Coming to Cincinnati with Michael West and Selah Janel on June 13th!

Have a very special event coming soon that I wanted to highlight.  June 13th, a Saturday, at 7pm, I will be making an appearance at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Cincinnati !

As I've said many, many times before, the Joseph-Beth family is foremost in my heart as an author.  I have made one previous appearance in Cincinnati's location a few years ago, but I have done every launch event for my books at the Lexington store, and have come to know and love the entire Joseph-Beth world!

On this one, I'm teaming up with a pair of friend who are also cohorts of mine at Seventh Star Press.... Selah Janel and Michael West.

For Selah, this will be a hometown appearance as she is based out of Cincinnati.  She's a fireball and a brilliant writer.  Her novel Olde School is a wonderfully fresh and creative approach to the cross-genre world, with it's blend of folklore, urban fantasy, contemporary fantasy, and so much more.  Selah knows her stuff for sure!

Michael is a bestselling author, fresh off a top ten Amazon run for his novel Spook House.  He writes the Legacy of the Gods Series and the Harmony, Indiana novels (Spook House, Cinema of Shadows and The Wide Game) and has become one of my best friends in the book world.  A truly exceptional writer.

We will be giving a panel on writing speculative fiction.  There will be a presentation, time for Q and A, giveaways, and a period for book signing.  Afterward we will head over to the awesome Bronte Bistro for an after-event gathering.  Going to be a great, great time.

There is a Facebook event page if you are on Facebook that we encourage folks to join and share, as we will be giving more details and updates as the event nears;  Here's the link! :)  https://www.facebook.com/events/803124373099462/

Really looking forward to this one and hope those within range of Cincinnati can make it out on the 13th of June!

A Champion in a Time of Storm: Rayden Valkyrie

Heading toward the start of 2015, I look to a number of things to keep me moving forward as best as I can, and one of those things is my work as a writer.  I will be starting off the new year with a new book, one starring my sword and axe-wielding heroine Rayden Valkyrie.

The book is Heart of a Lion, the first of a three book story arc.  We are doing an official launch party at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Lexington, Kentucky on Saturday, February 7th at 5pm.  Expect LOTS of surprises at that one, I intend this to be the biggest presentation I've ever done for a book release.

Rayden deserves no less.  She is a character who has grown very special to me, as she has emerged during a couple of my worst storms over the past year.  I do plan on writing about this more in detail, but when I've needed something to hold onto, she stepped forward to help me get back to writing coming out of last winter, and this fall she stepped forward again when I needed something to look forward to on the horizon in a big way.

Bonnie Wasson was given the task of creating the first Rayden Valkyrie image and I am so thrilled with the result.  Bonnie has a knack for warrior art, but she also has a knack for capturing a character in art.  When I look at the cover for Heart of a Lion, I see Rayden shining through.  Bonnie knocked it out of the park and then some, another reason why I call her the "Awesome Wasson".

The book itself will be out in eBook format in early January, with print by mid-January.  As far as a look at what it's about:

"A deadly warrior wielding both blade and axe, Rayden is the bane of the wicked and corrupt.  To many others, she is the most loyal and dedicated of friends, an ally who is unyielding in the most dangerous of circumstances.

The people of the far southern lands she has just aided claim that she has the heart of a lion.  For Rayden, a long journey to the lands of the far northern tribes who adopted her as a child beckons, with an ocean lying in between. Her path will lead her once more into the center of a maelstrom, one involving a rising empire that is said to be making use of the darkest kinds of sorcery to grow its power.  Making new friends and discoveries amid tremendous peril, Rayden makes her way to the north.

Monstrous beasts, supernatural powers, and the bloody specter of war have been a part of her world for a long time and this journey will be no different. Rayden chooses the battles that she will fight, whether she takes up the cause of one individual or an entire people.

Both friends and enemies alike will swiftly learn that the people of the far southern lands spoke truly. Rayden Valkyrie has the heart of a lion."

Scott Sandridge was my editor on this project, a great guy with a great reservoir of knowledge on speculative fiction.  Many kudos to him for working on this one as well.

