This coming weekend I’ll be participating in the Renaissance Virtual Convention. And you can too!
I’ll be at my book launch at 6pm on Saturday and running a workshop on basic formatting for authors at 8pm on Saturday.
Renaissance Press presents an entirely FREE, entirely online convention!
Join us for a three-day conference from June 5 to June 7th, 2020, featuring over 50 guest authors!
All the programming will be broadcast over Zoom. You will be able to sign up for the individual panels or readings you want to attend. Everything is free, but places are limited, so please make sure to sign up!
Please note that the panels will not have live captioning due to budgetary limitations, however, they will be posted to YouTube at a later date with full captioning.
A few weeks ago I told you all about Renaissance’s Virtual Conference. A few things have happened. It’s been moved to June 5-7 and it’s now open for people who want to attend the panels.
So proud of my wonderful wife and the Travelling TARDIS Blog for their THIRD nomination!
Voter’s Package
The majority of nominated works are available in the voter’s package now. Simply make an account, pay $10, and you’ll have access to a wonderful library of Canadian Science fiction and fantasy.
The Travelling TARDIS isn’t part of the package because you can access it for free on this site.
The Travelling TARDIS
The Travelling TARDIS moves, with the power of timey-yarney crochet, through time and space visiting and taking pictures with cosplayers, landmarks, celebrities, and cute babies.
Voting
If you think The Travelling TARDIS is worthy of your vote, voting for the Auroras will be open on June 20th.
Thank you to everyone who nominated and especially to everyone who reads and enjoys our content.
Would you like a free book? I know what a silly question. Of course you do.
So whether you are an old fan or a new reader, you’re welcome to order an ebook of your choice from our store and enjoy it FOR FREE. Here’s the link: http://www.mirror-world-publishing.myshopify.com
Just go there and use the code: FREEBOOK at check out.
The deal is as follows, 1 free ebook, per person. We’re hoping that if you like what you find and it helps you to escape to another world, just for a little while, then you might come back for more. And when you do, we’ll be here.
Thanks for reading and keep your chin up. We’ll get through this.
So what are you waiting for? Go get yourself a free book.
It’s the beginning of what would have been convention season. We should have had 2 or 3 under our belts already, but fate had other ideas. My publisher is filling the gap and running a virtual conference.
Here’s the information from their site:
Image description: Logo of a computer screen; on it are eye glasses over an open book. Left text says: Renaissance Virtual Conference, May 30-31, 2020
Renaissance Press is organizing an entirely FREE, entirely online convention!
With everyone and everything being shut down, a lot of conventions and fairs have cancelled, and a lot of authors and publishers have lost precious revenue. Renaissance has also been affected, so we thought:
Why not do something online, make a weekend of it, and get as many people involved as possible?
So today, we are reaching out to everyone we know who writes and sells books to see if they want to be part of our big event!
What will it look like?
An online convention/book fair, completely free for everyone involved. Authors will be able to promote themselves and their work through panels, readings, and workshops. We would offer 2-3 days of programming. When you mention your book in the panel, there will be an accessible link right there! Panels will also be recorded and later posted to YouTube, along with the links.
There will also be a virtual vendors room where we will link everyone’s books, and your books, along with whatever sale or flash deal you or your publisher are currently having, will be promoted before and after each event.
When?
Our big online book fair will happen on the weekend of May 30-31. We plan to have programming from 10 AM to 8 PM on the Saturday, and from 10 AM to 6 PM on the Sunday. We might have programming on the Friday evening if we have enough content/demand. The hours can be expanded, and a second weekend is possible, depending on demand.
Who can participate?
We would like to invite as many authors, publishers and associations as possible. Basically, if you write and/or sell books, and want visibility, you’re whom this is for! And since this is online, anyone from anywhere in the world can participate!
What if my book is from another publisher?
Your publisher is welcome to have a free, virtual “stand” in our online dealers’ room. Or, you can participate and have us link back to your publisher’s page without your publisher having to be there if they don’t want to. To be in our virtual vendors’ room, there is no other requirement than for us to have a link to their shop, a logo, and be informed of any sale or flash deal they are having. All we ask in return is that you and/or your publisher help promote the event by posting about it on social media.
