SIA Showcase for Readers and Writers discussion

Hi, I'm a guy who likes to wear ties for attention at conventions. I have 3 distinct ties, two of which I get regular compliments on. It's part of who I am as an author: Quirky, talkative, and well dressed! Once I have your attention, I will chat you up about anything pop culture related, I'll compliment your cosplay of a semi-obscure character like Lucca from Chrono Trigger (yup, this happened. I fangirled and everything), and overall I'll tell you to have a great day.

Beyond my persona that I project to the public, I'm just someone who loves writing sci-fi, fantasy, and now horror and techno thriller. I am, 3 books in, a 4th on the way. I have 3 years of knowledge about indie publishing and 6 months of script writing.

I've made some crazy-amazing friends (authors and not) in my journey thus far, and I've been a part of some amazing experiences and some tremendous flops. Add in a Luckdragon and this will be The NeverEnding Story, part 4!

Edit: I suppose I should put a book here or something too. I made R.E.birth perma free as a way to interest readers at no cost to them except time. It's the first in the trilogy and the hope is to hook as many people as possible. :)

Edit Edit: I am no longer doing reviews.

Thomas! I think we're going to get along swell. :) I am also on book 3 of 4, started 2-3 years ago, and love all things pop culture! I'd love to hear about your flops. Usually we can all learn from stuff like that.

One big flop: I did the NW Book Festival in Oregon last year. Booked it out about a year in advance, paid the fee for the space and all. The biggest issue? It was in Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland.

Now, this probably wouldn't have been an issue if the weather had held out. But it didn't and dozens of authors got rained on. Thankfully all of the areas had canopies or tents (provided by us, the authors), but a side wind helped those droplets find home on books. I only came away with only one or two copies water damaged, not my whole lot. I didn't get any sales though, for obvious reasons.

Lesson learned: Don't do events outside. Ever. If the weather doesn't hold out, the day is ruined.

Ouch! I can't even imagine trying to book an outdoor event in the PNW! You are the adventurous opposite of me. I did one comicon this year and said, eh, I'm way more interesting online. ;) But I am avidly following your adventures! (As well as Rain's!)

Aiya! Outside = no go for sure!! Hope you're warm and cozy INSIDE next time and get a crapload of sales!

Psst, Miss Christina! Were we at the same Comicon? San Fran...?

Thanks! I hope I get lots of sales too! XD

I sold two sets of my trilogy a couple weekends ago. That was awesome.

My next big thing is Emerald City Comicon, where there shall be probably 100,000 people walking through the Seattle Convention Center throughout a 4 day event. I'll be sharing a table there with a friend of mine.

Pop culture sidebar: Annie, you saying "aiya" makes me think of Shampoo from Ranma 1/2.

I'm reading R.E. birth right now...interesting so far. Only another 85% of the book to go!

My plan for in-person vending this year is a fairy festival I tell myself I'm going to go to every year. It's usually held outside. Hopefully, the fairies will keep the sun out!

Thanks for reading! I know what Christina thought about R.E.birth (and was excited for the review), and I'm interested in what you think Riley.

Edit to avoid bumping: Be careful Missy, and hopefully there will be some overhead protection like tents and what not!

Any plans for this year for vending?

I really want to start doing cons so it is exciting that you know a bunch (more than I do) about them Thomas!

:D

I'm so lost here because I've never participated or attended a comicon of any kind. But I love the NeverEnding Story:)

I'm done for the rest of 2016. I was declined for Norwescon 2017, which is okay. They have very limited space. The only other thing I have for sure is just Emerald City Comicon 2017.

With a huge life change potentially coming my way, I'm holding off on scheduling any other events just yet until that's confirmed. If it happens, I'll be branching out well beyond the PNW. Even then I'll probably sign up for Geek Girl Con and Jet City Comic Show again and keep my opportunities going here.

Emerald City just sounds amazing because it reminds me of the Wizard of Oz and that is seriously one of my favorite movies of all time:)

Hah, I'd never thought of that. The name is about all those two have in common though. Brief history lesson: Seattle is called the Emerald City because of all the greenery. The name was selected because of a contest. :D

Thomas wrote: "Hah, I'd never thought of that. The name is about all those two have in common though. Brief history lesson: Seattle is called the Emerald City because of all the greenery. The name was selected be..."

See, I know nothing about these things. *laughs* It's an awesome name, though!

Thomas wrote: "Annie, you saying "aiya" makes me think of Shampoo from Ranma 1/2."

I need a like button. Desperately.

I only go to Comicon cuz I'm a nerd and like to cosplay LOL Seriously, though, have the Superhero trope/genre/whatever authors set up tables there? That would be pretty boss!!

Sorry.. I did read everything but I got caught on the tie. Nothing more attractive than a man with a tie (well...I don't mean just a tie here...they can wear pants and shirts too if they want. :P )

No but seriously, good luck at the Comicon. I've never gone to those. I thought they were for comic books only. Now that I know they aren't, I'll have to add that to my bucket list. I also have your book on that list. :P LOVE LOVE LOVE time travel stories!

They are often called 'Fan Expos' now, and are great fun!
Check one out GG! See if anyone famous you like is there, and grab an autograph!

G.G. wrote: "Nothing more attractive than a man with a tie (well...I don't mean just a tie here...they can wear pants and shirts too if they want."

Ha ha ha! I'd sure get a bunch more attention than I already do if I wore just a tie to the cons. I'd also be promptly kicked out, but still, the reactions would be priceless.

And yeah, most "comicons" are about comics only in name. Most of them now call themselves pop culture conventions in some way or another. You definitely need to go to one! They're crowded, but they're also really amazing. Worth the adventure 100%

Back to your books, Thomas, what is your view on time travel? Do you think it only fictional or do you believe one day men will be able to travel through time and maybe fix their mistakes?

Hi Thomas, you sound like an interesting guy! I'm a fan of your contributions to the booths and cons thread :)

@G.G. : Fictional only.

Here's how I view it. Without a governing body to protect the timeline, some idiot with a time machine/power to time travel would attempt to destroy the world and mold it in their image. Because we don't have any insane despots...(insert Trump joke here)...I've concluded in my own mind that time travel can't possibly exist.

A governing body would only be viable if it was impenetrable to outside forces. Unfortunately that couldn't possibly be a reality (See Star Trek Voyager episodes or DC's Legends of Tomorrow episodes). Someone always gets in and mucks things up and things go sideways. That's true for anything real, unfortunately.

My parallel universe theory is similar in that some jerk with power (mechanical or otherwise) (such as Zoom from The Flash) would try and mess things up for everyone, likely try to destroy all universes at once somehow. If there are infinite parallel universes, that means there's an infinitely equal amount of people saving all parallel universes from utter destruction and an infinitely equal amount of times the villain wins and destroys all of the parallel universes. Either way, I believe we'd see some sort of real world effect somewhere.

I suspend my disbelief for a good show though. Some already mentioned, but Sliders is and always will be my favorite.

@Marie : Thanks! I hope they were helpful!

Thomas, Wishing you the best of success at Comicon!! Hugs!!
Shout out to the cast of The Walking Dead for me. : D

Hi Thomas!
I've got R.E.birth on my list to read soon. I love time travel stories.

I'm hopefully going to get a space at a few local cons next year. Hoping to ease into it and see how it works. I'll make sure to avoid any outside!

Thomas wrote: "@G.G. : Fictional only.

Here's how I view it. Without a governing body to protect the timeline, some idiot with a time machine/power to time travel would attempt to destroy the world and mold it i..."

Yeah I have to agree that if it would be accessible to anyone, it would be chaos and well, we might not even be here to see the results. So I am guessing there cannot be any studies on it due to the danger it would bring.

It's still fun to play with though. I love the loops and the AHHH moments some books and movies have because of it. Kind of like the movie Twelve Monkeys did. I think those are the things that strike me the most and stay with me for the longest time.

I remember reading a book when I was in my early twenties about an astronaut and a cat who crashed on a planet which had strangely enough only cats for inhabitants. Of course it turned out to be a loop in time and they had crashed in the past and that's how the cats were there. Anyways, long story short, I love these kinds of things. It drives me mad thinking about them.

And yes, I do believe that if parallel universes actually exist, any kind of damage done to one could affect ours. Scary when you think that you have absolutely no means of preventing it... Now I've got more food for thoughts. :)

I definitely love playing with the idea of loops as well as cause and effect. Without giving too much away from my series, I do address those sort of loop ideas all while avoiding most paradoxes (or at least somewhat explaining them). The biggest thing I hate in other time travel stories is when they completely ignore paradoxes.

Paradoxes? as for example a kid meets himself as an adult? Or when the character meets himself (or herself) in the past/future?

LOOPS!! Love loops! but I think I said that already. Now I am curious. I've read time travel stories that although uses those loops don't exploit it to the max it could. From what I can see, you are aware of them and are not shy of using them. COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

G.G. wrote: "Paradoxes? as for example a kid meets himself as an adult? Or when the character meets himself (or herself) in the past/future?

LOOPS!! Love loops! but I think I said that already. Now I am curiou..."

The meeting paradoxes aren't too bad if explained or done right. The biggest ones I take issue with are "I am going to prevent X, Y, Z thereby making them never happen, but if they never happen then I never prevent them, meaning that they do happen."

That's not to say those kinds of things can't be done, it's just that most writers whose work I've read or seen don't even try to answer them. There are specialty clauses where a person can exist independent of the changed timeline, but if it's never addressed people are left to believe it'll just keep going in a giant circle over and over.

There is a movie that does the time loop paradox really well, but I can't remember the name off the top of my head. I'll look for it and post it later.

So for those who may be on the fence about picking up REbirth: There are exactly three authors, trad or indie, who write genre fiction in the first person present tense narrative that I can read and enjoy. Thomas is one of them. He actually uses this device correctly and there were no awkward phrases to take me out of the tale at all.

"And his ego grew three sizes that day!" JK!

Thanks Christina! :D

So, if you don't follow me on Twitter or FB (yet...mwa ha ha!), I'm not just an author, but I've begun branching out. My friend wants to produce a zombie series and so I'm supporting him by being the lead writer, and writing episodes. The series is called 'Nowhere To Run' by 'An AJ Move Productions'

https://www.facebook.com/anajmoveprod...

Our current status is that the teaser trailer and opening credit sequence are being edited now, and we're doing a casting call in January.

My latest review is posted on my site.

by William C. Tracy

http://indiereviews.tweverson.com/201...

Hello Thomas

Hello Nathan :)

If PD offers for people to put their book up on her blog, you should definitely do it. Thanks PD, because I saw more downloads today than I have in a month.

P.D. is awesome! I'm glad you saw some more downloads, Thomas!

Gearing up for Emerald City Comicon in Seattle next week. But instead of just being an attendee I'm sharing a table in the artist alley with another author. I'm sure there will be some pictures of my ties popping up here.

In the meantime, does anyone else have the experience of anxiety brought on by ordering $1000+ of your own books for a convention? I'm hoping to at least make that back plus my space, but I will need to sell at least 25 copies of my trilogy to break even.

As a total nerd, I love conventions but I'd need to write something long enough to print before I went to a con (I currently have one ebook out and am working on another that will be slightly longer but not really long enough for a print copy)

So I'm wondering how many print books you had out before you had your first table at a con?

Ahhh, Mr Thomas! So freakin' exciting!!

I've only ever commissioned caricatures for artist alley during Animethon (cuz yeah, that's the real nerd in me haha) but I'm super duper stoked to see your results selling books!

Bestest of luck, good sir! Keep us posted!!!

Hugsss,
Ann

Thomas, have fun at Comicon... I've some friends with tables there, too. I've never been to a comicon, but I hope you sell tons!

Madeline wrote: "So I'm wondering how many print books you had out before you had your first table at a con?"

One! That's all it takes! Most people didn't care that it was my first, or that it was the first in a trilogy that wasn't yet completed.

I jumped head first into that pool. The first con I sold at was Jet City Comic Show in Tacoma. The price for the table space was reasonable and I sold 10 copies, covering the space and my parking for the day.

Annie wrote: "Ahhh, Mr Thomas! So freakin' exciting!!"

It really is super freakin' exicting!! Squee!

Nat wrote: "Thomas, have fun at Comicon... I've some friends with tables there, too. I've never been to a comicon, but I hope you sell tons!"

Thanks, Nat! You should definitely try a comicon out sometime (that is, if you like anything nerdy or pop culture). They're usually pretty crowded, but also a lot of fun.

It's been a few months and I've been quite busy with real life stuff, but I took some time out to put together a book trailer for my trilogy! I spent a few hours a day for a week gathering and creating assets, and then all of yesterday editing it all together.

https://youtu.be/TEucxbPcDvE

Before this week, I hadn't done any sort of video editing. (Uploading game footage doesn't count, because that was just recording clips and clicking upload). My trial of Adobe Premiere Pro literally ended today. Google was my friend in this adventure, and now I'm considering what other kinds of things I can do for my YouTube channel...

The trailer looks brilliant! Well done!!!

Thanks Marie :)

Awesome trailer, Thomas! Wow! Great job with Adobe! I don't even know how to edit a photo!! Hugs

Looking to gather some names for an upcoming beta read of a sci-fi/technothriller. If you're interested, please send me a direct message here, or on Twitter (https://twitter.com/WriterThomasE)

Want a free copy of R.E.birth? In celebration of publishing 4 years ago, I'm running an Amazon giveaway. Just follow the link to enter!

Good luck!

https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/1ea7f24...