The Great Explosion of 2010

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.

Clarksville TN and Murfreesboro Tn

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.

Memphis TN & Southaven MS

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.

Gencon

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.