Expect a grand dark fantasy adventure in this one for sure and I do want to follow Rayden's adventures as much as possible, in novels, novellas, and short stories.  She's a wonderful character with a lot of great qualities that more people in this world could benefit by adopting, in my opinion.  She inspires me a great deal and I hope she does the same for readers everywhere.

Next up is my New Year's post, I plan on writing a similar style one to last year's.  Not going to the one I hoped to write when 2014 began, but it will be honest and it will have an upside despite a lot of difficult elements.  But, as always, it will be honest.  I am who I am and I don't apologize for that. Look for that post probably on the 31st.

Launch Week for the Seventh Throne-Interview, Contest, Radio, and Event

I am way behind on posts, and with Harry passing away last week I've been in a low spot pretty continuosly. I intend to write a little more about that later, but I wanted to make sure that everyone knew that this is the launch week of The Seventh Throne, and to coincide with it I've got a few targeted activities.

Today, I'm a guest on Evie-Bookish, with an interview conducted by Evie as well as a contest for The Seventh Throne. Easy to enter, and the interview is a really good one. Please check it out at: http://evie-bookish.blogspot.com/2011/08/interview-giveaway-stephen-zimmer.html

Thursday, I'll be on Edin Radio at 6:30pm eastern time.

Friday, of course, is the Joseph-Beth Booksellers launch event in Lexington KY, complete with a presentation, giveaways, Q and A, commemorative collectible print for attendees, an after party, and more. All that starts at 7pm.

Help me spread the word, as I'm admittedly not at my best at the moment, though I'm soldiering onward. Thank you again to all those who have sent such kind messages and words of encouragement.

The Lexington event, and a Road Trip Next Week...

I am a few days behind on posting, mainly because this week has been absolutely swamped.

Of course, I've been working hard on the third book of the Rising Dawn Saga! I have been having a great deal of fun with the threads, and there are going to be some real eye-openers in the third book that I don't think anyone who has read the first two will expect.

I also have been getting prepared for the first major road jaunt of the year, which occurs next week when I head out for a swing through Memphis, Clarksville (Arkansas), and Nashville. All three cities will have book events, with the Clarksville one being a special 2 day university event at the Ozarks campus of the University of Arkansas. Memphis will have a major test screening of Swordbearer, and the Clarksville event will also have a test showing. At present we are hoping to find a way to show the movie in Nashville.

Last week was the latest hometown event, which are always very special to me. It was held at the incredible Joseph-Beth of Lexington, a venue that just can't be beat. We had a very full night of activity, ranging from a presentation that included an introduction by my sister Courtney, a Q and A period, lots of giveaways, a signing, AND an afterparty at the restaurant next door (as well as the unveiling of a Swordbearer teaser trailer, but more on that next week)

Despite snow and dicey weather, we had a full crowd. According to Joseph-Beth, this was my best night of the 4 I have had there in the past couple of years for the novel releases. This happened despite the fact that many people I know very well came down with illness (including my editor of Dream of Legends, Karen Leet), or had road travel problems.




The energy was fantastic, as I gave a presentation focusing on what draws me to epic fantasy, and some facts on the new book. Prizes included several from Blackwyrm Publishing in Louisville, who were hardy enough to make the drive from there and attend, a couple copies of Steven Shrewsbury's Thrall, a Limited Edition hardcover of Dream of Legends, several t-shirts and poster arts from the new book and other titles.




I saw some folks that I met for the first time at the Kentucky Book Fair back in November, and even met some people that had come in from North Carolina, who each bought all FOUR of the books I have out. I was blown away by that, I have to say. Definitely a first for me to have someone come that far for one of my signings, and then load up on all the books like that! It was great to talk to everyone, and I probably made the line move slowly with my chatting, as I tend to do as I really enjoy seeing each person that is willing to make the effort to come out and support one of my events.





I had Matt Perry sit with me during the signing so that people were able to get artwork signed, as well as the exclusive print that we issue for the Lexington signings. This one was a colorized print of the Andamooran Warrior illustration from Dream of Legends, and the feedback was great on it. I was also happy to hear the outpouring of compliments directed to Matt on his artwork, as he does not get a chance to hear all the praise I have heard at conventions regarding his art. It was nice that he got to hear, first hand, how much people like his artwork.



As if all of the above was not enough, we also unveiled the teaser trailer for Swordbearer. Thankfully, it also went over really well, and I had many people come up to me who were incredibly happy with it, including some of the cast/crew members.

