Nick Valentino

New Steampunk Anthology

2012-01-26T11:05:00.000-08:00

Her Majesty's Mysterious Conveyance

That's the name of the newest steampunk anthology that Elizabeth (Darvill) Valentino and I are in with Sean Hayden and Jennifer Williams published by Echelon Press. This is a super fun anthology where all the stories are about non traditional steampunk characters and there is a queen or empress involved in every yarn.

My story is called Ten Thousand Years and is about a bitter Japanese sea captain that takes to piracy to regain his crew's honor. There are samurai automatons, royal airship battle cuisers and advanced cannons that can punch holes through an entire ship! *Hint* (This cannon also makes an appearance in the new Thomas Riley 2)

I'm super excited about this nifty little anthology and to celebrate, I'm giving away 2 e-copies for Twitter users. Copy and paste the text below in twitter and two winners will be chosen at random on Saturday night!

RT this for a chance to win an e-copy of new #steampunk Anthology "Her Majesty's Mysterious Conveyance" @sirthomasriley http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006ZA8P9C/ref=rdr_kindle_ext_tmb

If you want to go on and pick up the e-book (Print books will be available in a few weeks!) you can grab them at Amazon for a very cheap $3.99 here. http://www.amazon.com/Her-Majestys-Mysterious-Conveyance-ebook/dp/B006ZA8P9C

Virtual Con and The Mechanical Masquerade

2011-11-09T19:12:00.000-08:00

Virtual Con 2011
Starting Friday, Elizabeth Darvill and I will be virtually attending the first Virtual Con as their steampunk guests of honor. This is a new kind of con done 100% online so you can see panels, game and hang with other like minded friends without leaving your home. http://www.thevirtualcon.com/

Here are my panels:
Friday 11/11/11
7:00PM "Meet The Author of Thomas Riley Series"
Sunday 11/13/11
4:00 "Thomas Riley Reading"

Also as a special treat for my reading, I may read a bit from Thomas Riley II which is due out in the first quarter of 2012.

The Mechanical Masquerade II
This Saturday 11/12/11 5:00PM - Midnight?
Some of you know that my first steampunk event was the first Mechanical Masquerade held in 2010 in Decatur, GA. The people I met there set the tone for a host of amazing friends I've met over the last year and a half. So, I'm super excited to see them again and have an great time at the fabulous Mechanical Masquerade II put on by the awesome Doctor Q. If you're in Atlanta or in the area, I promise you don't want to miss this event.

How cool is this?

2011-11-08T11:46:00.001-08:00

So I had an amazing Halloween and to put the cherry on top, when I got home I saw on facebook that someone had dressed up like Thomas Riley for the holiday. This is a really cool milestone for me. I never really thought that anyone would dress up in character as anyone from the Thomas Riley books but this just takes the cake in coolness. And I don't know this person! So color me stoked as can be. Here's the pic I saw on Facebook: (Thank you awesome fan!) Oh, and if anyone knows this fine fellow, please let me know. I'd love to send him some goodies.

The Southern Festival Of Books

2011-10-11T08:00:00.000-07:00

I'm back! I can't wait to do another book festival and I finally get to start back up with the awesome Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, TN. The festival goes from Friday October 14-16 at the War Memorial plaza in downtown Nashville. What makes it even sweeter is I will be sharing a tent with fellow amazing authors and top notch people Elizabeth Darvill and Teresa Burrell.

We'll be in booth 43 and with any luck you shouldn't be able to miss us. We'll have pirate flags flying and all manor of gaudy steampunkery around the tent. This year, we will have:

By Nick Valentino:
Thomas Riley, Dreams of Steam I and Dreams of Steam II Brass and Bolts

By Elizabeth Darvill:
Love in a Time of Steam, Love's Immortal Pantheon and will be promoting her new Harlequin release, Steam Heat

By Teresa Burrell:
The Advocate, The Advocate's Betrayal and her brand spanking new The Advocate's Conviction.

So come by and say hi, we'll have all types of shenanigans going on.

Kindle Gold

2011-10-10T10:18:00.000-07:00

I want to make you all aware of a new website called Kindlefinds (located at Kindlegold in the blogosphear)that features all types of awesome books. Many of which have super great prices. I've always wanted a Kindle or Ipad so I could pick up all the wonderful short stories and inexpensive books. It just seems like such a steal for some great entertainment.One day... one day...

So check this new site out, you won't be disappointed.

Dreams of Book fests

2011-10-07T07:37:00.000-07:00

I got my author copy of Dreams of Steam II Brass and Bolts today which is an anthology published by Kerlak Publishing featuring a ton... and I mean a ton of awesome steampunk authors. This book is HUGE! It looks like I'll be debuting Dreams of Steam II at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, TN next weekend. I'll be sharing a booth with Elizabeth Darvill and Teresa Burrell at booth 43. Trust me, you'll see us, look for the pirate flag. So if you're in or around Nashville, come and say hi, we love hanging with our friends and readers. More to come on this...

OUT NOW

2011-10-02T10:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday marked the release date for Elizabeth Darvill's first Harlequin release, "Steam Heat" in the "Love in a Time of Lust" mini-series. So, it's time for celebration and much rejoicing. I also get to be the first to announce that Elizabeth will be changing her name (writing and legal) to Elizabeth Valentino. So, check out Steam Heat on Amazon and get a super sexy and super steampunk story for the low low low price of $2.99! Treat yourself today.

Click here for the Amazon Link

Steam Steam Steam Heat & Dreams of Steam II

2011-09-18T10:09:00.000-07:00

Steam Heat
We found out today that Elizabeth Darvill's first steampunk/romance story "Steam Heat" published by Harlequin is now available for pre-order from Amazon.com. This is super exciting news so join us in our bliss and take a peek!
Click here to see the pre-order on Amazon.

Dreams of Steam II Of Brass and Bolts
Also available now is the wonderful steampunk anthology "Dreams of Steam II" from Kerlak Publishing. This one is HUGE and has like 25 stories from 25 amazing authors. My steampunk/horror story "Bedeviled" is in this one and I can't be more excited. Click here for the e-book version.

Real Life Romance (His)

2011-09-03T17:46:00.000-07:00

Two days ago I proposed to the love of my life Elizabeth Darvill and I'm so excited. So this is my companion story to her blog post which can be found HERE.

I've been planning this for a while and due to constraints, I haven;t been able to get the ring I wanted until recently. So I toiled over how to ask, what I would say and where I would do it for quite some time. Every night I would drift off to sleep planning and contemplating how when and where.

Liz wanted a Claddagh ring so I wanted to get her a real one made in Ireland. Ok, check. Then it was where do I pop the question? I wanted it to be in Nashville, and I wanted to do it at a memorable place. You know, one we could drive by in the future and say, "Wow, that's where it happened." After many Internet searches and running through every local cool place in my head, I decided that The Parthenon would be the best and most permanent location. Now how do I get her up there without raising suspicion?

A few years ago I helped one of my best friends in the world hatch a plan to propose to his girl at the same location. So I took the story we came up with and slightly modified it.

Before hand, she didn't have anything to wear so she mentioned she wanted to go get a dress of a shirt for date night. She wanted to run to Goodwill(Yeah that's how we roll) but when we left the driveway, I totally spaced out and went the other direction. Liz, said, "oh are we not going to look for a shirt?" So I turned around and we went to look. The ring was burning a hole in my pocket and while she looked for something fun to wear I feel like I was distant. Hey, my mind was elsewhere. She found an amazingly hot dress and all was well.

Keep in mind, this was going to be our date night anyway, so we had plans to go out, have dinner then a few drinks at the amazing Patterson House here in Nashville. So I concocted a story that there was a pop art exhibit that I wanted to stop by before dinner. Hey, that's totally plausible. That's something we would do. So I parked on the opposite end of the actual entrance of the gallery under The Parthenon which forced us to walk around the giant place. I was totally nervous and honestly, I'm not sure what I said. I had a bunch of things I wanted to say, (Like it was rehearsed) but I think I still hit the main points. In the end, I got on one knee and asked Liz to marry me. Well, she said yes. And I am the happiest boy in the world.

We finished the night actually going out to The Flying Saucer for dinner then to Patterson House for wonderful drinks from scratch and finally to ChaChah for a nightcap. Again... happiest Boy in the world.

Twilight at Forks Washington

2011-08-15T10:33:00.000-07:00

So Elizabeth Darvill and I went for a very not normal trip for me. We went to the Twilight, (yes the movie/books) capital of the world, Forks, WA. We took a very enthusiastic fan (and self proclaimed wife of Edward Cullen) and went on an adventure.

First off, I need to say that I'm seriously impressed with the town of Forks and their unashamed embrace of the books and movies that made their town famous. Nearly every store had Twilight paraphernalia in the window regardless of the type of business. So it was totally normal for the Chinese restaurant, the lock and key store and the hotels to have posters and even merchandise on display. Also, there were tons of places that had Twilight themed food and beverage items. (Many were surprisingly good!)

Being in Forks for 3 days, we thought it would be best to just jump into the fandom head first and have no shame about any of it. Here's a quick rundown: The Bella Burgers and Twilight punch at Sully's Burgers are to die for. It's a diner/drive in kind of place and seriously, the burgers are awesome. The Twilight punch is nothing more than lemonade with strawberry and again it's really good. (Best meal in town if you ask me)

We also ate at the diner and sat at the same table where Bella and Charlie eat all the time. (The Forks Coffee Shop) The burgers were pretty good but the real star was the Berry Cobbler that Charlie eats all the time. I picked some up for breakfast and it was truly awesome.

Other stuff we hit that was fun:
Forks Outfitters (where Bella works and has an Employee of the year plaque) They also have Twilight themed coffee which so far is really good. The Cullen's house: Its a bed and breakfast that has the cap and gown art on the inside and sports a daily sign from the caretakers telling where the Cullens are that particular day.
The Swan's House: It's a private residence that pimps itself as the home of Bella and Charlie Swan. Really, there's nothing more than a sign in front of someones house but you can pull up and take pictures.
The Forks Police Station: Yes you can go to Charlie's workplace and take pictures with the cop cars and even walk in where there's a small Twilight display.
The Forks Chamber of Commerce: This place has Bella's truck(s) out front (one from the movie and one from the book which apparently is a different model) so you can take pics there and when you go in, there is Twilight posters, and merch everywhere. Also, the people that work there are insanely awesome and nice and will tell you all types of good info.
First Beach (La Push, WA): Fifteen miles away you can go to the beach where Bella and Jacob walked on the beach. It's kind of indistinguishable from the movie, but worth a very cold dip in the water.
The Forks High School: Yep. it's there too although this is not the same one that's in the movie. It has the same sign but isn't the actual place where the school scenes were filmed.
Dazzled by Twilight: This is their Twilight one stop shopping experience. The store is everything Twilight. You name it and they probably have it.
Three Rivers Resort: It's only a resort to those that want to camp in nifty little cabins. Half way to La Push, you'll find Three Rivers Resort with was a place with a full Twilight menu. We had the Werewolf Burgers (Which were good and HUGE) but still not quite as stellar as the Bella Burgers back in Forks.
Bella Italia: This is the place where Edward took Bella on their first date. It's 57 miles away in Port Angeles, WA, but a fun drive through the national park. The restaurant was surprisingly good. Yes we had the Mushroom Ravioli that Bella ate and while it was good, the carbonara was better.

Coffee Stops:
There are three main coffee stands in town. I got Mocha's at each and sadly none of them had Twilight themed stuff. Gathering Grounds, Mocha Motion and Shot in The Dark. The best was Gathering Grounds in case you're wondering.

The funny part:
I'm not even a Twilight fan yet I had a blast doing all the touristy things and just living life. Being this free is a wonderful part on life 2.0. There's also something awesome about small town charm that I really liked as well.

Okay, Pictures:

Me with Bella's truck

Twilight Punch (They come with fangs)

At First Beach

Vampire Threat Level

Werewolf Burger!

The Cullen's House (B&B)

Woke up to some awesomeness

2011-08-08T10:53:00.000-07:00

Team Victoria
I'm currently in Washington heading toward the small town mecca of sparkly vampires with my insanely awesome, inspiring, talented sexy girlfriend Elizabeth Darvill... no kidding. I'm super excited to jump head first into the touristy goodness that is "Bella's Blend", "Jacob's Java", and "Edward's Espresso"... Yes those kind of sound dirty but I promise they're not... I think. Also, I'm sort of looking forward to gathering a Little inspiration for a sort of far off project I'm going to be working on where I'm thinking about throwing a little of the local Forks flavor into the story.

The Coolness
So this morning I woke up to some total coolness. Someone I met last year at my first bookfest ever wrote an amazing and insanely nice post on SWAG steampunk writers group. Check this out: http://steampunkwriters.ning.com/profiles/blogs/blame-it-on-nick-valentino-and-thomas-riley Yeah, how bad ass is that? Like my comment said, it really does make my year to read stuff like this and I will forever be so happy that I inspired someone. That's what life's really about right?

Ten Thousand Steam Heated Bedeviled Black Dresses

2011-07-28T20:18:00.000-07:00

So after months of constantly struggling to get back on my feet, things are starting to look up. I have a ton of exciting projects, trips, anthologies and fun things coming up. I'll cut to the chase.

The Black Dress
I'm submitting "The Black Dress" to the Imagicopter Steampunk vs. Magic anthology. This story is a much more action packed take on the Ipswich Witch Trial.

Ten Thousand Years
"Ten Thousand Years" is my contribution to the Echelon Press steampunk anthology "Her Majesty's Mysterious Conveyance" and has a projected release date of October of this year. (It has a rad cover too!)

Bedeviled
My steampunk/horror short "Bedeviled" will be in Dreams of Steam II (Kerlak Enterprises)

Thomas Riley II
I'm still working on Thomas Riley II and I only have a working title for it but I have received some preliminary cover art from the amazing Will Routon. I can't quite show you yet... not that it isn't amazing but I don't think it's legal to show without every one's permission.

Dragon Con
It looks like the amazing Elizabeth Darvill and I will be attending Dragon Con in Atlanta, GA this year and we are super excited!

Steam HeatSpeaking of the Amazing, gorgeous and super talented Elizabeth Darvill, she just received her cover art for her first Harlequin book "Steam Heat" that is also due out in October. Here's the blurb:
In a world of speed steamers, poisoned air and soulless paranormal beings, two people hold the fate of millions in their hands—and their bodies…. As a half-succubus, Angel needs energy from sex to live. The temporary fulfillment she gets from strangers is nothing compared to the erotic encounters in her linked dreams with Ian, the man whose soul she shares. Lately the dreams have become more intense and intoxicating, which can mean only one thing: she and Ian are dying, just like the magical crystal that purifies the city’s air. Only by making love in person and joining their split soul can they heal both themselves and the crystal. Yet despite Ian’s amazing sexual prowess, Angel doesn’t want to give up her other lovers, like sassy steam engineer Jezebel. Can they resolve their differences and continue sharing a bed to save themselves—and the world?

Bedeviled

2011-07-13T23:10:00.000-07:00

So very excited! My steampunk/horror short, "Bedeviled" will be in the new Dreams of Steam II "Of Bolts and Brass" anthology published by Kerlak Enterprises. I'm not sure when this will come out but last year they had it out by Dragon Con.

Bedeviled follows failing and drug addicted inventor Joshua Hardwick as he returns to his laboratory following a murder he just commited. Joshua speaks to a self proclaimed demon who calls himself Bartleby Green and seems to have control over the poor inventor. When Bartleby reveals his brutal plan to Joshua, he attempts to take control and alter his destiny by the most extreme action available.

I wrote Bedeviled based on my own personal demon who I also call Bartleby Green. Really Bartleby is more of a manefestation of Murphy's Law and all things life throws at me but in Bedeviled you get a little inside look at the demon (Both fictional and real) and his personality. Basically, it's a steampunk/demonic styled look at the Jack the Ripper killings. (You'll see how that fits in.)

In quick other news:
I'm now on Google+ click and friend me.
https://plus.google.com/welcome?hl=en-US#112014935462055692390/posts

The Update

2011-06-02T11:30:00.000-07:00

Things have been crazy. Crazy in a different way than they were last year but still absolutely crazy. Last year to the day I was flying up to Chicago for the Chicago Tribune's Printer's Row Book Fest. This year I'm immersed in writing and a whole new lifestyle. Don't get me wrong, last year's lifestyle of traveling the country will surely come back to a degree, this is just a time to regroup and refocus because holy cow I have some serious writing to do, and in no time promote.

First up in the time before Thomas Riley 2 comes out I am in an international steampunk anthology on Echelon Press called "Her Majesty's Mysterious Conveyance" where each story has two requirements. 1) The story has to take place in a nontraditional steampunk country and 2) The story must revolve around a queen or Empress. My story is a Japanese steampunk tale called "Ten Thousand Years". I'm in it with some amazing authors including Elizabeth Darvill who wrote a Serbian steampunk story and Sean Hayden, amongst others. The cover poster is at the top of the page.

I also just submitted another steampunk short for the fabulous Dreams of Steam 2 anthology on Kerlak Enterpirses. This story is a really dark explanation/retelling of Jack the Ripper in a steampunk world. I went back to my horror roots on this one so it's much darker and eveil than my other steampunk works. Think the movie "Fallen" with Jack The Ripper and steampunk...

I have a few other shorts I will be submitting to anthologies soon and one will not be steampunk! Can you believe it? It will be nice to play around with a differetn genre after over 2 years of almost strictly writing steampunk. Not that I've lost anything for the genre, I still love it with all my heart.

Travel will be off and on this year. I know Elizabeth and I will be doing The Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, TN and hopefully Bookmarks in Winston Salem and The Texas Book Fest oin Austin but those are kind of case by case right now. I'll let you all know fo sure.

Web info:
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The Alabama Book Fest & The Clockwork Carnival

2011-04-22T14:43:00.000-07:00

Last week, we made our way back to Montgomery Alabama for the second year in a row of The Alabama Book Fest. We drove through a massive storm the entire way from Nashville to Montgomery. Imagine five hours of driving in 10 foot visibility with crazy winds trying to push the car off the road. Upon arrival on Friday night Montgomery wasn't was what I remember. The streets were empty, a lot of downtown was closed and the local brewery was gone! Yes, we were looking forward to that the entire drive. Last year, prom was going on and the streets were absolutely packed with people. We immediately figured the zombie apocalypse had happened. This is the second time in our journeys that we've come across this kind of thing. First, we discovered a very empty Frankfort, KY (The Capitol of Kentucky) Now the Capitol of Alabama has fallen. We're being surrounded!!!

So, after driving all around trying to find a suitable place for diner, we ended up back downtown to Joe DiMaggio Jr.'s Italian place called ZaSa's. Again, last year there was a line out of the door for this place. It was pretty good but nothing super amazing. Also, word to the wise, if you happen to visit Montgomery, do not stay at the downtown Clarion for any reason. I've stayed in a lot of hotels but this one took the cake in terrible. Don't worry Montgomery people, I really still love your city. We just had some bad experiences this time.

The Book fest was awesome as usual. It was so amazing seeing repeat readers and it was great to get a chance to sell Liz's brand spanking new book "Love Like Clockwork" which just came out in print last week. Oh here is a pic of this crazy guy trying to make sky writing in the insane wind. He tried but it didn't work out so well.

After the Book Fest we hauled everything to the car and darted to Atlanta, GA for the Clockwork Carnival, put on by the amazing Doctor Q and the steampunk crew in Atlanta. Ok, this blew me away. The location, The Goat Farm, was huge and full of activities everywhere. It was like a whole con that took place in one night! We had amazing food at the food truck (Poodle Hotdogs rule!) There was music all night, a coffee shop, ice cream truck, an entire room of vendors, home brewed beers and entertainers having a blast all night. I have nothing but awesome things to say about this event. Seriously these events are awesome and I encourage everyone to go. Big big kudos to everyone that helped with the Clockwork Carnival.

Wild Wild West Con

2011-03-14T15:19:00.000-07:00

From the second I took off from Nashville to the moment I left Arizona I had these Murder By Death lyrics running through my head from the song, Until Morale Improves, The Beatings Will Continue, "I walked the road, from Tucson to San Antonio. The smell of blood on my breath." Yeah, I probably only had stuck in my thoughts because Tucson was the location of Wild Wild West Con, a wonderful new steampunk con that took place at the ultra amazing Old Tucson Studios. (over 300 movies have been shot there. Tombstone, The Quick and The Dead, Winchester 73, Three Amigos, Etc...)

Anyway, it was awesome! The location was super cool. Everything in the town was totally western and yes they had beer in the saloon. So, yeah, guess where I was popping in every now and then?

Some rad highlights. Steam Powered Giraffe. Seriously, they caught me off guard doing a song called Honey Bee... Amazing voices and an amazing show. I'm just bummed I didn't get to see more. I'll definitely catch them at The World Steam Expo in May. Here we are with them after their performance outside of The Inn.

I did a super fun reading at The Baroness' Tea Party in the saloon in front of about 150 people with Cherie Priest, Elizabeth Darvill, O.M. Grey and David Lee Summers. Here we all are posing together outside the author vending area at The Inn, then me reading in the massive saloon.

We also hung out quite a bit with the wonderful Frenzy Gals from The Frenzy Universe who are some of my favorite people in the world. I know I pimp them all the time but seriously, if you haven't been to their website, its really amazing. Check them out here: Frenzy Universe

We had awesome neighbors in the vending area too. The writer and an actor from the steampnk web series Mantecoza were there showing their trailer and giving swg from the show away. Super fun people and the series looks so fun. Look out Sci-Fi Channel! Check out the trailer here!

