Salt Lake Comic Con 2016 Schedule

Salt Lake Comic Con is September 1-3, 2016. Several authors who have published through Xchyler Publishing are ganging together at a booth. If you have early Christmas shopping planned, or if you like steampunk, fantasy, urban fantasy, dystopian, or genre fiction in general, stop by! We also have a drawing for an Amazon gift card. We'll be in booth 2226 at the west end of the green section in the northwest main hall.

Follow the red arrow to our booth.

I stole that map from Sarah Seeley who has four panels and is one of the authors at the booth. Thanks, Sarah!

Also, I'm a panelist this year, which should be loads of fun. We'll talk about how language helps us find our tribes and helps us to communicate with those we relate to.

Friday, Sept 2nd at 5 PM, room 253A

Edit: I've been added to a second panel. This one will be a lot of fun, and I'll be sure to come in steampunk attire. It's even in the same room, 253A. [Edit: They added the picture for this second panel finally, so here it is:]

Saturday, Sept 3rd at 8PM, room 253A

A Celebration of Steampunk: Wildly imaginative and stylized, steampunk is a culture and a genre all its own. But how did it start, and how can you get involved? Is it just all about the fashion, or does the genre have something important to say about the relationship between technology and society? This panel will discuss the best steampunk books to read, whether you are a newcomer to the fandom or a longtime lover of the literature, as well as recommending cosplay resources for beginners and pros.

So there you have it. I'll be at the booth some of the time and at panels the rest of the time. We should have a posted schedule of author's planned time at the booth in case you want a book signed. I'll have these books there:

Salt Lake's FanX 2016 and Symbiosis

I'll be at FanX this year, just a bit north of Artist Alley. Several authors published through Xchyler Publishing have banded together to rent a booth, and we'll be selling and signing books. Stop by to say hi and enter a drawing!

Those attending are, in alphabetical order (just because I'm left brained like that):

• Jay Barnson
• Ben Ireland
• John M Olsen
• Sarah Seeley
• Scott Tarbot
• Scott Taylor
• Candice Thomas

We'll have anthologies and novels ranging through steampunk, dystopian, horror, Shakespeare rewrites, and fantasy.

I will have two books with me. "Steel & Bone" (a steampunk anthology) and "It Came From the Great Salt Lake" (a Utah horror collection).

One of the reasons we can afford to have this booth is that my lovely wife Kelly is sponsoring the space as a local Realtor and will have some goodies to give away. When I explain this relationship to people, the typical response is for them to think for a few seconds, then it all clicks. Their next statement is often about how it's cool to have a relationship that benefits both the authors and the sponsor.

The authors get a cheaper place to show their wares and interact with fans. The sponsor gets publicity and interacts with potential clients. That's what you call win-win.

Beyond Words

I am participating in the Writing Contest: Writers Crushing Doubt, hosted by Positive Writer. Please follow the link to learn more.

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Hi. My name is John, and I am an introvert. (Everyone chime in with "Hi, John.")

It's like being eccentric in a way, since one of the cool things about being an introvert (or eccentric) is that you never consider it to be anything but normal. In the 7th grade I was voted the quietest kid in the school. I didn't know anybody, but apparently everyone knew me. I've known and enjoyed the life of a quiet introvert now for over half a century, yet introverts tend to form a small number of deep friendships rather than socializing widely. This was a handicap I didn't know I had.

I'd dabbled with writing fiction on and off for years. The sale of a story in 1995 was more fluke than skill. over the next eighteen years I collected quite a few false starts, and the occasional finished short story. My handful of submissions all garnered standardized form rejections. I was being crushed by doubt and had no idea how to improve.

It's not that I couldn't write. I'd written several chapters in popular books on software design. I just didn't know how to write fiction despite having read hundreds of books in the fantasy and science fiction genres over the years.

Then two things happened, with one triggering the other. First, one of my friends encouraged me to enter an anthology contest. That by itself would have resulted in several so-so attempts, and I would have figured I just wasn't fit to write fiction. It was the second thing which made all the difference.

