DUNE BLOG

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

San Diego Comic Con, NORAD, and Denvention

And so the months of travel and promotion begin.

In mid-July, Rebecca and I traveled to the San Diego Comic Con, which we've attended for more than a dozen years. Attendance was somewhere around 130,000 people, all packed into an enormous convention center (that, alas, wasn't enormous enough). We did panels and many autographings, attended the Scribe Awards ceremony, and met with a lot of friends and fellow writers, TV folks, actors, and of course many fans. We gave out stacks of the 3-D cover for LAST DAYS OF KRYPTON as well as thousands of the unique promo item, packets of gummi-sandworms for PAUL OF DUNE. Rebecca and I also had lunch with one of the execs working on the Dune film and got to do a lot of brainstorming.

Because we're still running the CRYSTAL DOORS giveaway, we handed out six cases of the hardcovers to fans at the con, as well as donating a set of the trilogy to the California Browncoats charity auction. Comic Con is always a vibrant, energetic gathering filled with people who love the genre.

After coming home from the crowded madness of Comic Con, with only a few days to spare, I spent some time in Rocky Mountain National Park, doing a lot of hiking and dictating -- eight chapters of JESSICA OF DUNE, then some quiet concentration time in the cabin, where I worked on my edit of the first TERRA INCOGNITA volume. I *almost* finished editing the whole manuscript for my editor before the next travel and appearance commitment -- 35 pages from the end (of a 610 page manuscript).

This past weekend, we were guests at Denvention 3, the World Science Fiction Convention in Denver -- a much quieter and more relaxing get-together (with only 3000 people, instead of 130,000). On Thursday, the first day of the convention, I was one of 20 authors who took a tour of the NORAD complex in Cheyenne Mountain. You can read a description of that event at io9.com. After the tour, everyone came back to our house for a Colorado barbecue of buffalo burgers, buffalo dogs, and other fare.

The next three days, we were up at the convention itself, on numerous panels and signings. We gave out another case of the PAUL gummi sandworms and another 80 copies of CRYSTAL DOORS, met many friends, fans, writers, and editors, then came back home for a few days of normalcy again.

This morning, I did finish those last 35 pages in TERRA INCOGNITA and so sent the manuscript off to the editor. Now, to catch up on e-mails, letters, etc. before we head off to LA on Wednesday to teach at the Writers of the Future workshop and to present awards on Friday night.

Also, if you'd like to check out two more interviews you can find them on The Page 69 Test site and the Sci Fi Wire site.

-- KJA