Conventions, Reading

Kal’s Libertycon 31 AAR

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Liberty Con 31 is come and gone.  Much of it passed in a blur for me.  It was full of good times, great people, and a whole lot of running around to get to where I had to be next.

Panels and signings were a whole lot of fun.  My first panel of the weekend was on YA Science Fiction, moderated by Jason Cordova who did a fantastic job.  David Weber was on the panel and he had some absolutely fantastic things to say about the genre, about putting hope and wonder in the hearts and minds of young adults about the future.  He managed to articulate in a few words what I try to explain in a rambling, incoherent mess, half the time.  The other panelists had some great things to say as well and it was a terrific way to open the weekend.

I had my first signing session in the dealers room on Friday.  I got the pleasure of being there with John Ringo, Chris Kennedy, and Larry Correia.  As I told Larry, it was like the 300 Spartans at Thermopolyae: Their fans would blot out the sun and I would sign books in the shade.  It was a fun time and I actually had a couple people come by to see me, so I’ll call it a win.

Saturday I was at the Four Horsemen mass signing event.  That was an experience in and of itself with twenty plus authors and a whole lot of fans.  Working with Chris Kennedy and the others from that universe is always a pleasure and the enthusiasm and fun that everyone brought is contagious.

Saturday I also had a panel with Larry Correia, Quincy Allen, John Harness, and Lydia Sherrer on building a new monster.  Poor Larry had no idea that he had been made moderator.  Lydia was the one who’d had the idea for the panel and she stepped in well to get us started and back on track.  It was a tremendously fun panel topic and the audience was great.

Saturday I also had a panel on Space Opera versus Space Western with Julie Cocrane, Doug Dandridge, Laura Montgomery, and Mark Wandrey.  We spent a fair bit of time discussing definitions and talking examples, but then we sort of rambled into discussing market and publishing.  The audience had a lot of good questions, though and I think everyone (including panelists) got a lot out of it.

I also had my reading and a couple hours of signing on Saturday.  I read a section from my upcoming zombie novel.  Hopefully those of you who were there enjoyed it.  The signing was fun and I got to meet and see lots of great people.  The location of the Authors Alley was perfect in that there was a lot of traffic flow and plenty of opportunities to meet people.

I attended the Mad Scientist Roundtable on Saturday night for a bit, but the room was far too crowded and hot, combined with the long day, I slipped out early and went to bed.

Sunday was the Kaffeeklatch, and that was a bit of a mixed bag.  It was held in the same room as the Mad Scientist Roundtable, which means it wasn’t big enough and it got hot quick.  I wish there had been a bigger room available and I am excited to see what comes up at the new venue next year.   I do feel that the crowded nature of the room caused many people (including authors) to seek other places and it also encouraged some people to monopolize spots near some of the guests.  In all, it didn’t have the friendly, relaxed vibe like most of the rest of the convention.

Sunday I had my last signing session and then another panel in the Four Horsemen Universe.  I got to announce my upcoming book with them, The Colchis Job.  Which, I am happy to say, I sent in as a final draft to Chris Kennedy right after I got back from Liberty Con.  Also on the panel was Chris Woods, whose book Legendary is fantastic and he’s working on he sequel.

All in all, it was a fantastic convention.  Its taken me almost all week to recover from, but that is part and parcel with a fun time plus travel.  Liberty Con 32 for next year is already sold out.  If you haven’t got tickets and want to go, then get on the wait list.  I bought mine in the first thirty minutes and I am looking forward to it a lot.   I might also recommend LTUE in Provo Utah, it has a lot of the same feel as Liberty Con and is a lot closer for those of us who live out west (plus they aren’t sold out).

