Woohoo! Good times!

So here’s what I’ve heard from people who have been to SDCC “back in the day”: Phoenix Comicon now is what SDCC used to be like. It’s every geek’s happy place. You can move around freely. You can get in to see panels. And yet, there are still plenty of great artists and attractions and a freakin’ ton of cosplay. We had William Shatner and a bunch of other dudes visiting…honestly I didn’t pay much attention to the TV side of things because I didn’t have the time. But the important takeaway here is that Phoenix is fun and not overcrowded—at about 35K people, it’s not too big, not too small, but juuust right.

The argument I’ve heard is that SDCC is too dang big and the Hollywood types have sucked all the joy out of it. Now it’s insane to move around there and you can’t even get in to see the panels you want to see. Okay, I think that part of that argument is entirely valid. Though last year was my first year, I did see more armpits up close than I would have liked. I’m not expecting to enjoy a surplus of personal space this year, either. But there is something awe-inspiring about the size of the spectacle, the utter abandon with which people leave behind their attempts to conform to some perceived standard of normal and just geek the fuck out. It’s a place where you’ll be praised rather than teased for dressing outside of the mainstream…and get photographed a whole lot.

Despite the crush of the crowd, methinks SDCC has sorta reached pilgrimage status now for geeks and nerds and assorted dorks. “Someday, I gotta go there…” Well, it’s darn tough to get in, and I’m here to say that Phoenix is cheaper and really quite pleasant. It’s a very acceptable secondary pilgrimage. If you want to buy a fez and pose with a badass Hulk, this is the best place to do it.

Comic Accomplishment Unlocked: I scored 24 back issues I was looking for! I just need two more and hopefully I’ll find them at San Diego.

Fan Recognition Unlocked: I was just about to go all fanboy on John Layman, Eisner-Award winning writer of CHEW, when for the first time, someone actually geeked out on me. A loud voice behind me shouted, “Hey! You’re Kevin Hearne!” I turned around and spoke to this nice fella for a while, and when I was finished, John Layman had mysteriously disappeared. He may have sekrit powerz. I caught up with him the next day, though, so that was all good.

The popularity of Doctor Who really leapt forward in the past year. I think I remember two whole Who cosplayers last year, but this year there were many. And not just the Doctor, either—lots of companions and even some Daleks and folks dressed up like the TARDIS. Can you identify all the characters in the photo below? I love the Doctor’s Wife nestled back in there.

Other cool stuff! I got to hang out with spiffy artist Ashleigh Popplewell, who did this really spooky marker study for me of Vainamoinen and the sea serpent from HAMMERED—you remember that bit, where Vainamoinen summoned a serpent out of the fjord with his kantele, nothing but firelight to illuminate the scene?

I also got to meet Cody Vrosh, an illustrator who did a beautiful watercolor of Atticus and Oberon a few months ago. He and his wife are fans of the series and I’m fans of theirs. I’m hoping I can talk Cody into doing some more stuff.

The best bits were meeting readers and chatting with ’em for a while.. That’s something else I can do at Phoenix that I can’t do too much of in San Diego. Though I had a steady stream of visitors, there was never a gigantic line where I felt pressure to hurry the person along and get to the next one, so that was quite lovely—and I imagine that’s also a huge benefit for fans. Whoever you want to talk to, you can probably find ’em and enjoy a conversation beyond “Hi! Big fan!”

Okay enough o’ this for now…I have books to write and I’m finally free to do so. :)

Woohoo! It’s taken me a while to get to this, but I promised pictures from the release party of TRICKED, which we called Atticus n’ Oberon’s Sausage Fest. Held at Rula Bula, the Irish pub on Mill Avenue featured in the series, it was a completely spiffy gathering during which I got to hang out with some of my awesome readers. I won’t put up every single picture here because there are far too many, but if you’d like to see more than what I post here, please go to my author Facebook page and look for the album.

Quick business first: John Bonfiglio and Jenn from Tynga’s Reviews—you are #10 and #40, respectively, chosen by Random.org to be the winners of Shawntelle Madison’s COVETED! Please shoot me an email with your address so we can ship it out to you. Congratulations!

These pictures were all taken by Mike Ruggiero, the head honcho of Mike Ruggiero Photography. He does weddings and family portraits and all kinds of events…like Sausage Fests. Give him a call if you’re in Arizona and you need someone good.

