The man, the myth, the legend.
Picked up my tickets for Dragoncon 2019 already. I’m prepared!
Sorta.
The sales for Deathlords have been pretty solid, though it’s slowing down now. The nice thing, though, is that a lot of people purchased Wraithkin at Dragoncon, so I’ll see another uptick in sales as people move through the series. I’m already hard at work on book 4, which takes the entire Kin Wars Saga in a direction nobody really expected. I mean, I expected it, but since I already know how all 9 books are going to go, I have an advantage. Oh, by the way, you can pick up the series HERE. Really nifty feature on Amazon that I am taking full advantage of.
I’m hoping that I can write the next two books fast enough so that we can have another release party for book 5 at Dragoncon next year, as well as a new Four Horsemen universe novel out by then. That would be Fangmaster, which is coming along nicely. After that should be the next book in that little “series”, though it’s not really a series. More like a tie-in collective of novels? Yeah, sounds right.
Not much else going on. Gearing up for basketball season, prepping for winter (I am severely lacking in hoodies this year), and looking at getting a new vehicle (I want all-wheel drive). The usual “Jason’s up to no good”.
Political campaign has been quietly chugging along. I haven’t really been pushing hard because it hasn’t been time, but now that October is here, the last 30 days will be a massive blitz. That’ll be fun. I have one debate/town hall meeting scheduled already on October 1st, and I know there are two or three more that will probably occur in the next few weeks as well. Good times.
So my very first Dragoncon is in the books and I gotta say, with a few exceptions I had the best time of my life.
So without much ado, rewind to 9 days ago…
I was going to leave Wednesday originally but work requirements prevented this from happening. So instead I left the house at something like 0600 with plans on arriving in Atlanta around 1400 that afternoon. However, my roommates were arriving early, so I managed to finagle the Hilton app and get an early checkin time for no extra cost. Score!
The drive was relatively uneventful, for a change. Usually I almost die a few times on the drive to a con, but for some reason I hit almost no traffic until I was just about in downtown Atlanta. However, before then I could see my hotel from about 6 miles out.
I’m not kidding.
The Westin at Peachtree Plaza has something like 70 floors in it, and this was where the four of us were crashing. It was the so-called “quiet” hotel of Dragoncon, which I was thankful for. The Hyatt and Marriott were freaking insane with their parties and whatnot, and I need… space? Quiet? So I checked in and promptly posted a picture to my Instagram account showing the view. And whoa, what a freaking view! I could see everything from there: the stadium where the Atlanta Hawks played, a giant ferris wheel that looked impressive from the ground but puny from my room (40th floor), and lots of buildings everywhere. It’d been years since I’d been in a large metropolis… I forgot just how many people there are in big cities.
So I rolled in and met up with my roommates… sorta. We were mostly ships passing in the night the entire weekend, and while I’m glad we all had our own personal space it would have been nice to hang out with them a little more. Still though, I had fun.
So Thursday evening I was starving and looking for food. Ran into the Internation Lord of Hate, Larry Correia, who hatefully guided me to food where I could divulge in hateful mchatey hate-filled sustenance. Unfortunately, I suck with directions and got lost. I wandered around and discovered the underground food court eventually. The problem was that in order to get to it from my hotel side you had to go down a CVS and then navigate into it. The CVS staff was awesome and were immensely helpful while handling 80,000+ congoers all weekend. Found a terrific Cubano food place and ate like a fiend. Prices were a bit high (a common theme the entire weekend) but the food was delicious (another recurring bit). Finally fed, I found my way up to Speaker’s Speakeasy.
This used to be Barfly Central but this year, since Tedd “Speaker To Lab Animals” Roberts was hosting it in his suite, it was renamed. There I got to meet up with some old friends and make some new ones. For some reason I’m blanking on who was in the room besides Speaker, but it was nice to catch up with them all. From there I headed back to the Westin, where I ran into David Weber and his awesome wife, Sharon. David was recovering from a fall and was kind of doped up on pain meds, courtesy of a broken nose and some stitches. From there I briefly met up with my publisher and friend, Chris Kennedy, who was in the bar holding court. Surrounding him were some of his authors, including Mark Wandrey, Kevin Ikenberry and (I think) Jon Osborne. All of them had their spouses in tow.
Question: when I meet my fellow male authors, their spouses always seem to be more attractive and “out of their league”. It seems to be a rule of thumb. Just an odd observation that I’ll probably have people screaming at me in the comments over.
Pooped, I finally crashed around 2300. Friday promised to be a long day and I knew I would need to rest.
