Tag: Dragon Con

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Dragon*Con Fiction Glass Darkly Short Fiction

Dan McGirt Short Story Update – Glass Darkly and the Skull in the Box

UPDATED: The Legacy of the Phoenix anthology release date has apparently been pushed back to October 2016. Stay tuned.

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

Today I’m recovering from Dragon Con, still in a groggy haze as the accumulated sleep deficit of five straight days of late nights catches up with me. As usual, I spent most of my time in sessions of the Writers’ Track, organized by the indefatigable Nancy Knight, taking notes and jotting down ideas, with some side trips to the Paranormal track to glean ghost story ideas and some pure fan activity to see actors from some of my favorite shows.

As you may recall my short story “The Red Hook Incident” was expected to be released in August, as part of the Strange Arcana anthology. That project has been delayed – for what are actually quite good reasons and great news for the organizers – and will most likely be out in 2017, but with no firm date yet.

What that means for those keeping score is that while “The Red Hook Incident” was my first professional short story sale, a different story will see publication first: “Glass Darkly and the Skull in the Box”. This is a story I wrote over the 2015 Christmas holidays and submitted in January for a forthcoming anthology from Gilded Dragonfly Books.

Gilded Dragonfly (GDB to friends) is a small press based in Georgia, co-founded by Nancy Knight (there she is again!) and several other writers/editors . Last year GDB released Legends of the Dragon Vol 1, featuring fantasy and horror short stories set at Dragon Con (and with a great cover by Georges Jeanty for any Jeanty compleatists). I thought it would be fun — and a challenge, given my aversion to writing short stories — to submit a story for the planned Volume 2. Which I did.

For good and sundry reasons, Volume 2 morphed into The Legacy of the Phoenix, an anthology of stories set at the fictional MagnaCon held (fictionally) in Atlanta every Memorial Day weekend. MagnaCon is similar to Dragon Con, but far stranger…

Anyway, my story was accepted and I made the needed minor revisions to fit the new MagnaCon frame. The anthology should be out in paperback and ebook in about two weeks (Sept 24). I’ll share more details about “Glass Darkly and the Skull in the Box” soon.

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Audiodrama Dragon*Con

Dragon Con 2015

Dragon Con logoGreetings, Loyal Reader!

I will be attending Dragon Con this week September 4-7, 2015, in Atlanta, Georgia.

This year I am not going as an official con guest, but as a fan like you! So I have no panels, readings, or formal appearances scheduled. I’ll be sitting in the audience, gawking at the costumes, and standing in line along with everyone else.

If you see me at Dragon Con, please say hi!

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

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Appearances Dragon*Con SFWA Sisters in Crime Writers Police Academy Writing

Dragon Con and Writers’ Police Academy

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

I had a busy September and as we head into fall and I thought I’d bring you up to speed:

Dan McGirt at Dragon Con 2013Dragon 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