Here’s your chance to not only get your books signed by me, but by my folks, too 🙂 OK, just kidding (but if you ask them, I’m sure they’ll oblige).  Starting the end of next week, the Evans caravan will be rumbling across North America and coming to a town near you…if you happen to live in one of the towns I’m going to. So where will I be? This is still a work in progress and will likely change somewhat, but it’s a fairly good snapshot at the moment. Hopefully I’ll be able to add a few cities. As things firm up I will confirm where I’ll be.  The signings won’t be long drawn out affairs, but more of me popping into a store for half an hour, signing all the books and chatting with folks.  For the very latest in where and when I’ll be somewhere you can check for regular updates on my twitter account @CEvansAuthor  I’ll be tweeting the whole trip. With my parents. In an RV for a week. Should. Be. Fun. Argh 🙂

October 27

Toronto  *  Ajax  *  Oshawa

October 28

Belleville  *  Kingston

October 29

Milton *  Guelph  *  Kitchener-Waterloo

October 30

London

I’m limiting my television watching to a few very select shows (The Walking Dead, Terra Nova – although I’m still on the fence on this one, a couple of comedies and a documentary here and there) and focusing on getting my drawing skills up a level or two. I’ve always loved to sketch, but never really focused on it for any length of time. I’ve only just started using the brush pens so I have a learning curve ahead of me, but it’s enjoyable.

Oh, speaking of the Walking Dead, the herd shuffling by was one of the scariest scenes I’ve seen in a long time, and it happened in broad daylight. That’s impressive story telling. I think it was the juxtaposition of such horror in the middle of the day that made it work so well. Had they filmed it at night I don’t think it would have had the same power. The premier did have some lulls, but I’m definitely invested in it.

Anyway, as my drawing/painting skills hopefully improve I’ll bite the bullet and post a few of my attempts. Tonight I took a stab at Rallie’s quill, although one more colorful than she uses.

Born today at 00h01 in North America to proud, single author, Ashes of a Black Frost, The Iron Elves series, weighed in at a hefty 440 pages with a glorious cover and binding. The proud author had this to say about the delivery: “I don’t know what women complain about, I was in labor for two years!”

In lieu of cigars, the author simply requests well-wishers share in his joy and enjoy the story. He’s already busy procreating his next book.

Whew, what a great weekend. ComicCon was awesome. I’m still feeling sensory overload. In addition to walking, talking, and gawking, I also managed to do a little shopping. Tempted as I was by the swords and armor, I wound up buying some manga Pigma brush pens and a handmade leather journal with recycled cotton paper. It’s not quite what Rallie carries around, but I couldn’t find any quills.

Leather journal and pens

I met a lot of new and very cool people and also reconnected with some old friends. I was surprised by C.C. Finlay and his wife Rae Carson! I’ve known Charlie since the early days when we were both on the old Del Rey Writers’ Workshop. I wasn’t even in NY yet, and neither of us had published a book. Eleven years later and we look almost the same…

C.C. Finlay and yours truly

Charlie is the acclaimed, multi-nominated author of short fiction as well as the Traitor to the Crown series, about the American Revolutionary War with witches. Deep, rich stuff. And muskets! His significant other, Rae, has just published her first book, the YA Fantasy The Girl of Fire and Thorns, and true to the title, it is on fire!

The dynamic writing married duo of Rae Carson and C.C. Finlay at NYCC 2011

With everything going on I didn’t get much of a chance to hit the panels. I had really wanted to see the one on The Walking Dead (OMG, and yes, I am using OMG, the episode last night was killer!) but I was fortunate enough to catch the panel with friend and fellow military fantasy writer, Myke Cole, author of the forthcoming Shadow Ops: Control Point. He had the audience in stitches, which is impressive for a panel on military anything!

Myke Cole, Jack Campbell, not sure, and Taylor Anderson

I still have more photos to post, but I’ll save those for another day. Oh, and did I mention, Ashes of a Black Frost goes on sale tomorrow in North America 🙂

I like to think I wear the same costume every year – single, cute, funny fantasy author. Not sure everybody gets it. Maybe I need a graphic novel 🙂

Had a lot of fun yesterday. In no particular order I bumped into Anne Groel (George RR Martin’s editor), Anthony Ziccardi (Deputy Publisher at Gallery Books/S&S), Peter V. Brett, author of the Warded Man series, Rita of Glaser’s bakery (best bakery in New York City), her husband and his daughter (and I’m kicking myself for not remembering their names at the moment!) Thalia, a recent Columbia grad looking to break into the publishing business, Myke Cole, author of the forthcoming Shadow Ops series, Ed Schlesinger, my editor at Gallery, Julia, Ed’s assistant, and Parisa,  Betsy Mitchell of Del Rey, Sarah, currently attending Seaton Hall and a big Walking Dead fan, Josh and Carl of Premier Collectibles where I’ll be signing today at 2pm, Jay Franco, formerly of the Book Club and now at DK, SueMoe, formerly of Del Rey, dressed as Darth Vader, Quail Man, three Wonder Women, a slew of zombies, anime and manga characters that I have absolutely no idea who or what they were, and a woman who looked like a smurf but turned out to not be a smurf.

I also learned that I don’t have a clue about online gaming. A kid started talking to me about World of Warcraft and honestly, he might as well have been talking Latin for all I understood. For some odd reason I felt the urge to yell at him to get off my lawn.