What kind of ideas are you looking for?
We’re up for anything! We have a selection of panels that have already been pitched to us that you’ll find here, that you can simply apply to be on, or you can pitch us your own idea. If you have a workshop to present, it’s always best if it’s closely related to your books (for example, if your aliens eat delicious desserts, you could always teach people how to cook your favorite dessert). Or, you might want to read from your recent new release. We are looking for content that can appeal to a wide public! We are also looking for some programming geared towards children for the mornings.
The Aurora nominations end TOMORROW!!!! Please keep us in mind.
Also don’t do like us and forget to hit the finalize button until the last minute.
Last year The Travelling TARDIS was nominated for an Aurora and so was A Sign of Faust. The Travelling TARDIS is eligible again, as are a few other of our products. So go make yourself an account here and nominate your favourite works!
The Aurora Awards are awards, “for excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy works and activities.” They are administered by the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association.
It’s a fan voted award in the vein of the Hugo’s, but with way more awesome people.
You’ll have to join the CSFFA for a pittance of $10 before you can nominate anyone. Once you’ve paid, you can nominate 5 works in each category. You can nominate works from now until May 26th.
The extra bonus of joining the CSFFA is you’ll get a voters package that includes most of the works that make the ballot. That’s 8-10 novels plus a bunch of other awesome stuff.
Last year The Travelling TARDIS was nominated for an Aurora and so was A Sign of Faust. The Travelling TARDIS is eligible again, as are a few other of our products. So go make yourself an account here and nominate your favourite works!
The Aurora Awards are awards, “for excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy works and activities.” They are administered by the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association.
It’s a fan voted award in the vein of the Hugo’s, but with way more awesome people.
You’ll have to join the CSFFA for a pittance of $10 before you can nominate anyone. Once you’ve paid, you can nominate 5 works in each category. You can nominate works from now until May 26th.
The extra bonus of joining the CSFFA is you’ll get a voters package that includes most of the works that make the ballot. That’s 8-10 novels plus a bunch of other awesome stuff.
I LOVE books. The smell, the feel, the reading… If you’ve been to our house (Books End) you know we have an impressive library. You might be surprised to hear that every couple of years we go through it and purge our books.
As I get older and less wise, I’ve come to know my tastes a little better and there are books that I have no interest in reading. Books that I thought I would love but now just make me go, “do I have to?”. I can make four categories that I have no interest in reading anymore.
Classics
I’m not talking the old classics. I have a special place in my heart for Beowulf, The Three Musketeers, and other classical literature. (Although I have an illogical hate of epistolary style books.)
No I’m talking about the classics of genre that people will be shocked you haven’t read. Things that are classics because we grew up with them not because they are the greatest. Not that I judge anyone for loving these, but I’m not interested in another 7-13 book epic fantasy about a farmboy.
Power Triangles
These are often in romance, adventure, horror, or urban fantasy. There’s a main character and two others that are trying to control them. This can be villains, lovers, or sometimes both. It’s filled with cringe and drives me up the wall.
That means it takes a lot for me to read a vampire book and I shudder at the description of most werewolf books. Again they aren’t bad books, I just don’t have the mental energy.
Violent Horror
I like horror, and I like Stephen King, but there are some that I just can’t handle. Overly violent and crude horror makes my stomach turn and makes me want to stop reading. These can be fantastic literature that challenge your way of thinking but I don’t want to read it. I’ll probably never re-read A Clockwork Orange.
Pretentious Writing
Every once in a while someone tries to elevate a genre and writes about a vampire, or modern wizard, but with prose that’s so pretentious is passes purple and hits ultraviolet. If the first page is so long winded that I zone out… It’s not for me.
There can be beauty in this, but it has to be done in service to the writing not the authors ego.
So these books and those that I never plan on rereading are the ones we’re getting rid of. There’s only a couple dozen, which is nothing compared to the couple thousand we still have.
2. Write the Bookend Material for the Short Story Collection (Success)
I wrote the material and added it to the short stories and submitted it to my publisher. I should hear in the new year.
