ConQuest is in less than a week. The fated convention Jack and I look forward to every year with gusto. The convention that happens the weekend of Jack's birthday. The convention where our creative batteries get charged, make new friends in the business, and learn a ton of stuff about writing and publishing.
This year, we're actually speaking on panels. This is super exciting news! Jack is moderating four panels, participating on four, and doing a reading. He makes me feel like a slacker with my measly two panels, but I'm happy to be invited to speak at all, really. Our good friend R.L. Naquin will be on a few panels, as well. She and I are kind of dipping our toes in the water this year to see how things go. Maybe we'll be more involved next year. Jack basically did a cannonball into the deep end without even testing the waters. I'm excited for him, but I have a feeling I'm not going to see too much of him for three days!
I'll put together some sort of wrap-up after the weekend to let you know how it goes. There may even be pictures of us gals in our pajamas attending the brand new adults-only panels. Panels that start at 9pm and 10pm? That's past our bedtimes, so we're going appropriately dressed. Which may also include tiaras, depending on how much we've had to drink by that point. It should be fun. We've encouraged several of the LFK Writers to join us this year, so it'll be an awesome party.
If you are interested in the panel schedule, you can find it here.
Here's my speaking schedule:
Saturday, May 23
11:00 AM - Working Through the Bad Days
1:00 PM - NaNoWriMo: 30 days, 1 novel
I'll have swag for the NaNo panel, sent specially from NaNo HQ just for you. The rest of the weekend, I'll be following Jack and Rachel around to all of their panels and maybe stalking Brandon Sanderson a bit.
In other news, I have all but one of my critiques over Monsters of Lawrence back from my beta readers. I am equal parts excited about and dreading the amount of work this novel still needs. I'm overwhelmed, mostly. I'm not sure when I'll dive into edits for it. It might not be soon. It's going to take a lot of energy and creative inspiration.
Right now I need to work on something else for awhile. I don't know what yet. I'll let you know as soon as I figure it out.
In the meantime, I'm still over at the Confabulator Cafe every month writing short stories to their monthly prompt. So I'm not being completely idle!
Showing posts with label Jack Campbell Jr. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jack Campbell Jr. Show all posts
Monday, May 18, 2015
Thursday, June 12, 2014
News and Updates
I'd like to be better about posting regularly to let you all know what I'm up to. Things finally seem to be moving on both the writer and editor fronts. So here are the details of my latest breaking news.
-I got a new job! I am finally breaking free from the administrative support world and transitioning into editing as my day job. I have accepted a position at an institute that develops all assessment tests for the state of Kansas. I'll be editing said tests at each phase, from developmental to and line edits - as well as potentially doing some writing for websites or other brochure type content as needed. This is a huge breakthrough. I am going to be a professional editor.
-My boyfriend Jack Campbell, Jr. and I attended our annual sci-fi and fantasy convention, ConQuesT, over Memorial Day weekend this year. It is always filled with frenetic energy of so many writers, editors, artists, and fans that it always charges my creative batteries. Jack and I participated in the Story in a Bag contest again, and we both brought home winner certificates. He won the professional horror category, and I won the amateur horror category. Luckily I still fall into the amateur category, because I'd hate to go up against him. This was our last con for fun. Next year, we work. We're both going to volunteer to moderate panels, and we'll have to do some networking.
-I ended up editing two short stories for my author friend Jason Arnett. He published one called Prospects on Amazon (which you can find here) and Smashwords (which you can find here). He does a fantastic job writing within the dying genre of hard sci-fi, so if you like the old genre, check him out. I'm hoping his second short will go up for sale soon.
-Speaking of short stories, if you haven't checked them out yet, I've edited two short stories for my author friend R.L. Naquin. They are part of her Monster Haven world, and they are delicious little snippets that will either tide you over between books or suck you into the world. You can find the holiday-themed Hidden Holidays here (Amazon or Smashwords) and her more recent ode to the closet monster Maurice What Zoey Doesn't Know here (Amazon or Smashwords). She and I are working on putting together a collection of several of her short stories, and hopefully that will come out later this year. I'll let you know more about details once we nail things down.
-In other writing news, Jack and I have officially registered for a writing retreat for September 2015. Four days in lovely Northern California at the Haunted Mansion Writing Retreat. All of our food and drinks (including unlimited alcohol) will be provided, and our only responsibilities will be to write and also blog about any paranormal activity we experience. Jack talks a bit more about the trip, so head on over to his blog post Sound the Retreat! for details.
-Last, but certainly not least, story ideas are putting pressure on my brain, begging to be written again. I thought the voices had dried up, but now I feel like I'm riding the crest of a wave about to break. I am preparing to participate in the July run of Camp Nanowrimo with my amazing writing group. I haven't settled on which story yet, but I have settled on at least attempting something in the range of 30,000 words in a month. Right now I just want to tell ALL THE STORIES. I know I can't work on all of them at once, but eventually I'll decide on one. The win of Story in a Bag bolstered my waning confidence in my ability to write, so here's hoping I get into the swing of things again
-I got a new job! I am finally breaking free from the administrative support world and transitioning into editing as my day job. I have accepted a position at an institute that develops all assessment tests for the state of Kansas. I'll be editing said tests at each phase, from developmental to and line edits - as well as potentially doing some writing for websites or other brochure type content as needed. This is a huge breakthrough. I am going to be a professional editor.
-My boyfriend Jack Campbell, Jr. and I attended our annual sci-fi and fantasy convention, ConQuesT, over Memorial Day weekend this year. It is always filled with frenetic energy of so many writers, editors, artists, and fans that it always charges my creative batteries. Jack and I participated in the Story in a Bag contest again, and we both brought home winner certificates. He won the professional horror category, and I won the amateur horror category. Luckily I still fall into the amateur category, because I'd hate to go up against him. This was our last con for fun. Next year, we work. We're both going to volunteer to moderate panels, and we'll have to do some networking.
-I ended up editing two short stories for my author friend Jason Arnett. He published one called Prospects on Amazon (which you can find here) and Smashwords (which you can find here). He does a fantastic job writing within the dying genre of hard sci-fi, so if you like the old genre, check him out. I'm hoping his second short will go up for sale soon.
-Speaking of short stories, if you haven't checked them out yet, I've edited two short stories for my author friend R.L. Naquin. They are part of her Monster Haven world, and they are delicious little snippets that will either tide you over between books or suck you into the world. You can find the holiday-themed Hidden Holidays here (Amazon or Smashwords) and her more recent ode to the closet monster Maurice What Zoey Doesn't Know here (Amazon or Smashwords). She and I are working on putting together a collection of several of her short stories, and hopefully that will come out later this year. I'll let you know more about details once we nail things down.
-In other writing news, Jack and I have officially registered for a writing retreat for September 2015. Four days in lovely Northern California at the Haunted Mansion Writing Retreat. All of our food and drinks (including unlimited alcohol) will be provided, and our only responsibilities will be to write and also blog about any paranormal activity we experience. Jack talks a bit more about the trip, so head on over to his blog post Sound the Retreat! for details.
-Last, but certainly not least, story ideas are putting pressure on my brain, begging to be written again. I thought the voices had dried up, but now I feel like I'm riding the crest of a wave about to break. I am preparing to participate in the July run of Camp Nanowrimo with my amazing writing group. I haven't settled on which story yet, but I have settled on at least attempting something in the range of 30,000 words in a month. Right now I just want to tell ALL THE STORIES. I know I can't work on all of them at once, but eventually I'll decide on one. The win of Story in a Bag bolstered my waning confidence in my ability to write, so here's hoping I get into the swing of things again
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