I woke up around 0700 Friday morning. Stupid, considering how little I was going to sleep for the rest of the weekend, but still… I tried to be quiet for my roommates (one of them stumbled in at around 0400 or so) and made my way down to the Starbucks in the hotel. Ran into my publisher again and we briefly talked about the sales of Deathlords, Book 3 of the Kin Wars Saga. The book had gone on sale Thursday and reception has been amazing so far. A lot of people have yelled at me for the opening scene of the book, when they received a gut punch that they were not expecting.
We talked briefly about Book 4 and he mentioned that I should be writing in the Four Horsemen Universe, which had been co-created by him and Mark Wandrey. When I reminded him that I’d written in two anthologies, he countered with “novels”. That sort of caught me off guard, since I was already writing a 4HU novel with my old writing buddy Chris Smith.
I then went over to the dealer’s room and found Nerd Mecca. Three floors of vendors, with wares ranging from handmade personalized nerd wall clocks to massive dragon and fairy wings for those searching for that elaborate costume piece. I found kilts as well (didn’t buy one, instead snagged one of a friend’s old ones) and some other really cool gifts, including something for my housesitter. I realized that it was getting close to time for my first panel so I hustled over to the Marriott, where I sat in on The Pen & Sword.
It was a pretty crowded panel and quite a few people were there to listen as myself, Kevin Dockery, Marc Allen Edelheit, and Mark Wandrey spoke about how we armed our protagonists and the pitfalls of dealing with modern and classical weapons. The best example was the classic “safety on a Glock” incident.
From there I headed back up to Speaker’s. Along the way I had to pass through the throngs of partygoers on the main levels of the Hyatt and Marriott. It was plain to see that Dragoncon was officially underway as thousands of cosplayers were out showing off their costumes. There was everything from inflatible dinosaurs to a woman in a walker cargo lift from Aliens. It was amazing.
I went back down to the Fantasy Gathering panel, which was more of a room for all of us on the fantasy lit track to sell our books and meet the fans than anything else. There I got to meet Todd McCaffrey again, Quincey Allen, and JoHanna Moresco, one of the violinists from The Cruxshadows. I’m pretty sure I was only at stage 9 of 10 on the blushing level. I sold quite a few books and had a blast. I packed up quickly and headed out at the end, done for the night. I needed sleep, and bad.
Was up at the butt crack of dawn because one of my roommates was in the Dragoncon parade, and I promised to get pictures. I had a special invite up to one of the rooms overlooking the route, so I got to see the parade with no obstructions. While watching the parade I spotted Larry Correia and his wife, Bridget, on a similar balcony practically next door. Lots of waving and facial expressions made (as well as a dance off at one point) made for a fun viewing experience of the parade.
From there I had to hustle because my next panel, Amazons & Assassins, was about to begin. It was a pretty interesting panel, and my first one with both S.M. Stirling and Eric Flint. I didn’t talk much on this one, preferring to listen as two masters of the craft talked about their own writing experiences. After that it was over to the Baen Books Traveling Road Show, where the winner of the Best Military SF Story was announced. My friend Kacey Ezell won for her short story in the Forged in Blood anthology. That was awesome, and then Toni Weisskopf (editor of Baen Books) showed off some of the new books coming out, including the cover for Deathlords, which was pretty damn cool.
Next panel was Stealing from the Past, which was… I don’t know. I actually don’t remember anything about it. Weird. Yeah, Saturday night was a bit of a blur actually. I don’t remember much after the Road Show, though I do know I bought a really cool art piece from the Art Show.
Sunday was fun. I got to do my first of two book signings at the Baen Books booth, which was myself, Mike Massa, and John Ringo. Mike and John cut out a little early due to panels, and Larry Correia showed up a bit early, so I got to hang out with three of my favorite Baen authors. Got to talk up the Black Tide Rising anthology and hand out beads for Baen. Nobody really wanted my signature, which was okay, because I stealth signed the sh*t out of those Baen bead necklaces. 😀 Take that, oppressors!
I’d also made a mistake in not bringing any of my own books with me to sell. I didn’t think I was allowed to do this. My bad.
Then was my Four Horsemen roundtable panel, which featured just about every single 4HU author attended who was there. It was here where I finally came up with a solo 4HU novel (titled Fangmaster, and then also Ortu Luna, the collab with Chris Smith). It was a lot of fun. After that I prepared for the I:scintilla/Cruxshadows concert. That was probably the most fun I had all con, as I got to meet the band afterwards and catch up, since it’d been over 10 years since I last saw them. Got to hear a lot of their newer stuff as well as older songs I was more familiar with. What a great concert.