As a result of my friend's invitation, I did some research and discovered the local writing community with all its quirky wonder. While my first attempts at writing were rejected as before, I was better at completing what I started. I also discovered a treasure trove of web resources on writing. Better even than those resources, I discovered within the local writing community a host of people ready to give me a hand, share encouragement, and let me join in as part of the community even though I was a neophyte.

Within months, I had turned the tables on my old failures and crushed my doubt. I won a position in an anthology, and got a view into the workings of a great editor who showed me what she was looking for in a story. Just this past week, two more anthologies were released with a story of mine in each, and I pitched a book I wrote for NaNoWriMo 2015 at a writer's symposium. The novel needs work still, but I know what it needs, and why it needs it.

Without that sense of community and belonging offered to me by local writers, none of that would have happened. I'm grateful for all my new friends, beyond words.

LTUE 2016

Life, the Universe and Everything, as in the writer symposium in Provo each year.

This is my second year to attend, and I wish I'd decided to go a decade or two ago. I had a great time last year, but this year was leaps and bounds ahead for me personally. I know a lot more people now, and have stories in three anthologies, as of last Thursday when two were released in conjunction with LTUE. I had new business cards made up for the occasion to show off my three anthologies. You can find all three in my "Books" tab.

I started off setting up the vendor table for a group of Xchyler Publishing authors who get together at conferences to sell books and hang out. Here's my first official Dave Doering sighting as he came through the vendor area the evening before the conference started:

Dave Doering

It would take hours to do justice to all the fine panels I attended, so here's a smattering of photos I took throughout the three days. I'll also dump pics on Facebook and tag everyone I can.

Lindzee Armstrong, Eric Stone, Dene Low
 How to Pitch Your Novel

Candace Thomas, Lisa Mangum, Michelle Witte
Know Who You're Talking To

Rebecca Rode, Michelle Argyle, Angela Hartley, Larry Correia, Peter Orullian
 Defining and Measuring Success: It's a Mindset

Howard Tayler, Scott Parkin, Wayne Hanewicz
Transhumanism

Michaelbrent Collings, Eric James Stone, Julie Frost, K. B. Rylander
Selling Short Stories

Robert Defendi, Michael Glassford, Alyson Peterson, Peter Orullian, Larry Correia
Writing Action Scenes

Larry Correia, Rachel Ann Nunes, Michaelbrent Collings
Keeping the Chatacter's Backstory Relevant

Kevin J Anderson Friday keynote

Steve Diamond, Larry Correia, Christine Haggerty, Michelle Corsillo, Adrienne Monson
It's a Book, Not a Baby

John D. Brown, Brandon Sanderson, Michael Jensen, Lynette White, J. Scott Savage
The Role of Magic in Your Story

Shannon Hale Saturday keynote

Chersti Nieveen, J. R. Jonhansson, Rachel Ann Nunesh, Michelle Corsillo, L. L. Muir
Bios, Synopsis and Blurbs

L. E. Modesitt, Shannon Hale, Brandon Sanderson, Jason King, David Farland
Writing Natural Dialog

Eric James Stone, Julie Frost, Scott Parkin
Escaping Semipro Hell

Aside from the usual panels, there were other things going on. The two books which were released each had an event. First was the Sibyl's Scriptorium event where I won Honorable Mention for my short story "The Blight". I got pictures of that one. I didn't get pictures from the horror panel which doubled as the release party for "It Came From the Great Salt Lake."

Jason King, Holli Anderson, David West
The Space Balrogs played host to the Sibyl's Scriptorium gathering

Peter Orullian spoke to the folks at the gathering before the awards

Me receiving my Honorable Mention

My friend Jay Barnson receiving his first place award

We spent one night with my son and his wife in Provo rather than driving all the way home that night. I looked at their fridge. I just ... Okay. That's cool. Don't try to read it.

Artists with word magnets. Not an expected result.

I'll declare the 2016 LTUE a success. I hope to see you there next year!

LTUE next week!

I'll escape the day job next week on Thursday and Friday so I can go to Life, the Universe and Everything in Provo, UT. I'm really looking forward to the writing symposium this year. Last year was great fun, but I didn't know many people and had no fiction published this century to sell. This year, I have stories in three anthologies, a NaNoWriMo novel to maybe pitch, and a lot more friends to watch for, both as attendees and panelists.

