Daniel J. Hogan's Blog

Yeah I kind of dropped the ball here and forgot to write about my last day at Penguicon over the past couple weeks. Oops! I've been busy. Honest :/

Sunday

Since I had a 9 AM panel (followed by a 10 AM reading) I decided to call it an early night on Saturday. I kind of regretted it at first because Saturday night is the big party night, but the next morning I quickly realized I made the right choice. My first event of the day was the Guerrilla Marketing --- The Art of Self-Promotion panel. Usually, 9AM on a Sunday isn't the best slot for a panel (see above about Saturday being the big party night), but the room was PACKED. I was joined by The Time Traveler and Michael "Freon" Andaluz. The Time Traveler recorded the panel and I think he's gonna post it on his site at some point. This was a fun panel and it was my first time being a moderator, which was interesting.

The three of us talked about what we each consider Guerrilla Marketing and how we promote ourselves. I told about how I put my website address on everything I can that I give out, or in some cases wear, at conventions. And how I always carry cards with the websites on them, because you never know when you'll be somewhere you can leave a few laying out or meet someone who is interested in the book. I've found that when people ask me what my book is about, giving them the card makes it a lot easier (and they like the cover art on it too).

I must digress for a moment, because I ordered a new batch of promo cards yesterday and I changed what they said a bit. Above www.magicofeyri.com it used to say 'Learn More At" , but I changed it to "Discover the Magic at." I like that a heck of a lot more.

Back to the panel: we focused a lot on internet stuff and I told of how I'm on Livejournal, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, YouTube and Internet Movie Database. I also have this blog syndcated to my profile on Amazon.com. So I'm all over the place. I had a lot of fun on this panel and hopefully those who attended took home some helpful info.

Immediately following the panel, I had a reading with Freon at 10 AM. I was very nervous about this, as I have yet to do a public reading of ay of my stuff. Getting up and talking in front of people doesn't bother me at all, but reading some of my stuff aloud does. Go figure. Well, thankfully (but also sadly) I dodged a bullet. No one showed up to the reading, it was just Freon and I. So we sat around for an hour and chatted.

After the 'reading' I headed over to the Dealer's Room and thanks to William and Deborah Jones, was able to set up camp at the Elder Signs Press (ESP) table. I sold three copies while in the dealers room, which was great, and led to Deborah teasing me that I was monopolizing the table. I stayed in the Dealer's Room until my last panel of the weekend,  How Has the Ease of Computer Animation Changed the Monster Movie?

This panel was a  hoot.  I was joined by William Jones, Jeff deLuzio and another gentlemen filling in for John Scalzi. Sadly Scalzi had a family emergency pop up at the last minute and he had to leave, so I didn't get a chance to meet him. Oh well. I still had a lot of fun. This panel had the most audience participation of all the panels/events I was a part of. We talked about all kinds of things, "less is more", flimmakers having limitations in the old days and how that made things more interesting, movie trailers showing too much, and all kinds of other fun movie related things. We of course touched on Cloverfield and pretty much all agreed that it was a step in the right direction in regards to using CGI in a monster movie.

After the panel I bummed around the hotel for a bit, talking to friends and fans -- even selling a copy of The Magic of Eyri in the halls. But the best part was when I was stopped by a fan:

Him: "Wait...you're Daniel J. Hogan?"
Me: "Yes."
Him: "I bought your book back at ConClave (October '07) -- I loved it !"
Me: "...Realy?"
Him: "Yeah! It was fan-f@#%ing-tastic! I couldn't put it down."
Me: "...Really?"
Him: "It was so hilarious, my mom kept asking me what the heck I was laughing about. It was great, and your world is totally believable."
(one side note: this is the second fan who's told me my world/characters are 'believable.' I guess I'm doing something right.)
Me: "What was your favorite part or character?"
Him: ::thinks:: "The ducks! I loved the ducks."

That was certainly one of the high points of my weekend. So, I'd say Penguicon was a big success. I had a great time.

Saturday
I was whipped Friday night after three events in a row -- forgot to mention I sold a copy of The Magic of Eyri Friday night, it was my first of the weekend (but thankfully not the last!).  Speaking of selling copies, I found out Saturday that I didn't have a table to sell books at.  I had been told that panelists would have a table to sell stuff at, but I didn't see that anywhere and I heard from others there wasn't one. BUT I didn't ask around that much, so it is possible I just screwed up. The Writer's Workshop folks were s'pose to have a table, but there was a bunch of miscommunication and long story short we didn't have one.

However, Dean Stahl (wookiee71) saved my bacon, big time.  He was in charge of Artist Alley (and ConCom) and thankfully kept my name on the list for Artist Alley even though I had told him beforehand not to worry about it.  So I had a table, hooray! I was saved.  But I wasn't able to get to Artist Alley just yet, I had the Writer's Workshop Part 2 first. I also ran into Jim C. Hines (jimhines) while wandering around and found out we'd be on the National Novel Writing Month panel together later that afternoon.

