This convention roundup, I think I’m just going to talk about what I’m grateful for.

The Library – The Library is Origins’ growing author track. We speak. We teach. We have tables in the exhibition hall. It’s a great program that adds to Origins. Special thanks to Kelly Swails who did a ton of upfront work.

R.T. Kaelin – Ryan is a local author who is nothing but generous and kind. He allowed a number of us to send him boxes of books and delivered them to the hall. That way, we didn’t have to fight with bringing them or shipping them to the hotel. It was a boon for sure. He talks about the convention here.

Dylan Birtolo – My awesome table partner. He is all energy all the time. I call him “Boothcake” because he’s a charming bastard who brings people into the Library. I appreciated talking and hanging out with him. He talks about the convention here.

Editors – Conventions are business meeting for me. I got to meet up with a couple of editors and to talk about some potential awesomeness. It was a very good convention for business. It really was. I appreciate my editors. They make me look that much better. It’s always good to have a drink or meal with them face to face.

Return/repeat customers – There were a couple of people who came to the table to specifically say that they loved my book or story. I’m even grateful to the guy who interrupted my lunch because he wouldn’t buy the book without me there to sign in and made my husband go get me. It’s nice that someone has that kind of interest in my work.

Panel attendees – I am so pleased that so many panel attendees came to find me after the panels to tell me how much they enjoyed them and how much they learned. I’m especially thankful to the 15 year old girl who wrote me a letter during the panel inviting me to read the first chapter of her book online and to tell me that we all inspire her.

The Husband – Of course, I can’t forget the fact that my husband, Jeff, helped out at the table. I let him go play a lot. That’s why I wanted him to come to Origins. But it was nice to be with someone at the convention who got me and could take over when I needed 5 minutes to myself.

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Sarah at conventions and publishing her in anthologies. I’m really happy she got to do this anthology with Alliteration Ink. She and I will both be at Origins Game Fair Library this next weekend.

---
If you’d told me two years ago that I would be editing my first anthology in 2013, I would’ve laughed at you, because I was a new writer with hardly any publishing credits under my belt. Two years doesn’t seem like much time to go from barely-a-writer to editor. But a series of events conspired to place me in the right place at the right time and friends with the right publisher. Steven Saus of Alliteration Ink asked me if I had any ideas for anthologies I’d like to edit, and I said yes! In writing, every door that opens leads to bigger (and sometimes better) doors, and if you want to make writing a career you have to diversify and try as many as you can. So I took a deep breath and opened the Editor door.

The idea for Sidekicks! came from the novel I’ve been writing since Summer 2012. The book is about a girl who is the quintessential sidekick, someone who is perpetually overlooked and continually underappreciated...even by herself. I wondered what other authors would do with the same concept. Why would anyone choose to be a sidekick?

The anthology was invitation-only because I’m too busy with a full time job and graduate school to deal with hundreds of submissions. I primarily chose authors I knew from writing groups and conventions, and Steven gave me a list of authors Alliteration Ink had worked with in the past. So if you’re an aspiring author and you’re out there wondering how to get on an editor’s invite list, the answer is to join a writing group and go to a convention or two. Networking is still surprisingly powerful in this day and age.

Sidekicks! contains twenty stories in a variety of genres. The authors we invited took the concept of the sidekick and really ran with it. We have a few of the stories you’d expect, about superhero and supervillain sidekicks, but I think you’ll find the trouble the characters find themselves in unexpected and entertaining. We also have stories about a telekinetic gun slinger, a dictator’s conniving brother, a stone-faced Martian warrior, and a kidnapping victim who takes matters into her own hands. We’ve got sidekicks who are female, male, people of color, soldiers, students, gay, straight, etc. Some of the stories are quite funny, and others are very serious, and still others are rather dark, so there’s a little something for everyone. We tried our hardest to answer the question of what motivates someone to become (and remain) a sidekick. I think the answer is different depending on which character you ask--but they all have their reasons. And they’re all good ones.

If you’d like to hear some of the authors from Sidekicks! read their work, we’ll be at the Whetstone Library in Columbus, Ohio on June 8 from 5-7pm (Facebook event here). To keep an eye out for future events or to ask me a question about this blog post, please find me on my blog, twitter, and facebook! Thanks for reading!

Sale: I just signed the contract for “A Nightmare for Anna” for a forthcoming anthology “By Faerie Light.” Sounds like it’s going to be a fabulous anthology.

Interview: Designer’s Diary: Savage Mojo – Shanghai Vampocalypse (Suzerain) - http://roleplayerschronicle.com/?p=35173

Publication: Happy new book to me! I'm very pleased with CHILDREN OF ANU, the second book in the Karen Wilson Chronicles. It was edited by the awesome John Helfers and the cover image is by Amber Clark of Stopped Motion Photography. The girl on the cover of the book is a representation of one of the villains in the book, 14 year old Victoria Mordecai.
 