Monday the con began to wind down. I was on a final panel with some authors and it went okay. Got to meet Cat Rambo at the last panel, which was interesting. From there I went to went back to sign more books at the Baen Books booth. Then it was off to the Dead Dog Party at some restaurant. I forgot the name of the place. It wasn’t horrible but for the prices I was expecting a little more.
Before the Dead Dog Party, however, I was taking the escalator when a con staff volunteer was attempting to go up. He had a large travel bag, a sleeping bag, and looked, well, exhausted. His bag got caught up in the escalator and he tried to dislodge it. In the process of doing so, he lost his balance and fell backwards. It looked like he was stuck on the escalator and it looked like it could get ugly in a hurry, so I tried to help him back up to his feet and off the escalator. He was confused and he fought me a little, trying to continue going up. However, because he was fighting me, he wasn’t getting to his feet, and that was when I decided I needed to move his ass off the escalator, willing or no. I reached under his arms and hauled him off the escalator. He was shorter but bigger than me, so he had a better center of gravity. Unfortunately he had no balance, and fell backwards on top of me as I was getting him off the escalator. He also, incidentally, landed on my wrist and dislocated it.
That hurt like hell. Fortunately we were able to get it back into place and hotel security and staff helped him to his feet. They made him drink water and then started asking him questions. That was when we found out he couldn’t remember when he last ate, slept, or drank water. That is a fail.
Con staff — make certain you get sleep every night, eat twice a day, and shower once. That should keep your wits about you so incidents like this don’t occur. I’m okay but I’m going to have to go to the doctor’s this week to see about damaged ligaments in the wrist because I’m still in a lot of pain. This could have all been avoided if the guy had just gotten some rest.
Tuesday morning I shoved off for home. Along the way I stopped to have lunch with David Weber and Sharon, and catch up on how David was doing (sore). Eventually I got home and passed out.
For my first Dragoncon, it was pretty smooth. The Fantasy Lit track (where I spent most of my time) was run very well and, outside of a few tech issues with the mics, there weren’t any problems. I was asked if I was coming back next year. I said yes, of course, though I failed in procuring a room so far.
Getting a room for Dragoncon is akin to the Hunger Games — may the odds be ever in your favor.
Worst. Author. Ever.
So I received my tentative Dragoncon schedule a few weeks back and promptly forgot to post it here. Yep, I’m a moron. I’m also on the fantasy track more than anything else, which is fine by me. There’s plenty of fantasy in The Warp.
I was added to the guest list for a somewhat local (I say somewhat because it’s a 3.5 hour drive from my house) at the end of the month. WyvaCon, hosted in Wytheville, VA, will be dealing with the invasion of the Cordova on July 27 — 29. I’m on a few panels (and I think I’m going to game with some fans late Saturday night) so this should be fun.
Note: This is a tentative schedule and subject to change
Saturday 12:00PM – 1:00PM — An Hour with Jason Cordova (Yeah, this is exactly what it says. I’ll be talking about every freaking universe I write in. Which, if you know me, is a LOT)
Saturday 2:00PM – 4:00PM — Writer’s Workshop (This is where I’m going to clash with other authors. I’ve always written things as a character-driven story, where I’ve noticed that most authors preach about structure and whatnot. The audience will be receiving critiques from their submissions. I won’t be bringing a red pen, so don’t worry about that.)
Saturday 4:00PM – 5:00PM — Panel TBA (Just gimme a mic and let me be freeeeeeee! Ahem. Maybe we can have a “Fantasy vs SF” panel? I’m sure that would be… explosive.)
Saturday (TBD) — Cards Against Humanity (Know your guest judge. There had better be tears of laughter and groans of “omg I can’t believe that they played that card”.)
Sunday 11:00AM – 12:00PM — Writing: What is it good for? (This actually sounds like a lot of fun and could be humorous. Perspective Q&A from the audience as well, which is always fun.)
It sounds like a busy but fun con. Hopefully if you’re in the area you can stop by and say Hi. I’ll have copies of Wraithkin and Darkling for sale as well.
As always, Brandy and her crew put on one amazing shindig and I had a great time! It was especially notable because not only did I manage to sell a lot of stickers to support my campaign election, but I got to hear a massive HOON! in the process. But I’m getting ahead of myself here.
Thursday there were calls for a metric butt ton of rain for the entire trip down there. If you don’t know what a metric butt ton is, imagine a bunch of southern boys building a fishing boat about a football field in length then saying “hold my beer” as they prepare for the floods. Well, somehow I managed to miss it all, because I coasted into Chattanooga in record time and actually got into my room before 3PM, which is a record for me. The hotel was air conditioned nicely, which was a stark contrast to the preceding years at the Choo Choo, and they even had a resturant and a bar. Of course, all this good karma comes back to bite me on the tail end of the weekend. But still, to the con!