I'll be attending the "Sybil's Scriptorium Contests Award Ceremony" Thursday night because I'm a finalist in their writing contest. The winners and runners up will be in "Sibyl's Scriptorium Volume 3" which hasn't quite made it to Amazon yet.

I'll miss the first part, but after SybScript, I'll head over to the "After Dark - Horror" late evening panel where the folks in "It Came From the Great Salt Lake" with me will be hanging out.

My day schedule for all three days will be a mix of writing, editing, publishing, and networking panels, along with a pitch or two of "Crystal King" if I can get enough polish on it in just one week. An editor friend has given me a list of things to check on and clean up, so it's touch and go.

For the signing event Friday, I'm supposed to be at three different tables, so it will be a high-calorie burn evening as I bounce between Sybil's, the Utah Horror Writers, and Xchyler.

I'll likely be at the Xchyler vendor table whenever I'm not in a panel. My wife Kelly is a real estate agent sponsoring their vendor table.

2015 Writing Year in Review

It was an interesting year for me, filled with quite a few firsts. I published my first fiction way back in 1995, but only got serious about writing in the past two years. Without further ado, here's the successes.

• A steampunk short story "Revolutionary" was published in the anthology Steel & Bone by Xchyler Publishing.
• A short urban fantasy story "The Blight" was announced as a finalist in the Dragon Comet writing contest, with winners to be announced this coming February at LTUE.
• A horror story "Exposure Therapy" was accepted for an anthology to be released, also at LTUE.
• I won NaNoWriMo. For those who aren't familiar, that means I wrote a minimum of 50K words toward completing a novel. I posted about it earlier. That novel is at 73K now, and is going through edits.
• I have four short stories currently out waiting for a response, three of which I can query next week to see what the status is.

My log also shows six rejections for the year, so it looks like my accept/reject ratio isn't that bad. I'm not a full time writer, so there are limits to how much I can have going at once. Given that this is all from the evenings and weekends not taken up by family, church, or career, I'd have to say it's not bad as entries into the writer community go.

I've been blessed to meet and become at least casual friends with a large number of fellow-writers both local and remote. The local writer community that I bump into at conventions and events is supportive beyond what I could have imagined or expected.

Picked up more books, and reviewed more books than any other year that I can recall (but I'm not counting when I raided my dad's library all through my teen years).

For the next year, my goals are to:

• Attend four conferences (probably LTUE, FanX, Salt Lake Comic Con and Salt City Steamfest) to hobnob.
• Recruit four new beta readers to add to the pool. This assumes I will also be a beta reader for others.
• Publish Crystal King.
• Submit four short stories to open calls or contests like web publishers, or 
• Get invited to an anthology.

Some of those should be pretty easy, and some will require me to really stick my neck out and plow through undiscovered country, since like many authors, I'm naturally reclusive. If you see me, feel free to drag me out of my shell and encourage me to jump into the thick of things. I will try not to be grumpy about it.

Beyond the Wail - Twelve Grave Stories of Love and Loss

I am still only part way through an advanced reader copy of this book, but what I have read is a lot of fun, particularly if you like reading about paranormal and relationships. That's what paranormal is all about, isn't it? I have a couple of long-time personal friends who have stories in the book, but I'm going to highlight the anthology as a whole and one of the other authors today.

About the Anthology

What is it about fear and the unknown that pulls so passionately at the human heart? Perhaps we are drawn not to the darkness itself, but to the resolution, the overcoming of what we most deeply dread. After all, the more terrible the struggle, the greater the victory when it comes at last. Presented in this anthology are twelve remarkable stories of the darkness that overshadows us, and the resolution that may be found beyond them. They are stories of fear and oppression, but ultimately stories of hope, stories that will take you BEYOND THE WAIL.

At twelve stories, this is a large anthology. There is plenty to sink your teeth into here. We'll check with one of the authors about her story now.

About "Date Due" by Danielle E. Shipley

Danielle describes her story thus:

Let's talk for a bit with A magic library’s guardian determined to protect her treasured books, whether their authors elect to do things the easy way … or the fatal one.

How did you come up with the concept for your story?

