From Balticon Off to Nebula Conference

I was at Balticon over Memorial Day Weekend. I moderated a couple of panels, both of which included the co-Guest of Honor, award-winning author Seanan McGuire. One of those panels was on “Bad Movie Adaptations” (of Sci Fi and Fantasy films) and the other on “Writing Fantastic Diseases in a Post-Covid World,” which still has me thinking about the comment that we’re never actually going to be in a post-Covid world.

I was on a number of panels during the con. One I’m still thinking about is “Ending Your Saga.” The President of the JABberwocky Literary Agency, Joshua Bilmes, moderated the panel, which featured authors: L Penelope (Song of Blood & Stone), Nick Martell (The Kingdom of Liars), John Walker, and myself. I felt the panel was more interview with directed questions by Joshua as the moderator, which made the panel feel more dynamic on Zoom than I expected. For example, L Penelope (Leslye) originally self-published a number of books in her series, which were bought by a publisher. So, her series has stories that are not part of her publishing deal. Joshua asked her if that made ending her series more complicated or not. Her response was that it didn’t change her ending, but it certainly was more complicated.

Nick Martell’s represented by JABberworcky and he wrote the last book of his traditionally published trilogy this past year, which is now in the hands of the publisher and the book will be release in the next year or so. Joshua asked him about that experience. Nick talked about how he sort of wrote the trilogy in reverse, having the third book in mind and plotting out how he reached the ending through the set-up of the plot in the first two books.

When asked, we all agreed that we stayed faithful to the endings we had in mind for our series. I know on my part that I questioned whether I’d stay true to that ending of Highmage’s Plight a number of times, before trusting that I’d gotten it right.

Joshua also asked us about what series endings we didn’t like and what we liked and why. I’m not going to share those answers here—as I don’t what to incriminate any of our answers online for posterity.

One of the sadder moments during Balticon was a memorial for Don Sakers, who passed away very recently. In fact, the notice of the memorial caught me by complete surprise. Don served on panels with me for nearly a decade at area cons and moderated a panel on “what makes a good book cover” that I was on over last Thanksgiving Weekend at Chessiecon. He shared samples of some of the worst genre cover art over the last forty years or so. Don reviewed books in Analog and was an author, edited anthologies, and was a retired librarian. He was an index of all thing SFF. I’ll never forget his sharing his delight at how Anne McCaffrey surprised him (and just about all her readers) when The Dragonriders of Pern turned out to be SF and not fantasy. He commented, “The clues were there from the beginning—it was amazing.” Don Sakers shared the clues of the genre with me and all those around me at cons… and he was amazing. He’ll be missed.

On a happier note, I’ve the Nebula Conference to look forward to this weekend. It’s another Virtual Con. I’ve never been to the conference and am looking forward it. What I’m looking even more forward to is being in person at cons later this year.

Lastly, here’s where you can find my free stories (among other great giveaways this month):

My new novella, Apocalypse Knot, prequel to Bigfoot Is Not Your Friend appears in June Sci-fi & Fantasy Giveaway. This month Bigfoot Is Not Your Friend is featured for the first time in any promo in Fantasy Reads on Kindle Unlimited.

Grounding a Mockingbird, prequel to Lessers Not Losers, is featured in the group promo, Witch's Brew. Lessers Not Losers is featured in YA Books for Teens in KU.

The Dragon's Curse, prequel to my Highmage’s Plight and Hands of the Highmage series, is featured in the Dragon's Lair. Highmage’s Plight, Book 1, and my urban fantasy, Dare 2 Believe, are featured in Readers Live A Million Lives.

Beginning June 14th, Last Knight, prequel to Knight of the Broken Table, is featured in the group promo Wild Worlds: Fantasy & Science Fiction With Amazing Worldbuilding. Knight of the Broken Table is featured in the Summer Sci Fi in Kindle Unlimited promo.

D.H.