Contrary to popular belief that steampunk is dead, and thinking that maybe you missed the recent announcement on The Shared Desk or the Ministry website, I wanted to bring the news and the official launch date for the next project from Imagine That! Studios…

10 April 2012

I will be kicking off the new season of steampunk fiction with “Sins of the Father” where, due to popular demand, we get a peek into  Wellington Books’ past. Then, every alternate Tuesday following Season 2′s premiere, original stories from the Ministry of Peculiar occurrences will premiere, featuring the writing stylings of …

• P.J. Schnyder
• J.R. Blackwell
•  J.R. Murdock
• Shaun Farrell
• Doc Coleman
• Alyson Grauer
• Thomas Wilford

…and many others. With the ideas and stories submitted, including two winners from SpecFicNZ’s writing contest, Pip and I are really excited about what we got coming in 2012. Return with us  to the Archives for untold podcast stories from the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences.

Enjoy the ride.

And awwwaaaay we go!!!

Between the surprise priority video job at work, our child getting sick, the drama of getting out of Manassas, and WordPress for the iPhone borking on me and devouring my post, it is hard to believe we are on the way to New York Comic Con and yet here we are, chugging through New Jersey…

The recent crisis at work this week brought about an epiphany: some people are under the impression that video editing is the same as putting together a PowerPoint presentation. Thing is, you can’t do in PowerPoint what I put together in Final Cut Pro. You want more than you average slide presentation. Yes I get that. But as Jimmy has learned under The Commodore’s tutelage: You don’t get anything for free.

Boardwalk Empire. That’s some incredible storytelling there.

I am taking some cold comfort in that I did something no one else could do. It’s what my friend Al Garnett calls “the price of being a badass” — you raise the bar and people expect you to go Superman at a moment’s notice; but then again, no one does what I do there. No one could. That’s fact, bro. Straight up.

So now, Pip and I head for NY ComicCon. We want to get a hardbound copy of Phoenix Rising to Felicia Day, and I’d like to get Mark Hammil to sign my copy of Batman: Arkham Asylum. Funny thing — even with being pro, I’m still the fanboi.

I can live with that.

Next week, at this time, I will be kicking off a few days of panel appearances at Renovation: the 69^th Annual World Science Fiction Convention in lovely Reno, Nevada. If you are out west for the extended weekend, here is where I will be appearing during the weekend:

• Social Media for Writers (moderating), Fri 11:00 – 12:00, A03 (RSCC)
• Introduction to Steampunk: What Is Steampunk and Why Is it so Popular? (moderating), Fri 13:00 – 14:00, A13 (RSCC)
• Writers Collaboration Panel, Sat 11:00 – 12:00, D05 (RSCC)
• Steampunk versus Alternate History (moderating) , Sat 13:00 – 14:00, D03 (RSCC)
• Autographing: Sat 14:00 (with Pip Ballantine) , Sat 14:00 – 15:00, Hall 2 Autographs (RSCC)
• KaffeeKlatsch: Sat 17:00 (with Pip Ballantine), Sat 17:00 – 18:00, KK1 (RSCC)

Saturday night may very well be an all-nighter for Pip and myself as we are scheduled for an early Sunday flight out of Reno (the only flight we could get out of Reno that returned us to DC at a decent time…), but grab us anytime between Thursday and Saturday as we will be there at WorldCon!

So, I’m all rested up and recovered from an amazing weekend at the Steampunk World’s Fair (review in the works). What’s next?

Why, another con appearance, of course…

Concluding The Ministry MAY-hem Tour (at least, this part of it) is an old favorite of mine — BALTICON. It was nearly ten years ago when I first arrived at this event with Morevi.  I looked something like this back then…

This was before the time of facial hair, before the days of podcasting, before the days of Facebook, Twitter, and Social Media. Right now, I’d love to go up to that guy and say “You have no idea what’s in store for you, bro.”

What a long strange trip it has been. And with the premiere of Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel, it may just get a wee-bit stranger at Balticon 45 as tea parties, time traveling dances, rock-and-roll courtesy of Ditched by Kate, and panels-panels-panels are all in store! Here’s my schedule for the next few days…

FRIDAY
New Independent Voices in New Media — 6:00pm, Chesapeake
(New Media GoH, Pip Ballantine will be taking my place on the “Alien Sex: What Could Go Wrong?” panel at 9:00pm)

SATURDAY
The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Tea Party & Book Launch — 3:00 pm, Chesapeake

REMINDER: At the Ministry tea party we are giving away prizes, including a Catherinette steampunk ring AND a Dr. Grordbort signet ring. Constellation Books will be there to sell books, and we will provide tea and cookies!