I also attended Elizabeth Darvill's adult only reading late on Saturday night which was also super fun and totally different for any con I've ever been to. It was such a success that it's going to probably be a regular thing at future cons. I highly recommend it. I tried to get pictures but the mood lighting was too dark for my ghetto camera.

I've been to a lot of first time steampunk cons and this was a blast. I'm absolutely going back next year.

Next Up:
I'm taking some time off from traveling for a few months but I will be at The Artifice Club's Clockwork Carnival with Elizabeth Darvill in Decatur, GA on April 16th vending and having a blast with the Atlanta Steampunk crew.

Anachrocon

2011-02-28T11:15:00.000-08:00

My first Anachrocon (Atlanta, GA) was last year and it was a blast. This year they are growing by leaps and bounds, making a rock solid home for hardcore steampunks in the South East. They improved the hotel, they have more programming, many more bands, and so so much to offer anyone in the Steampunk community. I'm telling you, if you're in the are, or if you're not, Anachrocon is an amazing con and not to be missed.

I was on two panels, "Not Your Daddy's Steampunk" with Dan Hollifield and "Victorian Science Fiction Literature" With Kimberly Richardson, Emilie P. Bush, G.D. Falksen, Allen Gilbreath, and Dan Hollifield. Both were awesome panels and It was so good reconnecting with all my steampunk writer pals. When you're gone like I am, I really miss them. They're the kind of people that if we lived in the same town, we'd hang out often.

Something I have to give HUGE kudos to was the burlesque show that Talloolah Love put on at Anachrocon. I've seen my fair share of cabaret and burlesque and this blew the doors off any performance I've seen before. Top notch all the way. Basically it was like seeing a huge production on a smaller stage. Such a treat. Fun, Funny, Sexy, and even a little spooky at times, this show seriously bested anything I've ever seen and given me a renewed respect and love for burlesque.

Next Up:

This weekend, I'll be in Tuscon, AZ for Wild Wild West Con which is a very hyped steampunk con held at the Old Tuscon Studios (where they filmed a ton of old western movies). This one promises to be a very busy and awesome con for a steampunk starved area of the country. Very excited to see so many of my friends coming down for this one. If you're there, I'll have a table set up as well as participating in "The Baroness' Tea Party" with O.M. Grey, Elizabeth Darvill, and none other than Cherie Priest!

And now for Anachrocon Pictures!

I LOVE shelties. So my heart melted when I saw a steampunk one at Anachrocon named Sebastian.

Here are the amazing, talented, super driven, always perfect Frenzy Gals giving the "Nicky V" sign. If you want anything Steampunk you must go to there site HERE.

I had to get a picture of this... Yes they digital eye moved around.

The Extraordinary Contraptions! A band rocketing into steampunk stardom. Always a good time and a great band.

Thomas Riley Nominated in The Predators & Editors Readers Poll

2011-01-23T12:43:00.000-08:00

Tis the season for nifty award nominations! Thomas Riley has been nominated for best novel in the Preditors & Editors Readers Poll. Click the link below. (TR is toward the bottom if you feel so inclined.) Vote, and put your name and email in the form. (They will not spam you) And be sure to verify your vote via email. It takes a few seconds and is super easy.

Thanks everyone!

P&E Readers Poll

Shadowcon 2011

2011-01-17T13:22:00.000-08:00

Shadowcon (Memphis, TN) was the first con I ever sold Thomas Riley. Everyone was absolutely amazing a year ago. It was a small con but wonderfully perfect in every way. This year, they asked me to be the Writer Guest of Honor, so of course I most happily said yes.

This year was just as perfect as last year. Seriously, everyone there is absolutely amazing. Shadowcon is a family-ish con home of the SCA (Shadow Legion) and I have to say that I really feel like part of the family there. We had a blast as usual with all the Memphis crew and this year I was one of the judges in the costume contest. Yeah, I was pretty stoked about that. (Congrats to Steampunk Batman for the overall win by the way!)

A really fun bit that I didn't expect is we did a live radio read of the stage version of Arsenic and Old Lace where I was chosen by King Kane to read the part of Mortimer Brewster (Yes Cary Grant's part in the movie!) I was petrified at first but had a blast once it started up. Kudo's to the Shadowcon organizers for putting that on. Super fun!

Ooo! And here's a print magazine called Imagyro that I have an interview in! Look closely for a rare image of Ensign Sparklebunny.

And here I am coloring before breakfast at Cracker Barrel (You can;t deny the color pages...)

I really hope to go back next year! Thank you so much Shadowcon!!!

Next Up:I'll be writing for a bit so no travel until Anachrocon in Atlanta at the end of February. Yes, I'm kind of excited about it too.

Thomas Riley Nominated as Steampunk Book Of The Year

2010-12-18T10:17:00.000-08:00

Sometimes really cool things just happen. This is totally one of them. I'm honored to say that my novel, Thomas Riley, has been nominated as a finalist as steampunk book of the year by steampunk.com. Honestly, this is a really nifty surprise. So I have to say thank you to everyone at steampunk.com and the people that nomintated the book.

The rest is up to voters so go forth and vote for Thomas Riley.
http://www.steampunk.com/vote-for-2010-steampunk-book-of-the-year/

The Great Explosion of 2010

2010-12-14T09:18:00.000-08:00

2010... What do I say? It's been the most amazing, devastating, wonderful, stressful, blissful and exhausting year of my life. Hands down. Nothing can compare to the events of this year of the Tiger. Off I go, jumping the boards, going to sea, rocketing into the upper atmosphere... Whatever you want to call it, I'm on board and the ship has a one way ticket only.

You want to know what's even more insane? 2011 & 2012 are poised to be full of absolute whirlwinds of life changing events. So stay tuned for mass chaos. I promise you will be entertained.

To wrap the year up I have a special blog planned for next week or so and with any luck, you'll have a montage (It's a montage!!!) video of 2010 in mid to late January. Think H-Street skate movies meets behind the scenes rock video. I have over 100 videos from events this year so you'll get a glimpse of my year (Well, the busy work parts anyway.)soon.

The last event of 2010 was a signing at Hastings in Murfreesboro, TN. As always, I've been met with nothing but awesomeness from every Hastings staff I've met. I love those stores! I get the next 3 weeks off... wow, that seems like such a long time. And I'll be the Guest of Honor at ShadowCon in Memphis TN on Jan 5th, 6th and 7th... You'll see lots of new and fun things at that one. It'll be so good to see my Memphis friends again and to debut some new things.

So stay tuned... The Year end blog is coming next. So if you haven't gotten your fill of holiday scandal... well, it's coming.

Wizard World Atlanta Comic Con

2010-12-08T06:50:00.000-08:00

Word around town says this blog is "Scandalous, infamous, and highly revealing under the top layer."

"Nick Valentino's blog is a keyhole into the side of life that you always wanted to look at but would never admit it to anyone."
-Cleo Divine

Well, they're probably right. You do get little cryptic snippets, often times very unintentional of some pretty crazy things. Just look, then look a bit harder. It's kind of like one of those Magic Eye pictures. If you stare at it long enough, you may see something that wasn't there before.

The Atlanta Comic Con
The con season is over. Everyone has packed up and is gearing up for the summer. There are a few left that hang on for odd, cold and possibly snowy dates. Atlanta's Wizard World Comic Con was one of those snowbirds. Being a "fist time con" for Wizard World in Atlanta, they tried to pack the halls with con goers by shipping their usual celebrities to the scene. Adam West, Linda Blair, The Cast from The Walking Dead, Billy Dee Williams, Vivica Fox and Henry Winkler were just a few on hand signing autographs and glad-handing fans.

I spent the con signing books next to the most fabulous and awesome Steampunk Paranormal Romance author, O.M. Grey. We were pretty much the steampunk contingent at the con save for a few crossover artists. We ended up chatting most of the time and greeting fans and curiosity seekers.

We also took a little jaunt out to decautur GA (Right outside of Atlanta)to visit the Brick Store Pub (Highly recommended by the way)and met good friends, Doctor Q and Taloola Love. Thanks guys! We had a blast.

So, want some fun pictures? Of course you do.

This is none other than Billy Dee Williams. Now, look closely and see the epic nature of this picture. Here is Lando signing a case of Colt 45 for an Imperial Biker Scout. I kid you not.

Here is John Strangeway (Steampunk Boba Fett) showing off his costume armor signed by Jeremy Bulloch and now Billy Dee Williams... You have to love that Williams put "Lando" under his name.

Awesome Friends Doctor Q and Steampunk Boba Fett.

My neighbor, amazing author, and good friend O.M. Grey.

Next Up:
This weekend finishes a crazy crazy crazy 2010 with three events in and around Nashville TN. If you want your copy of Thomas Riley before Christmas, well, this is you'r chance.

Friday Dec 10 Books-A-Million 5PM (Nashville TN) (Nashville West Shopping Center)
Saturday Dec 11 Books-A-Million 1PM (Murfreesboro TN)
Sunday Dec 12 Hastings 1PM (Murfreesboro TN)

Holidays
The holidays are here or coming fast.

Get Thomas Riley Here

Kindle

Nook

Clarksville TN and Murfreesboro Tn

2010-12-02T07:21:00.000-08:00

Hastings & Barnes & Noble
Last weekend I had some really good signings at Hastings in Clarksville, TN and at Barnes & Noble in Murfreesboro, TN. Good crowds on black Friday weekend, and as always I met some interesting folks.

Next up: (More Steampunk Atlanta)
I will be at the Wizard World Atlanta Comic Con this weekend, Saturday and Sunday December 4 & 5. At the Cobb Galleria Centre (2 GALLERIA PARKWAY ATLANTA, GA)Also in attendance will be amazing steampunk author O.M. Grey with her novel Avalon Revisited.

The week after...
December 10, 11, 12 I'll be signing at 3 bookstores in and around the Middle Tennessee area. More to come on that next week.

Random Music - Julie Christmas

For anyone that knows, a lot of Thomas Riley was written while listening to the bands Made out of Babies and Battle of Mice, each fronted by the awesome Julie Christmas. Well she has a solo record out and I encourage you to check it out.
Here's a bunch of MP3s and a video to check out for free.

Steamcon II - Seattle, WA

2010-11-24T06:41:00.000-08:00

Steamcon II was hyped to be one of the biggest steampunk events of the year and guess what... it was. The entire thing was run with clockwork precision, (Sorry, had to get that in.) and there were more activities than you could shake a steam rifle at... Ok I'll stop. The place was packed full of panels. There's no way you could actually see them all but that's the beauty of it. You'll never be bored. There's something for everyone all of the time. There were dozens of bands, some of the most amazing vendors ever and once again great great people.

As for me, I was on five panels all of which went really well. Another great thing is that next year Steamcon will be held in one hotel and yes... there will be official party rooms.

This blog is going to read like a thank you list. Why? Well, once again my friends from all over the country are the best people in the world. So, I'd like to thank my agent, my lawyer, my producer, my driver, my butler... Oops, wrong speech,

ZOVA Books
My new publisher ZOVA Books was awesome enough to fly their entire staff up to Steamcon in support of me and to partisipate in a ton of really amazing panels. There's not enough thank yous I can put here to fully show my appreciation. How cool is that? Really... That never happens but with this new up and coming publishing house there are no limits or boundries. Guys and gals at ZOVA, you rule! Check out their site HERE.

Elizabeth Darvill
Multi-kick ass steampunk/paranormal/romance author that puts the energizer bunny to shame with everything she does. With two books already out, Elizabeth has three more books coming out with Harlequin in 2011. If you get a chance to see her on a panel... well, I'll just say it's not to be missed. She's also the founder and originator of the newest and freshest sub-genre of steampunk... Coffeepunk. If you haven't heard of it, you will soon enough. Check out her website HERE and follow her on Facebook HERE.

The Frenzy Gals
The Frenzy Gals are some of the hardest working women on the scene. This year alone they've been to events from New Jersey, to Ohio, to Indianapolis, and all the way to Seattle. (That's just naming a few. What makes the Frenzy Gals and their company Frenzy Universe so amazing (Besides being the best people ever) is that they have some of the most inovative and best products on the market. It's a close guarded secret where they get their items and a lot of them they make themselves, which is absolutely amazing. I know I talk about them a lot here but that's because they are undeniable as awesome people and creatives. Also, these ladies were awesome enough to drag my books up to the con for me... somehow they set the gold standard for coolness even higher every time I see them. So, go forth! I'm giving you the key to finish all your Christmas shopping with The Frenzy Universe HERE.

Kevin Steil (The Airship Ambasador)
What can I say about Kevin? Simply an amazing fellow in every way. This gent is the organizer, webmaster, interview king, unbelievably nice guy and steampunk scene emperor. He does everything. Blogs, news, interviews, reviews... this list could go on forever. I had an awesome interview with Kevin at the Marriott and I have to say he's top notch all the way. Check out the Airship Ambasador for ALL steampunk news and happenings HERE.

Ed Erdelac
We sat next to amazing author and awesome guy Ed Erdelac, who has a trilogy of Westerns about a Hasidic Mystic that fights lovecraftian monsters and ghosts. Can you say awesome?! Not only is Ed a great guy but he has a hell of story. Wow, I'm full of unintentional puns today. Also, Ed almost sold out of his books at Steamcon... I think he had only 4 left. Go Ed Go! Check out his work HERE.

Martin and Diana Vick
The organizers of Steamcon... Need I say more? Somehow they always have a smile on their faces and a fire in their bellies to run an amazing con. It doesn't matter when you see them, they are always super nice and ready to take on any challenge. Huge huge huge kudos and thanks to these two that are truly the heartbeat of the steampunk scene in the US.

Joseph Vourteque
I met Joseph for the first time (Well, officially I think) here at Steamcon II. We might have met before but my memory is quite fuzzy at times. Anyway, Joseph is an up and coming steampunk, Coupland-esque writer that is all over the scene in every way. Music, writing, fashion.. youi name it , he's there and he's awesome at it. Check out his many endeavors HERE.

Cherie Priest
What does one say about Cherie Priest. She's awesome, she's the nicest person you'll meet and oh yeah, she's talented as hell. We only got to chat for a few minutes at Steamcon, well, she was kind of busy... Anyway, if you haven't checked her out, you need to... like right now. Her new book Dreadnought is out now and seriously, if you haven't read it, there is a little piece of life that your missing out on. Give yourself that little happy piece of life back HERE.

As for me... Next up.
I'll be signing at Hastings in Clarksville, TN this Saturday and Barnes & Noble in Myurfreesboro, TN on Sunday. Come out, say hi and pick up your holiday presents! This will kick off my December Tennessee tour. So far I'm only deviating for the Atlanta Comic Con in early December so if you are just about anywhere in Tennessee, I'll be all around in the next month.

In the meantime...
Pick up Thomas Riley Here
Pick up The e-version of Thomas Riley Here

FREE STUFF
We're giving away Sky Pirate patches to everyone that posts a review for Thomas Riley on Amazon.com. Just let us know your address and which review is yours and voila... we'll send you a patch.

Steamcon Plans

2010-11-18T07:44:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is the day. SteamCon II Seatle WA. I'm super excited. I'm on 5 panels so if you'd like to stop by, I'd love to see you. Also, if you'd like to go out for pints, of course I'm always game for that too. Besides being in the dealer's room most of the time, here's my panel schedule:

Friday

Sub-genres of Steampunk Noon - 1:00 PM Emerald B, Hilton

What are dieselpunk, sailpunk, valvepunk, screampunk, clockpunk, and steamgoth? What can they offer that traditional steampunk can’t? Come and learn about the flavors you didn’t know steampunk came in.

Jay Lake (M), Elizabeth Darvill, Sheyne Fleischer, Nick Valentino

An Author & His Publisher 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Emerald B, Hilton
Join Nick Valentino and his Publisher Zova Books in a discussion of the relationship and expectations between author and publisher.

Nick Valentino (M), Matthew Pizzo, Molly Lewis, Daniel Silva

Thomas Riley
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM Suite by Pool, Marriott

Behind enemy lines, Thomas and Cynthia mug a couple in a park to get their clothes. A reading by Nick Valentino.

Sunday

Steampunk YA to Watch For
11:00 AM - Noon Crystal A, Hilton

What writers and new fiction should we be looking out for this year?

Lisa Mantchev (M), Devon Monk, Nick Valentino

Meet Nick Valentino
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Suite by Pool, Marriott

The Airship Ambassador interviews author Nick Valentino.

Kevin Steil (M), Nick Valentino

NOLA Book Fair & Kentucky Book Fair

2010-11-09T07:03:00.000-08:00

New Orleans...
one of my favorite cities ever. Everything about it fits me nicely. It's decadent, rich in history, and home to people a lot like myself. Did I mention it gets bonus points for being a Southern Mecca of insanity where otherwise there is none? There's little that disappoints me about this place. Sure the alcohol prices are through the roof but it's just the price you pay for good times.

Once again, I didn't get many pictures. I really need to get better at this. I know, I know, I've been saying that all year. As the book fair went, there were tons of vendors down Frenchman Street. The problem was that many of the vendors (including myself) were in music venues where a lot of people really didn't wander. Still, it's New Orleans right? Yep, and this place rules. Even low attendance can't ruin NOLA. Bourbon St., the blacksmith Bar... I could go on and on. I'm looking for a possible victorious return to NOLA possibly in January... I'll keep you posted. Here's a blurry, yet realistic picture of Bourbon Street:

ZOMBIELAND
and The Kentucky Book Fair
The Kentucky book fair is held annually in Frankfort Kentucky. Now, if you've never been to Frankfort (and I had not) then the first thing you'll see is that its REALLY small. That's not a bad thing, trust me, I've been to really small places. We named the city Zombieland because at night the streets are pretty much abandoned with the exception of a few staggering people holding babies at midnight... I'm not making that up either.

The first night there, we were invited to a reception at The Buffalo Trace distillery... Ok this was awesome. Good finger food, free Buffalo Trace drinks all night and good company with at least 120 authors in attendance. There's nothing quite like getting alcohol of any kind straight from the source.

The next day was the fair. Held in the downtown convention center, there were a ton of really awesome authors and vendors working the massive crowd. I have to give big props to the people at the Kentucky book fair. This event is run very well, complete with massive volunteers, free lunch and a super helpful staff. Honestly, everyone was amazing.

After the fair we went to dinner with Filmmaker, Author, and man of so many talents, Stephen Zimmer where we had a nice Kentucky-centric dinner complete with Kentucky Hot Browns and good beer. It's always awesome to see Stephen. If you don't know him, check out his awesomeness here.

Dinosaur World
And how could I not mention Dinosaur world? Ok, so this place has a giant orange dinosaur just hanging out by the highway becoming people to stop and see the "over 100" scale dinosaurs. So, how could we resist? Awesomeness was around every corner. If you're ever around Cave City Kentucky, give this wondrous world of fake dinosaurs a whirl.

Next Up
The amazing, wonderful, magical Steamcon! (Seattle, WA) One of the premier steampunk events of the year, Steamcon promises to blow the doors off of 2010 in a grand style, with authors, bands, dances, costuming to the max and panels that will inspire steampunkers for the next 365 days. If you're in the Seattle area, come see us!

Other News
I'm was interviewed by Drakk Media in Toronto and the video is up now. Here ya go:
Steampunk Canada

The Georgia Literary Fest (Statesboro, GA)

2010-10-25T06:31:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken from the corner of my table. Today it represents a lot of things right now but we'll leave it that it's a home decorating statement that will sweep the nation soon.

This weekend was The Georgia Literary Fest in Statesboro, GA. Quite the haul for me really. It was a good show but sadly sparsely attended, which is a surprise since the speakers were Pulitzer prise winners and Georgia Author of the year recipients. This festival apparently moves from city to city every year and this was the mot remote and Southern location to date.

Despite the thin crowds, I had a great time and as always met some wonderful people. It's amazing that even in a town like Statesboro probably half the attendees knew what Steampunk is... I can't tell you how drastically that has changed in the last year. Seriously, I've noticed all around the country a drastic increase in people that know what the genre is compared to the first half of 2010... and it's everywhere... From Statesboro GA to Elizabethtown KY to Baltimore MD. It's really a great thing to see unfold.

So I was really bad about taking pictures this time. I took one. And that was of one of my insulators on my table. I took it because I'm laying claim to spreading the wonders of lighted insulators across the country. Yep, you heard it here. Sure it's probably been done before but no one has ever toured across the country with it. It's amazing how many people say they are going to copy this idea. So when you see it in Martha Stewart Magazine, or in Opra's house as some kind of Green lighting, you will know that it started here... with steampunk and with the Thomas Riley Tour.I'm not kidding... everyone talks about them... Probably ten people at each event say they are going to steal the idea. Don't know what I'm talking about? The lone picture is at the top.

Next up:
I actually have this weekend off! Can you believe it? Yep, I'll be spending Halloween in Nashville. Honestly it couldn't have come at a better time. Things are crazy with me right now and I need some serious time to recover and gather myself. This will be the saddest Halloween of my life but I'm trying to focus on the positives and there is a ton of stuff in the hopper that I'm really excited about... One includes a new steampunk anthology that I don't think I can talk about yet. Trust me, you'll be the first to know.

Next Next Up
So, next next weekend (Nov 7th)I'll be in New Orleans, LA for the New Orleans Book Fair. Come down to Frenchman Street in the French Quarter and join us! You'll get double your steampunk pleasure, I promise.

Facebook and Twitter
Friend me, ehem... I mean Thomas Riley on Facebook here.
Or follow me, cough cough, I mean Thomas Riley on Twitter here.

The Texas Book Festival

2010-10-19T06:55:00.000-07:00

Stardate October 16 & 17 2010 - Austin Texas.

