My schedule for panels at Balticon appears below:
My Capclave 2018 Schedule
I’m proud to be on Programming for Capclave 2018, the DC area’s best SF/Fantasy literary convention. The event is being held in Rockville, MD from September 28 – 30. Here are the details of my schedule:
Friday
| Afternoon | Dealer’s Room Manning the table for Tannhauser Press and the Hourlings. |
Saturday
| 10:00 AM | Blurred Lines: Writing & Marketing Mixed-Genre Books
Sometimes, the book you want to write doesn’t fit into traditional genre patterns. Sometimes, it fits into ALL the traditional genre patterns. Authors who write books that defy standard shelving paradigms gather to discuss the virtues and pitfalls of genre-bending: finding your audience, marketing through genre-specific channels, generating industry acclaim, finding your niche, and more. Join us as we talk about how it really is okay to write that historical fantasy murder mystery in space! With: David Keener, Jack Campbell (John G. Hemry), Brenda W. Clough, Andrew Fox (Moderator) |
| Afternoon | Dealer’s Room Manning the table for Tannhauser Press and the Hourlings. |
Sunday
| 10:00 AM | Author Table: David Keener & Laura Montgomery Selling (and signing) books at the designated Author Table. |
| 11:00 AM | Making the Future Work
What things are necessary to make the future successful? What are the jobs and technology of the future? Which jobs are most likely to go away? Which jobs will stay and what will they look like? What should the underlying infrastructure of your future world look like? For example, what should go into planning for the city of the future. With: David Keener, David Bartell, Bill Lawhorn (Moderator), Joe Stech |
| 1:00 PM | Writing Killer Fight Scenes That Matter (Two-Hour Workshop)
Does your story come to a screeching halt every time there’s a fight scene? Do readers think your fight scenes are…tedious…instead of exciting? How realistic should your fight be? Discover how real people react to violence, and how you can use this information to make your conflict more believable. Learn how to craft fight scenes that engage your readers, advance your plot and reveal character. With: David Keener |
| 4:00 PM | Time Travel Storytelling
A discussion of the cultural implications of time travel. Should an author use appropriate to the time language in their time travel and historical stories, or is it OK to use modern sensibilities? Is it fair to readers to give historical figures beliefs that were never shown in their real life actions? With: David Keener (Moderator), Doc Coleman, Iver Cooper, Alan Smale |
Publishing Schedule for 2017 and Early 2018
It looks like 2017 is the year that I’m really going to embark on indie publishing. I’ve been working on stories for a while now, mostly at the novelette to novella length. I’ve finally reached the point where a number of them have successfully emerged from my production pipeline, gone through their respective review processes and are ready to face the wide, wide world.
It’s a little daunting, actually. This is indie publishing, so it’s all on me: the quality of the story, the third-party editing, the cover, the product design, the interior layout, the marketing, etc.
Nevertheless, it’s time to push the little birdies out of the nest. So, without further ado, here’s my publishing schedule for 2017 and early 2018. All stories will be published as both print editions and Kindle ebooks.
| Date | Story | Type | WC | Pages |
| Jan, 2017 | Road Trip (in an anthology) Rocco Fitch, a wounded veteran of the war in Afghanistan, doesn’t have much left to live for. He’s disabled, unemployed and his wife has left him, taking their daughter with her. Then a beggar, a war veteran like himself, offers to sell him a road. — A Story of the Changed World |
Urban Fantasy / Military / Crime | 13.8K | 56 |
| Apr, 2017 | Winter Roses (in an anthology) The young heir to the mountainous Cragenrath Kingdom thought he’d met the love of his life. Instead, he got a lesson in crime, betrayal, magic and revenge. — A Story of the Thousand Kingdoms |
Fantasy | 1K | 5 |
| May, 2017 | The Good Book Malcolm Jameson is planning to throw himself off a bridge when a passing bicyclist stops and hands him a magic book. Unsurprisingly, the book has a considerably different plan for Malcolm. And a bad attitude. |
Magic Realism | 10.4K | 42 |
| May, 2017 | The Rooftop Game (in an anthology) Even though Lydio Malik is the Royal Bodyguard for the infant Princess Analisa of Salasia, he’s ridiculed by his fellow bodyguards for his foreign heritage and his almost obsessive attention to detail. But when disaster looms, the kingdom’s enemies will discover that when he says, “Over my dead body!” — he means it. — A Story of the Thousand Kingdoms |
Fantasy | 16K | 64 |
