More on Social Media

This time, talking about websites, and I want to take a moment to say I am very annoyed at my inability to find a webs designer willing to take on the job of rebuilding my website for free.

Sigh. I'll just have to pay someone, then.

Anyway, and interesting article from SEOwizardy on the importance of making your website ready for social media. Very much sales oriented, so if you aren't selling things from your website, you probably won't be interested. On the other hand, if you're an author...

Anyway, enjoy. I'm going back to editing for the last 15 minutes before I go to bed.

Social Media - A Cool Video

Think social media is a fad?

Socialnomics doesn't, and they've put together a cool video to convince you that social media is the next social revolution. Here it is:

Courtesy of my boss, who sent it around work.

My Dinner with... well... Near Neil Gaiman

It was like having dinner with Neil Gaiman! Only he was sitting two tables away and talking to someone and I could only sit and watch casually because I didn't want to stare or do something crass like going over to interrupt him to start gushing about his work.

French-Canadian food. Great little restaurant and as soon as I remember the name, I'll put it in here.

But it was cool to see him! Wish I'd gotten to his signing, but I was running around like a mad creature pushing books and doing panels. Too bad. He seems like a neat guy, though he has a strange fascination with bees and bell jars.

So this is my six-day late-WorldCon wrap-up piece. Work has been busy as all get out and I've been too tired to do anything except edit a little bit and get to bed. Today, however, the house is mine, and I wanted to post about what an excellent time I had hanging out and going to panels and doing panels. It was all cool.

I spent a great deal of the convention hanging out at the Hades Publications table. Met Brian and Anita Hades, and had good talks with them. Excellent folks who run a fine publishing house (and I don't just say that because the publish Small Magics through their Dragon Moon Press imprint).

Also got to hang out with my soon-to-be editor Gabrielle Harbowy, who will be doing the edits on Cold Magics in the near future. Good woman, excellent editor, and fun to hang out with. She was also present during my dinner with near Neil Gaiman and can attest to the fact that he was two tables away and we didn't go over and act like idiots in front of him.

I didn't make it to any of the parties except the Tesseract book launch because exhaustion had its way with me. Work has been long and busy and home has been the same. Plus there's the writing which I need to finish ASAP.

The panels I attended were fun, and the ones that I was on were more so.

Panels I Attended: The Function of a Cover (sell books), Podcasting (get professional help), Elizabethans and fairies (didn't talk about fairies much, but lots about Elizabethans and magic).

Panels I was On:

Research and Writing (with Aliette de Bodard, Darlene Marshall, Mindy Klasky, S.M. Stirling -- ever feel like you're outclassed?). This was a great panel. The other panelists were extremely well-versed in the topic, and very well spoken. I discovered I was the moderator when I walked in the room, but managed to pull myself together to ask intelligent questions of the panelists and answer some of the audience questions fairly intelligently myself. Cannot say enough good things about this group and the audience we had. Thanks to everyone.

Also, met a woman from the audience who was the spitting image of someone with whom I went to high school. No relation at all, but a professor down in the USA (If you happen to read this, send me the name of your book [it was an academic study of on science fiction] I want to get a copy).

Martial Arts Primer for Writers (with Sean McMullen and Walter Jon Williams -- remember that outclassed thing I mentioned before? Here it is again!). This one was a hoot. Nothing like putting three martial artists on a panel and letting them go. Got put in an armbar by Sean, got to demonstrate some cloak and dagger fighting with help from an audience member's cloak, talked a whole bunch of martial arts and even managed to be occasionally on topic. Lots of fun.

I did two other panels: The Morning Workout with Birgit Houston on Saturday to which no one attended but myself and Birgit, who is a lovely woman and an excellent martial artist. And Fitness for Geeks with Nancy Louise Freeman (whose name I kept geting wrong. Sorry, Nancy!) which was all right, but under attended. Nancy was a great co-panelist and excellent to work with.

I was supposed to do another panel, but had to get on the highway instead.

And that's my time at Anticipation/WorldCon 2009. Great fun and maybe I'll get back to Anticipation next year, if I've got something to show (like a new book!)

UPDATE: The restuarant was the Restaurant Vallier. Great food. Try the halibut BLT (Yes, halibut. Welcome to Quebec). Thanks, Gabrielle!

Saturday at WorldCon

Four things to carry when running in a strange city:

1. Map
2. Water
3. Camera
4. Taxi Money

Four things Erik didn't take with him while running this morning.

1. Map
2. Water
3. Camera
4. Taxi Money

Got to the promenade at Mt. Royal and saw the 7 a.m. light shining over the city. The river was flowing with white light, and the windows of the cars going over the bridge flashed silver as they headed into the city.