Austin loves their books and I love them for it. Arriving in Austin I discovered that the fest was quite a walk from the hotel room. (Will have to check on that in the future.) Anyway the tables were set up in longhouse styled tents which was a nice change to being totally out in the sun. I shared a table with amazing Steampunk authors O.M. Grey and Elizabeth Darvill. Yes we caused quite the scene. Muhahahaha! As an added bonus, Scott Westerfeld stopped by the table as well as D.B. Grady which was super cool of him.

The crowds were great and Austin is a super cool town. Tons of music, bars and really awesome cab drivers! Yeah, when did you ever think I would say that?
Sadly we were so busy, I managed only one photo the entire time, although there are several others of the table floating around so if you took one, we'd love to see them.

Next Up
I'll be signing Thomas Riley at The Georgia Literary Festival in Stateboro, GA this weekend Oct 23rd at the Georgia Southern University.

Can't be in Georgia? Get your copy of Thomas Riley here.

The Southern Festival of Books

2010-10-12T07:52:00.000-07:00

I've been on the road practically all year. From Victoria, BC to Baltimore, MD and nope... it's not even close to being over. In that time, I've never had a big signing in my home town (Nashville, TN). The Southern Festival of Books was the perfect opportunity to make a big splash for a homecoming.

I was nestled in booth number 8 in beautiful Legislative Plaza with Echelon Press and amazing new author Gale Borger who wrote the funny murder mystery, "Totally Buzzed". The hometown crowd was awesome! It's especially nice to have all your friends and family come out even if they just stopped by to say hello. Ok I don;t know this child but he was really into the steampunk weaponry.

The fest was amazing as expected. It's funny, the more I travel the more people know about steampunk. In fact I've seen a huge difference in the last six months of people that are aware and curious about it.

On Saturday night we went out and celebrated with the first hockey game of the season!

Also, many thanks to model, dancer and actress Karina Beck for her help with promotions! Here she is on the lookout for enemy airships.

Things are busy, exciting and amazing but oh so busy. December is going to mainly be a tour of Tennessee bookstores but in the meantime I'll be going to Austin, TX, Statesboro, GA, New Orleans, LA, Frankfort, KY, Seattle, WA and Atlanta, GA.

Next up:
I'll be at the Texas Bookfest this weekend. (October 16 & 17) in Austin, TX with author O.M. Grey and her paranormal steampunk novel Avalon Revisited.

Come see us for all your steampunk literary needs.

Don't forget if you're not around any of these cities you can always get Thomas Riley here at Amazon.

And the kindle version here.

Memphis TN & Southaven MS

2010-10-04T07:04:00.000-07:00

This weekend was a rare weekend that I was able to go to dedicated bookstores for signings. It's been at least 3 months since I've been to one. Everything is always bookfests and cons. I'm not complaining, it's just kind of a weird feeling to have your own table at a store when you're used to going to events with thousands of people.

So Saturday was Hastings in Memphis TN. It was great! I think I was 2 books away from selling out of copies but again, I can't ask for much more. I trekked to Beale Street and had a few pints and had some BBQ from Pig and got to run through that weird store on Beal that has well... everything from Masonic merch to voodoo spell casting artifacts. Oh and tasers... Let's not forget the tasers. The let's just say the ehem, cough cough, "wired" employee that approached me really wanted me to buy a taser... or a sword. His selling point was that a sword would really come in handy if I was getting mugged. Needless to say I didn't buy a sword. Here's my picture of The New Daisy where I paused nostalgically in memory of playing there several times with Fall With Me.

Sunday I was off to Southaven MS where I met up with my new good buddy Tyler Smith (who orchestrated the signings by the way) (Many many thank yous Tyler!)at Books-A-Million. Now I've never signed at a Books-A-Million before but this was awesome! People came out specifically for the signing and that pretty much made my day. Everyine in the store was amazing. Really, I've had some really great experiences with people at book stores but this has to take the cake. With their help, we sold out of all the copies in the store. Anyway, it was definitely one of the most incredible bookstore experiences all year and the best part is I've made some really awesome new friends.

While I'm at it, let me introduce the awesome Tony Perry. Tony is an amazing artist that I seriously met yesterday. He drew this first and I had to ask him to do a sketch for the super secret project I'm working on. So... I'm giving you a hint here. The first drawing is unrelated to me but I loved it so here is the steampunk mechanic he did.

Tony was kind enough to do his take on something I'm working on so... Ok here's your first look at Eliza Bell... And that's pretty much all I can tell you right now.

Next Up
This weekend. Oct 8, 9, 10 I'll be signing at the Southern Festival of Books in yes... wait for it... no kidding... Nashville TN. I've never done a real signing in my home town, so this is a big deal for me. (Yes, I signed at Divergence II in Nashville but that wasn't really a public signing)So, I'll be at Booth #8 all weekend with Echelon Press and debut Author of Totally Buzzed, Gale Borger. If you're in or around Nashville, this is a big weekend for me and I'd love to see all my home town friends.

NAIBA & The Baltimore Book Festival

2010-09-27T08:47:00.000-07:00

NAIBA
I'm back after a very long week of traveling and promoting and selling books. Wow, it feels like forever since I've been home. I spent three days in Atlantic City with Echelon Press at the NAIBA Conference at the Trump Marina Hotel. There's nothing quite like having a full blown casino in your hotel. We met with Indy Booksellers and industry people and I was part of the "Emerging Leaders Reception" which was a really great time as well. Yes I played a bit of Blackjack... I pretty much came out even but wow it was fun. For you all that know me, I need that kind of recklessness mixed with business... It makes life fun. I was really bad about not taking photos. But here are a few... Casino entrance.

Karen Syed Setting up the Echelon Table

The guys at St. Martin's Press gave me a copy of Brom's Child Thief!

The Baltimore Book Festival
I've only been to Baltimore once and that was only briefly. Being a three day book fest I was pretty excited to get out and sell to a bunch of people. While the Friday and Sunday crowd were a bit sparse, Saturday was amazing. There's just nothing in the world quite like meeting enthusiastic readers and wow did I meet some. The fest is really big. It's like 5 streets and a square covered in tents and vendors of all types. (Mainly books of course.)So when you're working these festivals it gets pretty tough when the day is winding down so I have to compliment a very amazing gentleman that brought beers and openers each night. Really, that was a first for me and he probably doesn't know it but his simple gesture really meant so much and seriously put the cherry on top of the trip. So if you're the good sir that brought the beers... I thank you so much! Your simple generosity was so touching that it's hard to put into words. I realize that sounds a bit like I'm a lush but that's never happened before and even though it was beer, it was the thought (for 2 nights mind you) that was so touching. He gained the nick-name "Book Fest Santa".

Next Up
This weekend I'll be in Memphis, TN signing Thomas Riley at Hastings on Saturday starting at 2:00PM. On Sunday, I'll be at Books-A-Million in Southaven, MS signing at 2:00PM. Come see me, the books at the stores are limited so they will go fast.

In the year 2000
The week after that I'll be in Nashville, TN signing at The Southern Festival of Books which is another huge book fest spanning 3 days in my home town. Besides a brief signing at Divergence II, I've somehow never signed the book in Nashville... Yeah, how lame is that? So we're coming out grandiose style for this one. We'll be at the Echelon Press Booth (Not sure of the number yet, but I'll keep you posted.)

Books, stories and more stories...
Here are links where you can get all the books and stories that I have out to date.
Thomas Riley
Dreams of Steam (Steampunk Anthology, my story is "Engine 316")
Steampunk Tales Issue 8 (My story is "Double Crossed at Gray Raven Mill")
Thomas Riley Kindle Version
Thomas Riley Nook Version

BOOKMARKS Winston-Salem NC

2010-09-15T06:52:00.000-07:00

For me Winston-Salem is a pretty far drive. Seven hours for a one day book festival. I love a good book fest because you meet all the local authors and you get a chance to meet some awesome book lovers that are just having a good day in the sun. Well, the only problem is there wasn't much sun. In fact it was rain. Here's the really great part. A ton of people just didn;t care. The entire day people just trekked out in the rain still buying books and hanging out. I've never seen anything like it. Usually when the rain comes everyone scatters never to return. Not in Winston-Salem. They toughed it out, determined to have a good time no matter the weather.

We had a great crowd the entire day and wow, a lot of people knew what steampunk was! Seriously, at book festivals a lot of people seem to not know about steampunk but here I swear fifty percent of the crowd knew what it was. That's a really good feeling. Click here to see the article I'm in from The Winston-Salem Journal.

So we ended up going to The Foothills Brewing Company and celebrating with a few pints. Good times but the entire trip was relatively short compared to the latest jaunts to Toronto and Atlanta for Dragon Con.

Side trip to Mayberry
No kidding, I'm driving home and notice that I'm on the Andy Griffith Parkway... well, come to find out, Mount Airy, NC is where they based the town of Mayberry in the Andy Griffith Show. So naturally, I had to see it. The place was really awesome. It's just a small town with a nifty claim to fame. Sure there is some turisty stuff there but honestly, sometimes it's good to just be a tourist.

Next up
Next week is going to be insane. Tuesday and Wednesday Sept 21-22 I'll be attending the NAIBA (New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association) conference in Atlantic City, the I go directly to Baltimore, MD for the Baltimore Book fest (Booth E-29).

Steampunk Tales
I'm so happy to announce that my steampunk short story "Double Crossed at Gray Raven Mill" (Featuring Baron Bon Bar) is in the new Steampunk Tales Magazine (Issue #8). I'm in there with some amazing authors such as G.D. Falksen and Cindy MacLeod. Click here to check it out.

When L. Ron Hubbard Came Down from Outter Space

2010-09-07T06:51:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure how to even start this... So much has happened that my head is spinning, quite literally at times. I was home for three days after Toronto and I was back on the road heading to Atlanta for Dragon Con. We arrived around 9:00 on Thursday evening where we went directly to Pre-reg to get our badges... Of course they closed the line so we were out of luck. After a quick recovery pint, we were back at it exploring the calm before the storm in the D*C hotels. You could feel the buzz in the air. The lobbies and halls were full of people ready for 4 days of fandom and general insanity. Friday we woke up super early and got our badges then I bolted back to the room to get ready for the "New Voices In Steampunk" Panel where Kimberly Richardson, Emilie Bush, Clay & Susan Griffith and I talked about Steampunk and read sections from our novels. Despite my general dislike for reading in front of a crowd, I pulled off my section without too much of a hitch. The panel went wonderfully, with everyone chiming in on the different aspects of steampunk and steampunk literature. Good times with amazing people... I really can't ask for much more.

Decatur Book Festival On Saturday I took off from Dragon Con to brave the sun in Decatur, GA for the Decatur Book Festival. Thirty thousand people converge on this book fest for all things literary. I was at the Echelon Press booth and holy cow, it was amazing. And for the first time in this blog's history, you get to see a video of me all giddy as I sign someones Kindle... Under Charlene Harris' autograph by the way.

After the fest I went directly back to Dragon Con where we hit the party scene trying to get pictures of the lunacy and generally people watching. There's nothing that can overwhelm the senses quite like Dragon Con. Despite my lack of energy, it was an amazing time. I got to hang with a lot of friends and met a ton of good people. Can't wait for next year! Speaking of good friends, Bill Harris is an amazing steampunk gun maker with his company, The Venusian Airship Pirate Trading Company. He made 2 guns which he debuted at Dragon Con from Thomas Riley. Here's a picture of Cynthia's yet unfinished revolver from the beginning of the book. Thanks Bill! You rule!

Steampunk Tales #8 Steampunk tales is an online digital short story magazine full of some of the newest steampunk writers. I have a story in the latest issue called "Double Crossed at Gray Raven Mill". This story was born at St. Louis' Steamposium to benefit Cystic Fibrosis research. The good, Baron Bon Bar won that auction and well, 5 months later I'm happy to say, it's out! Check out this issue with my story and other stories from Cindy MacLeod, and G.D. Falksen here: http://www.steampunktales.com/

Next up I'm heading to The Bookmarks Book Festival in Winston-Salem, NC this weekend which should be an absolute blast. I don't know my booth number yet, but it shouldn't be too hard to find me. Come and say hi... I should have the new Sky Pirate Patches available. If you mention this blog I'll give you something for free. There's so much going on it's hard for me to keep up with it. Seriously, things are crazy. In addition to all the writing and traveling I'm doing for Thomas Riley, there are super secret things in the works as well. I'll give you a hint on one of them... My Gencon/Origins/Megacon friends will be super excited about it.

Fan Expo 2010 Report

2010-09-02T07:59:00.001-07:00

Let me just come right out of the gates and say Fan Expo was absolutely amazing. We broke all sales records once again and the great con goers were exactly that. Great!

We arrived in Toronto and our first contact was an insane cab driver. This guy was nuts. I actually tried to video tape him in the dark cab... those tapes may never be released.

The good Ensign and I settled into the hotel and discovered that we were very close to everything. The Convention center was 2 blocks away and we had enough bars to keep me happy. The next moring we hit it hard... setting up at such a big con was awesome and I have to say the staff was really great. We checked in and got on the floor in no time, which is pretty unreal when you consider that there were hundreds of vendors ranging from local jewelry makers to Marvel Comics. Here's a shot of part of Friday's crowd.

Saturday was unreal. The entire convention center was packed and getting outside to get food or anything was a 30 minute ordeal at the least. Trust me, I'm not complaining. We had innumerable people come by the table and pick the books up. We also had a bunch of fun raffles of homemade steampunk weaponry, which everyone seemed to love. Lot's of good costumes too:

I was a panelist in the steampunk 101 panel and people waited 2 hours to get in. There were so many people in the room the entire floor was covered with people sitting all around us. It's such a cool sight as this is the second time this has happened in the last few months. Steampunk is getting so huge. It's unreal to see it grow so quickly.

On our return home day (Monday) we decided to have a "Canada Day". We went to Tim Hortons, got coffee and Dutchies then we were off to The Hockey Hall of Fame. Ok, this place is so awesome. Besides that it's big and has tons of nifty things to look at, they have the best interactive games ever. My favorite was where you put on goalie gloves and stop real hurling pucks that shoot out of holes in a screen. We have video of that as well. If you like hockey and are in Toronto, this is a must see.

So what do I say? This was a truly amazing con. Like I said, we broke all records. I'm already signed up for next year and I can't wait.

Dragon Con
I leave for Dragon Con on Thursday evening. Yes that has not afforded me much sleep or recovery time from busting my ass in Canada but Dragon Con is always such a blast. I'll be on the "New Voices in Steampunk" panel at 11:30AM in the Westin Hotel. GUESTS: Clay & Susan Griffith, Nick Valentino, Emilie Bush, Kimberly Richardson

On Saturday I'll hop skip and jump over to Decatur GA for the Decatur Book Festival all day where I'll be joining my fellow Echelon authors at booth 107. Then right back to Dragon Con for Saturday night's insanity. So I'm a busy boy... These events are especially great because I get to see all my friends in one place. Well, ok two places. See you all soon!

Toronto Bound Update

2010-08-20T08:41:00.000-07:00

FAN EXPO 2010

Next week, August 27-29, the good Ensign and I will be attending Fan Expo 2010 in Toronto Ontario. This 90,000 person fandom extravaganza is Canada's version of the San Diego Comic Con and I can't wait to be a part of it. I'll be signing Thomas Riley and the new Dreams of Steam anthology at booth A-13 in the convention centre and I'm on the Steampunk 101 panel on Saturday at 3:30 in Room 205A in the convention centre.

This one is going to be crazy. We have steampunk guns and goggles for giveaways and all types of shenanigans planned. The only sad part is that The Pyre's Fortune Sky Pirate Patches will not be in on time for this con... but we plan to have them by Dragon Con and the Decatur Book Fest the following week.

So come by our booth if you are planning on attending Fan Expo. Mention this blog and get 2 free raffle tickets for the steampunk weaponry giveaway.

Interview
The most excellent writers of the Nicknameless270 blog did a fun question interview with me. Check it out here: NICKNAMELESS270

Ebooks
If you have an ebook reader Thomas Riley is on mega sale for Kindle and The Nook. $2.99
I mean you can't go wrong with three bucks right?
Kindle
The Nook

Memphis and Southaven Signings Postponed

2010-08-13T17:21:00.000-07:00

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

I'm so sorry this is last minute but the book signings at Hastings in Memphis TN on Saturday and at Books-A-Million in Southaven MS have been postponed.

The new dates are:
Hastings Memphis - Oct 2nd
Books-A-Million Southaven - Oct 3rd

In the meantime, if you like The Blood Brothers or Milemarker check out this band called Orbs.
http://www.myspace.com/orbsband

Gencon

2010-08-10T08:59:00.000-07:00

Gencon was honestly a last minute thing. I'd heard of it for a while now but I never grasped how big it really was. Thirty thousand gamers and pop culture fanatics descend on Indianapolis for not only "the best four days in gaming" but also the largest four days in gaming in the world. While attending Origins with the Frenzy Universe we were told over and over again that we simply have to attend Gencon.

At the last moment there we were, off to Gencon.

First off this con is much like a mini San Diego Comic Con but with a much heavier focus on gaming. Seriously, if you're into games especially table top and RPG, this is the place for you. Most of the time, the isles are packed with people where moving is difficult. If you have agoraphobia or Enochlophobia well, you might want to stay home. I arrived on Wednesday night and by 9AM the next day we were off and running at the booth. Once again the amazing ladies at Frenzy Universe had me at their booth. They're kindness and help means so much to me. I could say thank you a million times to them and it wouldn't be close to enough. The coolest part is that you'll never have a bad experience with Frenzy Universe. They're bent on providing the best shopping experience and best products out there. If you don't know already, I highly recommend them. In fact my favorite outfit came from them! Sorry if I talk about them all the time but they're seriously that awesome.

So what can I say? Even for an author, Gencon was amazing!I debuted the brand new Dreams of Steam Anthology from Kerlak Publishing which my story, Engine 316 is included. All my copies sold out by mid day on Saturday. I was 6 copies away from selling out of Thomas Riley as well. Super good con and wonderful people as usual.

In addition to the Frenzy Gals, I got to spend time with wonderful romantic steampunk author Elizabeth Darvill, Fantasy author Stephen Zimmer and Horror author Michael West.

Four day cons are a tough gig but they're also fun as can be. Gencon this year came with another bonus as I was interviewed for Dragon Talk Radio by Jon Klement on the first night of the con. Take a listen to the hour long radio show HERE

Ok, ready for fun pictures?

Here's an awesome working dog that allowed them to put goggles on him. He really would have sat there all day. Awesome dog!

Wil Wheaton loves a good hug.

So this guy walks by the table and starts freaking out. I wasn't sure why until he informed me that his name was Thomas Riley. Too Fun!

Felicia Day

This group always finds me at cons and I love them for it. Especially since they dress up differently each time.

Weird but awesome. On my way home I passed this. Who wouldn't want a pirate ship as a playhouse?

Next Up:
I'll be in Memphis TN this Saturday signing Thomas Riley at Hastings at 2PM, then I'll be signing at Books-A-Million in Souithaven MS on Sunday at 2PM. If you come and mention this, I'll give you a high five.

San Diego Comic Con 2010

2010-07-28T07:37:00.001-07:00

I'm a six year veteran of the San Diego Comic Con. We originally went on kind of a whim to see some weird new media things and wow, who would have ever expected that it would have turned out to basically be the new red carpet?

So this year the Good Ensign and I trekked off to San Diego, checked into the 500 West and lived out five days of "do whatever the hell we want" while being surrounded by every new scrap of movies, tv, art, comics, fandom, media and insanity that dares to show it's face in 2011. As per tradition, we went directly to Fred's (A chain tex-mex place) for celebratory beer and Chicken Chingaderas. That night, we were into preview night, roaming the seemingly endless yet familiar exhibitor hall in search of new goodies. Put it this way, the street signs outside of the convention center were written in Klingon. Really:

Despite going every year, it's hard to accurately describe how massive and crazy Comic Con is. Think 150 thousand people and all of them are trying to get your attention. Then think it's somehow even crazier than that. This is not a place for those with Agoraphobia or Enochlophobia.

So Thursday we hit the exhibit hall again with fleeting plans to attend any panels that day. That's how it usually goes down. We plan to do a bunch of stuff but it never happens because we're doing something else. That evening we attended the art toy company Munkey King's party at Bar Basic which is always a fun event featuring pop artists doing live paintings and beer. Can't forget the beer. Here's a lame picture of Joe Ledbetter doing the live painting.

The amount of stars on the floor this year blew away previous years. Sure you may bump into Glenn Danzig or Seth Green but this year there were tons of people signing in the exhibitor hall. Here are just a few I could get pictures of:

Danny DiVito

Chevy Chase

Seth Green

Bill and Sookie from True Blood

Michael MacDowell

Warehouse 13

We also caught Penn & Teller's panel on performing together for 35 years. Pretty awesome. The level of general fandom is off the charts. People camped out just to get into panels and I don't mean just super big panels like Big Bang Theory and True Blood, I mean like for everything. Here's people at 1AM camped out for the Supernatural panel and Smallville Panel. As for us, we waited 3 hours for the always amazing Mythbusters panel. Great stuff as usual. Funny, exciting and brilliant!

Of course there were the fun crazy people in costume. If you can think of a costume, it was probably there. Here's a VERY small sampling of what was there:
Captain America (With a goat for some reason) was protesting the idea that Comic Con might move to Anaheim. I didn;t have the heart to tell him that I think I heard that San Diego already signed an extension to keep the con there...

Kitana (Mortal Cobat)

Cobra Comander (Now with 200% more henchmen!)

So we're already looking forward to Comic Con 2011 (Hopefully no one will get stabbed in the eye next year.) Until then, thank you San Diego!

