My Gen Con Author Signing

Linda Baker, Paul Genesse, & Brad Beaulieu

at our Author's Alley Book Signing at Gen Con 2007

Hello,

I'm back from Indianapolis and Gen Con 2007. I had a great time with my Writers' Symposium friends. My book signing went well and I sold out of all my Pirates of the Blue Kingdoms books, so that was great. I should have got a few more books from the publisher, doh! My signing was with my great friends Brad Beaulieu and Linda Baker. We had a good time and met some cool people who came by to see us. Then my editor and fellow writer, John Helfers asked Brad and I to stay an extra hour and hang out with him. We stayed for a full two hours and kept busy with folks coming by--though I was out of books to sell.

My author reading went well later that night. I read from my short story, Almost Brothers, which is featured in the DAW anthology Fellowship Fantastic edited by Kerrie Hughes, coming out January 2008. I can't wait. I'm in the book with some great authors, like Alan Dean Foster, who I've loved for so many years. It's great being in a book with authors that I've grown up reading.

I met a lot of great people at Gen Con and it was my best Gen Con ever. I've been going for ten years now and just love Gen Con. Getting to see my friends is the best part. There just wasn't enough time to visit everyone long enough!

I'm just so happy that a bunch of my friends are breaking into writing. Kelly Swails got in with her short story Cake and Candy in the Pandora's Closet anthology, which also features Anton Strout. Anton has his first novel coming out soon and I can't wait to read it. Brad's story in the Man vs. Machine anthology is amazing and his career is starting to take off.

I of course bought lots of great books, some amazing art prints, and some other cool stuff. Gen Con just goes by so fast.

I really enjoyed being on the Writers' Symposium panels, which I think I was on seven? It was a good time. I attended the panels for years and now being on them is cool.

It was great meeting a ton of new friends and I'm looking forward to seeing them all again. The Writer's Symposium Ezine is about to get off the ground as well.

Well, I need to get back to writing a story due at the end of the week, then I'm off to work at the hospital tonight. Life is good and I hope all of you are doing great.

Best wishes,

Paul Genesse

Author of The Golden Cord
Book One of the Iron Dragon Series
Five Star Books (April 2008)

Gen Con Indy 2007

Hello,

I'm at a convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. It's called Gen Con and is attended by about 25,000 fans of science-fiction and fantasy. Every game that involves boards, cards, computers, role-playing, and miniatures is here. Plus a ton of artists, game designers, fans and of course, writers.

Gen Con is a big writing convention and has a strong writing track for beginning writers. I'm giving six seminars, (perhaps more) on writing. I'm also doing a signing and a reading.

The best part is meeting with three of my editors, John Helfers, Kerrie Hughes, and Jean Rabe. I was just out with Kerrie and John. They are so cool. Earlier tonight, Jean threw a party for me and Anton Strout. Anton and I had just sold our first novel and they wanted to celebrate. It was so fabulous. I got to hang out with about 18 of my writing buddies and we had a wonderful time. I was surprised with a gift bag full of great stuff and I'm so thankful for the people who have mentored me along.

Life is good and the convention hasn't even started yet. Tomorrow at 8:00 AM it gets going full force. I have two panels tomorrow, then four on Saturday. I'll probably get asked to do some on Friday as well, but we'll see. It was cool to see my name in the Gen Con program book.

I'm still a little fish, but it's fun to have arrived in the place I am. I got to speak with two of the writers who have stories in Pirates of the Blue Kingdoms, Kathy Watness and Marc Tassin, tonight. I really liked their stories and they are Gen Con goers who have been coming to this con for years, just like me. Coming to Gen Con made it happen for me and I'm really excited about the next four days.

Wish me luck!

