Tag: SinC

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Andrea Parnell Audiodrama Dark Prelude Dark Splendor Delilah's Flame Devil Moon Fiction Jason Cosmo (Series) Novels Royal Crush Trove Books Whispers at Midnight Writing

What I’m Up To

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

I’ve had a busy summer and fall and I thought I’d bring you up to speed on what I’ve been doing, what I’m working on, and what’s ahead.

[SECRET PROJECT]

  • The makers of a fun, crazy, tongue-in-cheek fantasy-themed computer game approached me a while back about writing a short tie-in novel set in the world of their game. It sounded fun, so I said sure! I can’t tell you the name of the game quite yet, because they haven’t officially announced the book.
  • I can tell you I turned in the manuscript last week and the target release date is in early November.
  • I have also seen draft cover art, which looks amazing — and which I will share as soon as I get the all clear to do so.
  • As I understand it, the book will be available in the Amazon Kindle Store only. I know! I know! That is not how I would do it, but I’m only the hired gun on this one, not the publisher.
  • More details to come!

New books from Andrea Parnell

  • The star author of my publishing company Trove Books is not me, but my mother Andrea Parnell.
  • Over the last few years Trove has released Mom’s gothic romance novels Dark Splendor and Whispers at Midnight, the novella Dark Prelude, and the Western romance Delilah’s Flame.
  • This fall she has three new titles coming out, including two more Western romance novels — Devil Moon and My Only Desire and a Western novella. All are in the final stages of editing and production — which means I am doing a good bit of editing and producing lately!

Jason Cosmo in Audio

Royal Crush

  • Last, but not least, with the soon-to-be-formally-announced Secret Project written, I am back to writing the next Jason Cosmo book, Royal Crush. Which, at this point, looks like an early 2014 release.

Whew! I’m tired. Are you tired? But I think we’re all caught up! I will try to post more often, and with greater brevity!

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

Categories
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