Life The Universe and Everything for the Weekend

Its that time of year again, Life The Universe and Everything the annual science fiction/ fantasy writers convention.

This is one of the best, mostly because there are so many writers and other creatives to rub shoulders with. You'd be hard pressed to come up with any con where you could hang with more. I have been to some other big writer conventions, but this one is full of my people - everything Spec-Fic!

And of course I'm a guest once again, so I'll be on panels, lounging in the green room and trying to even get a little more writing done to fulfill my "pulp speed" expectations.

Here is my schedule - its a little Thursday heavy.

Thursday, February 16
9am
Novel vs. Short Story
Arches (Provo Marriott), 9am - 9:50am
Tags: Writing
David Boop, Christopher Husberg (M), Terra Luft, Eric James Stone, Scott R. Parkin, David J. West
The novel vs. the short story. How can they benefit from each other? How are the skill-sets different? How do you know which to choose?

11am
I Can't Believe You Haven't Read This . . .
Juniper (Provo Marriott), 11am - 11:50am
Tags: Books
Kenna Blaylock, C.H Lindsay (M), David J. West, Jessica Day George,
Not-to-be-missed middle grade and young adult books from writers of the genre and those who know it best.

12pm
So You Want to Write Horror...
Arches (Provo Marriott), 12pm - 12:50pm
Tags: Writing
Courtney Alameda, Larry Correia, Steve Diamond, Terra Luft, David J. West (M)
Get tips for writing horror. How do you know if horror is for you? Tips for beginners.

4pm
Making a Living on the Macabre
Bryce (Provo Marriott), 4pm - 4:50pm
Tags: Books
Courtney Alameda, Cheree Alsop (M), David J. West
Fantasy horror writers and how they create their works. Let's look at the works that hit a homerun and the writers that created them.

5pm
The Art of the Hook
Arches (Provo Marriott), 5pm - 5:50pm
Tags: Writing
Larry Correia, James Ganiere, Scott R. Parkin, J. Scott Savage, Andrea Pearson (M), David J. West
First lines and first chapters matter. How do you get readers interested in your story? In your characters?

Friday, February 17
10am
Hottest Women in Science Fiction
Bryce (Provo Marriott), 10am - 10:50am
Tags: Books
Jana S. Brown, Adam McLain (M), David J. West
It's not your sexy cover babe. We're talking women writers and their works, but you knew that already, right?

6pm - 8pm
Book Signing
Zion, Bryce and Arches

I'll have print copies of Scavengers, Six-Gun Serenade and others - but this is the first time I'll have those to sign.

So for all my long-distance friends - this would be the one to someday make it too.

Happy Birthday Frank

Its no surprise my all time favorite artist is the Frank Frazetta.

I've heard of ungodly amounts of money paid for his work (not that he didn't earn that and not that I wouldn't pay it myself if I could) but the closest I've been able to manage myself to own in my personal collection aside from several calendars, books and of course prints is an actual signed poster! One that was meant to be part of some exclusive collection of Robert E. Howard's work - probably with Wandering Star but I'm not sure.

It is one of my favorite pieces and of course I have the fill print hanging in a place of honor in my study, but the signed print is right behind me, looking over my shoulder.

Today would have been Frank's 89th birthday and I'm just saying my Thanks and how grateful I am for the amazing works of art he put into the world, we are surely all the better for his unique vision.

PULP SPEED

I've got enough writer friends out there that this post is kind of a perfect storm of encouragement and moving forward with doing what we love = writing.

I first saw this article by Dean Wesley Smith about Pulp Speed thanks to Jay Barnson and it was one of those posts that kind of makes you go, "Yeah! I need to be doing that!"

I had already meant to make 2017 my year! Producing more and gaining commercial success as well. So far that has been a BIG GO with releasing the novelette Six-Gun Serenade and novel Scavengers which gained a couple different #1 categories and made it to the Top 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 in a dozen categories too! It has done very well its first week out. So pleased with that.

Anyway I was also listening to either the  The Sell More Books Show or the Sci-Fi & Fantasy Marketing Podcast, and one of them last week mentioned someone who said they have a daily word goal of only 50 words a day.

What does that have to do with Pulp Speed and my own work ethic? The whole point was only that at 50 words a day - anybody could find the time to do that and accomplish something - no stress. If you can do more great. But don't get overwhelmed, stressed and therefore accomplish nothing - Do Something!

So I decided that I wouldn't slack off any more and gave myself the modest goal of 500 words a day no matter what - if I could do more than that = great = but no stress. I have beat myself up when I haven't accomplished what I felt I should = usually an unreasonable amount of words but that didn't stop me from still getting depressed about it.

Since then I have accomplished it, doing at least 500 words a day if not more, yesterday was 3,700.
I did do 40K from about December 20th to January 20th and I fully intend to beat that by a good stretch in the next month. I'll let you know.

So in short, I've got a basic relatively easy goal to meet every day (and hopefully beat) to get myself into at least the bottom rung of what Dean Wesley Smith calls Pulp Speed. Pretty sure I can do it, I've got lots of plans for the new year, novels and novelettes are coming in a literal barrage of pulp fiction goodness.

Until next time!