Best wishes,

Paul Genesse

www.paulgenesse.com
Author of The Golden Cord
Book One of the Iron Dragon Series
Releasing in hardcover April 2008

Author of The Pirate Witch
Pirates of the Blue Kingdoms
available now on my website
or from the publisher at
www.popcornpress.com

Imaginary Friends Anthology

Hello,

Well, just when I thought I couldn't get any busier, I've been invited as of August 7, to do a short story for an anthology called Imaginary Friends, from DAW Books, editors John Helfers and John Marco. The kicker is that the deadline is August 25. I'm going to have to get going fast to make this one, but I'm going to do it. I have Gen Con next week, August 15-19, but I'll make time and get it done somehow.

The description for the anthology is this: Many people have had them as a child--or perhaps even into their teen years or adulthood. This collection about those "real" imaginary friends would run the gamut from light and funny children's tales to dark fantasy and horror. The "friend" could be a ghost, a pet, a machine, something existing completely in the mind of the protagonist, maybe even a twisted take on something like a snowman, who only comes alive when a certain person is nearby.

So, my task is to get going and get a lot done in the next two weeks. I need a rough draft done soon. I have a rough story outline at this point, but the story is far from done. I've been prepping for the convention I'm going to in a few days. I'm on six panels on writing, and will be doing a signing and a reading. I'll be hanging out with three of my editors as well as a bunch of writing buddies, plus meeting the publisher of my Pirate Witch story. It's going to be great, but I need to write the Imaginary Friend story!!! So far, my idea involves a set of twin boys, hence the picture above. I don't want to write any more, but suffice it to say that something terrible might happen . . .

If any of you have had imaginary friends, send along your memories of them.

Oh, here's a writing update: I got two critiques back on my newest story, The Queen's Ransom. The second one came from my buddy Brad tonight. I've got to implement the corrections, but it's looking good. Then I have to send off the story tomorrow. The deadline is August 15, so I'm okay. Three deadlines in August. August 1 was my God Pays story for the Dimension Next Door anthology, then August 15 for The Queen's Ransom, now August 25 for Imaginary Friends. Ouch! Wish me luck.

Best wishes,

Paul Genesse

Author of The Pirate Witch
in Pirates of the Blue Kingdoms
www.popcornpress.com

Author of The Golden Cord
Book One of the Iron Dragon Series
Five Star Books, April 2008

The Queen's Ransom

Hello,

I was trapped on a desert island infested with scorpions and roaches. That's why I haven't blogged for two weeks. In truth, I wrote a short story that takes place on the afore mentioned island where the creepy crawlies live.

I just finished the rough draft of the sequel to my Pirate Witch story. I'm calling it, The Queen's Ransom. It starts out where the first one leaves off. It's about 29 pages, just over 8,000 words--the same size as the first one. It will be coming out in Specters of the Blue Kingdoms, around October of 2007.

Three fourths of The Queen's Ransom were done this week, after outlining and getting it started last week. I haven't been that productive, but things happen. The deadline is August 15, so I've got time to get it to my first readers, Brad and Patrick for a critique.

I just read the first 93 pages of Brad's novel, The Winds of Khalakovo. It kicks ass and I can't wait to read more. Patrick just finished his novella, Dayhunter and I love the first chapter. I have to read it now and finally have time. Pat sent it in to a writing contest and I hope the editor loves it. Check out Pat and Brad's blogs on my blogroll for more--Brad's link is obvious, and Pat's is Wolfhawkwind.

Life is good and I was just able to hang out with my old friend Jason Wilson, who was in town for a statistics convention. He's getting his PhD and after hearing his presentation for the conference I know he is one of the smartest people I've ever met. He's hard core and both of us like to do things at full throttle. When we jump in, we jump head first and don't look back.

Passion is a good thing and when I die I want people to say that I had great passion for whatever I did. For me, writing is about harnessing your inner passion and bringing words on a page alive for the reader. Good writing is hard to quantify, but if the characters come alive, you've done well.

