Apple-Obsessed Author Fella

Tucson Festival Of Books: My Schedule

Hey, did you know I’m gonna be at the Tucson Festival of Books this weekend?

OH BUT I AM.

I shall be flying in for the weekend and doing battle with various saguaro cacti and black widow spiders in order to bring you me, the beard, my books, and my wisdom — er, “wisdom.” Sorry, I was told by a court of law that I had to put that in very obvious air quotes. Whatever. Stupid judge. Point is! I’m going to be there, and so will other awesome people like, ohhh, say: Kevin Hearne, Sam Sykes, Elizabeth Bear, Jonathan Maberry, and more.

My schedule is below (or you can see it here at the festival website).

Workshop: How to Hook Readers With Your Blog

A central component of many an author’s online presence is the blog or web log, an easy-to-update website that makes it simple to keep in touch with your fans. How do you get readers to visit your blog in the first place, and what makes a blog compelling and entertaining enough that visitors will want to come back to it again and again?

Integrated Learning Center Room 137 (Seats 60, Wheelchair accessible)

Sat, Mar 15, 10:00 am – 11:00 am

Book/Movie Biz

Signing area: Sales & Signing Area #4 – Integrated Learning Center (following presentation)

Panelists: Shari Stauch, Chuck Wendig

Signing: UA Tent

Sat, Mar 15, 1:00pm

Signing will be located in the University of Arizona bookstore;s main tent on the UA mall.

Building Your Platform

What is an author’s platform, anyway? Industry professionals use the idea to refer to several things, but perhaps the easiest way to think about it is that your platform is made up of the people who know you and your work: your fans, in other words. In addition to writing great books, building your fan base is critical to your long-term success as an author: discover how to do it in this session.

Integrated Learning Center Room 130 (Seats 143, Wheelchair accessible)

Sat, Mar 15, 2:30 pm – 3:30 pm

Book/Movie Biz

Signing area: Sales & Signing Area #4 – Integrated Learning Center (following presentation)

Panelists: Vickie Mullins, Grael Norton, Chuck Wendig

Moderator: Mary Holden

World Building: Creating Imaginary Worlds

Fantasy authors use their imaginations to create richly detailed worlds with their own geographies, histories, cultures, languages, and inhabitants. Four authors will share their processes of world building.

Education Kiva (Seats 200)

Sun, Mar 16, 11:30 am – 12:30 pm

Children/Teens

Signing area: Signing Area #3 – Children’s (following presentation)

Panelists: Cornelia Funke, Aprilynne Pike, Janni Lee Simner, Chuck Wendig

Moderator: Nancy Brown

Writing for the YA Market

This panel of successful authors of young adult fiction will share their analysis of the current YA market and their strategies as authors of different genres, including realistic fiction, fantasy and science fiction.

Student Union Santa Rita (Seats 120)

Sun, Mar 16, 2:30 pm – 3:30 pm

Book/Movie Biz

Signing area: Sales & Signing Area #1 – UA BookStore Tent (following presentation)

Panelists: Nicole McInnes, Page Morgan, Chuck Wendig