I tried to figure out where I was going from there, but couldn't and headed down the mountain. then I saw an interesting road. So I took it.

Erik's rule of running in a strange city: Never fall for the voice in your head that says "hey, what's over there?"

I fell for it. I ended up going through the McGill campus and then the restaurants of the student quarter. Saw nineteenth century tenements huddled together, their fantastical rooflines -- turrets and crenellations-- facing down the bland squareness of the 1970's high-rise apartments across the road. I saw the beautiful Parc de la Fontaine (if misspelled, I am sorry) and discovered I'd run about 4 km further than I intended and had to backtrack, get back, shave, shower, and rush rush rush to my 9 a.m. panel --- to which no one came.

Obviously I missed blogging on Friday. I was completely exhausted. But during the day I went to interesting panels on the importance of covers and podcasting SF/F, and ate shish tauk for lunch and went to the launch party for Tesseract 13 and heard six of the authors to read their stories. They are all amazing, I bought it, and I am adding it to the "must read" stack.

There were a dozen parties happening Friday night, and a hundred good restaurants near the convention. And I went back to my room, dumped my stuff, got pizza and a salad from the restaurant in the food court near my hotel read most of Sojourn by Jana G. Oliver which I cannot say enough good things about, and went to sleep early.

Yes, I am a wild party.

And I'm here!

At WorldCon, having a blast. Went by the Hades publishing table (who publish Edge, Dragon Moon and Tesseract) signed three copies of my book that were sold while I was there, and met the folks in charge.

Going to be going to bed soon. Will post pictures tomorrow, if I can manage to download them, and will wax eloquent about how wonderful the signings for Small Magics went. I have two of them. One in the autographs area in the morning, one at the Hades Publishing table in the afternoon.

--Oh yeah, and I'm doing an interview for a podcast tomorrow!

Talk to you later!

Truer words were never spoken...

From Tate Hallaway at Wyrdsmiths:

You know what I hate about being a writer? Writing.

Good Tips of Being on a Panel

Five days until I arrive at Anticipation (AKA WorldCon 2009), and I am prepping for my panels and getting my materials together. I'm getting all sorts of excited, first because it's WorldCon, which is going to be huge and great fun, but because it's Montreal, which is one of the most beautiful cities in Canada.

Meanwhile, my friend and editor-in-chief, Gabrielle Harbowy, is writing clever things on her blog about what to do as a panelist at a convention. It's a good little list and one that I will try to remember and no doubt forget and I wander around, enjoying the whole thing.

Look forward to seeing folks there. Now, I'm going to go do some of that editing on Cold Magics that I'm so far behind on.

Language Lessons....

I have to admit to never wondering about why the "i" in the word "I" is capitalized. It was just something that one does. Over at the New York Times, however, someone has wondered and written a whole article explaining things right here.

It's an interesting read, for those interested in such things, which includes me.

A Bit About Script Writing

Found scriptologist.com while contemplating writing a screenplay this afternoon. The website has some good information about writing scripts, as well as some great links to movie scripts online.

I have a few screenplay ideas floating around in my head at any given time, but haven't had the time or energy to put them down lately. I'm too busy trying to get Cold Magics finished. It is nice to think about, though, and today at lunch I started doing a script outline just for fun. Maybe once this piece is done, I can take the time to write a screenplay.

I think writing a horror movie would be neat, don't you?

Woot!

I got Drupal working on my website. Time to start a long, slow rebuild process...

You know, it just doesn't sound exciting when I put it like that...

Time to start building my brand-new, interactive, blog-capable, updatable website!!!

That's better!

A Little Marketing Stuff

Been so busy this week that most nights I haven't been home 8 p.m., so what energy I have left has has gone into editing, rather than blogging.

That said...

A while back I came across some book marketing information which looked pretty interesting and sent it home with the idea of posting it here.

So, here are the websites:

http://www.bookmarket.com/
http://www.writerswrite.com/bookpromotion/
http://www.midwestbookreview.com/bookbiz/advice/introver.htm

Have a look, and if you find it useful, let me know. Also, if you find it useless, let me know. I'm curious as to what people think.

Back to learning Drupal for the new website. And editing.

Good Band

Blitzen Trapper.

Heard them on CBC and found one of their videos on YouTube. I like their sound and they've got a nice way with lyrics.

Here's the video for "Furr"

Small Steps Forward

My website (www.erikbuchanan.ca) has been a constant annoyance to me because I simply haven't had the time to upgrade it, nor the money to hire someone else to do it (I have high hopes for the lottery this weekend, but let's be serious).

