Greetings, Loyal Reader!
I had a busy September and as we head into fall and I thought I’d bring you up to speed:
Dragon Con
I was a guest at Dragon Con in Atlanta. A special thanks to the Loyal Readers who attended my reading, my book signing, and my panel on Writers and the Law!
At the reading, I read the first two chapters of Noble Cause and handed out copies of Hero Wanted. I was assigned a tiny room in the sub-sub-sub basement of the Hyatt, so you had to be very determined or very lost to find me. Either way, it was a fun, fantastic audience!
The line at my book signing was not very long — which meant I got to chat with several Loyal Readers, some of whom had traveled a great distance to have me sign their copy of Jason Cosmo or Hero Wanted. Thanks for stopping by and letting me know you enjoyed my books! That is always good to hear and very motivating as I work on the next book!
I ran the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) table for a couple of hours, hopefully not doing any permanent damage to SFWA’s reputation! I spoke with several young writers who had questions about what to do next. My advice to them can be summarized as write, write, write, and write some more. Also, read. (One would-be writer said he doesn’t read much, which puzzled me.)
I got to talk shop with writers Larry Niven, Kevin J Anderson, and Timothy Zahn, among others. I also chatted up several fantasy artists whose work you may find on the covers of my future books!
Writers Police Academy
Almost immediately after Dragon Con, I was off to Greensboro, North Carolina for Writers’ Police Academy. This amazing conference is organized by the tireless Lee Lofland and sponsored by Sisters in Crime, Inc. Two hundred writers of mysteries, thrillers, romantic suspense, YA and related genres took over a honest-to-gosh police academy for the weekend!
We attended demonstrations and lectures on forensics, police procedure, emergency rescue, and many other aspects of law enforcement and criminal investigations. I learned a lot! (I still need to process my notes).
We also got hands on training in fingerprinting, building searches, a realistic Virtual Reality firearm simulator (apologies to the imaginary family of the imaginary hostage I shot) and so much more no one could do it all.
Authors Lisa Gardner and Kathy Reichs and DNA expert Dr. Dan Krane gave excellent talks.
Again, I gained lots of great ideas for future books and stories (as well as, again, talking shop with lots of smart, talented, savvy writers.)
Two excellent events — but I’ve been writing too! Next post, I’ll update you on what I’m working on and what I’m doing next.
Best regards,
Dan McGirt