Archive | May, 2013

Keycon

23 May

Sorry for lack of update; it stopped raining on Tuesday and I’ve been making up for lost time during my staycation. I also discovered I have the only dog in the world who doesn’t like going for walks, but I think it’s me going too long for the little guy, so we’ll take it easy tomorrow.

 I think it went okay at Keycon – I didn’t sell very many Ebooks, but I had a bunch of people, when I talked about my books, who wanted it in print, so it’s a good sign (or maybe I’m just getting better at talking about it in person) but I made some good contacts, and everyone I met pretty much told me to get to When Words Collide, so I’m going – I have most of that weekend off, so I’ll make plans and figure something out. I’d like to go to Swords and Sabers, but I haven’t heard back from them regarding table prices, Ron doesn’t think he wants to go (he’s got sailing to do this summer, he normally launches the boat May Long but Keycon’s kinda wrecked that) but I might find other authors to go with – the event takes place the same day as the Manitoba Marathon, and I wanted to volunteer at the first aid booth, but we’ll see.

The three panels I was on and speaking at I think I did very well and held my own – one was a reading panel so I have no idea if I spoke too quick or picked a bad place to read from, but the ‘How do you…’ stuff I could answer pretty good. I’m pretty used to instructing and handling people, so then I had the fine balance of sitting on a panel with two other people, getting heard myself and not cutting other people off. Mythology/Folklore I think went better then Steampunk/Dieselpunk/Cyberpunk because I was representing Cyberpunk and, compared to the other two, I’m like the depressed pessimist – which might not be wholly inaccurate when I haven’t seen the sunshine in a few days, but, you know, the published novel is historical fantasy. (The Fun Stuff continues when I have people telling me they’re sick of traditional medieval style-fantasy and I’ve been having a hard time selling my stuff which runs away from that direction).

 Another Funny thing is that I had more genuine interest in Terran, the book I’ve been editing for over a year now, then Tower of Obsidian, but eeeh – I should really finish it, but I made the mistake of being character-driven, so it’s not as easy as my plot-driven stuff. I shouldn’t get in the habit of calling anything particularly easy, but less-hard. 

One of the writer guests of honor, Sephen Barnes, I met during the signing session and he was a real nice guy. He had confirmation that he got some funding for a project he’s working with, which I can’t find the link to, but might appear on his blog. It’s about zombies, so it sounds like fun. I should have mentioned filming in Winnipeg is dirt cheap, but, eeeh.

Keycon And Champagne

17 May

Sadly, Ellen won’t be attending KeyCon this year – Graeme Brown, R.J. Hore and I will still be there, so if you’re interested in our publishing house, check out the Radisson Hotel this weekend in Winnipeg. If you’re there, it’ll be raining the entire time anyway.

 

Also, there’s a new bonus for signing up for the Champagne newsletter, so check out the publisher’s main page and see if you want to win free stuff.

 

Yeah, beyond that, I’ve been spending my days off with sick people for a change, so I’ve been busy. I will be doing another book tour early July, so stay tuned and I’ll let you know the details as I know them.

No Broke and Bookish Post this week

7 May

Maybe I’m not light and fluffy enough, heh. Can’t think of anything fun besides Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett – don’t get me wrong, I love my humor, so this should be easy, but I can’t do it. Part of this is my kobo is down, part of this is because fluffy-lovekins just chewed through my laptop cord. Emotional outbursts have no place in training a dog, so that’s why I’m venting here; all my RL peeps are at work and will just laugh at me later anyway.

 

So three of us from the Worlds of Imagination have new books out this month – and R.J.’s latest novel, The Queen’s Pawn, just went into print. Okay, mine’s more of a short story but you tell me how many markets will take a 10kish story. Most tap out around 7k and I’m still yet to get good at that length.

The Pact by Graeme Brown

Her Teddy Bare by Rita Bay

The Queen’s Pawn by R.J. Hore

The Twelve Dancing Priestesses by L.T. Getty

 

I’m also doing another giveaway on Mother.Gamer.Writer – I’m featured Indie Writer for the time being, go enter; I’m cool with wherever you want a book GC so long as they accept online payment and you tell me where in the world you come from before I send you the Canadian denomination you can’t use (this happened in April, lol). I’m also querying a bunch of book tour services – I didn’t get as many reviews as I had hoped for last time, so if anyone can make any suggestions, Tower of Obsidian is Historical Fantasy, but I’d like to find a place where I can work with the same people for every other release. True, I have to maybe send out that last novel I’ve been working on and get a contract before I worry about marketing it, but still…

Winter isn’t Coming; It just fills us with false hope for spring

2 May

So yesterday was the first time I got prevented to going to work from road closure – apparently, we had something like 35cm of snow yesterday. This pic is from the motel I stayed at last night, where it wasn’t so bad – things are melting but it’s May, and… snowing.

Birdies

Actually, it’s not that bad; roads are way better then they were yesterday, but still.

So not doing anything for Canada’s image of things other than igloos and polar bears.

Ah well. Dodger (the puppy from a few weeks ago) is doing well, despite the change in surroundings. The funny thing was I was I took off my jacket on Sunday, and everyone was in shorts pretty much, and now I’m back in my parka and mukluks. He continues to be a sense of joy and wonder (see pic below).

So anyway – a bunch of us are doing a chat May 3, this Friday, at the Love Romance Cafe loop – come and ask us some questions, it’ll be all day, so I’ll be popping in periodically. If you have something you’d like to discuss, there’s seven of us in total (R.J. Hore, Graeme Brown, Audra Middleton, Dani Collins, Cassiel Knight, Rita Bay, and Yours Truly) and I know I’m giving away an e-copy of Tower of Obsidian – think most of the rest are giving away a copy of their too, but a few of them have multiple titles. Go register, it’ll be fun. I promise just because it says Cafe I won’t have coffee; the others won’t let me.

Lappup “I’ll show you a laptop!!!”