Now, however, I have taken the first step. I have changed my website from a shell site (hosted as www.web.ca/~erikbuchanan but with my domain name) to a true website, with actual page names and everything.

The next step is recreating it so that it is more content management friendly. I want to have an easily updateable event calendar, my blog, and other nice web 2.0 features there without having to do all that HTML that I'm just not that good at.

So, one small step forward for tonight. And if there are any cheap, good website designers out there who can show me how to build this thing using Drupal, I'd appreciate the help.

Anyone? Anyone?

Beuller?

Two Cool Things!

First:

Dr. Steven Beebe of Texas State University discovered part of a manuscript that appears to be a collaboration between C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien called Language and Human Nature.

Second:

In finding this story, I also found the C.S. Lewis Foundation website, which is kind of cool. Interesting mandate.

Well, F**K!

What? I'm lessening the pain.

The pain of what I'm not sure, but there's pain in there somewhere and I am lessening it!

CBC says so!

And now, more editing.

NetworkedBlogs

So I'm running a test here, because I signed up for NetworkedBlogs on Facebook, which is supposed to be running material from my Blog to my facebook page -- my page, not my profile, but it seems to be sending it to my profile. Not certain just yet.

So this is a test. We will see if it is working.

UPDATE: Apparently, the blog needs at least 4 followers on facebook to be visible, so we will see what happens. It's there, and I've sent out invites.

Book Talk from a Literary Agent

Found this blog today at lunch.  Nathan Bransford is a literary agent from Curtis Brown LTD and runs a nice little blog with excellent advice for writers and those seeking an agent.  Also his blog links on the side are well worth a read, too.

Funny enough, I am not in the market for an agent right now, not because I don't want one (I do, and if any are reading, you'll be hearing from me in the future) but because I don't have anything to send to one at the moment.

I'm up to my eyebrows in editing Cold Magics right now. The King Below, which I could be marketing to an agent, is languishing on the shelf in need of a re-write, while my next one is still sitting in my brain, bubbling away like a stew pot getting ready to explode.  Problem is, I need to keep a lid on it because I don't have time to start another project right now.

So not this year, but next year, I will be looking for an agent.  One that handles historical fiction as well as fantasy. I have a cool idea for the next book.

Polaris Wrap Up

Well, I had fun.

Polaris as usual was a blast.  Nice people, good panels, great staff, and the folks at the hotel were very nice to us all as well.  I stopped one of them on my way out to thank them for the great work they did to make us all comfortable.

My highlight of the weekend was when one fan attending one of the panels dragged a friend forward and said that she 'd bought my book the year before and liked it so much she'd convinced her friend to buy it, too.  That's the kind of word of mouth I love to hear.

Got to hang out with some nice writer types, got to see some actors, and got to have a great time while talking up Small Magics and Cold Magics, which I am going to work hard to have ready early next year, rather than late.  I want to have something new to show all the good folks come 2010.

A great time, and if any of the Polaris organizers are reading this, thank you!

Polaris Day 2, Quick Blog

Day 2 at Polaris and I have temporary access to WiFi (Thanks nice Sheraton people!).

I've just downloaded Cold Magics on to here so I can work while I'm standing around, and am looking forward to a great afternoon.  Love the people here.

So, off to work, schmooze and have fun!  Will report in tomorrow! 

Polaris!

Last night was the first night for Polaris 23 and a load of fun as usual. Attended the Blastoff party and got to speak with Matt Frewer, who is a very nice man and told me some interesting things about Doctor Doctor which he did in the 1980's and which was brilliantly funny.

Also got to meet Michael Hogan, another fine actor from Battle Star Galactica and many fine TV series including CTV's Cold Squad. Good actor.

And, finally (among the actors) got to meet the lovely Claudia Black who is as beautiful in person as she is on the screen and a lovely to talk with.

Saw and spoke with various other writers there, too: Douglas Smith, Julia Czerneda, Lesley Livingston, and Adrienne Cress.

Did my first panel at 11 p.m. and had great fun with it, but I didn't get to bed until 1:30 a.m. and my little girl got be up at 7:30. Man, am I tired.

Will be heading over there at noonish today. Looking forward to a good afternoon of schmoozing and book selling.

I'll be doing my reading at 7 p.m. tonight, and panels at 10 and 11 p.m., so do come out if you are in the area. My signing is tomorrow afternoon at 4 p.m.

Now, time to figure out which bit of Cold Magics I should read. First time reading any of it in public, too. Hmmm...