I immediately ran into old friends and the party began. Dinner plans were made and executed. A bunch of us went to an excellent barbecue place in town called Sticky Fingers. The food was great, but our waited was… ahh… yeah. But still, he tried, and eventually we were back at the hotel to start kicking off the unofficial room parties because Thursday is the new Friday at Libertycon!
Drinks were had but kept it to a dull roar because I was expecting my roommates to arrive at… any… moment… now… where the hell are they? Well, it turns out that they got a late start by about 7 hours and did not arrive until it was almost 9:30PM. They were all cranky, irritable, and generally unpleasant… so of course I regaled them with how awesome and easy my trip was! Because I’m that good of a friend!
I did mention the karma earlier, right?
Friday kicks off with a 1PM panel (seriously, who does this?) that was, fortunately, a popular one. It was a roundtable discussion about John Ringo’s Black Tide Rising universe in which I had a short story. Hilarity ensued when John admitted that, three years later, he still hasn’t read my story in it. They also talked about the novel set in the universe by him and Mike Massa, as well as the next anthology, which I won’t be a part of. Too many terrific authors gunning for a few slots.
After that it was my most challenging panel yet. I had to be a moderator for a panel about YA in Science Fiction. Sounds easy, right? Ha! I had David freakin’ Weber on the panel, and I knew I was going to screw it all up somehow and he would murder me (in a book). Fortunately, I somehow managed to sound like I knew what the hell I was talking about and kept the momentum going and got the audience involved. Next time I will be better prepared!
I found out later that I had the third or fourth busiest schedule of the con. I didn’t know that at the time, though. I thought everyone had as many panels as I did and I was wondering how some of them older writers were going to hang.
From there it was Opening Ceremonies, which I skipped this year because I was hungry. Had a burger from the hotel’s bar and then I prepared for the round table panel hosted by Copper Dog Publishing.
Now, I like the publisher a lot, but I felt bad for him because we had something like 13 panelists and only 5 people in the audience for this one. I had little to contribute because I’ve only been in their anthologies, and they’re no longer doing Sha’Daa anthologies. Again, nothing against the publisher, but I felt that many of us authors could have been doing other panels.
Then it was on to my Author’s Alley for the next two hours. I sold two books (all-time low) but sold a ton of HOON stickers. The artist I was pimping out, Raven Yox, outsold me by leaps and bounds. I’m proud of her, but still… I got my butt kicked by a 19 year old!
And then the parties began…
I’m still a little hazy on the details, but I do recall strolling the entire 3rd floor of the hotel, drinking and finding new friends and old ones. The entire floor was the party floor and it was EPIC. I didn’t party too much though, since I knew I had an early panel the next morning (every… freaking… year…), but I once more proved my prowess by not getting a hangover. My coauthor, Chris Smith, hates me for this.
So hangover Saturday (for everyone else) started with a 10AM panel. Fortunately it was a Four Horsemen round table, and there were a LOT of fans of that universe. So there were a lot of announcements made, cover reveals, door prizes… the crowd ate it up. I’m pretty sure just about everyone walked out of there with some sort of prize. I actually had a large gap in programming here so I cut out with Cubby’s Handler and his new wife to go eat at the local diner. The food was excellent and despite being packed to the gills the wait wasn’t long at all. Met some new friends there (“if they have a badge, sit them with us” was what they told the waitress) and told some old war stories. Evil SEAL Santa is ALWAYS good for a laugh. The tales of Rex are more cautionary, but still a hoot.
Next up was the Sha’Daa round table, which could have been held during the Copper Dog panel. There was nobody there and quite a few of us had conflicting schedules. We wanted to stay but… crickets in the crowd. I did a short reading in the midst of writing Deathlords and then cut out to use the bathroom because diner, stomach, grease equals a disaster.
But on the subject of Deathlords…
I promised my publisher that the book would be done by May 1. As you may surmise, May 1 came and went with no book completed. June 1, same result. By this time I was getting desperate, so I gave my word as a Spaniard that I would have it done before Libertycon ended. It was now late on Saturday night, and I was supposed to be at the Baen dinner. But… book… sigh. I needed the publishing contracts, so I made a solemn vow to finish the book before the end of the Chris Kennedy Publishing panel on Sunday.
