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San Diego Comic-Con and a writing update

I've been attending Comic-Con for a long time now. This will be my 14th of the last 16 that I've been to. I've covered the last five or so as press and have had a great time interviewing some very cool people. From Kevin Smith to Kevin Conroy and the cast of The Clone Wars and comics superstars across the board. It gets more and more stressful every year and I was honestly planning on skipping this year and taking a well deserved break to do some writing.

But I was invited to participate on a panel and I couldn't pass up that opportunity. And I've already booked some cool interviews that I'll be doing as well. It certainly won't be a waste of time.

For those interested in the panel I'm on, it's called "How to Get News Coverage" and here's the official rundown of it:
If you’ve wondered what it takes to get your project covered by Scoop or any of the other industry news sites, and you’re going to be attending Comic-Con International: San Diego, give some thought to stopping by the “How to Get News Coverage” on Thursday, July 12, 2012 from 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM in Room 8 at the San Diego Convention Center. What makes the difference between an item that will get news coverage, previews, interviews and one that doesn’t? 
A lot of publishers have no idea what to submit to the press, how to submit it and why they are being overlooked for coverage. Comic Journalist Rik Offenberger (First Comics News, Archie Comics) moderates this panel on just what it takes to get coverage with the Comic Journalists themselves telling you what they are looking for in your submission. Panelists include Alan Kistler (Comic Mix, Newsarama), Chris Thompson (First Comics News). Bryan Young, (Huffington Post, Big Shiny Robot), Dan Manser (Diamond), Heidi McDonald (The Beat), Holly Golightly (BroadSword Studios), Rich Johnston (Bleeding Cool), Kiel Phegley (Comic Book Resources), J.C. Vaughn (Scoop), Josh Waldrop (M1W Entertainment), and Matt Moore (Associated Press). Find out what it takes to self-promote and make a significant impact on your ability to sell your comic project.
It's my first time on a Comic-Con stage and hopefully not my last.


I hope to see lots of friendly faces in the audience. And I'll have copies of my books on me as well, in case you're interested in picking one up there instead of ordering it online. (Shoot me an email). Also, I'm wanting some photographs of me on the panel taken. If you can be there to take pictures, let me know. I'll make it worth your while.


As for a writing update, I think I did mention that I finished my manuscript for a children's book that ended up running about 30,000 words in the last couple of weeks. It's being fully illustrated by the redoubtable Erin Kubinek and so the ball on that project is in her court right now.

I'm in such a creatively fertile mood right now and am bristling under the constraints of my daily life. Every spare second I get I find myself trying to squeeze in writing time. I've put together almost 6,000 words on a new novel in the last week and a half and I think it is coming along rather nicely. I've also plotted out an entire series of novellas, plotted out a pair of novels that will gather dust in a notebook, started work on a couple of anthology pieces, and have basically driven myself mad with story ideas.

I always tell people that story ideas are always a dime a dozen and I constantly have more story ideas than I know what to do with, but right now it just seems like it has hit critical mass.

I've finished a whole pile of short stories recently, too. I have no plans for them, they just haven't seen the light of day. It's just a very prolific time for me.

Which is half the reason I was hesitant about going to Comic-Con in the first place. I need to spend that time writing.

But sometimes you just have to go to the Con whether you like it or not.  Just ask Cobb.

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