Joshua Palmatier

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!

OK, it looks like the schedule for Confluence in Pittsburgh this coming July 24-26th is getting finalized. Here's a peak at the current rough draft for me and Zombies Need Brains. Again, ZNB will have a booth in the dealer's room at the con, which will be manned by me and my mom. But my schedule is pretty packed, so it will likely be mostly my mom. This is what's planned, just remember that the schedule may change over the next few weeks.

Friday:

7pm: "It Came From the Slushpile!" Editors talk about cover letters, writing samples, what works, what doesn't, and more!

8pm: Literary Beer: Crowd-funded Anthologies: Creating successful crowd-funded anthologies.

Saturday:

9am: Kaffeeklatch: Zombies Need Brains: Come talk to the founder of ZNB and two of the contributing authors of its anthologies.

10am: Seven Things and SF/Fantasy Novel Always Includes: Checklist or bucketlist, your mileage may vary!

2pm: "As Long As Anyone Can Remember . . .": Surely everyone hasn't REALLY been doing things the same way for thousands of years. Authors talk about the causes and consequences of social evolution in the real world and epic fantasy.

7pm: The Manuscript on the Doorstep: Successful relationships between writers and editors.

Sunday:

10am: Magic for the 21st Century: No matter how our technology advances, we still want something out of the ordinary. Come explore magic realism, Clarke's law, and alternate sources of wonder.

Hey, I'll be attending Arisia next week in Boston, MA, and thought I'd post my schedule. These are the panels that I'll be on. I don't think I have a read or signing set up, since they haven't contacted me about that. Who else here is going?

Saturday, January 14th:

1pm: Don't Quit Your Day Job
10pm: Mud and Blood: The Grittier Side of Fantasy

Sunday, January 15th:

1pm: Point of View
10pm: Consistent Magic Systems in Fantasy

I will be at Balticon this coming weekend and will be throwing a release party along with three other authors with new books out this month, including Laura Anne Gilman, Jeri Smith-Ready, and David J. Williams. Here's my con schedule. If you're in the area, swing on by for the party! You'll have to find one (or all) of the hosting authors in order to get one of the invitations in order to attend. (That way, we can serve alcohol at the party.) And if you intend to drink any alcohol at the party, make certain you bring an ID. Larry Smith is bringing copies of the books, and they will be available at the party for purchase (as well as throughout the rest of the con).





Friday:

9-11pm: Meet the Guests

Saturday:

10am: Necromancers in Folklore
8pm: BookPushers Book Release

Sunday:

1:30pm: Reading: Well of Sorrows
3pm: Autograph Session

And there you have it! Find us! Come to the party! Come to the panels! I command you to stalk Benjamin Tate! (Just look for the blond hair.)

It appears that a few schedule changes occurred while I wasn't looking. I now have an autographing at Noon on Saturday, so swing on by for that. And the "Franchise Reboots" panel seems to have been dropped. I've updated the previous Albacon post to reflect these changes.

In addition, I've been officially invited to be a pro at Norwescon. Hotel and flight have been booked. Anyone else know that they're going at this point?

Ah, Sunday at a Worldcon. We are all zombified, staggering around with only a semblance of life. *grin*

I woke up early and had dinner with my editor. It went well. I'll be sending out the ploty synopses for three books for her to look at and hopefully I'll get a yes on at least one of those projects. Much other business discussion occurred as well. We then headed back to the con and my day of panels, signings, and a kaffeeklatsch began. The first panel was on "Writing in a Culture Not Your Own" and that panel went well and was well attended. I then had a short break that ended up being a long discussion with a freind newguydave while he had some lunch before heading off to his writer workshop session. I went back to the con and pitched an anthology idea to someone, so hopefully that will get sold and off the ground. I had my signing (some people showed up!) and my kaffeeklatsch (a person showed up!), then wandered down to the art show to talk to good friend Deb and Kev, since it was unlikely I'd see them again this con. After that I hit my last panel "Writing Gender Issues," which was not so good for various reasons, and by then I was ready to call it a day. I met back up with newguydave and we went to Schwartz's for a smoked meat sandwich (yum) and then drinks and dessert. By the time we were done with that, it was nearing midnight, so I crashed.

