Hellscapes Available Now on Kindle and Kobo!

I have new eBook links and some great news!

First, I'm thrilled to be invited to this year's Kentucky Book Fair, taking place this November! :) Going to have several new releases to show at the KBF, which is one of the best book fair events in the United States. Truly exceptional and I can't wait to return!

Hellscapes Volume 1 is out TODAY on eBook. Amazon and Kobo are live as I post this, Nook and iBookstore will be at some point today. But for now, Kindle and Kobo users, my brand new horror collection kicks off here, help me get it started off well! Kindle and Kobo links are:

Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Hellscapes-ebook/dp/B00F01WWKA

Kobo
http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/hellscapes

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! :)

The Kentucky Book Fair 2010....Fantastic

The Kentucky Book Fair 2010 was wonderful!

It is such a well-run and organized event, and simply massive...over 200 authors on an arena floor in Frankfort Kentucky. Where else can authors rock an arena? :)


Authors were assigned 3 to each booth space, and I happned to be right under the row 7 sign at the end of the aisle, up front and centered near the entrance. My immediate neighbor was author Michael Williams, who was there to promote his brand new novel Trajan's Arch, which was published by BlackWyrm, an outstanding small press based out of Louisville Kentucky. (photo is of me with Michael on the right)




The day was constantly active...many current reader-friends stopped by the booth, and I met several new ones. I had my most successful single day event outside of Lexington in terms of sales. Many copies of The Exodus Gate and Crown of Vengeance were sold, as well as a number of The Storm Guardians, mostly by people that had read The Exodus Gate. Both Nick Valentino and I had Dreams of Steam, the great steampunk anthology from Kerlak publishing, at our tables, and we each sold many copies of that one as well. (photo is of me with my friend Karen, who I didn't know was coming and decided to surprise me)

It was great to see some other authors, like Gwen Mayo, Abigail Keam, Sarah Glenn, and Shane Berryhill, who I met at ConNooga last year.




It was such a postive, encouraging, and successful event. Connie Crowe, Jen, Amy, and everyone involved did a great job with the hospitality, organization, and presenation. Brooke Raby and the Joseph Beth gang were on hand to help with the transaction and inventory. (photo is of me with KBF staff member Amy, at the end of the event.)

Afterwards I got to go out to eat with Nick Valentino and Elizabeth Darvill, who are two of the hardest working authors out there. They are hitting bookstores and conventions coast to coast, and it is no surprise that they are really attracting attention in the world of steampunk. It felt good to have a Sam Adams Winter Lager after the day we had, and Nick got his first Kentucky Hot Brown, which passed muster in his view!

We had a great visit, and Elizabeth came up with some very intriuging programming ideas that we just might have to put to use in the future...some very creative ideas, to say the least! Needless to say, I haven't heard about anything like she described at any convention I've been to!

To sum it all up, I really hope to have the honor of returning to the Kentucky Book Fair in 2011.

The Kentucky Book Fair this Saturday

Just a quick note about the Kentucky Book Fair in Frankfort KY tomorrow:

I had a great experience last year at my first appearance at the Kentucky Book Fair. It is an amazing event, and I have the honor of returning again this year. I went down this morning to set up my assigned space on the convention floor (it is at the main Convention Center at 405 Mero St), and lo and behold they have me at the end of the 7th aisle, which is centered at the front where the main entrance is. Maybe being a Seventh Star Press author and being on the 7th aisle is some kind of omen...I'll let you know what kind after the event is done, LOL.

Saw Shane Berryhill while I was there for setup, who is a great speculative fiction writer from the Chattanooga TN area that I met at ConNooga. Also appearing in the speculative fiction area is steampunk star Nick Valentino from Nashville, a great guy and friend I love to see out on the circuit.

If you are thinking about going, I encourage you to do so...admission is free, and there are over 200 authors presented, in all genres. VERY cool day with about 5,000 attending readers/book buyers. Be sure to look me up and say hi, though!

I will have a copy of fellow SSP author Steven Shrewsbury's new book Thrall with me as well, so you can get a sneak peak at that if you are there. It turned out FANTASTIC! Steven is a great guy so I was thrilled to see how good this novel looks.

I'll check in after the event and let you all know how the day went!

A whirlwind as of late...

The past few weeks have been busy to a ridiculous level...I had a very adventurous week to kick off November, visiting Sherlock's in Lebanon, TN, Border Bookstore in Columbus, OH (the Kenny Road location), and the Kentucky Book Fair. Glad to say that all of the events were very enjoyable, though I was admittedly a bit tired at the end of the week.

I am happy that the new book is now available...currently in softcover and shortly in hardcover (and we just got in the limited edition hardcover for those that pre-ordered it). The effort has been extensive to get this one out there, in the multiple versions with all the extras like the art cards, poster, etc. As always, I don't mind going as far as I can for my readers, in terms of doing everything I can to have some nice elements involved with the release and getting out the best possible verson that I can.

Things are going to be very busy in the next few weeks as we work to get the word out about the new book. There will be two appearances in December...one is a big homecoming signing at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Lexington KY on December 10th. It will feature an exclusive collectible for all those who attend, and a friend of mine is shooting footage for a short documentary about the night. (even will be from 7-9pm)

Beyond that is an Imagicopter event at Sherlock's on December 19th. It will be great to catch up with David Blalock and the gang, as this will be my first Imagicopter event. It will also be good to go back to Sherlock's, which is a fantastic bookstore.

Onward and upward, as they say! Lots of work ahead, but I'm excited about it all,

Storms, Business, and Schedule Shifts!

A very interesting day, just like the past few days. On Tuesday, Lexington got hit with a deluge, though Lousville got hit even worse. They recorded over 10,000 lightning strikes in the Louisville area and had more water fall in a 3 hour period than any time in Louisville history. We are definitely having an unusually cool July/August period.

This week has had its share of adventures. I got an invitation to attend as an author to the Kentucky Book Fair in Frankfort, KY on November 7th. I am really excited that the selection board extended this invitation and I will be there for both The Exodus Gate and the new book that I have coming out around October.

On the film side, it has been frustrating in terms of scheduling. I am a producer on a new comedy short film from the very talented Scott Sullivan, and am also primed to direct a new fantasy short from a published fantasy author. Both projects were originally primed for the fall, but it looks as if we will be shooting the comedy short the first week of December and the fantasy project has been pushed back to early 2010. I am working on the development of a horror feature that I've been asked to produce...a very high concept, very sharp project from a very talented individual that I have alot of respect for, and I hope to be talking more about this one pretty shortly.

Other than that, mired in pages, pages, and pages of the final run on the new medieval fantasy novel. The work is going very smoothly.

I did manage to get the first Indie Movie Masters podast up last Friday, and this Friday it looks as if we are on target for the first podcast on Seventh Star Press's blog site (seventhstarpress.blogspot.com ). I am really enjoying doing the blog/interviews and the podcasts, and I've got a number of excellent guests that I want to have on them.