Conferencing, conventioning and reviewing

The 2009 Redwood Writers Conference was a big hit. My presentation, Developing Your Online Presence (as an author), aside from technical difficulties out of my control (including the hotel's wifi quitting), went well. I had over 40 people in attendance. I met a fellow tech presenter in the bookstore and we're laying plans to collaborate on future efforts and invest in our own digital projector. Very exciting. It's not writing, but it's fun stuff and it will pay. :)

Last week, I hopped onto the Writing Mafia group on LinkedIn and asked for examples of author blogs in which the subject was not necessarily writing, but related to their work to add to my visual aids.

Here are the ones I used.

• Freelance writer and photographer Betsy S. Franz has several blogs. I used this one: The Nature Lady.
  
• Lynne Butler writes books on law. She writes on law on her blog as well: Estate Law Canada.
  
• Laurel Zuckerman's Paris Weblog doesn't have as tight a focus, but she doesn't shy away from hot topics, she embraces them.
  

You have no idea how hard it is for me to be sitting here blogging when I just received an ARC of Jasper Fforde's new book, Shades of Grey. Can't wait to sink my teeth into that one. :)

But first I'm off to learn some Romani dances at Sonoma State University taught by Sani Rifati of Voice of Roma.

World Fantasy Convention is this weekend. I can't wait! I'm going to try to post a couple of times from the convention. I'm also going to line up authors for interviews for the next six months.

If you read the interview with Jennifer Brozek in the previous post before the review of Grants Pass was live, it's up now at SFReader. Grants Pass is an anthology of post-apocalyptic tales edited by Jennifer and Amanda Pillar. It was a deliciously dreary collection of complicated people dealing with the aftermath of plague and quakes.


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Science fiction haps and lists

This just in -- Publishers Weekly posted a list compiled by John Ottinger of blogs that review SF. Now were was this list before I started mine? I haven't had a chance to compare yet. Here's both.

Publisher Weekly
Ann Wilkes' SF Reviews list

Mine's not just blogs and is still growing. Let me know if you have suggestions, though I think I may have my work cut out for a while.

Broad Universe just held some birthday parties for Mary Shelley. Get a load at the refreshments at one of them. And here's an article about another birthday party they held.

Wired posted a list of their favorite SF movies--pre Star Wars.

Here's my tentative schedule for Silicon in San Jose:
Saturday, October 3rd, 2009
11:30 am - 12:45 pm in San Jose Room: Joy of Research
4:00 pm - 5:15 pm in Carmel Room: Writer's Block
5:30 pm - 6:45 pm in Carmel Room: Harry Potter is Over...Now What?

This Friday I'll be posting an interview with SF author, Juliette Wade. You can peek at her blog in the meantime.

On the writing front, I'm polishing a first draft of a book review and facing rewrite number 9 of a SF story. I'm currently reading Mortality Factor by Ben Bova and Grants Pass edited by Jennifer Brozek. The Japanese SF was good, but very military. Review to follow at Mostly Fiction.

I'm being interviewed on the radio again next week. This time regarding the Redwood Writers Conference in Santa Rosa this October. I'll be presenting on the topic of building an online platform as an author - go figure. ; Redwood Writers is one of 17 chapters of the California Writers Club which claims to be the oldest writing club in the nation. Jack London and Ina Coolbrith were founding members.

It's September, the beginning of fall, kids are back in school and -- best of all, the latest edition of quarterly and tri-annual mags are heading our way.

The latest edition of Ideomancer has just gone live.

Abandoned Towers released their sneak peek at their next issue coming out November first.

More quarterly mags to look for new issues from are Abyss and Apex, Aoife's Kiss, The Pedestal, and Darwin's Evolutions.




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