Hey everybody—

I’d like to introduce you to a new talent on the shelves, Shawntelle Madison. Shawntelle is a wonderful person from St. Louis with quite a story behind her road to getting published. She was handpicked out o’ the submission pile by my own editor, Tricia Narwani, and her debut, COVETED, is now available. It’s a paranormal romance with a delightfully neurotic (yes, delightfully neurotic) heroine. Here’s the summary, followed by a guest post and giveaway by Shawntelle herself: SOMETIMES WHAT YOU COVET IS IMPOSSIBLE TO KEEP.

For werewolf Natalya Stravinsky, the supernatural is nothing extraordinary. What does seem strange is that she’s stuck in her hometown of South Toms River, New Jersey, the outcast of her pack, selling antiques to finicky magical creatures. Restless and recovering from her split with gorgeous ex-boyfriend, Thorn, Nat finds comfort in an unusual place: her obsessively collected stash of holiday trinkets. But complications pile up faster than her ornaments when Thorn returns home—and the two discover that the spark between them remains intense.

Before Nat can sort out their relationship, she must face a more immediate and dangerous problem. Her pack is under attack from the savage Long Island werewolves—and Nat is their first target in a turf war. Toss in a handsome wizard vying for her affection, a therapy group for the anxious and enchanted, and the South Toms River pack leader ready to throw her to the wolves, and it’s enough to give anybody a panic attack. With the stakes as high as the full moon, Nat must summon all of her strength to save her pack and, ultimately, herself.

Shawntelle: It’s amazing sometimes to realize what I’ve reached at this point. I’ve published a book. Yippee! But this blog post isn’t about what I’ve accomplished today. It’s what I’ve experienced in the past and what I hope for in the future. So much has happened in the past year. A year ago I was still waiting for my first book to come out. I’d completed edits and soon I was looking forward to copyedits and more. At the time I was impatient, I had no idea what was coming and how much work and stress would be waiting in the wings. It’s so easy to think, I can’t wait. I want my book out now. Well, now that I’ve had my book come out, I can say the wait is worth it. Rest up. Stock up on pain meds. Get sleep.

I remember back when I was in high school. I’d written a book in a folder than had pictures from my time in middle school. Life was a lot different back then. I was living in Perry, Iowa, a small town with a small library. At the time, I didn’t know their selection was small, but for someone like me who loved to read science fiction, it was perfect. After school I could lose myself in a book. I could sit and read Robert Heinlein, Harry Harrison, and more. My relationship with Stephen King’s books began at that time as well.

But what resonated with me the most were the books by Octavia Butler. They were incredible. I can’t recall the first one I read off the top of my head. I think it was Kindred. I loved it so much. I’d read nothing like it before. It was fresh. New. And I’d read a lot of books. I’d never read a book before where the main character was African. An African in a science fiction book! It was so awesome! After I read it, I devoured her books. I tried to find out anything I could about Octavia Butler. She was not only a fantastic author–she was a black woman. That to me was so inspiring. I’d written a little, but I’d never imagined I could be a writer. Hell, I’d aspired to be a surgeon. I was that high school geek who looked up careers in the counselor’s career book and picked the one that made the most money–the surgeon. It was all about the money. I guess I just couldn’t see myself being an author. I knew my writing wasn’t the best. I also didn’t have any relatives who wrote. No mentors to offer advice or help me along. I didn’t keep up with my writing in high school. I actually spent more time drawing and working with computers. (486 anyone?) After high school, I pursued a degree in math.

Fast forward a few years. It wasn’t until I began to write that I noticed there were other authors of color who wrote in the genres I preferred to read. They were just as amazing and inspiring as Octavia. The late L.A. Banks and Tananarive Due were some of the first authors I added to my collection.  I loved the romance that Leslie wrote. I thoroughly enjoyed Tananarive’s darker works. To be honest with you, I wondered how come I didn’t see more authors like them. Was that a sign I wouldn’t succeed? I learned that wasn’t the case when I got my literary agent and then a year later sold my first book in a two-book contract to Del Rey (It was later switched to Ballantine.)

I still remember the day when I visited Betsy Mitchell’s office at Random House. (She’s the former editor-in-chief. An amazing lady!) I was with my editor Tricia Narwani and we stood outside of Betsy’s office. At the time, I was so excited about the future. It was July 2011 and I was in NYC for the Romance Writers of America Conference. I still had many months until my book came out. As we talked, I revealed my admiration of Octavia. I learned from Betsy that she’d been Octavia’s editor. She’d edited her Nebula award winning piece, Parable of the Talents. Now that I’ve had time to think about it, it felt like things had come full circle. Octavia’s editor had read my book and thought my work was worthy of publication. She thought a geek like me had potential. (Makes me smile fondly every time I think about it.)

So, what have I learned from this wild ride? I always say, stay hungry to finish a book. I mean it. Persevere. (At this point, I’d say after you release a book you should take a much needed break. Zone out for goodness sake!) It’s all about your passion and the book. I was just as determined as other published writers to finish a book, edit that puppy, and then get it published. Anyone can do it. I still have to sit down and get to work in the next couple of weeks. The characters from another story are starting to get chatty. I’m tired, but since the muse has arrived, it’s time to get back to work again. I want to write more books. I want to write a story to stretch myself to write a good story that readers will enjoy—whether they like romance or not.

Are you that kid or adult who asked yourself, could I ever be a writer? Or an even deeper question, could I ever be an author of color? To that, I reply, “Oh, hell yeah.” But you gotta fight for it and you have to be prepared to trip and fall many times. I don’t have a degree in English (a degree in math hasn’t been too handy as of late) and my grammar skills can be quite lacking. But I do have are dreams and that’s something everyone has in abundance.

Thanks so much for stopping by to say hi! I’d like to offer two copies of Coveted to two folks who leave a comment. :)

Okay, I’m headed off to zone out again!

ZOMG! TRICKED is on the NY Times Best Seller List!

As you might expect, I am very sore from happy dancing, but I am also extremely grateful to my readers for embracing the series and making this happen. Thank you so much for reading and spreading the word!

Had a spectacular time at Atticus n’ Oberon’s Sausage Fest, the release party held on April 28. Met lots of spiffy people from around the country and wished I could have spent more time with them. I taught a couple of girls from Florida who had never thrown up the horns for a picture before how to rock out, sang “Fly Me to the Moon” in front of everybody, and received confirmation from all and sundry that Rula Bula really does have the best fish and chips anywhere. I would have pictures except that the picture CD I was sent got fractured in the mail; I’ll get the pics eventually and post them up on my Facebook page, never fear.

I’m writing this in a hotel room in Albuquerque; I met some wonderful people at Alamosa Books here yesterday. Alamosa is a fairly new indie store and it’s geared toward children and young adult readers, though they have an adult fiction section as well. Completely fabulous place, and I got some great questions from the readers there. If you’re in Albuquerque they still have a few signed copies of the series left.

FOR UK AND AUSTRALIA/NZ READERS

Some of you have noticed that TRICKED hasn’t been released overseas yet. I assure you that it is not an evil corporate plot to deprive you of Oberon—far from it!

The truth is that some artists—musical, literary, or otherwise—don’t ever hit it big across the pond. Some UK and Aussie authors never really get going in the US, and sometimes US authors don’t catch fire over there. That’s basically what’s happening here. For  whatever reason, the series hasn’t sold well in either region, even though it’s enjoyed some success in the US and Canada (see above). Those of you who have found me there have been utterly spiffy and I appreciate your enthusiasm for the books, but publishers are of course in business and need to support titles that grow their business. The way they look at it is, why should we supply something for which there is little or no demand?

There’s some hope. I do have a UK release date: May 24. The publisher is going to take a chance that the series will belatedly get some momentum going and make the financial risk worth it. So this is where I need your help: if you’d like the series to continue to be available in the UK, please tell all your friends to start reading it.

The same holds true for Australia, but even more so. I currently don’t have an Australian release date for book four. Not sure if I’m getting one or not, to be honest, though I’m trying to remain optimistic. I know there are some huge fans of the series out there, but from an accountant’s point of view, there aren’t enough. So, like I suggested to the UK readers, please tell your friends about the first three. Only when there is sufficient demand will a publisher supply the rest of the series. I’m getting zero publicity in Australia; I have to depend entirely on your word of mouth.

All authors do, by the way. If you like an author’s work and you’d like to see more, the best possible thing you can do to ensure that author will keep writing is tell your friends about their books. Write a review online. Press your copy into someone’s hands and stare into their eyes as you say, “This book will change your life or I will eat your socks with gravy.” That tends to work. And honestly, you hardly taste the socks if the gravy is good.

Thank you all again for reading about Atticus and Oberon and sharing. You’re tremendously kind and I appreciate it!