A Trip to Baton Rouge

I’m back from Baton Rouge, where I spent the weekend at the Louisiana Book Festival. This was a noteworthy trip if for nothing other than the fact that I made the entire trip without any significant problems with the travel. My planes were on time. My connections were smooth. Nothing went wrong, which left me wondering what sort of cosmic balance the trip was endangering.

I don’t remember the last time I’ve made such a quick trip. I flew down on Friday afternoon, getting to my hotel at 10:30pm. I was back on the plane on Sunday morning, and home by 7pm, so the whole thing was about 48 hours. I got up in the morning, had a bite to eat, and had my panel and signing, and then I had the afternoon free to explore Baton Rouge.

The panel was early, and it was pouring rain, which tends to keep numbers down. Still, it went well, and I had a good time talking about the research that went into Don’t Go to Sleep, as well as some of the things that surprised me about New Orleans during that time period. (The biggest takeaway for me is almost always that people were people. It doesn’t matter when they lived. They still acted the same as they do today.) After that, my signing was very well run. They had plenty of books in stock. and people started showing up in bigger and bigger numbers. I left by signing around 25 copies of books that hadn’t sold yet, and I’m pretty confident those would have sold by the end of the day.

Really, I was impressed with the amount of time and effort that went into the event. They had something like 200 authors who came in to present. They had vendors from all over the state, filling three large tents with their wares. They had activities for children. Tons of volunteers. I was really happy to see how it attracted people from all across Louisiana. Not just librarians or teachers, but people from all walks of life. I would love to see if Maine could follow suit somehow. It would be a great way to connect book lovers.

As for Baton Rouge, I really liked the city. I was staying right downtown, and it was easy to walk around and see much of what was there. My hotel was right on the Mississippi, and there’s a long path that follows the river. It was lovely to be there at sunset. Plus, there was good food, which is always a plus. (I went to an old root beer place that still makes its own and sells root beer floats. Delicious. And then I had a po’ boy for dinner, along with some great bread pudding.) Would there have been enough to keep me busy for much longer than a day or two? Debatable. But for an afternoon, it was great.

Anyone know of any other state-level book festivals?

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, and I’m now putting up chapters from PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking this DON’T GO TO SLEEP Amazon link. It will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

Off to the Louisiana Book Festival

I’m leaving in a few hours to head off to Baton Rouge. I’ve been invited to present at the Louisiana Book Festival, which runs all day tomorrow. As I’ve been looking into it, I discovered that there’s a whole application process to get your book featured at the festival. This is definitely one big advantage of having a traditional publisher. I didn’t do any of the work involved in submitting my book (and knowing I could submit it in the first place), and Sourcebooks is covering my trip costs, as well.

Of course, as is typical for me, the closer I get to an actual plane ride, the less I want to get on the plane. This trip’s going to be especially quick, as I’m flying out this afternoon at 4pm and arriving back in Portland on Sunday at 5:30pm. I essentially land, go to my hotel, get up, go present at 9:15am, have a book signing after that, and then check out the rest of the festival before going home Sunday morning.

That said, if you’re in the area of Baton Rouge tomorrow (as I’m sure you all are), and you’d like to come say hi, I’ll be presenting on “Ain’t Misbehaving: Young Adult Tales from Jazz-Age New Orleans” at 9:15 on the fifth floor of the state library. My signing will be at 10:15 in the book tent. So come on out and hear about the writing and researching process for Don’t Go to Sleep. Or just heckle me from the audience. That’s always an option.

I’m actually very interested in going to see this first hand, as I’m always up for more ideas for what libraries in Maine could be up to. This book festival draws around 200 authors a year. I want to see how it runs. If possible, it would be lovely to replicate something like it in Maine.

In any case, I’m off! You can follow along with all the excitement on Facebook. Here’s hoping the trip is smooth. (Knock on wood.)

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, and I’m now putting up chapters from PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking this DON’T GO TO SLEEP Amazon link. It will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

A Report Back on FanX

I got a bit quiet on the blog last week, since I was off gallivanting around Salt Lake at FanX. It’s been so long since I was at a con, I forgot a lot of what I needed to do. For example, I showed up without any copies of my books or any business cards or promos. The lack of book copies was the really egregious error, since I had no copies to put out in front of me when I spoke on my panels, and I had two people come by looking to buy older things. Thankfully, my cousin had bought a copy of my book and lent it to me for the weekend, so it wasn’t too bad. But next time, I have to remember to bring all that stuff. Gotta shake off the rust.

The con itself was much better attended than I anticipated. I thought a lot of people might hang back due to COVID hesitancy. Instead, it seemed like a lot of fans turned up because of COVID exhaustion. They haven’t announced official numbers yet, and I might have just felt like there were a ton of people because it’s been so long since I’ve been around that many people, but I’d guess attendance at least at 80,000, probably more. At one point there was a two hour line just to get in. In the past, the event has drawn over 120,000 people, and the show runners said they expected it to be about the same this year, so I’m likely being overly cautious in my estimate.

Masks were required at the convention, and most people had them on, though a ton had them under their nose or on their chin, making them largely worthless. There was no vaccination requirement. I kept my mask on the whole time, and I didn’t really feel unsafe at any point. I’m vaccinated and have no issues that would put me at greater risk, and I’m not really around anyone who would be at risk. But if I weren’t vaccinated? There’s no way I would have gone.