Health: I started using Fitbit just over a month ago. Numerous authors talk about how a healthy mind contributes to a healthy body. I believe it. Thus, Fitbit. There's something in the awareness of movement and steps taken that make me want to do more. To improve. It's kind of like having a word count makes me want to write more. I've made a concerted effort to move more - number of steps taken and number of flights climbed. It feels good.
 
Freelance Gig: I've been working on a quiet freelance gig for a while. Now I can talk about it. Along with writing for the Shadowrun Returns kickstarter anthology with a story called "Lock and Key," I've been writing and editing on the Shadowrun Returns videogame. I'm loving the work even though it's hard and sometimes the hours are long. I really think those of you who like videogames will really enjoy it. I'm really happy to be working on it with such fabulous people at Harebrained Schemes.
 
Sale: Also in the Shadowrun universe, I've signed a contract to write a Shadowrun novella focused around a High Threat Response Team Doc Wagon team. Tentatively titled: A Day in the Life of a Lifesaver.
 
Convention: From June 12-16, I will be at Origins Game Fair as part of their Library. I will be appearing on panels and manning a table selling my books. Please come by and say hello. Get a book signed. There's a no shyness zone around me. Here's my list of panels:

• Thursday, 11am – Crafting the Love Scene
• Thursday, 12noon – Writing the Other
• Friday, 11am – Women Writing Horror
• Saturday, 10am – Good Guys Wear Black Hats
• Sunday, 10am – The Art of the Short Story
• Sunday, 12noon – Avoiding Pitfalls
• Sunday, 1pm – Writing Your First Novel

"Okay. That was fun. You guys enjoy game night. I need to get back to work if I want to play Pathfinder on Sunday." -Me, 8:30pm on a Friday night

Have some kitties.

I've backed this movie kickstarter because it looks like exactly the kind of thing I love. Toss in some of my favorite creators and how could I say no? They are very close to being funded. Here's David to talk about the awesomeness of working with creatives.

--
Why Blood Kiss?

First, thank you Jennifer for letting me guest blog, I feel honored to contribute here plus it's great fun. There's a sense of magic on this site. And that leads to Blood Kiss.

There's a sense of wonder and magic in the screenplay and the people involved. I want to help bring a unique story to life, and work with some of the most wonderful creative people in the world. Neil Gaiman, Amber Benson, Michael Reaves, Tom Mandrake and Daniela Di Mase are warm, funny, creative, and inspiring. Every day one of them says or does something that makes me think, laugh, and do better than I could before. Being part of a great team is key to having a successful project, and somehow I fit into this creative team. We blend our skills and make something new happen every day.

We all want to make the best movie possible, and that involves a lot of people, time, money, and resources. With such strong personalities there are differing opinions, and finding a middle way that works for everyone is a real challenge sometimes. Designing the campaign for Kickstarter took months, and everyone contributed. Because we believe in the project, the final version looks great and holds your attention. All the parts fit and help tell the story. In a sense it's a microcosm of how the whole filmmaking process works. Collaboration-Communication-Completion.

I'm a composer and love the Golden Age of Hollywood. Blood Kiss is set in that world and gives me a chance to update grand romantic gestures and spice them with creepy electronica. To do that takes money to hire live musicians. People are better than boxes. And more authentic. That means we have to raise enough money to hire great performers, string players and brass. In a project like this everything goes on screen and the more we raise the better our production values. Everyone knows what classic movies sound like and I have to create that sound. A real challenge. But with the support of fans it's possible.

Michael tried to get the studios to see the value in a new kind of character driven, glamorous Hollywood vampire tale. They didn't get it. But you do. We can do this together with your support. That's kind of amazing, that Michael's dream can come true, Neil gets to act, Amber can sing, I can orchestrate melodies, do things we really believe in and do well. With fans giving us the green light.

A big reason I'm part of Blood Kiss is that crowdfunding gives me a chance to to my best work, be creative in ways the old system might never allow. If we have great success, maybe we can even change the system a bit.

I'm grateful to Michael, Neil, Amber, Tom, Daniela, Leah, Dave, Dan, Tommy, and Fernando for doing amazing work. Please see their work at PledgeBloodKiss.com We're making magic here!

—David Raiklen, Producer/Composer, Blood Kiss

Here's the back cover copy for CHILDREN OF ANU. This book will be released on 1 June 2013.

I will be reading at the University Bookstore on 27 June with Kat Richardson and Lily Cohen-Moore. I know the post says it will be at the temple. That's wrong. It will be in the Bookstore.

I have now officially signed a contract to write a Shadowrun novella! Tentatively called "A Day in the Life of a Lifesaver." It will be about Doc Wagon 19.

That unexpected job interview from last week? I got the contract. I'll be onsite doing a short term contract writing / editing for an awesome RPG company. More details when (if) I'm allowed.

Mena is fine and frisky. She's on meds to help her ear. Her one month check up is on Friday.

As we celebrate Children’s Book Week, I thought I’d talk about when I discovered the magic of reading. Not that reading could bring you stories but that reading could transform your world and take you into a new world so deeply that, for a short time, you don’t realize you’re not there.

