Tag Archives: Liberty Con

Conventions, Writing

Kal’s June 2022 Forecast

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June is here, and there is a lot going on!

I’m happy to say that the next main-line Children of Valor book, Valor’s Inheritance, is complete and will be coming this month! More to follow on the details of that launch (including cover, blurb, and more). I do want to say that part of the delay in this book was me determining the best way to tell the many stories in the Star Portal universe that I want to get told.

Also this month, I’ll be attending Liberty Con at Chattanooga, TN (June 17-19). Liberty Con is by far my favorite convention and it’s been too long since I’ve been able to see everyone there.

I’ve outlined and begun work the next Star Portal universe book, which is a spin off from the main series. My goal is to get that done this month. I’ve got a lot going on with a new job, still unpacking/getting settled in to the new place, and all the rest, but I am making steady progress writing again.

That’s all for now, thanks for reading!

Conventions

Kal’s 2019 Liberty Con Schedule

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Hey everyone.  I’m going to be at Liberty Con this year, but I’ve  got a bit more narrow of a window, as I’ll only be there Saturday and Sunday.

Here’s my schedule:

Day Time Name of Event
Sat 10:00AM Autograph Session (MJ Allen, Buettner, Del Arroz, Spriggs)
Sat 02:00PM Critters
Sat 04:00PM Chris Kennedy Publishing – The Year Ahead
Sat 05:00PM Author’s / Artist’s Alley (S. Osborn, Spriggs, Swann)
Sat 08:00PM Reading: Cedar Sanderson & Kal Spriggs
Sat 09:00PM Seventh Seal Press & Rob Howell present the Chris Kennedy Publishing combined Room Party and Book Launch for Alabaster Noon
Sat 10:00PM New Voices in YA Science Fiction
Sun 10:00AM Kaffeeklatsch
Sun 12:00PM Author’s / Artist’s Alley (Duntemann, J. Hunter, Ibson, Spriggs, Weyand)
Sun 01:00PM Author’s Alley (Q. Allen, J. Hunter, Malone, Spriggs)

If you’re attending Liberty Con, I hope to see you there!

 

Conventions

Change of Schedule: Liberty Con

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Hey everyone.  If you haven’t heard, Liberty Con has shifted the date of their convention.  I’ll still be there (I hope) but the date is shifted from 30 May-1 June and is now 28 June – 30 June.  They’ll also be at a different hotel there in Chattanooga (Marriott rather than the Read House).  Last year the hotel situation led to some issues with space, the Marriot is adjacent to the convention center, but the convention didn’t have much of the spaces over there and there were weird restrictions on food and drink.  Hopefully they get all that ironed out, despite the short time to do so.

The change of dates makes Liberty Con back to back with Spike Con/Westercon/how-many-other-conventions-can-be-held-in-the-same-place-at-the-same-time-con (like, seriously, there’s at least 2 mini-cons and 3 official conventions, it’s sort of nuts).  My plan is to attend both, but it’s going to be a crazy week (4th of July is in the middle somewhere too…).

The only other convention I have on my radar right now is Starfest, though I haven’t heard anything from them yet about panels.  I hope to be attending, but since my wife is having surgery that month, I’m not sure how big my involvement will be.  I don’t know that I’ll have time for any other conventions this year, mostly because it’s looking to be a very, very busy year for me.

Thanks for reading, and I hope to see folks at Liberty Con & Spike Con!

 

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).

 

Conventions

Kal’s (updated) 2018 Convention Schedule

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Here’s my updated convention schedule for the year, with events I’ve already attended in italics and a new one added in bold.

LTUE February 15-17, UT

Whimsycon March 2-4, CO

Liberty Con June 29-July 1, TN

Dragon Con August 30-September 3, GA

Mile Hi Con October 19-21, CO

Yes, I’m excited to be going to Dragon Con this year as an Attending Professional.  I have no idea what my panels will look like, yet, but I’m really looking forward to the event!

Conventions, Science Fiction

Kal’s Liberty Con XXX Schedule

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After some really tight finances and a whole lot of uncertainty, I’m happy to announce that I’ll be at Liberty Con this weekend!  Here’s my schedule of events, and I hope to see people there!

Scheduled Programming Events Featuring Kal Spriggs

Day Time Name of Event
Fri 05:00PM Opening Ceremonies
Fri 08:00PM Author’s Alley (Holmes, Howell, Sherrer, Spriggs)
Sat 12:00PM Autograph Session (Gilliam, Perry, Spriggs, Vogel)
Sat 02:00PM The Middle Ages as Inspiration for Epic and High Fantasy
Sat 05:00PM Author’s Alley (D. Kennedy, Lackey, McKeown, Spriggs)
Sat 09:00PM No S**T There I Was Just Minding My Own Business ….
Sat 10:00PM Reading: Stephanie Osborn & Kal Spriggs
Sun 10:00AM Kaffeeklatsch
Sun 11:00AM Author’s Alley (Boop, Hicks, Morris, Spriggs)
Conventions, Fantasy, Science Fiction

2016 Liberty Con in Review

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Liberty Con is here and gone, so fast that I only now realized I forgot to take pictures.  I took notes, but I’ll apologize in advance if I leave out someone’s name or forget who said what, as I said, it was a busy weekend.