Next Up:
I'll be at Gencon selling Thomas Riley at the Frenzy Universe Booth and as an added bonus I'll have the first copies of the Steampunk Anthology "Dreams of Steam" in which I have a steampunk story called Engine 316. See you in Indianapolis!

I know way too many people here right now that I didn't know last year.

2010-07-19T11:51:00.000-07:00

I'll be in San Diego for The San Diego Comic Con for the rest of the week and I wanted to give you another fun filled post before I go back in to travel mode. I thought what a better idea to give you a nice list of friends and awesome writers to look through while I'm gone. Whithout further adieu:

This is a unique summer. I've never traveled this much in my life and I've never met so many awesome people. In tribute to that, I felt the need to pimp some of them. And it's only been seven months. Holy cow! Thank you everyone! Keep in mind it's taken me a week to write this so if you're not on this list it's not because I dont love you, it's because this is taking forever and I'll put you on the next list in a few months. (In no particular order)

O.M. Grey
The wonderfully mysterious O.M. Grey wrote a wonderful paranormal steampunk novel called Avalon Revisited. She's in some secret talks right now so the only way to get a paperback copy of Avalon Revisited is to see her at an event. If anyone in Texas would like to meet her, Ms. Grey and I will be sharing a table at the Texas Book Festival this year.

David Blalock
I met Mr. Blalock at the first con I ever attended as a guest. (Shadowcon in Memphis TN) He was part of a regional writers travel group called Imagicopter which I joined up with the following week. Look for his fantasy adventure novel, Ascendant and his new book soon to come out entitled "Emperor". Speaking of Shadowcon which I have a soft place in my heart for, I'll be the Writer GoH next year. *Stoked*

Elizabeth Donald
Author of the super freaky "The Cold Ones". I highly recommend this novella. I met Elizabeth at MidSouthCon in Memphis TN and later again at Steamposium in St. Louis. She's an awesome person to be on a panel with! She's also a driving force in The Literary Underworld. Buy lot's of books from them! Buy lot's of books from them!

Daniele Serra
This amazing Italian artist did a promo piece for my horror novel, "Fallon" and has been cranking out ultra dark art for comics, books, and a million other forms of media. Think Darkhorse Comics style illustrations and Clive Barker. Yeah, it doesn't get much better than that. I originally met Dani through myspace... does that age me? See his work at www.multigrade.it

Teresa Burrell
The day I met my publisher in February of 2009 was the day I met Teresa Burrell. She radiates inspiration and is literally an unstoppable force in everything she does. I seriously look up to Teresa and can only hope to see her on the road again soon. She writes awesome Legal Suspense Mysteries and her second book, The Advocate's Betrayal just came out. Take a look.

Kimberly Richardson
I heard about Kimberly since day one. Author of "Tales from a Goth Librarian" Kimberly is a must see at a reading. I was lucky enough to see her read at Anachrocon in Atlanta and I've never seen anyone get into there readings like she does. She uses character voices and pauses like no one else. Really, you need to see this. She's also the engineer of Kerlak Publishing's Dreams Of Steam anthology coming out... really soon. (I need to mention that I have a story in that anthology called, Engine 316)

Ensign Sparklebunny
Let me introduce the super secret brain trust, workhorse, Consigliere, marketing master, pin-point smart bomb of Thomas Riley. The Good Ensign and I have been on many adventures together, so you may see him out at some events. Just know that the entire adventures of this humble author would not have been possible without Ensign Sparklebunny.

Emilie P. Bush
The author of "Chenda and the Airship Brofman", Emilie invited a very nervous Nick Valentino to be on some panels at Chattacon including a fabulous Tesla vs. Watt Debate that I somehow won! Anyway, she provided me with a lot of great opportunities and a great friend! I'll be speaking with her at The New Voices in Steampunk Panel at Dragon Con this year.

Elizabeth Darvill
As per my interview with her, I met Liz at The World Steam Expo. I have a lot in common with grassroots aggressive authors and Liz not only goes EVERYWHERE but she just released a new e-book called "Love In The Time Of Steam" on Tease Publishing and she just signed a two book deal with Harlequin! I totally can't wait for that. You don't want to miss out on her... very steamy goodness! I'll be at Gencon as well as Steamcon this year with her.

Stephen Zimmer
Back in the day I used to play in a band and our manager was none other than Stephen Zimmer. When that all went to hell, I lost touch only to be sitting next to him at MidSouthCon years later. Check out his epic fantasy books Crown of Vengeance, Storm Guardians and The Exodus Gate. Awesome fantasy that you don't want to miss!

Geek Details
Amanda was vending tables of wonderfully crazy stuff at Steamposium and was super nice. We met up again at Origins and she made some limited edition "I heart Thomas Riley" buttons, which was freaking awesome. We handed them out to the most rabid fans at Origins and at CONvergence. You must check out Geek Details for some really awesome prints, buttons, luggage, and other goods that you WILL NOT find anywhere else.

Frenzy Universe
Another Steamposium friendship (Good place to meet great people by the way.)the Frenzy Gals have become really good friends. Not only are they amazing people but they seriously have some of the best steampunk/victorian clothes and goodies out there. Come see them at Gencon in Indianapolis (I'll be at their booth all weekend) and at Steamcon in Seattle this year. Click their name to go to their website. Awesome! Yeah Detroit!

Sara Harvey
Sara is a highly praised author writing with Apex Books See: The Labyrinth of the Dead and The Convent of the Pure. She has tons of amazing material coming out so definitely take a moment and check out her work. Sara and I originally met at the first Mechanical Masquerade in Atlanta GA. I sat next to her and had no idea she was from my home town. I vended next to her again at Divergence II in Nashville several months later. I'm really looking forward to her new material! Click here!

Syrens of the South
These ladies were awesome enough to have me to their first steampunk event in Atlanta called, The Mechanical Masquerade. Even through the pouring rain over 200 people showed up for the premier of this one night event. Burlesque, vendors, dancing, contests, photos, costumes... You name it it was there. If you're in Atlanta make sure you go to one of these bi-monthly events.

Angelia Sparrow
I met Angelia at MidSouthCon where I was on a few panels with her. She's the author of a bunch of wonderful books, my favorite being "Alive on the Inside". Watch out, she writes incredibly scary, twisted and shocking, romance stories that may have you literally hiding under your covers.

Bethany Greenier
Bethany is the author of the YA steampunk novel "Sings With Stars". We met at the World Steam Expo and her enthusiasm was contagious. Check out Sings With Stars to find out about the extraordinary life of Gigi and her super natural adventures.

Karen Syed
Last but definitely not least is Karen Syed. Please note that none of this... and I mean none of this would be possible without Karen. literally, Thomas Riley would be sitting on my self, this blog would not be here and you would not be reading it without Karen. She's the first person to take a risk with me and by doing so my life and the lives of plenty of others has changed. Friends, family, readers, fans, haters, con goers, etc... Their lives would be at least slightly different without Mrs. Syed. We met at The Southern California Writers Conference and if you're a writer I suggest you check that out for yourself.

Dreams of Steam

2010-07-16T07:20:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to announce that Dreams of Steam, a steampunk anthology published by Kerlak Publishing is available now at Barnes & Noble! Get it online HERE or come see me at an event. (I should have copies to sign.) My Steampunk Weird West story, "Engine 316" is included.

Also: Thomas Riley is on sale at Amazon.com get it for $11.19 before it goes up again.

Origins Columbus OH

2010-07-09T06:58:00.000-07:00

Sorry, this is a late post about a con that happened the last weekend of June. I got caught up in preparations and travel to CONvergence and didn't have time to properly report on Origins.

My last minute move to Origins was facilitated by the wonderful ladies at Frenzy Universe. This may seem a bit like a Frenzy Universe commercial but that's ok because they are that awesome. I'll explain later.

I've never been to a primarily gaming conference before and I've never been to Columbus, OH before either so off I went. Let me tell you gaming cons are long. Four days of vending is a really long time. The Frenzy Gals gave me a section of their booth which was absolutely perfect. I was on a corner and hopefully helped draw people in to the area. Does this sound like I'm complaining? I promise I'm not at all. The entire con was really great. I met a whole new demographic of people and sold quite a lot of books!

The Frenzy Gals and I made it extra fun by gathering people at the booth for a candy toss and then a Rock-Paper-Scissors tournament for all that attended. It's actually a pretty amazing sight to see 60 people all playing Rock-Paper-Scissors at the same time. We were also assited by musician Kara Markley. Here we are posing infront of the TR banner. Check out her band/modeling facebook here.

Being in Columbus was also great because I got to visit my friends Laura and Scott at the Rivet Gallery. They were awesome as usual and took me out to the Surly Girl Saloon which I totally dug because of their quirky food and wonderfully varied beer selection. Speaking of friends, I was surprised when old friend from the band days and bad ass artist, Jacob Walker showed up at my table. So it was super great to catch up with him over a few beers as well. If you're into gaming I met some nifty game makers Justin and Anne Marie from Fireside Games who were there selling and nominated for an Origins Award for their game Castle Panic.
Also, you have to love the fandom and random kookiness... Me with the doctors. I guess I looked like I needed medical help.

So Origins was a huge success and I hope I can go back next year as it was a blast all the way through. I'm going to take the rest of this paragraph to fill you in about the Frenzy Universe. First off this company has the coolest, quirkiest and most unique steampunk and Victorian clothes, accessories, novelties, and artifacts that I've seen in a long time. Secondly, the women that run it are amazing people in every way. They're kind, straight shooting and a lot of fun. I encourage you to check out their website HERE. If you'd rather see them in person, I'll be at Gencon in Indianapolis with them the first weekend of August.
I have to give a bunch of love to everyone at Geek Details as well. I met the owners in St. Louis and they've been such fun friends. Check out their site for handmade geeky goodnes. I ended up buying a lot of prints from them.
Here are "I Love Thomas Riley" Buttons they made as a surprise and below is the owner, Amanda with her son.

I can't leave you with out this little gem. I was going to the bar when I saw a strange sight. Well, it may not be a strange sight for some cons but this was unexpected nd funny. Click on the picture of the hotel hallway below and look closely. I guess someone had too much to drink.

CONvergence 2010... Ka'pla!!!!

2010-07-06T07:07:00.000-07:00

I've been hearing about this con for a while now. Ever since research started, the word on the street is that CONvergece in Minneapolis MN, (technically Bloomington, MN) is an amazing con to attend. I heard it's full of nightlife, room parties, and endless panels, all encapsulated in one Sheraton Hotel. So, with the help of some wonderful people, we were able to get in and get a table in the dealers room.

Simply put, CONvergence stands at the top of the mountain of medium sized cons and is poised to become the next big con on the circuit. First off, the whole thing is wonderfully organized. Some of the volunteers may disagree with me but from a outsider's view that's just coming in and from someone that has been to dozens of different cons now, this was high in the rankings of organization and presentation.

So basically it breaks down like this. Thursday we arrived, set up the table and sold books until 6:00. After a quick meal at Fridays (one of the few restaurants around) we were eager to hit up the famous CONvergence room parties. Let me tell you, even on a Thursday they did not disappoint. It's hard to describe. Picture a large open area, half of which is contains an indoor pool. Surrounding this open area were two stories of hotel rooms with open cabanas looking out onto the courtyard. Each room had a themed party. The Bearded Gnome Tavern, Vice City, Harry Potter, Mos Icee Cantina, Jews in Space, and Minicon to name a very few. My favorite and a favorite of the entire con was the room simply named TOAST. This is the house of toast where you can get (for free mind you... everything was free)toast with an array of odd and normal toppings from 8PM-11PM. Yes, there were things like smoked oysters, cumin, blue icing, sprinkles, nutella... well, take a look for yourself. These two pictures are the menu. The two I had the entire con were: Wheat Toast with Chili and Cheese Slices and Wheat Toast with Spagetti-O's and Parmesan. Hey! Don't make a choking noise, kep in mind those were VERY conservative choices compared to what I could have had. Here's half the menu for Thursday night (go on, click on it, I dare ya):

Here's 1/3 of the party area before any of the parties actually happened from a bird's eye view:

I participated in a panel at 11:30 at night called "The Seedy Side of Steampunk" with Clay Lamkin and Mariah Fryer which is odd for a panel time but hey, it IS the seedy side of steampunk... I'm not complaining. In fact it was a really great panel.

Friday we awoke and sold books from 10-6 and things were picking up. The sales were enough to get pretty excited about the rest of the weekend. Things looked promising and the weekend didn't disappoint. I was part of the "Steampunk on The Page" panel at 7:00 with Roy C. Booth, Michael Mirriam and Michael Levy which was a fun almost totally literary panel. That night we hit Friday's (yes again) recouped for a few minutes in the hotel room and ran down to the room party extravaganza which, being Friday, had ramped up in intensity. The alcohol was flowing (need I remind you that all room party alcohol is free?) and people jammed the flyer covered hallways dressed in all types of fandom and insanity. We retired about 2AM and after being given extraordinarily strong drinks at some unknown party because we were from Tennessee, it was time for bed.

Saturday morning was a slow morning... not sales wise... mentally. With coffee in hand and the inspiration that Saturday was going to be even crazier, I perked up and soldiered to the vending hall. Yes Saturday kicked butt then had a panel on "The Popularity of Steampunk" which kicked even more butt with at least 200 people in attendance. That evening we ate at the hotel bar "Navigator" and kept close to the craziness that was brewing just down the hall. We literally sat feet away from Jeremy Bullock (The actor that played Boba Fett.) Yeah, that was pretty bad ass. The party floor was nuts. We witnessed a Jesus on Jesus on Jesus LARP fighting match. Guess what? Jesus won. We also had cherry Icees at Mos Icee Cantina and lots of local beer at the Minicon room party. This picture is one of my favorites as Hagrid's Monster book eats Thomas Riley. I actually missed this as I was in a panel but it still rules:

Sunday came and we broke the book sales record for any Con for the whole year. Shortly, we broke the entire record for sales for eny event. Imagine that... More books sold to 4500 people than at Printers Row in Chicago with 90,000 people... Minnesota Reads! I was part of the Steampunk Costuming panel which was totally amazing! The room was packed! So packed that it was standing room only and there were people behind the table! After being quite happy with ourselves, we had a celebratory drink (yes at Fridays again) and went out to Pizza Luce with some new friends, which was a really nice getaway for a few hours. (Oh and more local beer!)AND this is where I learned the Klingon word for SUCCESS! or Ka'pla! Upon returning to the con, which was winding down at this point, we decided to forgo any 4th of July fireworks and watch Sherlock Holmes at the in house theater at the con which was cool,especially since I never really watch movies.
My phone never seems to capture the enormity of anything but here's the best I can show you of the Costuming Panel:

By one something AM we hit they hay and had to be up for the brutal 4:15AM wake up call. We did it and we made it home without a hitch. (finally)I have to say CONvergence was unexpectedly perfect in every way. There was something for everyone and plenty of it. Panels up the ying yang, tons of vendors, authors, artists, fans, drinks, food, general craziness, gaming... oh I could go on forever. Point being it's a destination that I will not miss for as long as I write and I promise you this con will get even bigger every year.

Ten Questions With Elizabeth Darvill

2010-06-30T08:39:00.000-07:00

I first met Elizabeth at The World Steam Expo in Dearborn Michigan. She lit up the room with her enthusiasm and excitement for steampunk, so naturally we hit it off pretty quickly. It wasn't until I got home that I realized how amazing her writing was and how much this young lady has going for her. Not only is she one of the hardest working writers I've met but she's literally breaking the mold when it comes to success and promise. Don't believe me? Well, I thought you need to see for yourself in a little interview with Elizabeth.

So first off we need to talk about the fabulous Harlequin book deal news. Please let us know all about it. Release dates? How did it come about? Can you give us any teasers?

Well, I just got a two book contract with Harlequin for their Spice Brief line. They are erotic steampunk/paranormal novellas and they are really fun and hot! They will be releasing back to back in 2011 and have I mentioned how excited I am?

A funny story, when I got “the call” my apartment building decided to test the fire alarm…while I was on the phone…..

Here is a little blurb for my first book – Steam Heat

What does a half succubus, a scientist and a feisty female steam engineer have in common? Not a lot. Until, they are thrown together in a race against time to re-power the dying crystal that purifies the earth’s air. Suddenly it is up to Angel, Nick and Jezebel to save the world. The only way to supply the energy needed to power the crystal, is to find out exactly what makes a half succubus tick……

While we’re on the subject of new releases, what else do you have coming out? More teasers are welcome.

On July 15th my steampunk romance novella, Love in a Time of Steam releases in e-book format and later this year it will be part of the Love Like Clockwork print anthology. On August 15th I have a paranormal romance The Depths of Passion, releases in e-book and will follow shortly in a print anthology. October 18th I have a full-length paranormal romance, Bound by Blood releasing in e-book from Lyrical Press. I have some more exciting stuff to announce coming soon!

I know you’re very busy with well, everything. So what’s a day in the life of Elizabeth Darvill like?

Are you sure you really want to know?? *grin* Well, my day starts at the ass crack of dawn and involves lots and lots and lots of coffee. I try to pry my eyes open and check my e-mail, if you receive an e-mail from me that sound like I got into the rum early…chances are I wasn’t really awake when I wrote it. Once I start on my second pot of coffee I write out my to-do list – get scared and hide it in the back of my day planner. At this point I attempt to write something that sounds like I know what I am doing, this works about 20% of the time. After a few hours of writing new material, I will give into the lure of facebook and stop in and post random things of no relevance. It is now time for another pot of coffee – then it is onto blog posts and other random business, promotions, etc. If I have edits to do, I would probably work on those until I get so tired, or deranged I start to frighten myself…at this point I retire…with rum….

How do you write? Do you need silence? Do you write to music? Tell us a little about your process.

I am too random for a process…I have a half ass plan for everything and just barrel into it. I listen to music if I remember to turn it on. Usually I have a notebook I’ve scribbled notes in that even I can’t read, my laptop that is stupid and randomly turns off and loses portions of my work, which results in much cursing on my part and coffee. Oh yeah and a pen that I end up sticking in my pony tail and forgetting I put it there, which result in more cursing and searching until I realize it is in my hair. At which point I feel stupid and get back to work!

How do you find a balance with writing and promoting your books?

What is this balance you speak of? I try to get my word count in and get anything important out of the way and then move onto promotion, for the daily stuff. Other then that I just try to work around conferences and things. Promotion is important, but I have to remind myself that if I don’t have any new books to promote I am going to run out of work eventually.

While we’re at it, what conferences, book fests, etc will you be attending around the country?

July 2-4 InCONfluence/Indianapolis, IN
July 28-31 RWA National Romance Writers Conference/Orlando, FL
August 13-16 Ghosts of the Old West/Park City, UT
August 27-29 ConTEXT/Columbus, OH
September 3-6 DragonCon/Atlanta, GA
September 16-19 Authors After Dark/Secaucus, NJ
October 1-3 Emerald City Writers Conference/Seattle, WA
October 7-8 AlbaCon/Albany, NY
October 9-10 ComiCon, NY
November 5-7 TeslaCon/Madison, WI
November 19-21 SteamCon/Seattle, WA

What’s been your favorite Con and why?

It would have to be a tie between Steamcon 2009 and Heather Graham’s Writers for New Orleans. They were both marvelous and I had a fabulous time! Specifically, I loved Steamcon for the amazing gathering of steampunkers, the gorgeous costumes and the splendid way it was all put together! I am so looking forward to Steamcon this year! And I loved Heather Graham’s conference for its laid-back schedule and discussion friendly panels and because it was in New Orleans! I love that place!

What’s the craziest thing that’s happened to you at a signing or Con?

At one conference, during the book signing, we had a man running around, wearing a bathrobe….wearing only a bathrobe….don’t ask how I know for sure…I try to repress that memory…..

What do you do in your spare time? What are some of your hobbies?

Hobbies? I am supposed to have those? I play World of Warcraft when I have time, I sew my own steampunk clothing(but this is for more economic reasons, then enjoyment), I love movies, obviously I read a lot and well….lets see….I probably shouldn’t mention that one, or that one…so yeah, that’s it!

I know you have a passion for romance so if not steampunk, what would you write next? Would you go to romance? Are there other genres that tickle your fancy?

Honestly I was a paranormal lover first, especially the vampires(biting is hot), steampunk came after, so now I happily blend them together. If I couldn’t do steampunk, it would be paranormal, if I couldn’t do paranormal either, it would probably be writing instruction for assembling furniture, those can be quite erotic!

We want to hear more! Please let the readers know about your website, where they can get your books, your facebook and Twitter… what anything else you may want to say.

Well, first I want to say THANK YOU! For letting me ramble here! Also ask me a question, any question and I will answer it. I will randomly select one commenter to receive a fun promo pack from me! You can find me in many places in Interland. My website – www.elizabethdarvill.com,
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Elizabeth-Darvill/236401638796?ref=mf
Twitter – http://twitter.com/lizdarvill

Now I will pimp my up-coming release Love in a Time of Steam! It releases on July 15th and at 0.99 you can’t resist! Even better—you can pre-order your copy now! http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-loveinatimeofsteam-441897-143.html

Love in a Time of Steam – Blurb

Ashlyn hasn’t seen Gray her former lover in five long years. Not since the day he believed her to be a traitor to the military cause they both served.
Now as the volatile nature of their planet is reaching a fevered pitch, and the war over water to run their steam-powered technology is threatening all beings, she must face him once more.

Despite her intense hatred towards Gray, Ashlyn can’t let the father of her child be murdered by General Dagnus, the leader of the opposing army. Risking her life, Ashlyn lays everything on the line to save the man that betrayed her once. As they work together to survive, will they be able to rekindle the passion they once shared?

