Muse-day Tuesday: ConCarolinas 2010

Long time no blog?

What's up with that? Well, I could make excuses and talk about being under the weather (*cough* still am... don't this letter seem a little hoarse to you?), or about three cons in four weeks... or about page proofs (which are on the way back to my editor even as I type), but instead...

A ConCarolinas Report!!!

This is always a fun con for me. Rob, Dan, and Karen from the WTF always ride down with me (or more accurately are nice enough to let me ride down with them) and I get to see some authors I usually don't get to hang out with much at larger cons, because they are so weighed down by fans they can't even walk down the hallway without the police being called in to direct traffic (okay, that might be a slight exaggeration).

A short, but not complete list: Gail Z. Martin, David B. Coe, A.J. Hartley, Misty Massey, Edmund Schubert, James Maxey, Sabrina Luna... and the list goes on... and on... and on, but I have to be up REALLY frick'n early in the morning (Eldest has to have his adenoids out tomorrow), so I won't whip out my guest list and type in everyone's name.... or even spell check this post.

Gah! Look at it in all its incorrectitude!

What else goes in a con report?

I was on some panels, but do to mucho sinus and cold meds, I think I was a little goofy in most of them. I wonder who won the Deep South Con bid for next year?

Not sure if I'll have a new Werewolf VS Vampire up tomorrow, but if not, I promise a funny post about how long my protagonist has been trying to find a pair on pants in my current WIP.

We Interrupt this Blogcast

Dear Blog,

I meant to give you a new Werewolf VS Vampire comic today, but the page proofs for the mass market version of ReVAMPED arrived and I have to get them back to Jen by June 6th, so I'll be doing that first.

Back soon,

Jeremy

Muse-day Tuesday: In Which We Pimp

I want to read UNHOLY GHOSTS by Stacia Kane right frick'n now! Unfortunately, not only has my copy not shown up yet (Why, unnamed book retailer?!? WHY?!?!?), but I really need to stay focused on Project 'Mancer. If you already have your copy then I envy you. I was even a good boy and didn't bug Stacia for an advanced copy of it. Gah!

Want to know why I'm jonesing for the book so bad?

The fastest way to understand is to jump over to Stacia's site and read the first few chapters. Did you go? Did you? If you did, I probably lost you for however long it takes you to read the five chapter preview. Maybe you'll come back... eventually. Of course those of you that already havea copy are still out there. You're probably even giggling madly to yourselves about it and... Wait a minute. Heh.

I just realized a way to torture those of you who already have a copy of UNHOLY GHOSTS. Jackie Kessler. Yup, my weapon of choice. She's funny, charming, talented... and utterly evil. Oh sure, those of you who know Jackie may argue, but I know the truth. Only an evil being intent on reducing all internet denizens into word-starved hordes of rabid fans would post the newest book in her HELL ON EARTH series for free.

"Free?" you may ask, "but isn't that a good thing?"

Oh...You'd think so, but she's doing posting it one chapter a week. See what I mean? E-V-I-L. Check it out, too. I dare you. :)

Oh and more torture: I'll have a new Werewolf VS Vampire post up tomorrow, assuming I can get the stake just the way I want it. Or maybe I'll just hold it hostage until my copy of UNHOLY GHOSTS shows up. Time will tell. ;)

Morbid Monday 3: This Time in Western Haiku

A Haiku or two
I'll provide for all right here
on Morbid Monday

I have to admit
Death by sparkling vampire
would pretty much suck

Moonlit dining plans
are surely not the choice when
with a loup garou

Drowning in the depths
with or without nude mermaids
It is still all wet

Fair weather or foul
Being devoured alive
really truly bites

Imagicon 2010

The Con is over (Well, mostly, I think they're actually watching the Lost Finale over at Old Car Heaven before it *really* ends) and I've been pretty silent. It's strange that I found time to blog while at an out of town convention, but a hometown convention left me too busy to do the daily update stuff. Sorry.

If you weren't there, you missed some cool stuff.

I had tons of fun hanging out with M. B. Weston and her gal Friday (who isn't actually named Friday, but there ya go). Timothy Zahn was there, but I was too intimidated by my enjoyment of his work to actually say much to him. Lou Anders (Editorial and Art Kahuna of Pyr Books - read their stuff - they have Steampunk Vampires coming out soon) was around the con and it was great to be on a panel with him, Van Plexico, and M. B Weston on Sunday to close out the con.

BUT...

The funniest moment of the con...

It was not being turned on to @DRUNKHULK...

It was not the various antics with the Vampire balloon...

I wasn't even the bagpipe guy playing the STAR WARS THEME...

I'll give you a hint. It involves Erin Grey (Wilma Deering), Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers), and John Billingsley (Doctor Phlox). I'll set the stage. The celebrity room was on the third floor or McWane. On the left hand side of the back wall sat Erin Grey, Gil Gerard, Bonita Friedericy, and John Billingsley. Erin and Gil were at a panel and John got... bored. So what does a bored John Billingsley do? He takes some of the glossy photos of himself he had for sale and used them to replace all of the photos of Erin Grey and Gil Gerard (even on their posters) with photos of himself to see how long it will take them to notice he's done it upon their return.

Quoth Timothy Zahn "We've replaced your work with Folger's Crystals, let's see if anyone notices."

Then Mr. Billingsley starts a betting pool. IF you're curious, it took Eric Grey and Gil Gerard ten seconds and sixteen seconds respectively to realize what had happened and (thankfully) they thought the joke was just as funny as everyone else.

Perhaps you had to be there, but it was frick'n hilarious.

The blog should be back to normal on Monday. See you then! :)

Broadcast Interruption!!!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled Comic Day with me and Lou Anders on TV.



Imagicon is this weekend!

Muse-day Tuesday: Car Talk

I don't know from cars.

Seriously.

Yet in my new WIP, one of the characters is good with cars. She even carries an OBD II Diagnostic Code Scanner around in her purse. Heck. She even knows what the darn thing is for and what the heck the little codes it gives out mean... and further what one might need to do, based on those codes, to make the car work. It took me almost an hour of research per paragraph even though the car references are not the most important part of the scene.

But that's what it's about sometimes. Because you know what? When I read the scene, once all the car lingo had been parsed, trimmed, and edited to remove the Hey-Look-What-I-Learned-itis that always creeps into the initial draft of such scenes... it sounded right. It read like the character. She was there on the page, just like she ought to be, unhindered by my own ignorance.

Know what else?

I still might have to fix it again. I have buddies who know about cars and when they read it they may well need to point out things I still have a little bit wrong. Once it sells, maybe my agent, my editor, my copy editor, or another writer reading it for blurbing purposes might notice more little details that are wrong. I hope not. I HOPE my research was enough, that I have it down, but with each correction, my character will sound more genuine, so that when you, the reader, finally get to look at the final draft, it is as clean and perfect as I can make it... and it might impress you so much that you email me and tell me how right it was and THAT... THAT makes it all worthwhile.

What weird little people we writers really are. ;)