Peace and happy writing,

Paul Genesse

Author of The Pirate Witch

in Pirates of the Blue Kingdoms

http://www.popcornpress.com/

Author of The Golden Cord

Book One of the Iron Dragon Series

Five Star Books, April 2008

The End of Harry Potter

(No spoilers here, sorry)

Hello,

It's Harry Potter weekend and I hope the book ends well. Lots of people are reading it now. The interesting news I read online was about research related to the reading habits of kids. A lot of people have said that Harry Potter has gotten kids to read more. I guess the truth is that kids are not reading more. The rates of reading are actually down nationwide. The real question is what would the rates be if Harry Potter had not come along?

I just hope that the end of the Harry Potter books will not be a huge blow to the book business. I guess time will tell, but I wonder what you all think? Will kids (or adults) read less now that the series is over?

Paul

http://www.paulgenesse.com/

Author of The Pirate Witch

in Pirates of the Blue Kingdoms

http://www.popcornpress.com/

Author of The Golden Cord

Book One of the Iron Dragon Series

Five Star Books (April 2008)

Pirate Game!

Ahoy,

Tonight was a great night in the Blue Kingdoms. I DM'd a game at a local hobby shop (Cross Class Adventures). We played Dungeons and Dragons in the Blue Kingdoms for the second time at that hobby shop. It was so much fun and the players and I were having such a jolly good time. It was crazy mayhem and there were a bunch of new players there.

Swashbuckling adventure is exciting and in the end most of the crew ended up joining the enemy captain, Scarlett Rose. She was very persuasive: double rum rations per day, equal shares for all crew, and did I mention that she is half siren? She used magic and charmed all but two of the players. The two who resisted escaped--while all of their friends joined her--the enemy captain.

Some of the characters we played are featured in my Pirate Witch story: Lem and Cod. Both are salty sea dogs in their fifties. They are a riot, but Gar, the Al-Kibar (dog-headed humanoid)was the howling main event--literally.

I love the Blue Kingdoms and it's a great place for D and D.

Best wishes,

Paul Genesse

http://www.paulgenesse.com/

http://www.paulgenesse.blogspot.com/

Author of The Pirate Witch

in Pirates of the Blue Kingdoms

http://www.popcornpress.com/

The Dimension Next Door Story

Chichen-Itza

A Mayan Pyramid in the Yucatan.

My newest short story is set in Central America near a pyramid like Chichen-Itza.

Hello,

I've just returned to the blogosphere after aliens abducted me. Don't worry, they were nice, but don't drink the green liquid. Trust me.

Anyway, I've neglected my blog for a while. I've been busy writing stories and novels and haven't made blogging a big priority. Plus, I wanted to leave the cover art for my novel on the blog for a while.

What have I been doing? Writing a story for the Dimension Next Door anthology for DAW Books--deadline: August 1. The story is almost done. Draft one is completed and just needs a rewrite. My friend Brad gave me a great critique on Sunday and I'm going to fix the problems and tweak the story a little this week--then send it off to the editor: Kerrie Hughes. I think she's going to love it.

The story is about Nina, a linguistic archaeologist who specializes in Mayan epigraphs. She's dying of cancer. Most of the story takes place in the year 2012, on December 21. That is the day that the Mayan calender ends. It's the day the world is supposed to end. Nina finds out the truth and witnesses an event that you only see once . . .

My next project is to write the sequel to my Pirate Witch story. It's due on August 15. A very short deadline. Then I've got a short story for the Catopolis anthology, deadline: November 1.

I also need to finish my novel, Medusa's Daughter. I'm hoping to finish it by November 1, 2007. I've got so much work to do!! But it's fun! I love writing.

I hope you're all doing well and let me tell you: deadlines are good. When the date is looming, you get the work done. After all, as my friend Pat and I often say: diamonds form when put under great pressure . . .

Best wishes!

Paul Genesse

Author of The Pirate Witch
in Pirates of the Blue Kingdoms
Order an autographed copy at
www.paulgenesse.com

Author of The Golden Cord
Book One of the Iron Dragon Series
Releasing April 2008 from Five Star Books