The Millennicon Report

Report on MillenniCon, which took place March 18-20, 2011:

One thing I really like about going to an established Con is the fact that everything is very orderly, and you don't run into a lot of surprises. Millennicon is definitely one of those types, and has some great hard-working folks that have consistently put on a solid event. This year was no exception!

I arrived early on Friday in Cincinnati, as I had a table in the dealer's room and wanted to get set up early.

My neighbors were James Barnes of Loconeal Publishing, TammyJo Eckhart, and the writing tandem of Tracy Chowdhury and Ted Crim with their epic Shandahar series.

TammyJo is one of my favs on the Con scene and a genuine friend who I couldn't say enough good things about. She's brilliant and an outstanding writer, but I always appreciate how she watches over me at Cons and makes sure I don't go too far off track with forgetting to eat and things like that. I made some Chocolate Cult buttons for TammyJo, as well as some others with her newest book At Her Feet. I was thrilled to see that she really liked them, as did Fox, her co-writer on the book and a special member of her family.

Needless to say, having good neighbors is imperative at a Con, as it makes things much more enjoyable, and you get a little help when you have to leave the table for a panel or other activity. Day one of the Con didn't have any scheduled panels, so I mainly attended my table, greeted friends as they arrived, and talked to new individuals.

Day Two was the big day, involving a panel on Science Fiction and Television and a Swordbearer Screening. The panel involved quite a surprise, as one of the guests was none other than Robert Sawyer...yes, that Robert Sawyer, Hugo winner, author of Flash Forward and many other brilliant science fiction novels. Robert was a fun co-panelist, gracious, and the kind of guy that makes a fellow like me (who is not nearly so far along on the writing path)very welcome. I appreciate that a great deal, and it is the kind of thing you don't forget. I'm a Robert Sawyer fan from here on out for sure. It was really cool hearing him talk about the television version of Flash Forward, the things that took place in the casting and development, and other aspects. I know he is looking forward to doing more television in the future.


(Dan Young, Robert Sawyer, myself, and our wonderful moderator Julie at the Science Fiction and Television panel at Millennicon)


The Swordbearer screening was well-attended, had a nice discussion afterwards, and seemed to be well received. Had a little challenge getting the projector to cooperate at the beginning, but the image and sound were good, and it was nice to share the film with some friends who have heard me talking about this for awhile.

Saturday night I got to be a "fly on the wall" for a World of Darkness (Masquerade) game hosted by TammyJo Eckhart. I'm not an experienced gamer, so I wanted to see more about what it was all about, and it was really compelling and interesting to watch the group role-play and interact. It involved some good improv acting, and the chemistry of the players involved, including Fox and Ted Crim, was excellent. I had a blast and appreciated them letting me observe. I just might play sometime!

Sunday was a shorter day, involving more dealer room time and a panel on small press publishing, where Steven Saus and James Barnes of Loconeal were my co-panelists. Again, a great panel, with two fellows that really know their stuff. Steven's becoming quite the eBook expert and has a great anthology project going with Paul Genesse (The Crimson Pact). James has a very promising small press with some excellent writers. One of them, Ren Garcia, was in the booth alot. Ren's quite a character and a nice guy, who even set up a remote with an illustrator involved with his books, where people stopping by the booth could watch the illustrator's progress live on a sketch. very cool stuff.

One of the best moments of the weekend came to light on Sunday, when I found out that James picked up the Shandahar series from Ted and Tracy. This was fantastic news! I'm always stoked when author friends land a publisher, and similarly when publisher friends land a good author or authors, and in this case I got the best of both worlds. Ted and Tracy pour a lot of passion into their work, and it is fantastic to see it get a chance to take a big step forward with publisher support.


(Here's Loconeal Publishing's James Barnes and me in the dealer room. James has style!)


As always though, I was really elated to meet some new reader friends and reconnect with some that I have known for a little while...Martha L., who has been extremely supportive of me and my writing,Stephen Kendall, who brought me into InConJunction and has become a friend and reader of The Rising Dawn Saga since, and Steven Saus' son Chris (who we didn't know the identity of until AFTER he was interested in getting The Exodus Gate). It is the people like Martha, Stephen, and Chris who are the primary reason I will make every sacrifice, endure long hours, and put every ounce of effort into my path.


(Martha L., a dear reader friend and myself, in the dealer room at Millennicon)



(Stephen Kendall and me at Millennicon)



(Here's me with Chris, Steven Saus' son, after he picked up The Exodus Gate)

The Convention Run is Complete! For Now...

