Roh Morgon's Blog, page 12

As promised, here's Part 2 of my 2011 World Fantasy Con adventures:

Saturday – Day 3

One of the events in which I'd hoped to participate was an Author Reading, but the half-hour reading slots were filled by the time I found out about it. However, once the con started, there were a number of cancellations, so I was able to pick up a spot. Since I hadn't planned on doing a reading, I needed to spend time figuring out what passages to read and practicing to be sure they fit within the allotted 30 minutes.

Which meant I missed most of the morning sessions.

There was one panel session I had no intention of missing, though. It was called 'Founders of Steampunk,' and included John Berlyne, K.W. Jeter (he coined the term 'steampunk'), James Blaylock, and Tim Powers.

The panel was awesome. I laughed as former college buddies, Jeter, Blaylock, and Powers recounted the escapades of their younger years and how they carved their own paths outside of the literary norm. They were a kick.

Founders of Steampunk panel at 2011 World Fantasy Convention 

That evening I sat in on a reading by Connie Willis (her session immediately preceded mine). She read from a light-hearted sci-fi piece about a dysfunctional family – it was pretty funny. The room was full, and as her session ended and attendees filed out, I wondered if I was going to be reading to an empty room.

I was prepared for that because I was a late addition. Besides, who knows me anyway, right?

But to my surprise, two women stayed and were soon joined by a third. We chatted for a moment, and I asked them why they were at my session, since I'm an unknown. They said that's precisely why they were there, and they liked listening to new authors they hadn't heard of.

I was pleased that they chose my session to sit in on, and I think they enjoyed the excerpts I read from Watcher. They all thanked me, and I thanked them for making sure I didn't have to read to an empty room!

After the dinner break, I hung out for a little while with Stephanie and Elena, then headed to the art show reception which ran from 8:00pm – 10:00pm. There were poetry readings and more panel sessions that lasted until 11:00pm, and by then the half-dozen or so parties were in full swing.

Publishers use conventions like WFC to host launch parties for their authors, and it was interesting to circulate through the different suites to catch a little bit of everyone's excitement.

I finally headed to bed around 2:00am (again).

Sunday – Day 4

I didn't attend any of the Sunday morning panels, preferring to sleep in and get my stuff packed up and out of the room (my checkout was noon).

View from my balcony on the tenth floor

The awards banquet started at 1:00pm, and as I wandered around the room looking for an empty seat, I stopped by the Ace/ROC table. I was told half of the table was open to anyone, and as I debated on taking a chair, I spotted the name tag of one of the folks sitting there smiling at me.

Patricia McKillip.

OMG. She only wrote my favorite fantasy series, The Riddle-Master Trilogy, starring one of my all-time favorite characters named Morgon.

I sat down.

Of course, I had to tell her this and she smiled and nodded her head. I felt very fangirl (though not for the first time at this con!). Her husband, poet David Lunde, sat between us and smiled as we talked – what a doll, and so supportive of her.

Afterwards, they graciously consented to have their picture taken with me.

Patricia and John McKillip

As I was leaving the banquet, I ran into Nancy Holder again and we chatted a bit. She's so cool!

Nancy Holder

All-in-all I had a great time and met some awesome people. Next year's World Fantasy Convention will be in Toronto.

I recommend going.

I recently attended the World Fantasy Convention in San Diego (Oct 27 – 39) and thought I'd share a few of my experiences with you. First of all, I learned the difference between business-oriented conferences (8:00am to 5:00pm) and network-oriented conventions (10:00am to 2:00am+).

Yeah. I prefer conventions – those are my kinda hours!  And the parties…  

I also met up with fellow writers and bloggers Stephanie Loree and Elena Sodolow. We ran around the con together off and on, attending some of the same sessions and parties. It was nice to have someone to hang out with. 

Anyhow, here's what my first couple of days at WFC entailed: 

Thursday – Day 1 

WFC didn't officially start until 3:00pm on Thursday. I attended several evening sessions, including one called, "How to Survive the Coming Zombie War." One of the panel members was Nancy Holder, an author I recently met at a Yosemite Romance Writers meeting. Nancy is the co-author of Wicked and author of many novels and book projects set in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Saving Grace, Hellboy, and Smallville universes. 

As you might guess from the title of the session, the discussion was lively and we all laughed a lot. 