Things are definitely hopping! Swordbearer is coming together really nicely, with final color corrections and CGI pieces being inserted for the test screening cut.

My duties are also hopping for the Writing Track at Duckon and the Literary Programming at Fandom Fest, as both programming grids, near-final guest lists, and all that good stuff come together (which needs to be in place months before the events actually occur).

Writing, movies, conventions, travel...times are busy, but that's how I like it! Hope to see all my Tennesee friends next week!

Joseph-Beth Homecoming and On the Road Again to InConJunction

It has been quite a week overall, as I begin the third day here at InConJunction in Indianapolis.

Last Friday saw my homecoming visit to Joseph Beth. For me, this is always a very special signing event. Joseph-Beth in Lexington is one of the most impressive bookstores in the nation. Walking into the place, with its huge atrium, you immediately know why this is one of the main stopping points for all of the New York Times best-selling authors. To have a store like this for my homecoming signing is incredible. From Andrew, one of the resident booksellers who is a sci-fi/fantasy whiz, to Brooke, the head of PR and events, the Joseph-Beth family has always treated me very well, and I always feel a little pressure as I want to bring a nice event to the place when they have me in.

For this one, we did have a very nice program. I did a presentation that included a little talk about The Storm Guardians, some discussion of the others involved in the release such as cover artist/illustrator Matthew Perry and editor Amanda DeBord, and a giveaway of about fifteen door prizes (which included some contributions from Apex Book Company, one of the best small presses out there who just happen to be based in Lexington! Their head editor/founder Jason Sizemore attended).

We also introduced an exclusive collectible print that was given away to all who attended this event. We started this practice at the signing for Crown of Vengeance. People got a color print of the Enki artwork featured in The Storm Guardians. Other than the cover, this was the only image of the batch where the original was in color and not grayscale. I think that people really liked the print, judging by the responses I saw.

I then spent the rest of the time signing and visiting with the crowd, which turned out to be the best one I've had at Joseph-Beth yet. Friends and new faces alike, I took my time and really enjoyed this part of it while others went next door to Bar Louie's (a restaurant located next to Joseph-Beth) and got the after party-celebration underway. I joined this part in progress after I had finished with the signing. We had about 50 people join us for the after-party, which turned out to be a very nice addition to round out the night and one that I will certainly keep for the next signing around January for the followup to Crown of Vengeance.

Just a great, great night!

The week in between was pretty much a blur, as I've been working on book 2 of the Fires in Eden series, and staying on top of everything in the book world and tackling pre-production needs for the forthcoming Swordbearer short film. The first reads are occurring next week for parts, and location scouting is underway. Lots of detail to go over. Compiling a nice shot list for the DP for this one, Aaron Champion, who is superb.

Had to head to Indy on my birthday, July 2nd, for InConJunction, a mixed media Con in Indianapolis that I really like. They had me slotted for a record 9 panels, including another record of 7 in one day. I've never done more than 5 or 6 at a Con, so this was a bit of a challenge in that I was also exhibiting and had to have some people who could watch over all of my stuff while I was on panels. Thankfully, my friends TammyJo Eckhart and her husband Tom were the table next to me, and across from me was Travis Clemmons and Karen Nagel, so I had some folks who I trust to watch over things. Being next to TammyJo always has additional bonuses, as she is the High Priestess of the Chocolate Cult, an online Chocolate review blog, and she ALWAYS has lots of exotic chocolates and chocolate-related treats!

Got to catch up with lots of Indianapolis area friends like Michael West, Stephen Kendall, Chuck Budreau, Mark Racop and all the Magichouse Production gang, and meet new faces such as C.S. Marks (author of the Elfhunter Trilogy), Elizabeth Darville, and filmmaker/author Kate Chaplin.

It has been a good Con so far, though I'm a bit tired here on the fourth. There'll be a cookout waiting at home when I get back in the late afternoon, and I'm looking forward to it very much! Need to do one more panel,spend a little more time exhibiting and hopefully meeting a few new readers, but then it will be time to pack up and head out!

The Road Trip- Duckon, Des Moines, and back home again

Logged quite a few miles last week, as I headed out for my first Duckon in Chicago, followed by a trip to Des Moines for a book signing at Beaverdale Books.

