It's Been A While (Updatery MK III)

Tomorrow, 11/29/2017, I have an author event of Facebook, where I am the 'featured author' for Chuck Gannon's anthology, Lost Signals. I aim to entertain, and talk about Crate 88, the short story I wrote for the anthology.

December 17th, the paperback edition of 1636: Mission To The Mughals, comes out.  Almost every SF book I had as a kid was in paperback, and much as I love the feel of a hardcover in hand, the arrival of the mass market paperback of my book is a source of true excitement for me.

My short story, Bank On It the first I ever submitted for publication, has been selected for the Ring Of Fire VIII anthology.

I have submitted another short, Alpha Gamers for yet another anthology, this one in John Ringo's Black Tide Rising Universe. Hopefully Alpha Gamers will see print in 2019 if not sooner.

So, for a writer of novels, it seems I am having some success with short stories...The irony flattens my ego, a bit, but it's good to be in print, so I am not complaining, not one bit!

The Coming Weekend

I managed to get myself on some panels at LibertyCon this coming weekend. I am feeling a strong dose of imposter syndrome for it, as one of the panels I am to participate in is with Dave Drake and John Ringo, two of the biggest stars of my SF-reading universe. In fact, I have been a fan of Dave's work since I was fifteen, and John's fan for about 15 years...So yeah, big moment for me. I am doubly lucky in that I know both gentlemen, and get on well with them.

Chuck Gannon and my co-author Eric Flint will be there, as well as the rest of the 1632 crew, among them many other friends and fond acquaintances.

I will also get a chance to see my oldest friend, Kyle, whom I have not seen in about five years. He will also come out to see my parents outside Chattanooga, the first time he's seen them since we were 16 or so.

So, yeah, big week coming up for me. Hope I don't screw up.

Nebula Awards Weekend

My friend, Chuck Gannon, has been nominated for the Nebula Award this year for Best Novel. He was kind enough to ask if I wanted to tag along for the banquet. I, of course, said, "Hell yes!"

I was asked if I was willing to put on a panel or workshop, but my other LE friends are not attending so I went back to talk to Chuck, my personal rain-maker, who said he'd be glad to help out with a panel. Some days later we decided on our subject:

Cops and Spies: Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence in SF
Griffin Barber and Charles E. Gannon
Friday, May 16, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. Blossom Hill Third Floor

If you are attending the awards weekend, please come. If you aren't, please send me your good thoughts regardless. I will assume you already voted, if eligible, for Chuck's fantastic work.

CONtraFlow III and More General Updatery

I am just returned from CONtraFlow in New Orleans, where I was part of a panel titled Frontier Law. I recorded it, but need some time to get it chopped up and remember how to make them available to everyone here.

The con itself was a bit of a blur: between arriving at 4 in the evening on Friday and departing at the same time on Sunday, I felt as if I spent as much time traveling to and from the con as at the con.

Mark Van Name was the Toastmaster, and laid the groundwork for our panel during Friday's opening ceremonies, despite my failure to make it to the ceremonies. He asked the gathered crowd what they would like to learn during the Frontier Law panel and adjusted his moderator's questions and discussion points accordingly.

Note to new authors: don't make the mistake of forgetting that you need to seize every opportunity to promote. It's more of a mental adjustment than it seems, this leap from loner writer to author with a few readers and even more potential readers. At least, more than I expected. I may just be stupid.

Despite Mark Van Name's busy schedule, Alistair, Chuck, and I managed to have a fun meal with Mark and Jennie, with our usual base humor predominating.

I attended several 1632 MiniCon panels, where I learned new things and enjoyed the company of Eric Flint, Rick Boatright, Paula Goodlett, Walter Hunt, Walt Boyes,  Chuck Gannon, and many others. Eric puts on a Snerking The Plot panel, where he reveals the current drive of the series and the state of all works-in-progress. This time, he included my work on The Mughal Mission, which I had a few minutes to present to the gathered writers. As I was last to go, it was difficult to gauge the enthusiasm of my fellow writers.

Dinners were exceptional, as Eric took many of the above 1632 authors to a local seafood joint Friday night. Much fun was had and fine food eaten!

Saturday night was the Baen Dinner, hosted by Toni Weisskopf. Mark Van Name was kind enough to secure an invite for me. The meal was at Restaurant Cypress, and included great company: Eric Flint and his lovely wife, Chuck Gannon, Mark Van Name, Alistair Kimble, Walter Hunt, John Picacio, Jennie Faeries, and Tara Smith. Some of the discussion included favorite films and subcategories thereof, such as guilty-pleasure movies: I'm afraid I gave away the entire plot of Lifeforce with my blathering squee about boobies, space vampires, boobies, zombies, boobies, and mass extinction events.

Despite my carrying on, both nights were very fun and fine eats.

I roomed with Chuck Gannon (AKA The Rainmaker AKA, No Charlie Strauss) who despite being much smarter than I, was willing to engage in lengthy discussion on varied subjects, illuminating some of the darker corners of my mind with enthusiasm.

Speaking of which, I need to get some fiction writing done, tonight and soon.

But first, I was very busy with all the flying, etc, but I wasn't as busy as Brigant, who did more awesome audiobook versions of the serial installments of A Separate Law. They are available, in order, here:

How Did Chicon Go, You Ask?

Why, it was most excellent, thank you.

I did what I usually do, drank, ate and mucked about with some of my favorite people. Alistair Kimble was my wingman and guide for it all (I lost my guidebook within minutes of getting the damn thing.).

Highlights included:

Dinner at Gene & Georgetti's. Mark Van Name was kind enough to invite us after I'd suggested the place as somewhere he might like to dine. I hadn't eaten there in more than 14 years, and they did not fail my recommendation.

A Literary Bheers with Chuck Gannon, which was lots of fun and resulted in a tale that shall be told a few more times in the future.

The Baen Party: I love this publishing house, and know many of their authors, so I enjoyed myself quite a bit.

Hanging at the Big Bar and soaking in the sights and conversation with folks like Writer's of The Future winner, David Carani and several other winners of that competition, including an old hand, Myke Cole.

Another fine dinner with Eric Flint, Chuck Gannon, and several other contributors to the Grantville Gazette. It was nice to put faces to names.

I also met a few more people I have seen before but not had opportunity to speak to before...