Friday – Day 2 

One of the more interesting sessions I attended was called, "The Crystal Ceiling." Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse series (aka 'True Blood') and Nancy Kilpatrick, horror writer and editor of multiple dark fantasy anthologies, were part of the panel. The topic addressed the bias that still prevails in publishing toward women in everything from pay to promotion dollars. It was a bit shocking to listen to evidence of this archaic attitude in an industry where value should be placed on the written word and not on the gender/race/beliefs of who writes it.

The highlight of the day (well, one of several, actually) was listening to bestselling author Neil Gaiman read selections from his poetry and short stories. His voice is mesmerizing – in fact, he sounds very similar to British actor Alan Rickman (though not quite as deep-voiced), even down to the cadence with which he speaks. He's like the rock star of literature. Yeah. Wish I had a tenth of his brilliance.

I missed the later session with Neil and the very funny Connie Willis (hopefully someone taped it). Connie has won multiple Hugo and Nebula awards (in fact, she may possibly have won more awards than any other sci-fi writer). She was the toastmaster for WFC as well, and kept us entertained any time she was on the stage.

A most amazing thing – to me, anyways – happened Friday afternoon. I had planned to meet with Suzy McKee Charnas (author of one of my favorite vampire stories, The Vampire Tapestry) after her scheduled reading, but the reading ended up being cancelled. I wandered into Neil's reading, and just as I took a seat, I looked down the row and sitting just a few chairs away was Suzy. Now, you have to understand this was a huge hall, filled with several hundred people. The chances I'd sit in the same row just three seats away from the person I'd most hoped to meet were pretty astronomical.

I'd like to think Fate might've had a hand in that. Or maybe it was a couple of vampires from the ether-world stepping in to make sure we met. Either way, it was pretty cool!

After Neil's reading, Suzy graciously spent the next half-hour talking with me. She offered very helpful advice on the industry and writing in general when I asked her, and I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation. Writers who've spent decades in the publishing trenches are an amazing resource, and she was one of several with whom I was fortunate enough to spend time at this convention.

Friday evening was devoted to the autograph session, a WFC tradition in which everyone can participate – even indie authors like me!

 So I unexpectedly had my first book signing event for Watcher! Sure wish I'd known about it in advance…

Fortunately, I'd brought flyers to hand out and a few copies of Watcher with me. I enjoyed talking with the folks who stopped by and did actually sign a few things – flyers, programs, and a copy of my novel a fellow insisted on buying (I wasn't registered as a vendor and wasn't allowed to sell any books at the signing – but we managed it anyways). It was pretty cool to sit there with my stuff and my little placard with my name on it. I almost felt like a real author!

I shared my autograph table with writers Sherwood Smith and Diana L. Paxson. Diana's known for her Westria series and for her collaborations with Marion Zimmer Bradley in the Avalon series and it was awesome to spend time chatting with her.

Sherwood Smith and Diana L. Paxson

At one point I managed to slip away a few times to gather autographs and have pictures taken with a few of my favorite authors in attendance: Suzy McKee Charnas, Steven Erikson, and Neil Gaiman – no pic w/ Neil, though   .

Suzy McKee Charnas

Steven Erikson and Ian C. Esslemont

When I found Tim Powers at his signing table, I told him that his novel The Stress of Her Regard was one of my favorite vampire stories and that I write vampires as well. We had a few very silly moments when he insisted on getting MY autograph. I, of course, completely blanked out and couldn't think of what to say when he requested I personalize my autograph, and he kept teasing me which made it only worse. I had trouble keeping a straight face while his wife took our photo together.

It was one of several memorable experiences I had at WFC, and I still chuckle when I think about how my mind went blank when he said, "Now, don't just write 'best wishes!'

Tim Powers

The day ended with several parties that went into the wee hours of the night. I finally crawled into bed around 2:00am.

Part 2 tomorrow…

Now available from:

Amazon in paperback and Kindle ebook formats

Smashwords in multiple ebook formats,

including iPad, Kindle, Nook, Sony, & Kobo

Barnes & Noble – for the Nook (coming soon)

Apple – iBooks (coming soon)

If you'd like an autographed copy of the paperback,

please contact me.

Today is a special day.

For those who know of my obsession with the number 9  and its connection to Watcher, today is a nine-day.

For those who don't know what the heck I'm talking about, add up the digits in today's date: 10-04-2011 -> 1+0+0+4+2+0+1+1 = 9.

But it's more than just a nine day.

It's a birth day, and a day to celebrate the achievement of a personal goal.

