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Month: February 2020

Jonathan Brazee with books.
Authors everywhere

Authors everywhere

 There seemed to be authors everywhere at Capricon 40. I’ve already introduced several of them in the “Capricon Project” posts “Detectives in the Wild” and “Indie Author Speed-Dating.” But there were yet more! Personal experiences These Capricon Project posts focus only on authors I met and interacted with personally at the con. My apologies to all the other authors who were there. If I didn’t encounter you in a meaningful way at the con, I didn’t include you. I did also video-record a series of short…

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Here's Jan at the autographing table during Capricon 40
Indie Author Speed-Dating

Indie Author Speed-Dating

The Capricon Project continues On Friday of Capricon 40 I participated in the Indie Author Speed-Dating event. The idea was that we’d bring handouts and freebies, have books on hand to sell or show, and be prepared to deliver our “elevator speech” to tell people what our books are all about. The next morning I followed a similar process when I made myself available for autographing (more on that later).  Timed during the dinner hour, the Indie Author Speed-Dating event didn’t enjoy the best of turnouts. Some folks came…

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This is the heading for Capricon 40, "The Tropics of Capricon" science fiction convention
Detectives in the Wild

Detectives in the Wild

The Capricon Project – Detectives in the Wild My first panel at Capricon  40 was one of the three I’m scheduled to moderate, “Detectives in the Wild.” In it we explored the many ways that mystery stories show up in speculative fiction. Deirdre Murphy, Mark Huston, and Clifford Royal Johns joined me as co-panelists. All of us have written, or are writing, speculative fiction mysteries. Just between the four of us, we covered the mystery sub-categories of Cozies, Amateur Sleuth, Detective, and Police Procedural. The panel’s description made it…

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This is the heading for Capricon 40, "The Tropics of Capricon" science fiction convention
The Capricon Project

The Capricon Project

by Jan S. Gephardt Let me tell you about The Capricon Project. As I noted on my Artdog Adventures blog Feb. 1, I’m planning to attend Capricon 40 this week (God and the weather willing).  While I’m there,I hope to join forces (and blogs) with Weird Sisters Publishing to cover the event. As you may know, I’m the Weirdness Manager for Weird Sisters Publishing LLC (I’m half of the partnership. The other half is my sister, G. S. Norwood).  As Weirdness Manager, I also write most of our posts for The Weird…

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At left is a photo of Jeanine Cummins. At right is the cover of her book, "American Dirt."
American Dirt

American Dirt

By Jan S. Gephardt As you may know, recently there’s been a huge dust-up over a book titled American Dirt. Since it touches on several questions important to us at Weird Sisters Publishing, we decided to weigh in. First, a little background. The story behind American Dirt is, pretty straightforwardly, the origin of a lot of literature: a writer from a dominant culture took a look at a dramatic situation and thought, “Wow! This would make a great story!” So…

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