Esther Jones's Blog

Miscon has always been one of our favorite conventions. I mean, we dedicated a book to it, for crying out loud. So it should come as no shock that Miscon 2025 was once again an incredible experience.

Or should it?

You see, Miscon did something new this year. Most…no. All conventions we’ve been to previously have taken place in a hotel. That’s sort of the whole thing. There’s a hotel, the hotel rents rooms to a con, the con happens in the hotel.

Miscon did not have a hotel this year, and it’s not going to next. Instead, Miscon chose to operate out of the Missoula Fairgrounds.

Now, understand something. One of the reasons we love Miscon is entirely selfish. The old merchant’s room used to sit within the center of an atrium. To get from point A to point B in the convention, you had to walk through the merchant stalls. To say this increased both foot traffic and sales is an understatement. We knew, going in, we were losing that. And we dreaded it.

The number of things that could have gone wrong with this move were myriad. And many things did. When half your attendees are camping in the Fairground parking lot and the entire time the con is going on it’s fifty degrees, raining, with a constant wind there’s a sort of shared misery. I ended up referring to it as “nerdstock” due to the fact that the entire camping area turned into one large mud pit.

Shared misery does one of two things. It either fractures people, or it brings them together. And this being Miscon, it brought them together.

I’ve said it before–Miscon has its own sort of energy. It’s not like the Pacific Northwest, where doing something nerdy is as easy as walking down the block. Where we live, people trot out their nerd cred to strangers in a Starbucks in order to impress each other. Not so Montana. So many of these nerds only have these four days to let their freak flags fly, and they are damned well going to make the most of it.

So what if the weather is miserable? Miscon isn’t an event–it’s an adventure. We all know that the hero must overcome adversity if he is to triumph, and at Miscon we all get to be that hero. So people piled into tents even as the wind threatened to tear the flimsy walls down around them, because together we were all on a quest.

And we succeeded. We found what we sought–a land where, for four magical days, we could be ourselves. Where we could love what we love unconditionally. Where a ten-year old strapped with cardboard is a knight, where superheroes walked among us, and where an old, fat man like myself isn’t just using a cane to walk–he’s a wizard carrying his focus.

Were there problems? Yes. Were there areas that could be improved? Of course. Such is to be expected when a convention makes such a major change. But the heart and soul of Miscon has never been its venue. It has been the sheer, rampant, unleashed joy in the hearts of its attendees. And I am happy to report that has not changed at all.

The post Miscon 2025 appeared first on Impulsive Walrus Books.

Have you checked out our newest crazy horror, humor anthology on Kickstarter yet? It’s a fabulous read for folks who love fandom and don’t take themselves to seriously.

Our 19 best-selling and award winning authors explore what happens if your next convention is held at a hotel that’s secretly an alter to the old gods in the water, and they are influencing everyone and all the events there.

I know, I know. We’ve done it again with another kooky anthology that turns into just a great read with authors like Jennifer Brozek, Kat Richardson, Peter J. Wacks, Hank Schwaeble, Irene Radford, David Boop, M.J. Stoumbos, A.R.R. Ash, Paul DeStefano, and Jason Frei.

Plus, it’s a convention book, so we have SHWAG! A collectible enamel pin, an art print, stickers, and even a premium alternate cover that also unlocks bonus payments for our authors. So go show Cthulhu and our authors some love on Kickstarter now, because it will only be there until June 23! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/estherjones/cthulhu-fhcon

All of us have that one person that we give crap to. They’re good people, we like them, we’re friends, and the way we communicate our love is by endlessly tormenting them. For some reason, they just become the butt of all the jokes—maybe because they have it coming, but probably because they’re the ones in the group strong enough to take it with good humor and still love us back.

In short, every group has a Glen.

This is not an anthology made in honor of Glen and those like him. Who wants to honor them, anyways?

This is an anthology made to honor all such friendships, and those people who really need to see Glen die. Looking for short stories 2-5k words long. Stories must include the following elements:

Any form of speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, etc.).The words “crystal palace” must appear in the story at some point. Context is irrelevant.There must be a character named Glen that appears somewhere in the story. Glen must die in the course of the story.

Payment will be $.03/word pending a Kickstarter launch of the anthology. Benchmarks on the Kickstarter launch will be set to increase pay to pro rates ($.08/hr). Submit stories to Frog Jones at frog@jonestales.com no later than Jan 1, 2025.

The Cthulhu FhCon Kickstarter…

featuring short stories from USA Today Best Selling, popular, and award-winning authors goes live on Kickstarter tomorrow morning! Frog and I will be hosting a launch party from 9 AM to Noon, 2 PM to 4 PM and 5 PM to 7 PM tomorrow, May 29.

