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With just about 48 hours to go, the final week push continues with books from David Drake and James Maxey

Posted on 2011-09-28 at 20:15 by montsamu


Two new rewards added to the Bull Spec: Year 3 Kickstarter fundraising campaign today, in this last desperate week of trying to raise as much support as possible.
The first is the 3-volume trade paperback Baen editions of Pittsboro author David Drake’s “The Complete Hammer’s Slammers”, signed of course:

The second is another set of 3 signed books, being Hillsborough author James Maxey’s “Dragon Age” trilogy from Solaris Books in mass market paperback, including Bitterwood, Dragonforge, and Dragonseed:
Whew! Just about 48 hours to go… can we make it to $2000? I would love to see it happen.

Posted in kickstarter

The Kickstarter final week push continues with: Mur Lafferty's Afterlife Series

Posted on 2011-09-27 at 15:44 by montsamu


Just added another limited, last-week award to the Bull Spec Year 3 Kickstarter fundraising campaign which ends on Friday: A complete set, signed, of the 5 hardcover Afterlife Series novellas from Durham author and podcaster extraordinaire, Mur Lafferty: Heaven, Hell, Earth, Wasteland, and War. These are beautiful (and darkly funny!) books, with a through-designed cover series that you really, really want:
Whew. Only 10 of these sets are available, and I can’t thank Mur enough to allowing me to include them.

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Kickstarter: Final week, final push!

Posted on 2011-09-26 at 16:07 by montsamu


Well, it’s Monday of the last week for the Bull Spec: Year 3 Kickstarter fundraiser, which ends Friday at 5 PM EST. To try for some last-ditch, on the fence backers, I’ve added something to spice this week up: limited to 20 backers, a complete set, signed, of the 6 “definitive edition” trade paperback versions of Raleigh author Lewis Shiner’s first six novels: Frontera, Deserted Cities of the Heart, Slam, Glimpses, Say Goodbye, and Black & White:


Tell me that wouldn’t look great on your bookshelf?

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Bull Spec: Year 3 Kickstarter -- progress update!

Posted on 2011-09-16 at 19:59 by montsamu

With two weeks left to go, the Bull Spec Year 3 Kickstarter has met its “drop dead or not” goal of $1000! Thank you all SO MUCH for spreading the word and contributing to this effort.


But, really, we need to keep going. One of the scary things about the Kickstarter was trying to pick a number that we thought was achievable — because if you don’t make it, everything goes to $0 and the whole thing is canceled — but also substantial enough to make it look like actually doing a third year is possible.

As I wrote in the Kickstarter project description:
This Kickstarter project is to help fund the 60,000 words or so of original fiction, 20 or so illustrations, the reviews, the poetry, and the serialized graphic short story (and more!) which will comprise the four issues of the third year ofBULL SPEC which will run from about Spring/Summer 2012 through Winter/Spring 2013. At $0.05/word for fiction and poetry and $100-$200 per illustration, the year’s content budget will come to about $5,000. The printing budget adds another $5,000, giving a total budget for the year of $10,000.
That’s the base financial cost — and of course, some of that will come to Bull Spec in the form of continuing subscriptions, issue sales in bookstores, etc. And of course, if we can ever get on top of getting advertising, that would be great, too! I want to go ahead and put some numbers out there so folks know where we’re coming from. Subscriptions are at about 100 people, bringing about $2,000 into the “good” side of the budget. Bookstore sales are about 100 per issue, bringing another $2,000 into that “good” side. That leaves us about $6,000 short. Advertising (thank you, advertisers!) brought in about $1,000 last year, bringing things up to just about $5,000, leaving $5,000 to come from … well, thin air, mostly. (Here I must thank my in-laws, Valerie and Mike Montgomery, for paying some printing bills outright. And again my wife Kendra, for her unbelievable patience in allowing me to really do this the best way that I can.)

So we need to keep going. Two more weeks. Let’s do this! If I had to pick a number, I want to grow to 200 subscribers and fill that “75 x $75” patron page as much as possible. Thank you so much for your support and for spreading the word!

Posted in kickstarter

This week's events: The Rift Walker and Dark Tangos, both at Quail Ridge Books

Posted on 2011-09-12 at 21:03 by montsamu

This week sees Raleigh’s Quail Ridge Books hosting two events of note:

1. Thursday, September 16, 7:30 pm: Clay and Susan Griffith for The Rift Walker: Vampire Empire, Book 2:


So many links have popped up, but most recently a great review from Paul Goat Allen is a good place to get started. There’s a Facebook event by which you can invite your friends, the Quail Ridge event page to send around, and the current fall events flyer to print out and post and hand around as well.

2. Friday, September 17, 7:30 pm: Lewis Shiner for Dark Tangos:

You can of course read Richard Dansky’s review of the book, along with an at-length interview of Shiner, in Bull Spec #6. He also wrote a short essay for John Scalzi’s Whatever blog’s “Big Idea” series, about violence — very much worth the read, and there’s another (shorter) interview courtesy the book’s publisher, Subterranean Press. There’s a Facebook event with which you can invite your friends, the Quail Ridge event page to send around, and yes that current fall events flyer to print out and post and hand around.

There you go! Two reading events this week very much worth taking the time for.

