Port-Con Recap

(Pictured from left to right: Top; Scott Goudsward, Peter Dudar, Josiah Pitchforth, and Duane E. Coffill. Bottom: Dale Phillips, Katherine Silva)

This past weekend, I battled hordes of cosplaying people and visited Port-Con, an annual convention celebrating geek culture in South Portland. This was my second time doing an event like this and so naturally, I was a little nervous about some things going in. For one, I was pretty sure that some of the costumes I saw, I wouldn’t be able to unsee (I’m referring to you, man in the pink spandex suit). Some were outrageous, some were super cool, and some were unidentifiable for me. There were lots of anime characters at this con, which is one of the areas I’m not too versed on. I was able to recognize some video game characters here and there and some obvious Doctor Who impersonators (of which there were many). Didn’t see any Harry Potter which struck me as odd, though.

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PORT-CON THIS WEEKEND!

Guess where I am today?

PORT-CON!

That’s right! For all of you living, visiting, or passing through the Portland, Maine area, be sure to swing in to the Double Tree Hotel across from the Maine Mall and check out this celebration of Maine’s geek culture. Basically…anyone who loves anime, comic books, superheroes, horror, Doctor Who, video games and various other things will be THRILLED.

I was lucky enough to join some of my fantastic New England Horror Writers colleagues this weekend as we present at a few panels and have our books for sale at the show. I’m joined by Scott Goudsward, Peter Dudar, Dale Philips, Josiah Pitchforth, and Duane E. Coffil. I’m looking forward to checking out some of the other panels being offered (one of which is about world building) and also looking forward to spending some much needed time promoting my latest release, “Memento Mori: Book 3 of the Monstrum Chronicles”.

We’ll be doing 3 panels over the weekend, one each day.

Friday 2 pm: The Basics of Getting Published

Saturday 2 pm: The Pros and Cons of Writer’s Groups (I’m in this one!)

Sunday 3 pm: Self-Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing (I’m also in this one!)

Check out the Port-Con website for more information about the event, when to catch our panels, and where you can find our table in the Artist Alley!

Hope to see you here this weekend!

~KSilva

Halloween Readings Galore!

Hello! Long time no see, right? Yes, I’ll admit that I’ve been away from the blog for quite some time… and that I said I wasn’t going to do that. That being said, I’m really going to try my hardest to get back into a routine of blogging, starting with a little about what’s been happening that last couple weeks.

Last Saturday, we kicked off our 2nd Annual Mid-coast Halloween Readings with a reading in Portland at Slainte Wine Bar and Lounge! The dark atmosphere is cozy and dark, perfect for us to settle in and tell some frightening stories for the evening. And did I mention there’s some wonderful Shipyard Pumpkinhead on tap for a little liquid courage. Indulging in a glass of that was perfect and made me feel a little less nervous about getting up on stage and introducing everyone. I was joined by fellow authors Kate Cone and E.J. Fechenda, who have their own reading series that they hold at Slainte, Darcy Scott, and April Hawks. The evening was a major success! We had a bunch of people come and listen to us as well as win prizes from our free raffle. The pictures below (featuring E.J., Darcy, and Kate), while grainy and from cellphone cameras, are the best that I have to catalog the evening. Being so dark in there, it was tough to get very good resolution.

Fun in the land of Borders!

It’s been a little while since my first official Borders Book-signing, but, I’ve got to tell you. I had such a blast down there!

The experience started out with one of my best friends driving all the way down from Unity in order to go with me (thank you again, Sabrina! You are awesome!) Then the long car ride down to Portland. Probably about an hour and a half drive. Normally, I’d be totally fine with that. But we passed maybe three car accidents on our way and I was starting to get a little nervous.

Once in Portland, we hit the Gloria Jeans in the mall, stocking up on delicious baked goods and iced coffee (YUM!). At Borders, my fellow author whom I was doing the book signing with, Andrew Maxcy, was already there with the table set up and everything.

It was a Friday afternoon at 5. The sun was out and it was pretty warm. I’d expected it to be rather slow and wasn’t surprised when it was. We were set up by the front door within sight of anyone who walked in. It was a great set up. Our coordinator for the event, Stephanie Hobson, did a terrific job with signage and with the placement of our table. Thumbs up and thank you again Stephanie for all that you did.

Me on the left and fellow author, Andrew Maxcy, seated on the right.

Our first customer was one of our fellow authors from Maine Authors Publishing, Jeff Foltz. Jeff is an awesome guy and an absolutely amazing writer. His book, Birkebeiner: A Story of Motherhood and War, has received allot of attention in Maine and he’s gotten some fantastic reviews for it. Not to mention the number of books he’s sold. It was so neat that he showed up to support us on our first-ever Borders book-signing. I, for one, am truly grateful for his advice and for being a part of a group like Maine Authors Publishing which gives us the chance to work with so many talented authors. Thank you, Jeff!

Authors Katherine Silva, Andrew Maxcy, and Jeff Foltz at Borders.

I also had my wonderful parents who came to my book signing to support me! My mom and dad are two people who have always supported my writing and there has never been a time that I wasn’t grateful for that. I love you guys!

My friend, Sabrina, ended up buying a couple books for me to send as gifts to her friends. One friend lives in Costa Rica and as of last week, the book was shipped out to her. This will be the first book to leave the country and I’m very excited about it!

I also had two other customers stop by and pick up a signed copy of my books. I enjoyed talking to both of them and hope that they enjoy the books! There were a few other people that I talked to who didn’t buy copies but wished me luck regardless and to those people, I would also like to thank you. That is the kind of encouragement that keeps me going.

A friend that I went to USM with, John, also stopped in. It was awesome to see him. Certainly having as many family and friends there as I did made me feel less anxious about it and definitely made the entire experience enjoyable as it did memorable.

To make a long story short (too late!), I sold five copies in a three hour period (which is on the average better than what most authors do at book-signings down there), as well as sold three signed copies to Borders to replenish their stock.

It was an unforgettable day. And fortunately enough, there is a second book-signing planned as part of a Maine Authors week in July at the same Borders! It will be great to go back and with some more summer traffic, I’ll hopefully be able to double my sales from the previous book-signing, if not more than that.

For those of you interested, here are the links to Jeff Foltz’s page as well as the Maine Author’s Publishing page.

Jeff Foltz: http://www.birkebeinerthenovel.com/index.html

 

 

Maine Authors Publishing: http://www.maineauthorspublishing.com/

Until next time, Good morning and happy writing!

KSilva