Room parties on Saturday night went on to the wee hours of the morning. I sold a lot of HOON stickers, got absolutely wasted, played Cards Against Humanity, had fun, met the new Fantasy Lit Track Director for Dragoncon, and had fun. Then we almost had a medical emergency (hey, it wouldn’t be a Libertycon if I didn’t almost go to the ER) when, after stumbling downstairs to the hotel lobby, was offered some foor by a friend. Hell yeah! I was starving! I ate one burger, oh my God it was delicious, and then I started on another. This one…. tasted a little funny. I mention this and they discover onions on the burgers. I was then informed that Krystal burgers only have 4 ingredients: mustard, burger, onions, and cheese (with bun).
Fortunately, they were white onions and not red, so 100mg of Benedryl and I was out.
Then up again at 9:47AM freaking out because I was going to be late to my panel!
10AM panels are the devil.
It took me a while to realize that the meet and greet coffee hour with the authors wasn’t a panel. So I got to meet up with a few authors but… that nagging sensation wouldn’t leave me alone. I suddenly remembered that solemn vow and ran off to continue writing. I only had a few hours left before the deadline!
My next panel was a 1632 panel. Considering the last time I wrote for them was like 4 years ago, I was a bit surprised that I was invited to be on it. Whatever. Eric Flint moderated, so I was able to sit down at the end and peck away at the computer. The word count for the novel climbed higher and higher… could I do it? Would I have enough time?
The panel ended, and I switched out rooms. My next panel was the CKP panel. High noon. Gunslinger’s hand. I had only a few words to go, but this panel was going on. I muttered a few things and Chris mentioned to everyone that I was working on my book. Nobody else bothered me, and then suddenly…
Me: …am I… done?
Chris Smith: I think so, dude (he was sitting next to me watching me write)
Me: I… holy crap. I think I’m done.
Chris S: Yeah, looks done.
Me (pumping hands triumphantly into the air) This book is DONE!
Crown applauds, I read the final few sentences of the book (spoiler free except it gives the title of the next book) and suddenly a huge weight is off my shoulders. I enjoy the rest of the panel because why not? I just finished book 3 of the Kin Wars Saga. Met Jim Minz from Baen Books during this, and pitched him the idea for the Failsafe series (because why not?) and he was intrigued by the idea. Got some business contacts established, and then it was the official end of the con.
Cue sad face. Open meat faucet.
Because after the con is an annual tradition of eating like a glutton at a local Brazilian BBQ place where they will bring the meat until you throw in the white flag. I was stubborn this year (and starving), so I was the last to give up. But after 72 hunks of meat I decided that enough was enough and I… had dessert.
😀
Monday morning came too early and I hit the road. Traffic was atrocious once I hit Virginia, and what should have been a 6 hour drive turned into damn near 9 hours. I had to go in to work as well, so I just went in to work with all my dirty clothes from the con in tow. I figured I would do laundry later.
I had a tremendous time, as always. This con was more professional networking for me than usual, but I won’t complain one bit. I made new friends. I made new fans. Best of all, I got to see my family. I usually look upon the next year with dread because it’s usually a full year until I see them again, but not this year. This year is DRAGONCON! So I’ll get to do this all over again in two months.
Whee!
Thank you Libertycon. As always, you made everyone feel welcome and hosted one hell of an event.
First, some background.
I have quite a few publishers (fourteen to be exact), with the largest being my Japanese publisher Takeshobo. They did the Japanese translation and distribution of the Kaiju Apocalypse trilogy as a single book. I’m not hear to talk about them, though.
The publishers I’m talking about today, however, are Chris Kennedy Publishing and Baen Books. CKP has multiple imprints for different genres, and three of these imprints publish different series that I write in or have created. Baen publishes a lot of my favorite SF and Fantasy authors, like Larry Correia, Lois Bujold, and David Weber.
CKP announced yesterday that they are teaming up with Baen for ebook distribution across different platforms. Up until last week CKP was strictly with Amazon distribution, as is the majority of small-press publishers currently out there. All of my books from CKP were offered under the Kindle Unlimited program, which has recently had some issues come up. Now, this is all me surmising here, so don’t take it as scripture, but I’m assuming that CKP received a better deal from Baen for ebook distribution when compared to the deal Amazon and KU were offering.
So instead of strictly Amazon, beginning on June 3 Corruptor will be available across a variety of platforms, including Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and others. I think the total is seven platforms.
Then, on June 8, Wraithkin will also be available in these formats, courtesy of CKP and Baen. To say I’m excited is an understatement.