 

Reading

Kal’s Liberty Con 31 Schedule

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Scheduled Programming Events Featuring Kal Spriggs

Day Time Name of Event
Fri 03:00PM The Resurgence of SF in YA Fiction
Fri 04:00PM Autograph Session (Boop, C. Kennedy, Lewis, Ringo, Spriggs)
Fri 05:00PM Opening Ceremonies
Fri 07:00PM World Building for Military Science Fiction
Sat 10:00AM The Four Horsemen Roundtable
Sat 11:30AM The 4 Horseman RT Mass Autograph Session
Sat 01:00PM The New Monster on the Block
Sat 06:00PM Space Opera or Space Western: What Distinguishes the Sub-Genres?
Sat 08:00PM Reading: Cedar Sanderson & Kal Spriggs
Sat 09:00PM Seventh Seal Press & Rob Howell Present Chris Kennedy Publishing Book Launch Party
Sat 09:00PM Author’s Alley (DJ Butler,T. Howard, JD Jordan, Sanderson, Spriggs)
Sat 10:00PM Author’s Alley (Freeman, T. Howard, JD Jordan, Spriggs)
Sun 10:00AM Kaffeeklatsch
Sun 11:00AM Author’s Alley (Andrews, Beckwith, J. Osborne, Schroeder, Spriggs)
Sun 12:00PM Chris Kennedy Publishing – The Year Ahead

 

Entertainment

Too Incredible: Incredibles 2 movie review.

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There’s an opening section of the movie where the actors and writers apologize for the movie taking so long.  They say it was worth the wait.  You know, they actually were right.  The Incredibles 2 really was a fantastic movie and oddly enough, it was worth the wait.

Without going into spoilers, the movie tackles the ideas of good and evil, of what it is to be different, and most importantly, of what it means to be a family.  It does all this through a humorous prismatic lens that keeps things entertaining throughout.

It’s a kid’s movie, but it addresses themes of responsibility and duty without getting preachy.  The cartoonish heroes and villains have to deal with the consequences of their actions.  There’s never a point that bumps you out of it, and as a whole, there’s enough tension and worry about what’s going to happen that the audience can worry but still enjoy themselves.  I thought the release on father’s day was apt, as well.

The humor was fantastic.  It bears repeating… this is probably one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen… even as it addresses some pretty scary thoughts in concept.

I  quite enjoyed it and I plan on seeing this one again.  If you liked the first one, I recommend this movie.  Go see it yourself.  It’s simply incredible.

 

Conventions, Reading

The Dragon Awards

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So the Dragon Awards are coming up.  These are fan awards for the books that readers of Science Fiction and Fantasy like the most.  They’re hosted by Dragon Con, they don’t require membership to nominate or even vote, and the award is a fantastic thing for all of us.

There have been a lot of good books by tons of authors released this year.  Support the authors you love and vote.  This is an awesome award that belongs to all of us as writers, readers, and fans of science fiction in general.   The great thing about it, all it requires is an email.

Here’s some works that I’ll be nominating (if you haven’t read them, give them a look, I think they’re pretty good):

Uncharted (Alternate History) by  Sarah A. Hoyt and Kevin J Anderson

Monster Hunter Siege (Fantasy) by Larry Correia

As a note: I’ll be at Dragon Con this year.  You know what would be an awesome gift from my readers and fans?  A Dragon Award nomination!  (Seriously, I know I’m not going to win, but y’all can nominate me and get my name in the running!)

Here’s what I’ve published this past year that’s eligible:

Ghost Star (Mil SF)

Valor’s Calling (YA/Mil SF)

Valor’s Duty (YA/Mil SF)

Prisoner of the Mind (Science Fiction)

Here’s a link to the Dragon Awards page:   http://awards.dragoncon.org/

Here’s the link to the nominations:   http://application.dragoncon.org/dc_fan_awards_nominations.php

 

 

 

Writing

Kal’s June 2018 Forecast

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June is here.   The year is halfway over.  Where did the first five months go, anyway?  At this point, I’ve finished three novels this year, though only one has seen the light of day, just yet.  Last month I released Valor’s Duty and wrote a book for a publisher (I can’t go into specifics until I hear back from him, but I’m excited about that one).  This month I’m working on Valor’s Cost, the 4th book of the Children of Valor series.  I’m making great progress on it and I hope to release it early in July.

Later this month I’ll also be attending Liberty Con in Chattanooga, TN.   I’ll be posting my schedule next week, but I’m really looking forward to it, it’s probably my favorite convention (even including the flight out there from Colorado).

