Tag: Worcester Local Authors Fair

Free Books? Yes, Free Books!

On By ronsonbeckIn Action Figures, Cheap Thrills Digest, Event, Novels, Strongarm & Lightfoot, Young AdultLeave a comment
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Hi-ho, everyone. Take a look at what came in the mail yesterday.

Yep, that is my very first shipment of Cheap Thrills Digest, my new collection that features short stories from the Action Figures and The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot series; an original, never-before-published novelette, Lost Souls; and an updated version of my essay Critiquing Critiques – How to Leave a Review. Keep that last one in mind, because it’ll become important in a minute.

This book will make its debut at Saturday’s Local Author Fair at the Worcester Public Library. For the foreseeable future I plan to keep this as a print-only book (no e-book version) that will be available only at personal appearances and, in the coming weeks, through this website.

If you want a copy but won’t be at Saturday’s event and can’t wait for direct sales to start up, pay attention to this website because next week, because I plan to give away ten free copies (signed, of course) of Cheap Thrills Digest! Here are the various catches and conditions:

  • The giveaway will be announced on this website at 10 AM (EST) Monday, April 4. The free copies will be given away to the first ten people to respond. After I receive my tenth response, the post will be deleted and the giveaway will be over.
  • One copy per person! Don’t be a book hog.
  • When the giveaway is announced, use the contact page to send me a message that includes your name and a mailing address. The recipients will be publicly thanked by name on this page in a later post but mailing address info will remain confidential. No doxxing here.
  • You don’t have to buy anything to get your free book, but you will need to include along with your contact info a link to a review you’ve left on Amazon for any of my other books, so if you’ve been procrastinating about leaving a review, now is the time to correct that!

That’s all there is to it. See you all on Monday, and in the meantime, to whet your appetite, here’s a more detailed overview of what you’ll find in Cheap Thrills Digest (from the back cover text)…

Innsmouth Look Publishing invites you to explore the worlds of author Michael Bailey in this collection of short stories and a previously unreleased novelette-length story.

Action Figures – An Adventure in Babysitting

Protecting the innocent? That’s easy. Taking down crazed super-villains? No problem. Babysitting the youngest member of the super-team the Quantum Quintet, a little boy whose temper tantrums can level a city block? That could prove the toughest challenge yet for the teen superhero known as Lightstorm.

(Originally appeared on Innsmouthlook.com)

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Ill Fortune, Undeserved

Track down a small band of Hruk raiders, recover the valuable family heirloom they stole, and bring it back in one piece.

It sounded like an easy enough job for the hard-luck adventuring team of Derek Strongarm and Felix Lightfoot, but as always, nothing is ever as easy as it first seems, and it doesn’t take long for their find-and-recover mission to turn into a hack-and-slash fight for survival.

(Originally appeared in the full-length novel The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Scratching a Lich)

Lost Souls

An innocent day trip takes a bizarre turn when former reporter Max Jeffers discovers a second-rate tourist attraction’s secret star: an allegedly real vampire. Fascinated by the strange woman, Max sets out to discover the truth about her — but will the truth set either of them free, or will it condemn them both to prisons of their own making?

(Previously unreleased, exclusive to Cheap Thrills Digest)

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Weekly Update – March 29, 2016

On By ronsonbeckIn Action Figures, Cheap Thrills Digest, Cover art, Event, Novels, Strongarm & Lightfoot, Writing process, Young AdultLeave a comment

Finally shook off the late winter/early spring doldrums and got some stuff done!

WRITING PROJECTS

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Art and Copyright 2016 Patricia Lupien
Cheap Thrills Digest: Cover art is done! Tricia finished it up over the weekend, and here is the fully finished version. Fun!

This book will be available exclusively in print at live appearances and, eventually, through this website, but before it goes on general sale I do plan to make a limited number of copies available to current fans, so keep your eyes on this website for details on that.

Action Figures – Issue Six: Power Play: Pre-editing revisions are done, in the queue for editing.

Action Figures – Live Free or Die: Pre-editing revisions are done, in the queue for editing.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Assassins Brawl: Had a very productive weekend working on this. I punched out a whopping thirty-six pages over the course of four days, and I’m primed and ready to launch into the third act, which promises to be intense.

Action Figures – Issue Seven: The Black End War: About a quarter of the way through the first draft.

APPEARANCES and EVENTS

MISC.

Last year I was fortunate enough to participate in a StoryBundle deal featuring indie superhero authors, and it was a great experience all around.

One of my fellow SB authors, Adam Oster (The Legend of Buddy Hero), a few days ago posted an excellent review of Action Figures – Issue One: Secret Origins on his website. Thank you for that, sir! And readers, you should go thank him too by grabbing some of his stuff. And I should seriously make some time to read the other books in the bundle…and maybe some of the two dozen or so books in my to-be-read pile.