In the meantime, I’m almost finished with Deathlords, Book 3 of the Kin Wars Saga. When I say “almost” I do mean it. I have 1.5 chapters to write, then a quick read through before it goes off to the Super Mega Awesome Beta Force Crew. There it will be torn apart like a pack of rabid dogs devouring a 50 pound hunk of meat and sent back to me with so much red that I will bury my face in my pillow in shame. Corrections made, it will be off to the publisher, who will then have their own editor tear it apart a second time.
Yeah, I hate the editing process. Can you tell?
It’s that time of the year again. Time to dust off the lanyard and hoist the black flag, because we’re going to Libertycon! (probably)
This year’s schedule is packed. I’m busy from the moment the con opens at 1:00PM Friday afternoon until closing ceremonies on Sunday. I will be out and about like a madman and hopefully will be able to see everyone I plan on seeing.
If you see Chris Smith and I with out heads together talking and taking notes, please leave us be. We have a book due soon and, uh, we kinda sorta have a rough outline. Of the third act.
Without further ado, here is my schedule for Libertycon XXXI. My comments and personal feelings follow in italics for those of you here for the first time.
First they came for John Ringo,
but I said nothing,
for I was not John Ringo.
Next they came for Larry Correia,
but this time I spoke up,
for Larry is a brother to me,
and I will bleed for my brother,
and I will show no fear in the face of our enemy.
A few weeks back, I read that a convention in North Carolina (ConCarolinas) uninvited author John Ringo on grounds that they feared for his safety due to what was deemed to be “valid threats”. John graciously accepted their explanation and let it lie, though his fans were, well, pissed is the politest term one can use to describe their displeasure. Then someone decided to slander John on another website, and the feces really hit the rotary impeller. Pretty sure there’s going to be some legal issues for the individual who accused John of vile things in the near future.
However, outside of giving John and his editor a head’s up about what was brewing, I stayed out of it. I know quite a few people at the convention and felt that they, for the most part, handled it well. There were a few hiccups and horrible explanations along the way (sometimes at a convention the right hand isn’t aware of what the left is doing, and vice versa) but overall John was satisfied with their response.
Fast forward to today, when the Origins Convention in Ohio rescinded their GoH invitation to Larry Correia after some individuals (I typed out quite a few different descriptions before settling on the one that would remain PG) raised a huge ruckus and demanded that Larry be removed from programming. No doubt these “concern trolls” exhibited mannerisms which can only be described as “whining two year olds” in order to get their way.
The convention, instead of sticking to their guns and maintaining that they were a convention for all, decided to screw over my buddy. So I crafted the following letter to their Executive Director and fired it off.
Dear Sir,
It recently came to my attention that NYT bestselling author Larry Correia had been uninvited from your convention following an outcry from a few malcontents.
I can attest from personal experience of attending cons with Mr. Correia that, not only is he a gracious guest who loves interacting with all types of fans, is a huge gaming nerd who fits in with the stated mission and goals of Origins according to the website. This attack on his character is nothing more than a witch hunt, very similar to the one which was used on Mr. Correia’s coauthor, John Ringo, a few weeks prior at another convention.
Mr. Correia had always shown grace, been polite, and worked with the concom of every convention he has attended. Those who seek to discredit and destroy him are abusing the rules of your convention in a manner which they were not meant for and raising enough of an outcry that your convention, undoubtedly, feels compelled to respond to. Unfortunately, instead of speaking with Mr. Correia, it appears that you have reacted in a manner which can only be described as “knee-jerk”. You have allowed concern trolls to dictate your guest list while alienating you from a fan base which both pays to see their favorite author and supports other commercial endeavors at conventions as well.
Conventions such as Origins are supposed to be for all fans. However, with outward appearance of appeasement to the vocal minority who seek to undermine all of Mr. Correia’s hard work as well as alienate his fan base from any future conventions you might host, it behooves me to suggest that you are hurting nobody but yourselves with this move.
While I am not as big of a “name” as Mr. Correia, I still have developed quite a following as well, and I have already let my readers know that Origins is not a convention that I will consider in the future. Which is a shame, because literary and gaming are two of my biggest draws.
I do hope that you consider the ramifications of appeasement in your future endeavors. I understand that Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain tried your tactic as well, and history showed just how poorly it worked out.
Sincerely,
Jason Cordova
Now, I’m probably nothing more than a drop in the bucket, but money talks in the convention industry, and if nobody is at your convention spending money, no authors/vendors/artists are going to come.Now, I don’t like calling for boycotts of any convention, because it’s a tough industry. So I’m going to let the convention continue to be abused by those who would rather see a convention fold than simply dealing with someone they don’t like by, oh I don’t know, NOT ATTENDING HIS PANELS?! C’mon people, it’s not hard. You look at the schedule. You see he’s going to be at so-and-so panel. You DON’T GO. Easy peasey.