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Today (Monday) at Dragon*Con!

Posted on 2011-09-05 at 08:30 by montsamu

Though yet, yet again you should have a stack of flyers you're handing out, and likely have this stuff memorized and/or tattooed:

MONDAY AT DRAGON*CON:

11:30am Clay and Susan Griffith: Supernatural Alternative History
11:30am Mark Van Name (SFLIT)1pm Gray Rinehart science of zombies panel (‎Hilton)

And the last of the The Missing Volume dealer room signings:

10:30 AM Kevin J Anderson and Rebecca Moesta
2 PM Tim Zahn
That's it! It's the last day! Don't forget to check out of your room on time...
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Today (Sunday) at Dragon*Con!

Posted on 2011-09-04 at 08:30 by montsamu

Though yet again you should have a stack of flyers you’re handing out, and likely have this stuff memorized and/or tattooed:

SUNDAY AT DRAGON*CON:


10:00am Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (AUTO)
11:30am Mur Lafferty (POD)
11:30am Gail Z. Martin (POD)

1:00pm ERIN HOFFMAN (Sword of Fire and Sea, PYR dealer room signing)
1:00pm Gail Z. Martin (SFLIT)
1:00pm Jason Morningstar (GAME)
1:00pm Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (ALT) — Steampunk Expo with Von Slatt device!
2:30pm Lou Anders (SFLIT)
2:30pm Clay and Susan Griffith (Pyr Books Presents!)
4:00pm Clay and Susan Griffith (Vampires)
4:00pm Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (The Missing Volume dealer room signing)
5:30pm Gail Z. Martin (EFF)
7:00pm Jason Morningstar (GAME)
7:00pm Ann VanderMeer (SFLIT)
7:00pm Clay and Susan Griffith Greyfriar Reading w/James Marsters (ticketed event)
10:00pm Gail Z. Martin (DFH)

Whew. Tune in tomorrow for the Monday schedule for those staying all the way through to the end!

Posted in Uncategorized

Local events flyer for Fall 2011: version 4!

Posted on 2011-09-03 at 18:48 by montsamu

With the Lev Grossman event behind us (and it was awesome!) it’s really time to set our sights on the fall events. Things get started with a bang this week with readings from Lewis Shiner and NY Times bestselling author Terry Brooks. Please! Help spread the word about these events by printing, posting, and otherwise distributing this flyer!

http://www.box.net/embed/688ys0b0h48ymem.swf

Posted in Uncategorized

Today (Saturday) at Dragon*Con!

Posted on 2011-09-03 at 08:30 by montsamu

You know the drill by now. Though you should have a stack of flyers you’re handing out, and likely have this stuff memorized and/or tattooed:

SATURDAY AT DRAGON*CON:

11:30am Mur Lafferty (READ)
11:30am Mark L. Van Name (READ)
1:00pm Clay and Susan Griffith (Plotting or Plodding)
1:00pm Erin Hoffman (PYR dealer room signing)
1:00pm Mark L. Van Name (The Missing Volume dealer room signing)
1:00pm Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (ALT)
2:30pm The Baen Books Traveling Road Show (Hyatt)
4:00pm Mark L. Van Name (SFLIT)
4:30pm Parsec Awards (doors at 4, reception to follow, Hyatt Regency V Ballroom)
5:00pm Clay and Susan Griffith (PYR dealer room signing
5:30pm Jeff VanderMeer (READ) (a “bring the house down” reading from his novel in progress BORNE!)
7:00pm Ann VanderMeer (WRIT)
8:30pm Clay and Susan Griffith (Collaboration panel)
10:00pm Gail Z. Martin (WRIT)

Whew. Tune in tomorrow for the Sunday schedule!

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Two Wednesday Sep 7 events of note:

Posted on 2011-09-02 at 18:34 by montsamu

Wednesday September 7 will be a very good day to be able to be in two places at once.

7 PM: Lewis Shiner at The Regulator Bookshop. “Join us for a thrilling night of tango with local author Lewis Shiner who will read from his new novel Dark Tangos. Live tango dancers will perform following the reading. Robert ‘Beto’ Cavenaugh who relocates to Buenos Aires and spends his nights dancing tango meets mysterious Elena who exposes him to the brutal echoes of Argentina’s shameful past. “Shiner’s latest delivers its grim story line with artistic mastery and surprising punctuation by joy and hope… this is an absorbing and surprisingly action-packed tale based in the ugly truths of Argentina’s history” writes Booklist. Shiner is the author of several novels and short stories including Black & White and Deserted Cities of the Heart.” The Regulator has a Facebook event to send around, though Shiner’s own event page is the main link for critical mass.





7:30 PM: Terry Brooks at Quail Ridge Books. “Science fiction master Terry Brooks returns on Wednesday, September 7, at 7:30 p.m. with The Measure of the Magic: Legends of Shannara. The fascinating chronicle of Shannara’s prehistory reaches a thrilling new peak in the sequel to Bearers of the Black Staff.” Quail Ridge Books has a Facebook event to send around.



So! Go forth, enjoy, and try your best not to bifurcate. It doesn’t really work out that well in the end. Whether you pick compelling social fiction from local author Lewis Shiner or bestselling epic fantasy from Terry Brooks, you had best at least not stay at home!

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