I really like Chicago, and it serves as the inspiration for a certain city in the Rising Dawn Saga! This trip did not take me into the heart of the city, but rather to Naperville on the outskirts, which is where Duckon took place.

It is nice when the convention is located right on the interstate, though there were toll booths about every 3 miles. Even worse, they had some unattended ones, where if you didn't have exact coin change or the special pass you literally were forced to go through and have your picture taken, so you could go online later, inconveniently, to pay the whopping 80 cent toll. Government on display in all of its "excellence", if you ask me! LOL

Anyhow, be that as it may, I did get to Duckon just fine. It is a convention with a history of over 20 years, so it is well established. Excellent Green Room, for the panelist guests, and good hospitality in the dealer's room. The staff was very friendly, and I didn't have too many problems over the weekend except for a little difficulty in finding a few things due to the spread out nature of the Con through the large hotel complex.

I was part of a screenwriting panel on Friday with Matthew Duhan and Christopher Morgan. Matthew is a screenwriter, and also a game designer, and Christopher is a DP (cinematographer). They were great guys, and knew their stuff. We got off to a little bit of a hesitant start as none of us wanted to run rough-shod over the others on the panel, but once we got a sense of things, it flowed better.

I was also on a panel on screenplay adaptations, and then another on trends in Sci Fi Cinema. More great co-panelists, and good panels.

I met a few new readers, though things were a little subdued in the dealer's room. TammyJo Eckhart and her husband were sharing the space with me, so I had little to worry about. They are wonderful folks, and I was very glad that they were at the Con.

Another fine fellow I spent quite a bit of time with was Jon Klement, the man behind the Smerdiverse and DragonTalk Radio. Yes, the man with the purple ears. In fact, purple ears were beginning to infect the convention by the end of the weekend. Some day I will find myself at a Con surrounded by a sea of people wearing these long purple ears!

In addition to everything, Duckon offered me the position of head of the Writer's Track for 2011. I have accepted and look forward to working with them to make a great track. They have given me a second, Patt, who is local in Chicago and will be of great help in organizing the track and interfacing with the local meetings there. I really am looking forward to working with her as well.

After Chicago I headed on to Des Moines, where I was hosted by none other than fantasy author Lettie Prell and her husband, a literary author named John Domini. They were wonderful to me, and it was great to catch up on things. I got copies of two of John's books and am going to be diving into them right away.

Shirley Damsgaard, another good friend of mine, came into Des Moines and took me around during the day. Shirley, for those of you that don't know, is on Avon (an imprint of HarperCollins) and is the author of the Ophelia and Aby Mystery Series, which stands at an impressive seven books. Shirley is a rock star, and a blast to hang out with, and she really went out of her way to make my day a great one. She took me personally to meet the head of the Des Moines public library system, where I was able to make a donation of some of my books on behalf of my publisher.

Shirley also took me to visit the main Borders there, where I got to speak with the management regarding getting the books carried there as well. She took me to a great lunch at a place called The Machine Shed, where the servers dress in overalls, and it has a decidedly country-cooking flavor. She convinced me to go for the turkey rueben, which used cole slaw instead of sauer kraut, and it turned out to be excellent advice.

Shirley's got some amazing things on the near horizon. Keep a close eye on her, and visit her thursday posts at the Wicked Authors blog on blogspot, which features some other excellent major press authors such as Angie Fox.

That night I did my signing at Beaverdale Books, a bookstore that will always have a special place with me. They carried The Exodus Gate from when it was first released, and made it possible for this signing, which was a makeup visit as I had to cancel my appearance at DemiCon due to my mother's health emergency in early May.

Lettie and Shirley made it, as well as some new faces, and Rachelle, one of the staff at DemiCon. I did a reading and we had a great Q and A, and then finished things up. Very enjoyable, and someday I hope I can reach a point where I can bring Alice a huge turnout, as she is very kind, and runs a very good independent bookstore. It is bookstores like hers that help authors like myself get untracked. I don't forget about individuals like Alice or stores like hers.

