World Fantasy Convention 2008

The big weekend has finally come and gone, the great coup for Calgary and Canadian genre publishing, the World Fantasy Convention. Needless to say, I had a great time. How could I not, with so many wonderful people there? The venue was the Hyatt Regency in downtown Calgary, and while the hotel was very nice, getting there by car was a nightmare -- I had to wind my way around the C-Train, several incomprehensible one-way streets, construction, and believe it or not, a movie set. I'm still trying to find out which movie it was.

Thursday, October 30th:
This was the first day of the con. EDGE had hosted a pre-con party the night before, featuring a band called "The Plaid Tongued Devils", but I had worked all day, was feeling a bit under the weather, and chose not to attend in favour of being fully "on" for the actual event. When I picked up my badge and banquet ticket at the reservation desk, they also gave me a little red chip, which I was instructed to take to "the book room" across the hall. On surrendering the chip to the book room attendants, I was given a large bag full of promotional books. It was pretty heavy, and in my estimation, worth the price of entry! I had intended to listen in to some of the panels, but got so caught up chatting with friends I hadn't seen in a few years that it fell by the way side. I also went through the dealers' room and found my publisher, Gwen Gades at the Hades Publications booth. We ended up going out for supper with some other writerly types and by the time we got back, it was a bit late and the day had caught up with me, so I sat in on a reading by children's author Simon Rose, and decided to leave after that.

Friday, October 31st:
I attended many panels this day, and they were truly excellent. TOR publisher Tom Doherty spoke about how he formed his business, artists discussed how to craft soft backgrounds, David Morrell and David Drake spoke about violence in fantasy, and Barbara Hambly, Patricia McKillip, Irene Radford and David Keck talked about Medieval Mysteries. Stephen R. Donaldson was supposed to be on the "violence" panel, but for some reason did not attend any of his panels or readings. Despite that, I felt this was one of the best panels, as horror writer David Morrell has a fantastic sense of humor, and David Drake, a Viet Nam vet, had plenty to say about how his life experiences affect his writing. He was bluntly honest and impressed me greatly. David Keck (another David!) must be one of the funniest and most inventive people on the planet. If the writing thing doesn't work out for him, he could easily pursue a career in stand-up comedy.
Gwen treated us to dinner at a local chinese restaurant, then the evening was left open for the "Autograph Reception". I had assumed this was only for the big names, but it was actually for anyone who had signed up as an author, editor or publisher. So when I was finished running around getting autographs from my favourite authors, I managed to get in on the action myself - I signed and sold one book. Well, I might have had more success if I set up shop earlier, but getting Barbara Hambly to sign my copies of her books might have been a once in a lifetime sort of thing. This was the only part of the conference where Stephen R. Donaldson was sighted!

Saturday, November 1st:
I went to a few panels and readings on Saturday, but spent most of the day at the EDGE/DMP booth. Gwen and I officially signed the contract for my second book, currently called Wicked Initiations, which is the prequel to The Longevity Thesis. I was interviewed for the EDGEcast, had a signing "appearance" (no one came so I just chatted with Anita Hades - don't schedule these things too close to lunch!!) and then went upstairs for a multi-author book launch put on by EDGE and DMP. They served lots of gooey chocolate.

Sunday, November 2nd:
This was banquet day, when the World Fantasy Awards were presented. Tad Williams was the MC, and he gave this absolutely hilarious speech describing the history of fantasy writing. He changed everything to say all had evolved from cavemen situated in the North American continent, specifically the US, and tried to convince us that fantasy has never been written by any non-American ever. According to him, apparent Canadian fantasy writers are actually "geographically confused Americans", and Guy Gavriel Kay does not actually exist. The event was over by 3:30, so I spent the rest of the afternoon in the pub with some other writers, gossiping and discussing business. Good times.

Wicked Initiations - Drawing Kyril

OK, that title is still tentative, but I'm starting to like it more and more.

The first draft of Wicked Initiations, which is the prequel to The Longevity Thesis, was finished a few weeks ago, and has been sent out to the first round of test readers. So far, one of them tells me it's "superior" to LT, and other described it as "much better".

