ScareFest, the new book, and another SSP release

(thanks to Nic Brown, I got to do my very first "red carpet walk", which was interesting! Here's a pic from that moment taken by Bill Spangler,who is an awesome photographer)

I attended and exhibited at ScareFest 2010 in Lexington this past weekend. Thankfully, I didn't have far to drive for this one, maybe about 10 minutes, which was nice.

ScareFest is a large and growing horror and paranormal convention in Lexington, which has a big celebrity, visual media, and paranormal investigation core to it. While it does not have any literary/book related programming at the present time, it does bring in a large audience, many of whom do enjoy genres like fantasy, and science fiction.

I was based at the Deth Publications booth, at the invitation of Elizadeth Hetherington, a very talented horror author from Wisconsin. Her husband Vance, who is an editor, was also present, and the three of us had a great visit and weekend at ScareFest.


(Elizadeth Hetherington and myself)

As the Louisville and Lexington conventions tend to be, it was a time when a lot of the Kentucky filmmakers got a chance to come together, hang out, talk shop, and network.


(here's me with David Rupp of Infernal Dreams)

I really enjoy this aspect of a convention, and getting to see such folks as David Rupp (of Infernal Dreams), Jason Crowe and Roni Jonah (of Feathered Italian Films), Jacob Ennis (Tuckywood Productions), Eric Butts (director of Girl/Girl Scene), and others is great, as we don't get to visit in person all that often due to everyone's busy schedules.


(Suzie and Stephen Lackey of Cinegeek.com and the CineGeek Podcast, Elizadeth Hetherington, and myself)


(me with actor Ryan Buckley, who knows how to make some very potent punch!)


in addition to filmmaking friends, there were many other folks that I don't often get a chance to see except for conventions, such as Joe Garcia of Fast Custom Shirts Jason Sizemore of Apex Publications.


(me with Andrea and John Foley, Jason Jacob, and Abby Cook...John made some weapons shown in the castle scene in Swordbearer, and Abby was one of our two main designers and head of our costuming department)


As the convention went on, I did get to visit with some current reader-friends, and make some new ones. New friends included our neighbor in the exhibit hall, Don Sumner, who is the main guy behind the Best Horror Movies site, and he is the author of the new book, Horror Movie Freak, which looks like a great tome of horror movie lore.


(me with Don Sumner of Best Horror Movies)



(Me with my reader-friend Latosha)



(me with CT Brannon and his son!)


A big part of ScareFest are the celebrity film and paranormal guests. From what I observed, George Romero was the biggest draw, and others such as Danny Trejo and Adrienne Barbeau had very busy tables. Kane Hodder, Tom Atkins, Danielle Harris, wrestling legend George "The Animal" Steele, and many more were meeting fans, selling autographs, taking photos, etc.

Romero happens to be one of Eric Butts' favorite directors, and the following pic was taken right after Eric met George (notice the slightly dazed look, LOL)



On the book front, we are VERY close to the press release for the new Fires in Eden book, which will be accompanied by the unveiling of the new cover art, some of the illustrations, and a video trailer. Matt is doing more amazing artwork, and I can't wait to share it with everyone. This book has many elements that are VERY favorable to epic visual images, to say the least, and Matt has been having a lot of fun with the content in developing the illustrations.

On another note, if you haven't pre-ordered a copy already, you need to pick up one of Steven Shrewsbury's new Thrall limited hardovers. Not many in this batch, and it is the first appearance of his Gorias La Gaul character. Great price on it too and it comes with a poster, 5X7 glossy prints, and bookmarks. He's in the SSP family, so show him some love and pick up Thrall! here's a link to the online store. Check my previous blog post for the video trailer.

http://www.seventhstarpress.com/documents/online_store.html

That's it for now! Keep an eye on this blog as it won't be much longer before the new book announcement.

My fellow SSP author Steven Shrewsbury's New Novel Thrall

(newly unveiled cover art for Steven Shrewsbury's Thrall, artwork by Matthew Perry)


Getting everything pulled together to make the sojourn downtown for ScareFest today! If any of you happen to be there, I'll be at the Deth Publications booth, with author Elizadeth Hetherington and her husband.

I didn't want to leave without putting a link up to the press release and video trailer for my fellow SSP author Steven Shrewsbury's Thrall release. His book is VERY good, to say the least. As a big fan of Robert E. Howard, and David Gemmell, I can say with the utmost confidence that if you like characters like Conan or Druss the Legend, then you are really going to dig Gorias La Gaul. This book is the first published appearance of Gorias, so you can get in on the ground floor of what may well become an iconic fantasy figure. As with my book releases, there's a cool limited edition hardcover, with extras featuring the always-awesome Matthew Perry cover art and illustrations.

Steven is a wonderful individual, and an excellent writer, and I will be doing many appearances/events with him in 2010, so I encourage you to support his new book, spread the word on it, and check out the press release and trailer.

Here's the link:

http://www.seventhstarpress.com/documents/press_releases.html



and if you can't wait to see the trailer over on the press release page, here's the trailer:

ScareFest this weekend, Kentucky Book Fair next weekend!

First of all, be sure to check out a brand new interview accompanying a nice review of Crown of Vengeance on Bookworm Blues. I really enjoyed this one as it involved some questions that really got at the core of the book, with more than a couple that I have not been asked at all yet. Leave a comment or two while you are there if you enjoyed the interview! here's the link...

http://bookwormblues.blogspot.com/2010/11/crown-of-vengeance-stephen-zimmer-with.html

Just getting ready for ScareFest in Lexington this weekend, which kicks off the first of 2 localized events, the other being the fantastic Kentucky Book Fair in Frankfort on November 13th. I am going to be a guest of Deth Publications this weekend, as author Elizadeth Hetheringon and her husband Vance have generously invited me to join them this weekend at their booth.

My last large event was Archon in St. Louis, so I am ready for a convention weekend, and it is doubly wonderful that I have only a whopping 10 minutes to drive to this one! ScareFest is held in downtown Lexington, and will have an attendence in the range of 3-5 thousand...primarily a horror and paranormal fest, it has a number of media/film celebrities from the horror genre signing autographs, along with some programming and parties and a very big dealer room.

I've gotten word that many good friends are going to be there, from Stephen and Suzie Lackey of Captain Pixel Productions, to Joe Garcia of Fast Custom Shirts, to authors Michael West and Crymsyn Hart, to Lexington publishing genius Jason Sizemore of Apex Book Company.

This will be a nice change of pace, as lately I've been slammed with things involving the new Fires in Eden book, as well as helping out my fellow Seventh Star Press authors, Jackie Gamber, and Steven Shrewsbury, whose new novel Thrall is imminent. I can't say how wonderful it is to have Jackie and Steven aboard...fantastic authors AND fantastic individuals. Keep your eyes out for the Thrall announcement, which will unveil the cover art, some Matthew Perry artwork, and the video trailer.

well, I'd better get back to work...lots to do, including working on screenings for a certain short film that has to do with David Blalock's Ascendent novel...hint, hint! :)

New Book Around Corner, New Dates added!

Just wanted to pop in to give a small update...

the final text for the new Fires in Eden book has been handed in! It may well be the largest book yet, lol ...I took a quick picture of the manuscript, single-sided, with a Monster Energy drink can for perspective! Yes, it is going to be a little larger, but that's so we can end it with a major, and I mean MAJOR, revelation for the entire series. It caught my editor Karen Leet off guard, but she loved it. She's been really happy with the pacing of the novel, so don't be daunted by the size of this one...it flows with action, action, and more action...plus a monster of an epic battle that fantasy fans and history buffs will get a real kick out of. I'm very excited about the new book, and Matt is working on new illustrations and cover art now.