| Jun, 2017 | Road Trip Rocco Fitch, a wounded veteran of the war in Afghanistan, doesn’t have much left to live for. He’s disabled, unemployed and his wife has left him, taking their daughter with her. Then a beggar, a war veteran like himself, offers to sell him a road. Published as a standalone novelette. — A Story of the Changed World |
Urban Fantasy / Military / Crime | 13.8K | 56 |
| Jul, 2017 | Death Comes to Town Blacksmith Tavish Kraigdhu was enjoying a well-deserved retirement from the Salasian Third Legion in the foothills of the Cragenrath Mountains when…death came to town. And nothing would ever be the same for the battle-hardened warrior. — A Story of the Thousand Kingdoms |
Fantasy | 10K | 40 |
| Aug, 2017 | Bitter Days Pageeda is a young, homeless orphan girl in the gritty port city of Mozanya. When she loses the older sister who raised her to some ruthless kidnappers, she’ll do anything to get her sister back — even become a hero. — A Story of the Thousand Kingdoms |
Fantasy | 18.5K | 74 |
| Sep, 2017 | The Forever House The Forever House is a tavern that appears in different times and realities. No one knows who built it or why it was built, but it has an effect on all who visit it. This is not a story, but a setting that is being made available for use by any who want to take advantage of it. |
Fantasy/SF | 18K | 70 |
| Oct, 2017 | Catalyst (in an anthology) It’s 2217 and a traveling exhibition of priceless artworks has gone missing in the war-ravaged territory that used to be modern Brazil. Emily Dunkirk and her band of art historians and mercenaries are going to rescue the works. The obstacles to their success are fierce, and they’ll find more than they ever bargained for. They’ll also learn that, sometimes, the greatest works of art are painted in blood. — Published in The Curator |
SF | 20K | 78 |
| Nov, 2017 | The Rooftop Game Even though Lydio Malik is the Royal Bodyguard for the infant Princess Analisa of Salasia, he’s ridiculed by his fellow bodyguards for his foreign heritage and his almost obsessive attention to detail. But when disaster looms, the kingdom’s enemies will discover that when he says, “Over my dead body!” — he means it. — A Story of the Thousand Kingdoms |
Fantasy | 16K | 64 |
| Dec, 2017 | SkyriZe (in an anthology) Jack Johnson’s a computer nerd. He never expected to survive the zombie apocalypse, but he did. And in the worst place possible: the 88th floor of a skyrise in Manhattan, the most zombie-infested city in the country, maybe even the world. He’s got to escape the deadly tower he’s trapped in, plan how to survive long-term and, oh yeah, maybe eventually figure out how to reboot civilization. — Published in Whispers of the Apoc |
SF | 20K | 78 |
| Jan, 2018 | Last Day on the Job Lydio Malik is accustomed to danger. He’s been the royal bodyguard for eight-year-old Princess Analisa, the sole heir to the throne of Salasia, for almost her entire life. But now he’s leaving for a new and less stressful life outside the royal palace. It’s his last day on the job. What could possibly go wrong? — A Story of the Thousand Kingdoms |
Fantasy | 8K | 32 |
| Feb, 2018 | The Threefold Revenge Piker’s a City Guardsman in the fantastical port city of Mozanya with a bad attitude and a deep-seated prejudice against Neferian refugees. Pageeda’s a young, homeless Neferian refugee who doesn’t take abuse from anyone. They’re like oil and water, except oil burns. — A Story of the Thousand Kingdoms |
Fantasy | 35K | 140 |
| Mar, 2018 | The Dragon Problem Lady Wendilla, the young daughter of the Baron of Moravia, is unhappy. What she wants is True Love. What she’s getting, thanks to her father, is a Contest to find a husband for her. All the contestants have to do is rid Moravia of its pesky little dragon problem. And face down a very upset noble lady with a mind of her own. — A Slightly Bent Fairy Tale |
Fantasy | 10K | 40 |
| Apr, 2018 | Catalyst It’s 2217 and a traveling exhibition of priceless artworks has gone missing in the war-ravaged territory that used to be modern Brazil. Emily Dunkirk and her band of art historians and mercenaries are going to rescue the works. The obstacles to their success are fierce, and they’ll find more than they ever bargained for. They’ll also learn that, sometimes, the greatest works of art are painted in blood. |
SF | 20K | 78 |
| Jun, 2018 | SkyriZe Jack Johnson’s a computer nerd. He never expected to survive the zombie apocalypse, but he did. And in the worst place possible: the 88th floor of a skyrise in Manhattan, the most zombie-infested city in the country, maybe even the world. He’s got to escape the deadly tower he’s trapped in, plan how to survive long-term and, oh yeah, maybe eventually figure out how to reboot civilization. |
SF | 20K | 78 |
More tentatively, here’s a very rough (and likely to change) list of other stories that may appear in 2018:
The Deep Dive (SF)
Unleashed (Fantasy, Thousand Kingdoms)
The Mad Diver of Mistveil (Fantasy, Thousand Kingdoms)
[Unnamed Space Opera] (SF)