Today is the birth day of Watcher: Book I of The Chosen, after a nearly three-year-long gestation.

And today I am an officially published novelist.

An author I recently discovered (and have no idea how I've missed his work) is Tim Powers.

For those who aren't familiar with his name, he's known for an award-winning novel called The Anubis Gates. Oh, and a little story adapted as a film in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise by the name of On Stranger Tides.

I've only read one of Tim's books so far, an older one titled, The Stress of Her Regard. It's a paranormal twist on the lives of the great Romantic poets, Byron, Shelley, and Keats. I'm constantly on the lookout for vampire stories in which the vampires are a little different than the standard Dracula model, and this novel really fits the bill.

In my pursuit to learn more about this writer of secret/alternative histories, I discovered a project of his on Kickstarter titled "Last Call," which is also the name of another of his award-winning books. The goal for their fundraiser is to raise enough money to film a scene from the book to be used for pitching to Hollywood (my son in the industry calls this a 'tone piece.')

Now this is a very cool project, and in fact, since I've become aware of it, they've raised over half of the amount needed to make the short film.

Kickstarter is an innovative fundraising tool oriented toward artist of all types. This is how it works:

The artist develops a proposal to raise funds for a project and pitches it on Kickstarter. The artist sets a dollar goal that must be met by a specific date. Donors pledge varying amounts and receive a variety of perks in return.

If the dollar goal is met, the donors' credit cards are charged their pledge amounts. If the dollar goal is not met by the declared date, no one is charged a dime and the artist goes home.

Pretty simple.

In fact, it's such a cool concept I think I might try it. My son, his business partner, and I are putting together a proposal to raise money for a book trailer for Watcher. I'll keep you posted.

Writer L. M. May  blogged last week about several Kickstarter success stories. Maybe I can be one of them.

In the meantime, visit Tim's Kickstarter page and kick in a little $$ to help his project out.

On another note, I'm attending the World Fantasy Convention in San Diego next month (more on this amazing convention later). Tim Powers is going to be there, and I'm hoping to be able to meet him!

Milestones.

We all have them, both personal and as a society.

The biggest, of course, is the ten-year anniversary of 9/11. I won't go into it here, but do want acknowledge the impact of that event ten years ago on the entire world.

For me, this past week had several. A couple were personal, one affected a small segment of society, and one had ramifications for a larger segment, and in fact, affects society as a whole.

Milestone #1 ~ I'll start with the smallest one, the one that is mine.

I uploaded my very first book to CreateSpace – and they accepted all of the formatting!

Now those of you who have yet to attempt self-publishing may not realize how hard this is.

Uploading is the easy part. Just fill in a few fields in the online form, click a few times, and voila! Your book is uploaded and in the queue to be vetted for formatting errors.

The hard part?

Book designing.

Holy crap. I'm not going into details (I'll save that for another post), but trust me when I say there is more that goes into putting together a professional-looking book than you'd ever realize.

Then there's the cover.

Now, I'm no artist, not by a longshot. I do have someone working on the cover (I should say 'covers – because this book is the first in a trilogy). But the artwork isn't done yet, and I need to get review copies out.

So this is the cover I've come up with (for now) for my Advanced Reading Copy (or ARC):

It's not great, but I felt it was better than a plain white one.

So yeah, in a few days, I'll be cradling my first book in print and probably crying when I think of the journey that brought me this far.

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Milestone #2 – Two year anniversary of the final Nine Inch Nails show (which I was lucky enough to attend)

Although this is a very personal one for me, it's also a milestone for NIN fans. Rather, it's the anniversary of a milestone.

NIN and Trent's music played an important role in my writing of Watcher. His quieter, introspective stuff really helped set the mood for many of the scenes in the book. And so this anniversary, so close to the release of Watcher, is one I needed to acknowledge.

Here's one of my favorite songs that form part of the backdrop for Watcher:

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I feel fortunate that I was able to be part of NIN's final farewell.

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Milestone #3 – Another final farewell…to Borders

Yep. Our local Borders shut its doors this past Monday. Finis. Done.

Borders was more than a bookstore in this community. It was a gathering spot, a bit of literary culture in an area that distinctly lacks much culture of any kind. People would hang out and read, or visit, or share info in the Seattle's Best cafe at the back of the store.

Our writer's group, the Fresno Sci-fi & Fantasy Writers, held monthly Open Mic nights there. Other events surrounding book releases drew fans of all types, from Potterheads to Twilight Moms.

