I am a writer, editor, publisher, and hillbilly. I own and operate Apex Publications (ApexBookCompany.com) and am the editor-in-chief of the Hugo Award-nominated Apex Magazine.
I love the idea of throwing a celebration for a book launch. By any measure, writing a novel is no small ordeal. And having one published is quite extraordinary. Such accomplishments should be noted in a public setting.
But having done maybe a dozen of these, I still can’t tell you what to expect in terms of attendance. Will the place be packed? Or will I be sitting with the author eating all the finger foods in an empty store?
I don’t know. I expect Jerry’s launch to have 50+ attendees. Whatever the case, whether there are 5 people in attendance or 100, I promise myself to have fun.
Unless it’s only Jerry and I. Chomping carrots and fighting over the veggie dip. That will be awkward.
When I started this website, blogs were all the rage. All the cool people in the business wrote online journals. The Man of the People–John Scalzi–helped build a nice following with his. Chuck Wendig fights for the Side of Good on his and earned a sizable fanbase. Other bloggers would post entire novels for free on their blogs…and some of them even became rich and famous (hello Andy Weir & Hugh Howey)!
I wanted in on that action. But, ultimately, I found it to be too much work. Let’s not address the truth…that I simply was not, am not interesting enough to post entertaining content on a near daily basis.
Then Facebook and Twitter REALLY took off and blogs faded. BLOGS ARE DEAD read many clickbait headlines. Like a good lemming, I focused my attention on Facebook and Twitter. It went fine for a couple of years, until the world started to sour on social media. It might have something to do with social media dog piling, or perhaps all the Russian bots, or that Twitter has a bad Nazi problem…
So, lately, a resurge in blogging has occurred.
Okay, I lied. I’ve no idea if blogging is still dead or if it has picked up. I saw one headline claiming it was time to return to the platform. Whatever the case, I hope to write the occasional useful/entertaining post on my website once in awhile. Just to keep the site current.
For example, with this post, I would like to share my convention schedule for the remainder of the year. I hope I see you at one of them!
Gencon
Aug. 2-5
Indianapolis, IN
Imaginarium
Oct. 5-7
Louisville, KY
World Fantasy Con
Nov. 1-5
Baltimore, MD
I have many other activities planned, but a lot of them are local. Such as an upcoming appearance at the Lexington Public Library Book Buzz event. Perhaps I’ll share my thoughts about it in the coming couple of weeks.
I’ll be taking part in the first annual Lexington Legendary Book Bash. Apex will have a couple of tables and several of our authors will be in attendance signing (Shawn Pryor, Justin Stewart, Tressa Bowling, Mari Adkins, and me).
Where: Hilton Lexington Suites (adjacent to Joseph-Beth Booksellers)
The event organizer, Michelle Areaux, is a local teacher who wants to start an annual book festival in Lexington. She’s teamed up with Joseph-Beth Booksellers to make it happen. Next year, I hope I’m able to better organize and support Michelle in this noble venture.
A couple weeks back, I made the drive from Lexington, KY to the far reaches of eastern PA to visit Brian Keene’s studio where he interviewed me for his popular podcast (The Horror Show with Brian Keene).
Okay, so I drove up there to enjoy fellowship, booze, and to hang out with several Apex authors and editors AND to do the interview.
The weekend was a blast. Being in a car alone with my thoughts for 10 hour stretches is a dicey proposition, but I survived, and can say without reservation the trip was worth it.
I hope that you enjoy my interview, and that you decide to subscribe to Keene’s podcast.
I have a new story (my first in a long while) over at Speculate! magazine titled “Free Coffee, Courtesy of the Telford Nature Explorers of Washington.” Read it here.
Recently, I learned that some states have rest stops where charity organizations setup tables and offer free coffee to weary travelers. Ever suspicious of random acts of kindness, I began to imagine the dangers this might pose.
Big pharma, cryptids, organic free-trade coffee, government conspiracies…and one man who wanted a simple cup of delicious coffee.
Chris Cornell is probably most famous for fronting the Seattle grunge band Soundgarden. He also had success as a solo artist and leading Audioslave (with the remaining members of Rage Against the Machine). Cornell had incredible vocal range and one of the most recognizable yowls in rock music.
The song that made him and Soundgarden famous was “Black Hole Sun.” It’s a trippy, moody 5+ minutes. A song you can listen to over and over.
Personally, it’s a touchstone song.
In the summer of 1994, I shared an apartment with my cousin in Richmond, KY. He and I worked different shifts and rarely saw one another. He also had a job that required travel, so I was often home alone.
One Friday morning, I awoke very ill. Vomiting. Terrible pain in my side. Any movement I made caused me to dry heave. But remaining still was agony. Few people had cellphones in 1994, including me. And my cousin and I had thought we would save money by foregoing a landline.
Being 20 years old, I thought I could tough out whatever illness had befallen me (kidney stones, as I discovered later). I laid on the floor in front of my bed, in the dark, crying in agony for 12 hours. The only thing keeping me company was my little 13 inch television playing MTV. “Black Hole Sun” was in heavy rotation. It’s the only song I remember during my suffering.
At one point, I decided I must be dying, and therefore, had to summon the strength to find a phone. I recall walking to a nearby gas station to use the payphone to call my parents (who lived 2 hours away). Thinking back, I’m shocked nobody called the police. I probably looked like a strung out druggie, rung out, puking every minute or two.
For reasons I don’t remember, it took my folks 6 hours to come get me. They took me to the UK hospital emergency room where I was given two ibuprofen and told to tough it out because I didn’t have insurance. I eventually started showing a fever after another 12 hours where I was in so much pain I was delusional and my parents took me to a different hospital.
I primarily remember three things from those hellish 24 hours. 1) “Black Hole Sun.” 2) Apologizing to my brother for being a shitty big bro. 3) Dropping my pants and pleading with the nurse to give me a shot for the pain (ha!).
RIP Chris Cornell. Your song got me through some tough times, man.
Past winners include Richard William Larson and Hannah Ruth Krieger.
Full Disclosure: I’m on the board of directors of this organization. I do help judge submissions, but we use a multi-reader blind submission protocol. Judge pool includes several other professional editors.
If you have a submission you think fits, send it in.
It’s the last day of the drive. We’re sitting at $5275. A solid number. The goal is $10000 to achieve all I want to do for the zine for our readers and writers over the next 12 months.
You can support the zine for as little as $3. Some amazing rewards remain: original signed manuscripts from Brian Keene, handwritten poetry by Brandy Schwan, freelance services from me, signed books from Ellen Datlow, signed art prints, and more.
I am leading a writing SF/F/H breakout session at this year’s Books in Progress conference here in Lexington. This is one of (if not) the largest professional writing conferences in the state. It’s tailored for the literary crowd, though this year they’re sneaking some genre into the fun (yay!).
My breakout session is planned for June 9th, 2pm-3:30pm.
Link below for information about the conference. This is affiliated with the Lexington Carnegie Center.
