Recently in General info Category
This is a review (the first review) of Ken Rand's alternate historical dark fantasy-Western novel Pax Dakota. It's written by Utah writer JoSelle Vanderhooft for Pedestal Magazine:
And this is an article from the Rapid City Journal that proves that "life imitates art."
Pax Dakota is due out in May 2008 from Five Star.
(Posted on behalf of Ken Rand)
You're invited to the launch party for Red Dragon Codex by West Valley City writer Rebecca Shelley (writing as R.D. Henham), Saturday, January 12, 4-6 p.m. at the West Valley Fitness Center, 5415 West 3100 South, West Valley City. This delightful YA fantasy in the Dragonlance world (from Wizards of the Coast) is Rebecca's first book. Party plans include fun, prizes, and games for kids--bring the whole family. Details and more information on her website or the book website. Contact Rebecca at rebeccashelley@rebeccashelly.com.
You're invited to the launch party for Red Dragon Codex by West Valley City writer Rebecca Shelley (writing as R.D. Henham), Saturday, January 12, 4-6 p.m. at the West Valley Fitness Center, 5415 West 3100 South, West Valley City. This delightful YA fantasy in the Dragonlance world (from Wizards of the Coast) is Rebecca's first book. Party plans include fun, prizes, and games for kids--bring the whole family. Details and more information on her website or the book website. Contact Rebecca at rebeccashelley@rebeccashelly.com.
It's been a while, but I have some interesting news from the SFWA site (thanks to Charlie for sharing):
Tor Books announced today that novelist Brandon Sanderson has been chosen to finish the final novel in Robert Jordan's best selling Wheel of Time fantasy series. Robert Jordan died September 16th after a battle with the rare blood disease amyloidosis.
The new novel, A Memory of Light, will be the twelfth and final book in the fantasy series which has sold over 14 million copies in North America and over 30 million copies worldwide. The last four books in the series were all #1 New York Times bestsellers, and for over decade fans have been awaiting the final novel that would bring the epic story to its conclusion.
Jordan had known the ending of the series for a long time and, according to a blog posting by his cousin, Wilson W. Grooms, Jr., had a few months ago revealed secret details about the end of the series to close members of his family which he had never discussed before.
Delivery of the manuscript is scheduled for December 2008, with a planned publication in Fall 2009.
Posted December 10, 2007; see full article at the SFWA site.
Good luck, Brandon!(posted on behalf of Brandon Sanderson)
Brandon's Book Tour News!
A quick note here--not a real newsletter--for those of you on the Brandon Sanderson mailing list. I'm on book tour on the west coast right now, and I thought I'd fire off the list of dates. I apologize for not sending this sooner; also, forgive me for blasting some of you with both this and a personal invitation. I'm not trying to spam; I just want to get the word out!
Upcoming dates:
Monday, October 8th: 7 PM: San Francisco
Borderlands Books.
866 Valencia St.
San Francisco CA 94110
Tuesday, October 9th 2 PM: California
Borders Express
6157 Sunrise Mall
Citrus Heights, CA 95610
Phone: 916.969.7877
Wednesday, October 10th 7 PM: Oregon
Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing
3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd.
