Newsletter #85 — Banners and Table Runners
July 1, 2024
Newsletter #85 — Banners and Table Runners
Tabletop Banner — In an earlier newsletter I might have mentioned that I was looking into purchasing a table top banner for the Columbus Book Festival, as well as a table runner and a floor banner. Robin Koontz, who designed the covers of my books, designed these items for me. The photo above shows the retractable tabletop banner.
Columbus Book Fair — I am mostly ready for the July 13-14 Columbus Book Festival. I have many copies of Exit Velocity, half that amount of The F Words, and half that amount of my other twelve titles. Need I say that these books take up quite a bit of space in the car? And are heavy!
Windycon 50 — I've been awarded a vendor's table at the science fiction conference, Windycon50, which will be held in Oak Brook, IL, in November. I don't know yet if I'll be part of an author's panel.
Science Fiction Book Club — Two or three years ago I joined a Facebook group that was reading one of the Aubrey-Maturin novels a month. I stayed with that group for twenty months, one for each of the novels. I think the group then went on to read Jane Austen novels, but much as I love Jane Austen, I needed a break.
Now, a year or so later, I've joined another Facebook discussion group, the Science Fiction Fan Club. I did this so that I could promote Exit Velocity when and where it was appropriate, and so that I could learn more about science fiction in general.
No sooner did I join the group (14K in size) than I was invited to participate in the Classic SciFi book-a-month discussion, with two questions a week. Our first book is Frankenstein, published in 1818. The moderator asks excellent questions, and responders are very active. I'm learning a lot . . . though there are a lot of names whizzing by me. Names of scifi authors, that is. I can't assimilate them all.
Up until now, I had never read Frankenstein: I had only seen the movies. And a play or two or three. Mary Shelley is easier to read than I thought she would be: her writing, though the sentence structure is not modern, is very clear: meaning is easy to grasp.
Actually, the structure of the novel feels older than that of the sentences! Frankenstein is very heavy on narrative, very light on dialogue, and light on scene. We're discussing these things in the group. I'm surprised at how different readers are from one another. Some actually like the heavy narrative, for example. I've found that to be true when I teach fiction. Some readers don't mind being told (as opposed to being shown). Me, if I'm told the same thing too many times in a narrative, I cease to believe it. "Show me!" I want to shout. (And probably do.)
Winding Down — It may not sound like it, but, really and truly, the work I've had to do for Exit Velocity is winding down. Instead of working on the book and marketing 4-7 hours a day, I'm down to 1-2 hours a day. Some days even half an hour!
I think that what the rest of the year holds are many half-hour days, interspersed by several weekend conferences, during which Phil and I will probably work 15 hours a day. But only for two days. And maybe I'll end up selling a lot of books.
And, in the fall, the mule book awaits!
Press Release — My July 1 blog explains the steps I followed in creating and distributing a press release for Exit Velocity.