Ahoy, Me Hearties! All Hands on Deck!
Today is the Day to āgo on accountā (become a pirate). Today is the day That Lesbian Vampire Pirate Story is officially published, when this good ship weighs anchor and hoists the mizzen! āāµš¦š“āā ļø
You may well already have this adorable little book in your library, as a special edition has been available at Hellmouth convention, Readercon 34 (and welcome new newsletter readers who signed up for this newsletter this past weekendāI think youāll like it here!), and through this very newsletter, but those collectorās edition red covers are officially sold out! If you missed it, well, thatās what you get for being a lubberābut all is not lost, and you can buy the standard edition (which has all the goodness of the story inside the pretty black-and-blue cover) on Amazon and through my website, and of course, requesting it at your local bookstore or libraryā¦
As with at Hellmouth Con, this past weekend at Readercon That Lesbian Vampire Pirate Story is a book that sells itself. People see the title (which, letās not forget, you newsletter readers insisted I useāand thank you for that!) and come over to the table to demand a copy. People see it in their friendās hands and ask where they got itāand come over to the table and demand a copy. By this point in time, I am pretty sure this little book will sell more copies than anything else I ever write.
And you know what, Iām not mad at it. First off, Iām still tickled by the āstory behind the storyā (that of Sadie āThe Goatā and Gallus Magās beef, the whole ear situation, and the happy endingāif you call wearing your former left ear in a locket around your neck a happy ending, but these things were kinda relative in the 1860sā¦) so I am happy that people are learning that tidbit of pirate / New York history. Secondly, I think I lived up to the story in my retelling of it, so I am proud that for many people, this will be their first taste of my writing. And finallyāif it is my fate to be best known for writing a story call That Lesbian Vampire Pirate Story, well, honestly, is that such a bad fate? No, it will only make me beam with pride: authorial pride š„¹ and queer pride š³ļøāš
The regular request for reviews (authors gotta do this!)
By now you all know that us indie authors are made or broken by how many reviews we can get over on the āZon, because books with more reviews get treated differently. And I hope you will all take a moment to do short reviews of That Lesbian Vampire Pirate Story, over there.
But for āFinding Bela Lugosi,ā itās another matter. We wonāt be listing it on the āZon, because itās only going to be given away, in a variety of different ways. However, that doesnāt mean it canāt get and shouldnāt get reviews, because thatās still deeply valuable to me as an author. So if you have that other sweet little book, please take a moment to throw some stars at it and say a sentence or two ššš
Readercon 34: It doesnāt get much better than this! š
In my Con-garb and ready to make friends!
Iām still completely exhausted from Readercon as I try to coherently write this newsletter (thank goodness for spell check, is all Iām sayinā) but while Iām exhausted in body, in mind and spirit Iām energized and bouncing. And honestly, what better way to compliment a convention?
I didnāt even get to any of the amazing panels (and these were primo topics: “Bisexuals in Science Fiction: Still Hip After All These Years?” “Biting the Other: The Transforming Racialization of Vampires,” “The Purposes of Memorable Insults in Sci-Fi and Fantasy,” “The Molotov Cocktail Approach to Plotting Stories,” etc.) and I had a brilliant time. The people who stopped by the table brought excellent conversation. And these are the kinds of readers who ask the best questions. One reader was hesitating, and I said, āHey, ask questions!ā and they asked about how I created the amār, and after we geeked out together on that level, they ended up buying all the books. Another customer queried, āAre you working out your relationship drama and unresolved issues through vampires? Or have you been to therapy outside of writing this series?ā and after I recovered from laughing too hard to breathe (this is a deliberate dig at a certain Big Name vampire writerāand not wrong!š) I assured them that I had done therapy before starting the series, and that these books were really not like that seriesāand they felt comfortable to go ahead and make some purchases.
THIS RIGHT HERE is what I love best. Readers who know vampires and who are demanding something fresh to the genre. Readers who realize how much there is still to explore in the global vampire mythoiāand want to read it, dammit! Readers who may have read some disappointing vampire stories in the past, but who cannot close their hearts to these eternally fascinating creatures of the night.
To be honest, there were some disappointing moments over the three days of vending: people who came over to the table, and then realized it was vampires on offer and said, āI donāt like vampiresā or āvampires are so overdone.ā
I totally get ādifferent strokes for different folks,ā and I personally have genres that I donāt dip into unless I get a strong recommendation from someone I trust, but whenever anyone said, āI donāt like vampires,ā I really had to stop myself from replying, āWhich vampire hurt you?ā I mean, either you donāt know much about the genre and just assume you donāt like vampires, or yeah, there was one vampire story, be it book or TV or film, that turned you off. And if that is the case, refusing to try another vampire story again is basically cutting off your fangs to spite your faceā¦
And as for āoverdone,ā yeah, sure, there have been a lot of vampire books published recently. There have also been a ton of superhero movies produced, and they are still filling theatres and quite a few of them have really relevant messages and novel ways of looking at the genre. And if āoverdoneā is really a thing, then why are we even at a genre convention? Because space ships are overdone, and fantasy quests are SO overdone, and sword and sorcery needed to be left behind in the ā80s, and etc. through every facet of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. There is not one genre that canāt be thrillingly alive again through the application of fresh ideas/viewpoints and good writing. Like vampires, stories donāt die, and they just need some new blood to bring them back to their most compelling selves.
My amazing friend and minion-for-the-weekend, El-G. I cannot thank her enough for her energy and endless enthusiasm š Shenanigans were sheeeenaniganed!
But, rant aside, I got a lot more enthusiasm for the undead than negativity at Readercon 34, and it was a truly satisfying and inspiring weekend (I even got to attend one of the infamous afterparties, and it was the cherry on top on a perfect fiction sundae!)āI will be back next year, and I hope to see YOU there!
Have badge, will convention! (Also, reppinā the wonderful Podcast Writers Drinking Coffee! Give it a listen!)
And now a word from our sponsorā¦
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OK, well, prepping for Readercon took time away from writing Book IV, and of course so does everything else I doālike this newsletter! So I will do what I know you all want most from me, and Iāll go get back to writingā¼ļø But if you have any questions, thoughts, other stuff to share, just hit āreplyā and that email will arrive in my inbox!
For our new readers, thereās an AMA going on, where you can request what I talk about next in videos for YouTube and of course in this newsletterā¦
To everyone who made it this far, youāre fucking amazing and I adore you! Until next time, be good or be good at it! š
š I’d love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: drop me a note šØ
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