TopCon and Other Tales
Three days of travel and adventure in the Kansas state capital. - wow, was it a crazy ride, folks. For those of you who follow the Blog on a weekly basis (THANKS SO MUCH!!!), I apologize for missing last Friday's post. There was just no way I was getting anything out during the convention weekend with everything that was going on.
TopCon is a convention that's especially near and dear to me. It was the first convention I went to as an author and vendor. It was the first opportunity I had to set up my full display. It was my first chance to sell books to folks I had never met before. It was also where I met Lynn Main (author) and Seth Groves (artist) who became good friends over the last year. It was my first time getting to work with Susanne Lambdin (author), not as a starry-eyed writer looking for guidance and waiting for my book to publish, but as an officially published author with a book ready for sale at my own table.
I spent Friday afternoon doing setup and catching up with convention friends I hadn't seen in a while. I went to dinner with Lynn and his mother afterwards and came home again that night. Bright and early the next morning, I got up and made the hour drive back to Topeka. (I seriously don't know how people do this every day, but there's folks in my town who do it.) My nerves were a wreck. My anxiety was through the roof. It wasn't until the doors officially opened that I started getting back into the groove of things. Saturday night I went to dinner with Lynn Main, Susanne Lambdin, and Kevin Hansen (better known as Captain Spaulding on the con circuit). We had a great time catching up and swapping stories. I drove home afterwards, caught about four hours sleep, and got up to do it again on Sunday. By the time I got home and unloaded Sunday night, I was pretty well beat, but it had been a fun weekend overall.
Rather than spend a lot of time trying to write about the weekend, I'll just share the photos I got from the event. I even remembered to take more than three photos this time!
Now that TopCon is over, I feel better prepared to focus on Book 3 again. One of the perks of hanging around other authors and creators for a weekend is a boost in motivation to keep going on the next project. I actually managed to get some writing done this week in addition to recovering from the weekend and doing all of the inventory/sales tracking that has to be done after an event.
That said, I also officially started another project yesterday that may impact progress on Book 3. Jack Voraces has agreed to do the narration for the "Wolfkin: A Fairy's Tail" audiobook! I spent yesterday getting the ACX profile ready to go and am currently starting all of the behind the scenes work that needs to be done to get that project rolling. I'll offer more details and updates as the project takes off, but I'm very excited to have Jack back to tell the story of Neko Goodbrush and his friends!
As for events and appearances, I don't really have much in the pipeline at the moment. I'm waiting on confirmation for a return to Ladies Night Out some time in November (I think). I believe Little Apple Comic Expo (LACE) will be in April. In the meantime, I've got plenty to keep me occupied, which is always a great place to be!
If you didn't get a chance to find me at BAM! or TopCon during the last two weekends, be sure to check out my books via the link below! You'll be glad you did. I'll be glad you did. We'll ALL be glad you did!
Special thanks to "Gypsy" James George, "Mad-Hatter" Raychel Smith, and everybody at TopCon for a fun and well-organized event! Can't wait to do it again next year!