3. Finish Paragenesis (Fail)
I’ve managed to get part way into chapter 11. Hopefully I’ll finish this one soon.
4. Get to the 2/3 mark on Mystery of the Dancing Lights (Fail)
I have to finish this one by mid-year next year. I want to submit it to my publisher by September for hopefully a release in 2022.
JenEric Designs and Coffee (1/2)
5. Continue to ensure there’s content 5 days a week on JenEric Designs (Fail)
We broke our 6 year streak with a missed post in February. The post was set for the right day but didn’t actually post and we didn’t notice until the next day; so it’s a fail.
6. Test, Design, and Produce 2 new coffee flavours (Success)
We debuted Mighty ThOrange, In Another Castle, and Unbirthday Cake this year. So I went a little overboard.
7. Edit and send Dinosaur Road Trip to a willing beta reader (Fail)
Yeah, I really need to do this, but I hate editing, I never plan on submitting this, and the story makes me sad and miss my mom.
8. Submit Everdome for blurbs (Success)
I gave my publisher all the information and they sent everything out. I got a really nice blurb from John Hass and a nice refusal from Seanan Mcguire.
9. Playtest the higher levels of FADDS (Success)
We’ve playtested 11-15 and so far it’s going splendidly.
10. Figure out how to market and sell CoasteRPG (Success/Fail)
I’ve changed the name to Oneshot – The Simplest RPG and I’m thinking making erasable character sheets with the rules on them. So I’ll say this is a half/half.
Personal (3.5/4)
11. Read 20 books (Success)
I barely made this goal. It’s a lot harder to read with kids in the house and no bus ride but I made it.
12. Don’t Burnout (Success)
I came very close twice. I recognized the signs and made sure to rearrange things. It wasn’t easy and I’m still doing more than I probably should but overall good.
13. Be More Patient (Success/Fail)
Potty training, allergies, and two colds meant I didn’t have as much patience as I should have. But I’m trying and improving.
14. Play Some Video games with Dragon (Success)
I played some mobile games and also played some Disney Infinity with her. She’s having a hard time with controls, but overall it’s fun.
So the breakdown is 9/14 which is 64%. I think that’s pretty darned great. Hopefully I’ll do as well or better next year.
I’m certain that this topic could be discussed in WAY greater detail. A whole dissertation’s worth, in fact. However, I don’t have that kind of time and I’m not getting a PhD afterwards. Feel free to continue the comments.
Story time:
We watched Let it Snow on Netflix a couple weeks ago. (Super cute movie) In this movie, there is a lesbian relationship. I don’t think it’s spoilers to say that the girls kiss at some point during the movie. Our 3 year old daughter was very confused by this kiss. “Where’s the boy?” she kept asking. It took us a few tries to figure out what she was getting at. Apparently we’ve been watching too many Disney movies, because to her, relationships were a boy and a girl. I say were, because as soon as the movie was over, we corrected her. She didn’t believe us. So we pulled out a book that we haven’t read to her in a while (apparently). Promised Land. It’s a typical fairytale romance, with just the one slight change. The romantic leads are two men. She believed us after that, thankfully.
I’m not saying that Disney movies (or any other movie or book) is wrong to portray heterosexual relationships. Go for it.
But I’d like some diversity, please.
I’d like, for once, for a Christmas movie to have two men play the romantic leads. And I DON’T want the movie to be about them “finding themselves” or “coming out to the family” or any other trope.
I want the typical romantic movie. One goes home for Christmas to his family from the big city. Oh look, the guy he had a crush on is still super hot. Hijinks ensue. Due to Christmas magic, they end up together. You know, the Christmas movie we usually get on Hallmark channel.
And I know the perfect book to adapt. Faux Ho Ho, by ‘Nathan Burgoine, has ALL my favourite tropes. They were roommates, check. Fake relationship, check. There was only one bed, check.
So come on, Netflix, Disney+, or Amazon Prime! I know the book was only released yesterday, but why haven’t you made a movie yet??
I want my children to grow up with movies and books that include all types of relationships. Gay, lesbian, poly, ace, you name it, I want it. And please use the same tropes as for the het relationships.