Today, I'm going to pick up my promo stuff that wasn't picked up during the weekend and then I'll head out for the long drive home. It's raining now, of course, because I'm going to be driving. Oh well. It was a good con overall.

*****************

And now, the last day of the contest.

The winner for Sunday is comradecharlie! Congrats! Get in touch with me here on LJ in a message or email me at jpalmatier@sff.net with the address I should mail the book to and a name if you want me to personalize it. Otherwise I'll just send a signed copy.

For everyone else, there's only day left! I will be giving away a first edition signed hardcover of The Skewed Throne for this one last day. The drawing will be done at random based on the comments received on that day's LJ entry. So if you enter today, you're in the drawing for today only; you have to come back tomorrow and enter again for a chance to win in the drawing tomorrow; then come back again for the next day, etc. You have to comment on that day's LJ post to enter for that day, so if you stop on by and I haven't had a chance to put up the post for that day yet, you'll have to come back when it's up to enter. You can enter as many days out of the 10 as you wish, even if you win on one of the days (if you win multiple copies, or already have a copy of the book, I assume you have some friends you can give the book to, or perhaps you can donate it to your local library, etc).

This contest is to celebrate finishing the revisions of the new book Well of Sorrows, coming out in May 2010 in trade paperback, AND to celebrate the release of Die Assassine, the German version of The Skewed Throne, which will hit the shelves on August 11th in Germany. Here's the incredible cover:





So if you're in Germany or can read German, RUSH--I say again RUSH--out and buy Die Assassine! Once it's out of course. (It is available for preorder on the German Amazon.com, along with book 2, "Die Regentin," to be released in January 2010.) And please, please tell all of your friends about it, since it's going to be impossible for me to do many signings and other stuff to promote it in Germany. Especially since I can't speak or read German very well.

And there you go! Enter the contest (just comment!) and buy my German book!

That is all. Carry on.

Day 2 of the con! And it was hectic. I started by wandering to the green room, which had no food. I snacked on a fibre bar I'd brought with me for just such an emergency. Then I wandered toward the dealer's room because I had a signing at the SFWA table there at Noon. But I ran into a bunch of people along the way (the great thing about cons) and chatted and chatted and eventually made the Noon signing, where I met even FURTHER people (mostly DAW authors) and verified that, yes indeed, no one in the dealer's room had my books for sale. In fact, no one in the dealer's room had many English versions of the book for sale at all. So after the signing I attacked the lone dealer with new books, Indigo (Chapters), and plied them with my business card and asked if they could find some and bring them in. I think they did, but I'll verify that today.

Then I ran to my 2pm reading, running into people along the way. The reading went well, but long, and I read last, so I had to rush to my 3:30pm panel on "Preparing to Write a Series," while at the same time stopping by the "DAW Presentation" (which I couldn't attend obviously) to let my editor know that I couldn't attend and why. The panel went well, with George R.R. Martin moderating, and other panelists Laura Anne Gilman, Fiona Patton, Mindy Klasky, and M.D. Benoit. I THEN had to run to a 5pm reading by David J. Williams, because it was going to be the only chance to see him here. While all of this was happening, my editor tried to call and tell me they were getting together at around 8:30pm after the Aurora awards to go to the parties. So I had dinner with David J. Williams and a few fans and then hit the Aurora awards, arriving at the very end. I spent the rest of the evening with my editor, but not at the parties. We never made the parties. We hit the bar instead and tried absinthe (not as green as you think, and tastes like licorice) and talked long into the night, but not about writing or publishing. I crashed around 1am.

Again, I'll report on the panel after the con with my thoughts on the topic.

But now, the on-going contest!

The winner for Friday is unpissenlit! Congrats! Get in touch with me here on LJ in a message or email me at jpalmatier@sff.net with the address I should mail the book to and a name if you want me to personalize it. Otherwise I'll just send a signed copy.