I came across an image accompanied by the phrase, “I wish I had a secret library with all the books in the world in it.” My brain’s third reaction – after playing a few bars of the intro from “Into the Woods” and just generally drooling over the thought of ALL THE BOOKS – was to question: Suppose someone had a library full of all the books never written? How far would this bibliophile go to keep the books’ authors from writing them out of his/her possession? I wondered “aloud” on my Facebook page, and multiple responders commented, “You totally have to write this.” My muse seconded the motion, and the “Losers Weepers” theme of Xchyler Publishing’s then-upcoming anthology contest matched my premise perfectly, so I basically had no choice but to get the tale down on paper.

How did you come up with the title?

I wanted something equal parts library-related and ominous. “Date Due” – the little phrase seen on library book check-out cards/receipts everywhere – fit both criteria to a tee. Like a librarian’s dark day of reckoning.

Please provide some insight into or a secret or two about your story.

One of my inspirations was Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”. Both Poe’s narrator and mine are anonymous – the text never once gives their names – and both insist throughout the story that they’re not insane, despite the fact that they are blatantly out of their minds. And, y’know, they’re both murderers.

What was the most surprising part of writing this story?

It was slightly slow going, for a short story of mine. I can normally knock out a story of this length in a day or two, but this one took me ten. My narrator would not be rushed. She wanted to give me her tale just so, and in her own sweet time.

What was the hardest part of writing your story, and how did you overcome it?

The hardest part was titling all of the books the narrator called out by name. Coming up with a title is hard enough for me when I’m familiar with the story in question. To name a book I’ve never read? Horror! Fortunately, once I’d gotten a first draft out of the way, with “[TITLE]” acting as a placeholder wherever necessary, a couple of my best pals were willing to toss out some random options, and I picked and tweaked my favorites from the list to insert into the blank spaces. 

Sherlock: Robert Downey, Jr. or Benedict Cumberbatch? 

Very much enjoyed what RDJ brought to the table, but I’ve got to give this one to Cumberbatch. All my love to BBC’s Sherlock!

About Danielle E. Shipley

Danielle E. Shipley’s first novelettes told the everyday misadventures of wacky kids like herself. . . . Or so she thought. Unbeknownst to them all, half of her characters were actually closeted elves, dwarves, fairies, or some combination thereof. When it all came to light, Danielle did the sensible thing: packed up and moved to Fantasy Land, where daily rent is the low, low price of her heart, soul, blood, sweat, tears, firstborn child, sanity, and words; lots of them. She’s also been known to spend short bursts of time in the real-life Chicago area with the parents who home schooled her and the two little sisters who keep her humble.

There are a zillion ways to get to Danielle's web presence. Here are a few places to learn more about her:

https://everonword.wordpress.com/
https://twitter.com/DEShipley
https://www.facebook.com/Danielle.E.Shipley.Author
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7021985.Danielle_E_Shipley
https://www.pinterest.com/DEShipleyYo/
http://www.amazon.com/Danielle-E.-Shipley/e/B00HG4A0N0/

About Xchyler Publishing

The publisher is running a give-away raffle, so loot is involved! Enter and see what you can win. These have had some cool prizes in the past. Here's the link to it:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

They've also put together a cool trailer for the book.


You can buy Beyond the Wail at Amazon, and find it on GoodReads.

Salt Lake Comic Con 2015 Day 3

It's been a very long but fun three days. I was able to get to four panels, all related to writing in one way or another. Also I managed to bring my "writing notes" notebook with me, so I didn't have to take notes on my phone, or borrow my wife's notebook.

Me and Kelly steam punking

My wife and I actually had costumes that went together for day three.  Day one, she was Rapunzel and I had my lab coat. Day two, she was steampunk, and I wore a Pinkie and the Brain shirt. Finaly, we go together.

Jodi and Joe Milner

Jodi Milner and her husband stopped by the Xchyler author table to say hi. She's in one of the anthologies we had for sale at our table. They were merciless and didn't stay to help at the table. :)

The First Five Pages: How to Hook you Readers Instantly
with your Novel or Screenplay

I took more notes at this panel than from any other the whole week. We learned a lot of what editors look for and what will get a story dropped for not starting out well. If you haven't given the editor a reason to care by page three, then you don't have much chance for success.

