Another first-time convention last weekend at the Wrath of Con, in Panama City, Florida, and let me tell you, a great time was had by all… perhaps too-great a time for some of the guests… Yikes….

We attended as guests, and had a great convention. Rick Albritton did a great job of organizing, especially for a first time convention. There were some great media guests: Jerry Doyle, Richard Hatch, Virginia Hey and Gigi Edgely to name a few. There were also some of us author types, and I was honored to meet David Wellington, a very accomplished writer of Horror and paranormal fiction. We had a great writers workshop panel along with small press publisher and author Bo Savino, and indi published author J. Edward Holmes. I so love doing panels…

Anyway, a good time and great people… What more could one ask?

Well done, Rick!

I was recently honored to be included as a literary guest to the first annual “Omegacon” March 14-16, in Birmingham AL. There were some growing pains, since this was the first, some organizational issues, some scheduling problems, but over all, this was a very good convention.

Over 3000 attendees, which is great for a first convention. The sponsors went into the red, because they had low ticket prices for the first convention to get interest, but this is about par for the course for a first convention.

For me, it was a smashing success. I got to do some panels with some of the biggest names in the business (David Drake, Eric Flint, Ben Bova, William H. Drinkard and more), spend time with some icon authors (Steven Brust). I also got to rub elbows with some great people from publishing: Editors from Tor (Claire Eddy and Liz Gorinksy), Pyr (Lou Anders) and Baen (James Minz) were in attendance and showed us their summer line ups (wow). There were also many small presses in attendance, both in the dealer’s room, and doing panels.

Many kudos to Shaun Knoph for heading up the project and taking the heat.

This was a great success for me, being the first large convention that I was not selling my own books, and was able to network. The hotel was huge, and things were a little spread out, but all told, a great success.

So put it on your calendar for next year. Omegacon is a hit, a good time was had by all. I will be there with bells on (jingle jingle)…

Wow…

DragonCon…

What a gas… I’m still recovering.

We got back to St. Petersburg at about 1:00AM Tuesday, and I had to go to work in six hours, so sleep has been a short commodity of late. I took a bunch of pictures of the fantastic costumes, and should have them up soon, but the real bonus of the trip was the great people I got to socialize with.

Tracy Akers, Michelle Weston and Sandy Lender, three great fantasy authors, shared drinks and tales of woe and triumph with us. Please visit their sites, they are very special and talented, and I hold them in the highest regard.

My dear friend Jana Oliver dropped by on a break from the Dragon Moon Press table and we talked about all the shake ups in Canadian Publishing… It seems things are just as crazy up there as they are down here. She was very excited to announce that the sequel to Sojourn will be out in October! WoooHoo!

As usual, I poked around relatively little, being welded to the dealer’s table. It was nice to have quite a few return customers, and some begging me to write faster, more and delve into the sequels for Weapon of Flesh and Soul for Tsing, both of which I have already outlined sequels for.

I got the opportunity to meet a fellow Herscher Project writer, Gail Martin, who is very excited about her upcoming release, The Summoner. She is published through Solaris, and this is her debut release. Way to go, Gail!

We took a lot of pictures, as usual, and I’ll have them up on the gallery as soon as I have the time to post them. A lot going on, in preparation for Viable Paradise, and Necronomicon in three weeks… Yikes…

Gotta go, but not before I would like to thank all of my fans who stopped and talked and spent their hard-earned cash on my books. You all are what keeps me going, and I’m not talking about the money.

You all know what I’m talking about…

Cheers!

If you ever have an opportunity, as a fan of science fiction and/or fantasy, you simply must make the investment and spend the four days in Atlanta when reality is rent and the wonderful insanity of DragonCon takes over downtown. Three sensational hotels in a row are completely overwhelmed by the almost 50,000 fans that go through the venue in the four days of the convention. I have gone twice, running my little bookstore out of the Dealer’s Room during the day and exploring during the off hours. I miss quite a few of the daytime activities, panels and workshops, but the nightime is almost as good.

The variety and scope of the fans and the stars, authors, events and announcements of upcoming events that they have come to see never ceases to astound me. The costumes are amazing, and most are hand made. Check out the huge number of photos on their site, or glance through the few that I have on mine. Now these are fans!

Besides these events, and the fantastic fans, there are opportunities to make contacts at these conventions that you cannot get anywhere else. Where else will published authors walk up to your booth and exchange books and hugs with you, having only met you by e-mail or in passing. Jana G. Oliver is a great author, as well as being one of those honestly “good people” you meet all too few of in this crazy business. Her work is some of the most imaginative and original I’ve read in years, and she really knows how to do her research. Do yourself a favor and visit her site.

Anyway, pardon my ramble, but I love this genre so much I just wanted to share it with you. After all, that’s why I’m a writer, right?

Well, I’m writing this from my guest table at Mobicon, and are we having a ball or what? This is a relatively small convention, the second year I’ve been here as a guest. There is something to be said for smaller conventions; they are much more personal, friendly, and everyone seems to know everyone. The people who put on Mobicon are the best, always asking if there is anything the guests need, which is why I will keep manking the eight-hour drive from Tampa to come here every year.

We’re making some great connections here as well. Bryan King, cover artist for Cheese Runners is also a guest here, and we have been brainstorming over the cover to the sequel, Cheese Rustlers, which is now in production. You will all see the tentative cover soon!

I’ve also been talking with one of the legends of Anime illustration, Steve Bennett. He has done work on such titles as Cat’s Eye, and the Urusei Yatsurya TV series, and Only You. He also, after a few drinks, can be coaxed into doing body art… with a sharpie. Yes, we had a good time last night…

Billy West, the voice of the original Shaggy of Scoobie Doo fame, Stimpy of Wren and Stimpy, many voices of the Futurama series, Duck Dodgers and many many others, was the media guest of honor, and let me tell you, he’s one of those personalities that is always perfoming. He’s got a million stories to tell, and not a single one in the same voice…

Well, that’s all for now. Got to get back to work… but this is the work I love!

Cheers all!

Chris

PS: Just had to tell you all, that I sat on a panel with Jody Lynn Nye, and was lucky enough to talk with her for some time. She is talented beyond words (there’s a pun there, I think) and is so very nice. Part of our conversation was the transition of new authors from self-publicaiton to small press, then eventually to big press. This seems to be one new path to a career in writing, but it is a long one. So, if you remember my advice column, you know to keep that day job!