ConStellation 5

Over the weekend of April 25-27 I attended ConStellation 5, the SF convention in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Like last year, I had a table in the dealers room to sell my books. This year I sold 33 books. It's about what I did last year, maybe a few less. That surprised me, since I didn't sell that many books at the other cons I was at last year. Still, I'll take any good surprise when it comes to my book sales.

I was also able to get some subscribers to my email newsletter. I should be sending out the first issue of the newsletter next week. It's not too late for you to join up; just enter your data in the boxes to your right and click "Subscribe."

New for me at ConStellation this year was that I did a panel on writing and publishing. The panel ended up being scheduled for Friday at 5 PM. Happily, several people did show up. I hope I was informative and helpful.

I'm trying to save money by bringing some of my own food with me to cons. Before I left I discovered that my old cooler, the one I'd had for about a decade and a half, was way too small. I paused in Augusta on the way up to buy a new, bigger cooler. Slight delay in arriving, but worth it.

The wind was howling on the way back, so I didn't stop to take any pictures. Maybe next time...

My next event is a book signing at The Burrow in Wichita on May 4. Since I plan to have a new book out next week, I doubt I'll blog about that signing. My next con will be ConQuest.

See you soon!

The Convention

I have a new short novel out! It features one of the main characters from True Friends. It's called The Convention; here's the blurb:

David Chalmers is attending Mo-Kan 2, a science fiction convention in Kansas City. He’s there because a national Doctor Who group has big plans for the future. During the con he meets fellow fan Lila Woodson and the members of another fan group, the Space Rats.

Will this convention alter David’s future? Will Lila win the costume contest? Should we be afraid of Doctor Who: The Wrath of Kroll?

The book is in print and ebook editions.

Writing Stats for March 2014

Here's the third "writing stats" post of the year, letting you know how my writing output is progressing.

I didn't have quite so much come up this past month than in January or February, so that's good.

The overall goal for this month was: 4 pages a day during morning and afternoon sessions, 5 days a week; and 4 pages during a morning session on Saturday.

In March I was able to write 161 pages. According to my numbers, that's 1 page more than the overall goal for the month. That's with missing a few sessions, too.

I blazed through a two works about about novella length. One was fiction, the other nonfiction. I have two fiction projects ahead of me. Their plot outlines suggest to me that they might be longer than the works I've been writing.

At the end of this month my con season gets underway. I expect I might lose some writing, since Fridays and Mondays are travel days. I'll just have to see how productive I am. This year has started slower than I thought it would, but I have written more on the new schedule than I would have under the old one. Overall, I think my writing progress is moving steadily forward.