Printers Row Chicago IL

2010-06-16T07:04:00.000-07:00

The chance to go to historic Printers Row in Chicago to sell books is an opportunity that no one should pass up. Thousands of eager readers crowd Dearborn Street and Polk Street looking for the freshest and most exciting books on the market. This was a no brainer for me. When I heard that Echelon Press was going to have a tent again, I'm pretty sure I was first on the list to go. The flight from Nashville is a joke. It's really short and just over an hour flying time. (Sure beats 8 hours in the car.) Everything is time or money right?

Upon arrival, we checked in to the room and headed straight for Pizzeria Uno, the place where deep dish pizza was invented. I don;t mean this is something that they just claim to get customers, this is actually the place where the first official deep dish was created... ever. Needless to say it was awesome. Something to be considered though was that it took us an hour to walk just under a mile as Chicago was celebrating their Stanley Cup victory with a parade attended by two million people. I'm not making that up either. The cool thing about being in the city where the Stanley cup was won just days earlier was that every building had something pro-Blackhawks on the facade. A flag, posters, banners, murals... it was almost shameful if your business or building didn't have something supporting the team displayed.

That evening we enjoyed a wonderful meal at Dale Levitski(of Bravo's Top Chef fame)retaraunt Sprout. Ok, it's a little pricey but you can't expect to get a meal like that for nothing. 3 courses of wonder and bliss. Not to mention the top notch "old style" drinks. (I had two Avaiations)

So the next day the book fest started. Cool weather and very cloudy skies threatened to ruin everything but it held off for quite some time. The Echelon Press tent was packed. Sixteen authors crowded in to sell their stories and meet new readers. It may seem intimidating from a reader's point of view but there's something special about the Echelon authors. They're always having fun so the mood is lightened and I really think that radiates from the booth. That night we all had dinner at Tratoria down the street. It's always awesome when you get a group, a crew... a family if you will, in one location. I know wit's a bad picture but here's part of the Echelon Crew literally singing and signing in the rain.

Sunday was gangbusters (no Chicago pun intended). The crowd was twice as big and even more eager to buy books. It's always so cool when people want their picture with you. It's kind of strange but awesome at the same time. I always wonder where those pictures go... Anyone? If you have pictures from an event, I'd love to have them! Oh, I forgot to mention that I did two signings at The Old Towne Books and Tea table on Dearborn Street. The owners are nothing short of amazing, kind and a blast to hang out with. If you're in Chicago, you must stop by their store.
Here's Joe and I picking the winner of steampunk goggles from PHFactor.

At the end of the day, we were beat. Happy but beat. We cleaned the booth (Big props to those that stuck around until the end to clean up. Not only does that show respect to the publisher but it's also paying your dues no matter how long you've been doing it.)and we headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest. I was able to run out and get an amazing (proper use of the word) Chicago dog. Dude, this was the best hot dog I've ever had hands down.

The next day we found an hour to walk the Magnificent Mile and bolt to the airport before we had to leave. Still amazed at all the hockey stuff around town.

So this coming weekend I'll be signing at The Towne Mall at The Almost Famous Book Faire in Elizabethtown Kentucky. (Just south of Louisville.) I have a surprise helper... well, you know who she is if you read this blog but it should make for a fun afternoon. It starts at High noon and ends at 7PM. See you soon!

Oh hey, if you are on Facebook. Find me HERE

Scaling Mountains & Dodging Rock Slides

2010-06-08T08:42:00.000-07:00

Printers Row Chicago
This weekend I'll be signing in Chicago, IL (as if there's really another Chicago)at the Chicago Tribune Printers Row Lit Festival. For the majority of the time I'll be at the Echelon Press tent, which is TENT FF. So come see me. This will be the biggest book festival all year and I'm quite excited to be a part of it. I'll also be guest signing at The Olde Town Books table TABLE #176 on Saturday from Noon-2:00 and Sunday 4:00-6:00.

The Almost Famous Book Faire
For those located in a more central area of America, next week, June 19th, I'll be signing at The Almost Famous Book Faire in Elizabethtown KY. The Faire is located in the Towne Mall from Noon-7:00PM. The extra fun part about this is I'll be assisted by Miss Kentucky 2010, Kindra Clark. So come see us. We promise it'll be fun.

The Kindle
Kindle sales are going pretty well. But as always pretty well is never good enough. So I'll take a brief moment to direct you to the Thomas Riley Amazon Kindle site. It only costs $2.99 so if you have a Kindle check this out. Thomas Riley Kindle Page

The Nook
Yep, It's available for the Barnes & Noble Nook as well. I've only met one person with a Nook before but they seem pretty darn nifty. So if you have a Nook, I'd like to hear from you and see what you think. While you're at it tell me how Thomas Riley looks on it. Thomas Riley Nook Page

Twitter Contest
Copy and paste the Tweet below into your Twitter or Facebook status. Two winners will be chosen by a random number generator when the contest ends on Thursday June 10 11:59PM. First prize wins a pair of Swiss Airship Goggles generously supplied by the lovely ladies at Frenzy Universe. Frenzy Universe is a great place to shop for quality and unique steampunk/Victorian clothes, accessories and goodies on the web and judging by the buzz about them at The World Steam Expo, they were definitely one of the busiest booths at the Conference. Second Prize wins a $10 gift card from Amazon.com.

Copy and paste the following line into your Twitter or Facebook:
RT @SirThomasRiley on Amazon http://tiny.cc/4uiwx for a chance to win steampunk goggles from @frenzygals http://www.frenzyuniverse.com/

And...
There's a myriad of crazy things developing, much of which I can't talk about at the moment but be sure that you will be the first to know if they develop correctly. Needless to say these things can be quite nerve racking. With that vague and cryptic ending I leave you with... The mysterious beer face:

The World Steam Expo

2010-06-03T12:19:00.000-07:00

I travel a lot. Every place I go I have no idea what to expect. One hundred people, one thousand, five thousand... I just don't know. My latest expedition had me journeying to Dearborn Michigan for The World Steam Expo, another first time steampunk conference. The trip was really easy. I'm even getting to the point where turbulence doesn't affect me. There was a time when it bothered me but now it's not a big deal.

The World Steam Expo was held in The enormous Hyatt hotel and instantly I saw a line of neo-Vitorians dressed to the max waiting to get registered. I bolted up to the room then to the exhibitor room where I was super happy to be placed next to the wonderful ladies from Frenzy Universe. By the way, they had to be one of the most popular booths at the con. Congrats ladies! On my opposite side was the t-shirt company Ardvark Tees. We instantly bonded being that they were from the Nashville area as well. Note that I've been really lucky for the most part at all the con's I've attended with wonderful neighbors. The only exception would be the one guy that crashed into my stand-up banner basically permanently wrecking it. No he didn't offer any assistance with repairing it.
Frenzy Gals!

Aardvark Reps Ariel and Angel

I digress. Friday was a blockbuster day sales wise. I've never had such a big first day at a con. Over half the books I brought were sold in the first five hours! From there I've noticed that after vending I need some decompression time so I usually head to the bar to have a couple and talk with fellow con goers. On the first night the Chairs of Steamcon invited me over to have drinks and good conversation. Before I started traveling I'll admit that I was a bit nervous about meeting steampunk people. I guess I thought that I would encounter a lot of clique-ish people that were unwilling to be accepting of a new author. Like most of my assumptions, I was wrong. I can't tell you how awesome everyone has been over the last six months and this con was no different.
This young lady reminded me of Ann Read from Thomas Riley.

By the end of the day Saturday I was sold out of books and began taking orders (with free shipping of course) for con attendees. Even without books on hand I managed to tie my con record for sales. (Do the happy dance!) Unfortunately I didn't get to see any panels but I did get to see some bands play. Abney Park, The Men that will not be blamed for nothing, The Extraordinary Contraptions and Tartanic. I also was fortunate enough to meet Bethany Greenier author of Sings With Stars. Also met Caitlin Montgomery, an up and coming writer with an amazing steampunk story in the works. Very cool.
Me with Caitlin AKA Kristabella

So I'll say what I always say because it's the truth. Amazing con, amazing people, good times by all. Next weekend, I'll be in Chicago for the overwhelmingly wonderful Printers Row Lit Fest sponsored by the Chicago Tribune. 100,000 people here I come. If you're close to Chi-town come see me. I'll be in Tent FF.

The Victoria Steam Exposition

2010-05-26T14:05:00.000-07:00

I've never been to Canada. I love hockey so that helps right? When offered the opportunity to go to Victoria British Columbia for the Victoria Steam Exposition I jumped at the chance. Not only was I going to get to meet Cherie Priest and see the very talented Unwoman perform but I was going to get to meet an entire new demographic of people.

The trip there was rough. I had three stops (yeah bad planning on my part.)and when I finally arrived at the Seattle airport I missed the 30 minute flight to Victoria because the airport posted the wrong gate on the ticker board. Soooo, I had to wait six more hours until the next flight.

So I finally arrive and get the fifty dollar cab ride to the hotel... Um I mean to the palace. I can't tell you how awesome this hotel was but I can show you. Not only did I get to stay here but the Exposition was actually held here as well. This is from Wikipedia: "The Empress (as it was known then) played hostess to kings, queens, movie stars and many famous people. In 1919, Edward, Prince of Wales waltzed into the dawn in its Crystal Ballroom - an event considered by Victorians to be of such importance that almost 50 years later, the obituaries of elderly ladies would appear under headlines such as, 'Mrs. Thornley-Hall Dies. Prince of Wales Singled Her Out.' In the 1930s, Shirley Temple arrived accompanied by her parents amid rumours that she had fled from California because of kidnapping threats.On May 30, 1939 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth attended a luncheon at the Empress, as guests of the Provincial Government."

The Expo itself was nothing short of wonderful. Lot's of steampunk goodness everywhere you looked. The entire con basically happened in one big area which was a nice change. Even the vendors were placed in a room where the panels were held so it was basically the epicenter of activity. Not to mention this was seriously the perfect location for a steampunk con. Probably the best you could get on this side of the world. I even got to hear a bit from Cherie Priest's new novel, Dreadnought.

The amazing thing was that I sold out of books. Something that's never happened to me before at a con. Part of it is that I'm limited to what I can bring or ship due to costs but still, that's a lot of books! So I ended up taking orders with free shipping for people that wanted signed and stamped copies. I also have to point out how great Victoria is as a city. This place is beautiful. Harbors and waterways around every corner, European styled buildings everywhere, and lots of pubs with shockingly good food. These places mean it when they say the serve local fresh food. Wow I had some good meals. I need to also say how nice Canadians are. I come from the South so I southern hospitality is the norm for me but these people, everyone, was as nice as can be. From the performer on the street to the locals at the pubs, everyone was super polite and accommodating in every way.

Just before I left I got to catch a tiny part of the Victoria Day celebration which is a big deal in Victoria. Go figure. Part of the festivities included a wonderful parade which I only got to watch for 10 minutes or so but it still seemed that I was missing something pretty special. Here's a shot of a little tank that was roaming the streets.

When the con was over I originally had plans to do a book signing at Barnes & Noble in Seattle but that got all messed up, after the travel plans were booked of course. I was in luck though. My friends Robby and Meagan were entertained me for the entire day. I took the clipper ship (highly recommended by the way) from Victoria to Seattle and met them. They took me around to the touristy spots (which was really nice to get a quick rundown of the city since I was only really there for about 14 hours total. We also went to Pike's Fish Market which I loved and envied in every way. Really Seattle, I know this is commonplace for you but I would seriously shop there every day if we had anything like this.

Next up I'll be blogging about The World Steam Expo held in Dearborn MI this last weekend.

For the Dogs

2010-05-18T14:24:00.000-07:00

This week marks the end of my two week break from book traveling. The insanity starts up this Friday with a trip to the first ever Victoria Steam Exposition in Victoria British Columbia. Not only is this my first time in Canada but it's my first time to get out of the country for the novel. I have a panel which is listed as a Q&A on Saturday at 4PM so anyone that's coming, please drop by and ask some questions. I'll be sharing the expo with the amazing author of Boneshaker, Cherie Priest and the ethereal musical stylings of Unwoman. (I'm positively giddy about this.)So off I go, look for updates on Twitter, facebook etc. By the way, how awesome is this poster?

For the dogs
I felt like I needed to volunteer more around town so on Friday Brad and I went to the Humane Society and Volunteered in the dog and cat food donation bank. We walked in and there was a mountain of bags of food. Literally, thousands of bags piled almost to the ceiling filled the bank. One lady ran it, taking donations and dispensing whatever needy people required. Almost quite literally, Brad and I jumped in head first, cleaning and organizing the cliff of pet food for a good four hours. Lifting hundreds of bags of food in a muggy food bank is tough work but was also one of the most rewarding things I've done in a long time. There's nothing like standing up for our four legged friends that don't have a voice.
Here's me rocking my flood beard. (A symbol of community unification because of the water shortage that still is going on...)

Flood Busters

2010-05-10T08:38:00.000-07:00

I really wanted to get down and dirty on Monday, the day after the flood but things I can't control got in the way of me helping during the week. Very frustrating. Anyway, some friends and I met up on Saturday to help some good citizens of Nashville clean their houses up.

Keep in mind, a lot of people lost everything. I mean that literally. Like they have nothing. No clothes, tv, furniture, bed... everything is gone and while it looked ok as we carted it out to the street, you have to keep in mind that everything is contaminated. Flood waters rip through sewers, gas lines, garages, chemical plants and every other nasty thing you don't want to be sleeping on or eating out of.

We spent the morning canvasing areas which meant we were assigned streets and sent out to knock on people's doors to see if there was any immediate needs. We did our few hours and we thought it kind of silly that you have a bunch of able bodied and willing to get dirty people canvassing the streets. Surely someone that didn't want to clean could do that right? So next up we joined with a team of people going to do some heavy lifting and cleaning on a badly hit street. Upon arrival, the street looked like a bomb exploded. After 4 hours in a poor gentleman's house we actually made a dent in the destruction. The smell is horrendous. Think of an open sewer mixed with mold and mud. Yeah that's what it smelled like. It's a nice feeling to get something done for someone that has nothing. I mean, I had to think of it this way, what if it was me?

So off I go this Friday to help someone else. Not sure who or where but I know I'm going. Here are the few photos taken from the excursion:

Me with buckets of cleaning kits.

Friends pitching in.

Brad in the back of the canvasing truck.

Even in the ugliest times it's best to try to make someone laugh.

Finally it's not all book stuff

2010-05-07T07:50:00.000-07:00

So maybe you enjoy hearing about my travels and adventures. I enjoy writing about them but I know that's pretty much all you've gotten in the past few months. So, we're going to mix it up with a state of the union update.

Being out of town for the last 3 months straight has been amazing. If you know me, you know I don't like to over use the word amazing because so rarely are we truly amazed. But this leg of the adventure from Myrtle Beach, SC to San Diego, CA and many places in between has been nothing short of that... Amazing. While I'll give you a brief book update below here is what's up:

Nashville
Wow. If you watch TV at all you know that Nashville had biblical sized flooding last weekend. Things are pretty messed up around here. While some people weren't effected at all, many lost well, everything. The surge of volunteerism in The Volunteer State is overwhelming and... I'll say it again. Amazing. People are coming out of the woodwork to help others, in most cases complete strangers mind you. Inspired by my city's work ethic and care for others, the Thomas Riley Crew will be hitting the hot streets tomorrow,(Saturday)to go help people we've never met. I'm quite excited about it really. Here is a picture that should give you an idea of what happened:

Also I was just sent this picture of Ke$ha (yes the pop star who sings the sickly addictive hit song TiK ToK) bringing massive amounts of dog food to animal shelters around town. I don't care what you sing, the respect points just went through the roof.

Two Weeks
I have two wonderful weeks to get my life back in order. You'd be shocked how little things get neglected when away so often. My yard looked like Cambodia just a few days ago and surely something exploded in the house as well... and that's not talking about the minor flooding in my house. So things have been a mad scramble to get everything done that I can before I leave again. Maybe just maybe I can find some time for some R&R with friends too. It feels like my pub outings happened two years ago. Think we're going to remedy that tonight with a visit to the wonderful microbrew makers Yazoo.

Ok the book stuff
My next trip is on May 21 to the Victoria Steam Expo where I'll be signing all weekend as well as doing an entire panel on Thomas Riley.

After that here's what my schedule looks like. Keep in mind there are wayyyy too many open dates for my comfort level so I'll be filling those in shortly.

-5/21-5/23 The Victoria Steam Expo (Victoria British Columbia, Canada)
-5/24 Barnes & Noble signing (Seattle, WA)
-5/28-5/31 The World Steam Expo (Dearborn, MI)
-6/12-6/13 Printer's Row (Chicago, IL)
-6/25-6/27 ApolloCon (Houston,TX)
-7/1-7/4 CONvergence (Bloomington, WI)
-7/21-7/25 San Diego Comic Con (San Diego, CA)
-8/27-8/29 ArmadilloCon (Austin, TX)
-9/2-9/5 DragonCon (Atlanta, GA)
-9/11 Bookmarks Book Fest (Winston-Salem, NC)
9/24-9/26 Baltimore Book Fest (Baltimore, MD)
10/2 Books By the Banks (Cincinnati, OH)
10/8-10-10 Southern Festival of Books (Nashville, TN)
10/22-10/23 Georgia Lit Fest (Statesboro, GA)
10/30 Louisiana Book Fest (Baton Rouge, LA)
11/7 New Orleans Book Fair (New Orleans, LA)
11/13 The Kentucky Book Fair (Frankfort, KY)
11/19-11/20 SteamCon (Seattle, WA)

Anachrocon in Atlanta GA

2010-05-03T06:44:00.000-07:00

Anachrocon is a steampunk event (Con) that I heard about last year. Apparently it was so popular last year that it was extended from 1 day to 3 days. I originally met most of the Atlanta based steampunk crews at The Mechanical Masquerade (which is an every other month 1 night dance, vending, burlesque, all around good time event held in Avalon Estates GA which is right outside of Atlanta.) So I can't tell you how good it was to show up at Anachrocon and see a bunch of familiar faces and uber friendly people. I can't tell you how pleased I am about the friends I made and the awesome relationships I now have with these people. I'm sorry I say that a lot but it's true. I really feel like I have family all over the country now.

On to the con...
Anachrocon was held at the Wellesly Inn in Atlanta, I showed up Thursday evening and settled in. Friday the entire thing started up at 1:30ish and off we went. William and Cindy MacLeod (the chief organizers, con planning gurus and generally amazing people) asked me to to a reading and a full hour on Thomas Riley. I'll just come out and admit that I've never done a reading and I've never had a full hour to talk about the book before. Needless to say, I was nervous. That afternoon, I went to the Spirit of St. Louis Room, sat down and did it. The room was not only pretty full but it was a blast! Through immersion, my nervousness disappeared.

(Photo by Paul Tod Rieger. Thanks Paul!)

That night began the room parties. The one on Friday is the ever popular and often wildest "Pirate Party" Basically people set up large but low cost to consumer bars in their rooms and have private parties. The result: everyone has a darn good time. Here's a quick behind the scenes look into the pirate party on Friday.

Saturday was a big day filled with panels and long vending hours. 9AM-8PM I think. I took off to attend Emilie Bush's reading of her steampunk novel Chenda and The Airship Brofman and I took an hour to attend a reading by Kimberly Richardson of Tales of a Goth Librarian. Both were wonderful panels!!!
Here's Emilie Reading:

Here's Kimberly Reading: (Heyyyy I didn't get a nice fluffy chair.)

Saturday evening was even crazier when it comes to parties. At least three major room parties were going on and everyone was enjoying the festivities that night. Here's some pictures:
The band, The Extraordinary Contraptions:

Burlesque by The Syrens of The South:

Regrettably I didn't get this gentleman's name but he had an amazing costume with moving parts!!

Here's me hanging with Steampunk Boba Fett:

And here's a shot of a Saturday evening room party. People always seem to take picture's of me and it looks like I'm angry. I promise I'm not. This was a great Mad Hatter Party!

(Photo by: Paige Gardner Smith)

You can't bring me down
So I have this thing for Suicidal Tendencies. (Yes, the old thrash band.)Sunday I woke to news that Nashville was having biblical storms. Not thinking much of it, I get a call that my house is flooding. So fresh out of bed, I'm running around like a mad man trying to collect my things and regrettably I was forced to leave early. After the insane drive back home we spent the day shoveling brown water out of the basement and trying to get things in order... what was destroyed etc... So once again thing's conspired against me but that's ok because you really can't bring me down.

To Canada and Beyond!
I have two weeks off. I'm actually quite excited about it. I have some writing to do and a a TON of catch-up with my Sky Pirates and emails for the book. So look for new stuff very soon. Next up is The Victoria Steam Exposition in Victoria British Columbia, Then The World Steam Expo in Dearborn MI then... the massive, the scary, the wonderfully chaotic Printer's Row in Chicago. So be happy fellow readers, you may just get a blog that's not just about my travels.

T0 all my Atlanta and Anachrocon friends: THANK YOU! I had a blast and I can't wait to see you all at Dragon Con and Anachrocon next year!

What? You don;t have your copy of Thomas Riley? Or did you miss me on Sunday? Pick up a copy (on sale at Amazon) HERE.

Knoxville, Montgomery & Nashville

2010-04-22T13:56:00.000-07:00

It's Thursday and I'm just now getting over the brutal weekend marathon of books, breakdowns, and new experiences.

Here's how the story goes:
I was scheduled to do a signing last Thursday in Knoxville, TN at Barnes & Noble for their educator's week. No biggie right? I was going to run to Knoxville and come home that night. Easy right? Wrong. My van broke down 52 miles outside of Knoxville. Transmission fluid was everywhere. Bad sign. I was lucky enough to pull off at a truck rest stop but the car really wouldn't move at all. So there I sat, baking in the sun while I waited on Triple A. When they arrived, I rode with the tow driver to a transmission shop in Knoxville where it was discovered that the old van would need some serious work and would be stuck there for the next several days.
Here she is...down for the count.