In other news, I’m working on setting up a Patreon page.  If you’re not familiar with the site, it’s a way for creators to share content and get paid directly from their fans.  I’m not sure yet of the extend of what I’ll be doing there, but I will for certain have copies of yet-to-be-released novels (yes, novels, I have 4 or 5 I haven’t released), short stories, artwork, and some other things.  Feel free to comment here if you’re interested and tell me what you’d like to see.

That’s all for now, thanks for reading!

Society

Enabling Others (In Good Ways)

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I see a recurring theme on social media of late.  If someone doesn’t like what an author/creator is doing or the direction they took, the first response seems to be “I hate you and everything about you.”  Some of this seems to be politics and identity based, because God knows, we’ve become a fractured society of late, where every comment and complaint has political overtones whether meant or not.  Some of it is that there’s just a whole lot of negative attitudes about everything.

So what’s the point I’m getting at?  Enable other people to succeed.  If you aren’t happy with the status quo, make the world a bit better, a bit brighter.  A little bit at a time.  Don’t like a book or movie?  Send them personal feedback (I get some almost every day, I really appreciate it).  If you *do* like something, tell them that you like it.  Write a review.  If you have your own ideas of how to do it better, write the story or create the art yourself.  If you know someone who’s got great ideas, enable them!  Tell them they should write that story.  Put them in contact with writers (or artists, or movie makers, or whoever).  I found my current narrator for Valor’s Child that way.  I’ve helped friends to get books finished and to get published.  You know what?  It feels really fucking good to do that.

When you constantly bash things, this is what people think of you.

Bashing something that someone likes (be it books, movies, games, whatever) is not going to win you friends.  It’s not going to make anyone feel better, except in the miserable sort of hey, “we-hate-everything-too,” sort of way.  Embrace the positive in life, because the world is plenty full of suck as it is.

There’s a whole world of wonder out there people.  We launched a God-damned Tesla into space.  How freaking cool is that?  We live in a day and age where more information and entertainment is at our fingertips than we know what to do with.  The world isn’t ending.  The vast majority of my readers have a roof over their heads and don’t live in terror of warlords and bandits.

Being positive is hard.  Helping others is hard.  Building stuff instead of tearing it down is also hard.  But that’s how we all get better.  I’m not saying you have to like everything (Trust me, there’s plenty I hate), but it’s generally good for your mental well-being to focus on the positive.  Be like Deadpool.  You don’t have to get it all right.  You don’t even have to get it mostly right.  Just trying a little bit, every day goes a lot further than you may realize.

At the end of the day, when all is said and done, how do you want to be remembered?  Do you want to be the person that everyone secretly came to loathe… or do you want to be the person that everyone has a good story about?  Helping other people is a way to help yourself.

Some people want to burn it all down. They’re called the bad guys for a reason.
Entertainment

Dick Jokes, Humorous Deaths, Lots of Luck, and Cable: A Deadpool 2 Movie Review (No Spoilers)

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There’s a surprising amount of controversy over whether or not Deadpool 2 is worth seeing.  I really liked watching the first one in theaters.  Deadpool as a movie wasn’t without its flaws, but it was a whole lot of fun.  Deadpool 2 is more of the same, plus some actually fun and engaging characters.

If you’ve seen the first one, then you know what you’re getting into with this one.  It has the R rating for a reason.  If you’re not familiar with Deadpool, he’s sort of a cross between Johnny Knoxville and Wolverine.  So lots of dick jokes combined with super-human regeneration.  You might be able to see where some of this is going.

Deadpool 2 brings to the stage X-Force, Deadpool’s version of the X-Men.  They’re like the X-Men in every way, except they kill people for fun and profit.  So not really much like the X Men from the movies, I guess.

The movie has a ton of jokes, easter-eggs, and breaking the fourth wall moments.  What makes the whole thing work and stop from becoming it’s own punch line is that they have a couple of characters playing things straight.  God only knows how, at times, but they manage.  Domino and Cable in particular really stole the show.

