Science fiction and fantasy authors stampede library!

Tuesday night, a herd of angry authors stampeded a local library and left only bricks and dust in their wake.

Well, okay, that's a tiny bit of an exaggeration.  Instead, in an event I mentioned last week, four of us sat behind a table on a small stage in a big room at the West Regional Library, talked about writing, and answered questions.

Practically the same thing.

Or not.

We were certainly a suspicious-looking bunch, a mob that seemed ready to turn surly at the smallest provocation. 

Click on an image to see a larger version.

As you can see here, going from left to right, Lisa is ready to throw down, Terry is carefully gauging the threat level of the audience, I'm (as usual) all smiles and unicorns, and Dave has zeroed in on the first person to go when the fighting commences.

Actually, we're all just listening to the next question, though my version of reality is way better.

I do have to wonder what was going through my mind when Gina took this photo.

That's not the smile I should ever flash a jury before answering, say, "What exactly are those bones we found under your house?"

I must note that we did not have to answer that question tonight.  Not that I would have trouble answering it.  Not that there are bones under my house, though it's always possible for a cheese-fry-stealing unicorn's corpse to be washed anywhere by the natural flow of groundwater.  I hope. 

To go back to the event, the audience actually outnumbered us by a rather significant margin, the conversations were pleasant, and it was great to get a chance to meet Terry Holt, a local writer I had not previously known.

I'm doing another of these next Tuesday, this time at the North Raleigh Library, so if you want to see that smile again, you might want to show up. 



Thanks to Gina for the photos.

Come see me Tuesday, October 1, at the Wake County West Regional Library

The redoubtable Dan Brooks is once again spearheading an SF/Fantasy author series for the Wake County Public Libraries.  Dan graciously invited me to take part in two of these events.  The first, which is also the first of the series, is this coming Tuesday, October 1, at 7:00 p.m. at the Wake County West Regional Library.

Click on an image to see a larger version.

As you can see, I'll be joining three other local writers--David Drake, Terence Holt, and Lisa Shearin--in this panel discussion. We'll be talking about genre fiction of various types, our writing processes, and so on.  We'll also field questions from the audience.

There may be unicorns.

Okay, no unicorns, but there will be other, similar panels during October, as you can see in this flyer.

If you expand the image and read carefully, you'll note that I'll also be taking part in a second panel a week later.  No need to remember that one right now; I'll remind you later.

Some of us may grab dinner nearby afterward.

After all, unicorns have huge appetites.

All rumors of unicorns are strictly that, rumors.  I don't know why we even mention them; they are notoriously unreliable, not to mention piggy eaters who won't let you finish a bacon cheeseburger unless they also have one.  Don't even get me started on them and cheese fries.  The pigs...I mean piggy eaters.  They hate being called pigs.  Hate it almost as much as not getting any cheese fries, though not quite that much of course.  Unicorns, they love them some cheese fries. 

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.

Yesterday's signing

was both successful and fun. As you can see in this photo, which like all the others here is courtesy of Gina, we even had our own fancy poster in the window. Pretty cool.

We also had a pretty large audience, right around 40 folks, which was also quite cool. Linda and Buck and Butch of the Cary Barnes & Noble did a great job making the event happen, and we owe them a huge thanks. I worked off some of my debt by buying eight books and a magazine as I was scurrying off to dinner.







Here's the whole writer gang, resplendent behind our table and with our store-supplied microphone. In case you don't recognize us, from left to right we are Dave, me, James, and Lisa.






For those who want solo shots, here's Dave


















and Lisa






















and James, all in glorious writerly action.













I, on the other hand, spent most of the panel trying to perfect my imitation of a cat that has just awakened to find its tongue stuck between its lips and a temptingly tasty microphone right in front of its face and in desperate need of licking.

No, I did not lick the microphone; we had to share, so that would have been wrong.

But, as you can see from the look on my face, I did consider it.

The Trouble With Demons

is the title of the latest book from local author and friend, Lisa Shearin. It came out today, and though it's not available in all our local stores (as Lisa's blog mentions), you can get it on Amazon. I'm far enough behind on my reading that I haven't yet read her previous novels, but I plan to do so, and I have enough faith in her that I've already ordered the book. Check it out.

Lisa's doing something interesting on her popular blog: she's encouraging her fans to order their books this week in an attempt to make The New York Times bestseller list. I honestly have no clue if this strategy will work, and I don't think I have enough fans to try it on my own, nor am I sure I'd feel comfortable doing so, but I think it's an interesting attempt, and so I ordered my copy today. (Sorry, Lisa, but I went for only one.)

