Reading Recs, Random Projects, and Life Things

Photo courtesy of Craig Comer

As my lack of new posts here probably indicates, April was a busy month for me. The shenanigans kicked off with a great hike in the California redwoods with fellow authors Ahimsa Kerp and Craig Comer. A week later, I turned 40, and my wife threw a steampunk themed party for me where I got to see a lot of great family and friends (and eat cake, of course).

Since then, it's been all about prepping for our new baby, due in the coming weeks. My wife and I don't have a big place, so my writing office is now a combo writing office/nursery. (I figure this will last a year or two at best, and then the kid will kick me out and I'll be relegated to writing in the garage or the backyard.)

Find me at Wondercon 2015

WonderCon 2014 was the last convention I attended. :(

Between getting engaged, getting married, moving, and writing Souldrifter all in the last twelve months, I haven't gotten a chance to attend any conventions or conferences in quite a while, so I'm excited to attend this year's WonderCon as a professional attendee. Here's the panels I'm hoping to catch. If you'll be attending too, follow me on Twitter for live updates throughout the weekend and make sure to introduce yourself and say hi..Despite my grizzly-bearded visage, I promise I won't bite!


WonderCon 2015. Anaheim, California. April 3-5.

FRIDAY

12:30-1:30 Comic Arts Conference Session 1: Supeheroes before Superman. Room 210. I didn't even know there were superheroes before Superman and the Golden Age of comics, so this should be

November Happenings: Mysterious Galaxy, NaNoWriMo, and More

This autumn has been an eventful season, full of big projects and literary events, and there's no slowing down in sight. Here's a quick and dirty recap of what's going on.

Mysterious Galaxy Local Author Meet and Greet, Saturday, November 9, from 2:30-5:30 PM. I'm stoked to be one of the featured authors for this event. Swing by if you're local for a very cool, informal event. I'd love to meet with you and chat. I'll also have some books for sale, but don't worry I'm an author, not a used car salesman. See the Mysterious Galaxy website for more details.

WonderCon Notes and Dreamwielder News

It's almost been a month now since Dreamwielder came out, and as you might expect, I've been a busy bee. I capped the month off yesterday w/ a quick visit to WonderCon, which is essentially ComicCon Lite. I did a quick run through of the main exhibit hall where I witnessed everything you might expect—crazy costumes, a boatload of comic books, and these cool R2 droids—and then it was off to the panel discussion I really wanted to see, "A Story is a Story." Patrick Rothfuss was one of the panelists and he was hilarious and insightful. All in all, it was a good time.

I came home to find that Dreamwielder has moved up into the top 300 bestselling ranks for Barnes & Noble Nook books. This is in large part due to the book's selection as a Nook First Look book, which I'm very proud to be included in. The boost in sales rankings means Dreamwielder is now on page 2 of the best sci-fi and fantasy novels under $4. It's pretty amazing to see my book right alongside major hits from John Scalzi, Robert Jordan, George Orwell, and Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Market Square

I hope this post finds everyone still more or less sane with the holidays fast approaching. Personally, things haven't slowed down much on the writing, editing, and marketing front, but I wanted to take a moment and throw up a few quick links you might want to check out.

First, you'll notice that I stuck the new trailer for Umbral Visions at the top of the blog. It's nice and creepy, just like the book, so I hope you'll take a minute to give it a watch. If you'd like to help me out with my guerrilla marketing for the book, then post the link from YouTube wherever you find fans of dark fiction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_vy2aofAS8

Second, my friend and frequent collaborator Ahimsa Kerp did an interview with me about Umbral Visions, my band Wheel House, and writing and general. It's quite a good interview, if I'm allowed to say so, and you can find it at his blog, Be Obscure Clearly. Beyond my interview, Ahi's blog is a great site to visit for fans of fantasy and horror fiction in general. I highly recommend it.

That's all for now. Back to writing and editing. Cheers!

-Garrett Calcaterra