South Carolina Book Festival

Tomorrow, I’ll be heading back from South Carolina after another successful festival in Columbia, SC. I attended this event last year, and it was actually the first big event I attended after my book release.

I shared the Echelon (Quake is the YA imprint of Echelon) booth with Marc Vun Kannon, Mary Cunningham, Diana Black, Austin Camacho, Marlis Day, and Regan Black, a talented bunch which I feel privileged to be included in. Make sure to check out their websites—they’ve got a lot to offer!

I got the opportunity to meet two people who bought my book last year, and it was really gratifying to meet people who enjoyed my book and stopped by to thank me and to see if I’d written anything else since. Unfortunately, what I have written isn’t in print (yet) but to all those awaiting more from me—soon, I hope!

I was also pleasantly surprised by the weekend’s sales; the economy is down, but that didn’t stop people from filling bags with books. Maybe because it’s an inexpensive way to treat yourself? All of the shoppers seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely, which is awesome—means we’ll be seeing them again!

So, please enjoy the photos I’ve posted below, and thank you to the city of Columbia and its wonderful residents for once again making me feel welcome. I’ll see you next year!

Here's a very blurry me, selling books!


Maggie was a service dog for an author across the way--she kept peeking out from under the table as though certain she was missing something!


If you missed me at the book festival, you can click on the book above to buy it at Amazon!

A Year In Review

Father Time. Sculptor is John Flanagan (1865–1952). Photographed in 2007 by Carol Highsmith (1946–), who explicitly plaed the photograph in the public domain.

A Year In Review

I am writing my thoughts freehand right now. I am thinking about the last year I have been blogging. It has been an interesting and useful experience. I learned a lot about myself and my own inclinations.

I rather enjoy writing. This blog has probably improved my writing considerably. I try to write every single day of the week for at least a short time. I also try and read every day.

This blog reflects what I have been reading; these are most, but not all of the authors I have written about.

Business: Chris Andersen, Paul Hawken, Gary Hirshberg, Jonathan Pond, Jack Welch, and Muhammad Yunus

Children's Literature: Lewis Carroll, Beatrix Potter, Dr. Seuss

Classic illustration and comics: Hokusai, Lynd Ward, Winsor McKay

Comics: Sergio Aragones, Will Eisner, Neil Gaiman, Hideyuki Kikuchi, Tony Millionaire, Alan Moore, Osamu Tezuka, Marjane Satrapi, Joann Sfar, Craig Thomson, Bill Willingham

Fantasy: Toby Barlow, Michael Chabon, Steven Erikson, Robert E. Howard, Diana Wynn Jones, Ellen Kushner, Ursula Le Guin, Martin Millar, Patricia McKillip, Robin McKinley, Ekaterina Sedia, Sherri S. Tepper, Terri Windling, Jane Yolen

Horror: H.P. Lovecraft, Brian Lumley, Edgar Allen Poe

Internet/Computer: Paul Krug, Don Tapscott, Jonathan Zittrain

Poetry: Charles Bukowski, Kahlil Gibran, Mary Oliver, Rumi, Diane Wakoski

Science Fiction: Paolo Bacigalupi, Iain Banks, Tobias Buckell, Peter David, Cory Doctorow, David Drake, Joe Haldeman, Charles Stross, Ann and Jeff Vandermeer.

For some reason, I remember the titles on the books on clean technology more than I remember the authors; Here are a few of them:

Apollo's Fire, Cradle to Cradle, Freedom From Oil, Green Investing, Natural Capitalism, The Clean Tech Revolution

I like to think how we invest our money and make choices in technology will affect our future tremendously. Invest responsibly and green. Take the time to think about a different future; a cleaner future. One of the futures I like to imagine is turbine powered future; wind, wave, hydroelectric, biofuel turbines, solar turbines, and turbine engines.

Another theme in this blog is visiting a variety of places in New York that have to do with comics or books, the Queens Central Library, the Strand Bookstore, Housing Works Used Book Cafe, Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, the Puck Building, the Jacob Javits Center, Midtown Comics, Forbidden Planet, and Roger's Time Tunnel, and The McGraw Hill Building. Often this coincides with specific events like The Day of Dialog Between Publishers and Librarians, The Book Expo America, New York Comic Con, and the MOCCA Art Festival.

I also write about social networking a bit. I have stopped focusing on gaining traffic through sites like Entrecard, Stumbleupon, and Technorati. Instead I am focusing on networks that are more interactive like Twitter (microblogging), Fuelmyblog, and Blogcatalog all of which have built a set of tools for dialog as well as thumbnail images. I think three sites is about all I can handle for social networking.

