Early Edition: Stone Mountain Comic Con SATURDAY, Kickstarter Update, CONJuration Panels
A last-minute reminder about my final October show, the Kickstarter progress, and con panels in November
Many of you have signed up for my newsletter at events hosted by Charlie’s Collectible Show in Stone Mountain. On Saturday 10/19, CCS will host a comic convention from 11 AM to 5 PM. The event will feature voice talent you might be familiar with — Lawrence Bayne, who voiced Cable in the 1990s animated X-Men series and The X-Cutioner in the new X-Men 1997 revival, and Carey Means, who voiced Frylock in Aqua Teen Hunger Force. There will be cosplay showcases and trivia contests.
And of course, fifty-odd vendors, including me. :) I will have my usual books on hand (i.e. if you’ve bought only The Thing in the Woods or Battle for the Wastelands in the past you can get the other books in the series), but I will also have stickers based on the Thing cover and more information about my first Kickstarter. You can also come find out interesting ideas about the future of my respective series, other projects, etc.
If you can’t make it but are interested in getting signed books from me anyway, check out the Kickstarter for The Walking Worm below, which most of my books are now backer rewards…
Update on The Walking Worm Kickstarter
As of Thursday afternoon, the Kickstarter had thirty-six backers pledging $1,286, covering my planned production cost of The Walking Worm, the third novel in my “Long War” science fiction/horror series. Two of the many people who’d backed this past week picked the “Tuckerization” option to become characters. One of my college friends is now a town doctor and an Internet pen pal is a cult enforcer. There are only thirteen days left to raise money and I’d like to share the first run of the book (it won’t go into general release until February) with as many people as possible. I’ve revised the page on the advice on several authors who’ve used Kickstarter to fund books before, so take another look if you’ve already seen it. :)
What can you get if you pledge? Many of you have bought physical copies of the first two books in the series, The Thing in the Woods and its sequel The Atlanta Incursion, at conventions. If you pledge $30 you can get an unsigned copy of The Walking Worm delivered via BookVault or for $40 a signed copy delivered by me two-odd months before it goes on sale on Amazon, Kobo, etc. If you haven’t gotten the earlier books, you can get them (unsigned or unsigned) as rewards as well, either as part of a $70 three-pack with TWW or individually as add-on rewards for another pledge. If you prefer e-books or money is tight, a TWW e-book with an acknowledgement of you as a supporting donor is $15 and an e-book without that is $10. The Thing and TAI e-books are even cheaper in the add-on section, or you could get the three e-books together for $20. That option is convenient for people who don’t have access to an Amazon store but do have e-readers.
The only reward with a numbers limitation is the $75 Tuckerization award — a character based on you in the book — and there are eight of those left. Otherwise the only limit is that paperback shipping is limited to the US, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
And if your tastes run more toward fantasy than horror, I’ve plugged in the entire Battle for the Wastelands steampunk military fantasy as add-on rewards. Signed physical copies only, since the e-books are in Kindle Unlimited. Many of you have bought the first book Battle for the Wastelands or Battle and the prequel novella “Son of Grendel.” If you’ve gotten those but not the second book Serpent Sword, here’s your chance to get that book signed for $25, including shipping. All three books combined are $60, five dollars less than if you’d gotten them individually.
For those who’d like to support TWW or my career in general who aren’t interested in any particular perk, donating funds without expectation of reward is still an option. An author of grimdark fantasy who might not be interested in horror was one such donor, as was a former member of an Internet forum dedicated to alternate history and a family friend.
If you want to read part of it before you pledge, I’ve posted the entire prologue for people to read on the Kickstarter itself. Just scroll down a bit to see poor opiate addict Brennan Reeves having a really bad night.
CONJuration Panels 2024, November 15-17
Many of you started following me after seeing me and/or buying my books at CONJuration, an Atlanta fantasy convention that happens every November. I’ll be there again this year and, like in previous years, I’ll be on panels.
Here’s the list at the moment:
The Hobbit Movies: Not As Bad As You Think-Although many people derided the Peter Jackson Hobbit films, I actually enjoyed them. Benedict Cumberbatch is great as the dragon Smaug, and actually seeing the Battle of the Five Armies onscreen was fun. It was like the fantasy equivalent of the movie Gettysburg. Yes, Jackson went beyond the lore in places, but I had no problem with those. Saturday, 8 PM.
Adding Personality To Your Worlds-I’m on this panel with fellow author Lynette Bacon-Nguyen, whom I met at CONJuration in 2023 and with whom I’ve split tables at Days of the Dead and at one of Charlie’s Collectible Shows. This panel will discuss how to create engaging side characters in one’s stories. Friday, 8 PM.
Artist and Author: Collaborating On Book Cover Art-I’m on this one with fellow members of the Horror Writers Association Atlanta Chapter Marlena Frank, Kelley Frank, and Jessi Ann York. I’ve gotten a lot of compliments for the book covers done by artist Matt Cowdery, whom I met at DragonCon back in 2018. Here’s my chance to share what I’ve learned with everybody. Saturday, 6 PM.
Snape and Lupin In Canon: Character Deep Dives-Back in my twenties I wrote (or in one case co-wrote) two alternate-universe Harry Potter fanfics featuring these characters. In “The Wrath of the Half-Blood Prince,” Snape breaks with the wannabe Death Eaters as a teenager when Mulciber attacks Lily rather than her friend Mary Macdonald, setting up a completely different trajectory for his life and a very different First Wizarding War. In “Lord of the Werewolves,” various tragic circumstances (no details for spoiler reasons) force Lupin to swear allegiance to the werewolf terrorist Fenrir Greyback. It quickly turns into Valkyrie — the movie about the military plot to overthrow Hitler and the Nazi regime — only with werewolves. And it features an absolutely gloriously terrible (or terribly glorious) Duran Duran sex pun. Saturday, 1 PM.
I’ll probably get into how they represent healthy and unhealthy ways of coping with mishaps. Snape has a legitimately sucky back-story (he comes from an impoverished, broken home with a father heavily implied to be abusive, he’s bullied at school by James Potter and his Quidditch hooligans), but his response is to become bitter and unpleasant and vent his insecurities by tyrannizing middle schoolers. Middle schoolers who, if they knew the back-story, would have probably sympathized. Harry certainly finds James’ behavior horrific and confronts his father’s two surviving friends about it. Meanwhile, wizarding society treats Lupin like people with HIV/AIDS were treated in the 1980s and 1990s, but he largely avoids falling into the temptations of bitterness and vindictiveness. Ultimately he finds some happiness with a large friend group and a wife and son (although he nearly messes that up), while Snape went to his grave a vindictive hot mess driven by guilt and duty.
(The fact Lupin had a stronger and healthier support system in the Marauders and the Order of the Phoenix than Snape had with the Death Eaters and the well-intentioned but manipulative Dumbledore is another factor. Something else to discuss.)