Next update August 15
Back from Comic Con, and boy are my arms tired! You know, because I was signing lots of books and stuff. (Sorry, guess I’m still suffering from jet lag or something.)
Seriously, though, SDCC was great. Crowded, busy and hectic, but great. I was able to meet many, many fans at my signings, where we gave away copies of Darth Bane: Path of Destruction and advance reader copies of Children of Fire.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get into any of the panels. With the massive crowds, you need to spend literally hours in line to get in to the “big ticket” stuff, and I just couldn’t swing it. The problem with working the show is that you don’t always have time to enjoy it as much as you’d like.
But I still had a great time. I got to touch base with Tricia Narwani, my editor for Children of Fire (and for the first Mass Effect novel). I got to meet lots of other great folks at Random House and Del Rey – some old friends and some new – who are working to help make Children of Fire a (hopefully) huge hit. And I was able to brush elbows with several literary superstars at the Random House authors event. I’m an author, but I’m also a reader and a fan of fantasy and science fiction, so having the chance to meet some of the legends of the genre was a lot of fun.(Not to drop names, but Terry Brooks, George R. R. Martin, Brandon Sanderson and Christopher Paolini.)
In case you’re wondering, everyone listed above was very gracious and friendly, as were all the other authors, editors and other folks at the event. That’s the great thing about all the Cons I’ve been too – everyone is there to enjoy themselves, so we mostly do. That’s why it pains me to say that my plans to go to Gen Con this year have fallen through. I’m sure it would have been great, and the timing was almost perfect – only two weeks before the official release of Children of Fire. But it also falls very close to my annual sojourn to Canada to visit family and friends, and I would have been exhausted if I tried to squeeze it in.
But I do have some good news about various Cons. To make up for missing Gen Con, it looks like I’ll be going to NY Comic Con again this year in October. Children of Fire will be out by then, so I’m sure we’ll have signings set up for folks to come by and get my autograph on their copies.
So is that going to be your first chance to get an official signed copy? Maybe not – I’m also looking at going to LoneStarCon in San Antonio at the end of August. Haven’t worked out the details yet, but I’m hoping to do some signings and maybe even be on a panel or two.
This year LoneStarCon has also been selected to host WorldCon, the annual gathering of the World Science Fiction Society and the place where they give out the Hugos, one of the biggest awards in literary sf/f. In case you’re wondering, Children of Fire isn’t elligible for this year’s awards. And I doubt it will be on next year’s ballot – my writing style doesn’t usually win awards. (I’m an unashamed hack.) But you never know, right?
Speaking of Children of Fire, we’re just over one month away from the official North American release. It’s funny, because as CoF is heading for the shelves, I’m in the processes of finishing the manuscript for the second book in the Chaos Born trilogy, The Scorched Earth. Obviously, I can’t talk about The Scorched Earth yet, but I can talk about Children of Fire. And I did, at Comic Con. With Matt Staggs, from Suvudu – go ahead and click on the link to watch.
Okay, I guess that’s it for now. Still feel like I’m recovering from SDCC – a great event, but the crowds really take it out of me. Hopefully I’ll have some more cool stuff for you with the next update in August.
Drew