Tuesday night's group signing at the Cary Barnes & Noble

Tuesday night, I joined four other local SF and fantasy authors--David Drake, Kelly Gay, Lisa Shearin, and James Maxey--in what has become an annual event, our group panel discussion and signing at the Cary Barnes and Noble. All of us had books that had recently appeared, and the store had them all in stock, so the timing of the event was great. I even got to see for the first time the paperback version of The Wild Side.

As usual, the crowd, which numbered something around 35 people, was a nice size, and the people acted interested and asked good questions.

We began by introducing ourselves and our most recent books. Here I am showing off (and flogging) No Going Back, whose lovely John Picacio cover always makes a great first impression.

As always, click on a photo to see a larger image. All photos courtesy of Gina.

After that brief bit of plugging, Linda Maloof and her fine Barnes and Noble team asked the audience for questions. Folks asked us about everything from Ray Bradbury to books we'd recommend, and from our writing processes to how much we altered our work to try to hit commercial demands. (In my case, the answer to that last question was a resounding "Never!" and then a bit of a rant.)

Here we all are watching James as he responds to a question.

I must be answering something in this next photo, but I appear to be trying to cast a spell on someone.

I really did, by the way, have a name sheet in front of me, or at least I think I did, but in all these shots I appear to be sitting in front of Lisa's. Sorry about that.

After we finished, we all signed books for those who bought them and generally hung out and chatted. I was pleased to see the store sold out of its (admittedly small number of) copies of both No Going Back and Children No More. Here's the audience dispersing as we moved into that phase of the evening.

My thanks again to Linda and her team. They did a great job with the event, and I look forward to repeating it next year.

Quick thoughts on Tuesday night's Barnes & Noble gig

(all photos courtesy of Gina)


When you're on a panel, it's often difficult to assess your audience's honest reaction, so I can say only that it seems to me that Tuesday night's Barnes & Noble event went well. (Of course, I'd prefer they spell my name correctly, but I'm willing to trade that for having a lot of my books on hand, which the store did.)

This is the fourth year we've done this event, so it now operates on a predictable pattern. We introduce ourselves and say what we write. One of our gracious hosts asks the audience for questions. No one offers any. The host asks a question. We each answer it. The audience warms up and start asking questions, and then we're off.


Tonight's queries addressed such topics as genre boundaries, the effects of ebooks on writers, writing processes, and so on. Not all of our answers were the same, but on balance they were generally more similar than different.

After the Q&A period, folks bought books and had us sign them.


In this photo, the signing has just begun--a moment that is easy to spot because it's the one time when Dave does not have the most people waiting on him.

Afterward, a group of us, mostly family, headed across the parking lot for dinner.

They've already asked us back for next year, and I expect we'll probably be there. As long as the others are game, I am.

If you're not busy Tuesday night (June 14)

In what has become something of a tradition, tomorrow night, Tuesday, June 14, I will join several other local SF writers in a group Q&A/signing session at 7:00 p.m. at the Cary Barnes & Noble. If you're not doing anything else then, drop by, chat with us, maybe buy a few books, and have a good time.

Our group started at four but now has grown to five: David Drake, Kelly Gay, James Maxey, Lisa Shearin, and I. The range of the fiction we write is fairly broad, but it all falls somewhere in the greater SF/fantasy realm.

Past discussions have ventured over a broad array of topics, including literary themes, writing processes, violence in fiction, and of course a significant number of fun but silly questions. Plus, there's always the chance that Dave (or occasionally I) will burst into an obscenity while holding a microphone in a busy suburban bookstore!

If you're not busy, come on by.