Antigone’s Wrath LIVE — 4:00pm, Salon D
Low Budget Filmmaking — 9:00pm, Chesapeake

SUNDAY
Metamor City LIVE — 5:00pm, Chesapeake
The Time Traveler’s Ball (serving as DeeJay PirateBoy) — 10pm-1am, Garden Suite

MONDAY
Networking Vs. Platform — 10:00am, Salon C
The Shrinking Man Project LIVE — 1:00pm, Derby

The schedule is subject to change (in case of invites to join other panels), but now you know where to find both Pip Ballantine and myself. Don’t be a stranger — say hi, buy a book, and get your geek on at Balticon!

In another posting on being business savvy when it comes to a writing career, I wanted to talk a bit about a con-related chat that came up between Jean Orrico and myself. Jean, as you might know, is my agent for a writing workshop I teach with Lani Tupu. Lani, as many of you should know, is the uber-talented, multi-faceted actor and artist, best known for his work as Crais and the voice of pilot in (my favorite Science Fiction television series) Farscape. Usually I bump into Jean (always a pleasure) and we either talk smack to one another (much to the delight of Lani), talk shop, or she berates me for “taking too damn long on a Morevi sequel.”

Hopefully, she will still be talking to me after my blogpost concerning that.

Jean asked me recently if I was coming to Dragon*Con this year. Now, if you’ve missed the hundreds—no, wait, the thousands—no, wait, tens of thousands—of write-up’s, video, pictures, tweets, and podcasts about this particular event, let me bring you up to speed on Dragon*Con. If there were a Mardi Gras for geeks, this would be it. Held in Atlanta every Labor Day weekend, Dragon*Con is a fan-run (as in volunteer, and God bless every one of those volunteers who step up to make this happen!) convention that must be experienced at least once. It is an epic four-day weekend with media stars, podcasters, writers, artists, and costumes, costumes, costumes. Along with Jean, a few other friends and fans have asked me if I and Pip will be in attendance this year. When we say “no” people look a little disappointed, but trust us — we have very good reasons for passing on Dragon*Con.

One reason — Pip and I are headed to WorldCon 69/Renovation, held in Reno, Nevada, this year.

If you go back to my in-depth look at the cost of cons, I revealed that for one of these events roughly totaled $600-700 per con. Dragon*Con and WorldCon are different beasts all together. After you factor in the cost of travel, hotel, and any other expenses (aside from shopping), Dragon*Con and WorldCon are triple that amount.

No kidding. Triple. How? First, both events last longer than a simple weekend. Dragon*Con offers limited programming on Thursday while WorldCon kicks off programming on Wednesday night. Both events wrap up on Monday. When attending large events like this, it is a good idea, to get there the day before and leave the day after, just to beat both rushes. This puts you in a hotel for nearly a week.

Then there’s the travel. Driving to Dragon*Con (for us) would mean filling the tank at least three times, one way. Flying for both of us (WorldCon) is also going to drive up the costs. Our tickets for Reno will probably hit $500-550 each.

Between the hotel and travel, you’re already into the $1200 range for both of these events, and we haven’t covered food yet.

A few fans have put to us “With Phoenix Rising coming out, shouldn’t you two make a showing?”

Now that’s a solid argument, and Dragon*Con does attract some of the major players like Anne McCaffrey, Tracy & Laura Hickman, Margaret Weis, and Terry Brooks; but it’s not the writers people come to see. Dragon*Con is all about the Media stars. Some media guests range from cast members of Ron Moore’s Battlestar Galactica to (no kidding) Happy Days. You also get blasts from the past (Lou Ferrigno, Gil Gerrard, and Carrie Henn), geek icons (Robert Llewelyn, Ray Park, the Mythbusters Build Team) and the downright bizarre (professional wrestlers and porn stars). My bro from Aotearoa, Lani, fares far better at Dragon*Con as it is geared for who he is and what he does. Writers can do well there, too, provided they are New York Times Bestsellers.

“But it’s a networking opportunity. Tens of thousands of people attend!” Sure, there’s a lot of people that come to Dragon*Con, but writers making connections and closing deals? Hardly. Writers (the ones I know) go there to party, make no mistake!

