Myths and Legends Con

With great anticipation I loaded up my car Friday afternoon and headed for the Myths and Legends Con on the northern end of town. After a white knuckled drive up I25, the one road I am terrified of, and sitting in traffic for an hour and half, I finally pulled into the parking lot of the hotel.

I arrived in time to meet Chris and walked with him inside. He pointed the way to registration and I got my badge, checked into my room, and took my luggage to the fifth floor.

I also discovered I had a table to sell my books. Lucky for me I brought them, along with dragons to give away. I didn't set up Friday night, but I spent the time catching up several other authors. I had two panels. One was on who our favorite Doctor was and who our favorite hero in Harry Potter was. Not many attendees which was nice since we included them in the discussion.

I retired to my room and edited the beginning of my next novel, Thunks in the Attic. I actually slept. I rarely do when I'm at a hotel. Awoke in time for breakfast, which was free and ate with two con goers who recognized my name as one of the authors.

Saturday began with one very early panel on Alien biology. Afterward I checked out of my room, partially repacked my car, and then set up my table. Visited with a new author friend Ashlyn, who I discovered lives not far from me. Am excited and plan to get together with her soon.

I sold two copies of my novel Winter Awakening and one of the anthology Of Fur and Fire. My stock is getting a bit low and so I need get a few more copies. I normally don't because my publisher and I attend the sames cons. I'm also thinking of getting a minion. More on that at a later date.

Talked with my collaborating author Julie, caught up with Peter, Chris, Quincy, Kathryn, Guy, Sam, and several others. A few members of my filk group were there as well. They came by and said hello.

Had to leave early because I worked on Sunday. I was scheduled for one panel that day but Ashlyn covered for me. I'll have to find out how the panel went. It sounded like a good one. Sex and Violence in YA novels.

All in all. A very successful con. Had several authors asking what my next editing project is. Told them they'd have to wait until MileHiCon to find out. I even had one author approach me and want to be included. I'm very stunned, thrilled, and happy at the weekend outcome.

Twists and Turns

Been a busy weekend for me. I managed to edit two stories for Supernatural Colorado and added a chapter to my book Winter Emergence. The latter I will be copying on my thumb drive, taking it to our local filk,in a couple of weeks and running it past my two young adult beta readers.

Since work has me a 'busy' project, I have mental time to plot so I'm working on my book  and coming up with some interesting twists, including who is going to die at the end. I'm not sure how my readers are going to react to the characters' deaths. I'M not even sure how I feel about it.

I also sold two copies of my first book Winter Awakening to co-workers. I don't actively solicit. I just tell folks I'm a writer and if they express an interest, I offer to sell them an autographed copy. Not everyone takes me up on it, but a few accept.


 

Bridging the Gap

I had an unexpected weekday of last week so I arranged to meet with my two teen collaborators. We sat at their dining room table with me on my lap top and them on their ipads. We had a great time doing research of various animals and plotting out the final book, which will help with the first four in the series. When we finished we had all the species for the first four installments and a very good idea what power our bad guy has.

I can't wait to get started on this young adult series. I've even decided to see if I can market it to a large publishing house, instead of a small one, even though the very idea scares me. Still, I know the market is looking for good books. Better still, it will appeal both girls and boys, the latter rarely finding anything they actually want to read.

What I've learned from tutoring is that boys lag far behind girls in reading. While I don't mind writers catering to the female audience, the male one has been largely ignored.

Hopefully, this will be a series that bridges the gap.