When you're a writer and you're nutty enough to decide that Novelist should be added to your curriculum vitae--in fancy Latin, of course--'cause, hey, you've never done it before and crafting thousands of words that somehow hang together to make up a coherent story sounds like a super fun way to spend a huge amount of time, well you just gotta try, right? Right. And so you do. And even though the experience brings out all your latent manic-depressive tendencies, making you alternate between yelps of, "OMG, this soooo awesome!" and, "OMG, this soooo excruciating!" you keep pluggin' away until the work is completed.
Once the novel is finished and published, you have two choices: You can either sit alone and stare at your tome, stunned and in utter disbelief, or you can begin the next phase of work that entails letting other folks know it exists so they too can stare at it and, hopefully, read it. I chose the latter.
In my quest to discover avenues through which I could connect with readers, I came across the website of a science fiction convention that I'd never heard of before that's been held annually for 35 years in my hometown of Madison, Wisconsin called WisCon. "What?!" I cried. "I was there from birth to age 21 and had no idea this special meeting of literary fans existed? How can that be?" Having no satisfactory answer, I shrugged and gathered more intel.
WisCon, it turns out, is not just a science fiction convention, it is the science fiction convention for those of us who believe that fully developed female characters and the issues of equality, gender, race and class can and do make for compelling reading. I mean, there are only so many cold-blooded hot chicks and magical waifs ya can take before you start screaming, "Be more real!" Also, "Natural boobs don't defy gravity and I doubt very much that these well-trained ninja sisters would take the time to get implants just to titillate, so to speak, 14 year-old boys!"
Anyhoo, seeing as my novel Artifacts just happens to have a complex female protagonist and, as a supernatural tale, fits securely within the speculative genre--depending on who you're talking to, that's either an umbrella term that includes science fiction, supernatural, horror, fantasy, etc. or a close cousin of science fiction--we should really be there!
And so it is that I and my always supportive hubby Kevin will be in attendance at WisCon 36, running May 25-28 at the Concourse Hotel. Whoot and Hooray!
We'll be in the dealers' room Friday-Sunday, ready to meet and greet all who refuse to accept the one-dimensional female character status quo and wish to build a science and speculative fiction literary legacy that offers more discussion of pressing real-life issues and less fake boobery!
If you haven't yet gotten your copy of Artifacts, go to artifactsnovel.com where you can read the first three chapters for FREE as a dowloadable PDF and then purchase the paperback, PDF or EPUB.
Related:
Artifacts Goes EPUB
It's Official: FOGcon Here We Come!
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