It was a happening place, and on our rare nights out, my reading friends and I would eat dinner and go hang out at Borders. Not a bar, but Borders. Because, after all, it was our love of stories that drew us together in the first place.

Now how cool of a bookstore is that?

Over the past month or so, I've been stopping in there weekly and buying books at ever-decreasing discounted prices. It's been a bit of a trip down memory lane, as my close circle of reading friends have moved away one-by-one, and the last time we were all together was over a year-and-a-half ago.

So my weekly visits have been with great sadness as I mourn the loss of those evenings spent sharing excitement over the latest books, as well as the loss of the gathering spot that allowed us to do so.

I've felt like a bit of a vulture picking at a carcass that wasn't quite dead, and it got worse with each visit.

My last trip there was the day before they closed their doors permanently. Books were discounted down to 90% of their marked price, and then they announced all books were 10 for $9.99.

A buck apiece.

The feeding frenzy increased, and by the time I left with my armful of books, the bones were almost picked clean.

I felt ill.

Not only was it the closing of a community icon and gathering point, it was also representative of the changing industry and the lightspeed transition to e-books.

As much as I as an author will be benefitting from these changes, I still mourn the loss of the bookstores. I know that our Borders is only one of the thousands of bookstores that have closed up shop over the last few years as they crumpled beneath the heavy tread of Amazon. The e-book revolution is only hastening their demise.

I made one last visit to say goodbye to an old friend. I don't know why I was drawn to the body, its paper flesh stripped from the bones of its shelving beneath its concrete skin.

But I had to see it. I had to see that it was dead, once and for all.

I have my memories, and several shelves full of books I may never get around to reading. And morbidly, I also have a few bones, and will always think of Borders whenever I look at the two used bookcases in the spare bedroom that still have Borders tags on them.

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Goodbye, Borders. I'll miss you.

First of all, I'd like to thank Deirde at A Storybook World for this cool blog award:

Wow – can't believe how this summer is flying by – I mean, really fast, though maybe not this fast:

This is the US military's new unmanned Falcon HTV-2 (Hyperonic Technology Vehicle 2), touted to be the fastest plane ever at a top speed of  Mach 20, or 13,000 miles per hour.

13,000 MILES PER HOUR!

That's London to Sydney in less than an hour, according to this article in the UK's Guardian.

That's amazing. But what's even more amazing is that the military lost the plane 36 minutes into its test flight.

That's right.

Lost. The. Plane.

Millions of dollars in time, research, and materials, not to mention countless man-hours, literally vanished into thin air.

The Falcon HTV doesn't have a great track record. There were only two built: Falcon HTV-1 and Falcon HTV-2.

Last year, the Falcon HTV-1 was 9 minutes into its test flight when, according the Guardian article, the computers detected a problem and sent it into the ocean for safety reasons.

One vanished into thin air, the other at the bottom of the deep blue sea.

How cliche.

So much for the human attempt to break its own record.

To see how nature does it, watch this video of a REAL falcon diving, in which her top speed is recorded at 242 mph.

Will the Real Falcon Please Stand Up?!

Now that's more like it.

So, back to how fast the summer is flying by and what I'm working on.

I've got two projects right now – writing a novella set in the Watcher world, and publishing Watcher itself.

One of the things I've learned about self-publishing is that it means wearing many hats.  A lot more than I realized. In addition to writer, editor, publisher, distributor, and publicist, I'm learning to be a book designer.

If you're new to the industry like I am, there are all sorts of things to consider when you want to get your book out for public consumption. Not only do your story and your words have to BE good, they have to LOOK good. Here's an example of some of the challenges I've recently faced:

~ learning all of the details that go into designing a book…all the little details I've always taken for granted, such as what you want in the header and/or footer, where to place the page number, what to include on the copyright page, what font to use, acknowledgments, dedication, author bio…

~ deciding on a cool font to use for my title and chapter headings. OMG – there are thousands and thousands to choose from. But it's critical – an attractive title font goes right along with the cover, and helps make the inside part of the book look professional.  

~ realizing that all the best designed books use the title font for the first letter of each chapter. I only had to replace 65 of them by hand.  

~ pushing the chapter headings down the page so the first page of the chapter starts about 1/3 to 1/2 way down, and of course, at the same level as all the other chapters. Styles makes this easy if you've used them correctly. I discovered I hadn't. Doesn't sound too bad, but I have a prologue, an epilogue, and 63 chapters…  

~ adding extra pages at the end of certain chapters so that all of the new chapters start on the odd (right-hand) page – and the heading placement is the same as all the others. This is where I discovered that section breaks can be a real pain in the ass.  

