MidSouthCon Report

MidSouthCon is one of the best SF cons at which it's ever been my privilege to guest. They know what they're doing, they run things smoothly and they treat their guests - even the non GOHs - like royalty. Attendance, hubby and I estimate, was 1500-2000. We had 3-4 hotels completely booked up.

I told 'em to use me, and they did. I had 3-5 panels every day, including a couple of different opportunities for book readings, and an hour on "Professional's Row" to hawk my books.

I also ran into an old friend from school, which was wonderful. He came looking especially for me, as he'd heard from my mom to a friend to his mom to him that I was an SF author now.

In addition I met Stanton Friedman, the UFO researcher. He and I turned out to be like-minded. He's not the "true believer" crackpot some would have you think. He's a nuclear physicist by training and experience, and a skeptic as well. Altogether a delightful, intelligent gentleman. We clicked, and he wound up getting a copy of Burnout while I got a copy of one of his books - autographed to each other, of course. :-) By Sunday morning breakfast, he'd already gotten well into it and was singing its praises to the other people at the table. We're going to stay in touch and I might even be able to get a promo blurb out of him.

I networked with a few other cons' peeps, and other writers and small publishers, got some advice and such like. My friend that put Burnout on his display invited me to submit a themed short story for an anthology though, and I think I might do that. Just for fun. It's a comedy SF thing, looks to be.

My panels ranged from science stuff to literary stuff to SF applications in science. Very interesting stuff, all of it. And the con ended with an author's game which was incredibly well attended for a 2-4pm Sunday event, called "It Was A Dark And Stormy Night." The gist of this is that throughout the con, people write down odd quotations they overhear and stick 'em in a box, then each author gets a handful of these pieces of paper with quotes and, beginning with the game title, a character and location called out by the audience, we have to take the quotes one at a time and string together a story, round robin. Allen Gilbreath told me, after that, I was officially a writer that nobody could fluster! (And after wordcrafting a quote like, "She rolled out of bed, jumped on her menstrual cycle, and ran my ass over" into the story, I agree with him...)

MSC has gone; ImagiCon approaches!

MidSouthCon has been and gone. It was delightful. They kept me busy talking about wonderful, fascinating topics, reading from Burnout, talking about how I came to write it, and feeding me well. :-) I also ran into an old friend, David Jones. He and I went from 1st grade through the first year of college together! We'd lost touch over the years, but he'd heard about my book through the grapevine, and was there looking for me. It was a fantastic reunion!

My name and that of my book is now well out there in SF fandom, especially in the Memphis area. :-)

This weekend is ImagiCon, at the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center. Again, I'm looking forward to that! They're kindly putting us into the convention hotel - "us" being myself and my husband, Darrell "Doc" Osborn, Mad Scientist Extraordinaire! It should be loads of fun! If you're in the area, come on by!

MidSouthCon is Coming!

And I am coming to MidSouthCon! This weekend in Memphis, and most (but not all) of The Write Pack will be there! It's looking like I'll have some limited edition pre-release copies of Burnout available for purchase and signing, too! (That's if UPS delivers the shipment on time!) I'll also have some handouts and posters for The Y Factor, which is still in the editing mode.

I'm busily getting together all the things I need to bring: posters, handouts, sharpies, clothes, etc. I'm looking forward to it!

For further info on my upcoming appearances, go here.

The Key to Midnight interview went great!

I must say I had a blast being interviewed by M.J. on The Key to Midnight BlogTalkRadio! We talked about all sorts of things and laughed and joked, and I did a couple of excerpt readings from Burnout, and it was generally cool! We had a chat room full of people and it was just FUN!

If you missed it, you can find it on my website under Interviews, or on The Key to Midnight BlogTalkRadio page, or on M.J.'s MySpace page!

BlogTalkRadio Interview tonight!

Tonight I'm being interviewed on The Key to Midnight BlogTalkRadio by host M.J.! I'm really excited about it - I even have a bit of stage fright! But that's normal for me. I've done all kinds of theatre and public speaking, and as soon as the event starts, all that stage fright gets converted into energy and excitement. It should be fun! Be there!