I try to include images of authors or images that are literary in nature when I post to my blog. I also sometimes include Youtube videos of authors speaking or short cartoons like Felix the Cat, Superman, or Popeye.

For a while I tried advertising on this blog, adsense, and projectwonderful but I realized it was not worth it for the amount of time spent on the ads. I think that for the most part it is very hard to make money blogging. This blog turned into a noncommercial blog.

Comic Book News and Reviews:Pulp Secret Report 05/10/07

Bill Willingham, the author of Fables is in this video. It is not what you would expect.

Authors@Google: David Sandalow

Here he is David Sandalow

Authors@Google: Paul Hawken

Paul Hawken is the coauthor of Natural Capitalism with Amory Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins.

Where Do You Find A New Book To Read

This is a list. I thought I would create one for your enjoyment.

1) Check at your local bookstore. There is is usually a staff picks section. Powell's books
has a nice short Staff Picks section. http://www.powells.com/picks

2) Check at your local library. They usually have staff picks. This is a list of staff picks from New York Public Library. http://www.booksite.com/texis/scripts/bookletter/showlist.html?sid=5796&list=CNL3

3) If you use public transportation, watch for ads for books. I see ads for John Grisham on the New York subway as well as the Metro North.

4) Read the latest review material like Publishers Weekly or Kirkus Reviews. There are specialty review books like Horn Book for Children, Choice mostly for academic libraries, and VOYA-- Voice of Youth Advocates for teenage books.

5) Read popular magazines like Jet, People, or Newsweek. They all have book reviews.

6) Listen to the radio. Radio shows often talk about books. Jim Freund's Hour of the Wolf interviews science fiction authors. http://www.hourwolf.com/ . NPR-- National Public Radio often has authors reading.

7) Watch television. Most of the talk shows interview authors. Oprah Winfrey has a book club. It is one of those giant things. She revived a lot of classic literature. Charlie Rose invites quite a few authors. A lot of the documentaries on PBS are also in book form. Ken Burn's civil war series has an excellent corresponding book series.

8) Watch to see what other people are reading. People read everywhere, on the subway, at the park, in waiting rooms, and other places.

9) Attend readings if you can get to them. KGB Bar has a fantastic fiction reading series.
http://www.lcrw.net/kgb/

10) Watch the news. Every time something horrible happens, there is a new set of books coming out. O.J. Simpson spawned huge amount of books.

11) Check the obituaries. If an author dies, their estate often releases a lot of material for publication. Also, many people wait until after they are dead to have their biography released.

12) Go to book festivals. New York Is Book Country is the big festival of books for New York.

13) Go to conventions. Book Expo America is the giant book convention for the publishing industry in the United States.

14) Check out authors web sites. Neil Gaiman has an excellent blog. http://journal.neilgaiman.com/

15) Check out publishers web sites. Their new books will be featured prominently.
http://www.tor-forge.com/

16) Make sure to look at your favorite cover artists site. I like Donato Giancola a lot.
http://www.donatoart.com/ They will describe the books which they are creating covers for.

17) Check the various writers professional associations. Most professional associations for writers give awards for quality new fiction. The Horror Writers Association has the Bram Stoker Award. http://www.horror.org/stokers.htm The Mystery Writers of America has the Edgars http://www.mysterywriters.org/

18) Check specialty genre sites like Science Fiction Site, or Uchronia, the alternate history list, http://www.sfsite.com/ http://www.uchronia.net/


19) Most genres will also have forums or newsgroups where they discuss a specific type of book.

20) Expect that your favorite writer in comic books might also write in other formats. Alan Moore wrote his autobiography, Peter David wrote both comic books and regular science fiction books.

21) Don't expect to see an author stick to just one genre. Joe Lansdale writes mysteries, horror, and westerns. Elizabeth Lowell writes science fiction, romance, mystery, and suspense. Walter Mosley writes novels, science fiction, and mysteries. Check to see if your favorite author writes in more genres than one.

22) Check the latest movies. Many of them came from novels. Read the novel before you go see the film. Richard Matheson's I Am Legend is just as good as the film.

23) You can find author readings on Youtube. This really surprised me. I put up a video of Jonathan Carroll reading from Youtube earlier on this site.

24) Philip Jose Farmer has a myspace.com page which is pretty interesting. Authors are taking advantage of the new media. http://www.myspace.com/pjfarmer

25) Authors also do podcasts. Bantam Dell has a nice list of podcasts by authors.
http://www.randomhouse.com/bantamdell/podcast/

26) Don't forget to support your local library. Go to local library booksales put togther by the Friends of the Library.