pbray

A tad belated announcement that the newly designed patriciabray.com website is up and running. My thanks to Jennifer, the chief webdesigner at Page Rank Rocket who translated my rather vague requirements into a modern Wordpress-driven website.

My limited photography talents were put to the test, but those are indeed my photos on the banner, including the shot of my office and the back patio where I hang out in the warmer months. One of the biggest debates was whether the blogging shot should include a coffee cup or a glass of wine. Either is accurate depending on time of day, but the coffee mug photographed better.

It's hunting season in New Jersey, and the best place to catch a wild author will be at Barnes & Noble in Ledgewood, New Jersey.

Magnificent Seven Signing
Saturday, November 7th, 2009, Noon-4pm
Barnes & Noble
Ledgewood Mall
375 Route 10 E
Ledgewood, NJ 07852
973-252-9300

Featuring wild things: Anton Strout, Barbara Campbell, Jackie Kessler, Joshua Palmatier, Laura Anne Gilman, Patricia Bray and S.C. Butler.

If you're in the area, drop by and say "Hi!"

On Saturday June 20th, seven talented authors will invade the center court of the Oakdale Mall in Johnson City, New York. Rumors that we will arrange our signing tables in a septagram and chant invocations to the Elder Gods while fireun and libwitch demonstrate firespinning in the center of the formation, are, well, almost certainly rumors.*

But for those folks who like facts, here's the stuff that's true:

SIGNING
June 20th, 2009, 1PM - 4PM
Center Court at the Oakdale Mall, Johnson City, NY.

List of Guests:
Anton Strout antonstrout
Joshua Palmatier jpsorrow
Jackie Kessler jackiekessler
Laura Anne Gilman suricattus
Barbara Campbell
S.C. Butler scbutler
Patricia Bray pbray


Description shamelessly stolen from jpsorrow's blog
We should have a rocking good time there, because most of us will be imbibing beforehand, and we all know how that goes. Tell your friends! It would so awesome if we all completely sold out of books at this event. Expect a heightening of tension and an increase in announcements as the event draws near. And keep in mind, if you don't live near Binghamton, NY, but would like signed copies, you can contact Waldenbooks at (607) 798-7452 and arrange to have them signed for you at the event and mailed to you. We aim to please. Just think, you could get signed copies of at least book 1 of our series from ALL OF US. Imagine what joy you'd get upon receiving that box on your doorstep.

*I'm fairly certain that the mall's insurance policy won't allow this. But if it did, it would be awesome.

This Saturday, I'll be joining S.C. Butler, Barbara Campbell, Daryl Gregory and Joshua Palmatier for a multi-author booksigning in Hackensack, New Jersey.

Saturday, January 24th, from 2PM to 4PM
Barnes & Noble Booksellers
The Shops @ Riverside
187 Riverside Square
Hackensack, NJ 07601
201-488-8037

If you're in the area, stop by and say Hi! There will be fun people. Plus chocolate. And lizards (assuming they don't escape during the drive...)

Well, jpsorrow and I survived yesterday's brush with fame as we appeared on the local 6PM news.

The good news is that the segment producer Frank Dirig and the anchor Steve Craig were both great, and the station promoed the heck out of Saturday's signing, with loving shots of book covers, and putting up the details front and center on the screen and then on their website.

On the other hand, I had a stunned-ox moment as the interview started off with questions that hadn't been anywhere in the pre-interview prep discussion, followed by random thoughts that sounded like I'd been replaced by one of those Turing test machines. Joshua, who had lost his voice and borrowed one from a nearby frog, came off better. Then again, Joshua is also the one who at the last second told Steve to start with me--next time I'm making Joshua go first.

Oh, yes, and we played the interview straight rather than going for YouTube fame.

That said, if you want to see local writers performing on live TV here's the link. Link now fixed! You have to wait through a commercial and a local news story before our interview is cued up.

And if you want to meet us in person, along with co-conspirators scbutler and Barbara Campbell, the place to be is Waldenbooks at the Oakdale Mall in Johnson City, NY, from 2PM till 4PM on Saturday (1/17).