Networking? Too insane.

Now that we’ve covered Dragon*Con’s shortcomings, let’s cast a critical eye on WorldCon, an event I’ve only attended once. This year, as a matter of fact. From an organizational point-of-view, WorldCon 68 in Australia could have been better.

A lot better.

Allright, I’ll say it—WorldCon 68 in Australia was nothing short of a train wreck.

Again, this was my first WorldCon and I didn’t have anything to compare it to, unless you count the WorldCon in Canada back in 2003 where four queries went ignored, and then two weeks before the event they invited me to attend. Of course that was along time ago and this was Melbourne, Australia. They had two years to represent the Southern Hemisphere, so surely they would bring their “A” game.

Not so much.

I dodged a bullet with some of WorldCon’s last minute changes, but Pip really had to ask “What the hell is going on?” a few times. Other authors we knew were simply giving up on the schedule and attending the panels they wanted, be it from the panelists’ perspective or the attendees. The there was a bit of a SNAFU in Child Care (which could have been avoided with a bit of communication), and the venue’s WiFi can be best describe as a clusterfuck with a side order of bullshit…

…and this was my first ever WorldCon experience.

So, why go again?

WorldCon is a con for writers, and fans pack the panels. Also in attendance are publishers and agents. Don’t get me wrong—there’s a lot of fun to be had at a WorldCon (just look at the programming), but a lot of business just happens there, too. Pip and I, as we were in town, were invited to a seminar hosted by Harper Collins Australia, concerning digital publishing. During the weekend, we had lunch with Diana Gill, our editor from Harper Voyager, where we talked frankly about Ministry business. Then came the Harper Voyager party, our chance to drink and make merry with other authors at our new publishing house. There, we got into a pleasant chat with the head editor for Harper Collins Australia/NZ. Turns out a very rough Phoenix Rising draft was on her desk; and what she read of it she really enjoyed, or so she said.

A month later, our steampunk adventure got picked up by Voyager Australia/NZ, beginning our international distribution opportunities.

Coincidence? No. I don’t think so.

WorldCon is a place where deals and networking can happen. It’s less of a party and more of an investment. Book dealers will have our works there. It is face time amongst other writers, editors, and fans. Pip and I should not get lost in the shuffle when established literary icons of the genre hold court at Dragon*Con. We get panel time, and personal time.

There is also the newness of this year’s WorldCon. As it is a different location and a different volunteer group, Pip and I are hoping this extended weekend will go smoother than our stay in Melbourne.

This may be a smart business decision, but by no means am I thrilled with it. Every time I went to Dragon*Con, I had a blast. I don’t know what was more fun: brushing shoulders with the media guests, enjoying time with other authors, touching base with friends from far-off, or simply watching geeks interact with themselves and the menagerie that is Dragon*Con. This was another tough call I (and Pip) had to make when mapping out where we wanted to go and what we could afford in 2011. While Dragon*Con can’t happen for us presently, we won’t be sitting put. We have other events (coming soon) that will give folks plenty of time and opportunity to catch up with us. For now, the spectacle and splendor that is Dragon*Con will simply have to wait.

Now, if Ministry strikes a media deal…

Well, don’t be surprised if this clockwork music box quickly changes a key or two.

I admit that my blog (both of them) have been a bit quiet since taking on the Day Job and working through a busy October, but hopefully this sneak peek at what I’ve been up to will make my pockets of quiet worthwhile.

Recorded before a live audience at World Fantasy Convention, award-winning podcaster and award-nominated author Philippa Ballantine and I unveiled (with the blessings of our agent) our work-in-progress now working its way through submissions: Books & Braun, our Steampunk take on The Avengers. This is the first time that we have revealed to the public any selections from the work (apart from the odd quotes and teasers in our respective tweet streams), and we had a blast with this presentation. Our plan is to eventually podcast it in this fashion: Pip and I supplying the respective narration, a “few” (HA!) production elements, a musical score, and artwork featured by Carrie Seidman. We hope you enjoy this listen at what we have cooking in the creative kitchen.

BLOGGERS & PODCASTERS: We are releasing this reading under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Both Pip and I encourage you to syndicate this episode and point your subscribers to this endeavor of ours. We also would love to hear your feedback on this preview both here and at Pip’s website. Thank you for giving us a bit of space on your mp3 player of choice, and we will keep you posted on what happens with our daring duo from the clandestine organization that is The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences.