This week’s update is going to be all about writing, folks. So buckle in an hang on. We do mention tamales, though! So if conventions, writing, or delicious food is your bag, by all means, read on…
Shari and I spent this past weekend at P-Con, a Texas literary convention. This was absolutely a working trip for us, and believe me - we worked hard. We were there to meet with the folks at
, hang out with the guys from Cannon Publishing, and discuss the future with a good slice of the Alpha Mercs, and connect (or in a lot of cases, re-connect) with other writers and publishers that we know.There’s waaaaay too much to cover in detail, so let me hit the highlights.
First off, guest of honor Jacob Holo wasn’t able to make it because of health issues. Which absolutely suuuuuucks because I got to chat with him a bit at LibertyCon, and I was definitely looking forward to reconnecting over Warhammer 40K and other geekery. If you’re familiar with the Holos, though, you understand that they usually come in a pair, so we did get to say hello to H.P. Holo (a.k.a. Edie Skye). With only one Holo to go around, though, we had to share, which was a bummer. Ah well. Next con! Praying for you & Heather both, Jason.
The Alpha Mercs were representing at this con, y’all. We had
, , , , myself, Shari, , and Sarah Clithero all hanging out together. There was one point where I looked around the eight-top we had at the hotel bar/restaurant, and realized it was all Alpha Mercs. Plus, I think, Jim Curtis (a.k.a Old NFO), but frankly, we all love him so I’m going to claim him as one of our own.
The other six authors in the initial lineup are
, Wally Waltner, , Nethery, and . If a lot of those names sound familiar, it may be because Ross, Nethery and Pierce are all fellow Alpha Mercs. Oh, and John is one of the top-selling SF authors on Amazon. So… heck yeah? It’s strange to feel both excited and terrified. I mean, people pay to get that at amusement parks, but here I’m getting it for free! Just one of the many benefits of being a writer.Rac Press also announced that they’re going to be doing children’s books. Boys books, in particular, targeted at the 10-12 age range. The reason being there’s plenty of reading for young ladies these days, and not a whole lot for young boys. They’re looking for stories about kids having good, clean adventures. Given the absolute enthusiasm from a big chunk of the audience, and the number of authors who immediately started bouncing ideas off one another, I think they’re going to do pretty darn well.
I’m going to be one of the Rac Press guest editors for their 2025 anthology lineup, but yinz guys and all y’all already knew that. So let me just say that they wound up Saturday night with a tamale party, which is as delicious as it sounds. I was able to finally try a proper tamale with hatch chiles, and it was as delicious as I had hoped it would be.
While I’m doing a lot with Rac Press, I got kidnapped by Cannon Publishing to help man their table in the dealer’s room, and hang out with them for their “What’s New With Cannon Publishing” session on Sunday. Folks, I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to work with those guys. They’re a very different crowd from Rac Press, but we all wander around in the same circles. We authors tend to drift from one orbit to another as it suits us; and the editors at Rac Press, Cannon, Three Ravens, Jumpmaster Press, and other houses all talk with each other and help us find the best places for our stories and novels.
One of the Cannon folks I got to chat with is Mike Morton (Silent Violence), who is likely going to be my editor when I hand off my novel manuscript for Blue as Sky. I've been working on that for Cannon, and really started digging into it this month - more on that later. I also had the chance to let people know that if it that novel works out, I'll be writing more in that series, with a lot of really fun characters. Plus, you know, demons and zombies and warlocks n'at, oh my!
Hanging out with the rest of the Cannon folks was fun, as usual. James Copely is a delightful character. It was great fun chatting with him at the table, and hawking his novel (Path to Freedom, y’all, check it out) to passers-by. I got a chance to say hello to Jonathan LaForce, world-enowned tactical romance author (Hell’s Belles: Love and War Downrange) who is always fun to chat with, and talk classic rock music with Al Hagan (90% Death Rate).
