I missed blogging last week because I've been so swamped trying to get work done. I even took time off my day job to try to do everything.
Part of what made me so busy was that I was promoting Relic Worlds as well, which is supposed to be more during the second half of the year, but there was an event last week where I wanted to present it. Los Angeles's biggest game convention, Orccon, took place February 13-16. I put on a miniatures game of Relic Worlds where I had a large table in the main room. We had a banner at the table, books, and bookmarks to show it off. Jamie (my girlfriend) and Rachel (a friend and soon-to-be neighbor) played the Dark Agents versus the pirates. Artifacts were scattered around the table, as well as mundane items, traps, and monsters. This was a way to show off the concept of the series to everyone who passed by, and gamers are a big part of our audience, so it seemed like a good fit. I also put on a role playing game where the players got to be the pirates from the series, and their actions would affect the spinoff storyline about the pirates that I'm doing.
The effect of both of these were underwhelming. The miniatures game would have worked better if I'd had the book trailer running, which I forgot to do. Also, we need bigger settings to attract people's attention. As for the role playing game, the area was run by a bunch of kids who screwed up where the game was to take place, so no one played. It was just as well, though; only one person signed up, so that didn't really work out.
All that preparation took time away from setting up Two Gun Hart, which is going into the final stretch. Now I'm putting everything into that. I made some fixes to the hardcover and ordered some to take to the local bookstores. They came in just last night. I found a small problem in the formatting of the chapters. It's not a big deal, so I will be taking these to the local bookstores, and I'm trying to make the fixes on Ingram Spark before anyone orders them. (This has to be done quickly, as I made sell sheets and mailed them out, and paid $60 to have the book added to the Ingram Spark catalog.)
I will also be emailing bookstores this week to let them know about the book's availability. However, I'm putting that off for a couple days while I get the book fixed on Ingram. Right now the upload seems to be stuck, so hopefully that will get fixed soon here. I still have several copies I need to send to bloggers, news outlets, and reviewers. The time is getting very short for this, however.
I'm also setting up talks at bookstores and libraries. Most places have been turning me down, saying that signings and appearances don't usually get many people. I think they're being short-sighted in two ways. First, just having a signing and appearance is an excuse for radio and newspaper promotions. Even if no one comes to the signing, there's an excuse for marketing and free promotions. Second, in this particular case you have a story related to something everyone's heard about, but with lots of new information. True crime buffs and anyone familiar with Capone is going to want to see and especially interact with his nephew, and learn about this long-lost brother. They should be seeing this as an exception, but most are not, at least in LA and, of all places, Chicago.
Corey Hart has set up a talk with the Sons of Italy in Salt Lake City. I also have an appearance at the Burbank Library, and several in Nebraska. It's amazing how Nebraskans seem to be a little smarter when it comes to these things, or at least less short-sighted.
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