I've been a little spotty in my posting, but it has been a real whirlwind during the shorter weeks with the 6 week convention run that I've been on. It concluded last weekend at MidSouthCon in Memphis, which was the exclamation point on what has been a really enjoyable and successful run of conventions/events.

I am truly grateful to all the hard-working folks who put on ConNooga, MystiCon,Metropolis SuperCon,Troy Book Lover's Festival, Millennicon, and MidSouthCon. I've met so many wonderful new individuals, and also got to spend a great deal of time with many that I harbor a great affinity for. We had Swordbearer screenings at all of the events, and I can say that the new movie has been well received so far.

Needless to say, I owe everyone some reports on the last two weeks. I've been a little behind, but I want to give both Millennicon and MidSouthCon their own posts. Keep an eye here, as they are going to be put up here pretty quick, in rapid fire style!

In addition to the conventions, I've been keeping up with work on the 3rd Rising Dawn Saga book. I am pleased to report that Amanda has been very happy with the text so far, indicating that it is the cleanest copy I have handed in yet. I feel that this book is a rocket ride of action, though the course takes a darker edge as things escalate in Terra, the Middle Lands, and perhaps a foray into the Abyss... ;)

I've also been very involved with the release of Jackie Gamber's Redheart, the new Seventh Star Press title that kicks off the Leland Dragon Series. It is SSP's first YA title too! I've been assisting with the outreach and launch of the book. More will be contained in my report on MidSouthCon, but the launch party there was a great success.

So get ready for a procession of reports before this weekend is out...I will leave things with a couple of images that I just got today, from a dear reader and friend, Robin B....turns out that her daughter Grace chose to decorate her wall with the cover art 8X10's that I give out at signings and conventions, and Robin also sent me a shot of her new bookshelf, regarding a particular section of it... :)

I LOVE getting notes and pics like this from readers, and am going to gather up what I've got and put a gallery on my site, and perhaps my facebook page, as I'm always so appreciative when reader-friends do something like this, and take the time to send me a picture.


(I'll caption this one: Now Gracing Grace's Wall! )



(Some fine choices at the Z-end of her bookshelf, don't you think? All the softcovers, plus a Storm Guardians Limited Hardcover...one of just 50 in existence!)



(And last, but certainly not least, I want to introduce you to my reader/friend Robin's daughter Grace, who has the 8X10's on the wall)

Millennicon, New T-Shirts, New Signing Dates, and more!

Did 3 convention weekends in a row, which is definitely an adventure with everything that has to be packed in on the shortened weeks. Rounding things off was Millennicon in Cincinnati, which turned out to be a great finish to the run.

Millennicon is a smaller convention, in the 500 attendee range. I had an exhibition table there, right next to TammyJo Eckhart, Travis Clemmons, and Tracy Chowdhury and Ted Crim...all of whom are authors! Behind us was William Levy, who is one of the more fascinating individuals that I have encountered in some time. It made for a great neighborhood to pass the time with, as there are inevitably ebbs and flows when exhibiting at a smaller convention.

I was on a few panels, took part in some signing sessions, and did a reading. I think things went largely well...I was on an economics in publishing panel, another focusing on books versus movies (a topic I love to discuss, being both an author and filmmaker), and one on folklore. The convention was very smoothly run, and I can definitely endorse Millennicon as an event that has quality guests, programming, and organization.

For me, it was really great to spend some time with TammyJo Eckhart...she's incredibly smart and a very skilled writer, and she debuted a fascinating new vampire novel that is in the works. The chapter that she read from, by itself, could have made a tight, hard-hitting short film all by itself. She's got a great approach to vampires in this one too, which is not easy, given the great mass of books out there involving vampires. Suffice it to say that she has drawn upon her very erudite background (which got her a PHD in ancient history) to give a nice fresh twist to a vampire story.

Travis Clemmons turned out to be the "small world" story of my weekend. He actually lived in Lexington not long ago (he married and moved to Chicago), and was part of a Lexington Science Fiction and Fantasy Group that I was not aware of, which just happened to be having dinner that night. Travis invited me to join the group, who were a very boisterous lot, though we did not get ejected from Max and Erma's thankfully! I got to reunite with Susan Baugh, who I was on a panel with at Archon last October. We got to share a few laughs about that one, which featured Laurell K. Hamilton, who 99.9% of the audience was there to see (and I must say that Laurell was very gracious to the other panelists, and made sure we were included in the discussion, which I thought was first class, given the makeup of the audience).

