Tag Archives: ConCarolinas

Huh. Did you know I have a blog?

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Because I done completely forgot about it.  Sorry for the extended absence and lack of new content!  Been working on LITL, attending Cons (plural – Con-Carolinas, LibertyCon, and Con-Gregate), working on day job stuff, dealing with . . . issues (the people at the Facility had to get the dimensions of my rubber-room just right), and absorbing a great deal of pop culture for BLUFing (which you shall see presently).

To catch up on all matters and restore the faith of my dwindling readership, a few tweet-worthy summaries:

Con-Carolinas – AWESOME Con, with some of the best cosplay, great panels, & best format of all for putting readers with authors. Mucho books sold.

Liberty-Con – LOOOONG drive, but damn worth it. No cosplay to speak of, but much sci-fi goodness, new writer friends, enthusiastic panels.  Mucho books sold.

Con-Gregate – 2nd year, very earnest and well run, smallish but fun. Facebook friended a ton of folk I’ve met.  Fantastic folks, but few books sold.  😦

Chris Kennedy – THE MOST PROLIFIC AUTHOR IN HAMPTON ROADS LAUNCHES A NEW TRILOGY WITH THE SEARCH FOR GRAM.  Go. Read. It. NOW!

“The Keeper and the Kept” – New short story, begun w/the 100 Word Hook exercise with Alan Wold is finished, ready for submission!

“Clicker” – my weird wild west story canters along, still looking for a home.  😦

Lancers Into The Light – 4 chapters in, 1/4 – 1/5 done, progressing, much editing will be needed.

BLUF – Bottom Line Up Front reviews for “The Last Ship” and various movies will be up soon!

And now, a bunch of recent pics, mostly from Con-Carolinas, but LibertyCon and Con-Gregate too!

20150712_125510(1) 20150711_194715 20150710_225544 20150710_225505 20150710_193509 20150628_223157 20150626_161429 20150531_130223 20150531_124110 20150531_115741 20150530_210859 20150530_171706 20150530_171320 20150530_171054 20150530_155015 20150530_144306 20150530_135925 20150530_135756 20150530_125500 20150530_124844 20150530_124255 20150530_123804 20150530_122323 20150530_115632 20150529_203551 20150529_192033 20150529_190203 20150529_170355 20150529_165027 20150529_164804 20150529_163740

And now you’re all caught up!

Con-ventional Warfare

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Sometimes life just kicks you in the balls.

The guys reading this know what I’m talking about, and I’m fairly certain that most of the ladies will know what I’m talking about with a fair degree of empathy, even if I don’t know what the female equivalent would be.

I don’t talk about my day job much here (and I will stick to the usual doing-something-for-the-Navy-somewhere-on-the-East-coast) but I will expand on it a bit to let you know that I’ve essentially been biding my time at one job, awaiting the opening of another one:  the DREAM job for one in my line of work, the gold-or-silver ring you wait for your whole career to bring you to.  Well, after doing everything the job asks for the last two years, and getting ready to go to the DREAM job . . . it was, of course, snatched all away.  Now I have essentially a year more to wait, hoping it will come through this time, and being promised a variety of things to assuage me.  I hold no animosity for my current job or the folks that had to give me the bad news, but DAMN IT.  Just damn it.

So, I was feeling pretty low.  I made vague plans to hit the water in my new kayak, stymied only somewhat by the fact that it was due to be rainy and freezing all weekend.  Whatever.  It fit my mood.  But theeeennnnnnn . . . .

Super-Indie Author Chris Kennedy sent me a note saying “Forget all that reality stuff!  Come and kick back with me at IllogiCon in Raleigh, NC!”  And wouldn’t you know it, I did and it was awesome!

Illogicon is a fun, fan-run science fiction convention about half to a third the size of my only other experience at RavenCon last year.  But since it was smallish, the rules weren’t quite so rigid, and they graciously allowed me to participate as a panelist.  I sat in on “Using the Military in Fantasy,” “Independent Publishing 101,” “Indie Publishing Finances,” and “Worldbuilding,” and I managed not to embarrass myself during a single one.  In fact, it almost appeared that I knew what I was talking about.  I also attended but did not participate in “SF/F for the Younger Generation,” “Using Religion and Spirituality in Science Fiction,” among others.  I talked up A Sword Into Darkness, REMO, and Riding The Red Horse, gave away a few copies and a bunch of postcards and business cards, and made and renewed contacts galore.  Not only did I touch base with Chris, I also met fellow indie superstar Ian J. Malone, Baen Slushmaster Gray Rinehart, Intergalactic Medicine Show Editor Edmund R. Schubert, Baen Editor/Publisher Toni Weisskopf, and authors Clay and Susan Griffith, Gail Z. Martin, Jacqueline Cary, Christopher Garcia, and Misty Massey.  It was a great time, not least of all because my little Gabster came with and impressed everybody with her involvement and her last-minute cosplay.

It was tons of fun and inspired me to hit the keyboard hard so I can finish Demigod, write Lancers Into The Light (ASID 2), and put out even more shorts in 2015 than I did in 2014.  They also inspired me to get my name out there more.  So, even though I’m probably a day late and a dollar short, I’ve sent in queries to guest or panel at a bunch of area conventions this year.  I have no idea how many (if any) will say yes, but here’s what a 100% attendance schedule would look like:

  1. MystiCon, Roanoke, VA – February 27-March 1
  2. ROFCon, Virginia Beach, VA – February 27-March 1
  3. MadiCon, Harrisonburg, VA – March 13-15
  4. RavenCon, Richmond, VA – April 24-26
  5. BaltiCon, Baltimore, MD – May 22-25
  6. ConCarolinas, Concord, North Carolina – May 29-31
  7. LibertyCon, Chattanooga, Tennessee – June 26-28
  8. Con-Gregate, High Point – North Carolina, July 10-12
  9. DragonCon, Atlanta, Georgia – September 4-7 (Yeah, right, this is like San Diego Comicon East)
  10. Capclave, Washington DC – October 9-11
  11. HonorCon, Raleigh, North Carolina – TBD – October 31-November 2
  12. AtomaCon, Charleston, South Carolina – November 13-15

I don’t know if any of these might say yes, but I may attend some of the closer ones regardless.  I’ll definitely be attending RavenCon.  It was just too much fun last year.

All in all, a pretty good weekend after all.  Thanks, Chris!