The movie isn’t without its flaws.  At times, Ryan Reynolds goes a bit too far chasing a joke.  As my wife said, they don’t just beat the dead horse, they beat the dead horse with another dead horse.  The story has some… interesting issues with time travel and the kid actor is channeling a bit too much Rebel Wilson (Like, seriously, you could have swapped their characters from Pitch Perfect and this and no one would have noticed).  He does a good enough job, but he could have toned it down just a little.

There’s been some internet curfuffle about “ERMAGERD LESBIANS.”  Frankly, it’s far less than I’ve seen in PG-13 movies, so I don’t really give a damn.  The two characters in question didn’t really add much to the movie, you pretty much could have had the entire movie without them, but they put the one in because she was good in the last movie.  I wish they’d given her a bit more screen time or done something more with her, at least.

For the good: Cable and Domino really stole the show.  I mean, seriously.  I want a Cable movie.  Hell, I want a Domino movie!  The actress was spot on, her ability is awesome, and it would be hilarious to have her do her thing with Deadpool occasionally crashing the party.  Cable, same thing, he’s a bad-ass with no-sense of humor and a tragic backstory.  What’s not to like?

All in all, I really enjoyed the movie.  I could have done without as much naked Ryan Reynolds and a few less jokes being rode into the ground, but those issues were balanced by the general humor and the great acting.  Go see it yourself.  Plus, stick around for the mid-credits scene.

Reading, Science Fiction

Prisoner of the Mind Discounted This Weekend

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Prisoner of the Mind will be available for $0.99 all weekend.  If you haven’t got your copy yet, here is your chance to get it for cheap.

https://amzn.to/2s02F1B

How do you know right from wrong if every memory, every thought in your head was put there by your enemies?

In a near-future, when humanity has begun to spread throughout the stars.  In the process, they’ve awakened abilities hidden within their own DNA.  Psychics have begun to appear at ever-increasing rates with abilities that range from mental manipulation to mass destruction and beyond.  Empowered by public hysteria and fear of psychics, Amalgamated Worlds has taken over.  Their powerful combination of military and security forces, control of media and communications, and manipulation of internal threats has created a police state that spans all of human space.

Shaden Kirroy is a product of that police state.  Designed to be a weapon for use against his fellow psychics as well as any civilians who step out of line, he is an artificially enhanced psychic.  He is a blank slate, his past erased and replaced with engineered loyalty to Amalgamated Worlds.
 
Yet Shaden realizes that something is terribly wrong.  As his world begins to unravel, as he realizes the horrors of what was done to him, Shaden must find a way to free himself, to unlock the prison of his own mind.
 

Uncategorized

Booknado!

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A bunch of new books and Valor’s Duty is one of them, check it out

clfaadmin's avatarConservative-Libertarian Fiction Alliance

With sirens wailing in the distance, the May Booknado tears across a darkened landscape. Unstoppable winds of improvement rip tired, old establishment fiction from the minds of readers, and fresh, new fiction rushes in to fill the void!

Don’t waste your precious leisure time reading crappy PC pap from Big Publishing. Titillate your brain with choice selections from this month’s vast array of new books and special discounts!

NEW RELEASES

The Narrative by Deplora Boule
Read the shocking satirical look inside the elite media and the battle to control the truth!

Becoming Mia by Wendy Teller
Can Mia find the determination and strength to succeed on her own terms, even as 1960s culture tears itself apart and puts her friends and her family in danger?

I, Charles, from the Camps: A Novel by Joel D. Hirst
In this powerful story, a young Ugandan on a quest to survive his unfortunate…

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Reading, Science Fiction

Valor’s Duty: Reviews Wanted

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Valor’s Duty by Kal Spriggs

Thanks to everyone who purchased copies of Valor’s Duty!  It has been hanging out in the top ten of its category on Amazon and the initial feedback looks great.  I’m really grateful that everyone seems to enjoy the book, especially since I love writing this series.

If you’ve read the book, I would love to hear your feedback, either by email or through Amazon or Goodreads.  Reviews help to sell books, so please help other people find these books and leave reviews!

If you haven’t got your copy yet, you can find it here: https://amzn.to/2Lc19Bw

Thanks again for reading!

The news and opinions of Kal Spriggs