Hot Off the Press Party with Dragon Moon Press and EDGE

Last night was the Fall Release Book Launch for the new titles from Tesseracts/EDGE/Dragon Moon Press. It was at Calgary's Historic Fire Hall #6 (currently called The Outdoor Resource Centre) in the hip Kensington area. It's a nice brick structure with the former fire truck bays converted into meeting rooms -- the party was held in one of these.


This is where the fire trucks used to drive out of --->





The evening started off with some munchies and live music, then we heard readings from Randy McCharles and Susan Forest, both of whom have their work published in Tesseracts Eleven, which was clearly one of the best selling titles. I picked one up myself and got it signed. Randy's story was a humorous piece called "Vampires of the Rockies", which he did not read to completion, leaving us wondering how it would end, and Susan read her short called "Tomorrow and Tomorrow", which was a near future examination of being practical in the face of adversity. The ending was a real gut-kicker.

I read last, opting for an abridged version of Chapter 5 from The Longevity Thesis, and managed not to screw it up. I tried to incorporate advice given to me from my last reading, keeping it light, short, not too much intro, starting off with a bio of myself so people knew who they were listening to and trying to work the "tease factor". As Randy explained to me, the whole point of doing a reading is not to explain what you wrote, but to get people to wonder what the rest of the story is, so that they go looking to read the book. I think I got it right. At least I extracted a few laughs from the crowd during the intro.

There were a couple of big names there, including Robert Sawyer and his imprint editor/publisher Kirsten Morrell, as well as Dr. Rebbecca Bradley and the man himself, Brian Hades. I also got to hang out with some friends, my kick-boxing buddy Laura, editor/publisher buddy Tim Reynolds (who finally introduced me to his partner Sue!), Ron from IFWA, who I'd met at ConVersion this year, Brian's vivacious wife Anita, Janice Shoults also from EDGE, and of course Justyn Perry, who was the organiser of this shindig. Nerves aside, I had a pretty good time.

Robert Sawyer and the lovely Kirsten Morrell.~~~~~I get to sign a book for Susan Forest!

Book Signing #5

Yep, I'm still at it. Today I was at Coles in Market Mall, promoting The Longevity Thesis. I was joined by EDGE Marketing Manager, Justyn Perry, and was visited by many of my friends, since this location was closest to the varsity area. We passed out freebie bookmarks, EDGE/Dragon Moon Press Catalogues, and fridge magnets. (Yeah, I know. It's weird, but why not?)

It was a low key afternoon, but I'd like to send out my heartfelt thanks to my buddies for stopping by or just saying hello in passing: Maggie, Laura, Vivian, Tessa, Chris, Zoe, Tom, Phil, Beichen, Kate, and Melanie.

Also, thank you to Coles and their staff for hosting me, and to all the friendly people who stopped to chat, whether or not they decided to pick up the book. (It's much nicer to at least chat rather than just sitting there.)

Well, this was the second last stop for the fall season. Next I'll be doing a short reading at the EDGE/Dragon Moon Press Hot Off the Presses Party, at the Historic Fire Hall on Memorial Drive. It's at 7:00pm on November 30th. Susan Forest and Randy McCharles will also be reading their works. For those of you interested in attending World Fantasy 2008 in Calgary next year, Randy is one of the organisers, so this would be a good opportunity to get more information.

In other news, EDGE is having a sale on Fall Release titles: 20% off everything published in late 2007. And keep an eye out for a Chinese language news article to be published in The Epoch Times! There will be news about the book, book tour as well as an interview with Justyn Perry.

Book Signing #3: The Official Launch

(Reading at The Sentry Box -- Look at all 'em books!)
Many, many thanks to Justyn from EDGE and The Sentry Box for hosting the official launch of The Longevity Thesis! This was my very first public reading from the novel. Most of the audience were "in the industry" and some of them had helpful comments for me afterwards.

I was pretty nervous going in, and I think my voice shook a bit at the beginning, but after a few moments, I hit my stride and got lost in the story, which really helped. Other writers have told me it gets easier with time. They also gave me a few pointers on giving public readings, which I'll try to incorporate the next time I do this. It's great to plan things, but I found once I was up there, so much of my attention went into not falling over or otherwise doing something dumb, that it was hard to do much else. Regardless, I learned how to write a novel from other writers, and I think they remain a valuable resource for learning other things, like how to publicly speak. Turns out, reading fantasy is quite a bit different from giving a lecture on tumour biology! (Gee, who would have thought?)

(Here I am signing a copy for Randy McCharles, one of the World Fantasy 2008 organizers.)


I met a few new people, most I had connected with previously, especially at ConVersion 23, which I had attended in August. It was nice to see them again.

I was also interviewed afterwards by some of the organizers of World Fantasy 2008. They intend to air the podcast of the interview and my reading next Sunday. I hope I don't sound too dorky. I'm not fond of my voice.

Brian Hades, the EDGE publisher, also told me that 50 copies of The Longevity Thesis had been sent out for review. I was floored. This is all really happening, and it's hard to believe. Not so long ago, just getting published seemed so far away.

I also had a Twilight Zone moment, as we accidentally photographed some "orbs" when figuring out the camera settings. Some people believe that these funny little things are conscious beings from alternate dimensions that can act as guides or angels. I'm not kidding. Try doing a Google search on them. Anyway, I can only hope that was a good sign for the book.

(Yeah, I know, it just looks like a camera glitch, but it's more fun to think they were cute little aliens or something.)

Mini Book Tour

Thanks to Justyn, the marketing manager at Dragon Moon Press' new partner EDGE Science Fiction & Fantasy, I've got a little book tour set up. The official book launch will be at Calgary's Gamer Central -- The Sentry Box, on October 27th. However, there are two signings before that at Chapters and Coles on the 20th and 26th. The specific dates,times and locations are listed on Booktour.com (check out the widget off to the right).

I'm looking forward to seeing The Longevity Thesis in print form for the very first time! Hope to see you there!

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P.S. If you're an online shopper, Amazon and Chapters have both dropped their prices.

$10.85 on Amazon.com
$12.37 on Amazon.ca
$12.88 on Chapters.indigo.ca