Sunday, November 17, 2013

Windycon . . . one week later

So I had a fine time at Windycon last weekend. Got to meet Jim C. Hines, a fine fantasy author, hear him read a story, and get his autograph on my copy of Libriomancer. While I sort of prefer his "Princess" series, in which Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty team up to do battle against evil in a fairy tale kingdom (as others have said, it's Charlie's Angels with swords and magic), I do recommend Libriomancer highly, and can't wait to read the sequel.

Speaking of books, I bought a bunch! As I always do. I just need to get through one more of my library books before I can start the new October Daye book, Chimes at Midnight, by Seanan McGuire, an urban fantasy series that I enjoy greatly.

Went to two good panels: One on interstellar commerce, which produced lots of ideas for things that other races might trade, which will be useful for my Foxe stories, since the Aligned Worlds is mostly designed to facilitate interstellar trade more than anything else. The other was, "Should you self-publish?" And I think right now the answer for me is still "No." I still want to find an actual real-life publisher, mostly because marketing my work, which is the bulk of what you have to do when you self-publish, isn't really in my skill set. And as noted SF writer Eric Flint pointed out, when you're marketing your writing, you're not actually doing your writing. And when readers find an author they like, they want more, soon—or they'll go find someone else.

Other thoughts:

I planted my flyers for the site on the "freebie" table. Not sure how many con-goers (if any) picked them up, but it's the start of an experiment. I've got Capricon coming up in February.

On that note, I'll be posting the next chapter of Prodigal Son later today. Onward!

Also, I'm working on a new series—another urban fantasy story, with automatic weapons. And I'm looking for friends to read chapter one and give me feedback! Please?

Thanks for reading.

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