The multi-talented jlawrenceperry has a new installment of his podcast The Adventures of Indiana Jim, which contains the interview he did with me at Balticon. It's a perfect reflection of my mental state on Sunday night at a con--my first word is "Um" and to me, at least, I sound like an earnest squirrel, which is my normal reaction to hearing a recording of my voice. Other than that, I'm very happy with how it turned out :-)

You can listen to the podcast here, and the interview with me that starts around 12.5 minutes into the show. And be sure to check out the rest of Jim's podcasts.

This weekend was the booksigning at the "World's Biggest Bookstore" in Toronto, where we met wonderful folks, including llwheeler, who'd taken a 2-hour bus ride so she could meet some of her favorite authors.

One of the best parts of the trip was being able to spend time with sylvia_rachel who is even more fun in person than she is on LJ. Sekrit message: Hi, Sylvia, thanks for the chocolate!

Other highlights including stopping at the Borders in Rochester, and at Indigo in Eaton Center in Toronto, and finding large quantities of our books in both stores, along with a staff that was eager to have us sign their stock.

Saturday night we had dinner at Grano's with sylvia_rachel, jimhines, his wife Amy, fellow travelers jennifer_dunne and jpsorrow and a good time was had by all.

scbutler arrived late Saturday night after a very long day's drive, and local author Violette Malan met us at the store for the signing, bringing us up to a total of six authors. The store staff had arranged chairs for our audience, so we started off as if we were on a panel, briefly introducing ourselves, describing our books, then answering questions from the audience and bantering among ourselves for about an hour. Then we broke off the formal part so we could sign books, and talk individually with the readers.

msagara stopped by, as did Jessica Strider who'd arranged the signing. We were having as much fun talking with each other as we did with customers, but eventually the reality of the 320 mile drive home sank in, so we said our good-byes and hit the road. The weather cooperated, and I was back home by 10PM, where I promptly collapsed.

Got up early this morning and found out that databases had crashed over the weekend, so started the day in a hole, and it's going to be a day of scrambling to try and get everything fixed. Later!

Yesterday's booksigning was a success, largely due to co-conspirators jpsorrow and jennifer_dunne and our gracious hosts at Waldenbooks including fireun and libwitch. A picture of the event can be found here on fireun's lj. We sold books, made new friends, and in general had a blast hanging out at the store.

As you may guess from my icon, I now have cover art in hand for THE FINAL SACRIFICE.




Another great cover by Steve Stone.

( Click here for the full cover )

The scans don't do justice to the amazing details--in the cover flats you can see the lizard on the lizard crown, among other cool touches.

Alas that's the end of fun for this weekend--the year-end finance close continues apace, which means I have to log on and run database jobs this afternoon. Still it was great while it lasted.

In conjunction with this weekend's booksigning, jennifer_dunne, jpsorrow and I had sent out a joint press release. As our hook we stressed the friends angle, in that we originally met at Waldenbooks, formed a critique group (the infamous Hard Lemonade Science Fiction Society) and now are returning to the scene of our first meeting to sign copies of our books.

In Boston, LA or Miami it would have been circular-filed. Here we have a full column in today's paper in the weekend entertainment section, and are booked to appear on the local evening news tomorrow.

One of the advantages of being a big fish in a small pond, or in this case, three medium-sized fish in the pond. As well as credit to a well-written press release.

A gross of lizards are in the hands of UPS, and should arrive before I leave for World Fantasy next week.*

Other preparations continue apace. I have meetings scheduled with my editor and agent, double-checked the hotel reservation, and confirmed my panel assignment. Arrangements for the ZOMBIES NEED BRAINS party are well in hand, and I'm in the process of negotiating just how often I'll have to break away from the con to check in with the day job. Now all I have to do is figure out what I'm wearing, and start packing this weekend.

*Most authors will blog about various writing topics, for instance how to write a query letter, or the challenges of first person POV. But few are willing to discuss the truly important topics, such as how to find a good source for lizards when your former supplier dries up. Fortunately you can trust me to reveal all.