Worcester Local Authors Fair Ahoy!

On By ronsonbeckIn Cheap Thrills Digest, Cover art, Event, NovelsLeave a comment

The Worcester Public Library’s Local Authors Fair is one week away now, so it’s time for me to start getting all my stuff organized.

Yeah, I prep way ahead of time for these sort of things. Come Saturday morning, I want to be able to roll all my stuff out to the car and zip on over without stressing about packing that morning. Less likely to forget things that way.

I learned this week that the event has been extended by a half-hour — it now runs 11 AM to 2:30 PM — to accommodate all the people who wanted to do readings. I’m not among them because I’ve never done a reading before and didn’t care to make this my first effort…not without a few dry runs, first. Maybe next time.

CTD Cover PenultimateThings will be a little tight, timing-wise, but it does look like I will have copies of Cheap Thrills Digest on-hand for the day as planned. My cover artist Tricia was beset by technology demons that corrupted her working file of the cover art and had to start over from scratch, but she powered ahead and finished things up over the week, so take a look at the (nearly) finished product!

Tricia said she delighted in hitting the pulp fantasy adventure tropes button with a heavy hand — tentacles, shirtless sword-wielding beefcake, etc. — and I definitely think this is the most fun cover she’s produced for me (so far).

If you can make it, please stop by my table on the first floor of the library, in the Children’s Ellipse area (this library is so fancy, kids get an ellipse rather than just some plain old “section”). Hope to see you there!

Go here for the full schedule of readings and workshops.

Weekly Update – March 22, 2016

On By ronsonbeckIn Action Figures, Business of writing, Event, Novels, Renaissance faires, Strongarm & Lightfoot, Writing process, Young AdultLeave a comment

Another slow week, but next week should be more interesting.

WRITING PROJECTS

Cheap Thrills Digest: Formatting is done, awaiting cover art.

Action Figures – Issue Six: Power Play: Pre-editing revisions are done, in the queue for editing.

Action Figures – Live Free or Die: Pre-editing revisions are done, in the queue for editing.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Assassins Brawl: More than a third of the way through the first draft. Got a few new pages done over the weekend and I figured out the climax, including what should be a brutal fight scene between Erika and the main villain.

Action Figures – Issue Seven: The Black End War: About a quarter of the way through the first draft.

APPEARANCES and EVENTS

 

MISC.

Not writing related, but significant. Our hot water heater started leaking sometime Sunday night/Monday morning and the water reached my comic book collection. Two garbage bags’ worth of comics were soaked beyond recovery. Fortunately some big-money items made it out okay, as did my coveted complete run of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series. Some related mini-series were not as fortunate but the main series was never touched.

Weekly Update – March 15, 2016

On By ronsonbeckIn Action Figures, Business of writing, Cover art, Event, Novels, Renaissance faires, Strongarm & Lightfoot, Writing process, Young AdultLeave a comment

Slow week last week, in large part because my wife and I had birthday shenanigans on the schedule.

WRITING PROJECTS

Cheap Thrills Digest: Formatting is done, awaiting cover art.

Action Figures – Issue Six: Power Play: Pre-editing revisions are done, in the queue for editing.

Action Figures – Live Free or Die: Pre-editing revisions are done, in the queue for editing.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Assassins Brawl: More than a third of the way through the first draft, just introduced the main villain of the piece.

Action Figures – Issue Seven: The Black End War: About a quarter of the way through the first draft.

APPEARANCES and EVENTS

Library Logo

Hooray! I am officially in the spring OtherWhere Market at Mill No. 5 in Lowell. This year’s event will be part of a larger, citywide steampunk weekend, so it stands to be an awesome day all around.

The Worcester Local Authors Fair, hosted by the Worcester Public Library, is coming up on Saturday, April 2. That starts at 11 AM and runs until 2.

The fall New Bedford Bookfest, scheduled for October 15 and 16, is also officially a go. Got the confirmation this morning, and the organizers are already getting the publicity machine rolling.

Finally, I’m kicking off the 2016 Meet the Author series at the fall Connecticut Renaissance Faire.

MISC.

Once the Cheap Thrills Digest art is done, I plan to create a new event banner for myself using that as the main image. My current banner features the cover art from Action Figures – Issue Two: Black Magic Women, but now that I have two series going, I want something that better represents everything I do.

Weekly Update – March 8, 2016

On By ronsonbeckIn Action Figures, Event, Novels, Renaissance faires, Strongarm & Lightfoot, Writing process, Young AdultLeave a comment

Hi, everyone! It’s been an eventful week — no pun intended, which I say because most of this week’s news concerns some upcoming appearances.

WRITING PROJECTS

Cheap Thrills Digest: Formatting is done and progress proceeds apace on the cover art.

