Gollum was very upset and claimed that I was a hobbit loving thief! I kid you not!
He did allow one photo after he ate all the raw salmon.
In the picture above are James and Allyssia Holland—two of my favorite kids.
If it ever becomes necessary, I will totally adopt them. (grin)
Anyway, the party was in the Presidential Suite at the Radisson Hotel Downtown, Salt Lake City. The ConDuit sci-fi/fantasy convention was the host and got me the room. The party was on May 22, 2009 from 3-6 PM, though more people came and we hung out there until into the evening . . . doing what fanboys do . . . talking about Lord of the Rings and all sorts of geeky stuff. Yes, there was swordplay.
Overall, the book release party was awesome! Thank you very much to all of you who came. I’m sorry it wasn’t on a better weekend to hold a party, as I know a bunch of people had other plans for Memorial Day. A special thanks to those who delayed their trip out of town to come by. I really appreciate it and I loved seeing you all. I’m sorry the line was so long and I apologize for the wait.
Anyway, tons of people came, over a 100, and I got to see lots of old friends. I also made some new ones. Patrick Tracy was my guest of honor and Tammy was in charge of the party, which went really well. I wish I would have taken more photos, but you can see some of them on either Facebook (a public link below) or another gallery with high resolution photos.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=113955&id=583339135&l=bffa58f1ed
Or see the pictures in an online gallery, where they can be downloaded as high quality images. Look here:
http://gallery.me.com/paulgenesse#100182&view=grid&bgcolor=black&sel=15
I wish we would have taken pictures of how the room was set up. I had hung a bunch of fantasy art on the walls (okay, three, all by Ciruelo Cabral—my cover artist); I had a real longsword displayed on the armoire with the name BLOODGUARDIAN posted as a reference to the first book; a replica of a Kukri knife (which was my inspiration for Drake’s Kierka knife in the Iron Dragon books); displays of all nine of my short stories with a large copy of the first page/paragraph beside them so people could read the beginning while they waited in line; statues of a griffin, a blue dragon, big ceramic dragon claws, and various other dragon items; plus lots of food and drink; free posters and bookmarks; a lengthy slideshow on my computer of images from the book trailer which will be finished soon; and of course lots of copies of The Dragon Hunters, Book Two of the Iron Dragon Series.
The stress of the party is over now, but I’m glad we did it. The book deserved a launch party and I wanted to give my best friends and fans a cool party.
Check out the pics if you get a chance. And don’t worry. I’ll be doing a book signing again in Salt Lake City in the Fall, probably in October, before I go on the book tour. My next event is June 5, in my hometown of Beatty, Nevada, where I’ll be the speaker for my old high school’s graduation.
Wish me luck!
Paul Genesse
Author of The Dragon Hunters
Book Two of the Iron Dragon Series
www.paulgenesse.com
