Just a quick note to those of you who would like to see some more of Noah Stacy’s artwork. He’s got a new Facebook page and some great stuff is posted here.

Cheers all, and enjoy!

That’s right, it’s DragonCon time, and with only three weeks between now and the big one, I’m all a twitter. Once again I am in the dealer’s room, hawking my wares. Getting a guest slot at this one has been a nemesis of mine. Several of my close friends have grabbed that particular golden ring and have gotten in on the show. Eugie Foster is once again a guest, as is Glenda Finkelstein, Tracy Akers, Jody Lynn Nye, Jana Oliver and many other wonderful authors whom I have met at conventions around the southeast.

Cheese Runners, and Cheese Rustlers CDs will be on sale at my table, as well as all my regular titles. The dealer’s room will be in the Hilton this year, which is the southern-most of the three hotels. If you are planning on being at the convention, please look me up, mention my blog and get a “special” price… heh heh…

I was hoping to have an announcement for Scimitar Moon, but that project has been put on hold. Perhaps we’ll have something in print by the end of the year.

I’m still working on Cheese Lords, the third in the Cheese Saga… Okay, so I need a better title for the trilogy…

Stay tuned for future events!

It has been so long since I’ve blogged, I feel there is a lot of catching up and some explanation to do:

Where have I been?

Well, busy, to say the least. Primarily writing, finishing up “Scimitar Moon” and getting it off to a prospective publisher. Well, we’ll just have to see if that tree bears some fruit. I hope to have some kind of news in time for DragonCon, which I am once again attending as a dealer. I’m trying to plan a little “Writer’s Night Out” for a few of the authors who are attending, so if you are a writer, and you’re going to DragonCon, drop me an e-mail and come hoist a few with your fellow writers.

Conventions have been taking up some of my time of late as well, with Mobicon, Florida Supercon, and Oasis all coming along at what seemed like a rapid-fire pace. Met some great folks at all of the above, especially impressed with Eugie Foster, at Mobicon. If you have not visited her site, please do. She is not only wonderfully talented, but a real worker. Her capacity for networking is astounding, and she is a great resource.

Some very interesting, and temper-testing panel discussions around the convention circuit, as always. One of the most contentious was a panel on “Independent Publishing” at Oasis. Four independently published authors sat on a panel with a traditionally published and award-winning author of about 50 years experience. This was rather like throwing oil and water into a bottle and trying to get them to mix. Although I respect his work, I could not accept his opinion that independent publication is “a horrible mistake” and “a sign that you’re not good enough to get published by a traditional publisher”. I see independent publishing as simply another avenue to breaking into the market, one that seems to be working better for me than sending out manuscripts to publishers to sit and never even be read in most cases. The sheer volume of slush is the barrier new writers are fighting (about 1000 manuscripts per month in most large houses, and they choose one or two). With these volumes, it is only human nature to simply start at the top, and find something that isn’t too terribly horrible, and go with it. That is what happens, and that is why I chose to publish my own work and get it out to readers, who will make the choice whether it is good or not.

The problem is, with 1000 submissions per month to root through, you can’t really blame the publishers for taking the short cuts. There aren’t enough readers, editors and marketers to really make a discerning decision given the allotted work load.

My solution: let the public make the decision whether something is good or not. After all, there are millions of fans out there really looking for something good, and I mean REALLY GOOD, to read. This is why the few new good writers dominate the book shelves; Neil Gaiman, for instance, who is a fabulous writer and deserves every penny he earns. Well, his first efforts were graphic novels, not exactly high literature, but he made a go of it, and suddenly he’s at the top of every list. He did this through very hard work, from the bottom up.

Wow, did I get off on a tangent, or what.

Well, there’s the catch up. I’m currently working on the third in the Cheese Runners saga, and preparing myself for Necronomicon, and a great writer’s workshop on Martha’s Vineyard called Viable Paradise. Both happen in late September and early October… In fact, they overlap one day… Yikes, I’m going to be busy… again…

Anne and I have a couple of friends, Skip and Lydia, who have recently retired and have spent the past two years preparing to go on the adventure of a lifetime. The adventure sounds simple: pick a nicely priced sailboat that needs a little work, put your heart and soul into it, make it your home, prepare every way you know how, and go sailing.

Well, they did it.

Skip and Lydia departed St. Petersburg, FL for the Florida Keys last week with a north wind and a reasonably good forecast on the horizon. Check out some pics of their dream on The Flying Pig website.

Then bad things started to happen.

Long story short, due to a bad turn in weather, exhaustion and a navigational error, they grounded their boat very hard on a reef just north of Marathon Key. They are physically okay, but the boat, and their dream, are both badly damaged.

Here is the part we all need to take a lesson from: Skip and Lydia possess the one thing we should all wish for, and that is the indomitable spirit. They are rolling with this punch, already planning repairs, refit, and how to resume their dream. This is akin to someone having their house ripped apart by a tornado, and they are back in the swing of reaching for that dream in a span of days.

That is nothing short of amazing to me.

Many would, under similar circumstances, simply give up. The financial setback alone is daunting, forget having to assess the damage, plan repairs, procure replacement equipment and materials, and do the lion’s share of the work yourself all while living on the very thing you are repairing. Imagine gutting your house down to the framing and studs, rewiring, replumbing, fixing structural damage, sometimes even removing and reaffixing internal walls, all while living in it.

This is the task they have set before themselves, and they are, once again, doing it.

I can only wish I had that type of spirit.

Skip and Lydia, you go.