Captain’s Log Con Nooga 2024

All packed up and waiting for my ride home.

As usual, I spent more than I made, and that was just on food. Plus, I have 3 new necklaces and a new tiara.

Though I thought I was only on 1 panel, I ended up being on 2. Fairytales and Fantasy, and How to Sell Your Book.

I only had a space on Author’s Alley on Sunday, filling the spot left by Patricia Gilliam. (She had to head out Saturday night.) Still, it was a successful convention for me. I sold 4 books, and for the first time, they were all The Adventures of Pigg & Woolfe titles!

I also gave 1 copy of Pathway to Downfall to “Con Mommy” as I dedicated the book to her. I thought she was going to cry. She said she’d always wanted someone to dedicate a book to her, and I made her year. We’ve been convention friends for years now, and she’s a loyal reader and a genuinely nice person.

I forgot to tell her our vendor tables at HallowCon this October will be next to each other.

I failed to collect business cards in the dealer room this year, but I can get the info I need from the program app. I’m way behind, like a few conventions, on updating the Smugglers Cove and Hucksters Haven pages. I’m also behind on putting up convention albums on FB.

I learned a few new things for getting my books out there that I may try, time permitting.

Also, the Thing to Buy/Sell this year seems to be lightsabers. There were at least 3 vendors for that item alone. (Star Wars is the predominant preference in Chattanooga, but some Trek was represented.)

Jerry Harwood, director of the Writers Track

Captain’s Log: Chattacon 49

My table set up this year.

What have I learned this year? Tea blends are a BIG seller. I do not carry tea blends. One of the neighboe booths did.

I sold one copy of Blood Curse: Waves of Darkness Book 1. My only sale the whole weekend, but that made this a successful convention in my mind. Thank you for the pity purchase, Rich. I’ll take any sales I can get! I did get some interested browsers, and author cards were taken. Hopefully some audiobook and ebook sales will come out of this weekend.

I had one panel on Saturday; Homegrown: Writing from Our Roots, along with Louis Herring-Jones, Phillip K. Booker, Mel Todd, and moderated by William Joseph “Hillbilly” Roberts. It was fun to learn I wasn’t the only one who participated in bottle rocket battles in the woods as a kid. The panel was about how we use our experiences, aspects of places we grew up, and people we know or knew in our writing.

Late Saturday night featured the “Chattacon Choir,” a very hammy group-sing of Bohemian Rhapsody and Paradise by the Dashboard Lights. Both singers and audience participated in the performance while in varying states of sobriety or the lack thereof, over emoting, heckling, and pantomiming lyrics.

Think if MST3K did this live with a large group.

I finally got to hear how this tradition got started many moons ago when the convention was still held at the Chattanooga Choo Choo. The first time was a spontaneous event which spread throughout almost the entire convention. Now it is contained, for the most part, to the consuite.

I did get to talk with my second cousin, Mary Robinette Kowal (this year’s Literary Guest of Honor), before the convention ended Sunday. Took having to say which side of the family I’m from before she could finally place me. As I pointed out previously, we haven’t seen each other since we we little kids, several decades ago. We had a nice, if short visit. Both of us were getting ready to leave.

I plan on doing a table again next year, though I still have to pre-register for it.

I got some progress made with various projects while manning my table. I made a good start on writing episode 45 of The Adventures of Pigg & Woolfe. I also finished my first round of edits/revisions on Maelstrom of Fate: Waves of Darkness Book 7, which I plan to release in October. I moved that up from November, because I hope to attend HallowCon this year.

I also did a new pencil sketch of Belladonna. It felt weird drawing real world again. You can’t zoom in on a screen to fine tune details with real pencil and paper like you can on a drawing app. Since the sketch involves full frontal nudity, I will not share it in this post.

I might put it on her character page. I haven’t decided yet.

Convention Season Is Now Open

Chattacon is coming up this weekend!

I only have one panel at 4 pm Saturday. The rest of the time I will either be at my table in the Dealer Room or wandering around the convention.

I’m looking forward to meeting a second cousin I haven’t seen since a family Christmas get-together at her grandmother’s (my great aunt) when we were kids. (I’m talking late elementary to early junior high ages here.) Mary Robinette Kowal is this year’s Literary Guest of Honor.

While I do have them ordered, I will not have copies of Pathway to Downfall: The Adventures of Pigg & Woolfe Season 3 available at this convention. I have yet to find a way to get Amazon to expedite delivery service on authors’ copies of books. The best they would tell me is between the 10th and 20th. I ordered them the last Tuesday in December.

I will have a full allotment of the five titles currently available in my Waves of Darkness series. My restock order from Ingram Spark is out for delivery. In fact, the UPS truck is currently at the house across the street from me as I write this.

I also have a new 4-tier book display rack! I’m finally going to look like a professional book seller.

If you’re going to be in the Chattanooga area this weekend, stop by the Doubletree Hilton and join the festivities!