I managed to squeeze in a breakfast with Steven L. Shrewsbury on the way back from Des Moines, in Bloomington IL. Steven, of course, is the newest author on Seventh Star Press, and his novel Thrall is going to be released this fall. Steven had some funny stories of his adventures at Cons, and we had a really good visit before I had to continue back to Lexington.

It was a really nice trip, and I managed to do a lot during the four days. Of course, there was no rest upon my return, as this week I had online events (which actually kicked off with a guest blog I did at Fantasy Book Critic), including a big one on Bitten By Books (who gave The Storm Guardians 5 tombstones, like 5 stars, in the first published review of the new book), and a podcast visit with Kim Smith on the great Introducing WRITERS! show. We also had a production meeting on the upcoming Swordbearer short film (the one based on a segment of H. David Blalock's novel Ascendant), and I had to gear up for the big Joseph-Beth Bookseller homecoming night here in Lexington, where we go all out. (exclusive print, door prizes, an after party, and more).

Busy, but I like to be busy. Still need to upload some pics, and hope to do that this weekend! LOL I'll be sure to report on the homecoming event as well!

Joseph-Beth Booskellers in Lexington! The Homecoming Signing tonight.

Here we are, on the day of the homecoming signing, just a few hours away...

First of all, Joseph-Beth Booksellers of Lexington is one of the best bookstores in the entire country. It has been my favorite bookstore since my youth, when the first version of the store opened, in the same store complex where it is today. Of course, it was nowhere near the size that it is now, but it has somehow managed to retain the warm, independent feel that it had from its earliest inception, and this is a real credit to the people who have run it throughout the years.

Joseph Beth has been really wonderful to me, from Brooke, who runs their PR and Events, to Andrew and Brian, two of their sci-fi and fantasy experts. This is a big reason why I wanted to go a little farther with this signing, and I think we've put a nice event together for tonight.

It is a real homecoming event, as I've traveled extensively in the past year in the support of The Exodus Gate. From Des Moines, IA (DemiCon) to Charlotte, NC (ConCarolinas), from St. Louis (Archon), to Memphis (MidSouthCon), to Borders stores in Indianapolis and Columbus, OH, and all kinds of places in between, I've logged ALOT of road miles. It is nice to be doing an event on the homefront! At least I don't have far to drive, and I save a few bucks on hotel costs!

We are going to have a little presentation at 7:15, where I am going to talk about the origins of the book, and the book itself, and then I am going to introduce and talk about the cover artist and illustrator, Matthew Perry (his new art site is at perrypixel.com ), as well as my editor, Amanda DeBord. I really want people to get a sense of how wonderful they've been to the book projects and the contributions that they have made.

Following this, we had a special print made exclusively for tonight, using the Trogen Warrior artwork from Crown of Vengeance. It is an 8X12 print, and looks SHARP. The back has commemorative text for the venue and date, as well as artist credit and a little other information. Every person attending will get one, absolutely free, regardless of whether they buy the book or not.

After that, we will be giving out some door prizes, including framed, signed cover art posters and 8X10's, a book signed by myself, Amanda, and Matt, and some prizes from Apex Publications. Apex is based in Lexington, and it is a small press publisher that this city can take ALOT of pride in. They've maintained a standard of excellence throughout several years, and are really growing into a small press force to be reckoned with! Jason Sizemore, the founder/head editor, was kind enough to provide some door prizes for my signing, and it is a real honor to have an Apex element to tonight!

After all that is done, we will move to the signing portion of the night, which will continue for a couple of hours.

All of it is going to be covered by Filmmaker Aaron Champion, who will be getting footage for a short documentary on the evening. I think this is going to be fantastic, and we are going to get the doc out there as soon as it is ready for everyone to enjoy. Aaron is also working on a video trailer for Crown of Vengeance, which should debut pretty soon!

All in all, we've really worked to make tonight a nice event, and I hope that the folks in the area will decide to come out and visit. I'll post some pictures and such in the coming days!

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!

;)

ConCarolinas

Last weekend, I attended ConCarolinas, held in the fine city of Charlotte NC along with my friends and ScareFest staffers Susan Rummel and Lori Baker.

It was my first time doing an exhibition table, so I really did not know what to expect from that angle at a fantasy/sci-fi con. As luck would have it, I had a major summer cold that kicked in on the way down that Friday.

