J.A. Pitts

Worldcon Schedule

Off to Montreal next week for 5 fun-filled days at Worldcon.

Here’s my schedule if you are interested.  I’m not sure exactly who I offended in a prior life to be assigned a teen workout, much less Zombie Bellydancing at 9AM Monday, the last day of the con.  I’m not thinking many people will be alive then, hence the zombie part.

At least I’ll be with excellent company.

I’m also a little confused by the book signing since I don’t have a book out, but I will have an issue of Talebones, and a DAW anthology out I could sign.  Good practice, I’m sure.

When: Fri 10:00
Location: P-512BF
Title: What Fans don’t Understand about Publishing 1
Session ID: 487
All Participants: David Hartwell, Jenny Rae Rappaport, John A. Pitts,
Sean Wallace, Gardner Dozois
Moderator: Yourself
Description: Making the product.

Duration: 1:00 hrs:min

When: Sat 9:00
Location: D-Royer
Title: Writing Workshop C
Session ID: 694
All Participants: John A. Pitts, Nancy Kress
Moderator:
Description: Critique session for previously submitted manuscripts

Duration: 2:00 hrs:min

When: Sun 15:30
Location: Other
Title: John A Pitts Signing
Session ID: 1460
All Participants: John A. Pitts
Moderator:
Description: John A Pitts Signing
Duration: 0:30 hrs:min

When: Sun 19:00
Location: P-522A
Title: Author Reading
Session ID: 222
All Participants: Fiona Patton, John A. Pitts
Moderator:
Description: Fiona Patton; John A Pitts.
Duration: 1:00 hrs:min

When: Mon 9:00
Location: D-Victoria
Title: Zombie BellyDance
Session ID: 1675
All Participants: John A. Pitts, Julie McGalliard
Moderator:
Description: It’s your Zombie morning workout..can you still move
after 4 nights of parties?. if you can, you’re a beast! Recommended
for Teens and Young Adults…
Duration: 1:00 hrs:min

When: Mon 10:00
Location: P-522B
Title: Spiritualism In Your Fiction: Using Tarot, Astrology, and
Other Spritual Means to Tap Creativity
Session ID: 697
All Participants: Chandra Rooney, John A. Pitts, Trisha Wooldridge,
Adeline Lamarre
Moderator: Trisha Wooldridge
Description: Spiritual writing or tapping into creativity. Do you
want to put magic realism, astrology or tarot in your writing or just
use them to increase your creativity and spiritual self?

Duration: 1:00 hrs:min

Copy Edits for Anthology

I’m working on the copy edits for my story — How Jack Got His Self a Wife — coming out in November from DAW. The anthology is THE TROUBLE WITH HEROES, edited by Denise Little.

Fun antho. I decided the world needed another Jack Tale. There are very few out there. Why not add to the canon?

You can pre order it in several places: Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Powell’s Books, or your favorite Independent bookseller.

Tae Kwon Do. A way of life.

Another excellent Tae Kwon Do class tonight. 120 pushups, among sit-ups, weight work and self-defense.

I’m not the fastest runner, not the strongest fighter, or the most graceful of the lot. I almost always finish my push-ups last, and finish my laps while the others are walking (if I can finish them at all), but it is something I find compelled to do. Deep down inside, I have to continue to push. I can see progress. I’m very proud of my blue belt and I’ve earned it with hard work and perceverance.

It’s the people, frankly. Oh, the endorphins eventually help, but it’s the community I’ve found myself a part of that makes all the difference.

I’m proud to be in this company. They make me a better person.

and, oh will I hurt tomorrow.

World Con – Montreal Writers Workshop

I’ve volunteered as a pro critiquer for the writers workshop at Worldcon in Montreal.  Have not received my stories yet, but I’d like to encourage anyone who is attending the convention, and is interested in getting feeback on your writing, to apply for the workshop.

I have volunteered with the writers workshop at Norwescon for years and can say I’ve seen this type of feedback really boost the writers involved.

I hope to see some of you there.

Honeyed Words: drafting the new novel and prepping for Harry Potter camp.

Started drafting the new novel in the Black Blade series. Tor hasn’t chimed in on a series name, and I haven’t really decided if Black Blade or the Sarah Beauhall series has more ring to it.

I’m sure the general concensious of readers will call it something. Was at Barnes and Nobles today, picking up my copy of Eyes Like Stars, by Lisa Mantchev. My daughter is taking it with her to Harry Potter camp tomorrow.

 I want to go to Harry Potter camp. How come they don’t do cool things like that for adults? Or am I just missing out on stuff?

Back to the novel, I should be able to keep my existing pace of 2500 words a day. At that clip, 15K words a week, I should wrap the first draft in just over six weeks. Then it’s off to first readers and I devour the growing stack of novels I have sitting in reserve.

I can’t read other people’s long work when I’m writing. There seems to be a disconnect in brain space for me to hold their story in my head, and be making up my own. Just another incentive for me to put down these words.

I got a sneak peek at the sketch Tor picked for my novel cover. More when things are settled, and when the final artwork is done, I will definitely be posting it here. Let’s just say I nearly fell out of my chair. I will publicly state that I feel I’ve hit the cover art lotto.

Very nice boost to my weekend. Getting ready to tackle my words for today before sitting down to watch one of the Harry Potter movies with my daughter. She wants to be ready in case there are trivia questions as part of camp. I think she can tell you just about anything you can think to ask from the books. Very obsessed.

For the love of all that is holy… missing MMORPGs and creating story

I gave up on the Massively Multi-Player Online Role Playing Games a few years ago. It really came down to gaming or writing. Writing won out, and things are moving along at a pretty fine pace.

Unfortunately, every now and again, I get the bug to role play. It goes back to my need for story, and the strong desire to be part of said story. When I first discovered Everquest shortly after it opened to the public I was hooked. I played that game for several years, through many expansions, across several servers and even a few guilds. I actually a guild on the Lanys Tyv’l server for a while — Ivory Order. It was great fun. Then the company who makes the game decided the best way to increase subscribers was to make things easier. Take out some of the hassles like dying, and travelling. Soon, there was almost no risk in the game.

There was a time when you were hesitant to explore too far from the city guards, because if you died, you would respawn in the city and have to run naked to pick up the gear from your dead body. That added a HUGE risk factor and kept the adrenaline pumping on those especially dangerous cross-country runs.

I miss that. I quit playing EQ when it became clear that the 20 hours a week I was putting in was not enough to actually accomplish anything. The game was being geared more and more towards the high-end game, with uber-guilds and long raiding windows. Soon, you had to be on for a couple hours at a time to accomplish anything. Soloing, or just picking up quests on your own became harder and harder to find.

The game just quit being fun.

I tried playing Star Wars Galaxies, but that grew very old, very quickly. Several other MMOs came and went from my computer when I was finally lulled back with Everquest 2. I wanted to recapture that feel of adventure, that thrill as I discovered new territory, met new challanges, uncovered new story.

But again, it fell to the need to raid… to sink huge amounts of time in game just to make any headway.

Finally I purged it all from my machines and went back to the place I could enjoy story and have some say in the way the adventure unfolded. I stepped up my writing and really began to get serious. It took me a while to get over that craving to log on and visit friends, to run through a make-believe world and be dazzled by the wonder of it all; but I managed to remain firm with my decision.

Now I have a real shot with this whole writing craziness. I’m selling short stories, and I now have this incredible deal with Tor Books. While I’m not in any danger of quitting my day job, I find this whole experience refreshing and rejuvenating in a way I haven’t felt since my early days as a bard running through the frozen tundra of the barbarian homeland, praying I could get back to the guards before the polar bears and ice spiders turned me into a corpsicle.

Ah, nostalgia.

Nice surprise in today’s mail.  I got the cover flat and galley’s for Zombie Raccoons and Killer Bunny anthology coming out in October.

My story, Dead Poets, is featured inside.  Off to work the galleys and get those returned.

Finishing up a couple tiny scenes for BLACK BLADE BLUES this weekend and back on HONEYED WORDS. 

Fun day of writing.