At Erie Con

This weekend (4/29 - 5/1) I'll be attending Erie Con, in Niagara Falls, NY. While not technically in Erie County or on Lake Erie, I imagine it will, like most cons, at least be Erie, with an extra 'e'. I'm on panels Saturday and Sunday, talking about low-budget film making, the futur, war and envy. All of which fall under my expertise.

Review from SFF Chronicles

My friend Ian Sales reviewed Cinco de Mayo and he deserves an award for Bravery in an Awkward Position. We’ve been friends for more than a decade. He read early chapters and actually helped me shape one the book’s central characters, Sultan. Anyone who knows Ian, knows that doesn’t make a wink of difference. The work is what matters. He takes the craft of writing very seriously, and science fiction a little more so. Putting him in an odd position. He could’ve ignored the whole thing. Instead, he plunged in.

Luckily, my book is so vastly awesome Ian found a galaxy of nice things to say. My book really is like a holiday that way. It makes everyone happy.

Review from October Country

Cinco de Mayo just received a great review at October Country. Of course, if it wasn't great I probably wouldn't be linking to it. Though, I don't know for sure. I haven't had any bad reviews, so I'm not certain how I'd react. It might be a huge post on how ignorant people shouldn't be reviewing books. How some people don't 'get it' and I won't be hailed as a genius until after I'm dead. Luckily, I don't have to do that right now. I got married in October. My wife's birthday is in October. It's nice in October Country.

Slow Draw

My friend Tom runs everyday. Not usually into a tree, as he just did, making the event fit the old 20th century journalism school definition of news. I saw the river of blood running down the front of his face, like he’d been fighting the English, and thought, ‘there’s a story.’ That’s what I always think. I’ve been writing stories my whole life. I didn’t think, ‘there’s a blog post, Facebook post or Tweet.’

Nor did I think, ‘snap a photo.’ Aside from the fact that image capturing equipment doesn’t snap anymore, I should have at least remembered that I’ve got a camera in my pocket all the time. It’s built into my phone. I’ve got the gadgets, but not the instincts.

And that’s what puts me perhaps my generation in the right lane, watching other whiz by on the left. I’m not whining about it. I’m trying to adapt. I went and got a photo of Tom after I thought about it for ten minutes. Sadly, he’d cleaned himself up at the same rate it took me to realize everything I wanted to do with everything I have available.

Were I a gazelle on this techno-Serengeti, the lions would’ve been watching me today, licking their fuzzy chops. Although today, they may have actually caught Tom.

Kids with e-readers. Yeah.

The Misspellers Kindle edition is up. Actually, a bunch of electronic versions are up. I didn’t want to leave out the Nook, and other e-readers. So they’ve got versions, all of which I find kind of weird. The book is for 9 to 12-year olds. Apparently, a lot of them have devices only dreamed about way, way back in 2002, when the book first came out.

Initially, I found it odd that intermediate readers were moving their line on e-reader stats. Then I realized I’m just old enough to be outside the new model. They learn how to operate Blue Ray players before they can form full sentences. I have a two-year-old niece with an iPod touch that she manipulates with the casual skill of a Star Trek, The Next Generation extra.

Besides, if a kid wants to read a book, we should do everything reasonable to make it possible. If there’s a gadget that makes reading more fun, more accessible, more like all of the other forms of entertainment thrown at them, then fire it up. I’ll try to stoke it in my own little way.