Check out the new poster image for the Legend of Talimar over at the Big World Network!

What do you think? Would you buy a coffee-cup with that on it? LOL

I love conferences!  Or… well… given my prior comments regarding ComiCon, I should qualify that.

I love Writer’s Conferences.  The SDSU Conference, held every January, is one of the best.  I group Conferences into three categories: Workshops whose primary focus is to put attendees with other, more experienced authors, agents, and editors with the objective of improving their writing and craft through one-on-one instruction and group critiques. The La Jolla Writer’s Conference, and the Big Sur Conference are excellent in this regard.

The second class of Conferences provide a plethora of lectures, and you can attend whichever one you wish.  Not much interaction, and not much chance to talk to industry professionals.  I tend to eschew these.

Finally, there are the Networking Conferences, whose primary objective is to connect aspiring authors with the agents and editors responsible for getting their work published.  SDSU is of this latter type, and frankly, it just ROCKS.  There were no fewer than thirty-five different agents and editors, from some of the largest publishers and agencies in the nation, in attendance, and frankly it was wonderful!

It was even more wonderful when, on Sunday morning, I was surprised to hear my name being read as one of the ‘Conference Choice’ selections.  It turned out that David Pomerico from Del Rey thought so highly of DT that he chose it for special recognition.  Thank you David!

But that wasn’t the only good thing about SDSU this year.  I spoke with two other, simply marvelous editors, Melissa Frain from Tor, and Kat Brzozowski from St. Martin’s Press, both of whom were perceptive, helpful, and willing to hear more.  My thanks to both, and to all the agents I talked to as well.

Last weekend was totally and entirely worth the price of admission, and I highly recommend the SDSU Writer’s Conference to one and all.

I won’t follow the hordes of those reminiscing about 2011.  It happened, it wasn’t pretty, but we learned a lot.  2012, however, is shaping up to be truly EPIC in a number of ways.  Things over at BWN are becoming more and more interesting; I think I may be doing a SciFi series for them, which is, at the same time really exciting, and scary as heck because I have no idea when I’m going to have the time to do that, have time to work at Legend3D, and also sleep.  Oh well… I guess sleeping’s overrated anyway…

In any case, I’d first like to thank all of my readers that have been so supportive in the last year.  I’m feeling good about the future.  Here’s wishing you all a fantastic, prosperous, and creative 2012… right up to the 21st of December when all of California falls into the Pacific Ocean, and the Yellowstone supervolcano unleashes a cataclysmic explosion that covers the US in a massive ash cloud… at least according to Roland Emmerich LOL

Congratulations to best-selling author Trina Boice. She won the Amazon Kindle for gaining the most in last week’s publicity event at Big World Network.  Way to go, Trina!

Check out Trina on Facebook.

And check out all the cool series stories over at BWN.  Things are getting exciting with Legend of Talimar as well.  Antarra encounters some ‘gigantic’ challenges in the next few weeks, so be sure to ‘stay tuned’!

This week, the folks over at Big World Network are sponsoring a registration drive! If you ‘Like’ or sign up for e-mail updates for a series (um.. like mine

You’ll be automatically entered into a drawing for a brand new Kindle!

So why are you still reading this? Zip on over and check out all the series — and Legend of Talimar is starting to get really interesting as well. See you there!

Great news! The Legend of Talimar was just chosen to be the Pre-Launch preview episode over at Big World Network! Thanks to Amanda and all the great folks over at BWN who work tirelessly to bring the serialized short-story into the modern age.

Check out and follow the great stories, and read the first installment of LoT, up one week early now! Click on the image, above to go to BigWorldNetwork.com.

The Legend of Talimar has been chosen by the Big World Network as one of the featured stories for their very first season! This is great news for fans of the Guardian Series because now the world of Salustra has a much bigger audience. In addition, the story will be available in audio-format, as well as podcast and the Kindle! The Grand Opening will be on November 9th.

Check out all the wonderful stories over at BWN, and be sure to follow the continuing epic of Antarra of the Dark Forest.

I’ve been attacked!

No… the Alo`Daran’s have not besieged my house because I’ve kidnapped Antarra’s tale.  I’ve just been the victim of that most horrid of ailments: Real Life.

Yes, I know… mourn for me.  But I’m fighting back!!  I managed to complete the next cycle in our eStory, and two new plot twists have been posted.  Check them out here: eStory. Hope you enjoy the continuing saga of Antarra the Dark, and please comment so we can move the story forward!

(Anyone know how to defend against catapults?) 

Over the last several months, we have been working on a new way to present fantasy material on the web.  Of course, there have been many excellent examples of storytelling – eBooks, multi-path stories, even full-blown, immersive role-paying games.

These all fall short, however, when it comes to one thing — engaging readers in the creative (and sometimes challenging) process of writing a story from scratch.  What we thought would be very cool, interesting for all, and also instructive, is to actually create, under the watchful eye of an author, a short story, interactively, over a period of several weeks, and to let everyone have a chance to contribute and make suggestions about how it should go.  In short — you get to do the fun stuff, and I have to do the work.  We call it an ‘eStory’.

Each new iteration of the eStory will consist of two or more parallel story tracks, based on the suggestions and selections made by all those that wish to contribute.  Thus, although I have a pretty good idea of where our tale will lead, it is in a very real sense ‘organic’ – how we get to our destination has not yet been determined.

SO… if you’re curious, if you’ve ever wondered how folks come up with these fantastical characters and worlds, please join us on our adventure.  We’re calling it ‘The Legend of Talimar’.  Who is Talimar, you ask?  Well, click on the banner, above, and come find out!

I am totally stoked!  We’re just about ready to launch something really cool, and I can’t wait to tell everyone about it.

People ask me all the time ‘how do you come up with these characters?  With the story?  Well, everyone is about to find out.

Next week we will be launching our latest effort, and I think you all are going to really like it.  We’re calling it an ‘eStory’.  What’s an eStory?  Well, you’ll just have to wait.

But, believe me… it’s gonna be cool!