Con Prep Underway

LibertyCon fast approaches. My schedule of obligatory panels and activities is available now on the Appearances page. I still need to look over the programming schedule to see what other panels I want to attend and figure out when to visit the con suite for food. I am also getting my book inventory ready and prepping the other sundries I need to take with me.

Meanwhile, the June episode, The Adventures of Pigg & Woolfe: Episode 30 Divided Forces Part I is available on KDP. You can find the link for it on the main page for the series or the page for season 3.

I’m trying to get out of my writing slump and have made some progress on season 4. I’m still in mid-season on episodes, though. Not being allowed to take my MS to work with me anymore to scribble on during down time has really put a knot in it. But, the job pays the mortgage and bills, not the writing. I need to get season 4 fully drafted before the end of the year. Then I can concentrate on plotting and drafting book 9 in the Waves of Darkness series.

Chaos Partially Organized

Here there be treasure!

Interesting thing about this promo pic: it got the attention of several book reviewers on Instagram. Problem is, they’re all wanting to be paid for reviews. Sorry, but that is against my personal ethos. You want to be paid to review books; get a job at a publication that features book reviews. You want to be paid to READ books; become an editor, proofreader, or slush pile reader. Paid-for reviews are viewed as extremely suspicious by most of the authors and publishers I personally know and interact with.

I finally got the Smugglers Cove and Hucksters Haven pages sorted out. I still haven’t added the cards I collected at Con Nooga, but all the links are in the right place now. A lot of vendors got migrated to the new Comics & Collectibles page.

LibertyCon is coming up soon. I will update the Appearances page this weekend with my schedule. For those who have tickets, I look forward to seeing you there. For any wanting to go but without tickets, unfortunately, the convention has been sold out since last summer.

In somewhat unrelated news: I recently watched a pleasantly bittersweet movie on Netflix called Living. It stars Bill Nighy. For those of you who are fans of Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern books, his face was chosen by the people who commissioned me to create the face card illustrations for Antiquarian Boardgames’s Dragon Poker companion game to their Pern LARP as representing Masterharper Robinton. By the way, Mr. Nighy has a very pleasant tenor singing voice.

Captain’s Log: Con Nooga 14

Always take a picture of your badge. If you lose it, and someone turns it in, you can claim it without having to buy a new one.

Had a great time at Con Nooga this year. I didn’t expect to get table space on Authors’ Alley because of how late my application was. However, our authors are very supportive of each other. They made space for me. I even scored a rotating book rack for cheap to use next con. Only my Waves of Darkness 2nd editions will fit, though. The 1st editions and the Adventures of Pigg & Woolfe omnibi are an inch and a half too tall. I plan to pick up a tiered rack for them.

I did 2 panels on the writers track: Using Folklore and Publishing Horror Stories. We lost over half our audience on the second one. They thought it was about publishing horror fiction. Instead, it was horror stories from our adventures in publishing, both indie and trad.

I will be updating the Smugglers Cove & Hucksters Haven soon. However, it will not include all the new-to-me vendors. I ran out of time in the Dealers Room and didn’t get to collect cards on the last row.

One of the most useful panels I attended as audience was Guerilla Marketing, presented by the author of the Zombie Road series, David A. Simpson. Took LOTS of notes.

I sold 2 copies of Waves of Darkness Book 1: Blood Curse and 1 copy of The Adventures of Pigg & Woolfe Season Two: Turmoil in Tunilia. By the time this con rolls around again, I’ll have 3 more titles to offer.

I even ran into 3 coworkers. I have a feeling next year will be even better.

Finally, I’ve gotten much closer to getting past my stuck point in season 4 of The Adventures of Pigg & Woolfe. I’m almost done with the 6th episode of the season. I really need to get s4 wrapped up so I can get back to work on plotting book 9 for Waves of Darkness. There will most likely be a hiatus between seasons 4 and 5. We’ll see.

Housekeeping and Moving the Furniture

I’m a bit behind on maintaining this site this year. About a week after Chattacon I had a head cold. I refuse to say it was con crud, because I didn’t witness anyone with symptoms at the con. Nor did this set in immediately after. I most likely caught it at work.

Anyway, due to the lack of good sleep this caused, plus the book hangover of publishing the season 2 omnibus and the first season 3 episode of The Adventures of Pigg & Woolfe so close together. I had a hard time getting my publisher/author mind to focus on what next. When I realized I still haven’t added a purchase link for said episode (The Canary Has Flown) I also realized I really need to reorganize the Books and Short Stories pages.

I plan to change the page for TAoPaW to a series parent page and give each season its own page. Otherwise, readers will be scrolling excessively to find the most recent episode. I may do something similar for the Waves of Darkness books, as well.

I am going to start creating the cover for the next episode, Truth and Consequences this weekend. I have also gotten a head start on the season 3 omnibus, Diamond of the Mind, putting all the episodes together in one document. I still have to place some of the bonus material. Line art of the episode covers, which didn’t exist in a proper format for the 2nd season, is making a comeback for season 3 and will be added during final formatting.