~ fighting with styles and section breaks so that the header doesn't print on the new chapter pages (the ones with the chapter heading), but maintains the sequential numbering and the proper even- and odd-page header set-up on all the rest.  

~ discovering when I thought I was all done with the inside formatting that the first paragraph of a new chapter or a new section is NOT indented. Yeah, never realized that one. Not only do I have the  prologue, and epilogue, and 63 chapters, I have several section breaks PER CHAPTER. But not all is lost. I think I can fix this with modifying the styles so that I don't have to remove the indents by hand…without blowing up my whole document. I hope.  

Once the inside is finished (nearly there – I can almost taste it), then it's time for the cover.

Which I am NOT doing the artwork for.

No way. No how. Don't got that creative bent. Even my stick figures are lame.

But…I know peeps. And I got a peep working on my covers (notice I said covers with an 's' - Watcher is only the first of a trilogy).

In the meantime, I'm putting together a plain cover for a test run. I'm planning to print up a half-dozen proofs as review copies for some special readers I've been holding in reserve.

But what that means is that I still have to put together a temporary cover layout, which includes front, back, and spine.

When that's done, I'll convert it to PDF, hopefully maintaining all of my painfully-arranged formatting, and hand it off to my indie publisher, Dark Dreams Publishing (more on that later). 

So…that's what I've been up to during this rapidly-passing summer. I just wish it would slow down to falcon speed and not try to be a Falcon HTV.

But it may a bit late for that – too soon I know I'll look back and say, "Where did my summer go?"

Hopefully I'll have more to show for my efforts than the memory of a vanished blip on a radar.

Yeah.

That's where I've been.

Deep in the story.

So deep that this morning when I was driving to work, thinking of upcoming scenes and additions to those already written, I realized I was driving to the WRONG FRICKIN' CITY.

On the wrong highway. In nearly the opposite direction.

Yeah.

That's what it's like to be in the zone.

Lost. Buried deep.

So wrapped up with the characters and their catastrophic lives that I have trouble extricating myself.

I can feel them in the background while I'm at work, or meeting social obligations, or with family.

Calling me. Begging me to get their story down and share with the world their angst and tragedies, their joys and loves.

The story I'm working on now is about Taz and how he became the unfeeling, distant bastard that he is. His music is mostly Coldplay (their more somber tunes), and his song is Amsterdam.

So…

My apologies to those of you waiting for workshop reports, or for me to read and give you feedback on your latest fiction.

I'll get to you – I promise.

But right now I need to go.

Taz is calling me.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch blogged today about the current state of the publishing industry.

If you write, and dream of ever being published (either traditional or self)  – you need to read it:

The Business Rusch: Third Quarter Blues

Then you need to think about the ramifications of Borders liquidation and Barnes & Noble shelf reduction.

But more importantly, you need to think about how you'll survive as a writer over the next several years.

For some, the adventurous and the brave, this may be a new Golden Age for writers. For others, those who fear to stray from what has been the publishing norm, you're going to need to hang on tight.

Looks like it's going to be a bumpy ride.

Yeah, when I look back on the last month and a half, that's what it was.

4 out-of-town workshops in 6 weeks.

1 work-related, 3 writerly.

Covered six states: Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Oregon, and Washington, as well as the Central Coast of California (I live in the middle of the state, several hours away).

Drove 3,500 miles in that time and logged over 65 hours behind the wheel. Loved every minute of it.

As for the writerly workshops themselves? Absolutely awesome.

The first one, June 6-11 in St. George, Utah, was the Professional Writers Workshop with sci-fi/fantasy writer David Farland. This workshop emphasized craft and storytelling and was phenomenal.

The second two were in Lincoln City, Oregon and given by Dean Wesley Smith (who's also written a ton of sci-fi/fantasy). July 9-12 covered Pitches and Blurbs, and July 14-17 was on Self-Publishing. We had a 1-day break between them, so I drove to Portland and picked up my hubby from the airport, then we did a little bit of touristy stuff.

Was it worth it? The money? The time? The wear-and-tear on my car and on my ass?

Hell, yeah.

Those three workshops have given my budding writing career a shot of adrenaline that will propel me light-years ahead of where I was two months ago.

I'll tell you all about them in my next several posts.

Stay tuned…