If you’re fragile enough that someone’s name who you’ve never met or interacted with before can cause you some sort of traumatic injury, you might want to avoid the crushing crowds of a con. I wouldn’t want anyone’s feelings to get hurt if there was an inadvertent apology tossed in there.
In honor of Larry, go out and preorder his latest book. The best way to give someone the middle finger is to support the one they want to shaft.
I swear, I look down, get back to writing, look back up… and it’s almost been a month since an update.
How does time do this to me?
Well, this week I had not one but TWO cover reveals occur. The first one is the one that everybody has been waiting for, and HOLY CRAP it is beautiful! Here is Deathlords, Book 3 of the Kin Wars Saga.
Nice, isn’t it? Bonus quiz: can you identify the planet from the series that the suit is protecting?
Then, on Thursday another publisher released the final cover of Sha’Daa: Toys, the (from what I hear) final anthology in the Sha’Daa universe. This one will actually be out in a few weeks, but the cover is downright creepy.
They both are great, and shows once more while I will continue to support small press publishers. Both teams I work with are amazing people who put all their efforts into producing quality workmanship. I can’t ask for better people to write for.
Sometimes when I’m at work I lose track of days. It’s not really surprising when I think it’s a Saturday and I realize no, it’s a Wednesday.
….today is still Tuesday, yeah?
Wrote quite a goodly chunk on Deathlords today. I’m really feeling it right now and seeds of the fabled plot crop I planted in Wraithkin are finally coming to fruition. Plus, planting more seeds for later use. I’m devious like that.
Sales for Darkling are doing quite well. I’m not upset with the steady numbers, though (naturally) I wish it could be higher. The reviews are low, but I attribute that to slower paced readers (if a book takes longer than a day for me it must be really long or boring). Still, if Darkling can have as many reviews as Wraithkin and keep the 5 star overall rating it currently has, I’d be very pleased.
Darkling – Book 2 of the Kin Wars Saga
Darkling – Book 2 of the Kin Wars Saga
Yes, the title is correct. Darkling is now live and available over on Amazon. I’m super excited about this. How excited? So excited I’m going to be running a giveaway for a copy of Wraithkin, Darkling, and Kraken Mare, all autographed. All you need to do is Tweet it, tag me in it (@warpcordova), and voila! one entry. You can also tag me on instagram @warpcordova to show me your share for a SECOND entry! Want to enter a third time? Post a screenshot of you sharing a link of the book over on any other site like Facebook or MeWe and I’ll add in your names. Contest starts TODAY and will end at 11:59PM EST Sunday. Winner will be randomly selected at 8:00PM on Wednesday, April 18.
Good luck, my Kinions!
13 days and counting for Darkling‘s release. I’m excited.
I’ve taken to calling fans of the Kin Wars Saga “Kinions”. I’m clever like that. Book 3 of the series, Deathlords, is still motoring along. I’m fixing a few problems in the early goings of the book while continuing some of the more exciting bits later. I’m also having to go back and plant a few seeds for the next few books in the series. Not a huge issue, really, just really time consuming due to trying to figure out where the seed should go, and have it somewhere which doesn’t interrupt the flow of the story. I hate when I info dump, so it’s a process.
I’m no longer a regular contributor over at Mad Genius Club. It’s not because of any bad reason or anything the wonderful people there have done. It’s just that between work, home stuff, and writing multiple novels simultaneously, I look at the calendar half the time and say “Crap, last week was my day at MGC. Damn… they’re gonna kill me.” They’ve been exceedingly patient with me and not gotten upset when I fail to post something, so I figured that removing myself from being a regular contributor would make it easier on all. Now, I’ll still throw up a guest post once in a while, but besides this blog I’m going to be focusing on the aforementioned necessities.
Tomorrow is Easter. I’ll be getting up at 0430 to go with the boys up the hill for a sunrise service. We’ll then eat breakfast and hike back down the hill. It’ll be about a 3 miles hike round trip. I’m looking forward to the service. The hike? Not as much, but that’s primarily because of my knee and foot issues. I haven’t been up the hill in a few months, and never that early in the morning, so I think that the end of the hike will be worth the difficult journey.
All journeys in life have their good moments and difficult ones. Oftentimes we get so focused on the negative that we forget to look for the good. It’s hard to see the good, however, when everyone shows you only the bad. I know I’m guilty of doing it, and I know I should try harder to not be so negative at times.
Perhaps one day I’ll finally be able to focus on all aspects of the journey, both good and bad, and then will have the strength to push past the negativity to embrace everything positive.
