In September, I had the joy of speaking at DragonCon, which is my first love of cons. Like this was on my bucket list for when I became a big time author. I’m not a big time author, not yet. I’m a minnow at best, but the lovely people at Dragon were happy to have me and I made a bunch of new friends, as well as getting to hang out with old friends. Some of my friends I never see nearly enough no matter what happens at convention. Immediately following that, I got a week off work because of Hurricane Dorian. That was exciting. I’m lying; I was bored out of my mind. I enjoy my job.
Before that, I got to do ConCarolinas, which was the first con to ever allow my little happy butt as a guest. Truthfully, if it weren’t for the fact I am pretty much immune to jitters once I start talking, I would find these conventions a little more frightening. As it stands, however, I have a way with words. (I’m a writer, who knew?) I had a fantastic time. I enjoyed my friends. It was all in all a great experience.
Coming up in November, I am going to ConJuration in Atlanta. Playfully dubbed Harry Potter Con, I initially thought I shouldn’t apply. That was before a friend asked me if I would help him run a Harry Potter based LARP for the con. I love LARPing and, even though my knowledge of Harry Potter could fit in a thimble, I’m all for let’s go throw spells at each other. After doing a little bit of discussion, I found out there was A LOT more to ConJuration than just Harry Potter. So I went ahead, applied, and was accepted. So ConJuration here I come.
On the publishing front, from the beginning of the year I focused mainly on novella length fiction. In fact, I produced a novella length piece a month for the first five months of the year. Then my life kinda fell apart and I realized I was burning myself out by producing so much while running a full time work schedule and doing a Shakespeare play. I performed as the Provost in Measure for Measure. It was a lot. So I backed off my publication schedule. I started a podcast recently, There’s Stories Everywhere. It’s been an interesting journey on that one. I’m trying to produce an episode a week, which hasn’t been too terribly difficult unless I wait until Friday to record at which point things are a little rushed and I feel as if I’ve lost my mind just a bit.
On top of that, I have a Patreon. If you haven’t pledged, I ask “What are you waiting for an engraved invitation written in blood and silver?” For a dollar, you can throw your two cents in on questions I ask periodically in poll form, enjoy the ongoing Weekly Side Story, and have your name in every ebook I write from now on. So go forth to my Patreon and pledge your dollar or more.
So since January, I’ve been a busy little bee. What have you guys been up to?