Interestingly, Travis also has a very intruiging new vampire novel in the works that he read some chapters from.

All in all, the weekend went very well, and I definitely would like to visit Millennicon in the future.

Debuted at Millennicon was our 2 new t-shirt designs from the novels...the shirts turned out very nice. Joe Garcia of Fast Custom Shirts did a great job in bringing the illustration images from the book over to a t-shirt, and they were screenprinted on 100% preshrunk cotton. Very quality! One is of Arianna, in the Exodus Gate, during her first encounter with the An-Ki. The other is of a Trogen warrior on a flying Harrak steed, from Crown of Vengeance.

Stephen Kendall, one of the individuals involved with the great InConJunction convention in Indianapolis, was the first person to get one of the new shirts (he got the Arianna and An-Ki design). I "forced" him to take a picture, which I will share with you here.

The shirts are now available in my online store at my website, and also at the Seventh Star Press online store, and at Fast Custom Shirts' web site. They are just $9.95 for L or XL, and you can get both for $18. Warm weather is rolling around, so pick up a t-shirt or two! Matthew Perry, the illustrator/cover artist on both The Exodus Gate and Crown of Vengeance, gets a royalty on every shirt sold.

Lastly, we added 5 new signing dates, in the time when the 2nd Book of the Rising Dawn Saga will be out.

One is a mini-tour of sorts...June 11th at Empire Books and News in Huntington, June 12th at Borders in Louisville (South 4th street location), June 13th at Borders in Cincinnati (Eastgate location). Beyond that, we added a date at Borders Downtown Indianapolis on August 7th, during Gen Con time there, and August 14th at Borders in Columbus Ohio (Kenny Rd. location).

Like I have often said, I will make every effort to make myself available in person to my readers, who are the ones that make this journey possible. I have the utmost appreciation for them, and will always work to be accessible in person through events and signings.

Last but not least, I was invited this past Wednesday to visit as a guest to a high school reading group at Dunbar High School in Lexington, Kentucky. Five of the six that were in the group attended, one of many groups involved in the Reading Extravaganza program at the high school. The volunteer coordinator for the group was Karen Leet, who is a very talented writer. The students in the group had picked The Exodus Gate to read, for which I felt really honored. They had great insights and questions, and we had a very good hour-long discussion on the novel. It seemed as if at least four of them would be likely to read the 2nd book in the series when it comes out, which I feel was a great ratio. I had a very good experience and am appreciative of Dunbar High School for this opportunity. I think they have an outstanding program going on there.

That's a bit of a long post for today, but there was a bit to report!

Hittin' the road...

It has been quite the adventure in Central Kentucky recently, with a nice dose of snow and cold weather to keep things interesting. Needless to say, 1 water heater down, 1 repaired water main in the neighborhood, and other such fun, I am rarin' to hit the road and go to a Con.

I will be making the trek to ConNooga this weekend, for 3 panels and other activities. I am supposed to have an author table next to D.A. Adams, who was kind enough to read Crown of Vengeance and do a blurb for it. We definitely mesh well, so it should be a great weekend.

We did finally get a hardcover version of The Exodus Gate up. Just go to the Seventh Star Press site if you are interested at www.seventhstarpress.com. They are just 25 bucks, and they look really sharp with the gold stamp, soft cloth hardcover, full color dust jacket, etc.

I hope to have some info shortly, as in this weekend, regarding the Kindle version of Crown of Vengeance. SSP is also re-upping The Exodus Gate's Kindle version as well, cleaning up a couple of knick knacks that alert readers let us know about.

Beyond this weekend, March gets really busy, with trips to Dark Woods Con in Pikeville, KY, MidSouth Con in Memphis, and Millennicon in Cincinnati Oh. Stay tuned for more adventures there.

On a side note, my friend Michael West, a very talented horror author, just had a short story anthology released called Skull Full of Kisses from the excellent publisher Graveside Tales . If you like horror well-crafted and inspired, check this one out. I ordered a copy from the publisher and it should arrive this week.

I also picked up Kimberly Richardson's Tales from a Goth Librarian while I was at Davis-Kidd for the recent booksignings, and Shirley Damsgaard's new one, The Seventh Witch. So I'll have a little bit of a full plate on some good new books!

Progress is going well on the "spec-script" project, and we are on track for the march deadline. I hope this works out so that I can talk more about it.

There will be some updates shortly on the SantaBoy project, which is shooting now in April (written and directed by Scott Sullivan, I'm working as a producer on this one), and the short film based on H. David Blalock's Ascendant novel.