The book series that gave me this epiphany was The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper. It is a retelling of the Arthurian tale—as told through the eyes and experiences of an eleven year old boy and his friends. His friends included a girl, Jane.

I was nine at the time, living in Belgium, no TV, no real friends. My home was a 300 year old mansion complete with bell tower and escape tunnel (that I wasn’t suppose to know about but I did), and a backyard as big as a football field with an eight foot stone wall. It was easy to get into the books. I was already out of my element and looking for an anchor.

The tale told by Susan Cooper opened my eyes to the magic of reading the day I sat down to read “Over Sea, Under Stone” one afternoon and I came up for air only when I was called to dinner. I was dazed, still in that other world. All through dinner, I was torn between wanting to get back to the book and wanting to tell everyone about it.

In the end, I finished my meal, did my chores as quickly as possible, and went back to my room and into that other world without sharing. I knew the rest of my family would never understand. Except, they did. My parents, especially my mom, were always reading. From that day on, going to the library to get a new book (or five) was my special treat. Ransacking my parents’ library was high on the list, too.

I reread The Dark is Rising series about once a year. They are old friends that bring me comfort and joy with every page turn. It was this discovery of magic that eventually made me into the author I am today.

The whole concept of Geek Field Guide started with the idea of traveling the world and documenting regional and local martial arts styles for others who share our passion for that sort of thing. The idea quickly took on a life of its own, and grew as we assessed where our talents and passions overlapped that we could provide a more compelling project to a larger number of people.

Some background… Photography has always been a great passion for me, and I’d always felt restricted by technology. Using cheap 110 film as a child was a great learning experience, but the quality ultimately left me disappointed by the results. The 35mm point and shoot that my dad owned was a significant improvement, but it wasn’t something I could go play and experiment with due to the rather significant cost of the camera for my family at the time. It wasn’t until college that I took a photography course and bought an old fully-manual Minolta SLR that I really grasped photography as an art form.

The ability to present a view of the world with such carefully-tuned composition and exposure was a door flung open in front of me into a new world. Between my third and fourth year of college, I took a trip to Italy through the university and studied art in Florence (Firenze) for a summer. This falls under the category of Life-Changing Experience. This was when I realized that I was truly happy out exploring and seeing the world, camera in hand. But… You can’t make a real career out of that, right? So I went home, and continued down the path of life toward jobs that happen in office buildings. Fast-forward through over a decade of game development from QA to co-owning an indie studio, a couple years of finally giving in and taking up fiction writing (including one published short so far), and splurging to get a DSLR, I finally had the experience I needed to re-assess my dreams.

Working in an office was no longer a requirement to my subconscious after freelance writing and dev work. I’d spent enough time living in hotels that I found that while it is essential to have a home base somewhere, the amount of time I feel I need to spend there isn’t that significant. I realized that the time to put all the skills and networking to use had arrived.

As the idea for The Project (as we came to refer to it) became more concrete to me, I started reaching out to friends with varied hobbies and careers for feedback on what would be useful to them. The response was staggering. Finding good reference for the types of projects that geeks do for fun and profit can be extremely time-consuming, or sometimes impossible to find. Everyone I talked to wanted to see me try to make this project happen.

I'm a tech geek at heart. While I no longer get as excited about technology for the sake of technology, new hardware, software, and techniques for furthering my art will grab my attention every time.

For this reason, the increasing low-light capabilities of DSLR cameras (I prefer to shoot in natural light), portability of HD video cameras (such as the GoPro), and techniques such as photogrammetry (turning a series of perspective photos into a 3D model), leapt into my mind as ways that we could document the world in new and exciting ways.

We tried to capture a cross-section of these techniques in our promo video on Indiegogo.

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/geek-field-guide/

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

My schedule has hit a point where I have enough projects in the air that I need to work on several a day instead of my preferred: focus on one, get a lot done.  Most of it is editing projects in various states of editing.

I now have to portion out my time like this:

• 2 hours – Chicks Dig Gaming (edit polish pass)
• 1 hour – Anthology story (write)
• 2 hours – Jay Lake’s Process of Writing (edit pass)
• 1 hour – Email, reminders, schedule check, social media
• 2 hours – Pays-the-bills work
• 1 hour – Apocalypse Ink stuff

Once I have that done—I know it’s only 8 hours—if I want, I can go back to the anthology story. I’ll probably have this schedule for the next week. All of this needs to get done while dealing with vet visits, house cleaning, remembering to eat, laundry, exercising, etc…

I much prefer doing something like 6 hours on project #1 and 4 hours on project #2 each day. But, alas, deadlines conspire against me. So, while I’m not quite to the “juggling chainsaws” type of schedule, I am definitely juggling something. Maybe just knives.

Mena is home! She's eating, got a cream for her ear, and antibiotics. I'm really happy.

Also... 5 years ago, Jeff and I wed in front of family and friends. It's been fabulous and I am so happy. I'm looking forward to many more years to come.