The drive itself wasn't bad, though we got a slow start with bad foggy/drizzly weather in Kentucky and a traffic accident on the highway that really set things back. The sun finally peeked out when we neared North Carolina, and just in time as we got to wind our way through the mountains surrounded by all kinds of vibrant little meadows rife with color. Crimsons, violets, reds, yellows, whites...it was pretty nice scenery to say the least, and mountains always evoke the fantasy genre in me anyway! lol

I would say that ConCarolinas is pretty close in size to MidSouthCon, in terms of numbers, dealers, etc. (at least to my eye). It is a Con that has a solid track record, and the organization was evident upon arrival, as Janet got us fixed up right away with a folder filled with badges, information and everything we needed.

We had a pretty nice little table to use as a base, as we put up an Exodus Gate Banner and an Indie Movie Masters banner on stands behind, and Lori and Susan were awesome with the layout of the table itself (and we had a ScareFest banner draped in front.)



We were joined by Pete Bullock, the electronic editions editor for the British Sci-Fi magazine Interzone. Interzone is, in fact, the longest running Sci-Fi mag in the UK and it really is nice. Great artwork, writers...very impressive. Pete was a super nice guy, and very helpful all weekend. As we had four people involved, we did do some rotating so that we could get around, attend a few panels, and that sort of thing.

I met some very friendly and talented authors. Michael J. Sullivan and his wife Robin had a table just opposite us. He is the author of the fantasy novels The Crown Conspiracy and Avempartha, which are in his series The Riyria Revelations. Michael was a very popular author over the weekend, as I watched him sell and sign a ton of books. I was a buyer of one myself, and am going to start on it very shortly. I can vouch for the genuine friendliness of Michael and Robin, as they were great to talk to all three days.

I finally caught up with Gail Z Martin, author of the Chronicles of the Necromancer series. I had exchanged a few emails with Gail, but it was super to meet her in person. I did get to attend one panel that she was on involving podcasting, as well as a book reading that she did on that Saturday evening. Gail was kind enough to record a video blog tag of both myself, for The Exodus Gate, and Lori and Susan for ScareFest.


Crymsyn Hart ended up being the writer that benefited greatly from the Lexington, Kentucky gang, at least in terms of sales! Crymsyn has about 20 books in print and ebook editions, which is amazing! Lori, Susan, and myself all bought books from Crymsyn, who writes darker urban fantasy/paranormal type stories. She is a very good writer, as I read a few pages of one of the books that Lori brought back before I had gotten a chance to buy one myself. Needless to say, there were many Crymsyn Hart books traveling back to Kentucky in the car!

I ended up fighting the summer cold/sinus attack all weekend, and thanks to Theraflu I made it through. Not easy at all!

We got a chance on Sunday to go out and visit two bookstores that are carrying The Exodus Gate in Charlotte.

First up was Joseph-Beth Booksellers. As Lexington's Joseph-Beth is near and dear to me (and where I did my first ever store signing), it was really cool getting to visit another Joseph-Beth Location. It "felt" like Joseph-Beth the second I walked into it. Very large, 2 level store, but very different in layout from the Lexington store. The general manager Cheryl was kind enough to talk for a few minutes and show me the sci-fi/fantasy section.




Second was Park Road Books, which very recently stocked the title. We got to meet Frank, who also happens to be the resident sci-fi/fantasy expert. The store is very nice and well-laid out, nestled into a shopping center not too far away from JB.

I was in for a big surprise, as when I went to their fantasy section, I was arranged on the shelf directly below J.R.R. Tolkien, who happens to be numero uno in my world of authors! As my last name begins with a Z, I do not often see chances where I am in such an aligned proximity, so I just had to get a picture of this as it was personally amazing!

Park Road Books also had my book at the front in new releases with an author-signed sticker affixed. I was really flattered by their presentation, and they even took the time to place bookmarks in all the copies.


Charlotte definitely has two excellent independent bookstores, and I wish both of them much success. They certainly have my gratitude!

The ride back went much quicker, though we were all pretty worn out by the time that we got back to Lexington a little after 11pm.

ConCarolinas gets a thumbs up. Organized, excellent guests, good layout. I will look to return to this one.

Up next...Hypericon! (as in this weekend!)