So, I'm an hour late for the teacher's reception but I'm determined to get to the bookstore to sell some books. The manager of B&N was AWESOME. (Yes that needs to be in caps) She got someone from the store to come down and pick me up. Now mind you that I'm drenched in sweat and I had to change clothes at the transmission shop. So there I am coming out of the bathroom with spat-covered combat boots, a vest and goggles... Also note that I had to get all of the books, accessories and table stuff out of the van in case I wasn't coming directly back. This was a total of nine loads of things everywhere I went from here on.

So I get to Barnes & Noble and yep... I missed the reception. I don't think another teacher showed up. I did get to sign with "Angels In The Shadows" Author Lisa Grace and she was super nice and we did get some new customers in so that was nice. I'll tell ya, I was already exhausted just from the heat and stress.

So from the store I got a cab to a random hotel (remember the 9 loads per move factor)and I settled in where I watched the first two Star Wars Family Guy on TV. The next morning Enterprise Rentals "picked me up" an hour late but they were pretty cool about everything as well. I got the rental car, bolted back to the transmission shop and cleaned the rest of the car out as I thought I really might junk the whole thing.

Directly after that I drove back to Nashville where I collected my overnight things, more books and got right back in the car for a 4.5 hour drive to Montgomery AL. Arriving in Montgomery was pretty neat. I forgot I'd been there before. I actually played at a skatepark (which I passed and recognized) back in the Fall With Me days. I did get in town in time to catch the Predators win against the Blackhawks on TV at the bar.
Sorry, I've always loved the rocket next to the highway when you get in Alabama. Had to snap a pic.

The next morning it was time to vend at the Alabama Book Fest. As all book fests go, this was awesome! May I take the time to mention that everyone you pass in Montgomery actually says "Good Morning" and they mean it. Sometimes it's the little things that count. I digress. With the help of promo queen Ashley, the book fest was a great success and once again I was reminded that the best people in the world are eager readers. I have to mention I met a young budding artist, Blake Mors who is really quite amazing. She's seventeen and way ahead of the curve on fantasy art. I was so jazzed about her work that I actually took pictures of some of her sketches. Enjoy! (Ok, I'll admit up front that Blake's last name is not just Mors. I have it all written down but in the mess of switching 3 cars I've left her information in a box. I promise I'll get you her full last name shortly.)
Blake #1

Blake #2

Ashley and I at the booth.

Oh, want some more southern hospitality? So I have this debilitating headache after being outside all day right? I get to the hotel and I feel like I'm going to die. Of course I'm fresh out of any meds so I go down to the lobby to ask if they have anything for sale... They don't and I have to walk... Well, this guy who's just staying at the hotel runs up gives the bell man his room number and the location of some Ibuprofen so he can go up and get it for me... Yeah. Just a regular guy gives his room number and permission to get meds out of his bag for me... How cool is that? Feeling much better I ended the night with some beers at the local microbrewery. Oh, one more thing, this is the second time this has happened but I got a picture of a dirigible flying over the fest! Yeah, that was my scout ship looking out for me.

Sunday rolls around and I have to get back to Nashville. Yep another event. This one is put on by the local goth night people but this night was a special event "Divergence II The Steampunk Ball". I met Brad at Blackstone brewery for a pint before the show and off we went. This was a great time! I sat next to author Sara Harvey and we spent the night hanging out and watching people dance to familiar steampunk songs. Here's a pic of good friend Clover and me that night.

So I have a week off. Can you believe it? Well I say off but really I'm going back to Knoxville to drag the van back. Sounds like fun eh? For everyone in and near Atlanta my next signing is at Anachrocon in ATL April 30 - May 2. If you're close come say hi. I actually have my own panel exclusively for Thomas Riley on Friday the 30th.

If you don't have your copy yet:
Signed Copies
Amazon

Steamposium

2010-04-19T13:00:00.000-07:00

The first annual Steamposium Conference was held in St. Louis two weeks ago. I was lucky enough to be a guest at the con and I have to tell you, it was a blast.

Like many cons, Steamposium is organized to help raise awareness and money for a charity. This particular one raises money for Cystic Fibrosis. Being the first one ever, Steamposium was a small con based solely around steampunk culture. Everyone was great. The vendors, the attendees and I saw some really amazing costumes and personas.

I did a panel on Friday night and I had no idea until I got there that I was scheduled. A bit panicked, I basically told the crowd a little about the book then I thought it would be fun to ask them questions that I'd heard at other cons about steampunk and see what they thought. It turned into a really fun discussion ranging from literature, to movies, to the popularity of the culture/genre. I'll tell ya, it was really nice that everyone participated because I had no idea what to expect. Through that panel and the people that came by the booth I have to say I made some really great new friends.

As the charity goes I contributed a book as well as auctioning off a character in a short story that I was writing. "The Baron Bon Bar" won that... so look for him to appear in an upcoming short story. (More on that soon.)

My new airship friends together on a time bending adventure.

So included in this wonderful little con was a Victorian Poker tournament and salon games, Formal Victorian ball, live music from 3 Pints Gone as well as a wonderful salon performance from a sting trio. (Watch a bit here. Great stuff!) While I didn't get to go to the city museum, I still had a blast.

3 Pints Gone

Couple at the formal ball.

Got to reconnect with writer extraordinaire Elizabeth Donald as well as meet a ton of new friends. The Frenzy Gals have a wonderful website with steampunk goodness all over it. See it HERE. Oh! I had a brief interview which is now on You Tube HERE. It's so strange to see myself at work.

Me with the Frenzy Gals.

Look for a new blog in the next few days about my last insane weekend in Knoxville, Montgomery and Nashville... I'm totally exhausted. Also new notes: I've submitted stories to Kerlak Publishing's Steampunk Anthology (Engine 316) & to Steampunk Tales Issue #8 (Double Crossed At Gray Raven Mill).

Clarksville, Louisville, Evansville & Elizabethtown

2010-04-05T08:32:00.001-07:00

Clarksville, IN
My adventures for the last few weeks have been plentiful and prosperous. Last week I went to Clarksville, IN for The Almost Famous Book Faire. It took place in the Green Tree Mall and I think there were at least 70 authors of just about every genre in attendance. I've never sold in a mall before and it was a different experience. For me the day was a great one. Selling in a mall can be difficult. Usually people simply don't go to the mall to buy books. Still, the day was a great success for Thomas Riley. I spoke to hundreds of people and with the help of Christiana we had a good day in the sales department. Again, I don't have a lot of pictures but I was in a lot of pictures, so anyone that was there, I'd love to get my hands on them. I think these are the only two pictures I have:
Christiana at the table:

I'm always the last one to leave book fairs and cons so I had to take a picture of my lone table amongst the empty ones. Oh, so loneley.

Louisville
The next day I went to Barnes & Noble in Louisville, KY. I'll tell you I love that town. Even though I didn't get to grab a pizza at Wick's or a Diner-styled meal at Twig & Leaf there is something just awesome about Louisville. This was my first signing at a major bookstore and I couldn't have been more pleased, selling out of copies in 1 hour and 24 minutes... Yes I counted. My friend's Clover and Mary showed up as a surprise and actually got pictures! Enjoy:

and...

Evansville
The week flew by and I found myself at Barnes & Noble in Evansville, IN. There's something about this town that I simply love. It's hard to describe but Evansville is my escape-ville. It's like my own personal getaway. Not too small and definitely not too big. I guess this feeling stems from when I played in a band. We would play little clubs in Evansville and besides having a strong fan base there, everyone was really great to us. So I liked the town from the first time I visited. Since then I've been there on research trips and explored the haunted library, grave yards and the odd little strip on West Franklin Street which I loved so much that I wrote an entire book (The Adversary) based in Evansville which features an abandoned tattoo shop on W. Franklin St. (Picture below. This is where Fallon and Aleser take up residence when they come to America.)Anyway, the B&N signing was awesome! Sold out again. Two for two.

Fallon's house:

After the signing I had dinner at The Gerst Haus which is a great German place. We have the other one in Nashville but this one is somehow better. I also stopped by Turoni's for a few hand crafted beers. Thanks guys!

Elizabethtown
Elizabethtown, Kentucky... on Easter... Oops right? Surely no one is going to go to Barnes and Noble... much less but a steampunk book right? Wrong. Elizabethtown was huge. The staff was perfect and again, Sold out of books. Three for three. This one was extra good because they offered to buy more if I would stay and sell more... well of course I did. Great day!

Fort Knox
Oh! en route to Elizabethtown I passed what I'm pretty sure was my first nuclear reactor and out of the blue I passed Fort Knox. Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough to get a photo of it. It goes by really quickly. Oddly enough, I just used Ft. Knox (Or Fort Duffield as it was called in the 1880s)in my latest short story "Engine 316" which I just submitted to Kerlak Publishing for their steampunk anthology.

Next up
I'll be in St. Louis, MO this weekend... all weekend for the Steamposium steampunk con. I have no idea what to expect but I'm pretty excited. Three days of 100% steampunkery. If anyone is close, drop by, say hi and don't forget your top hat.

The Virginia Festival Of The Book

2010-03-25T13:59:00.000-07:00

Alright... I'm getting caught up, well not quite.

With most of these travels I never really know what to expect. I always seem to end up really happy after each event. The VA Festival of The Book was another wonderful success. I arrived Wednesday where I had dinner at the Horse & Hound Gastropub on St. Patrick's day. (Good place by the way.)Then I ran over to Random Row Books where I presented a panel with Noah Scalin of Skull A Day Fame. Being St. Patrick's Day at 8Pm I really didn't expect anyone to show up. Wrong again. With a crowd of about 25 people Noah and I spoke about our projects as well as a common link between the visual link of steampunk and Noah's creative endevours. Great panel and a great time. Ok here's a picture from the panel, I promise I'm not giving Noah the evil eye.

Now here's the really fun part. Going on these trips usually means I'll be alone most of the time but I met a great couple that took me out on the town for some green beer. That doesn't really happen. Anyway, I went to a great little pub in the walking mall in Charlottesville and we hung out had a few drinks, good conversation and listened to some mellow live jazz. When you get down to it, that's what is really great about all of this. I get to meet the best people. So, this is the talented couple, Chelsea Evenstar and Nate Main. Check them out. I regret that I didn't get pictures with them... I'm so bad at that.

I spent the next two days writing the second book of Thomas Riley in a little coffee shop (Cafe Cubano) in the walking mall. This was a great little get away. I rarely get ample amount of time to just sit and write. By Friday I had lunch and dinner with Publisher extrordinaire Karen Syed and met Joanna Stokes who was helping me with promotions while in Charlottesville.

Photo by Peter Hedlund

Then came Saturday. Vending day is always crazy. It's wonderful but crazy. With a steady flow of readers all day I seriously probably spoke to five hundred people. Another thing that I love about Thomas Riley is that it seems to appeal to everyone. I sell the book to 12 year olds and 60 year olds. I particularly love when the younger kids get excited. Well, I like it when everyone gets excited but there's something really great about seeing a kid get all jittery with excitement about the story.

Completely exhausted by the end of the day I retreated to the bar then was fortunate enough to find a nearby bar that had the Predators game on TV. Wow, what a great trip. By the way, The Omni hotel is the only way to go in Charlottesville VA. Thanks to everyone involved with the fest! I had a blast and can't wait to come back next year.

Next up: Blog on The Almost Famous Book Faire in Clarksville IN and my most recent Book Signing at Barnes and Noble in Louisville KY.

This Weekend I'll be at Barnes and Noble in Evansville, IN (One of my little adopted cities) and Elzabethtown, KY (Sat & Sun April 3 & 4. Yep I'm signing on Easter.)

If you can't make it to those events, curb your steampunk craving here.

Oh! A lot f pictures were taken in VA, so anyone that took some, I'd love to get some via email.

MidSouthCon

2010-03-23T08:05:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm a week behind on my posts so you'll get MidSouthCon right now and I'll post about Virginia in a few days.

MidSouthCon took place in Memphis TN or technically Olive Branch MS, which is right outside of Memphis. We showed up on Friday, set up the table and met the neighbors. Good people. Reconnected with long ago friend Stephen Zimmer, which was a great treat.

You all know I love a good Con and basically I haven't been to a bad one yet. Even the small more family like Cons are wonderful. MidSouthCon was the largest regional one (Besides D*C of course) that I've attended in a while. First off it's packed and I mean packed with panels. There are seriously like 7 panels going every hour in one hotel. That's a lot for a mid sized hotel. The Con Suite was great (Free Beer). May I pause in thanks for this free beer thing that South Eastern Cons have going on. I mean that never happens right?

Saturday I had two panels Steampunk "What puts the punk in steampumk?" It was a great panel with Kimberly Richardson, Sid Reese, and Angelia Sparrow. The moderator didn't show up and the room was pretty full so we just winged it and I have to say that it created a great open forum where everyone, even the crowd was able to speak.

Later, I was on the "To Market To Market... finding one that fits your work panel." This was another great little panel aimed toward the writers part of the convention. It was a thrill being on a panel with Julie Kagawa, Elizabeth Donald and Kathryn Sullivan. Great people with some really good views on writing.

Sunday I was on a panel that I really wasn't suited for called Coloring Inside the Lines which dealt with contract writing for other people's creations. After about 5 minutes I discovered that I really didn't belong there and I think I said one thing the entire hour. Oh this is fun too, I got to sign my first Young Alchemists e-short CD.

Anyway, MidSouthCon is great! Lots to do and a wide variety of subject matter. I have to tell you that a lot of people made the weekend wonderful but I have to mention this mother and daughter that took a Thomas Riley Wanted Poster off the wall so I could sign it... pretty amazing feeling.

Also there was Anna. Anna bought the book on Friday and stayed up all night reading it until she was done. Then to make it even better she wrote a poem about Thomas Riley. It's really quite mind blowing to have some write a poem about your book. It's under her picture. Sorry this is a bit blurry.

Thomas Riley
By: A. M. Paulson
In West Canvia there lives an inventor
Who is more gifted than any other.
His name is Thomas Riley,
And his gifts are in machinery and alchemy.
Deep in his lab he works
Both night and day.
His young assistant,
And his greatest asset,
Is the young and beautiful Miss Cynthia Bassett.
Together they make chemical marvels
And technological wonders
The likes of which have never before been seen.
Can their combined ingenuity
Along with their boundless creativity
Be enough to defeat Lemuria,
Thus win the war for West Canvia?
We will have to wait and see.
Cause there are still two more books in this trilogy.

Next up
This weekend I'll be in Clarksville, IN (Just North of Louisville) for the Almost Famous Book Faire, then on Sunday I'll be at Barnes & Noble in Louisville KY. Come say hi!

As always:
Get signed copies of Thomas Riley Here.
Buy through Amazon Here.
Enlist as a Sky Pirate Here.

www.sirthomasriley.com

Tour Dates Part 2

2010-03-10T13:15:00.000-08:00

Things have literally gotten insane. It's a good insane but mind numbingly hectic to say the least.

First off I've started the second instalment of Thomas Riley. It has no working title yet but I'll be sure to let you know when it's properly named.

Also, the second instalment of The Young Alchemists is coming soon as well. It is called "Io & Calamity". More to come on that soon.

My favorite thing in the world is traveling and meeting awesome readers and writers. So in the spirit of getting out and meeting my fellow steampunk enthusiasts here are the latest tour dates. There are more but I'm waiting to hear back from some events.

3/12-3/14 - MidSouthCon (Memphis, TN)~Speaking at 3 panels
3/17-3/21 - The VA Book Festival (Charlottesville, VA)~Speaking With Noah Skalin
3/27 - The Almost Famous Book Faire (Clarksville, IN)
3/28 - Barnes & Noble Signing (Louisville, KY)
4/3 - Barnes & Noble Signing (Evansville, IN)
4/4 - Barnes & Noble Signing (Elizabethtown, KY)
4/9-4/11 - Steamposium (St. Louis, MO)
4/17 - The Alabama Book Festival (Mongomery, AL)
4/18 - Divergence II A Steampunk Ball (Nashville, TN)
4/30-5/2 - Anachrocon (Atlanta, GA)
5/22-5/23 - The Victoria Steam Exposition (Victoria British Columbia)
5/28-5/31 - The World Steam Expo (Deerborn, MI)
6/5-6/6 - Printers Row (Chicago, IL)
6/25-627 - Apollocon (Houston, TX)
7/1-7/4 - CONvergence (Bloomington, MN)
7/21-7/25 - San Diego Comic-Con

So come out if I'm coming near you. I'd love to meet everyone I can. See you soon!

And for you Sky Pirates represent with your patches and flight credentials.

The South Carolina Book Festival

2010-03-03T08:52:00.001-08:00

The South Carolina Book Festival was held in Columbia, SC this past weekend and what a ride! We left Nashville at 9PM and drove until 2:30AM. Yeah, that was brutal. But we made it into town about 1:00 on Friday and set up the table.

Saturday the madness began. We had a constant flow of people through the fair and I have to say everyone was really great. I know I say that a lot but going on these trips really restores my faith in humanity.

The six table Echelon Press booth was awesome. Some great authors attended. Myself, Teresa Burrell, Sam Morton, Alexis Hart, Marc Vun Kannon, and Barbara DeShong represented. (By the way, I have to give another HUGE thanks to all the authors that attended. You all were inspiring in every way!) I think I speak for everyone when I say that we met some really great people. Not just because they were buying books but because everyone was so genuine and kind. Really, we had a constant flow of people through the booth and it's so nice to connect with people that are true book lovers.

I had Rebecca Wood, an opera student also helping me with the Thomas Riley table. Here's a young lady that has a bright future ahead of her. Many thanks Rebecca, I couldn't have done this without you!

I regret that I didn't get to see much of the other vendors or any of the panels at the festival but I was literally busy beyond belief at the table for two days straight. For recreation, the Echelon Press authors went to Longhorn where we had the traditional Saturday night meal. (Great times!) Stacey and I were also able to run over to the Liberty Tap Room for pints and Olympic hockey on Friday afternoon. Nice place and I recommend it to anyone visiting Columbia.

The entire experience while exhausting was absolutely amazing. Thank you to everyone in Columbia SC I can't wait to see you all again next year in May!

Ok so you don't live in South Carolina and you missed the event. No big deal. I'll be in Memphis TN at MidSouthCon March 12-14. I'll be speaking at three panels there as well.

- Saturday 5:00 PM Steampunk 101 Steampunk fiction is on the rise. But what puts the punk' in Steampunk?

- Saturday 7:00 PM To Market, To Market Finding the one that fits your work.

- Sunday 2:00 PM Coloring Inside the Lines Intellectual Property: What does it take to write creatively in someone else's world?

Don't forget to Enlist as a Sky Pirate HERE.

And if you can't make it to the events, get your signed copy of Thomas Riley HERE.

The Southern California Writers Conference

2010-02-16T12:23:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, this is the same conference where Thomas Riley was picked up for publication last year. It was an amazing and overwhelming experience. For those that hesitate to go to writers cons or think they are too expensive... here are some thoughts on SCWC (San Diego).

The Staff
The staff is wonderful. All of them are helpful, kind and will go out of their way to help you as a writer, friend and colleague. Really, the friends I met here on the staff are friends I will keep for the rest of my life. Michael Steven Gregory (MSG), Wes, Ed, Melanie, Cricket, Ochaki... You all are great!

Panels
The panels (workshops) are awesome. Made up of authors, editors, agents, publishers, and other industry professionals, the panels always offer something for every kind of writer. I don't care if you have 10 books published from Penguin or if you don't have a page written, you will find at least one panel that will rock your world.

One on ones
These are meetings with your agent, editor, author or publisher that for a small fee will read through and review your submission. Think it's a waste of money? Thomas Riley was sold there. And so are a seemingly record number of books lately. (Tip: go through the bios of who is doing the one on ones and pick someone that you think might be interested in your genre and style.)

Other Writers
I can't tell you how great other writers are. I didn't meet anyone that turned me off. In fact, everyone was awesome. There is no competition, very little arrogance and everyone just wants to meet writers like themselves. It doesn't matter if your writing women's lit, horror, steampunk or memoirs... Everyone gets along and everyone has a blast. I really had a blast with everyone. Really I had drinks at the bar with everyone. From people just there to get back into writing all the way to chatting with NY Times Best Seller Selden Edward about Steampunk.

Inspiration
I can't explain the boost of creative inspiration that comes from this conference. I'm 100% refueled and ready to start on the second installation of Thomas Riley as well as finish the second story in The Young Alchemists short series.

New Authors Panel
I was part of the New Authors Panel "What I wish I knew before I was published" with Teressa Burrell, Gayle Carline, Andrew Peterson and Kathy Porter. I had a blast. The room was packed and it was a really great panel. Make sure you check out these authors books (I linked them) they are great people and great writers!

Ummm. It's San Diego. I was sick when I left for California. Congested and miserable in every way. Within 24 hours of being in San Diego I felt great. Talk about a bonus!

So I regret to say that I don't have any good pictures from the conference but I do have this account to share with you. If you've ever wondered if a writers conference can help you, it can. Well, this one can.

I've been home for less than 24 hours and I'm already looking forward to next year. Thanks everyone!

Oh, if you can't wait until next February, the same group is putting on another writers con in September in Newport Beach CA.

This is my lone photo of the famous white board with my panel listed. Sorry for my lameness. I could have sucked less.