For everyone else, there's still 3 days left! I will be giving away a first edition signed hardcover of The Skewed Throne, one per day, for the next three days. The drawing will be done at random based on the comments received on that day's LJ entry. So if you enter today, you're in the drawing for today only; you have to come back tomorrow and enter again for a chance to win in the drawing tomorrow; then come back again for the next day, etc. You have to comment on that day's LJ post to enter for that day, so if you stop on by and I haven't had a chance to put up the post for that day yet, you'll have to come back when it's up to enter. You can enter as many days out of the 10 as you wish, even if you win on one of the days (if you win multiple copies, or already have a copy of the book, I assume you have some friends you can give the book to, or perhaps you can donate it to your local library, etc).

This contest is to celebrate finishing the revisions of the new book Well of Sorrows, coming out in May 2010 in trade paperback, AND to celebrate the release of Die Assassine, the German version of The Skewed Throne, which will hit the shelves on August 11th in Germany. Here's the incredible cover:





So if you're in Germany or can read German, RUSH--I say again RUSH--out and buy Die Assassine! Once it's out of course. (It is available for preorder on the German Amazon.com, along with book 2, "Die Regentin," to be released in January 2010.) And please, please tell all of your friends about it, since it's going to be impossible for me to do many signings and other stuff to promote it in Germany. Especially since I can't speak or read German very well.

And there you go! Enter the contest (just comment!) every day for the next 3 days, and buy my German book!

That is all. Carry on.

First, here's my Worldcon Schedule! I'm packed (mostly) and ready to go! I'll mostly be on the road today, but I'm taking my laptop with me because, of course, I need to keep the contest going while I'm there. I'll try to keep people apprised of all of the antics and activities of your favorite authors while I'm there. I'm going to take a camera as well, but if past experience is any indication, not many pictures will get taken. I'll be too busy having fun!

Friday, August 7th:

12Noon: SFWA Table Signing: Joshua Palmatier
2pm: Author Reading: Joshua Palmatier
3:30pm: Preparing to Write a Series: Joshua Palmatier

Saturday, August 8th:

11am: Writing Workshop: Joshua Palmatier

Sunday, August 9th:

11am: Writing in a Culture Not Your Own: Joshua Palmatier
1:30pm: Signing: Joshua Palmatier
2pm: Kaffeeklatsch: Joshua Palmatier
4:30pm: Writing Gender Issues: Joshua Palmatier

*********************

Small update on the novel and short story: I managed to cut the short story down to 6997 words, so I'm under the 7000 words limit. Sort of. I sent the short story in by email, and actually forced myself to go to the post office and mail the revisions to Shattering the Ley. So all project that had deadlines are out the door. I'm hoping to generate a few more projects while in Worldcon, so it's not just all fun and games, just mostly fun and games. *grin*

*********************

And now, the on-going contest!

The winner for Wednesday is amguynes! Congrats! Get in touch with me here on LJ in a message or email me at jpalmatier@sff.net with the address I should mail the book to and a name if you want me to personalize it. Otherwise I'll just send a signed copy.

For everyone else, there's still 5 days left! I will be giving away a first edition signed hardcover of The Skewed Throne, one per day, for the next five days. The drawing will be done at random based on the comments received on that day's LJ entry. So if you enter today, you're in the drawing for today only; you have to come back tomorrow and enter again for a chance to win in the drawing tomorrow; then come back again for the next day, etc. You have to comment on that day's LJ post to enter for that day, so if you stop on by and I haven't had a chance to put up the post for that day yet, you'll have to come back when it's up to enter. You can enter as many days out of the 10 as you wish, even if you win on one of the days (if you win multiple copies, or already have a copy of the book, I assume you have some friends you can give the book to, or perhaps you can donate it to your local library, etc).