As I think I've mentioned previously, Lisa and I, as well as my close friend David Drake and new friend James Maxey, have a group signing on June 23rd at the Cary, NC Barnes & Noble. I'm not sure yet exactly what we'll be doing, but I am positive that it will reek of awesomeness--and, if enough folks show up, and if we can cover the kids' ears, maybe I'll tell you (my friends already know) what the cat did to me.

Yeah, it's that kind of story.

Backing up your work

As I was catching up on fellow writer and friend Lisa Shearin's blog, I noticed she discussed backing up your work. She gave her rituals and noted that they probably weren't particularly obsessive. I have to agree, and to make Lisa more certain she's not alone in her paranoia, I thought I'd review my own backup strategies.

I put each day's work in the following places:

* on the hard disk of the system on which I'm writing it (of course)
* on each of three separate USB keys (because I can)
* on my home server (unless I'm on the road), which is a RAIDed box with multiple disks

On a weekly basis, I copy my work to the following places:

* my main home system
* some remote storage my Web site host provides

Each time I change computers, which is often (you don't even want to know my whole computer setup; it would just make you jealous), I copy all work in progress to it.

Now, do I consider these many copies obsessive? Not at all. I wonder only how I can streamline these processes, automate them so more copies are available.

My goals are simple: when some piece of my tech infrastructure dies, I don't want to waste any more time than is absolutely necessary before I am up and writing again, and I never, never, never want to lose any work.

Tonight's signing

was, at least in my experience, pretty darn successful. Between the three writers we brought a total of 11 friends, but the rest of the audience outnumbered us and our friends. The panel discussion ran the full hour, and the audience grew over time--which is definitely an improvement over shrinking while you speak. My fellow panelists, Lisa Shearin (who really made this happen) and James Maxey, were entertaining and gracious. The Barnes and Noble folks were as nice as could be and had a lot of our books in stock. The audience members asked good questions and seemed genuinely interested in the answers. My friend and the senior SF writer in the area, David Drake, showed up from Chatham County and provided interesting commentary.

I think everyone there had a good time.

I don't know how many books the Cary Barnes & Noble sold, and that is the ultimate measure of the success of any such event, but I'm hoping it's a decent number.

After the event, the 11 of us in the writers and friends/families group retired to Gypsy's Shiny Diner for dinner and further conversation. No one booth there could hold 11 people, so we split up, but we all still managed to chat a reasonable amount.

I had a good time and would definitely do other signings with these folks. Maybe next year, when we'll all have new books on the stands.

Doing a signing tomorrow: come on by!

At 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, September 9, 2008, which is tomorrow to me and today to most of you reading this, I'll be signing at the Cary Barnes & Noble with local fantasy writers Lisa Shearin and James Maxey. Lisa and I had lunch once, and she was a fellow Compton Crook Award nominee. She's also the one of us who deserves the credit for making this happen. I haven't met James, but I look forward to doing so.

If you're in the area, feel free to drop by, chat, and even buy books (though that is, of course, optional, it's always in good taste at a signing).

I should also mention why I consider Tuesday to be tomorrow given that my computer claims that it is 1:16 a.m. on Tuesday. The simple answer is this: tomorrow doesn't start until I go to bed and then get up for the day. Thus, if I pull an all-nighter, a whole day never gets to be.

Some of you may view this as a very Mark-centric view of time, but fortunately for me, I'm Mark, so it all works out.

I hope to see some folks tomorrow. Tonight, I have more of Overthrowing Heaven to write.

We're all a bunch of neurotic babies

"We" being writers, of course. It's true. We all necessarily get obsessed about the worlds in our heads, we all want everyone to love us (who doesn't?), and as a group we labor in the hopes of reaching goals that become meaningless if we even stray near them.

Sold a book?

When's the next one coming out?

Earned out?

What about the sales of the next one?

Made a list?

What about the bigger list?

Etc.

I'm amazed anyone puts up with us.

This and other topics, by the way, were part of the long conversation that Lisa Shearin and I had over lunch today. We hadn't met before, but we both live in this area, we were both Compton Crook award nominees, and we're both in the very early stages of our writing careers, so meeting seemed the natural thing to do. I also felt it only fair to share a little of the award money by buying lunch. Lisa is serious about and focused on her work, and I wish her all the luck in the world.

For the other nominees--Joe, Sandra, and Patrick--if we're ever at the same con and you're interested, I'm buying lunch.