Action Figures – Issue Six: Power Play: Pre-editing revisions are done! I can send it off to editing anytime, but I’m going to hold that for a while yet.

Action Figures – Live Free or Die: This is a short story that’ll appear as a backup feature in book six. That’s right: two stories in one book! You’re welcome.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Assassins Brawl: About a third of the way through the first draft.

Action Figures – Issue Seven: The Black End War: About a quarter of the way through the first draft.

APPEARANCES and EVENTS

Library LogoTwo new events confirmed! Last week I was formally accepted to, first, the Worcester Local Authors Fair, hosted by the Worcester Public Library, which is at the library on Saturday, April 2. That starts at 11 AM and runs until 2.

I’ve also secured my spot in the fall  New Bedford Bookfest, which is scheduled for October 15 and 16. More on that as they firm up details.

This is on top of the 2016 Meet the Author series at the fall Connecticut Renaissance Faire, and I expect to hear soon about the spring OtherWhere Market at Mill No. 5 in Lowell.

MISC.

Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.

Event Announcement: Worcester Local Author Fair

On By ronsonbeckIn Event, Novels, Strongarm & LightfootLeave a comment

Library LogoJust a quick announcement this morning before I get back to work on The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Assassins Brawl: I’ve officially been accepted into the Worcester Public Library’s Local Author Fair.

The fair is scheduled for Saturday, April 2 and will run from 11 AM to 2 PM. The fair will feature author tables, where guests can meet local (self- and traditionally) published authors and buy copies of their books, and attend readings and workshops on writing.

I’ll have copies of all my books, and as an added draw for my table, if you happen to be in the area: this show will feature the debut of my short story collection Cheap Thrills Digest. This event will be the first time you can grab a copy of the book, which will be available exclusively in print at events like this and, later on, through this website.

Weekly Update – March 1, 2016

On By ronsonbeckIn Action Figures, Cover art, Event, Novels, Renaissance faires, Strongarm & Lightfoot, Writing process, Young AdultLeave a comment

Starting today, I’m going to try something new to help cut down on the long stretches of nothing that sometimes inflict this website. Every Tuesday, I’m going to run a quick recap of my various projects so readers can keep tabs on where everything is in their respective processes.

And I’d like to remind everyone that visitors can comment on any content on this site, so if any of you have any questions or comments about anything, the Tuesday update post is as good a place as any to hit me up.

WRITING PROJECTS

Cheap Thrills Rough 1Cheap Thrills Digest: My editor, Julie Tremblay, turned in her edits on my upcoming collection of short stories on Sunday, and I’ve finished implementing the corrections and formatting the book. Now all that’s left is the cover art, which Tricia is working on now. We’re running with a concept that invokes old pulp adventure magazine covers, as you can see on the right.

Action Figures – An Adventure in Babysitting: My first AF short is part of the aforementioned shorts collection, so I took advantage of the fact Julie gave it a new polish and posted the revised edition on the website, where it originally appeared.

Action Figures – Issue Six: Power Play: I’m working on my final pre-editing stage revisions this week, but I’m not planning to send it off to Julie quite yet. I have to recoup some expenses from prepping Issue Five: Team-Ups (which is selling very well, I’m happy to report), and I’m hoping to get another project squared away first.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Assassins Brawl: This is that other project. My goal is to have the follow-up to Scratching a Lich finished in time for a fall release. I’m about a third of the way through the first draft, so we’ll see how it goes.

Action Figures – Issue Seven: The Black End War: About a quarter of the way through the first draft. I’m taking my time with this one because it’s a fairly radical departure from the series. No tentative release date set.

APPEARANCES and EVENTS

I have three tentative and one confirmed book signings on my calendar. First, I’m on a short wait list for the New Bedford Bookfest this weekend. This is a new event that filled up very quickly, and the organizers are already planning a fall bookfest. With events like these there’s always a chance that another author might bow out and I’ll get a last-minute call to participate, so my fingers are crossed.

Next, I’m waiting to hear back from the organizers of the Worcester Local Authors Fair, hosted by the Worcester Public Library, and the spring OtherWhere Market at Mill No. 5 in Lowell. My applications are in and I expect to get into both, which are scheduled for the beginning and end of April, respectively.

Finally, I’ll be kicking off the 2016 Meet the Author series at the fall Connecticut Renaissance Faire. It’s the second year for this event, and I’m delighted the producers decided to make it an annual thing. I’ll be there on October 2, Sunday of the opening weekend, so come on by, say hello, and enjoy a great show.

MISC.

Fellow super-hero author and old friend Mark Aberdeen (the Dex Territory series) gave me a nice little shout-out during an interview with Rave Reviews with Nonnie Jules. Go give it a read!