It’s that time of year
again!
Unfortunately, I was
only able to attend Friday and Saturday, but those two days were fantastic. I
was able to catch up with some lovely folks I only see at this convention
(including the very talented Frog and Esther Jones and Erik Scott de Bie, who
apparently bought a sword at some point during the weekend.)
I had a great time on my panels, especially the one where Frog and I discussed Kindle Worlds. Frog is a lawyer, and he dropped some pretty serious truth bombs about what publishing with Kindle Worlds really means. I hope he writes a blog about it someday. The information is really sobering. In a nutshell: If you ever plan to write anything other than fanfiction, DON'T PUBLISH WITH KINDLE WORLDS. DO. NOT. PUBLISH. WITH. KINDLE. WORLDS.
Also, it was an absolute delight to speak on a panel with authors Rosemary Jones and Mike Shepherd. Just being a room with them made me feel smarter! I hope our panel (about getting your foot in the door of the publishing industry) was helpful to the lovely people who attended.
On a side note, I sold all the
paperback copies of Flicker I brought with me, which was a very pleasant surprise. (Some were
given away as raffle prizes during my reading.) Also, the fine folks who
attended the reading got a first look at the cover of Brightly and heard me
read a SpoCon exclusive scene that I haven’t posted or shared anywhere else.
They were a lovely crowd.
At the reading, I
connected with a young woman I actually met last year at SpoCon 2012. After the
con, she requested a copy of Flicker
at her local library, read it, and apparently liked it, since she came to my
reading this year. It’s mind-boggling for me that someone would actually carve
time out of their schedule to listen to me read, especially when there was a
Brandon Sanderson panel going on upstairs at the same time. Every time
something like that happens—every time I get a message from a reader who wanted
to let me know how much she enjoyed Flicker,
every time someone buys a paperback from me, every time someone downloads an
ebook—I am absolutely blown away. It’s an incredible feeling. I feel so
grateful to have each and every reader, and I’m so happy that they enjoy
spending time with my imaginary friends.
The highlight of my
weekend came on Saturday. I always look forward to SpoCon—there’s nothing quite
like a local convention—but what makes it special every year are the guests.
The first year I attended, Patricia Briggs was the Guest of Honor. (I was lucky
enough to win a copy of River Marked
signed by both Patricia and by Dan Dos Santos, the cover artist for all the
Mercy Thompson books. Incidentally, River
Marked is my favorite book in the series, and it has my favorite cover.)
Last year, as you might
recall, I met Peter S. Beagle. Peter S.
Beagle. The man who changed my life through The Last Unicorn. When I met him, I was completely overwhelmed, and
I sort of cried. He was wonderful about it. (He attends loads of conventions,
and I suspect fans like me probably cry at him all the time, so he’s probably
used to it by now.) Later that weekend, I sat in the front row during a showing
of The Last Unicorn where Peter S.
Beagle (Peter! S! Beagle!) gave commentary the whole time. It was surreal.
This year, the Guest of
Honor was Brandon Sanderson. Yes, the
Brandon Sanderson. All year, I’ve been ridiculously excited for SpoCon so I
could see him—for myself, yes, because I’m a fan (though I’ve only read Mistborn and Elantris so far), but also for another reason...
(The rest of this massive round-up post under the cut.)
