It’s been a busy month!
I’m out the door, on my way to Y-Con in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, as soon as I post this. It’s my third time at the Con and it’s always a great time. Last year I did a talk on Creativity – where it comes from and how to wrangle more of it – and it went so well that, this year, they want me to do another in a bigger room. This means I’ll be up on the event main stage tomorrow, rambling on about Theme in Creative Fiction, what it is, how to create it intentionally, and why the heck you would even want to go through all that complicated work. It’s very “brass tacks”, practical, and intends to clarify an often murky subject. Hopefully, it goes well. However it turns out, I know I’m going to have a fantastic time, sell lots of books, and have the opportunity to meet a bunch of new, amazing people. Maybe even make some fans.
May was filled with a mixed bag of occurrences for me. I had to bow out and cancel going to CaperCon in Sydney last week. It would have been a 5 hour drive and there were too many things wrong with my vehicle to take the chance on such a long trip. I let them know early, so they could have lots of time to find someone to take my place, and the event coordinators were incredibly understanding and gracious. Even so, I was really disappointed I couldn’t go. Last year, Sydney proved to be a hot-spot for horror fans and it was great to connect with them. Next year, vehicle willing, I’ll get another shot at it.
I did a High School Book Faire in New Germany. Not to sell books, but to be a sort of “live specimen” author. I brought my typewriter and did free mini-stories based on prompts the kids gave me. Managed to kick out well over a dozen in the 2 hours I was there. The kids were thrilled and mystified by the typewriter. It was nice to give them an example of creativity in action, and show that making a living off of daydreams was possible.
Last night I managed to sneak out to a book launch by another local author, N.L.Blandford. She writes thrillers and was promoting the first book in a new series. It was nice to be able to support another indie author, and the fact that the launch was at a distillery didn’t hurt.
I’m still editing away on Shunt. Should be done in the next two weeks. I’m setting the launch date a bit back from what I’d originally intended. Partly to give it time to send off to advance readers, and also because I want it to pair with an event I’m organizing. If you want to be on the Advance Reader team, shoot me a message. As for the event…
I’m proud to announce that I’m organizing a ONE DAY MINI-CONVENTION in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia on Sunday, August 3rd!
It’ll be tiny but mighty! Bridge-con.ca is where you can find the details. The website is bare bones at this point, but information will fill in as we get closer to the event. So far I have several vendors planning to attend and over a half dozen authors lined up to sell books and do readings. I’m working on getting my old Atari 2600 setup for old-fashioned tournaments, and I’m hunting for gamers to run some Dungeons & Dragons and other tabletop games during the day. There will also be a cosplay parade opportunity! The whole thing is free admission. It’s shaping up nicely, and I’ll be doing my big book launch for Shunt to coordinate with the event. Keep an eye on the webpage for details, and I’ll share more about it in next month’s newsletter.
That’s all I’ve got for now! I need to rush out the door and drive 2 hours to Yarmouth so I can set up my booth and sell some books tonight! I hope everybody’s enjoying the warming weather, staying safe wherever you are, and finding those happy little moments where you get to be creative! Until next time!
Jude