Convention: Shore Leave!

I and Zombies Need Brains will be attending Shore Leave, a convention being held in Hunt Valley, MD, this weekend, August 7-9th! Once again, I'll have a table in the dealers room. Here are the dealers room hours and the panels and events that I'll be attending. If you're in the area, come join us at the convention! If you're at the convention, catch me on these panels or find me in the dealers room and say hi!

Dealers Room Hours:

Friday: 2-8pm
Saturday: 10-7pm
Sunday: 10-4pm

My Schedule:

Friday, 4pm: Writing Groups and Beta Readers
Friday, 6pm: Why We Write SF&F
Friday, 10-12midnight: Meet the Pros/Autographing

Saturday, 9am: Star Trek Club Meeting
Saturday, 11am: Writing Tips for Aspiring Writers
Saturday, 1pm: Show Me the Money! (Crowdfunding)

Sunday, 1pm: Writing and Publishing Short Stories
Sunday, 2pm: Switching It Up: Writing in Different Genres
Sunday, 3pm: Writing the Next Book: Sequels and Sophomore Books

And those are the planned shenanigans. I'm certain there will be plenty of unplanned shenanigans as well. *grin* I'm hoping to do fairly well with the ZNB booth this con, since there are a ton of people. I expect to be selling more t-shirts, caps, and totes, as well as perhaps some of the art prints--more so than books--but we'll see. In any case, don't forget that Shattering the Ley is now out in paperback! Check your local Barnes & Noble (which appears to have put 2 copies in every store) and pick up a copy for yourself and one for a friend!

Upcoming Kickstarter: Stretch Goals!

The small press Zombies Need Brains LLC is getting ready to launch a new Kickstarter August 11th at Noon EST, this one targeting TWO new anthology themes: ALIEN ARTIFACTS and WERE-. After the successes of the previous two Kickstarters for Clockwork Universe: Steampunk vs Aliens (available now in trade paperback and ebook for the Kindle, Nook, and on Kobo) and Temporally Out of Order (available August 25th in trade paperback and ebook for the Kindle, Nook, and on Kobo), we feel that the small press is fairly stable, so there are a few changes being made to the Kickstarter model. Don't worry, we'll still have some great special items and rewards for backers to grab--such as tuckerizations, unique items from some of the anchor authors, and stretch goals for some extras--just as we did in the past Kickstarters. However, this time backers will simply be PREORDERING the anthologies: the base reward levels to choose from are $6 for an ebook ($12 for both anthologies in ebook) and $15 for a paperback ($25 for both anthologies in paperback). Those are the same prices we expect to use for the general release editions of the books in ebook and paperback, perhaps even cheaper! Those that preorder by backing the Kickstarter will get the anthologies early (before the general public release) and those that choose the paperback versions of the anthologies will also get a special Kickstarter Only edition with a limited print run. You can now take a look at a preview of the Kickstarter by following this link: http://tiny.cc/bfah1x. Check it out and figure out which reward level works best for you!

In this post, I wanted to highlight some of the stretch goals, in case we reach our funding goal. Basically, these are bonuses if we manage to raise MORE than our funding goal, things like bookmarks, extra ebooks, extra pay for the authors, even extra stories for the anthology. In fact, if we manage to reach $25,000, Zombies Need Brains may be able to produce a THIRD anthology (to be announced if we manage to get close to that). Here are the details regarding the stretch goals:

Stretch Goals:

Stretch Goal: BOOKMARKS! At $12,500, every backer pledged at $15 or more will receive a free promotional bookmark for both ALIEN ARTIFACTS and WERE-.

Stretch Goal: At $15,000, all authors will be paid an additional 1 cent/word AND every backer pledged at $6 or more will receive a FREE ebook short story "In the Dying Light" by Danielle Ackley-McPhail.

Stretch Goal: At $17,500, we will add an additional story to each anthology using the submissions from the open call, so each anthology will feature 15 stories minimum, AND every backer pledged at $25 or more will receive a free wallet card stating they are an "Official ZNB Minion."

Stretch Goal: At $20,000, all authors will be paid an additional 1 cent/word AND every backer pledged at $35 or more will receive a special ebook (PDF) of ZNB's "Secret Guide to Surviving the Coming Zombie Apocalypse" written by Patricia Bray (and possibly Joshua Palmatier).

Stretch Goal: At $22,500, we will add an additional story to each anthology using the submissions from the open call, so each anthology will feature 16 stories minimum.

Stretch Goal: At $25,000, Zombies Need Brains LLC will produce a THIRD themed anthology, title to be announced as we approach the stretch goal AND all authors will be paid an additional 1 cent/word.

Other stretch goals will be added as the Kickstarter continues.


So mark your calendar for August 11th and be ready to pledge at Noon EST, once the Kickstarter goes live. The earlier we make our funding goal, the sooner we can get to work on achieving some of these stretch goals!

Once again, here's the cover flat for our upcoming second anthology release, TEMPORALLY OUT OF ORDER, available August 25th (available for preorder now on Kindle and Kobo):