Some of the good points to cover are to generate detailed questions in the reader's mind with the problems you pose. Start out with something happening, which I've heard multiple times as starting on the day that's different. Avoid having a character wake up at the start of the story (unless it is really important and plays into the story somehow).

While the conflict, setting, and voice are important, the characters are critical because that's how you snare the reader's interest.

The biggest part of my notes related to the question, how do you learn the craft? Rather than just ways to learn, the list contained things to learn as well.

• Read and analyze good stories (books and movies) as you would a textbook.
• Get into a good critique group and find alpha readers who will be tough and honest.
• Are you blocked or bogged down? Just write through it with whatever you can do and come back to edit later.
• Listen to critiques, but more in aggregate than as individual messages. You'll never please everyone, but if 80% of your alpha readers dislike something, you should probably fix it.
• Identify when someone else's book is good by noticing when your internal editor goes quiet.
• Read the first page or two of every story in an anthology. Identify why some are more interesting.
• After you finish something, write something new before going back to edit. It's sort of a palate cleanser.
• Read lots of story beginnings. Identify what the good ones have in common. Do this in genres you don't normally read.
• Promise a good character, theme or setting up front.
• Promise conflict in page 1 or 2, then keep piling it on.
• Scenes are new openings. Treat them as you would a story opening.
• Editors need to see the author's confidence by how you write.
• Don't start by pulling all the stops, because you won't have anywhere to go that's more extreme later.
• Don't kill characters until the reader cares about them.

So that's the panel's list of advice.

Writing MG/YA Fantasy

 Similar to one of yesterday's panels, they covered ages for mid grade and young adult. MG is typically 10-13, while YA is 13+. The difference is that MG is often about belonging and finding your place in the world filled with external pressures. YA is more about individuality and finding yourself, with internal pressures.

James Dashner told about a horrible romance scene that was cut from Maze Runner. It's fun to hear about some of the things which end up on the cutting room floor.

They all agreed that you should not change the way you write based on the audience. Things like altering vocabulary and style don't do what you would expect for younger kids. Vocab and style are not the things that make it YA or MG.

James A. Owen talked about pigeon holes authors could get stuck into in the past, making them forever YA, or MG, or some other category or genre. That's not nearly the problem it used to be, and lots of authors do cross-overs to other areas these days.

This panel's list of advice: (as with all advice, some things may conflict, and some won't apply the way you expect.)

• Find a favorite book. Highlight favorite scenes. Break it down and analyze it.
• Don't write based on market analysis. Use your own voice and preferences.
• Don't end the writing day at an end point like a complete chapter. Leave it where it's easy to pick back up.
• Enhanced dumb ideas are no longer dumb ideas. You don't need to start with pure genius.
• Sometimes the ideas you think are scary or hard are the best choice because they stretch your abilities.
• You must make the kid be the hero in MG and YA. Don't ever send the adult to fix the problem or the story fails.
• On a series, don't start book 2 until book 1 sells, because you may end up with serious editing passes which may invalidate anything you do.

Creating Good Characters

I heard some new things here when talking about creating good characters. Rather than just being sympathetic, good characters are fun, interesting, intriguing, and cool. There should be layers to what makes them tick, and those layers should be revealed over time. If you write your character true to all their layers but reveal them slowly, your reader will have "aha!" moments.

Good characters will take action rather than respond to it. Reacting is weak, while acting is strong. Their actions must matter to themselves.

The difficult balance is to make them imperfect so they have room to grow or make mistakes, because their ability to lose is important to the reader. If the reader believes a character can't be hurt, no amount of peril will make a difference.

Whether hero, villain, or side character, they're the hero of their own story. The real hero of your story just gets more attention from you as the author. One of the few differences is that villains often will have certainty where your hero is conflicted.

Characters need to have different voice, humor and attitudes so they don't all end up sounding the same.

Urban Fantasy

Like Friday, I ended the day with a heavy hitter panel full of successful urban fantasy authors. There was a lot of overlap between this one and last night's panelists. They were (left to right) Shawn Speakman, J, R. Johansson, Larry Correia, Terry Brooks, Jim Butcher, and Kevin Hearne.