This contest is to celebrate finishing the revisions of the new book Well of Sorrows, coming out in May 2010 in trade paperback, AND to celebrate the release of Die Assassine, the German version of The Skewed Throne, which will hit the shelves on August 11th in Germany. Here's the incredible cover:





So if you're in Germany or can read German, RUSH--I say again RUSH--out and buy Die Assassine! Once it's out of course. (It is available for preorder on the German Amazon.com, along with book 2, "Die Regentin," to be released in January 2010.) And please, please tell all of your friends about it, since it's going to be impossible for me to do many signings and other stuff to promote it in Germany. Especially since I can't speak or read German very well.

And there you go! Enter the contest (just comment!) every day for the next 5 days, and buy my German book!

That is all. Carry on.

Here's my Confluence schedule for this coming weekend in Pittsburgh, PA. I plan on arriving on Friday after hitting a bunch of bookstores on the drive down. So if you live in Wilkes-Barre, you'll be able to find signed copies of my books in the B&N and Waldenbooks after Thursday. In Bloomsburg, I'm actually doing a short signing on Thursday at the local independent bookstore Cloak & Dragon right downtown starting at 2pm and lasting for about an hour. After that, they should have signed copies as well.

After that I'll be hitting the B. Dalton in State College (and possibly Webster's downtown), the B&N and Waldenbooks in Altoona, the B. Dalton in Johnstown, and the Borders in Monroeville. They should have signed copies after Friday.

In Pittsburgh, I'll be hitting the B&N in Squirrel Hill, Waterfront, and N Fayette (although I'm not sure the N. Fayette is getting books in or not), along with the Joseph-Beth in downtown Pitt. I'm not sure whether I'll be able to hit these on Friday night (depends on how fast I get down there) or if I'll have to wait and catch them on Sunday. I'll definitely catch them on Sunday at the latest, so they should have signed copies after that.

OK, that alone should keep me busy. However, I'm also doing some panels and a kaffeeklatsch, and a reading. Check it out!

Friday 7:00pm Rhyme, Meter, and Language in Fantasy (Herb Kauderer, Joshua B. Palmatier (M), Tamora Pierce, Michelle (Sagara) West)

In her essay "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie," Ursula Le Guin
discusses the importance of style in fantasy. She contends that
fantasy requires a style that, if not followed, can hurl the reader
out of Elfland and send him or her to Poughkeepsie. (She cites the
way characters in fantasies by Zelazny and Leiber break into
contemporary slang as examples.) The panel discusses the importance
of style in fantasy.

Saturday 11:00am Making It Real: Bringing a Fantasy or SF Setting to Life (Kenneth B. Chiacchia, Joshua B. Palmatier, Tamora Pierce (M), Michelle (Sagara) West)

To be believable, fantasy relies on an underlying sense of reality.
What does it take to make fantasy real?

Saturday 12:00 noon Kaffeeklatsch/Literary Beer

Saturday 2:00pm Comedy in High Fantasy (S. C. Butler (M), Susan Dexter, Joshua B. Palmatier, Tamora Pierce, Karina Sumner-Smith)

We have Merry and Pippin in LOTR, and Fred and George Weasley in
Harry Potter, but what other comic figures are there in High
Fantasy? Are there enough? Should there be more? What, if any, is
the purpose of comedy in High Fantasy? With any luck the panel will
answer all these questions, and provide a few laughs as well.

Saturday 5:00pm Reading (Joshua B. Palmatier)

I'll be reading from both the newest book The Vacant Throne and the new novel I just handed in to my editor Well of Sorrows. Come get a sneak peek at the new project!

Sunday 2:00pm My Favorite Series: The Best Current Fantasy and SF Series (S. C. Butler (M), Susan Dexter, Timothy Liebe, Joshua B. Palmatier, Karina Sumner-Smith)

What are your favorite series -- both recent and classic. George
Martin's Song of Ice and Fire? Lois Bujold's Miles stories?
Repairman Jack? What about series you really like that you feel are
very underrated?

Hmm . . . lots of panels with Tamora Pierce, Michelle (Sagara) West, and some guy named S.C. Butler. Plus that panel I'm moderating about the essay "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie". I suppose I should read that. Anybody got a copy or know where I can find one online?

ETA: Thanks for kathleenfoucart for sending me the essay. That panel may not suck now. *grin*