Other than COVID-related issues and me spacing it about things I was supposed to bring with me, the trip out to Utah couldn’t have gone any better. Highlights included:

• I was on 5 panels over the course of the three days, and I had 2 signings as well. Overall, I’d guess I presented to 600 people or more. That’s pretty great for exposure, and most of the panels went very well, and none of them were train wrecks. A definite win.
• I had a chance to catch up with many old friends, both writerly and non-writerly. It turns out publicly posting that you’re going to be at a well-attended event ends up having people who are at said event seek you out. Yay for that.
• I got to spend time with family.
• While I was attending the live recording of the podcast Brandon Sanderson and Dan Wells run, I was invited up for a cameo appearance, which was fun to do.
• I got to eat at multiple restaurants that just don’t exist out where I am. Siegfried’s (for delicious German food), Ruby River (a steak house), Costa Vida (TexMex), and a local bakery.
• I had the chance to watch a movie on an incredible home theater set up. We’re talking a place that’s better equipped than any other real theater I’ve been to (other than the screen not being as huge, since it’s proportional to the size of the theater). I knew several days in advance that I’d be able to watch something there, and I had to somehow decide which movie I wanted to go with. How do you pick just one? I wanted something I never had a chance to see and appreciate on the big screen, but also something that’s been remastered for 4k and Dolby Atmos sound, since I wanted to see what the theater could really do. In the end I went with Back to the Future, and I’m so happy I did. The movie was incredible. The sound, the picture, the experience. It was perfect.
• I went to a BYU game for the first time in about fifteen years. It was an awesome game to attend: the crowd played a big influence in the outcome, and BYU managed to pull in the win. It was thrilling.
• For some reason, renting a minivan was about half as expensive as renting a compact. I don’t understand how that works out, but there it was. So when I’m driving around Maine with my family of five, I’m in a Prius, but when I went out to Utah and drove around alone. I was in a car that seats seven with tons of room to spare. (Also, I’m very used to have a gas pedal that has to go down pretty far to get your car to giddy-up. I peeled out in that minivan multiple times over the four days. Maybe I have a future in minivan drag racing.
• On the way home, I actually made it to Bangor early. Maybe all my sacrificed emoji goats are finally having an effect.

In any case, it was a lot of fun to be back in the swing of things, and I hope to be able to do some more events in the future. Thanks to all of you who came by to say hello. It was great to catch up!

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, and I’m now putting up chapters from PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking this PERFECT PLACE TO DIE Amazon link. It will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

Where to Find Me at FanX

I’m in Utah! (Despite the best efforts of the Salt Lake airport to make me give up and just go home. Seriously. We landed around 10:15 last night. By the time I waited for the bus to take me to the main terminal, then walked the huuuge ramp they dropped us off at to get to the main terminal, then walked through all of terminal B, through the big tunnel, through all of Terminal A, and then out to the rental car place, it was around 11pm. And I was walking fast. Sheesh.)

Anyway. That means I’m going to be scarce online, but if you’d like to find me in real life, here’s what I’ve got going on this weekend. I hope to see some of you there!

Thursday September 16, 2021 

3:00 pm-4:00 pm How to Write a Great Character Arc 255 BC

7:00 pm–8:00 pm Defining Your Writer’s Block — and Then Conquering It! 355 B 

Friday September 17, 2021 

12:00 pm-1:00 pm You Don’t Understand Officer, I’m an Author: Questionable Writer Research. 150 G 

1:30 pm-2:30 pm Bryce Moore Signing The Printed Garden – Booth 129 

6:00 pm-7:00 pm The Truth About Publishing 151 A

Saturday September 18, 2021 

10:00 am-11:00 am Writing for YA Today 251 D 

2:00 pm-3:00 pm Bryce Moore Signing The Printed Garden – Booth 129

FanX (Salt Lake Comic Con) Bound

Okay, so technically it’s not called Salt Lake Comic Con, because trademark, but telling people outside of Utah that I’m going to FanX just generally gets me stares of confusion, so I inevitably explain what it is by saying Salt Lake Comic Con. (Maybe they could change the name to “The Convention Formerly Known as Salt Lake Comic Con.)

And I suppose I’ve already let the cat out of the bag during my explanation up in the first paragraph, but . . . I’m going to FanX this year! I’ll be attending as an Author Special Guest, which means I’ll be speaking on panels, having some book signings, and generally just enjoying the con. Look! They’ve got my picture up with lasers even, which makes it very official (and makes me feel very self conscious, because I don’t really feel like I’ve reached the point where I’ve earned those lasers, if you know what I mean.)

Of course, going anywhere in the time of COVID isn’t a hop, skip, and a jump, and I’ve debated no end about whether or not I wanted to go to a convention while the pandemic is still raging all over the place. In the end, I decided to go forward with it for a few basic reasons. First, I’m vaccinated, and from everything I’ve seen, the pandemic is raging for the unvaccinated. For the vaccinated, it’s much less severe. In Maine, 95% of the cases have been in the unvaccinated population since vaccines were available. So while Maine had 665 cases today (which is right about where we were at Peak COVID, if 95% of those are unvaccinated people, then that means we had only 35 or so cases among the vaccinated. (I realize that’s a very rough estimate, and likely lower than it really is, but it’s for illustration purposes only.)

Take that into account, and add me wearing a mask the whole time and staying socially distant, and the risk level dropped to a point where I feel comfortable enough to go. (Personally, I feel that if you can’t do anything even once you’re vaccinated and masked, then . . . things just get too depressing.)

In any case, I’ll be out in Utah the 16-18th of September. If you’re in the area and want to swing by the con to hear me pontificate on writing, horror, YA, and publishing, come on by! I hope to see some of you there.

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, and I’m now putting up chapters from PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking this PERFECT PLACE TO DIE Amazon link. It will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.