Beaverton, OR 97005
Phone: 503.352.0665
Thursday, October 11th 7 PM: Washington
Borders Express
8700 NE Vancouver Mall Drive
Vancouver, WA 98662
Phone: 360.892.6677
Friday, October 12th 7 PM: Washington
University Bookstore
4326 University Way NE
Seattle, WA 98105
Phone: 206.634.340 Toll Free: 1.800.335.READ
Saturday, October 13th 1 PM: Washington
Barnes & Noble
5711 Main Street Southwest
Lakewood, WA 98499
Phone: 253.983.0852
Sunday, October 14th: Day Off
Monday, October 15th 7 PM: Idaho
Borders
350 N. Milwaukee St.
Boise, ID 83704
Phone: 208.322.6668
Tuesday, October 16th 4 PM: Idaho
Waldenbooks
Pine Ridge Mall
4155 Yellowstone Ave
Pocatello, ID 83202
Phone: 208.237.9785
Tuesday, October 16th 7 PM: Idaho
Barnes & Noble
Grand Teton Mall
2300 East 17th Street Suite #1101
Idaho Falls, ID 83404
Phone: 208.552.1452
Wednesday, October 17th PM: Utah
Waldenbooks
1300 N Main St
Logan, UT 84341
Phone: 435.753.2590
Wednesday, October 17th 7 PM: Utah
Borders
1050 N Main St
Logan, UT 84341
Phone: 435.787.0678
Thursday, October 18th 7 PM: Utah
Barnes & Noble
1780 Woodland Park Dr
Layton, UT 84041
Phone: 801.773.9973
Friday, October 19th 7 PM: Utah
Barnes & Noble
7157 South Plaza Center Drive
West Jordan, UT 84084
Phone: 801.282.1324
Saturday, October 20th 1 PM: Utah (Brandon only)
Barnes & Noble
University Crossings Plaza
330 East 1300 South
Orem, UT 84058
Phone: 801.229.1611
Like last year, I'm touring with author David Farland, of the Runelords series. East coast folks, I'm sorry to not make it your direction. I'm trying to get out there this Christmas season. We'll see what happens!
Best,
A quick note here--not a real newsletter--for those of you on the Brandon Sanderson mailing list. I'm on book tour on the west coast right now, and I thought I'd fire off the list of dates. I apologize for not sending this sooner; also, forgive me for blasting some of you with both this and a personal invitation. I'm not trying to spam; I just want to get the word out!
Upcoming dates:
Monday, October 8th: 7 PM: San Francisco
Borderlands Books.
866 Valencia St.
San Francisco CA 94110
Tuesday, October 9th 2 PM: California
Borders Express
6157 Sunrise Mall
Citrus Heights, CA 95610
Phone: 916.969.7877
Wednesday, October 10th 7 PM: Oregon
Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing
3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd.
Beaverton, OR 97005
Phone: 503.352.0665
Thursday, October 11th 7 PM: Washington
Borders Express
8700 NE Vancouver Mall Drive
Vancouver, WA 98662
Phone: 360.892.6677
Friday, October 12th 7 PM: Washington
University Bookstore
4326 University Way NE
Seattle, WA 98105
Phone: 206.634.340 Toll Free: 1.800.335.READ
Saturday, October 13th 1 PM: Washington
Barnes & Noble
5711 Main Street Southwest
Lakewood, WA 98499
Phone: 253.983.0852
Sunday, October 14th: Day Off
Monday, October 15th 7 PM: Idaho
Borders
350 N. Milwaukee St.
Boise, ID 83704
Phone: 208.322.6668
Tuesday, October 16th 4 PM: Idaho
Waldenbooks
Pine Ridge Mall
4155 Yellowstone Ave
Pocatello, ID 83202
Phone: 208.237.9785
Tuesday, October 16th 7 PM: Idaho
Barnes & Noble
Grand Teton Mall
2300 East 17th Street Suite #1101
Idaho Falls, ID 83404
Phone: 208.552.1452
Wednesday, October 17th PM: Utah
Waldenbooks
1300 N Main St
Logan, UT 84341
Phone: 435.753.2590
Wednesday, October 17th 7 PM: Utah
Borders
1050 N Main St
Logan, UT 84341
Phone: 435.787.0678
Thursday, October 18th 7 PM: Utah
Barnes & Noble
1780 Woodland Park Dr
Layton, UT 84041
Phone: 801.773.9973
Friday, October 19th 7 PM: Utah
Barnes & Noble
7157 South Plaza Center Drive
West Jordan, UT 84084
Phone: 801.282.1324
Saturday, October 20th 1 PM: Utah (Brandon only)
Barnes & Noble
University Crossings Plaza
330 East 1300 South
Orem, UT 84058
Phone: 801.229.1611
Like last year, I'm touring with author David Farland, of the Runelords series. East coast folks, I'm sorry to not make it your direction. I'm trying to get out there this Christmas season. We'll see what happens!
Best,
Brandon
(posted on behalf of Heather Monson)
Just a quick reminder--we're meeting this Saturday at 4 p.m. in Conference Room D of the Main Branch of the Salt Lake City Library (found on the southeast corner of 200 East 400 South in Salt Lake City). We'll be sorting out non-profit mailing stuff (have our permit now), getting local event updates, and having fun (I hope). Hope to see you there!
Heather
"Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable, let's prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all." --Douglas Adams
Delvar Pope, husband of Betty Pope, passed away on Monday, October 1, 2007. There was a viewing tonight from 6-8 pm at Berg Mortuary on Center Street in Provo (185 East Center Street, 801-373-1841). The funeral is tomorrow, (Thursday, October 4) at 11 am at an LDS chapel in Orem (225 E. 200 N.). An obituary was published in the Provo Daily Herald on October 2.
Betty was the SF librarian for many years at the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University. She was a long-time supporter of LTUE. Betty passed away a few years ago.