This is encouraging, especially since it's only the first draft. I'm hoping to add about 30k words, and still think I could polish it up a bit more. Anyway, while I wait for the critiques to trickle in, I've been indulging in one of my favourite activities, which is to make some little graphics to promote the novel later on.

The first one I've done is of the character named Kyril. She is an Aragoth who does not die in the surface-underground war, and becomes a central player in the formation of events that eventually lead up to the "birth" of Antronos, who is of course the protagonist in The Longevity Thesis. Aragoths are not natural creatures, having been created in the Desert using a mysterious animation process for generating disposable and intensely loyal soldiers. As such, Kyril "eats" only on the surface, and has to absorb the elements of wind, water and Earth, in order to continue existing. This activity ties into one of the underlying themes of the novel, which is the proper direction of one's Qi (life energy) in order to attain a worthy state of existence that is relatively pain-free.

Of course, I'm using The GIMP graphics program and the Wacom graphics tablet my brother gave me last year.

I started off with a base sketch - pencil and paper - which I photographed and loaded up as a digital image. From there, I used separate layers for the base colours, light and dark shades, and the light that is supposed to represent the elements Kyril is absorbing. I'll eventually use this image in promotional bookmarks and on the webpage, once the novel is finished.

















I think I might redo her hand around the light bubble (which is actually another character in itself - won't tell you which!) so that the fingers bend around it a bit. I'd also like to change the background to a Desert scene and maybe put another character standing in the background. But the learning curve is steep, and that will take me some time.

The Promotional Talents of Mike Bennett

w00t! Mike Bennett, podcaster and performer, has done an excellent voice-over for me to help promote the podcast of my novel. The little widget off to the right will play the promo if you'd like to hear it.




I previously interviewed Mike for this blog, and more information about him is available on his website.

Podcast Up!!!

It was waaaaayyy harder than I imagined, but the very first podcast episode of The Longevity Thesis is up!!!!! It can be found at:

http://jrahn.podshow.com

I did have fun amidst all the frustrated swearing, but in the end, I'm quite pleased with the result. I had the music recorded last summer when the promo vid was made, but I still had to read the chapters and record that, edit out all the goof ups, and put in some promo spots for friends. Cellist Aurealis has agreed to play some more Tchaikovsky for me, this time on the cello instead of a keyboard. It's gonna be awesome!!!

For those who are interested, the sound recording and editing was done using a free linux-based program called Audacity (have I mentioned before my unending love of all things open source?) and later on, Justyn, the EDGE marketing manager pointed me towards a nifty little program called the Levelator to smooth out the sound levels.

Now I'm too tired to blink, but still raring to make the next one!!

Give-away

I've decided to give away two signed copies of The Longevity Thesis to (1) the first person to enter, and to (2) one person randomly drawn from the first 50 entries. I may give away a third, depending on how things go.

To enter, just contact me through my webpage, blog, MySpace or Facebook and tell me you're entering. If you win, I'll ask for your mailing info. And of course, you have my assurances that this is only to promote The Longevity Thesis, and I am not interested in polluting the internet with more spam.

Thanks to everyone who enters!

ANNOUNCEMENT: Monday, 7:39am. The first copy has been claimed by W.Sumner Davis, author of Heretics. (Check out his MySpace.) Congrats to Dr. Davis!

18Feb08 Update: The last two copies are being given to Karen and Janet. Thanks for entering!

Wee Hoo!

Geez, forget ramblings about alternate spiritual forms, check this out:

http://sfcrowsnest.com/features/arc/2008/nz12201.php

Arconna really is a superhero!

#######

7:13 pm

. . . and the feed is picked up by comic-news-now.

I am chortling.

My Flash in the Pan

For the briefest moment (I'm surprised I saw it at all) I was ranked #42 in Fantasy on Amazon.ca.


Wow. . .

What Happens After You Write the Book: Perspectives.

I had an earlier post addressing this, which didn't really answer the question, but was more a rambling speculation on what might happen. Now that my mini book tour is all said and done, I can comment more thoroughly. Also, I have been repeatedly asked what the time line was like for getting the book published.

So here it is, in what I hope is easy to digest format:

1990: I wanted to write this really cool story, but I didn't know the first thing about writing a novel. I started making up characters and jotting down some intense scenes that didn't quite hook up.

1996: I decided I wanted this thing done before I turned 30 and made a colossal effort to weave together all my disjointed scenes.

1999: I finished the first draft of what was then called "The Divine Prerogative." It was horrible. Parts of it had extreme coolness, parts of it were unspeakably stupid. All together, it was barf-inducing. But I did not know this. I submitted the book to a publisher, who liked my query + three chapters, foolishly asked to see the whole thing, and was very kind to actually read the whole thing (I know, because there were chocolate fingerprints on the pages right to the end when the manuscript was returned to me). The manuscript was politely refused.

2000 - 2003: I joined the Critters on-line critiquing group. With their help, I rewrote the novel 3 times. Big, huge thank-you to J.D. Williams for a tonne of help. The final rewrite I did on my own, after reading about "storyboarding" in Crawford Kilian's book, and hearing about J.K. Rowling's "grid thing" from a friend. The plot was massively straightened out and the POV characters were cut down to 1/5 of how many there were originally. I queried a few agents who told me they weren't accepting new clients unless they already had a book contract. I gave up with that approach pretty quickly.

Sept. 2003: I submitted "The Longevity Thesis" to Tor, who chucked it inside of two weeks. At least they didn't make me wait.

Dec. 2003: I submitted the query + 3 chapters to Dragon Moon Press.

Oct. 2004: DMP asked to see the whole thing.

Feb. 2006: DMP took it! Contract was signed.

2006 -2007: With a lot of help from friends, I got the webpage up and running, started blogging, got some promotional freebies made up (my infamous bookmarks and fridge magnets), got a promo book trailer made, started posting stuff all over the internet (amazon, myspace, blogger, facebook), arranged for a newspaper interview in my hometown, got an article published on DMP in a local newspaper, did some extra artwork for the PDF version of the book. Started asking other authors for cross-promotion activities (cross-interviews, passing out each other's freebie promo materials in our respective cities, plugs in blogs and podcasts, etc). Started attending conventions -- not as a panelist, just to see what goes on, and how other authors do promo. Passed out a couple freebies while I was there. Worked with the editor and cover artist supplied by DMP to get the manuscript into its final format.

Sept. 2007: The book was released!

Oct. - Nov. 2007: I teamed up with another author from my hometown and we got a second interview in the same newspaper and arranged to do a reading at the local library. I unexpectedly got a truck-load of help from EDGE, who had merged with DMP in August. They set me up for a mini-book tour all over Calgary (author signings in bookstores, and a couple of readings at an official book launch for LT and a group book launch for all the fall titles). EDGE and DMP's distributors did God-only-knows-what, and I saw The Longevity Thesis pop up in book catalogues all over the world in an amazing number of countries. I unexpectedly landed interviews with the organising committee for World Fantasy 2008 and a globally distributed Chinese language newspaper. That's been phenomenal exposure.

Dec 2007: Whew! Now what? Well, I have some new artwork I want to get out of my head and digitized for the webpage (my brother gave me a graphics tablet for my birthday -- it's awesome! No more pencil-crayony crap from me!), and I want to kick my butt into gear and get the prequel finished. I also want to do promo art for that as well.

And now it's today! Anybody have any other questions? I'm obviously no expert, but I can share what's happened for me.

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!

Imagine My Surprise.

Surprise? About what?

Well, The Longevity Thesis has been out for round about two months now, some people have read it and have been giving me their thoughts and impressions of the novel.

Some people have hit the nail on the head.

Some people have left me startled. These people felt disappointed that the story did not meet their expectations of what they thought it would be about. Thus, I feel I must blog.

The Longevity Thesis is NOT (or ever intended to be):

1) A story about how youngish women have to struggle against their families to find a good marriage.
2) About a Fountain of Youth.
3) About my former Ph.D. supervisors.
4) A story with a single "linear" plot and no subplots.
5) Erotica.
6) Tolkien.
7) Not accurately described on the back cover.
8) Wallowing in endless depression with no hope of redemption.
9) A Christmas story.
10) Tongue-in-cheek.

The Longevity Thesis IS:

1) Intended to examine the ability of the characters to accurately perceive themselves, the other characters, and the situations they find themselves in.
2) Supposed to mess with the notion of first impressions and the natural inclination to pass judgment after a cursory glance.
3) An illustration of the debilitating effect of low self-esteem (ties in to the examination of accurate perception of self).
4) An exploration the possibility of escaping fear through forced growth.
5) A presentation of the notion that love is weird, and can come to a person in a myriad of unexpected ways.
6) Intended to loosely parallel fragments of Dante's Inferno.
7) Intended to loosely embrace selected Buddhist concepts.
8) An exploration how far a character can go in the direction of using evil to fight evil, and still be a good person.
9) A presentation of the notion that controlling people and restricting their freedom is one of the worst forms of cruelty.
10) An examination of how inaccurate perception of self can really mess up a person's life.

I'll comment further on the plot and how it was charted in a later post.

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.

Back Home to Sherwood Park

Last weekend I headed home for my Mum's birthday and I also snuck in a reading at the local library while I was at it. This was a joint venture with fantasy author J.Y.T. Kennedy, who is also with Dragon Moon Press, and lives just outside of my hometown.

J.K.'s novel Dominion, was released in 2005. The protagonist of this story is a woman called Gilna, who completes her training as a perfumer just before her village is ravaged first by plague, then by an unstoppable invading army bent on conquering everything in their path. Gilna's skills allow her to administer medicines through scents, and alternately, deadly poisons. As a healer and survivor of the plague, Gilna is deemed useful by the invading Kurathk, and is kept as a servant to the tribal leaders. Her need to survive within her captive state battles with her guilt over assisting her peoples' sworn enemy, until she determines a way to use the power and influence she garners from her new position to manipulate the Kurathk. Although she is terrified of the dreamworld, help comes from that ethereal dimension, as Gilna plots to destroy the Kurathk through their growing dependency on her.

Although many people had told us they'd seen the article about the event published in the Nov 2nd edition of Strathcona County This Week, there was a small turnout. The atmosphere was pleasantly relaxed, where the audience munched on home baked goodies (and my store bought cookies) along with some tea or coffee. Some of my friends from elementary and high school turned out, as well as some of J.K.'s writer group buddies. I finally got J.K. to sign my copy of her book, and had the chance to sign a few of my own. That was the nice thing about this set up; everyone who showed up had a genuine interest in the books.

Reading with J.Y.T. Kennedy -- Nov 12th

It's back on the book circuit next week! Jennifer Kennedy, author of Dominion, and I will be at the Strathcona County Library, doing a joint reading and Q & A session for all interested. If you happen to be in the Edmonton area, we'd love to see you there. (Cookies will be provided -- come for the cookies, leave with the books!!)

The WebMaster for my site decided to entertain me with this photo montage. I got a kick out of it:

Interesting . . .

Well, the first independent review for LT has appeared on the internet. "Independent" as in, I don't have any association with this person whatsoever. I found it on dondammassa.com.

"This is apparently a first novel and it suffers from some of the usual awkwardness associated with first novels, but the premise and background are actually rather interesting. It's a very atypical fantasy world that almost but doesn't quite come to life, set in a vast underground civilization. The protagonist, Antronos, was born on the surface, which makes him a kind of second class citizen. He perseveres, graduates from college, and begins to work with a man who is studying ways to prolong human life. The problem is that his new boss is making use of a corrupt nobleman with psychic powers to steal the life force from others. Antronos gets caught, not exactly in the middle, and it's not clear whether he will become an involuntary life donor, a co-conspirator, or the man who saves the nobleman from being exploited by the evil scientist. The narrative portions are generally well written, but the dialogue is often quite artificial and awkward. I'd call this one an interesting misfire, and hope that the author develops the writing skill to match her obviously creative imagination. 10/27/07"

I kinda like the term "interesting misfire". That's very unique.

Anyway, I'm reposting this because I'm curious about reader feedback for this sort of review. What's your reaction to it? Would it make you look for other reviews or turn you off the book altogether?

(Thanks in advance to anyone who cares to comment!)

I'm not too discouraged by this one review, because some very nice people have emailed me directly with the following comments:

"I think your book is very interesting. I think the desert is almost like consciousness in that you don't know what will arise. I was intrigued."

" . . . the opening scene with the dust storm and the rescue of Antronos by his mother has me intrigued . . . if I enjoy this book as much as the opening scene, I will be looking for anything else you write."

"I had to take a moment to let you know that I am 60 pages into the PDF version of your novel and I really am enjoying it! I love fantas[ies] that do not rely on the 'standard' themes, characters and settings and your work is definitely forging it's own original path."

So what does it all mean? Am I headed towards a niche audience? I know it's unrealistic to expect universal appeal, but every little piece of feedback does get filed away as I go along. So thank you to everyone who has taken time to write something, good or bad, and know that you are not wasting your time, because all of it is being taken into consideration.

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.)

Book Signing #2

(I just love the sign in the background.)

Well, this time it wasn't so exciting. I took the C-Train downtown to the lower level Coles store in the T.D. Square shopping complex, and spent and extended lunch hour there, watching the world go by. Once again, the store manager and staff were very nice, professional, polite people, and I thank them for having me.

While I did get to meet several interesting folks, many of them writers themselves, nobody seemed to be in a buying mood. It was still a nice session, and I swapped a few myspace addys with fellow wordsmiths.

Here are transcripts (as I remember them) of a couple interesting conversations I had:

Cute little 4 year old girl: "Hi!"
Me: "Hi. How are you?"
Cutie: "I'm fine. What are you doing?"
Me: "I'm signing books."
Cutie: "Can I have one?" (Mother calling her away.)
Me: "Well, how about I give you a bookmark?"
Cutie: "Thanks!" (She runs off, bookmark held aloft in triumph. Mother relieved.)

For the record, I gave her the Alaindra bookmark, which was the least creepy one I had.

Chinese Gentleman: "You wrote this book?"
Me: "Yes. I did."
CG: "You?"
Me: "Yes. It was me."
CG: "You are Jennifer? How do you say your last name? Ruan?"
Me: "It's Rahn."
CG: "Ah?"
Me: "My Dad is German. It's a German name."
CG: "How is that?"
Me: "My Mum is Chinese."
CG: "Ooooohhhh. Now you make sense!"

And that was my lunchtime adventure.

My First Book Signing!

I started today off with a coffee-bag-related injury. How, Jen, you may ask, does one sustain a coffee-bag-related injury? Unfortunately, I can't tell you since I was half asleep when I did it, and I don't actually know. A coffee can would make sense, but somehow I managed this with a half empty bag. The only reason this is of note, is because it happened on the index finger of my right hand, almost exactly where my finger might rest on the paper when I am writing. For a time there, I was afraid all my books would be signed in blood. Well, that was the only unpleasant thing that happened today, thank goodness.

I spent the afternoon at Chapters in Calgary's Chinook Centre. I have to say, the staff and manager there were fantastic. They are all, without exception, nice, helpful people. My thanks go out to them for being so great.

I was somewhat worried that no one would talk to me, however, within half an hour of being there a gentleman called Layton asked me to sign a book! My hand was shaking so much I made the worst signature I've ever done in my life, and misspelled "reading". (As in "happy reading!") I was surprised and encouraged that most of the people who were interested in the book were my age or more, when I was expecting more the early university crowd. I do hope they won't be disappointed. I also had a few conversations with people who were in the business and wanted to know what my publishing experience was like. On two separate occasions, a little girl came by and snatched up a copy and asked her parents to buy it. Of course one look at the cover, and their parents said "no". One of them pleaded, "but the skeletons are cool!" I signed six books in all, which is nowhere near comparable to J.K. Rowling, but amazingly good for me. The manager of the store told me that was pretty much average for a new author. The last book I signed was bought by a fellow named Doug (who's already emailed me to ask about the book!) and the session ended on a positive note.

The questions I got asked most frequently were if the book was part of a series and if it was any good. It had occurred to me that morning to print up a copy of the reviews I had from other authors, since the book was virtually unknown, so those came in handy for letting people know what some other readers thought.

And of course, I have to give a big thank you to my friends Laura and Mary who came out to give me some support.

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!

=================================================================
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

Michael Leadingham, cover artist for The Longevity Thesis

Michael Leadingham is a freelance artist based in Las Vegas, who specialises in illustrations for fantasy publications. He is also the founder of the online gallery called Painters Block.

We've all heard the cliché, "never judge a book by its cover" and we all know that's exactly what we do. Cover art is not only essential to the completion of a book, but it's the first thing anyone sees, and thus, must have a significant impact on a potential reader.When it came time to find an artist for The Longevity Thesis, Dragon Moon Press publisher Gwen Gades asked me how I felt about having Michael Leadingham paint the cover. She referred me to the painting Michael had done for Connie Ward's book, The Gryphon Highlord, to see if I liked it. I thought it was fantastic, and enthusiastically agreed. When presented with the draft of the cover, there were very few changes that I requested (different eye colour, slightly longer hair, and some dust around the skeletons' feet) and then . . . it was perfect!





Aside from promoting his own work online, Michael also tries to help his peers, by posting their work collectively on a site called Painters Block. When asked about it, Michael says, "Heh well, that's my new baby. Painters Block is an artists' community dedicated to promoting up and coming illustrators. We have a juried gallery with 3 editors that critique submitted art. We of course accept only the best works. When we do reject a piece we of course explain in detail to the artists why it wasn't accepted. Our hopes are that the rejection critiques will help the artist grow and reach their fullest potential. Our hopes are that Painters Block becomes a respected community where new and upcoming artists will be able to grow and give back in the form of teaching others. That's a real goal is teaching others, and bringing them business prospects."

"Concrete Jungle" by Michael Leadingham.

Michael himself studied illustrating technique on his own, building up his abilities ever "since [he] could hold a pencil". True to his vision of Painters Block, he got most of his professional training through critiques and advice given by other artists, and by studying their methods. He lists Keith Parkinson, Todd Lockwood, J.P. Targete, Frank Frazzetta, and Michael Whelan as major inspirational influences, and was also impressed enough by the movie "300" to consider picking up Frank Miller's graphic novel version.When painting with traditional media, Michael prefers watercolour, however most of his professional work is now done digitally. "I actually use a PC for most of my work, but recently I have been exploring the idea of using a Mac. Mostly I use Windows because for the longest time that was the only operating system that offered the paint programs I use (Photoshop and Corel Painter). A Mac is definitely better for artwork though, as far as power [goes]," he said. "I use a Wacom tablet with an Intous stylus. It's the best I have found so far. Works particularly well with Painter."

"Castle Falls" by Michael Leadingham.

The biggest challenge facing artists today is being taken for granted. Michael says, "Many people feel artists are merely hobbyists, and should give artwork away for free. Once upon a time artists were revered much like movie stars of today. Not anymore though. The competition is so fierce, and instant gratification has become the norm. Hard work, time taken to complete real works of art is no longer respected I'm afraid." Looking at his paintings, it seems hard to not appreciate the skill and effort required to produce such images. How many of us would be able to generate our own book covers with the speed and accuracy provided by a professional artist? It's a task that certainly any author would find intimidating.

Michael's actual hobbies include building model ships, "especially the Pirateology series of games and models", and he is an avid reader of fantasy and science fiction. His interest in all things oceanic extends to an unfulfilled wish to become a marine biologist . . . if only it weren't for the required math! When not painting book covers, he also illustrates for posters and magazines. "Right now I'm working on a commission for a custom truck builder who wants to show his truck at a truck show. It will be called 'First Knight' so he wants a King Arthur theme painted on the truck. I am also the Senior Artist for Virtual Tales Publishing."

So there you have it, the man behind the cover painting for The Longevity Thesis. Michael Leadingham's paintings appear on the Conceptual Design Works webpage, as well as on Painters Block. Inspiration for All!

Free e-books! Good ones!

Gwen Gades, publisher of Dragon Moon Press, has released electronic copies of several novels, including The Longevity Thesis, for free. That's right, nada.

If you'd like a free copy of The Longevity Thesis, skip on over to Gwen's blog:

http://dragonmoonpress.blogspot.com/

The hard copy version of the novel is due to ship out from the printers on Sept 25th.

Thanks and happy reading!



*The photo is taken from an article about Gwen, originally printed by The University of Calgary Alumni Association.