Chattacon and So Much More

2010-01-26T07:16:00.000-08:00

What do I say? For some reason I always go into things, especially cons with and attitude that it may be the most terrible thing ever. So far, every time, I've been wrong. I mean it's a con. How bad could it ever get? So Chattacon was a blast. I met some really great people and met back up with people I met a week ago in Atlanta at the Mechanical Masquerade.

The Good People
So let me take a moment to introduce you to them. Fist off, Bill Harrison and Krista at Venusian Airship Pirate Trading Co. (And Beer Pouring Masters) were directly next to my booth. Good people and I purchased a small firearm for protection against rival pirates. Thank you for the quality weaponry! Here's Bill with an impressive collection of home made steampunk weapons. (Staff photo by Angela Lewis/Chattanooga Times Free Press)

Also, the ladies and gentlemen from The Syrens of the South were vending. I attended the Mechanical Masquerade in Atlanta GA last weekend and it was a great time. So anyone reading this in Atlanta or the surrounding areas. Make sure you go to the next Masquerade. I'm pretty sure the next one is March 27th so be sure to attend!

I did two panels moderated by Emily Bush, the fabulous writer of Chenda and the Airship Brofman. Steampunk Literature with Emilie Bush and Kathryn Fernquist Hinds. Also I was part of the Tesla Vs. Watt Debate with Emilie Bush moderating and Arthur Hinds (wonderful musician and steampunk maker in the band Emerald Rose. And get this... somehow I won the debate by 1 point. (Personally I thought I was doomed.) Anyway, you all were amazing and I hope this is the beginning of a wonderful friendship.

Also, many thanks and to Christopher Range, Artist Extraordinaire and Capt. Magnus Maelstromme of the Got Steam? Steampunk Emporium. (I Still want your goggles!)I hope to see you all soon!

Arcattack
If you've never seen or heard of the band Arcattack... well, you have to look into them. Again, I had no idea how amazing this show could be. Imagine two eight foot Tesla Coils blasting out a million volts of electricity but here's the trick, the electricity has different tones and therefor is manipulated to play songs. Accompany that with a robotic drummer and a live bass and guitar player and what do you get? Pure amazement! Don't believe me? Look at their site here. Still don't believe me? Check out the guy in the suit getting blasted in the middle of a song by the Tesla Coils.

Photo by Brad Smith (Ensign Sparklebunny)

Room Parties
I don't know what to say about the room parties at Chattacon. Pretty much the craziest environment I've been in... maybe ever. Imagine an entire hotel with people all over the floors flowing in and out of the themed room parties such as Hypericon, Frolicon, and Pirate party. Good times that are almost impossible to describe.

See What Has Been and What The Future Sees
That's right, I'll be signing at Davis Kidd in Nashville TN (Green Hills Mall) on Saturday January 30th. Yep, this Saturday, from 2PM - 5PM. This is my big day in town, so please come say hi, buy a book, give me a high five or something.

ShadowCon and More!

2010-01-14T07:32:00.000-08:00

Shadowcon
I had no idea what to expect when going to Memphis for Shadowcon. There isn't much of a web presence and there aren't a lot of pictures online. So off I went and finally arrived at the hotel which was an odd strangely sprawling Holiday Inn. Immediately after hauling my stuff to the con area I was greeted with nothing but kindness by the staff. Ok the guy at the regi desk game me a little crap but everyone was amazing. Right off the bat, the organizer greeted me and opened the vendor room so I could load the books and whatnot.

Shadowcon is a laid back wonderful little con (complete with panels)that in a way is liek a family con. Everyone is welcome and everyone is treated like family. Really, what more could you ask for? There were little gaming rooms, good vendors, but most of all the people were wonderful. Yeah, I just can't get away from how nice everyone was. Here's little Sophie complete with Thomas Riley sticker on the stroller.

The majority of Shadowcon attendees are part of the SCA and more prescisely, the Gleann Abhann Kingdom. While this may sound odd and different to many of you, I can't say how welcome these people made me feel. Did I mention that the SCA people make their own mead? Well, they do and from what I tasted, it is unreal how good this stuff is. Not only that, but I managed to grab my own bottle of Liam's Mead... I'm yet to open it as I don't want it to be gone.

I was asked to do the "steampunk- genre" panel with Darlene Bolesny and Debra Parmley which I thought went very well. So thank you Shadowcon I had a blast. And while leaving, I saw this. I have no idea what it means other than it has to do with the SCA but found it interesting none the less.

This weekend
Saturday the 16th is insane for me. Ok, First off I'm signing at "The Bookstore" in Huntsville AL at Noon - 2PM. (2246 Winchester Rd NE Huntsville, AL 35811 (256) 858-2170) From there I'm busting it to Atlanta for the Mechanical Masquerade to vend and sign. I'm really excited about both these events but man, I'll be driving all over the South in a few days.

Patches!
I told you the Thomas Riley, "The Blood Countess" patches were coming in and... da da dada! They've arrived. If you're a Sky Pirate already, you'll be getting an email soon. If not... what's wrong with you? ENLIST HERE!
Anyway, you'll be able to buy these at any event I attend as well as online... or if you are already a Sky Pirate, then you'll be given special opportunity's to not only get free patches, but also bumps in rank!

On Tour!

2010-01-07T09:19:00.000-08:00

I'm so impressed with everyone. I can't thank everyone that bought a copy of Thomas Riley enough. The response has been overwhelming and I appreciate every one of you as well as the people that have signed up as Sky Pirates.

Here are my first quarter tour dates. Keep in mind that there will be more added, but as it stands the next 3 months are filled. Now if you have enlisted as a Sky Pirate and if you attend any one of these events and are wearing your Flight Credentials, you will automatically get something special which I will talk about later. So come out, say hello and remember to sport your flight credentials!

January 8-10 ShadowCon- Memphis TN

January 16 The Bookstore- Huntsville AL 12:00-2:00PM

January 16 The Mechanical Masquerade- Atlanta GA 8:00PM-Midnight

January 22-24 Chattacon- Chattanooga TN

January 30 Davis Kidd- Nashville TN 2:00-6:00PM

February 6 Books A Million- Madison TN 12:00-3:00PM

February 12-15 The Southern California Writers Conference- San Diego CA

February 20 The Little Professor Book Center- Birmingham AL 12:00-2:00PM

February 26-28 The South Carolina Book Fest- Columbia SC

March 5-7 Stellar Con- Highpoint NC

March 12-14 MidSouthCon- Memphis TN

March 17-21 Virginia Festival of The Book- Charlottesville VA

March 27 Borders- Brentwood TN 12:00 - 3:00PM

With that said,I'll be in Memphis TN this weekend for ShadowCon. This is my first ShadowCon experience, so if you are going, come by the table and say hi. Pictures and recound to follow next week.

You can still get signed copies of Thomas Riley HERE

And hurry to sign up to be a Sky Pirate. More really good things are coming for current Sky Pirates. In fact, I'll show you one thing below.

I've been getting a lot of requests for Sky Pirate patches. So I decided to take it a step further. Not only will you soon be able to get Official Sky Pirate Patches, but there will be an officer's program complete with different ranked patches and merit awards. I'll let you know how to get your patches as well as lifting your rank next week when they come in. Until then, enjoy the prototype:

Thomas Riley Is Here

2009-12-18T06:44:00.000-08:00

Thomas Riley has officially and undeniably arrived. I'm kind of speechless right now, mostly because I now have a ton of work to do. If you could equate man hours into tons, well, I might have two tons.
Here's what the cargo ship parachuted in yesterday:

With that said, I want to thank all of my pre-order people for being so kind and patient. I know it was a long wait for some of you, but finally they have arrived and are on their way to you at this very moment.

Alright, if you haven't ordered a signed book, you can now have one shipped to you right away. Click here for instantly shipped signed copies. (Don't forget if you want them personalized please make a note of how you want it signed in Paypal.)
Click Here to get your signed copy.

And what's this I hear??? You have not enlisted as a Sky Pirate yet? The pirates have already gotten their first contest... so don't miss out.
ENLIST ME AS A SKY PIRATE!

First Quarter Tour Dates

2009-12-15T06:51:00.000-08:00

M.O.A.S THE MOTHER OF ALL SCHEDULES

As you all know, I'm booking up 2010 with book related events. When I say I'm booking it, I'm literally booking every free moment I could possibly have. As of now I have one weekend off until March. So, if you are in any of these cities or events, come by and say hi. (Maybe we will have something special for you.) Especially if you happen to be wearing your Sky Pirate Flight Credentials.

So here it is... I need to name this don't I? If you have a suggestion on what I should name the 2010 US tour... drop me a line.

Also! I'm always looking for more dates, signings, events or whatever is out there. So if you have an idea, let me know. This list is ever evolving and I plan on filling my life with this stuff...

January 16
Huntsville, AL
Book Signing at The Bookstore 12PM-2PM

January 16 (Yes the same day.)
Atlanta, GA
The Mechanical Masquerade
(Vending/Signing)8PM-12AM

January 22-24
Chattanooga, TN
Chattacon
(Speaking/Vending/Signing)Entire weekend.

January 30
Nashville, TN
Davis Kidd Booksellers
(Signing/local Launch) 2PM-6PM

February 12-15
San Diego, CA
Southern California Writers Conference
(Speaking/attending/hanging out)

February 20
Birmingham, AL
The Little Professor Book Center
(Signing) 12-2PM

February 26-28
Columbia SC
South Carolina Book Festival
(Vending/Signing)

March 5-7
Highpoint, NC
StellarCon
(Vending/Signing) All Weekend

March 12-14
Memphis, TN
MidSouthCon
(Vending/Signing) All Weekend

March 17-21
Charlottesville, VA
The Virginia Festival of the Book
(Speaking/Vending/Signing) All week

April 9-11
St. Louis, MO
Steamposium
(Speaking/Vending/Signing)

Blog Post Burnout

2009-12-14T07:49:00.001-08:00

BPM
So you need to know I've been avoiding blogs for the last bit because of a sickness called BPB, or Blog Posting Burnout. 32 Blogs, & 3 interviews in 30 days really put a damper on my need to give you a lot of new information recently. So, I apologise and with that, I'm officially back. If you have any desire to see my blog tour exploits, see the bottom of this post for the entire list with links.

The Books
Ok... I don't know what to say about the books. I realise that many of you have not gotten your copy and for that I can not apologise enough to you. I want to thank you for your patience and I promise the second I get my copies in I will have them signed and in the mail to you ASAP. Apparently there is a bit of a back up at the printing press and Thomas Riley is basically in limbo. The copies could arrive today (which would be ideal) or they may not arrive until... well, the information is cloudy. Either way, I know a lot of you have been asking and I promise I will get these to you as fast as humanly possible. Your continued patience is much appreciated.

The Schedule
Starting January 16, 2010 my life goes crazy. Crazy in a good way of course, but crazy none the less. As it stands now I have one weekend off between January 16 and March 31... I'll make another post about where I will be and I hope to see many of you on the road. So look out, Huntsville, Birmingham, Nashville, Columbia and San Diego, I'm coming back!

Star Wars
I need to take a "non-book moment" and say that I saw Star Wars in Concert last night. This was the London Symphony Orchestra playing Star Wars music with the (In person) Anthony Daniels hosting the event. There isn't much I can say than it was actually and literally amazing. (Isn't it nice to be able to use that word and actually mean it?) If you were lucky enough to catch this two and a half month tour across the US, well, you know what I'm talking about. Here's a picture from my seats. Thank you to everyone that was ever involved in Star Wars, you have made a truly epic picture.

More Thomas Riley
You can still order signed copies of Thomas Riley HERE
You can enlist as a Sky Pirate HERE You'll get some pretty nifty stuff in the mail if you do so.

Blog Tour
Here are the links to each blog tour stop I made. Enjoy!
• http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=blog&id=58084
• http://nickvalentino.blogspot.com/2009/10/blog-tour-day-2-extras.html
• http://mysteriesandchitchat.blogspot.com/2009/10/steampunk-101-nick-valentino.html
• http://evilamy.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/guest-post-nick-valentino-author-of-thomas-riley/
• http://themagicalbuffet.com/blog1/2009/10/30/thomas-riley-blog-tour/
• http://inertblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/valentino-takeover.html
• http://www.marywelk.com/2009/11/nick-valentino-and-thomas-riley.html
• http://candidcanine.blogspot.com/2009/11/welcome-to-nick-valentino-author-of.html
• http://teresaburrell.blogspot.com/2009/11/v-word-is-valentino.html
• http://opheliajulien.blogspot.com/2009/11/ghosts-steampunk-and-nick-valentino.html
• http://teen-seen.blogspot.com/2009/11/story-of-pavlov-and-moose.html
• http://rivetgallery.blogspot.com/2009/11/art-of-thomas-riley.html
• http://davegatesdesign.com/myblog/a-pause-for-steampunk/
• http://ascamacho.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html#1296011591779317798
• http://frazer-makingstuffup.blogspot.com/2009/11/nick-valentino-guest-blogs-on-making.html
• http://gaylecarline.blogspot.com/2009/11/down-thru-chimney-with-good-saint.html
• http://eastnashvilleblog.com/2009/11/12/an-east-nashville-query-guest-blog-by-author-nick-valentino/
• http://myoverstuffedbookshelf.blogspot.com/2009/11/guest-post-author-nick-valentino.html
• http://bookblabbing.blogspot.com/2009/11/guest-post-nick-valentino-author-of.html
• http://readingwatchingliving.blogspot.com/2009/11/blog-tour-nick-valentino.html
• http://razloversbookblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/guest-post-nick-valentino.html
• http://sumanam.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/guestpost-by-nick-valentino-author-of-thomas-riley/
• http://booknerdextraordinaire.blogspot.com/2009/11/thomas-riley-and-basics-of-steampunk.html
• http://freret.blogspot.com/2009/11/guest-post-thomas-riley-steampunk-twist_24.html
• http://www.myskoteket.se/featured-articles/thomas-riley-steampunk-novel-gastinlagg
• http://www.myskoteket.se/bocker/steampunk-via-posten
• http://straitjacketchillers.blogspot.com/2009/11/thomas-riley-steampunk-adventure-novel.html
• http://straitjacketchillers.blogspot.com/2009/11/evolution-of-thomas-riley-steampunk.html

Today is Sunday

2009-11-15T20:54:00.000-08:00

I feel like I need to write. I just wrote my 21st blog for the Sky Pirate Barrage World Blog Tour and I feel like I'm neglecting you... well at least my blog. I'm listening to a lot of sentimental music tonight, writing some more short stories and well, this blog.

On the music side, I've discovered Regina Spektor who in some cases is simply emotionally brilliant. It took me a while to warm up to her, but my god, some songs really rip me apart, which makes it good. Insert smiley winking face here. Just listen to "Blue Lips". This is where it's finally appropriate to use the word "Amazing". Also, I've downloaded the new Russian Circles... I can't say much than wow, really, wow. You probably don't know this band, but you should look them up. Unreal. And as much as I wanted to hate it, I like about 4 songs on the new Alice in Chains... A lot. True tributes to real friends usually results in amazing music. By the way did you know that Lane Staley's Fiancee died of a bacterial something or other? No wonder the guy was crazy distraught. So now I'm listening to "Dirt", which is either where he thought he would be shortly or how he felt. Such human sadness is a huge magnet to me. The real soul comes out when tragedy strikes. Other than that AFI "God Called in Sick Today" made the playlist.

On the writing side, I'm editing part 1 of The Young Alchemists... the second edits. And working on the second short story. Still waiting on my copies of the Thomas Riley. Not sure what exactly happened but there is a delay so anyone that pre-ordered a copy I as you with a humble heart, please be patient, I promise I will get your copy in the mail ASAP.

On the personal side. I've been sick. Last night I coughed more violently than I ever have in my entire life. Ok TMI right? Sorry, but this entire weekend I've been in such a blur. The only thing I can liken it to is having a concussion, which I've had 3, so I kind of know what's going on with all of that.

An the future side: This week holds many hockey games, editing, and work work work. Which is basically all I do in every fashion of the word. This illness I have right now has knocked me down and prevented progress for far too long as is, but hey I have to roll with the punches right? I'm off to listen to more Russian Circles.

Be a kind lady or gent and if you haven't pre-ordered Thomas Riley... do so and I'll love you forever.
www.sirthomasriley.com

A word from Lana Richmond

2009-10-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone! Lana Richmond of Pixie Chick fame here. I'm still hijacking Regan's plans for her blog tour. Nick's cool enough to host us today and I just managed to get my email sent off before Regan. It's not like there was an option. Come on! Sky Pirates and Steampunk? It all sounds so much cooler than anything I've seen around my town lately.

My high school's got all the requisite classes - and by that I'm talking social, not academic. We've got band geeks, jocks, nerds, goths, and preps, but we're fresh out of Steampunk. I'm thinking of starting a trend though.

Thomas Riley (Nick's lead character) gave me a crash course in wardrobing and accessories. It could be Halloween all year round with Steampunk, because it can go subtle or all out. And none of it violates our school dress code. Besides, clothes are just another way to declare yourself and your interests. Who wouldn't want to declare themselves ready for any adventure?

Really, the goggles did it for me, although I'm liking the boots a lot. And the inventive gadgets...that's just fun and trouble waiting to happen. Since I don't sleep much, tinkering with gadgetry (no, Regan, not weaponry) might be a fine new hobby.

And who knows, the goggles might be the one thing I need to finally break through the Hobbitville portals.

My hometown is so boring, it's no wonder someone created a magic garden - they needed the fast ticket to somewhere interesting. But after poking around Nick's world of Steampunk, I'm going back to the library - maybe there are some alternatives hidden away in my town's history. If I find that we did have a few inventive types, maybe I can find a way to escape and explore without the Hobbitville magic after all.

Wish me luck!
Lana Richmond,
band geek, Pixie Chick, Hobbitville magic seeker, and potential Sky Pirate!

~Well, thank you Miss Richmond. I'm sure Regan will just be thrilled that you've done all of her tour stops for her. So now that you all have heard, Regan Black has a new short story on Echelon Shorts called The Shadow Stone. Want to know more? Yeah, I thought so. Here is the blurb about the new short:

Lana Richmond will not be the left behind when all her friends are using the magic of Hobbitville to escape their small Midwestern town for more exciting places. She's been trying–and failing–to use the garden's portals. The bruises haven't quite faded when Lana takes matters into her own hands and meets a stranger who promises to help her…on Halloween. Will Lana have the courage to follow her wanderlust, or will she settle for being the only Pixie Chick who can't work the Hobbitville magic?

I thought that would interest you. Ok, I guess I'm allowed to give you a little more. Here's an excerpt.

Lana is alone in Hobbitville the night before Halloween, determined to find what the kids call a touchstone - a garden statue that allows them to travel magically to other gardens around the world.

Lana's thoughts rambled back across the memories as she hovered over every stone of any artistic formation. It seemed memories didn't open portals either. She tried to amuse herself with philosophy as she moved from Brie's section on to the next portion of the
garden. "When something's lost, you always find it in the last place you look," she murmured to the cherub-faced cupid cloaked in shadows.
She reached out, more than a little conflicted. She definitely wanted to find her touchstone, but a cupid was so not her.
As expected, the cupid did nothing for her, but maybe that was because she expected nothing from it. Philosophy was an annoying companion tonight. She tried to rev up some enthusiasm and made a second attempt. Still nothing.
She moved on before she made herself crazy with circular arguments. "The lost thing's always in the last
place you look because you stop looking once you've found it."
"It is pretty silly to keep looking once something's
found," a deep voice rumbled out of the darkness.

Oh now you really want to read the whole thing. Gotcha. Try these:

Here's a link to all of Ms. Black's Kindle titles

Go here to purchase your own copy of Shadow Stone from Echelon (It's going to be the best $2.25 you've ever spent.)

I know... You want to know more about Regan Black. Click here to go to her blog.

Blog Tour Day 2 The Extras

2009-10-26T00:01:00.000-07:00

So here we are… Officially day 2 of The Sky Pirate’s Barrage World Blog Tour. The tour came together with the help of a lot of people. Twenty seven to be exact. I realize that having someone come to your personal blog and basically say whatever they want can be a kind of space invading proposition, so I want to thank everyone that let me guest blog for a day. It really does mean a lot, not just the trust issue, but the fact that everyone has been so kind and helpful.

It’s so important to get the word out about the book and my aggressive plans for its promotion get more aggressive by the day. You have to think of it this way, there are 100,000 books released a year. That’s 274 books a day. Yeah, a day! What are your chances of anyone even seeing or hearing of it? Slim at best. So for the next month I will be all over the world (blog wise) promoting Thomas Riley. If I had the time, I would do 1000 blogs if I could.

If you know me, you know that I love everything DIY. I love to promote, to make things, to give things away and put personal touches on everything I do. If you’ve enlisted as a Sky Pirate, you’ve probably already received your enlistment papers, and flight credentials, so you know what I’m talking about when I say personal and DIY. It’s fun really. I enjoy those kinds of things. It’s what I would want from anyone that I ordered something from. If I ordered a book, piece of art or anything for that matter, how cool would it be to get an extra sketch from the artist or a secret stamp by the author? (Oops, did I just drop a spoiler?) If you’ve already spent money on something the extras can really mean a lot. What those extras say is “I care about you the consumer. I appreciate you spending your hard earned money on me, so I’m going to give you extra attention because you deserve it.”

That’s what we all want right? More for your money? In the spirit of asking you the reader a question. What is the coolest extra you’ve ever gotten? It can be from anything. An author, an artist, a fast food place… it doesn’t matter. What’s the best addition to a purchase you’ve ever gotten?

As you can see all over this blog, you can now purchase Thomas Riley at http://thomasriley.bigcartel.com
As well as www.echelonpress.com
If you want to enlist as a Sky Pirate or learn more about the book, take a gander at the web site: www.sirthomasriley.com

Thomas Riley Out Today!