At the Writer's Workshop Part 2 we chatted about more fun stuff, mostly pacing for a story.  I gave my insight on that and some of my other writing tactics.  I said not to be afraid to try non-linear story telling or switching between point of views of characters for different scenes, stuff like that. I also said you can always cut stuff out and said how when i was writing Slow and Steady that the first draft was around 7,000 words and that I cut it down to 3,500 words.

After the workshop I set up camp in Artist Alley and had a lot of fun. I was right across from Dean, so we were able to chat. jimhines hung out too, and he didn't have much of a choice because after the NaNoWriMo panel he didn't have another panel until 10 PM. Poor guy.  I did Artist Alley for a spell and then ran off to the National Novel Writing Month panel (myself, Jim, M. Keaton and Lucy Snyder).

The NaNoWriMo panel was a hoot. We all agreed that it was a good idea and it wasn't a waste of time because it made people write.  We talked about being able to meet deadlines and just writing, not worrying about making things prefect. Good times. M. Keaton said something very nice about me when someone asked me about doing NaNoWriMo and now being published.  I said that I had to confess I was self-published, but MK added that there was a difference between what I'm doing and 'self-printing' -- that I was learning how to publish stuff and was running a business, etc. It was nice.

After the panel I was back in Artist Alley. It was a good location to be honest, it was in the middle of the hallway near the main ballrooms so we got a bunch of traffic. I even sold a copy - to the Origami Lady. She made me some neato stuff too (see pics below).  Dean and I were also asked to draw and write on a gentleman's bald head. You read that correctly. See pics below.

I stayed in Artist Alley until it closed at 6, talking to a lot of people, some who had attended the workshops or panels and actually wanted to talk to me again. It was fun. After grabbing dinner at a nearby coney island (mmm, chili dogs) I killed time until the Singing Tesla Coils Concert. OH. MY. GOD. It was amazing! The coils were my favorite part of the weekend. I have video I'll get up at some point.  Basically, these people did something to a pair of giant Tesla Coils to get them to make notes and had them play songs. My favorite was the Ghostbusters theme.

A few hours later i was beat. I had to make the hard choice of staying up late to have fun or going to bed because I had a 9 AM panel the next morning. I opted for going to bed, and I was thankful I did the next day!

Picture Time!


One of the origami goodies the Origami Lady made for me. She made me a little frog that actually jumps too.  She bought a copy of The Magic of Eyri too, bless her heart.


Dean drawing on the bald guy's head.


So this dude asked me to write a story on his head. He said "Can you write a story in six words or less?" I said, "Sure!"


...so I wrote "One Day the World Ended." Five words. Beat that. I should have autographed it too.


The Singing Tesla Coils!


Dr. Zeus getting ready for the Tesla Coils.


Yeah, so this guy wore a chain mail suit and acted as a conductor for both the coils. Crazy stuff!

One more update left!

Friday

Arrived at the hotel without any misadventures, which was a nice change of pace. Sadly, registration for the con was a bit messed up when I got there, so it took some time for me to get my badge and "Panelist" ribbon (which granted me access to the Green Room, la di da).

After checking in I killed some time until my first event of the evening, the Writer's Workshop (with myself , Wanda DeAngelo, William "Doctor" Jones, M. Keaton, Michael "Freon" Andaluz and everyone's favorite copy editor Anne Zanoni). This was the first of many times I had clear up that I was Daniel J. Hogan and not David J. Hogan as the program said. I got really tired of saying that by Sunday afternoon.

Once again, I dropped the ball on reading the submissions ahead of time (I failed to check my email in time) but I was still there to offer advice and tell of my own experiences, which I'm sure those in attendance appreciated. I still feel bad I wasn't able to critique anything, just like at ConClave (which to be fair was my first con and I had no idea what I was in for).

After the workshop I grabbed some food in the ConSuite for dinner and watched some of the Red Wings game until my next panel at 8 PM, How We Learned to Love the Dystopia (with myself, Sarah Monette, William "Doctor" Jones and Elizabeth Bear). This was a fun time, we talked about what each of us liked about Dystopia stories (my reason being that I liked what caused the dystopias in the stories).  This was a good warm up for the rest of my panels for the weekend.

At 10 PM I had my last panel of the night, The Steampunk Aesthetic (with myself, Aaron Diaz, Elizabeth Bear and Cherie Priest). I liked this panel a bunch. Each of us talked about what we liked about the steampunk genre and gave some of our favorite examples of it and why we thought it was gaining popularity.  Lots of great discussion. I'll admit that by this point I was upset with myself not once again not doing my homework about who I was going to be on panels with ahead of time.  I had every intention to, but I the first part of the week just flew by before I knew it and BAM there I was sitting next to authors and artists I knew very little about (but I doubt any of them looked me up either). I also regret not giving everyone my contact info because I'm realizing now that they only info they have about me is incorrect -- the program that has me as DAVID J. Hogan. Grr.

picture time!


