Thank You, Book Basket and Friends!

The Book Basket, located in Homosassa, FL, hosted an author talk, reading, and signing on Saturday, September 13.

Thanks! -- to:

Daisy Bazo, owner of The Book Basket, for being a terrific host;

Cheri Harris, for promoting the event and authors in the Citrus County Chronicle;

The Homosassa Beacon for additional promotion;

Fellow author Belea Keeney, who set the event's wheels in motion;

Fellow author Loretta Rogers, who brought extra tables and "Autographed Copy" stickers -- and who, with Belea, brought copies of the local papers for our scrapbooks; and

Everyone who came and enjoyed and supported their local independent bookstore and authors!

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This is a shot of me at my table, which included Deviations: Covenant; the anthology Riffing on Strings: Creative Writing Inspired by String Theory (which includes my story "Arachne"); Electric Velocipede (which includes my story "Hermit Crabs" -- no copies for sale, but I distributed cards); SciFiTimesTV.com (cards); and display flyers for the forthcoming anthology Unspeakable Horror: From the Shadows of the Closet (which will include my story "Memento Mori") and the upcoming Florida Writers Association conference, where I'll conduct two workshops.

Several people admired my table covering, made by my childhood friend Elana, so I told the story behind it. That story appears in this entry.



Loretta, with her books The Twisted Trail (Avalon Books) and Isabelle and the Outlaw (The Wild Rose Press).



Belea, with copies of Florida Horror: Dark Tales of Horror from the Sunshine State (Carnifex Press), which contains her story "The Tale of Trapper Tommy."



Daisy Bazo, owner of The Book Basket.



Our group shot.

Chronicle reporter Cheri Harris spoke with each author by phone before the event and published this in-depth article on September 12:



(More legible in the large view.)

Other coverage appeared in the Homosassa Beacon here and here.

We had a wonderful audience, which listened as Belea, Loretta, and I introduced each other and read excerpts from our work. Afterwards we opened the floor to questions ranging from what inspired us, to how we got published, to how we go about the craft and business of writing. We were also on hand at our tables to talk with people one-on-one.

After the event I drove the short stretch to the Homosassa Public Library to donate a copy of Poets' Forum Magazine. The Summer 2008 cover includes my photo of one of the library's statues, along with my article, "Life and Art: More than Imitation."



Click here to see the original shot.

Belated thanks go also to author Gail Z. Martin, who included me (and fellow Aisling Press author K.L. Nappier) in her video blog for DragonCon. Kathy and I are in the "Day 2" installment. Kathy's segment starts at the 2:56 mark. I follow at the 3:20 mark, doing my best to think on my feet.



Click on the links to get to "Day 1" and "Day 3".

In other news, I have now completed the draft of the seventh and (I think) final Deviations book. (Volume #2, Appetite, is yet to be released, so I have a bit of backstock...). And more acceptances have come in:

Short fiction: "FTLM (Faster-Than-Light Messenger) Transcript" to The Drabbler #12, Sam's Dot Publishing

Poetry: "Where Relativity Ends" to Strange Horizons

Non-genre poetry: "The Light of Barbara Mabrity (1782-1867)" to Harp-Strings Poetry Journal

Covenant, the first volume in the Deviations Series, is available from Aisling Press, and from AbeBooks, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Book Territory, Borders, Buecher.ch, Buy.com, BuyAustralian.com, DEAstore, eCampus.com, libreriauniversitaria.it, Libri.de, Loot.co.za, Powell's Books, and Target. Deviations: Appetite is now available for pre-order at Barnes and Noble. The Deviations page has additional details.

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