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.

Time for Marcon, onward to Columbus!

Looking very much forward to Marcon in Columbus. The Multiple Alternative Realities Convention is a big one, and I am going to be exhibiting, doing a reading and a few panels there. Will be sharing table space with the wonderful author TammyJo Eckhart, as well as Travis Clemmons. Great bunch to be around and work with, I can say for certain.

The outgoing and never-dull Scott Sandridge will be one of the authors doing a reading in the time slot that mine falls in, and I can't wait to see what he's got cooked up. I'm reading an advance copy of one of his new books right now, and really digging it! Scott is probably on 25 panels, as he about set a record at the last ConText (seriously, he was on 6 panel slots in a row during one stretch, and had around 10 panels in all). Scott's very creative and certainly unpredictable.

Others that I'm aware of who are attending include Shane Moore, of the Abyss Walker world. Shane's another guy that I look forward to catching up with, having met him for the first time at ConNooga in Chattanooga TN this past February. He's got a great thing going with his Abyss Walker projects, involving a number of great artists, authors, and others in the various areas that he's developing with AW. Be sure to pick up one of his AW novels if you get a chance.

I'm going to have some materials from The Storm Guardians this weekend, and I will be doing my reading from The Storm Guardians, and it will be good to start to get some feedback. We're about 1 week away from the book launch at Hypericon, which I hope will be an amazing weekend, as I absolutely love Hypericon, my Nashville friends, and the city. I'm following it up with a stop at the great Davis-Kidd store in Memphis on Monday, June 7th. Things are definitely getting busy quick!

All In! Crown of Vengeance, ConText, and more...

Just turned in a short preview section of the 2nd book in the new Fires In Eden series, which will be placed at the end of Crown of Vengeance, so all the pieces are ready for the book. We plan on making an announcement very shortly regarding the limited edition version, which will probably be around 100 copies and include some special elements and extras.

ConText was a really great experience. I ended up doing 4 panels that weekend, three of which focused on translations from books to other media and vice versa. Doug Johnson, Michael D' Ambrosio, Sandy Lender, Scott Sandridge, Dr. Maura Heaphy, and Gregory Hall were some of my co-panelists, and we had some fantastic discussions.

I actually made it to two parties over the weekend, hanging out with Michael West and Nicole Cushing on Friday (held by Indiana Horror Writers and Apex Publications) and the Meadowhawk Press gang on Saturday night (co-hosted with Shroud Publishing). Suffice it to say that Michael and Jason's party was shut down by security on friday night...they know how to party! Saturday's went the distance, though I bowed out early, but not before I got to see Dan Gamber of Meadowhawk demonstrating yet another of his many talents as he danced the night away!

I am really digging Sandy Lender's book Choices Meant For Gods, and I picked up a few Michael West stories as well that were highly enjoyable. I also picked up the "Best Magazine Ever Released by Apex Publications"...which Maurice and I agreed is the appropriate designation for it as it has a Maurice Broaddus short story in it!

Speaking of...I had a great panel to round out Sunday with Sandy Lender and Scott Sandridge, who is one of the more colorful characters I've met out there! He's got a whole new conception of orcs in his new podcast novel, The Silverblade Prophecy. I believe Scott set a record for panel participation at ConText. He did a stretch of 6 straight panels on Saturday, and I believe he was on around 10 panels in all that weekend. He is the iron man for sure!

Jason Sizemore was an editing guest of honor over the weekend, and the hour focusing on him, hosted by author Geoffrey Girard, was awesome! Didn't know Jason was a Transylvania University guy and got to learn alot about Apex history. Jason's really doing some great things and I hope every reader out there tries out some Apex stuff...it's very, very good!

Finally got to talk for a bit with Michael D'Ambrosio, who was at the Fright Night Film Festival that I was at, though we didn't get to talk there. Michael is really pursuing some film avenues, so we got to talk a little shop in that respect as well.

ConText had some outstanding programming, and was really enjoyable as a smaller convention that is literary focused. I definitely want to return to this one again next year. Columbus is not too far away, after all! (and I did get to visit the Borders on Kenny Rd. in Columbus, where I will be returning on Thursday, November 5th for a signing for both The Exodus Gate AND Crown of Vengeance)