I have just added some new appearances to the calendar. Thanks to Deth Publications, I will be attending ScareFest in Lexington after all. Deth Publications is going to be selling my titles at their table, and I will be going to help out over the weekend on November 5 and 6. The following weekend is the Kentucky Book Fair, and then December 11th is Apex Day at Joseph Beth, so it is going to be a very busy time locally (and I will be returning to Dunbar next week on invitation to take part in their wonderful Reading Extravaganza program, in regards to The Storm Guardians).

The new year is going to see MANY dates involving both the book world and the movie world, as Swordbearer will be premiering later in January. I will be attending many Cons both as an author guest and also to screen Swordbearer, and we will have some targeted premieres and festivals to announce very soon.

A while back, I talked about a new series of resin-cast collectible figurines from the book series, and it looks like that project is very close to launching the first figure. More on this soon, but wanted everyone to know that we are quietly advancing it forward.

On another note, keep an eye on the Seventh Star Press site the first week of November. Announcement coming on Steven L. Shrewsbury's novel Thrall out on Seventh Star Press. Steven has been a good friend and very supportive, and I can't say how happy I am that Amanda DeBord gave the green light to bring him onto Seventh Star Press. Those that like the dark fantasy of Robert E. Howard will LOVE Shrews. And in addition to that, a wonderful new addition is about to be announced to Seventh Star Press, and she's a fantastic writer! Wait until you find out who!

It was a ScareFest Weekend, and a Con Trek adventure!

ScareFest turned out to be quite an adventure! I ended up jumping aboard the Con Trek crew for Saturday, as they had selected Lexington's ScareFest to be one of their season one episodes. Con Trek, of course, is a fantastic episodic reality show that visits various conventions across the USA. It is found on the Microsoft Xbox's Video Marketplace.

I was really impressed with Alan and Brittney, the two Con Trek hosts. Seeing them work throughout the day showed me that they have a great professionalism and work ethic as well as a good chemistry. We got to visit with a number of genre stars, such as Doug Bradley (Pinhead from the Hellraiser films, Kane Hodder (Friday the 13th, was Jason in 4 of the films), Danielle Harris (who was in both of the newer Rob Zombie Halloween movies), three of the main cast from the Travel Channel's Ghost Adventures, and more.

There were several thousand attendees, including alot of the filmmakers based in the immediate region. Feathered Italian Films (Jason Crowe and TJ Moreschi), Goatboy Films (Jerry Williams), Eric Butts, Pat Bowling, Cherokee Hall, Stacy Gillespie, George Bonilla and ZP International, and many more were on hand. Others included David Rudd of Infernal Dreams, Jason Sizemore of Apex Publications, Schaeffer Tolliver, Billy "Leprechaun" Blackwell (I wanted to know where he hides his pot of gold!) and alot of other excellent folks. Even my pals from Cineline/IMM, Sven Granlund and Matt Perry made it down.

The convention was very well laid out, with large aisles and plenty of room to move. The costume contest, VIP party, and other events turned out great as well. Lori Baker and Susan Rummel, two friends of mine on the ScareFest staff, looked very happy with the results.

Needless to say, lots of cool things happened over the weekend, unexpected and otherwise. Heard Con Trek's Alan Smith defending his Tennessee Titans with Kane Hodder in the rest room (and Alan didn't realize at the time that he was talking with Kane! lol).

We did about a 15 hour shoot on Saturday, so we were a bit tired at the end of it all, but I am looking forward to next year's ScareFest for sure.

New Gail Z Martin Video Blogs

This just came in...links to the video blogs that Chronicles of the Necromancer series author Gail Z Martin did at ConCarolinas. They are split up into Day One and Day Two.

Day 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=356ANiRze3I

Day 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_HOXHtjkMg


Yours truly is on day one, as is Lori Baker of ScareFest. Lots of cool authors all throughout, such as Crymsyn Hart who is on the Day 2 segment.

Gail also has new video blogs up of some other events:

Balticon:

Day 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSmtQn_IuCI

Day 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fz--XeHHGHE



Carolinas Writers Conference

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PguedqN9p5k



RavenCon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD6fQOpa9vU



And be sure to read my last post on Hypericon too!