2009-10-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

Today is the day!
My first published novel Thomas Riley comes out on Echelon Press. It feels like forever, although this entire process really didn't take so long in the literary world.

I'll be at The South Carolina Writers Workshop for the release, which is even more exciting. So if you happen to be in or around Myrtle Beach... well stop by. If not you can get the book at my website www.sirthomasriley.com

Soon enough it will be everywhere, so if you want the specials that come with getting it now... they only last through today (Oct. 23rd)

From here I'm planning a grand Con tour for 2010 so look for massive dates as I'll be all around the country. Some stops include, San Diego, Atlanta, Highpoint NC, Chattanooga, Trenton NJ, St. Paul MN, Chicago, Los Angeles, and a bunch more.

Also, I wanted to recognize my huge influx of Swedish Sky Pirates! You all are awesome! If you want to be a Sky Pirate (It's free) go here: ENLIST ME NOW

The Sky Pirate's Barrage World Blog Tour

2009-10-11T14:10:00.000-07:00

In preparation for the book release, I'm embarking on a 30 day blog tour which I've aptly named "The Sky Pirate's Barrage World Blog Tour". If you don't know what a blog tour is, here's the short and sweet version. For 30 days I will "guest blog" on different blogs. Each one will be different and blog specific. So if I'm writing for an author's blog, I'll probably be writing well, about writing. If I'm on an art blog, I'll be saying something about art, cover art or design. If I'm on a Sky Pirate blog, I'll probably talk about wind resistance versus cannon velocity. You get the picture right?

I've gotten such a great response from everyone, I officially owe my first born to at least 30 people for being so generous with the private blogs. If you are hosting me for one of these days, I am truly in your debt. With that said, I'm always looking to add more dates to the tour and to do a second leg later on down the road. So If you have a blog you would like to share, please email me so that I may also be in your debt.

Email this address: Hazeltherabbit@yahoo.com

So without further ado here are the dates and locations for

The Sky Pirate's Barrage World Blog Tour:

Friday October 23- Interview by Jaymee Goh for TOR
Monday October 26- Writing & Life
Tuesday October 27- Life Of A Publisher
Wednesday October 28- Mysteries & Chitchat
Thursday October 29- Four-Door Handbasket
Friday October 30- The Magical Buffet
Saturday October 31- Inert Nashville
Sunday November 1 - Thomas Riley
Monday November 2 - Cicero's Children
Tuesday November 3 - Candid Canine
Wednesday November 4 - Write or Wrong
Thursday November 5 - Ubiquitous Ghosts
Friday November 6 - Teen Seen
Saturday November 7 - Rivet Gallery
Sunday November 8 - Dave Gates Design
Monday November 9 - Another Writer's Life
Tuesday November 10- Making Stuff Up
Wednesday November 11- On the Edge of the Chair of Literature
Thursday November 12- East Nashville Blog
Friday November 13- My Overstuffed Bookshelf
Monday November 16- Book Blab
Tuesday November 17- Opinionated? Me?
Wednesday November 18- Emeraldfire's Bookmark
Thursday November 19- Razlover's Book Blog
Friday November 20- I Read...
Monday November 23- Revenge Of The Book Nerds!
Tuesday November 24- The Adventures of B. Freret
Wednesday November 25- Myskoteket
Thursday November 26- Straight Jacket Chillers
Friday November 27- For Writers

In the meantime, Thomas Riley is on pre-sale right now and I'm giving everyone that pre-orders FREE shipping and signed copies of the book. Get your copy today and save some money. ORDER HERE

And if you just want free steampunk stuff, offers, discounts and exclusive contests Enlist to be a Sky Pirate HERE.

Pre-Orders Available Today!

2009-10-07T09:00:00.001-07:00

I'm really excited. Sorry I've been a bit removed from the ole blog lately, but I've been concentrating on the book promotion and blog tour almost every waking hour. So, the moment has arrived. Thomas Riley is officially for sale via pre-sale on my website www.sirthomasriley.com

Sure your book will not ship until after October 23rd, but by pre-ordering I'm offering you a really good deal. 1) Free shipping until October 23rd. Get your order in and you've saved $3-$4. (Not bad.) 2) Every pre-order book will be signed and stamped. (You'll see, it's very cool.)

So summon your inner sky pirate and order soon before the discounts disappear.

Now's the time. Order Here

Cut and paste if the above link doesn't work.
http://thomasriley.bigcartel.com

Blog Tour!

2009-09-25T12:39:00.001-07:00

I know I've been talking a lot about the promotion of Thomas Riley. To be honest, it encompasses most if not all of my free time. I'm really hitting this hard, so please forgive my one track mind.

The newest plan is a 30 day blog tour. That's right 30 blogs in 30 days. So far I have 15 lined up starting on Monday October 26th. Well, what about the other 15 days Nick? That's where I need your help. Yep you who's reading this right now. (Thank you by the way.) I'm looking for anyone with a blog that wouldn't mind me guest blogging for 1 day on your site. Don't worry, I won't need access to your blog or anything weird like that. We will agree on a day, I'll write the content and I'll send it to you weeks in advance so you can program it on our day. Boom we're done. It's easy, free and fun.

Of course in return for your generosity, I will drive traffic to your blog as well as welcome you to guest blog here or I can just write something about you, your book or whatever it is you're doing.

If this sounds like fun to you, email me: hazeltherabbit@yahoo.com

Also, don't forget to sign up to be a Sky Pirate HERE. This will get you in exclusive contests, random fun things and secret discounts. I must reiterate that your information will never be shared.

Also I'm proud to announce our first Canadian, Australian and Swedish pirates!

The State of The Union

2009-09-16T08:24:00.000-07:00

Here's an update on how things are going with the book.

I'm prepping the launch of Thomas Riley with a ton of crazy and fun things. Contests, giveaways, and hopefully some pre-order goodness. Some of the things will include direct mailing, email blasts and my favorite pet project right now which is the "Sky Pirate Enlistment Program". You can sign up for free at my web site www.sirthomasriley.com

Just send me your name, email, and your mailing address if you like and you will be enlisted in the Canvian Sky Pirates & Privateers group. As always, your information will never be shared, but you will receive an occasional email, fun stuff in the snail mail and exclusive offers and discounts for Sky Pirates only. Fun huh?
Sign up here:
http://www.sirthomasriley.com/recruiting-sky-pirates/

I have so much in store for the promotion of this book that it's making my head spin, but hey it's all about getting the opportunity to work this hard isn't it? So sit back, relax, sign up to be a sky pirate and enjoy the good things coming your way.

Thomas Riley has his own blog

2009-09-08T21:24:00.000-07:00

So Thomas contacted me to day to alert me that he has started his own blog today. Of course he ad to choose worpress. (he says it's more sophisticated.) Anyway, Thom has had a harrowing journey and wants to keep you all up to date on he and Cynthia's life after his adventure. So take a gander and get an inside look into his weapons and chemical company, Mercury Craft Industries.

http://thomasriley.wordpress.com

Thomas Riley Promotion 1.0

2009-09-02T21:52:00.000-07:00

So, I have hand done posters, postcards, business cards and that is just the beginning. I was talking to my friend about the new black and white dunny series and he suggested that I post some pictures of the promo stuff I'm doing for Thomas Riley. So here we go. A really bad picture with my phone (Yeah I couldn't find my real camera) of the TR postcard which is really cool in person. See it for the first time At Dragon Con in Atlanta this weekend. Hey if you're there come find me, I'll be at the Dunny party as well as the parade, the steampunk panel and who knows what else.

Echelon Press Shorts

2009-09-01T08:40:00.000-07:00

Echelon Press Shorts officially opens on September 1, 2009. So what can readers look forward to?

This month, they have new releases scheduled for the first AND the fifteenth. There is a wonderful list of authors whose stories they are excited about and who they know you will enjoy reading.

There are also authors waiting to meet you! Readers will enjoy new blog posts Monday through Friday by the most current authors. Read about their latest ventures, their characters, and get to know them. Both Echelon Press Shorts and the authors would love reader feedback, so feel free to leave comments.

During launch week, there will be new releases and posts from the authors of those stories. Readers will hear from Regan Black, Mark Vun Kannon, Mary Welk, and Michelle Sonnier. To celebrate, they are giving away *free* ebook downloads. Want to know how? Visit them on September 1 at http://echelonpressshorts.wordpress.com

Zamora's Ultimate Challenge

2009-08-26T13:08:00.000-07:00

If you have kids, you simply must pick up a copy of Zamora's Ultimate Challenge by M.K. Scott.(Quake)

Two boys, Carter and Mason Clover are put in charge of their baby sister Isabella while their parents are away. The boy's find themselves transported into their favorite video game and into a fantasy land that's no longer just a fantasy. Their sister has been kidnapped by the evil queen in the game and the boys have to navigate through the different levels to save her.

Mason and Carter know this land well... at least they think they do. It's much easier to play a game when your life isn't on the line right? The sometimes bickering brothers quickly realize that they have to rely on each other to get through the real life game. They also have to accept some valuable life lessons on the way.

I'm not sure what your picturing, but this isn't Pong or Missile Command that the brothers are trapped in, this is a huge other world filled with acid pooping Pterodactyl's, murderous pirates, a fire breathing dragon and even a lava monster! I didn't even mention the mechanical shark and my favorite part, appearances by the world's masters of literature and art.

Besides the ultra fun adventure, I really liked that I could read a mother's love in Zamora's Ultimate Challenge. I could actually see the life lessons M.K. Scott put on paper. She wants her readers to see the value in trust, love, and perseverance. From this view, it's a heartwarming read even if you're not a young adult. The story places the boys in situations where they have to apply trust, the golden rule, bravery, family love and logical thinking to continue on their quest to save their sister. This is truly a story with a moral. Actually a lot of morals. The way the boys interact with each other makes me think all young adult readers would get a lot out of this... and that's just a side effect of the nonstop action and adventure.

Zamora's Ultimate Challenge is a must for all young adult readers. It's fun, it's exciting and it's filled with themes that every young adult should read. Pick up your copy here.

Goodbye Stacy

2009-08-24T20:55:00.001-07:00

Eighteen years ago my band, Staring at the Sun, was invited to play a show in Lawrenceberg Tennessee by this guy in a band called Melvin's Headtrip. We showed up and much to my delight this place was huge... and within a few hours was packed. I'll never forget that night because that was the night that I met Stacy Fleeman. While this is incriminating, he wouldn't care that I shared it with you. We were backstage and he had a joint in his hand. He offered it to me and I said "no thank you." He grimaced and said, "What, are you straightedge or something?" I had never hear the word straightedge before, but I instantly knew what it meant.

After this hugely successful show, we kept in touch and not too long after he moved to Nashville where we continued to swap shows, hang out and generally just have fun no matter what we did.

Within this time, we, me, whatever band I was in at the moment seemed to bond with Stacy and his band which had changed names to Dharmakaya. I can't tell you how many times I played with this band, but I can tell you that I have never seen a band play as much as I've seen Dharmakaya. As the years went by I got closer to Stacy, planning our musical futures together and even singing on two songs with his band. (Now called "Into the Pink" and "Synthetic Lies".)

He started Spat! Records with AJ Schafer and as I did my damnedest to support his record store located in the back of The Muse, we spent hours just hanging out and talking about everything and anything that came up. Spat! Records signed my band Fall With Me even though we were a raucous inconsiderate, brutish bunch bent on insulting the rising hardcore/metal scene. Still, Stacey and AJ stood behind us. Giving us most if not all of our accolades as a band. We hit #12 on the college metal charts because of them, our second record "Rise Phoenix Rise" was completely put out by them including studio time, record pressing and expensive cover art and distribution that we could have never achieved on our own.Dare I say that FWM was the first band ever out of Nashville to chart that high on the Metal rankings? Did I mention that they hooked us up with shows with every band we wanted to play with? This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what these guys did for us, but the most important thing they did was believe in us, and what we did. And for that, none of us should ever forget what they did for us under the penalty of barbed lashings.

After the first incarnation of Fall With Me, did Stacey and AJ forget about us? Did they let us go on bad behavior? No. In fact they continued to support the new Fall With Me. Records, shows, preferential treatment... the list could go for pages.

The point is, that Stacey and I and my bandmates were friends. Good friends at that. Friends that supported each other in the best and worst times, personally and musically.

Stacey Fleeman died last night, August 23rd, 2009. My friend is gone forever with a mere 12,296 days of life under his belt, it's a rip off if you ask me. I've been thinking to myself, "Why didn't I say something to him?" "Why didn't I tell him to chill on the drugs?" "Why didn't I pay for him to got to the doctor or get him nourishing food?" "Why didn't I ask him what he really wanted out of life?" You know why? Because he would have said, "Dude, I'm doing exactly what I want to do, and I'm having the time of my life doing it." And that's the truth of it.

Stacey, I'll never forget you. You gave me hope when I had little, you gave me fun and good times when I needed them most. But most of all, you were a great friend that is a model for all other friends in my life. I won't forget, the house show in the basement, the Halloween show in your house, or the other thousands of amazing times we had together. Rest in peace my brother, I swear we are going to give you a sending off party that you will be proud of. I'll miss you and already do. Please enjoy this picture of Mr. Fleeman acting like he has his hand up my bum... or is he acting? Stacy, we'll always love you and life will not be as fun without you man.

Thomas Riley Cover Art

2009-08-12T13:38:00.000-07:00

It's official! The cover art for Thomas Riley is in. (Now I'm stoked to see what the whole thing looks like.) Anyway, enjoy!

The ebook will be available before the print version comes out on October 23rd on Echelon Press, but I'm not sure exactly when. Trust me, I'll let you know as soon as I do. I know I've blogged about this before, but the illustration was done by the magnificent Will Routon.

Go on... click it... I dare ya.

Taking the Mystery Out of EBooks

2009-08-10T00:00:00.000-07:00

I'm honored to have Pam Ripling as the super star of my blog today. I have to say that Pam's views are shared by me as well and not only is there value and quality in her thoughts, but there is also invaluable experience that should not be ignored by writers and readers alike. So, enjoy... Pam's expert views will shed new light on the subjects of Ebooks.

This just might be a timely topic for some. For me, not so much. My first electronic book was released in 1998. Yawn.

For many people, likely the larger part of the U.S. population, digital content is brand new and maybe suspect. Their confusion is understandable, their fears many. After all, as a society, we’ve been turning paper pages for centuries. Baby boomers and older, in particular, are a paper-dependent populace. We’ve already had to endure the vinyl-to-tape-to-disc-to-digital journey in the music industry. We’ve suffered the Beta vs. VHS, the rabbit ears, the cable, the satellite dish wars.
It’s a small wonder, then, that people can be seen virtually hugging their heavy, hardcover copy of THE DEFECTOR to their chest and screaming, “You can’t take books away from me! My real books!”

Calm down. Paper books are not going away, not anytime soon or ever, so please exhale now. Ebooks, however, are also here to stay, so it might not be a bad idea to become familiar with how they work, just in case. Like, someone might give you a Kindle for your birthday, and then where would you be? Feeling a bit uneasy. Uninformed. Behind the times.

So as much as I’d like to extol the virtues and benefits of ebooks, I will, instead, endeavor to explain how they work, via a brief FAQ made up from queries/comments I’ve received from my readers.

1. I can’t sit in front of my computer long enough to read a book. Good news! You don’t have to. There are a myriad of devices now available, and several under development for release in the coming year. Readers with some smartphones can already read ebooks and probably don’t know it! Even Nintendo’s DS can be outfitted with software that will read books.

2. I’m a zip when it comes to downloading stuff from the computer. Too many cables, too many programs. More good news. You can go completely wireless with a device like Amazon’s Kindle, which doesn’t require a computer at all. The upcoming offering from Plastic Logic will utilize a wireless connection from a cellular carrier. More will follow.

3. I’ve heard ebooks are expensive. Not true. They average a much lower retail price than their paper cousins.

4. I like to give away my books after I’ve finished reading them. How can I give away an ebook? As a royalty-earning author, this is a touchy subject for me. Sadly, your generosity eats into my income. However, you cannot give away an ebook unless you no longer keep a copy of it on your device(s). That would be akin to making a copy of a paperback book and giving it away. A big no-no.

5. I read lots of books. I can’t afford a Kindle or any other ebook device I’ve seen. Make a quick list of the last fifteen or so book purchases you’ve made, the prices you paid. Then compare the prices of the same books in electronic formats. Over time, the savings will pay for the reader, while at the same time you are going green, big time! Consider TWILIGHT by Stephanie Meyer, at Amazon: Hardcover: $12.73, Kindle edition: $6.59. Savings=$6.14 plus shipping!

6. I don’t want to add another device to my ever-growing pile of technology-I already have an iPhone, a Palm Pilot and a netbook! You are in luck. You can read ebooks on any one of these devices—no new hardware required!

7. What about all those formats? I’m lost in a sea of alphabet soup! Yep – PDF, HTML, LIT, DRM, Mobi, Palm, etc. Unfortunately, the variety of formats doesn’t help the cause. Once you are interested in a specific device, find out if it supports the more popular formats before you buy.

8. I really love and need the smell and feel of paper when I’m reading a book. Can’t help you here. Am thinking about marketing an aerosol spray called, “That New Book Smell.” What do you think?

If you’re serious about adding ebooks to your virtual shelf, see if you can get your hands on an ebook reader to try out in a store. When I had a chance to play around with Sony’s Reader Digital Book at the L.A. Times Festival of Books, I was sold. You might be, too. Don’t be afraid to explore the new electronic book frontier!

Additional resource: http://knowsomethingproject.com/literature/0609ebooks.html

Pam Ripling, who also writes as Anne Carter, is the author of paranormal romantic mystery, POINT SURRENDER, from Echelon Press, Amazon, and for your Kindle, iPhone or other e-formats, Fictionwise. Visit Anne at BeaconStreetBooks.com.

Post Editing Decompression

2009-07-20T09:48:00.000-07:00

I spent three weeks including eight hour days on the weekends making the first edits to Thomas Riley. It was crazy. It's astounding how much I need to learn and grow as an author and I can't tell you how grateful I am for Rochelle Bailey and Karen Syed for their contributions to this book. I've learned more in that three weeks than I can can ever remember learning in a semester of college. I'm being totally serious. So I sacrificed everything. Going out with friends, concerts, time with my wife and family. I just bore down and plowed through the edits as best I could.

When I finished the edits I felt a bit odd. The self doubt is endless. Had I done a good job? Was it going to be up to snuff for Echelon Press? Did I do anything wrong? I surely missed a bunch of little things. Was it too descriptive? How were the action scenes? I'm still plagued with these questions, but I'm confident that this is part of the learning process.

Being trapped in the house for three weeks makes one a bit weird. Well, it made me a bit weird. When you send your finished round one of edits in, there isn't much to do other than plan and execute some marketing and promotion ideas. So I ordered some postcards, planned out some jolly rogers (later to be used for buttons/postcards/custom flags/banners etc...) and I've gathered some info on all types of fun marketing and promotion materials which will be focused on the steampunk-esque Dragon*Con in Atlanta GA in September. I received over a thousand postcards which I'll be taking to the San Diego Comic Con this week!

With some degree of freedom at night, I needed to get out. What better way of blowing of steam than attending some crazy shows and having some good times with friends? First order of business was off to my favorite sushi place with my dad the night I sent the edits in.

Next up was a trivia night at a local pub with some friends where no crap, we got 2nd place only because we were two numbers off in a tie breaker question. Wow.

From there Stacey, (my wife) and I made a spontaneous choice to go see some friends of ours play at a local dive bar. Besides hanging with our friends in the band we were treated to a surprisingly talented band from Austin Texas called Bankrupt And The Borrowers. These guys blew me away. They were kind of a mix between blues and post hardcore. So... Screamy, singy, dirty south rock and roll. Awesome. If you get the chance, check them out and check out the song "I Love You Baby".

A few nights later we made some pretty big plans. We were off to see a legendary band called The Jesus Lizard (Touch and Go Records) perform their first show in the US in 10 years. These guys are known for being one of noise rock's pioneers not only musically, but in their insane stage antics. So we get there and within five seconds of the music starting the singer, David Yow is on top of the crowd with his shirt off somehow doing his vocal parts perfectly as he gets passed around the the top of the crowd. It's difficult to sum up what this was like. Picture guys in or close to their fifties absolutely going wild. This wasn't a bunch of old dudes trying to reclaim their youth, in fact it was a comeback like the world of underground music had never seen before. Keep in mind everything went at this show... and I mean everything.

(Thanks to Brian Batey for the photo)

After our sweaty no holds barred concert Stacey and I were off and going to watch Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince for a midnight showing on opening day. We were pooped, but wow was it worth it. There's nothing quite like being in a movie like Harry Potter or Star Wars when the tension in the room builds so much that the crowd explodes with cheers when the Warner Bros logo appears before the movie. The setting is electric and rare. I have to say, it was awesome. For those that are into Harry Potter, you can't miss this. It really is one of the best movies out of the series. Moody, dark, and funny, this film (yes I used the word film) is simply great. Two big thumbs up.

So I anxiously await round 2 of my edits and in the mean time, I'm off to San Diego on Wednesday morning for the ultimate mayhem that is the San Diego Comic Con. This wonderful year I plan on seeing Clive Barker, Kevin Smith, Neil Gaiman, Mythbusters, Lost, Hayao Miyazaki, and I even get to attend a benefit show by one of my favorite musicians in the world, Amanda Palmer. Wow. So off I go, surely to return to some hardcore time back in front of the ole computer to hopefully re-edit Thomas Riley in time for it's October release.