My interview with SF Shenanigans went live yesterday. Had a lot of fun with JR and Chris as we discussed the new subgenre of LitRPG and how The Warp falls into that category. We also discussed early influences and how I totally fanboi’d Timothy Zahn the first time I met him.
Got an email from another publisher this past week explaining that the next anthology I’m in, Sha’Daa: Toys, is either going to come out at the end of March or mid-April. This is great actually, since mid-April is the same time that Darkling will be released. One week, two books… haven’t done that since September of last year.
Still crushing it on Deathlords. This book is going to be a little slower paced as it goes, but I think that it’s a good change as our intrepid heroes and heroines have the suffer from the consequences of their actions, both good and bad. From there it’s Book 4, which I’m still deciding what the title is. Right now it’s between two different names, and whichever one isn’t chosen will be Book 5.
Yes, I’ve plotted for nine books in the series.
Still writing, still forgetting to update the website regularly.
Deathlords is currently just over 50% complete. I had to go back and delete some stuff due to it simply not working, but the goal of having it done and turned in by April 30 is good. I estimate getting it to the First Readers by April 10th. Then I’ll take a break from the Kin Wars Saga to work on a project with collaborator Christopher L. Smith, which is set in Mark Wandrey and Chris Kennedy’s Four Horsemen Universe. We don’t have a work-in-progress title yet but it encompasses both of our short stories from A Fistful of Credits and The Good, The Bad, and The Merc. Good stuff.
BASKETBALL SEASON IS OVER!!! As much fun as it was this season, it was exhausting. We participated in an end of the season tournament in Summersville, West Virginia. We went in as the #2 seed and finished in second place. Two of my players finished 1-2 in the dunk contest and another boy finished in 2nd for the three point shootout. One was named to the All-Tournament 2nd Team, while two were named to the All-Tournament First Team. Our leading scorer for the season was named Tournament MVP by the broadcasting company, which was pretty cool. As usual the crowd was fully on our side and though we lost in the final game, we gave the champs a scare they won’t forget. Best part? Our leading scorer is up for Player of the Year for the region of Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia. I’m hoping it leads to bigger and better things for the graduating senior.
Next year is going to be interesting, since we’re going to have to go small and simply out-shoot the other teams. Given how… poorly we shot the three ball this season, that’s either going to be amazing or amazingly bad. I have faith in the guys, especially since the majority of them are currently freshmen and sophomores. I think they’ll be fine if they have a little confidence in themselves, something that they lacked at times this season. Still, finishing the season with a 12-13 win/loss record isn’t bad at all. Next year our goal is 15 wins.
I was recently featured by my workplace on their Facebook page while talking to the 10th grade English class about being a writer. The kids weren’t too interested in first (they see me all the time so it wasn’t as if they were getting some stranger, so the awe factor was a little low) but they did become interested when I told them about some other authors I know and how well they’re doing, primarily John Ringo and Larry Correia. The “money” factor definitely got their attention. I told them that success like that was not common but they didn’t seem to care. One of the boys suggested later that a successful writer is like a successful rapper. Never thought of it like that before but there are some parallels. Granted, I don’t think writers ever really get into drive-by shootings, but there are some similarities in structuring a career and “getting a big break” from hard work and constantly honing your craft.
Don’t forget: Darkling, the sequel to Wraithkin, will be out on April 13, 2018. Make sure you leave a review when you finish the book! This is an intense and emotional roller coaster filled with mayhem, death, fights, love, loyalty, and most importantly, family ties.
Darkling – Book 2 of the Kin Wars Saga
"Magnum Opus" - Published 2017
"Best Laid Plans" - Published 2016
"Paint the Sky" - Published 2017
"Keep the Home Fires Burning" - Published 2017
"The Finder's Keeper" - Published 2013
"Wake" - Published 2013
"Chosen of the Red God" - Published 2015
"A Promise Made" - Published 2015
"Paragon Idol" - Published 2014
"Crouching Seal, Sleeping Dragon" (reprint) - Published 2014
"Nightwalker" - Published 2014
"Hill 142" - Published 2014
"The Cold" - Published 2013
"In the Shadow of Paradise" - Published 2013
"And Injustice For All" - Published 2011
Corruptor - Published 2017
Devastator - Published 2018
Wraithkin - Book 1 of the Kin Wars Saga
Darkling - Book 2 of the Kin Wars Saga
Deathlords - Book 3 of the Kin Wars Saga
Kaiju Apocalypse (Japanese Edition) Published 2017
Kraken Mare - Published 2016