The first day was a bit of a blur to me, meeting new people and seeing friends again.  I was on an excellent Fantasy panel with Rob Howell, Jeremy Hicks, S Andrew Swann, and Michael Ault.  While a lot of the focus was on what each author wrote, there was also a lot of discussion about what we like to read and the trends we’re seeing in Fantasy.  There were a lot of great perspectives, especially since we had a variety of writers there who write everything from humor to grim fantasy.  It was interesting to note that those authors focused more on humor don’t feel the need to “ground” their fantasy (sort of in a Prachett style of writing) versus those writing epic fantasy at least want a developed system of rules for internal consistency.

Saturday was a very busy day for me.  I was on a Military Science Fiction panel with Doug Dandridge, Charles Gannon, Peter Grant, and James Young.  We had a hard backstop of the Baen travelling slideshow, so we knew we’d be run over if we ran over on time.  It was a fun discussion, which started out on the topic of whether you need to be an actual combat veteran to write combat in books.  Peter Grant made a good point in that it’s essential to fully understand it, but I felt (and I still do), that it’s not necessary to write good military science fiction.   I think we have plenty of examples of excellent authors who don’t have that experience, but they do talk with those who do and they draw on research to do it well.

After that I had a Space Opera panel with Doug Dandridge, Julie Cochrane, Daniel Hoyt, and Mark Wandrey.  This was a panel that went off the rails a bit as we ended up discussing topics like Game of Thrones.  I’ve got to give props to Dan Hoyt because he did a fantastic job herding cats to try to keep us on topic (especially since he didn’t know he was moderator until he got there).  Special thanks goes to the audience, since we were scheduled opposite to the Baen Travelling Slideshow, thanks all of you for showing up!

I attended a couple of panels Saturday, one on the Noir genre with Larry Correia and several other authors.  I came in a bit late but it was a fun discussion, particularly as they went into cross-genre blending such as in Dresden Files and Grimnoir Chronicles.

The last part of Saturday I was at the Mad Scientist panel.  It was fun, though I think we needed a bit more mad science!  There were a few people there who seemed too limited in their scope, if you ask me.  Dream big, right?

Sunday I didn’t have any panels, but I got to meet several people, both readers and authors, and got a chance to pitch the idea for my YA novel to Toni Weisskopf (Much kudos to Toni, she’s an amazing woman with the patience of a saint and the business acumen of a railroad tycoon).  I was scheduled for a reading in the afternoon, but unfortunately with the time of my flight and the drive to Atlanta, I wasn’t able to do that.

All in all, it was a great convention.  I’m already missing it and I’m preregistered for it next year!

 

Conventions, Fantasy, Science Fiction

Kal’s Liberty Con 2016 Schedule

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I’ll be at Liberty Con this year.  Here’s my schedule:

Day Time Name of Event
Fri 03:00PM Swords and Sorcery: From Light to Epic Fantasy and All Things In-Between
Fri 05:00PM Opening Ceremonies
Fri 07:00PM Author’s Alley (Cordova, Monroe, Spriggs, Weyand)
Sat 11:00AM Autograph Session (Buettner, Clemmer, Hicks, Spriggs)
Sat 01:00PM Perspectives on Military SF
Sat 02:00PM What’s defines Space Opera?
Sat 09:00PM Author’s Alley (Antonelli, Braker, Carpenter, Spriggs)
Sun 10:00AM Kaffeeklatsch
Sun 11:00AM Author’s Alley (Braker, Hicks, Spriggs, Weston)
Sun 02:00PM Reading: Julie Cochrane & Kal Spriggs

Since I’ll have a 3 hr drive from the airport and I’ll need to get a rental car, I’m really hoping I don’t have any delays flying in on Friday morning.

Conventions, Entertainment

Kal’s 2016 Convention Schedule

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Just a quick update since a lot of the conventions are posting guests and I have a good idea of my schedule. I’ll be attending a number of the same conventions this year, so I thought I’d post dates and locations for those of you who may attend the same ones:

Cosine – Colorado Springs, CO – January 22-23                                    (Completed, see my review here)

Starfest -Denver, CO -March 11-13

LibertyCon- Chattanooga, TN – July 8-10

MalCon – Denver, CO -August 12-14

Dragon Con – Atlanta, GA – September 2-5

Mile High Con – Denver, CO – October 29-30

I’ll keep this thread updated as things may  will change.  I’m looking at attending some other conventions, but it is hard to fit them into my extremely busy schedule.

Fantasy, Introductions and Greetings, Science Fiction

A Few Updates and a Review

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First up, Tom Knighton, an excellent author, has a great review of Echo of the High Kings up. He had some comments that I really appreciated and if you don’t read his stuff, I think he’s a fantastic blogger and author. You can read his review here.

My Liberty Con review went up on Monday. As I said, I met a lot of great people and I mentioned a few of the people I met there at the convention, I didn’t list them all, because I don’t think you want to see long lists of names, but it was funny to me because some of them are names I see every day on Amazon, on the list of “People who bought this book also bought…”

I also wanted to update everyone on my upcoming airing on American Ninja Warrior. The Military themed program will air on Monday, July 6th on NBC and Tuesday, July 7th on Esquire Network. I can’t say anything about what you’ll see, but I had a great time at the event. Be sure to tune in and watch!

Lastly, I wanted to say that I’ll be creating a new program, for those who want periodic updates but don’t regularly read my blog. I’ll have a mailing list which I’ll send out a newsletter once a month with free fiction, snippets, updates on my writing progress, and announcements when books are released. I’ll have a tab on the side and you can sign up now by using the “Contact Kal” page or messaging me on FB with your email.