Posted by Bob Greenberger on February 19, 2013
Farpoint is the convention that thrived after OctoberTrek and ClipperCon rose and fell. Organized and run by many of the same people, it become a generational con, started by the first generation of Baltimore-area Star trek fans and gradually taken over mostly by the second generation. And now, as the show celebrated its 20th Anniversary this past weekend, a third generation has come to work on the event. That’s pretty damn impressive considering how many shows have staffs that change almost annually.
It was always in the shadow of Shore Leave, half the size and therefore more intimate, the organizers wisely moved hotels a few years back to the Crowne Plaza so it has clearly developed its own identity and flavor.
The feeling of family has also been extended to the guests as they have brought back several faster than other shows would do. Felicia Day, Lee Arenberg and Bonita Friedericy, all appeared over the last three years and were brought back. Joining them as first timers was Bonita’s husband John Billingsley, Rob Paulsen, and Giancarlo Esposito, who was making one of his first con appearances so it was still new to him.
We brought Ariel David with us, and she came loaded with stuff to auction off to help raise funds to offset her father’s medical costs, which are an enduring concern. Hitting the road at 6 a.m. has become the norm for us, ensuring we arrive in Maryland in reasonable time. This year, we actually managed a record four hours flat, including one rest stop. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Bob Greenberger on February 13, 2013
Tag: I’m it.
Welcome to my first blog hop post. What is a blog hop? It’s a virtual event that helps readers discover new authors. The first author tags five others whose work he or she admires, who each tag five more, who each tag five more, and so on. These memes float around the internet every few years, and this particular event has been so widespread, covering so many genres and amazing authors, that it was impossible to say no to participating.
Thanks to Kevin Dilmore, last week’s hopper and the guy who roped me into this.
In this particular hop, the authors I’ve chosen and I will each answer, on our respective blogs, the same 10 (predetermined) questions ranging from our current works in progress to our writing processes and beyond. Please feel free to share comments and questions.
Now, here is my Next Big Thing! This is what will follow all the After Earth prose that I’ve been shamelessly pimping here.
1) What’s the title of your forthcoming book?
ReDeus: Beyond Borders.
2) Where did the idea come from for the book?
Aaron Rosenberg, Paul Kupperberg, and I created the ReDeus universe ages and ages ago and after many years gestating, we finally decided to self-publish through Crazy 8 Press last year. We gathered a bunch of our pals and invited them to join us in this world, creating ReDeus: Divine Tales, which came out in August. Everyone had so much fun and the response was good so we decided to do two more this year, starting with Beyond Borders.
3) What genre does your book fall under?
It’s definitely a fantasy since it involves gods and magic and weird creatures. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Bob Greenberger on January 4, 2013
Like you, I’ve been following Kathleen David’s reports on Peter David’s progress since Sunday’s stroke. Now comes the appeal for help, finally something tangible we can all do. She wrote this morning:
Even though we have health insurance we have co-pays and the like. And since this stroke fell at the end of the year, we have all the new co-pays to deal with (I can honestly see those of you who have had to deal with this nodding your heads). And there are things that the insurance company just won’t cover (more head nodding). So we are at the beginning of what is going to be a very expensive year even though we are only 4 days in.
The most direct way is to buy his books from Crazy 8 or from Amazon or Barnes and Nobel websites. These are books that he gets the money from directly and the most per book. His currently Crazy 8 Books are
Pulling Up Stakes Part 1
Pulling Up Stakes Part 2 (Brand new)
This is one novel broken into two pieces.
Sick of vampire books? Movies? TV shows? Yeah. So are we. Sick of the entire unlife of vampires? Yeah. So is Vince Hammond. Unfortunately, Vince is in it up to his (wait for it) neck. Because Vince is a young vampire hunter who lives with his vampire hunter mother in an entire community of vampire hunters, who in turn are part of a cult of vampire hunters going back all the way to the French Revolution, which many believe to be an uprising of the poor against the rich but was actually a massive purging of vampires from the French nobility (hence the guillotine)
The Camelot Papers
A powerful ruler who’s considered by many to be simple-minded and vacuous and has serious father issues. A no-nonsense, polarizing woman who favors pants suits and pursues dubious agendas involving social needs. A remarkably magnetic leader of men with a reputation as a skirt-chaser. A scheming, manipulative adviser who is constantly trying to control public perceptions. A man seen as the next, great hope for the people, except there are disputes over his background and many contend he’s not what he appears to be.
George W? Hillary and Bill? Karl Rove? Obama?
Try Arthur Pendragon, Guinevere, Lancelot, Merlin, and Galahad.
Whatever you think of the state of today’s politics, The Camelot Papers shows you just how little matters have changed in the past thousand years or so. The Camelot Papers presents a fresh perspective on Arthurian legend by using modern day sensibility and combining it with a classic tale to bring a new insight into iconic characters.
The Hidden Earth Saga of which there are two published and the third is in the works.
Darkness of the Light (Book 1)
Height of the Depths (Book 2)
These are science fiction mixed with mythological creatures and the fate of the Universe hangs in the balance. Big epic sweeping books with those great characters that Peter is famous for writing.
There are Print on Demand for all these books if you want a paper copy rather than electronic. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Bob Greenberger on August 9, 2012
One of the things about digital publishing is that sometimes you hit glitches that can baffle even the finest of mind. Last October, my short story, “A Matter of Faith”, was posted as a $.99 digital short at Nook and Kindle. It sat there like so many other books. But then in January, Nook pushed it in one of their weekly newsletters and sure enough, there was a smattering of sales. I clicked over to check the Kindle sales and saw that the book’s price vanished.
I contacted the Kindle people and they explored the problem, assured me they found the error and fixed it. Nope, still showing up without a price. Finally, this Spring, Amazon told webmaster Glenn Hauman that it was a digital rights management issue requiring a fresh file. There was no DRM involved but he shrugged and reposted the file. Same problem. Finally, it was fixed on Thursday and the story is finally available for those reading via Kindle.
Meantime, as you may recall, I’m involved in several digital initiatives not only through Crazy 8 Press, but as a member of the HiveMind. Since January, we have been releasing installments in our Young Adult Latchkeys series, which has also languished a bit. The lesson here is that the audience we’re aiming at doesn’t necessarily have Kindles or Kindle apps or permission to buy the books, meaning we need their parents to be aware of the series and think well enough of the premise to buy it for their family. We’re up to book five (all available at C8) and book six will be out in September. Our goal will be to collect the first six as a print book for the rest of the world which should be available this fall, in plenty of time for Christmas.
An ancient, magical house.
Doors that lead to anywhere.
A group of kids charged to protect them.
But from what? An exciting new children’s series that takes you everywhere — and everywhen.
If you like YA fantasy, I urge you to give it a try. And then tell me what you think.
Posted by Bob Greenberger on July 30, 2012
Shore Leave 34 was very wise and moved out of its traditional July weekend so as not to compete with San Diego Comic-Con for fans and guests. As a result, it will be this coming weekend and I don’t think I’ve had a busier schedule, which is fine by me since I actually have a variety of things to talk about. I’ll also be camped out at either the Crazy 8 Press table or the Star Trek: The Complete Unauthorized History table (and boy, do I hope they’re next to one another).
So, where can you find me?
Friday
7:00-8:00 p.m. Star Trek: The Complete Unauthorized History – Bob Greenberger, Scott Pearson, Howie Weinstein, Dave Galanter, Kalliope Dalto
10:00-Midnight Meet the Pros
Saturday
10:00-11:00 Bob Greenberger
12:00-1:00 Crazy 8 Turns One! – Bob Greenberger, Peter David, Aaron Rosenberg, Glenn Hauman, Michael Jan Friedman
1:00-2:00 Superheroes on Film – Peter David, Greg Cox, Bob Greenberger, Aaron Rosenberg
3:00-4:00 Leverage: The Con Goes On – Greg Cox, Keith R. A. DeCandido, Aaron Rosenberg, David Mack, Bob Greenberger
SUNDAY
10:00-11:00 The Bob & Howie Show
1:00-2:00 ReDeus: Divine Tales – Bob Greenberger, Aaron Rosenberg, Phil Giunta, Allyn Gibson, William Leisner, Steve Wilson, Dave Galanter
2:00-3:00 Latchkeys: a New Ebook Series – Bob Greenberger, Aaron Rosenberg, Lorraine Anderson, Rigel Ailur
5:00-6:30 Mystery Trekkie Theater with Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman, Bob Greenberger
On top of all this, Kate will be performing, as usual, with the Boogie Knights in their 30th Anniversary concert Saturday at 11 so you don’t want to miss that.
Posted by Bob Greenberger on March 22, 2012
I’ve been thinking a lot about marketing of late. Over at Crazy 8 Press, we continue to try and figure out how best to get the word our when we have new material to offer. There are five of us with Facebook pages, blogs, and Twitter accounts plus our C8 website and Twitter feed. Still, I question whether or not we’re getting the word out as loudly or as broadly as we should. And if I am right, what aspects are missing?
With the Latchkeys series, there are 13 of us involved so we’re trebling the number of people we have screaming about the books but the sales don’t seem to indicate anyone is listening. (So, if you haven’t sampled books one and two, you might want to consider supporting the arts.)
At Lunacon this past weekend, I sat in on a panel discussing the value of Book Trailers and while they are pretty and do something, no one was convinced they helped sell actual copies of print or eBooks which I found dispiriting. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Bob Greenberger on March 4, 2012
I have been totally remiss in discussing my lengthy work with peers in creating a brand new universe. No, not the After Earth movie, but something brand new.
As many of you know, I am a member of the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers, it says so right on the right side of the page. We have a mailing list and one of the frequent laments is that there is nowhere near enough work to around. In late 2008, someone suggested maybe we should just create our own universe and have that play in. So was born the HiveMind with our pal Steven Savile playing ring leader.
He offered us his notion for something called Latchkeys and invited us to come play in his sandbox which rapidly became our sandbox. We got very excited when it looked like we had a deal for these to be mobile stories for cellphones or the deal that would have these as original audiobooks. As Steve pursued the deals, the rest of us created characters, settings, and began tossing in our story ideas.
When it looked like we really had someone buying our wares, we finalized the bible, approved a handful of stories and organized a batting order of authors starting with Steve, naturally, and then he decided I should go second.
After many disappointments and delays, it began to look like the deals were never going to happen but in the meantime, fellow HiveMind member Aaron Rosenberg and I became part of Crazy8Press and that became a natural new home for Latchkeys so we could write and sell our stories directly to readers. While C8 was organizing itself, I spent part of last summer finally able to write my installment.
The series launched in January and our goal is to release a new story every six weeks and today, as it happens, is when the second book goes on sale for Nook and Kindle readers. I am proud of my contributions, which I discussed in more detail over at Crazy8Press.
Each chapter will cost you all of $.99 so it’s a cheap investment in entertainment but if you remain unconvinced, we even have a free preview of my story for you to sample.
I’d love for all my readers to buy the story and more importantly, if you like it, tell your friends.
Posted by Bob Greenberger on February 19, 2012
The nicest thing about Farpoint is just how relaxed a convention it can be. For whatever reason, this weekend was one of the best con experiences I’ve had in a long time. First, the storm that threatened to spoil the show never materialized. Second, the guests had a great time and shared their enthusiasm with the crowd. Dealers reported good sales which is also a good barometer of the mood.
We arrived Friday night after an unusually hellacious trip down, just in time for the Prometheus Radio theater production to kick off the events. Actresses Kate Vernon and Kristen Bauer were on hand to participate and were clearly enjoying themselves performing with the regulars. They were followed by a ridiculously short two-song set by the Boogie Knights. We skipped the remainder of the program to finish checking in, unpacking and saying hi to tons of people. Soon after it was time for karaoke and hearing Kate belt a few which was fun.
Saturday was its usual self, starting with me chatting then showing movie trailers, aided by Glenn Hauman. I managed to visit with folk until I participated in the two hour writer’s workshop which was a little less structured than usual but the small audience seemed to appreciate hearing from Howard Weinstein, David Galanter, Kelly Meding, Bob Jones and me.
With an hour between panels, the Crazy 8 Press gang met to go over the usual business nonsense then trooped to the panel room and regaled one and all with wit and witticisms.
I was invited to be a judge at the Masquerade and got to meet the guests, including Michael Hogan who was a real pleasure. The masquerade was a strong one and we enjoyed the experience. In the judge’s room, Deb was given the chance to select the recipient of the Robbie Greenberger Most Original Award. After we concluded our work, we returned to the ballroom where Marty Gear was auctioning off a variety of items, including a meet and greet with Kristen. He got the bidding up with a person pledge of $325 but began telling a prolonged vampire joke until more money was raised. Alan Chafin grabbed an empty box and began canvassing the room to collect spare change and bills as Marty’s joke droned on. People were tossing in their cash and it was being rapidly counted. Hogan, Peter, and I made our contributions and we finished with something like an additional $360, which let Marty tell the overdue punch line. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Bob Greenberger on December 31, 2011
The end of the year is a time to take stock, look back and figure out if this was a good year or a bad year. I think, for me, it was a transitional year.
I began – and completed – a Master’s Degree program in education. I also did a full year’s internship at Darien High School al to prepare me for being certified to teach Secondary Education English. As I have written before, the coursework varied from a waste of time to quite interesting. Still, I value my time in the high school which really has prepared me. In just a few weeks the adventure continues as I begin Student Teaching.
On the freelance front, it was a steady, albeit slow, year with a few nicely paying gigs that made up for the $100 and $200 jobs that were done more for love than money. The first six months of the year I was a Patch columnist although that dried up when I became a candidate for office. I did a few pieces for Star Trek Magazine, Marvel Spotlight, and Back Issue! I continued to review tons of stuff along with some news writing and interviewing for ComicMix.
I did a pile of writing and editing for Dynamic Forces which stretched my muscles in nice ways. I also edited the Dinosaurs and Animal Planet graphic novels for Silver Dragon Books with the latter scheduled to now finally show up around February.
I wrote 24 columns for Westfield Comics, letting me interview old friends and recommend stuff that might have been missed otherwise. My comics writing, though, was minimal: one Scooby-Doo story that has yet to see print.
Odd jobs included legal research for a publisher and being paid to write a sample chapter for a project that I really wished happened because I think my partner and I did a good job. On the other hand, some other stuff I did and can’t really talk about yet kept me busy with more to come.
I also dipped a toe into the digital world by helping launching Crazy 8 Press. It’s been an uneven six months but I did manage to get an older story back into print. “A Matter of Faith” has been available since October and has sold a whopping four copies so far. May the next offering, the second Latchkeys story (due in early 2012), do better.
Beyond that, Deb and I celebrated our 31st anniversary. We actually fit in a brief New Hampshire vacation along with spending Christmas week with Kate and our mothers. My mom turned 80 this week, surrounded by her siblings, children, and grandchildren so that was a special treat.
Looking ahead, I have to complete The Unofficial History of Star Trek in January and then hopefully other opportunities will present themselves. I suspect 2011 was a rebuilding year and all the time and investment of effort should pay off in 2012, making it a superior year.
Here’s wishing you all a Happy New Year!
Posted by Bob Greenberger on December 20, 2011
With all the focus on school and graduate school, I’ve had all too little to say about my freelance life. All year long, it has taken a back seat to my other obligations but remains a daily constant.
This week we should, at long last, send the Animal Planet project for Silver Dragon Books to the printer. There were countless delays with approvals or communication while some of the talent I hired missed their deadlines with regularity. Overall, it looks pretty sharp and should be out in early 2012. There will be a Free Comic Book Day edition so you can sample it in May.
Due out this month is The Art of Howard Chaykin but there have been delays there, too, and only in the last few days I answered the final questions posed to me. This hopefully will also be out from Dynamic Forces in early 2012.
I worked on one project that had me write a sample chapter in about a week only to discover the publisher realized they botched the timing and couldn’t sell the project so it died. Too bad, I’m proud of the work I did. On the other hand, some writing I’ve done for a company has led to additional assignments but I can’t talk about it yet.
A different project I wrote an outline and sample chapter for was a ghost writing assignment and much to my disappointment, we couldn’t move the deadline meaning I had to bow out of the project since it overlapped with The Unofficial History of Star Trek.
That book is humming along. I have been delighting in researching but frustrated at the stop and start nature of it as school and other things get in the way. Fortunately, I seem to be building up a nice rhythm and should be pretty close with my deadline. It’s fascinating to see the conflicting accounts of how things happened along with really close versions so I am trying to sift my way through the accounts, apply some logic and my own knowledge to try and pin down what I think really happened. Similarly, I am trying to put a lot of the information into a context that I have not seen elsewhere so even those who think they know the history will learn a thing or two.
In case you missed it, my short story, “A Matter of Faith” is still available for the Kindle and the Nook. Plus over at Crazy 8 Press, we announced the imminent arrival of the Latchkeys series where I am a contributor. More on that in the coming weeks.
Due out this week is The Art of Spider-Man Classic where I contributed the 1970s chapter and some shorter material. Gotham City 14 Miles, the anthology dedicated to the Batman television series, is now available at a lower price.
I am also working to wrap a career retrospective issue with someone rarely interviewed in the fan press and look forward to completing that and delivering it to Back Issue! in the first weeks of the New Year.
So yeah, I stay busy.
Farpoint is the convention that thrived after OctoberTrek and ClipperCon rose and fell. Organized and run by many of the same people, it become a generational con, started by the first generation of Baltimore-area Star trek fans and gradually taken over mostly by the second generation. And now, as the show celebrated its 20th Anniversary this past weekend, a third generation has come to work on the event. That’s pretty damn impressive considering how many shows have staffs that change almost annually.
