCon groove. if you are in the area, and can make it, I recommend this Con a lot. Very enjoyable and run by some really first rate individuals. www.demicon.org is the address.

I also wanted to post a link to a brand new interview that went up today at Up Around the Corner. It is a really nice interview, with a good overview of my work and some excellent questions, given to me by fantasy author Terry Ervin. If you do check it out, please leave a comment to let Terry know that you stopped by!

here's the link: http://uparoundthecorner.blogspot.com/2011/04/interview-with-sffantasy-author-stephen.html

Don't forget to keep passing the word out that the Seventh Star Press eBook sale (Try Seventh Star Press for Two Dollars) is still going! Just $1.99 for Crown of Vengeance and The Exodus Gate (as well as Jackie Gamber's Redheart and Steven Shrewsbury's Thrall), and $2.99 for The Storm Guardians and Dream of Legends. And that's for all formats...Kindle, Nook, iPad, and Sony.

here's the link to the sale:
http://seventhstarpress.com/documents/ebooks.html

That's all for now, but i will check in shortly with some DemiCon posts!

SantaBoy Weekend Production!

Had a good week, which included a very wonderful trip to Franklin Kentucky, to the campus there for Bowling Green Technical College where I was invited to give an independent film seminar by Dr. Sandra Wales. The students there gave a warm welcome and we had a great two hour discussion with lots of questions asked. We ran the gamut from the screenplay to distribution, and about everything in between. I will be uploading a pic from this visit when I get some time early next week. I hope to have some of the students gain some experience as production assistants when we shoot "Swordbearer" around mid-August.

As of today, I just wrapped up the dates at Keeneland for the live racing meet. Had a very good experience once again with the Keeneland broadcast gang, but then again, they are all so very good and work so well as a team. This is why they have won two straight international simulcast awards for best simulcast production, leading into this year.

Though I always miss many of the people at Keeneland, I am rarin' to go for the SantaBoy shoot this weekend. Some of you may know a little about this project from my earlier posts, but this is a short comedy from writer/director Scott Sullivan, who just got accepted into UCLA's MFA in Screenwriting Program. Not easy to do that! And Scott's last film, Bottle Rockets, did wonderfully at a slew of film fests.

I am going to be wearing a few different hats this weekend. I've served as a producer, and will be donning an A.D. hat and even an actor's hat this weekend. I'll hold the surprise for the role I'm doing until later, but everyone who knows me will get a kick out of it for sure.

We have a small team working on this one, but it is a great one, in my estimation. I tapped the Cineline Productions guys again, and Matt Perry and Sven Granlund are heading down to anchor the production side. I tapped Aaron Champion to DP it. Aaron is meticulous and extremely talented, and I can't wait to see what Scott thinks of his work when this is all done. Adam Miles, who works with me at Keeneland, is also another production guy I'm very confident in who is heading down with me in the morning. A few more will be meeting us there, and all in all it will be a small production team, but it is going to be one that works very well together and produces results. In indie film, that's what counts.

You will see all of them returning again when we do the David Blalock "Swordbearer" short film in August (based from David's Ascendant novel). Things are moving on that front as well, as the gears are in motion and "recruiting" is underway involving the cast. I'll leave you with three words as a hint... MMA ;) More to come on this shortly.

When I get back I will be sure to report how the weekend went!

time to get to narrative filmmaking!

Big crowds at Keeneland, and more book and movie notes!

Work is the key word for the week. Crowds have been enormous down at Keeneland, including nearly 34,000 yesterday. The crew has been doing a great job, and while there are always small glitches here and there, things have been running smoothly overall. Had a 40-1 horse win the Blue Grass Stakes, which is a big pre-Derby event. I liked that, as I'm partial to the underdog!

Don't worry, I've been working hard on book and movie stuff too! ;)

This week I will be meeting with Amanda regarding the final touches on the new installment in the Rising Dawn Saga. We have a title selected and anchored down, which will be announced very soon. Matt is well underway on the illustrations and cover art, and I hope to have some reports on that very shortly as well.

And speaking of Amanda, there's going to be a new anthology announcement at Seventh Star Press soon, which also has its title decided and anchored down.

On the movie front, we have a production meeting for Santa Boy, the new short comedy from award-winning director/writer Scott Sullivan. We go into production at the end of April, with Aaron Champion as the cinematographer, and the Cineline Production camp in full force on the production side. I know it's going to look good, and there's a real positive vibe in the air around this one as Scott recently got accepted into the UCLA MFA in Screenwriting program.

The next 2 t-shirts will also be unveiled probably next week, bringing the total to 4 designs, 2 from each novel (The Exodus Gate and Crown of Vengeance). I hope to have some individuals modeling them very shortly.

I did have one fun excursion last week, going to see my friend, actor David Haney, do stand-up comedy at the very respected Comedy Off Broadway venue here in Lexington. David had a great debut and I'm hoping that he'll be encouraged to move forward. (and I was honored to have him wear one of the new t-shirts during his routine!)

That's about it for now...time to get back to work!

Progress towards the horizon....

Has been quite a work week...

on the literary front, I am working hard on the final polishes of the 2nd Book in the Rising Dawn Saga. I think readers are going to be very happy with how this builds and expands on the events and characters in The Exodus Gate. I can assure everyone that this book explodes with action, and the plot deepens, with all of the things regarding the Convergence, and what is transpiring in the Middle Lands. Some of these things are foreshadowed towards the end of The Exodus Gate, so readers might already have some ideas about what's coming, but I feel strongly that they are in for a wild ride in this one!

The third and fourth t-shirt designs, featuring Erishkegal and Kur from The Exodus Gate and Aethelstan from Crown of Vengeance, will arrive soon. I may also have an individual or two modeling them shortly, which I am happy about, as they will be exhibited properly for all of you to see. They are just 10 bucks, so I hope a few readers consider picking them up to show off some of Matt's illustrations from the book!

As small press author, I have to "cover my spread" working in freelance broadcast and video. One of the jobs I do is at Keeneland here in Lexington, one of the best horse racing tracks in the nation and one of the elite centers in the world for thoroughbred sales. It really is an amazing place, when I step back and look at it. Further, I work with a fantastic group (we've won two national simulcast awards, two years in a row), and we kicked off things wonderfully yesterday as a spring opening record of nearly 25,000 attended day one of the spring meet.

I run a broadcast graphics system that puts out all the graphics over the live video, which entails all the horse information, odds, tags, and other information regarding the races. It is run with a customized software system that interfaces with an Avid DekoCast. Live television is always an adventure, with all of the unexpected occuring (weather, cameras or other equipment malfunctioning, computer glitches, etc.) but it is definitely a good experience, and one that I hope to make use of in a creative capacity at some point in the future.

For the next three weeks, i'll be holding down the fort, while writing away, and then in May we'll launch another flurry of road treks!

Horses, Books, and Libraries

I am in the midst of working on the broadcast team in the Keeneland September horse sales, which consists of watching literally hundreds of horses go around a ring and millions of dollars getting spent daily. Kind of surreal, to say the least, but as a small press author, there are necessities to attend to, especially if I want to maintain the convention and bookstore schedule that I have been keeping.

I do get some rays of light, though. Archon in St. Louis is next weekend, the new medieval fantasy book is getting the final art touches, and all is set for a release the first week of November.

I also got a chance to be a guest at the Joseph-Beth Booksellers Sci-Fi/Fantasy Club last night, and really enjoyed meeting with the group. I was honored to be a selection, and really appreciated those who took the time to read the book. A sci-fi/fantasy readers club is going to have a diverse range of tastes, as the genre is not a monolith, so I was pleased that there were a few that really liked the book, and even the ones that didn't find it to their taste felt that it was a quality book in terms of structure, writing, etc.

As a small press author, there are some things that are probably more exciting to me than they would be to an author on a major press, and one of these things occurred last night when I looked up to see library tags on two of the books at the meeting. I found out that there are 4 branches in Lexington's library system that have The Exodus Gate, and that there are actually people waiting to get the copies checked out by the people from the reader's group. That was really cool, as I was unaware that the libraries in Lexington had gotten some copies.

Now off to horse-world...as a filmmaker it kills me to watch many a horse sold after horse sold, thinking that the money spent on just one horse would fund a theatrical-grade production value feature film. Sigh!

;)