Anime Banzai Newsletter
September 30, 2007
In this issue:
Meeting Date
Staff and Volunteers Needed
Mascot Contest
Lost and Found
Meeting Date -
Come discuss the pros and cons of Anime Banzai 07 and help us start planning for Anime Banzai 08!
Date: Saturday, October 6
Time: 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM
Location: Salt Lake City Main Library
210 East 400 South
Salt Lake City, UT 84111
Room: Conference Room A
Staff and Volunteers -
The only way to keep Anime Banzai going is with the help of volunteers. We will be looking for committee heads, security and volunteers to help plan and run Anime Banzai 08. We need all the help we can get! Come to the meetings, visit the message board or e-mail us at animebanzai@gmail.com.
Mascot Contest -
Anime Banzai 2008 Mascot Contest!!
Want to see your artwork on next year's badges, program book, flyers, website, t-shirts or banner ads?
Redesign our mascots Ban (boy) and Sae (girl) in your own style. Lineart, grayscale and color accepted. 300 dpi resolution required. Limit of 3 entries per person. (if plagiarism is suspected entrant will be automatically disqualified)
Winners will get free entry to the 2008 Anime Banzai Convention.
Submit your entries to animebanzai@gmail.com with "AB08 Mascot" as the subject line
Deadline is January 31, 2008
Lost and Found -
Did you lose something at Anime Banzai 07? Check with our AB07 Head Security Ninja, 'mnpchan', on the Anime Banzai message board .
Posted on behalf of Paul Genesse
Announcing the release of the Writers' Symposium Ezine!
Each issue is dedicated to "Helping Writers Write," and will be
released quarterly via email, or it can be viewed on the web at
www.paulgenesse.com/WritersSymposium . Each issue will feature
articles, tips, and resources that will help you improve your writing,
or let you know about good books.
Sign up by sending email to:
WritersSymposium@paulgenesse .com
The Writers' Symposium is made up of twenty professional writers, game
designers, and editors listed at the end of the issue. Combined we
have sold several dozen books and short stories to major publishers,
primarily in the fantasy and science fiction genre.
The Writers' Symposium has its origins back in the 1990's when it was
founded by editor and author Jean Rabe--famous for her Dragonlance
novels. She started giving seminars on writing at the Gen Con Game
Fair in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Gen Con has moved to Indianapolis,
Indiana, but Jean and her crew are still there.
Many writers have helped her present the panels over the years and the
seminars are almost always packed with people who want to learn more
about writing. I was one of those writers who wanted to break in. By
following Jean's advice I've sold eight short stories and my first
novel is coming out in hardcover in April of 2008. This first issue is
dedicated to Jean, a fantastic person and a great writer.
The first is made up of articles titled:
From the Editor
Feature Article: Creating Characters and a link to an online article
Bio on Jean Rabe--The Founder of the Writers' Symposium
Feature Article: Writers' Groups by Don Bingle
List of Current Writers' Symposium Members & Contact Info
Final Thought and link to the Writers' Symposium Blog
Paul Genesse,
Coordinating Editor of the Writers' Symposium Ezine
Website: http://www.paulgenesse.com/
Blog: http://paulgenesse.blogspot.com/
Author of The Golden Cord
Book One of the Iron Dragon Series
(Five Star Books, April 2008)
Announcing the release of the Writers' Symposium Ezine!
Each issue is dedicated to "Helping Writers Write," and will be
released quarterly via email, or it can be viewed on the web at
www.paulgenesse.com/WritersSym
articles, tips, and resources that will help you improve your writing,
or let you know about good books.
Sign up by sending email to:
WritersSymposium@paulgenesse
The Writers' Symposium is made up of twenty professional writers, game
designers, and editors listed at the end of the issue. Combined we
have sold several dozen books and short stories to major publishers,
primarily in the fantasy and science fiction genre.
The Writers' Symposium has its origins back in the 1990's when it was
founded by editor and author Jean Rabe--famous for her Dragonlance
novels. She started giving seminars on writing at the Gen Con Game
Fair in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Gen Con has moved to Indianapolis,
Indiana, but Jean and her crew are still there.
Many writers have helped her present the panels over the years and the
seminars are almost always packed with people who want to learn more
about writing. I was one of those writers who wanted to break in. By
following Jean's advice I've sold eight short stories and my first
novel is coming out in hardcover in April of 2008. This first issue is
dedicated to Jean, a fantastic person and a great writer.
