Wildcat's Writer Weekend

This weekend, I've been more "Bill, the Writer," than "Bill, the Wildcat." It's been a LOT of fun. Last night, I attended the release of the anthology Front Porch Flash Fiction at Velocity Comics. The book included my short story "Cheaters Never Win."



Just as exciting for me as seeing my story in print was being joined in the anthology by two of my friends, Katharine Hearndon ("365 Ways to Cook Chicken") and J.T. Glover ("Sufficient Pangs").

Every copy of the book's first run sold out last night. I hope Sink/Swim Press will release a second run, and if they do, I'll be sure to let you know. Until then, you won't be able to buy a copy.



We celebrated the book release with some of our friends, and my wife and I didn't get to bed until about one o'clock. Normally, we'd just sleep late to recover, but such was not an option. At 5:45 this morning, we crawled out of bed and drove to Harrisonburg, Virginia, for the Write-Brained Network writers workshop. My wife and I are friends of Ricki Schultz, the founder of the Write-Brained Network. She did a great job organizing the event. It included several folks we've gotten to know well through our work with James River Writers: Tiffany Trent, David L. Robbins, David Kazzie and Clifford Garstang. My wife and I also met fantasy writer Jodi Meadows and her agent Lauren MacLeod. Jodi's debut novel Incarnate comes out January 31st. I've really been looking forward to this book which offers a nice twist on the idea of reincarnation.

If the world keeps recycling the same million souls, then what happens if someone is born who's never had a past life? And what happens to the soul who lost the time of its rebirth?

An advanced reader's copy of the book was given away as part of a drawing at the end of the event, and guess who won it? Heh. I can't wait to read it! My webcomic's cat Frank was just as excited.

Incarnate has generated a lot of buzz. What's really cool for me is that this is the first printed copy of Jodi's book which she has autographed. Not only did she make it out to me and my wife, but to Frank, as well.





The prize from the drawing also included something that has me just as pumped. I won a critique by Tiffany Trent of the first ten pages of my manuscript. That will be a great help as I'm putting the polish to my young adult, vampire hunter novel.

In the meantime, Frank has called dibs on reading Jodi's book first, but after a busy two days, we're off to bed. I don't think Frank plans to let our copy of Incarnate out of his sights anytime soon.