Category: Science Fiction

I’ll be at Mewcon over New Year’s

I’ll be attending the M.E.W. multi-genre science fiction/fantasy/anime/role-playing/whatever convention at the Red Lion in Vancouver, Washington this weekend.

I’m sharing a table in Artist’s Alley with Beth McBeth — I’ll be pitching my Heinlein-esque SF novel One Survivor and my role-playing handbook Through Dungeons Deep, and Beth will be displaying her artwork. I’ll also be offering free writing and publishing advice to anyone who’s interested.

I’m also giving three panel/workshop sessions:

  1. Self-Publishing for Fun and Profit (12/31, 5 PM)
  2. Turn Your Hobbies Into a Career (1/1, 11:00 PM)
  3. Role-Playing Without Rules (1/2, 1 PM)

M.E.W. con is only in its second year, with a projected attendance of just 500 people, so it should be pretty intimate. Anime fandom appears to be the dominant theme, and plenty of people will be attending in costume.

Hope to see you there!

Admission is $40 at the door for all three days (12/31 – 1/2) or $15-$20 for a single day. For more information see the Mewcon Web site.

I’ll be at Orycon, How About You?

I’ll be hanging out with the folks of Creation Station at Orycon, the SF convention in Portland, which is being held on Thanksgiving weekend this year.

I’m hosting two workshops:

Minimalism in RPGs (1 PM – 2 PM Friday), where I diss rules system for role-playing games in general. I explain why they mostly get in the way, and what you can do about it.

Self-Publish Your Book RIGHT NOW (6 PM – 7:30 PM Friday), where I talk about how to turn your unpublished work into an actual paperback book with a full-color cover for under $20. Most self-publishing workshops waste a lot of time angsting over the various kind of publishing options. Not me! I dive straight into the nuts and bolts of turning your unpublishable manuscript into an unsaleable paperback. While it’s unlikely to make you rich, it will probably make you happy — and impress your friends. I’ll have lost of sample books.

Hope to see you there!

Sequel to “One Survivor” Underway

Getting my action-packed SF novel (One Survivor) into print got me back into fiction-writing mode, and I’ve been putting in some time on the sequel, Tainted Gold. Not one to hold out on my loyal readers, I’ve posted what I have (the first 80 pages) here.

Tainted Gold has many of the same characters as One Survivor, but I structured it differently. There are several different groups of people going after the gold (“What gold?” you ask. Read One Survivor). Each group has special knowledge that the others really need but don’t have. No group is aware of all of the others. It’s been fun to write so far.

As with my other science fiction, it reads sort of like early Heinlein, or maybe Bujold. I don’t know why, it just happened.