One theme they covered is that normal is boring. Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden character was built to be unusual. He's six feet nine inches tall, and has a mixed bag of really odd traits.

For every fantastic thing you add to urban fantasy, a good rule of thumb is to add two normal things to balance things out and make it not be all weird and new, which can lose a reader's interest.

The panelists described their favorite characters, monsters, and other writers that they liked. Nope, Jim didn't choose the T-Rex. The skin walker won that contest.

Now it's time to prop the feet up for a bit of rest and recovery and a day at church before the day job calls me back to the real world on Monday.

Salt Lake Comic Con 2015 Day 1

It took a few texts and wandering around before all the passes were in the right hands to get in to set up the Xchyler Publishing author's table. (Not an official table for the publisher, but a bunch of their authors getting together since we're mostly locals.)

Here's Jay Barnson manning our table, photobombing himself.

We were next to the Curiosity Quills and Space Balrogs folks, so we had several book-laden tables in a row. I was able to get away from the table for a few panel discussions, which is always fun. I was rushing from one thing to another, so I didn't get as much time to talk to people as I would like.

Writing Advice: The Good, The Bad & The Very Ugly

It was fun to hear several people describe the best and worst writing advise they've received. Michaelbrent Collings is a strict and disciplined moderator, and helped things move along smoothly. One thing in particular which came out is that any time someone expresses an opinion on how to write with "always" or "never" they are most likely wrong.

Outlining Vs. Discovery Writing

Outline vs. Discovery is also known as Plotter vs. Pantser. Do you outline everything, or do you write by the seat of your pants? It turns out that it's more of a broad spectrum with those two cases being the extremes. Professional authors tend to do more plotting since they have deadlines and schedules, and need to be able to write to deadlines. Newer authors tend to do more free-form writing. Neither is an absolute though, and everyone tends to do a mix of some kind.

Creating Horror: How to Scare the Crap out of People

I'm writing a short horror story, so I figured I'd spend some time listening to successful scary story writers. Michaelbrent Collings is a complete loose cannon when not moderating, and is loads of fun to listen to. :) You tend to need to write about what scares you personally, and to broaden it out from there to take in the fears of more than just yourself. Most of these authors claim a Stephen King book as the scariest they've ever read, but I don't think they doubled up on any single book.

Writing a Book Series

Dave Farland (AKA Dave Wolverton) moderated this one. Writing and pitching books as a series can save a lot of time once you've built a reputation up to where you can approach agents and publishers that way. If you have the reputation for dependability, a series can keep you going on a project for a lot longer than single books can. It's not quite so good as a first entry out of the chute if you're a new author, just because it's hard for a publisher to trust someone that's an unknown.

Now I'm looking forward to Friday and Saturday. Today I forgot to take a notebook so I had to run from memories jogged by my pictures. Tomorrow will be better.

Salt City Steamfest 2015

Last year, I attended only Saturday at the Salt City Steamfest. This year my wife and I were able to be there for both days.

We had Victor Chopine take some pictures, which was lots of fun. He has a great eye for poses.

I helped out a bit at a booth full of authors associated with Xchyler Publishing. That's Candace Thomas, Sarah E. Seeley, and Jay Barnson pictured, and we had Scott Taylor and Scott Tarbet there as well.

We even had this cool online poster put together.

I also attended quite a few panels, mostly on writing, pitching your writing (to editors and agents, not into the trash), and storytelling in general. Our friend Julie Barnson told ghost stories, which are her specialty.

One of the panels consisted of these three ladies ( Terra Luft, Christauna Rose Asay and Callie Tolman Stoker), which was great fun.

Scott Tarbet played moderator for their panel.

There was a writing contest hosted by Curiosity Quills Press, where James Wymore was supposed to announce the winner at the conference. Unfortunately, James had a schedule conflict and had Jason King fill in for him. Due to unforeseen complications, the announcement was moved around and rescheduled, so a troop of us were constantly asking Jason if he knew when we would hear about the contest. He was constantly apologizing for delays that were not his fault, and bore up well under our constant barrage. Finally, the announcement was made!

I didn't win.