The first is made up of articles titled:
From the Editor
Feature Article: Creating Characters and a link to an online article
Bio on Jean Rabe--The Founder of the Writers' Symposium
Feature Article: Writers' Groups by Don Bingle
List of Current Writers' Symposium Members & Contact Info
Final Thought and link to the Writers' Symposium Blog
Paul Genesse,
Coordinating Editor of the Writers' Symposium Ezine
Website: http://www.paulgenesse.com/
Blog: http://paulgenesse.blogspot
Author of The Golden Cord
Book One of the Iron Dragon Series
(Five Star Books, April 2008)
Well, Anime Banzai 2007 is over now, and I think it was very successful third year convention. All of the people I talked to there enjoyed themselves, and we are all looking forward to next year. Despite a doubling of the at the door rate from last year (to $30/person), the numbers at the con were still almost what they were last year. The amount of activities and the amount of time were also doubled (since they could start about 12 hours earlier than they could while at Salt Lake Community College), and they took advantage of all the extra time.
The dealers room was about the same, though at least one of the dealers had less merchandise available than last year due to flying to the con instead of driving. Many of the dealers were familiar from past years, too. There was no art show this year, from lack of interest I'm guessing. The art show last year was smaller than the one the first year. It may be that they just need someone very dedicated to running one. We'll see if they bring it back again.
This was the first year Anime Banzai was held in a hotel (specifically, the Sheraton City Centre Hotel on 500 South), and while there were some rough edges due to inexperience on the part of the con staff and dealing with hotel issues, I think they did an admirable job overall. I even talked to some of the other hotel guests who asked me what was going on, and some of them seemed genuinely interested instead of amused or scared by all the weirdos running around in strange costumes. The hotel staff seemed more friendly than when CONduit was there.
The guests this year included Artbeat and Michael Dobson. Artbeat was very well received, and had an encore performance on Saturday night in addition to their scheduled Friday night concert, pushing back the cosplay contest an hour. After their concerts, they sold copies of their CDs, signed them, and posed for pictures with their fans. From my perspective, they were very gracious throughout.
Artbeat is an unusual group, being a Jrock group from the United States rather than Japan. The members of the group speak both Japanese and English, and have released three independent albums. They have been making the rounds to various conventions, and have even begun being noticed in Japan.
Michael Dobson is a well-known English-language voice actor working for the Ocean Group. He's voiced Starscream (Transformers), as well as many other anime and non-anime roles. He gave a presentation about what it was like to be a voice actor, covering some of his experiences over the last many years.
I participated on two panels, one about classic anime (1980s and earlier) and one about the difference between reality and the portrayal of life in Japan in anime. Both were very well attended (probably not due to me, but I can hope), and those attending asked a lot of good questions which we answered. You can get the handout for the classic anime panel here:
If you like anime, or even just curious about it, I highly recommend attending next year. It's great fun!I'll be posting some pictures later.
(posted on behalf of Ken Rand)
Y'all,
Port Chicago Isn't There Anymore--But We Still Call It Home is DONE. I've said that before, I believe, as I've touched several milestones that felt like 'the end,' and it makes me wonder when a book is really, finally, finished. When you write 'the end' on the last page of the first draft? When you finish the 'final' edit, macro or micro? When it sells, or when it goes to print? Some special award or recognition? It's all a process--no news there. I'm realizing the process RIGHT NOW. I just got my POD copy of Port Chicago Isn't There a few minutes ago from Lulu. It arrived sooner than I thought. There are some tweaks I need to make--I should have a TOC for the ARCs, IMHO, and an author's bio in the back, but I can proceed for now without an index and the memorial list and that short '3 questions' chapter I've been chewing on. (Come to think of it, the book can be published--as is--NOW.) I'll see how easy it is to make the tweaks this week. If it isn't easy, I'll fuggetaboutit and order 25 of what I got. It'll do for my purposes--solicit corrections, additions and comment from a select list of principle contacts.
I done it. There are more milestones yet, of course. When Patrick sets it, when we get a cover done, when he ships the first box of books, when I ship the first signed copy to the first buyer--and so on. More milestones—but I done it.
I done it.
I started this project in 1984. Quit several times. Worked on it almost daily for the past two years. Got rejected 116 times. Tens of thousands of hours of research and reading and writing, thousands of articles and documents parsed, millions of words written deleted and rewritten and edited, and hundreds of interviews conducted.
I done it.
By the way, if you don't know what I'm talking about it, read the intro to the book on my website. Comments welcome.
Ken
Read the introduction to Ken Rand's Port Chicago Isn't There Anymore--But We Still Call It Home at www.sfwa.org/members/Rand/. (to be published Saturday, July 26, 2008).