Oh, I got kidnapped and rescued. Yeah, there’s video and everything! I’ll have to post it once it gets cleaned up. It was all good, happy fun with the Rac Press people distracting the Cannon folks at the end of their panel by pelting them with wiffle ducks and such so Ian of Rac Press could sweep in and '“rescue” me from their dastardly hands. I think he and James had a ball working together to plan that out. The two of them were practically giggling. Look for more in the Great Duck War to follow at future cons!
Lizz Yarbrough, my illustrator for Recall Notice, threw a copy of One October Night into the mix at the charity auction. Both
and I were there, so we were able to offer dual signatures to the winner. I also offered to Tuckerize (i.e, name a character after) the winning bidder. That ended up being a lovely lady who asked if she could be killed in a humorous manner. I've already got a rough outline for a story to follow Recall Notice, and the idea of inserting a literal red shirt vampire is just too good to pass up. So if you liked Eddie, Sasha, and Bruce, you'll be seeing more of them sometime in the near future. Well. Near-ish. I do have those two novels to finish…Let’s see, what else. Shari connected with
on a Car Wars anthology they’re working on, and handed out more business cards than you’d think. She really enjoyed the reading from Becky Jones (Academic Magic) as well. Meanwhile, I got to meet & say hi to Shami Stovall (Time-Marked Warlock), which was one of my goals.We both got to sit and talk with Amanda Spriggs (Moggies Back in Space), who’s goign to be a fellow guest editor for Rac Press; listen to Declan Finn read from Hell Spawn (outstanding book, BTW); and get to know the husband-and-wife team of J.L. Yarrow (Future’s Dark Past).
What else? Right! We not only got to hang with Steven "Kelly" Grayson, Shari & I won a stack of his books at the auction. I think she’s already halfway through them, Kelly, so, you know - write faster. ;-) It was wonderful to finally meet the delightful Sandra Medlock in person! We also got to meet a few new authors, including alt-history writer Joe Salem (The Big Ones) and Eddie Ferguson (Super Generation).
There was a lot more crammed in there. Shari and I were both talking shop pretty much from our first cup of caffeine in the morning until we were kicking off our shoes at night. A+++, absolutely would recommend. Especially once you see their guests of honor for next year. ;-)
The Business of Writing
A mid-week update on my three major commitments: to write, to edit, and to read..
Since I had a couple of flights back and forth to Texas, I packed both volumes of Arcane Carolinas: Folklore, Urban Legends, and Tales of Modern Weird from the Carolinas in my carry on bag. Well worth reading if you have an interest in Appalachian mythology. I really liked how they covered the geography and history as well as they stories themselves.
I’ve also started listening to the Haunted Cosmos podcast. The shows tend to be longer than I generally listen to, but it works well for some of the longer drives I’ve been making lately. It’s wonderful and fascinating to listen to modern and ancient mythology presented through a Christian lens, especially since that’s what I’m doing deliberately with Blue as Sky.
Speaking of which, I’m currently sitting at 36k words for that novel; 22k of which were written this month. My goal has been to do 1k a day for two months, and things are chugging right along with that. Having an rough outline and being able to write first thing in the morning helps a lot.
I got edits back for my Car Wars story yesterday, along with a peek at the cover for the story I wrote for the Five Second Rule anthology. More on those as that they develop, but the should be coming soon. Oh, and keep an eye out on for another interesting announcement about a podcast coming Real Soon Now (TM).
Other Stuff
Fall arrived while we were in Texas. The hummingbirds have left, which makes Shari sad. On the other hand, we’re talking to a shelter about a black lab mix who may come join us in the near future, which makes us both happy. We’ve also started splitting wood to full the woodshed. I may need to go find a fallen tree and generate more logs to fill it as much as I’d like, though.
On the non-profit front, we’ve been doing a lot of interviews for the pregnancy center, trying to find a new executive director. The bad news is that it’s taken a lot of time. The good news is that it hasn’t taken as long as we were afraid it would, so we should be announcing our new XD at our fall gala next week.
That’s about it. Now go on, git. Sit on the porch, enjoy the nip in the air early in the day, and I’ll see you next week.
Great to have met you and Shari in person. See y'all around the writing world.
Great to see y'all, as always!