I’m thinking that attending back to back giant megacons isn’t the wisest thing I’ve ever done. I had DragonCon last week, got home Tuesday, and Thursday I was at Salt Lake City FanX.  Cons are fun but mentally tiring for writers, because we’ve got to be switched on the entire time we’re talking to fans.  So that was like two weeks of nonstop talking. So yesterday I did nothing but sit on the couch playing Rome: Total War (a classic, and it’s on iPad now!).

So here is what is going on:

Book Stuff

Target Rich Environment came out last Tuesday and as far as I can tell is doing extremely well. It hit #1 in anthologies on Amazon.

The book store I was signing at had a couple cases of them at SLC, but sold out the first hour, so the next day I brought in my personal stash of comp copies and cleaned out the B&Ns between my house and the con on the way there to consign. (I hate when fans come a long way to see me and leave empty handed).  Those all sold out too.

But then I found that they had me scheduled to sign at a different booth that was there, which had more TRE (after I’d spent hours telling people I was sold out) So if you saw the update photos on Facebook this weekend, that’s what that was all about.

If you’ve not checked out Target Rich Environment yet, you should. I’m really proud of it.

My next release  is the sequel to Son of the Black Sword, called House of Assassins, which will be out in February.  It is bad ass. In fact, Jim Minz has been my editor on a bunch of my books, and he told me he thinks it’s the best thing I’ve ever written.

I approved the final copy edits a couple weeks ago, so we should be seeing an eARC for HoA soon I assume. Otherwise, the regular release will be in February.

I’m currently working on Monster Hunter Guardian. I got back Sarah’s edits before I left for Dragon and started on the final pass. This is a Julie Shackleford novel that takes place at the same time as Monster Hunter Siege. I’ve been planning this collaboration with Sarah Hoyt for about five or six years now.

But Guardian should be done and turned into Baen, hopefully by the end of the month. I’m not sure but I believe they are planning on an August(?) 2019 release. Toni unveiled the cover art at the Baen roadshow at DragonCon (It is awesome).

I’m also one of the editors of Noir Fatale, along with KC Ezell. It’s a collection of noir sci-fi and fantasy stories from a bunch of really awesome authors. We’ve got all the stories in (they’re really good), KC just wrote her intro and kicked it back over to me to write mine.  Noir Fatale will be released by Baen in a October 2019 (I think).

I was 35,000 words in working on the third book in the Saga of the Forgotten Warrior (it goes Son of the Black Sword, House of Assassins, Destroyer of Worlds) when I got back Guardian form Sarah. So once I send off Guardian and Noir Fatale to Baen, I’ll be back to working on that next.

Oh wait, I also owe Mike Williamson another Freehold story before October. Gotta squeeze that in there.

There is gong to be another volume of Target Rich Environment. Right now I’m just trying to nail down which of my stories I’m able to reprint at this time.

There will be another Monster Hunter Files, but I need to talk to the authors I’ve picked to coordinate a bit, because this one is going to be five novella sized stories, and they’re going to be linked events.

There are lots more novels planned, so if I didn’t list it here, don’t worry, it is still in the works. Including more MHI, and another trilogy of Grimnoir novels (my story in Noir Fatale is specifically about one of the characters in the next trilogy).

And finally, last week I signed another contract for a 3rd Tom Stranger with Audible. This time it is going to be another Tom novella, plus two short stories. One of which is tentatively titled Dick move, space fish, which tells the story of Jimmy the Intern giving Stranger & Stranger’s new employee orientation to a dolphin. Yes. I have a weird job.

Con and Event Schedule 

My summer had LibertyCon, GenCon, DragonCon, and Salt Lake FanX, but I do believe that I am all done for the year.

I believe my next event is LTUE, which isn’t until February.

I’ve been drafted to teach another master class workshop at Fyrecon again.

Yard Moose Mountain Update

Building a house is a stressful pain in the ass. But after two years of infrastructure and paperwork to develop this thing, it is finally starting to look sorta house shaped.

We’ve got basement walls, basement plumbing, and they were doing the backfill yesterday. I should have slab poured on Friday. Now it is just a race between us and the weather.

 

I’m still suffering from a condition called Dragon Brain (symptoms include doing nothing but laying on the couch streaming old episodes of Kitchen Nightmares for up to 24 hours) but already I’m off to another convention tomorrow.

