In the Midst of a Convention Run, Author's Fair This Saturday!

The convention season is underway, amid a veritable maelstrom of activity on the press side at Seventh Star Press.  We've got a slew of new releases and a big ongoing promotion campaign that entails ads with such notable publications like Locus Magazine and Fangoria. (not to mention our presence on sites like Book Chick City, Bitten by Books, and Night Owl Reviews).

All of that has certainly kept things very busy, not to mention the preparations you have to do for conventions, with stocking things for a vendor booth, etc.

John Hartness, me, Bobby Nash, Jim Butcher, Cherie Priest,
David Coe, & Anthony Taylor at ConNooga 2014

Time always moves so quick during one of these months.  ConNooga 2014 was a definite winner.  Robby Hilliard succeeded again with his Writers Track, as it was the best one yet.  I had some personal highlights in that I got to be panels with Jim Butcher and Cherie Priest, two of the best in the speculative fiction world.

Of course, these kinds of weekends move so fast, between running the booth and everything else involved in a convention weekend.  The surroundings are always full of eye-catching moments, and you never know who will stroll by the booth in costume.  But as an author guest, you really have to be "on" the entire time, and those who know what I mean will also understand what I mean when I say that can take a lot out of you over the course of a weekend.

A Mandalorian at our booth
at ConNooga 2014

This weekend I will be heading to Author's Fair in Madison, Indiana, which is held in front of That Book Place, the store run by Frank and Kim Hall, two of the nicest individuals in the indie book world.  They definitely take care of authors, and there will be a very nice group assembling for the event.  You should check out the full list of attendees.  This is the fourth year that Frank has held the event, and it is really a great environment for readers and authors to connect and visit together. If you are within and hour or two, it is most certainly worth the drive.

Coming up right after that is MidSouthCon in Memphis, TN, and EvilleCon, in Evansville Indiana, two pretty large events back to back.  So I'm definitely going to have to make sure I'm stocked up on Monster Energy! Looking forward to seeing readers and my friends in the author/publishing world.  Doing my best to take another step each day, as hard as it can be.

But I'll leave things today with a great photo of D.A. Adams, my fellow SSP author and good friend, as we managed to find some Dwarves from The Hobbit running around ConNooga.  Considering D.A.'s series is The Brotherhood of Dwarves, this is a perfect fit!

My ConNooga Schedule This Weekend...

Just a small update regarding the upcoming weekend at ConNooga.

I'll have a booth in the exhibition hall (where you will also be able to find D.A. Adams).

As far as my panel activities, here is my schedule on the literary track with the rooms the panels will be found in.

Friday: 7pm Authors and Editors Meet and Greet (with attendees) (Finley Lecture Hall)

Saturday: 1pm The Writing Life: What it Takes (Crystal Room)

Saturday: 4pm Indie Publishing 101 (Crystal Room)

Sunday: 10AM Writing Screenplays and Adapting Stories to them. (Crystal Room)



Looking forward to seeing many wonderful friends this weekend, and especially my reader-friends, as it is always great to talk with you in person. Should be a cool weekend hanging out with fellow SSP author D.A. Adams (The Brotherhood of Dwarves Series). And a shout out to Robby Hilliard, the literary track director at ConNooga. He's put together a great program and that's not an easy thing to do!

ConNooga and a Great New Dream of Legends Review

Getting ready for ConNooga this weekend, and will definitely be giving some reports here. I'm going to be teaming up with fellow SSP author D.A. Adams who will be at my booth with his three new Brotherhood of Dwarves series books. Looking forward to Robby Hilliard's literary track there. It is a very solid one and has many great participants.

If you are in range of Chattanooga this weekend and aren't coming already, you should think about coming on out. The site is www.connooga.com


Also, I just got a wonderful new review in of Dream of Legends just now, over at Watch Play Read. Here's an excerpt that blew me away and the link to the full review:

"In true epic fantasy fashion, Zimmer has created a gigantic world full of crazy races of beings, gigantic battles (especially in the war for Saxony) and a cast of characters that you find yourself getting attached to. His writing style is highly descriptive to such a degree that on numerous accounts of reading before bed I found myself having vivid dreams from pages I had just read. I’ve said it numerous times, and I’ll say it again, Stephen Zimmer is a top tier author that is within reach of breaking out. If you’re a fan of Tolkien and R.R. Martin, you’ll find the world of Ave and the Fires in Eden series right up your alley."
http://watchplayread.com/dream-of-legends-book-review/

Midway through ConNooga!

I'm about middle of the way through ConNooga, and things are going well so far. Definitely no lack of interesting things going on here.

Got to see Dave Mattingly of Blackwyrm Publishing in a Mini-me costume, which was a big hit at the Costume Contest. Got serenaded by Andy Deane of Bella Morte (After he led an entire legion of his fans down the aisle right up to my exhibit booth...I am not kidding about this. There will probably be some pics posted on this one! LOL). David Blalock has made a surprise visit to the Con. Even stranger, Sean Taylor, Jason Crowe, D.A. Adams, and Sam Flegal all showed up with the same kind of collared, buttoned, red shirts today. Apparently I didn't get the memo that it was red-shirt day.

The panels have been really good. Robby Hilliard's put together a very nice literary track, and we've definitely had full discussions going on every panel I've been on. Been great to share panels with the likes of Mike D'Ambrosio, Dan Jolley, Allan Gilbreath, Kimberly Richardson, Sean Taylor, Shane Berryhill, and all the great folks on the literary track.

Got one more day to go. We're doing a Swordbearer screening tomorrow at 11am, and then I have 2 more panels, and it will be time to head back to Lexington. Will need to get ready for Mysticon in Roanoke VA next week!

;)