Author M. Todd Gallowglas will be joining us at 11 AM Pacific, and author Jennifer Brozek, who wrote the lead story, “Observations of a LARP in Three Acts,” will be joining us at 3 PM Pacific.

 To go with our mad convention theme, our first 48-hour early-bird backer bonus is a virtual watch party/heckling of the movie, Manos the Hands of Fate.

I know, I know. This is a book. But it’s a convention book, so let’s go to the movies together! Pledge in the first 48 hours to get your invite!

Frog and I are super pleased to announce that the Cthulhu FhCon Anthology –featuring eighteen stories guaranteed to both horrify and delight from eighteen of science fiction, fantasy, and horror’s favorite authors– is headed to Kickstarter soon.

Why Cthulhu stories you ask? What better way to celebrate all the wonderful, strange, and horrible things that can make a fan con– Days without sleep, programming that randomly seems to change rooms, maze-like hotels, wild hallway conversations, copious room parties, and intricate cosplays. This anthology celebrates fan conventions, with all their glorious strange, horrifying, frenetic, obsessive madness that coalesces for the 3-4 days and then dissipates, known only to those that attended.

Our fabulous award-winning, best-selling, and fan-favorite authors include Jennifer Brozek, Kat Richardson, M.J. Stoumbos, David Boop, Frances Pauli, Frank Martin, Jason R. Frei, John Lance, Hank Schwaeble, Irene Radford, Russell Nohelty, G.R. Theron, Olivia Baxter Hudson, Rhiannon Louve, Elizabeth Guizzetti, Paul A. DeStefano, A.R.R. Ash, and Peter J. Wacks.

Follow the campaign on Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/estherjones/cthulhu-fhcon

And if you sign up for news and updates, you can download a sample story Room Party Fit for an Elder God, by Elizabeth Guizzetti here: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/6cps6ptecf

I love being a writer. I love allowing the fantasies in my mind free reign to enter the world via the page. It’s one of the greatest releases I have, and it’s the most profound thing I do.

But before I was a writer, I was a reader. This post isn’t about me as a writer. It’s about me as a reader, and the problems I face right now.

Too many of the times, I see posts that go into the problems writers have with Amazon or other online venues for books. There’s all sorts of strategies out there for how to market your book–indeed, the ability to market your book seems to be more important than the ability to write a good book these days.

You know what’s harder, though? Being a reader and finding a book I actually want to read.

You see, the more time an author spends on marketing strategies, the less time they have to spend on craft. And so the chance that the book on the first page of whereever I’m looking is actually a really good book is…shockingly low.

Back in the day, there were limited avenues through which one could receive a book. Books were only in paper–the ebook did not exist in my teenage days. Therefore, only the companies with the capital to put out a paper book did so. And because of the massive investment involved in a nationwide distribution of paper books, they were very careful about what they put out.

Somewhere, I like to imagine it as a small, enclosed space filled with manuscripts and the stink of sweat, there was a slush editor. The slush editor’s job was–still is, in some places–to sort through the incredible amount of dreck to find the one diamond, and send that diamond on. But 99.99% of the slush editor’s job was getting bad books out of the process.

Nowadays, though, most authors are self- or small-press-published. And hey, I’m running a small press here. But that means that anyone can skip the slushpile altogether and get their book up and selling.

In the beginning of the self-publishing revolution, this was heralded as a kind of freedom. And it is–but there’s a dark side to this freedom. One faced not by the writer, but by the reader.

Because as a reader…I now have to do my own slush editing. All of that dreck that the slush editor filtered out is now published, and it’s on me to find the diamond. Which means…I haven’t actually read a truly gripping epic fantasy since Wise Man’s Fear came out. I’ve read some stuff that’s…fun. It’s fine. But nothing that’s lit me up the way I felt the first time I read The Belgariad or when I first started down the path of The Song of Ice and Fire.

In this age of volume-based production, I despair if I’m ever going to find that work that’s been carefully, lovingly polished to perfection. Because that isn’t how one makes money as an author anymore. The fact is, if you slowly and carefully craft a story–like, say, Rothfuss did–you’re more likely to end up buried amongst the deluge and bloat of the current marketplace than you are to stand out.

The secret to being a successful author when I started out was always writing a good book. Nowadays, it’s gaming the Amazon algorithm, SEO, and well-placed advertisements. Those are the skills of the successful writer. And that’s not the fault of the writers–that’s just the marketplace we’re in now. As a publisher, I’m always going to want to put my books in front of you–and so does everyone else.

But as a reader…I don’t know where to turn to filter those books and find the good ones. And I don’t have time to do it myself. I’m beginning to despair a bit over the loss of the tastemakers, because right now I’m looking at Amazon like the slushpile I have to sort through.

That’s a problem. I’ve got no idea what the solution is. But whoever comes up with that solution is going to be who truly controls the market next.

So, I grew up a nerdy kid in a small rural town. Being into magic and dragons and spaceships? That was not a done thing. Not cool. I kept my likes and dislikes as under wraps as I could. I stayed in the closet about my nerdiness as long as I could.

Until I discovered that there were others like me. For me, that happened at summer camp where I met people playing RPGs and Magic. It was an awakening. The moment that you realize that you are not alone. That the fen are out here, and we are a welcoming and loving group that all just want to love speculative fiction together.

Today, I got to be a part of someone else’s awakening, and I am honored to have done so.

That pic is of a kid who was following his Mom around Sagefencon. Now, at our table, we like to ask people what they like to read. This lets us know what book to direct them towards, and also lets us engage.

He said the following: “I like science fiction. And fantasy. Actually, I really want both in one book. Like, dwarves, but they have plasma cannons.”

And so, reaching for a copy of Blackbox Protocol, I thought “I got you, fam.”

A story that contains dwarves with plasma cannons

Now, I can’t take full credit, here. Blackbox Protocol is set in the Neverwhen RPG universe by Dragondyne Publishing. It’s a place built by the recently-deceased Dustin Gross, and it was built in part because Dustin wanted a world in which dwarves wielded plasma cannons. While I did some work writing on it, primarily in the action scenes, the great Bethany Loy did the bulk of the work on it.

Now this kid stands before me, and instead of saying something patronizing like “Oh, that’s a cool idea,” or “Aren’t you so creative,” or simply ignoring him, I’m able to look this boy in the eye and say “Well, I have a book in which dwarves use plasma cannons.”

And then I saw it.

Before that moment, this kid lived in his own world. After that moment, the world that Dustin created and Bethany brought to life existed to him, and that meant that he was not alone. He is currently running about the con, clutching this book to him like a prized possession.

He has not yet read said book, but that doesn’t matter. It is a talisman. A token. A tangible sign that there is someone else in the universe who thinks the same things are cool as he does. And as such, it is precious beyond measure.

And I can’t help but feel his pure joy myself.

October 7-10, 2022
Oxford Suites in Portland, OR

Let’s face it: we love going to science fiction conventions. And some of our best ideas happen as a result of just sitting about talking with other authors around conventions.

Now, we love panelling. And we love being at a table and selling books. But the truth of the matter is, the absolute best thing about the convention are the things that don’t show up on the schedule. Science fiction and fantasy authors love to hang out, talk, work, and share stories. That’s the real magic of a convention–those talks in the lobby or at the hotel bar. The hanging out.

That’s where the ideas come from. It’s where the deals get made. It’s where the pitches happen, and where people sell books to people. It’s the networking of science fiction and fantasy authors with science fiction and fantasy publishers.

When we were first getting started, we began attending an event known as CampCon. CampCon was just what it sounds like–we all went camping. There were no panels, no scheduled events, no dealer’s room or artist’s auction. But there was a bunch of authors dedicated to working on their craft and networking with one another. There is really nothing that propelled us forward in this industry faster than CampCon–it’s where we went from having an idea for a series to actually getting published as science fiction and fantasy authors. It’s where we got into anthologies and met like-minded people.

CampCon was amazing, but logistically difficult and hard to expand. There’s only so many campsites, and coordinating food and tents and everything was a hassle. In addition, many of the CampCon attendees began to age, and so it fell by the wayside.

But that’s all right; it’s time to take that same theory and put it into a hotel. A convention, if you will, that is no convention. No schedule. No panels. No dealer’s room. No art auctions. Just…us. Writing, editing, and hanging out. Just that essence of a convention, distilled and presented for an entire weekend. One hotel, one weekend, and a bunch of science fiction and fantasy authors, editors, and publishers with nothing to do but be science fiction and fantasy authors, editors, and publishers.

We’ll be doing this at the Oxford Suites in Portland, OR. If that sounds familiar to you, well…it should.

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The Oxford Suites has long been our favorite hotel for being in. It’s comfy, it has great amenities, and we love it. And now, we’re inviting all our friends to book their own room.

Impulsive Walrus is charging…nothing. Nothing at all. Seriously. We may, at some point, have some sort of a modest fee to do badges or buttons or something if we get this big enough to want to ID people by their badge, but for now? It’s just going to be cool people hanging out. You’ll need to get your own hotel room, and everyone is responsible for feeding themselves (though I am sure people will arrange trips to assorted restaurants. Esther and I, for instance, will almost certainly be making a little jaunt to Zilla Sake.)

So book your rooms, come to Portland, and let’s hang. Let’s throw up our laptops in the lobby and get some word count. Let’s hang in the lounge over beers and tell stories to one another. Let’s do all those things we love to do at conventions…without having a convention get in the way.

We’re calling this The Iceberg, because we’re the Walrus, and this is where we chill out. So we invite science fiction and fantasy authors all to come and join us on the Iceberg. Let’s have a good time, and let’s get some work done.

When Esther and I were first starting to write, Esther had an opportunity to speak with a published author. Upon hearing that we collaborated on our series as a couple, that author very politely informed Esther that we needed to stop. We would doom our relationship, our marriage, and extinguish our love entirely during the writing process. 

The advice was sincere, strongly felt by that author, and wrong.

Writing with your friend, your partner, or loved one?  It’s fun. And it’s effective.

But it requires a healthy, respectful, communicating relationship to work.

That author mistook an unhealthy relationship and communication dynamic for “Collaborations like this don’t work, and will give you a hell-like, horrible experience that torches your whole life.”

That author had experienced, consumed, and bought into all the unhealthy ways relationships are portrayed. Relationships are either a romantic bubble followed by happily ever after, or (on the other end of the spectrum) an endless source of despair and conflict for the characters.  Both of these fantasies are entertaining and interesting. But they perpetuate myths.

A real, lasting love is built on trust, respect, and mutual support of each other’s goals and dreams.  Esther and I are a team as we move through life.  That’s as true when it comes to writing as it is when it comes to raising our daughter or figuring out our taxes.  We’re there for each other—where one is weak, the other is strong.

But you very rarely see stories about those relationships, because flawed, harmful relationships are such easy conflict fodder.   

We think that sucks because stories shape expectations..

We’re putting our money where our mouth is on this one.  We believe, firmly, that collaborating with a partner is a great way to make a story better.  And we believe that amazing stories can be told about real, solid relationships built on trust and teamwork.  So that’s what we’re looking for.

We want stories about strong, healthy couples in established, stable relationships, who work together, complement each other’s strengths, and cover for each other’s weaknesses, while they solve the story’s main conflict together. Just because there’s superheroes in the main image, don’t think you’re limited to that–any form of fiction in which a relationship operates in this way is welcome.

Every story needs to be co-written between two authors.  The authors don’t necessarily need to be in a relationship—honestly, we don’t need to know your personal life–but you need to be working with a partner, and not destroying your relationship in the process.  IF that’s not your norm, we encourage you to try it out and get a feel for it.

But every story must feature a strong, healthy relationship as described. 

We don’t want stories about how people meet. We don’t want stories where part of the tension or story problem is whether the relationship will survive solving the main conflict.   Send us those stories, and you will get an automatic and very polite form rejection.

Payment will begin at $.03/word, and will increase to pro rate based on Kickstarter stretch goals.  LGBTQ+ stories welcome and encouraged.  Polyamorous stories also welcome, but all members of the poly unit must conform to the above description.  Please use manuscript format.

We are looking for stories of between 2,000 and 6,000 words. Keep them PG-13, please.  Authors will retain all rights to the work, and will only be asked to grant a license for publishing. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable so long as author retains the rights to license the work. Please submit by e-mailing a .doc or .rtf file to frog@jonestales.com with the subject line COUPLES SUBMISSION. 

Reading period for this begins Jan 1, 2023.  Expected Kickstarter fall of 2023.  Goal is an anthology roughly 80,000 words in length.

Thank you to everyone who attended the launch party, or has already backed! I am so, so excited to announce Graceless is now a “Kickstarter Project We Love.” Not only has the campaign funded, we’ve already reached $2,000 before the end of day 1! I am so blown away by the love and support we’ve received from everyone.Please don’t forget if you back in the first 48 hours, you’ll receive an invitation to a Story Craft and Author Q & A session with Frog and Esther Jones January 29, 2022, at 2 PM PST.Do you love urban fantasies set in a gritty, magical world almost like yours?
Do you dig fantastical monsters invading from other dimensions?
Do you love kick-ass characters who have to learn how to stand up to their own demons?

Meet Andrea, one of the main characters
in Graceless:

For a thousand years, I was a demon’s slave.
Two people saved me. Only one lived.
Robert sacrificed irreplaceable alliances to bring me to this world.
But the illegal magic that freed me triggered a huge outcry.
Now the demon has followed me here—and he’s fueling a massive war between mundane and magic that threatens to engulf the whole globe.
Does my life really balance all the death that’s followed?
Can I find the strength to grow into a strong protector instead of prey? Will I be able to fight the demon and win? How can Robert and I save a world driven to hate everything we are?

Kickstarter Link

Thanks again and I hope you’ll enjoy reading Graceless!!  

The post GRACELESS KICKSTARTER IS LIVE!! appeared first on Impulsive Walrus.