I need to replace the cover on Amazon for Turmoil in Tunilia. Found a glaring typo on the back blurb, plus I want a better name placement on the front. The current placement looks to asymmetrical for my taste. Amateurish: which can hurt sales.

I intend to start on formatting and final edits on Black Venom this weekend. I actually finished the previous round of edits and revisions at the doctor’s office the day before Chattacon started.

Speaking of conventions, ConNooga is just around the corner. While I didn’t see the sign-up form for the writing/literary track in time to secure a hallway table spot and a full programming schedule, I did manage to get on a couple of panels: one Friday and one Sunday that weekend. The convention is at the Chattanooga Convention Center, February 17-19. If you don’t catch one of my panels or see me wandering the con, I’ll probably be hanging out with Con Mommy at the info desk. That’s where I’ll park my book bag while visiting the dealer hall. I don’t have a dealer badge, therefore I will NOT be pushing my books in there. I like this con and don’t want to get banned.

In other housekeeping news. Maybe I’ll get finished taking down the Christmas tree. It’s been up since 2021.

Finally, for those of you who haven’t seen it on my other social media, I did my very first drawing of Hezekiah Grimm. I’m surprised I haven’t drawn him before, considering he’s one of the characters who have been in my head since 2006. I’m still not satisfied with the portrayal. He needs to look more weathered, given how long he’s been at sea.

Captain’s Log: Chattacon 48

This was a particularly good year for everyone in the Dealers Room. While I still didn’t make table (never have, to be honest), I came close. One more book sale would’ve put me over the top.

Of course, I spent that on other things before the convention was over: some new necklaces, a sassy cat figurine, a new tiara for my collection, and started rebuilding the McCaffrey portion of my library.

Please ignore my dishevelment

I was on 3 panels Saturday and touched base with Jerry Harwood about getting on panels for ConNooga next month. I’ve also secured a table for Chattacon 49 next year.

The masquerade was a blast this year, if a little lighter on entries. The Syrens of the South put on a fun show during the judging intermission, insisting on audience participation. This is why I stayed in the back of the room. I’m no longer flexible enough for bellydancing.

The cutest entries

I missed getting to hear the Molly Maguires. Sleep took priority. This meant I also missed the “Once More with Feeling” sing-along. Getting older sucks sometimes.

I was productive as well. I finally got the story flowing again on the season 4 episode of The Adventures of Pigg & Woolfe I’ve been working on a while. I’ve been trying to figure how to handle having some characters traversing Kathmandu on foot to avoid their airship being detected. I also did a new character study of Belladonna. I’m not pleased with the upturned face portion of it. That is still a difficult angle to get right.

I do like the 3/4 angle one, though.

I think that’s it for now.

All Aboard! Prepping for Chattacon!

Chattanooga’s oldest SFF convention is about to leave he station. Chattacon runs January 13th (FRIDAY THE 13TH) to the 15th at the Doubletree Hilton. This show’s been running since just before I turned 10. (Do the math.)

While I will have copies of all three Waves of Darkness titles currently available and all of 3 copies of The Girl Who Fell from the Sky: The Adventures of Pigg & Woolfe season 1 omnibus, I will not have copies of Turmoil in Tunilia: The Adventures of Pigg & Woolfe season 2 omnibus. I published and ordered copies on January 3rd but will not receive them until about the 23rd. You can get copies on Amazon. I set the price at $10.95, but Prime probably allows them much cheaper.

I am updating the Appearances page with my schedule for the convention programming.

A Bumpy Ride

Silent Fathoms: Waves of Darkness Book 3 is now available for purchase.

This was not as smooth of a launch as I hoped, but it is done. I didn’t receive the eproof for approval of the print format until the last minute. Also, due to Amazon requiring a set number of days before the ebook going live to do a pre-order, it didn’t go live on KDP until today. It went live on Smashwords and Google Books yesterday, on schedule. I will upload it to GOATreads this weekend.

I will update the book’s landing page this weekend, as well. Purchase links will be added as they come available.

Meanwhile, I have to get this month’s episode of The Adventures of Pigg & Woolfe ready for next Tuesday. I also need to start stitching together the season 2 omnibus, Turmoil in Tunilia.

I have started the edits/revisions on Black Venom: Waves of Darkness Book 4, and I already have a wicked cover concept to submit to my cover designer for it.

No rest for the wicked. I have convention prep for next year to do, as well. I have to submit an updated biography and links to the newest books to Rich Groller, LibertyCon program director. I need to renew efforts to contact ConNooga’s head of the author/writing track to get on the program and get table space in the hallway. I need to get on the program for Chattacon (I already have space in the Dealers Room).

I do have the Waves of Darkness books I’ll need for Chattacon ordered, so no last-minute scrambling. The fun will be getting Pigg & Woolfe ready and in hand on time.

Now you understand why I’ve never bothered with NaNoWriMo. Oi.