But the best part of the contest was yet to come. The gal who won had just been in a round table discussion with me and a few other people a few minutes before. Several of us held our own impromptu session talking about how to approach publishers. The speaker had been a no-show, so everyone just shared what they knew about both short story and novel submissions and publishing methods. When I saw her next she was sort of bouncing and floating down the hall, bordering on giddy because she had just received the good news.

That's when Terra, Christauna and Callie started to talk to her. (You know, I should find out her name,but haven't yet.) They invited her to dinner. I'm not sure how many of the three had been beaten by her in this contest, but I heard one of them had been in 2nd place. They were all nearly as excited for her as she was for herself.

The contest winner is second from the right. This picture is from Terra Luft's Facebook page. The struggling new author was taken under the wing of this fine group of writers. It was great to see her adopted into the community, where even those whom she beat out in the contest were not just happy for her, but went out of their way to be inclusive.

I've felt this same thing in how I have been adopted into the Utah writer's scene. I know several local authors now because of conferences and events over the past year, especially after being included in a Xchyler anthology. Some of them even remember my name. :) I really appreciate my new friends, and their willingness to share, support, and help others.

Steel & Bone, nine steampunk adventures

Steel & Bone is coming out this Saturday! There is a Rafflecopter giveaway for Steel & Bone. Enter it and win cool stuff!

I was interviewed for the book's blog tour. It will show up over at Nikki Trionfo's blog tomorrow (Friday, June 26). Go take a look.

It not only has nine great stories, it has some illustrations and a forward by James Ng that are pretty cool. I'm really pleased with how the book has turned out, and I'm sure you will enjoy it. Here's a rundown of the stories:

The Clockwork Seer by Katherine Cowley: On an island of oddities, a young clairvoyant struggles for normalcy, but deadly automatons have other plans.  

Sindisiwe by Scott E. Tarbet: A slave girl in Zanzibar escapes a beating when a stranger in the marketplace proves her past is more than just a fairy tale.  

Stand and Deliver by TC Phillips: Neither shackles, slave labor, nor the island’s deadliest inhabitants will prevent these brothers from meting out justice to their father’s murderers.  

Island Walker by C. R. Simper: Kit digs her treasures out of trash heaps, but the theft of her invention leads to discoveries money can’t buy. 

A Mind Prone to Wander by Danielle E. Shipley: Beyond a locked door lies Rowan Charles’ death or his sanity, and the survival or extinction of his people.  

Curio Cay by Sarah E. Seeley: The future of humanity rests in the hands of three time-traveling scientists battling biomechanical creatures in the Jurassic past.  

The Mysterious Island of Chester Morrison by Kin Law: Dodging her chaperone, a debutante stumbles into adventure and romance at the World’s Fair.  

Revolutionary by John M. Olsen: A dirigible captain goes down with his ship, and wakes to find himself a captive of a sky-dwelling civilization.  

The Steel Inside by Gail B. Williams: Darkness lurks in Sarah’s forgotten past, kept hidden by those who claim to be her devoted husband and loyal servants. 

If steampunk is your thing, you can get it at Amazon starting Saturday. (Or pre-order it right now!)

Steel and Bone

Here's a sneak peek written by Scott E. Tarbot for the anthology my story "Revolutionary" will be appearing in soon.

Steel and Bone Teaser

Publicity for it is in prep mode now, so you may start to see things firing up soon. We still have a few weeks to release, and I'm looking forward to having a print copy in my hands.

Book bomb for Isle of Sound and Wonder

So what's a book bomb, you ask? We're getting a spike in sales of Alyson Grauer's book tomorrow, March 4th, 2015, and the publisher is pitching in their profits to Alyson's father's cancer treatment fund. The e-book is just $0.99 right now.

Here is the direct donation page.

Here is the book on Amazon.

Here's some more info on it. (The two links on the picture are the ones I just showed you.)

Please donate or buy the book! You can track other book bombs for various causes on twitter with the tag #bookbomb, as you might expect.

Xchyler Publishing Newsletter

Keep up to date on new books from Xchyler Publishing by getting their newsletter. They have "The Toll of Another Bell" and "Mechanized Masterpieces 2" anthologies both coming out really soon, along with other cool stuff.

If you have your QR code scanner handy, try this: