As many of you know, this weekend is Wizard World Chicago, one of the largest comic book convention in the US. Although it doesn't start until Thursday (Preview Night!), I'll be hitting the road tomorrow so I can visit with friends down there before the convention craziness begins.

As I believe I've mentioned previously, I expect to be spending a lot of time at the Moonstone Books booth, singing the praises of the recent Twilight Crusade event that I've written about just a few times here on the P(ull)-List. Stop by, say hello and check out Gabriel, Templar, Envoy, Succubus and Wolf. I'll be happy to sign Gabriel and any other stuff of mine that you happen to have on hand.

I may also be stopping by the Bluewater Productions booth from time to time. As some of you may remember, they published the Shi/Tenth Muse special that I wrote last year.

Other than that, I'll be strolling the con, chatting up other creators and reminding editors just what a great idea it is to work with me.

Hope to see some of you at the show!

Over on Comicon.com's The Pulse, reviewer Chris Beckett gives the Twilight Crusade some love in a special edition of his For Your Consideration column.  Check it out here.

Today marks the release of Twilight Crusade: Wolf, the final one-shot in the 5-week event from Moonstone Books. (It is also the comics writing debut of my good pal Grant Sauve, who has previously made a name for himself scripting live action and animated TV. Three cheers for Grant in joining the ranks of comic book scribes!)

As mentioned before, Twilight Crusade is a set of five books by five different creative teams, each providing a different perspective on the War between Heaven and Hell that has been waged since the dawn of time. 

Now that the final book has hit the stands, it's time for the readers to choose sides!  As mentioned in the back of each installment:

So, for those of you who have immersed yourself in the shadowy world of the Twilight Crusade, now is your chance to see more.

I do ask one favor: If you haven't read the books, please don't just vote for Gabriel out of a sense of friendship or fandom or anything like that. Everyone involved in crafting the stories of the Twilight Crusade has put in a whole lot of hard work and I'd like to see the voting results be a true reflection of how many readers enjoyed each individual's contributions and which story the readers would truly like to see continued.

In case you haven't read them yet, and are looking for more information, cover images and descriptions are available after the cut.

( Read more... )

A fairly short note to mention that I'll be heading to the Windy City (or, to be precise, its nearby environs) at the end of the month for Wizard World Chicago.  Some of you know that I was thinking about making 2008 a convention-free year, but a variety of things came together and I decided that not to mess with the habit of many long years and go.

I've been attending Wizard World Chicago since well before it became Wizard World Chicago (back when it was the Chicago Comicon) and, being a mere 5 or so hours by car from Detroit, it's a great opportunity to catch up with my horde of industry friends without plunking down the airfare and week's worth of hotel fees required by San Diego Con. Oh, excuse me -- Comic-Con International: San Diego. (Can't get as much business done, true, but it's a good compromise between CCI: SD and no conventioneering at all.)

Haven't solidified all my plans as yet, but I expect that I'll be spending a fair chunk of time with the fine folks from Moonstone Books, publishers of the Twilight Crusade event that is gracing comic store shelves even as we speak. My book, Gabriel, hit shelves first on the 21st of May, followed by Templar on the 28th and Envoy last week (June 4th). This week, Succubus arrives in stores and Wolf wraps the event on June 18th. Which means all the books will be out before the Con and I'm sure there will be a bunch of Twilight Crusade creators doing signings throughout the weekend.

In case you somehow missed it, the Twilight Crusade is a set of 5 books by 5 different creative teams, each exploring a different facet of the War between Heaven and Hell that's raged since the Beginning.

I may also be spending a bit of time at the Bluewater Productions booth. They're the publishers of the Shi/Tenth Muse one-shot that I wrote, which came out last year.

Other than that, I'll be prowling the con floor, stalking the most elusive game of all ... editors!

As my schedule firms up, I'll be sure to post updates here.

Just learned today that TWILIGHT CRUSADE: GABRIEL, my contribution (along with illustrator Walter Figueroa)  to Moonstone Books' Twilight Crusade event, is due in stores tomorrow, May 21st.  Four more one-shots will follow, each by a different creative team and detailing a different facet of the War between the forces of Heaven and Hell.

GABRIEL shines the spotlight on a soldier who has been on the front lines in the War since the very beginning.  But after millennia, the ultimate angel of destruction has grown weary of her never-ending tour of duty & the world it’s waged on. What's more, she's beginning to realize that  even an eternal warrior needs more out of life than dealing death.

This one has been a long time in the making, so I'm really looking forward to finally finding out how it will be received.

Also, Moonstone is running a contest for all the Twilight Crusade books.  They're asking readers to vote for their favorite. The title with the most votes will be the first to get its own series.  Check out the details in the back of GABRIEL or any of the other Twilight Crusade books: Wolf, Envoy, Templar and Succubus.

For more information about the Twilight Crusade titles, plus full-color preview pages, check out the Moonstone Books website.

With apologies to CCR for the title, I am pleased to announce that Werewolves: Dead Moon Rising, the horror anthology from Moonstone Books that contains my first published prose short story, is hitting comic store shelves today!

Now, sure, the fact that I've got something new out is exciting enough on it's own, but I've got a whole lot of great folks keeping me company in the pages of this terror-filled tome.  Like writers Elaine Bergstrom, Tom DeFalcon, Clay & Susan Griffith, William R. Halliar, C.J. Henderson, David Michelinie, Christopher Mills, Mike Reynolds, Beau Smith, Stephen D. Smith, Dave Ulanski and Fred Van Lente!  Not to mention an awesome cover by Dave Dorman and cool interior illustrations by Ken Wolak.

Just the thing to stuff the stocking of any werewolf and/or horror fan of your acquaintance for the holidays!

If the book isn't on the shelves at the local comic shop, they should be able to order it for you.  Also, it's already available from Amazon.com and should be finding its way to better bookstores near you.  In a pinch, you can even order it from Moonstone Books directly!

Hope you'll check it out.  If you do, please let me know what you think here at the P(ull)-List!

In just a few days, I'll be on the road once more, heading for the Windy City and Wizard World Chicago.  I've been going to this convention since  I was just a humble fanboy (as opposed to now, when I'm a humbled professional writer) and it was Chicago Comicon.  I always have a great time catching up with old friends, checking out what's coming up from various and sundry publishers and all that sort of stuff. 

Slightly less fun is trying to track down editors to remind them I'm alive and available for work.  I say slightly less fun, because in some cases, those editors are also old friends (or at least acquaintances) and it's good catching up with them too.  But the truth is that I don't like hunting work at conventions.  I don't like verbal pitching.  Hell, I don't like pitching in general.  Still, it's part of the biz.

Another one of the things I do like about attending conventions is meeting and chatting with fans.  It's always cool to hear that someone enjoyed what you wrote.  It can even be interesting to hear when they didn't and why.

The challenge for fans this year at Wizard World Chicago will be finding me.  See, I'm not writing an ongoing title for anyone right now, which means I'm not going to be setting up shop or doing a lot of signings at any particular booth. 

I did have the Shi/Tenth Muse one-shot come out recently from BlueWater Productions, so I'll probably be doing a signing or two there.  And, because I've done a fair chunk of work for Moonstone Books, I'll likely spend some time around their booth as well.  But, most of the time, I'll be playing Con floor nomad, wandering from publisher to publisher, chatting with editors, or visiting pals who are set up in Artist Alley.  Which means that it's not necessarily going to be easy to fans (or friends) to track me down.

I thought about getting a spot in Artist Alley myself, but the cost/benefit analysis led me to the conclusion that it wasn't really worthwhile.  While artists can sell pages and do sketches to help defray the costs of an Artist Alley table, if writers want to do the same, they pretty much have to sell copies of their past work.  Which, at 3 or 4 bucks a pop (10-15 for trade paperback collections) adds up to having to move a lot of copies to cover the cost of the table.  Plus, you're kind of tied down to the spot.  Because you want to make back the cost of the table.  And, if you are tied down to your Artist Alley table, it's just that much harder to track down all the editors you might need to in order to get your next gig.

Something of a Catch-22.

All this to say that I'll be attending Wizard World Chicago this week (Aug. 9th-12th).  If you want to track me down, the BlueWater Productions booth (# 1237) or the Moonstone Books booth (# 354) are probably your best bets.  Unless you know what I look like and want to haunt the Marvel and DC booths, hoping to catch me while I'm doing the editorial schmooze thing.

I won't be wearing a red and white striped sweater, scarf and ski hat, though.