Thursday, September 6th

2:00 PM What I Know Now, What I Wish I Knew Then: A Writer’s Journey – 251A

4:00 PM All That Glitters. Building a Believable Magic System. – 151D

6:30 PM Book Signing – Bard’s Tower Booth 401

8:00 PM Tick, Tick, Kaboom. Launching an RPG Campaign – 251A

Friday September 7th

12:00 PM Makers of Stories: Writing Novels and Short Stories – 151D

3:00 PM Book Signing – The Printed Garden Booth 801

Saturday September 8th

12:30 PM Book Signing – Bard’s Tower Booth 401

3:00 PM The Predator, 30 Years on the Hunt – 151D

4:00 PM Book Signing – The Printed Garden Booth 801

The short story collection with the best cover ever is available today!  I love writing short fiction. I’m really proud of the stories in Target Rich Environment.  I hope you enjoy it.

 

We flew home from Atlanta last night. I don’t know how many DragonCons I’ve been to now (I think six), and this was Bridget’s second.

I can’t do a full recap. The days are just too busy. The blog post would be too long and I’d still probably forget things.

I saw a lot of old friends, met people for the first time, signed a bunch of books, and was on a bunch of panels. My schedule was pretty much nonstop most days, and running from event to event (literally running in a couple of cases, and still getting there late, because Dragon is huge, and there’s a lot of people).

The highlight for me was a panel called “The Larry Correia Showcase”. DC likes to do some solo panels for authors, where it’s just them, and they talk directly to their fans about whatever, and then have a Q&A. Normally when I do these I don’t have a moderator, I just kind of hang out and talk. But this year since Bridget was there they asked my wife to be the moderator.

So we changed it to be The Larry Show, Now With 100% More Bridget, and the idea was that the fans could ask her anything too. She even bought a corset that day, so that she could be dressed in proper DragonCon fashion. (thank you KC) 🙂

It was 10:00 at night on Sunday, which if you know DC, by then everybody is fried, brain damaged, liquored up, or severely hung over, so I wasn’t expecting much of a crowd. I was in the audience for the panel in that same room the hour before (Chris Kennedy Publishing’s Four Horsemen, because I think what they’re doing with the fast turnover production with a bunch of authors is reminiscent of the old school pulp mags, and is a fascinating new business model). And when I walked out of the room right after that panel was over, there was already a huge line for me and Bridget outside.

It was a good sized room, and we filled it. Since the room was already full twenty minutes before our official start time we just started talking to the fans, telling stories, and generally shooting the bull. By 10:00 it was packed.

So Bridget and I just started talking about whatever, telling stories, and answering questions. By 11:00, it was time to stop, but then we realized we were the last thing scheduled for the night, so we could just keep going. By 12:00 we had to tell everybody that we had to wrap this up because we were getting kinda tired. By 12:45 we made it out.

Because my fans are awesome we had a panel, a post panel, and a post panel wrap up show. I believe this was because Bridget is just so charming. If it had been me, I would’ve had six people (counting the con staff for the room) and we’d be out of stuff to talk about by 10:14.

The Dragon Awards went well, with many of my friends winning (and in the process beating some of my other friends). I got to meet a bunch of other authors I’ve only previously known online. I got to be on some panels with some old friends (Laurell and I did How to Write Guns together again). When the the Dragon nominees panel was asked about things which had inspired them and up and coming urban fantasy author R.R. Virdi talked about how he read my books in high school. And I was like wait, he’s an adult man… damn… I’m getting old. (but to be fair, this is probably karmic payback for the times that I’ve done that to guys like Dave Drake, Dave Weber, Tracy Hickman, and Terry Brooks on panels)

As always, DragonCon was a big, awesome, nerd party, where everybody was focused on having a good time. I love it.

Here is my schedule for DragonCon. The most important thing on there is Sunday night, because for my solo panel they asked my wife to be the moderator.  😀

Friday
11:00 AM Book Signing at the Missing Volume
1:00 PM V-Wars
2:30 PM Monsters Are People Too
5:30 PM Guns 101: How to Get Started
Saturday
11:30 AM Bugging in 201: Riding out the Disaster
1:00 PM BYOMC: Bring Your Own Magical Creature
2:30 PM Baen Books Travelling Slide Show & Prize Patrol
5:30 PM The Yin & Yang of Bang-Bang
8:30 PM The World & the Game
Sunday

10:00 AM Book Signing at Bard’s Tower
2:00 PM Third Annual Dragon Awards Presentation
3:00 PM Book Signing at the Missing Volume
5:30 PM Meet the Authors: Dragon Awards
10:00 PM Showcase: Larry Correia (The Larry & Bridget show)