This thing was outside the hotel. I dunno what it is, but it is neato looking.


"And I can't believe I ate the whole thing!"
I have no idea what I'm talking about in this photo. This was from the dystopia panel. My Italian genes are kicking in here, as seen by me talking with my hands.


The How We Learned to Love the Dystopia panel. L to R: Me,  Sarah Monette,  Elizabeth Bear and William Jones)


Bonus Picture: Yes, I met the legend himself, The Tron Guy (aka Jay Maynard). Nice dude.

More to come. I don't feel like staying up past midnight blogging so I'll get posts about Saturday and Sunday up tomorrow (hopefully).

Back from Penguicon, full updates tomorrowish (with pictures). Here are some stats.

# of Panels/events I was a part of: 8
# of copies of The Magic of Eyri I brought with me: 7
# of copies of The Magic of Eyri sold: 6
# of copies of The Magic of Eyri given away: 1
# of copies of The Magic of Eyri I came home with: 0 (!)
# of fans who came up to me and said they read The Magic of Eyri and loved it: 1
# of bald heads I wrote on: 1
# of tshirts signed: 1
# of origami animals received: 2
# of people who attended my 10 AM reading Sunday morning: 0
# of times I had to say I was Daniel J. Hogan and not David J. Hogan: 8+
# of panels I was on with jimhines  : 1
# of times wookiee71  saved the day: a lot.


Tired.  Sleep now. 

Motor City Comic Con, a Novi-based comic book/tv/movie convention, is next month May 16-18th and I'm torn. Going isn't the question, I want to go, it is if I drop the $150 to get a table in Artist Alley to sell copies of The Magic of Eyri or not.

Pros:

1. Selling books in a fun place alongside other indie types.
   
2. A different crowd than at the other cons I've been going to (I know there will be some overlap, but this will have a wider range of people than a hotel based fandom convention).
3. My Lansing indie-publishing brothers and sisters in arms, the crew from Comics Obscura, will also be in attendance.
4. Some of my other zany friends will be there.
   
5. I can be a guest at the same con as Captain Sisko and KITT.
6. Table and chairs are supplied.
7. Don't have to pay extra to attend the Con.
8. Don't have any other appearances planned after Penguicon this weekend.
9. Free badge to give to a lovely assistant.
10. Compared to other cons and festivals, $150 for the weekend isn't that bad.
11. It would be a good experience, I'd know for sure if I should bother trying to sell books at comic cons.
12. Plenty of chances for shameless self promotion.
13. Chance to pick up some comics I missed out on and get my picture taken with Walter Koenig.
    

Khans:

1. Paying $150 to sit around all weekend (at least five hours a day according to the contract).
   
2. A different crowd than at the other cons I've been going to: will comic book fans buy a novel?
3. Paying for yet another hotel/motel room.
4. A weekend of bad food and other nonsense.
5. I won't be on any panels or anything to get me attention.
   
6. Spending more money on books and other swag.

I'll make up my mind within the next 24 hours, but doing my taxes last week really made me think twice about doing all of this kind of stuff (if I'm an official guest and/or panelist that is a horse of a different color). BUT all of that is a business expense (at least the table fee and the motel fee), so I would get some of that back.  After thinking it over while writing this post, I'm fairly certain I'll just suck it up and get the table.

OH NOES--I was just looking over the event page for Penguicon and they have me listed as David J. Hogan! ARGH! They use to have me as Daniel Hogan, what happened? All I told them was to list me as "Daniel J. Hogan" and I checked the email I sent, "David" is nowhere to be found in it. Le sigh.

Only five days until Penguicon, and I'm equally excited and nervous. Yes, I know this is my third con in less than a year, so I shouldn't be that nervous but I still am. I'm going to be on a bunch o' panels this time around, six or seven I think--and I have a reading Sunday, which is the main reason for my nervousness. I know I'll have fun though, I always do and hopefully I'll sell a few books.

Finally got my taxes done and mailed off earlier in the week. Oy, that was a fiasco and a half. I'm very glad I bought Turbo Tax, that's for sure. Seeing exactly how much I spent on all this book stuff over the past year was kind of shocking when i had it all laid out in front of me. It was worth it to actually be a business for all of this, it helped me get a decent amount of money back because of business expenses (the bulk of which was going to cons to promote the book).

But yeah, I gotta change the way I do things a tad, have to be a little more conservative when it comes to spending money on this, especially when ordering copies of my own book. However to be fair, I ordered a lot of copies early on before I knew what I was doing (like taking 20 copies with me to the first con I went to in October) and I'm more experienced now, and a bit wiser. I'm taking less than ten copies this weekend--could be a risk because I'll be on a lot of panels so I'll be in the public eye more, but I have to watch my spending. I'd rather sell all eight copies and leave people asking for more than show up with twenty and only sell three (and let me tell you, lugging around seventeen copies of my book ain't fun).

I'll try and shoot video again and upload it, although I still haven't done that from the con in January--have the video shot and ready to edit, just need to do it.