I’ve been getting things together for Dragon*Con, and there’s so much work to do.  Rene and I are putting together media kits to give out while we’re there, and we’ve each been looking at the guest list and finding people we think we should give them to.  We’re also making a list of people we want to give copies of the book to: librarians, reviewers, journalists, celebrities.  It’s a tedious process but very important.  I’m also going to contact several of the podcasters and radio stations that are going to be broadcasting from the show and try to organize interviews before we get there.

Last night, I saw on the guest list that Patrick Stewart is a guest, too.  I can’t believe I will get to share a green room with Patrick Stewart, Karen Allen, Leonard Nimoy, George Romero, Eric Roberts, Malcolm McDowell, Edward James Olmos, and many others.  Plus, there are going to be some heavy hitters there from the literary world as well.  Mike Resnick, Kevin J. Anderson, Lois McMaster Bujold, and a plethora of other best-sellers/award winners.  It’s somewhat daunting to be the small-time independent sharing the stage with some of the biggest, most successful names in the business, but I believe in the quality of my work.  I’m as talented as anyone, and one day soon, I’ll be a big name, too.

At Hypericon in Nashville, I was on a couple of panels with Glen Cook, who is about as successful as any science-fiction/fantasy novelist on the planet, and I held my own with him.  I know I belong on this stage, and I’m ready for it, but it’s still a little daunting.

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After getting back from Jacksonville, I decided to take a few days off to rest and recover.  I wrote every night, but other than that, I didn’t do much.  Summer break is close to over, so I’ll be back to the grind soon.  With that in mind, I’m pretty close to reaching my page goal for the summer, which means I should be able to finish the rough draft around late December/early January.  I’ve also been working on the cover for book three and plan to unveil it at Dragon*Con.

Speaking of which, that show is just six weeks away.  Doesn’t seem possible that it’s getting so close.  Even though I don’t have a table this year, there’s still a lot to do.  We’re gonna put together media kits to pass out at the show, and hopefully I’ll get some good exposure while I’m there.  As soon as I know my schedule of panels, I’ll post them.  My hope is to stay pretty busy with panels and interviews the entire weekend.

Well, that’s all for now.

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Something happened on the way to Jacksonville that I need to get off my chest.  I was seeking for radio stations between Asheville and Spartanburg and landed on 88.7 WNCW, a station that I know fairly well because it plays an amazing variety of music from many genres.  After a few minutes of good music, the song “Painting by Numbers” by James McMurtry came on.  Normally, I’m a live and let live kind of person, but something about that smug, pompous, self-righteous jerk rubs me the wrong way.  All of his music that I’ve heard is about how stupid conservatives are and how ignorant the average person is.  The implication is that McMurtry — the son of novelist Larry McMurtry — is much smarter and more enlightened than the rest of us, and his music is his mode for spreading this enlightenment. 

To me, this kind of crap is a big part of  what’s wrong with our country today.  The quasi-intellectual, pseudo-spiritual Left stares down from its Ivory Tower in utter disdain at the ignorance of the simple peasants, but instead of building bridges and attempting to cultivate connections as a true spiritual being would do, they hurl insults and write crappy music/poetry/novels to show off their “moral superiority.”  Then, they sit around and complain amongst themselves about how bad their sales are and how that is proof enough that the average American dwells in a state of blissful ignorance.  Here’s a little free advice: most people don’t like to be insulted and turn away from those who insult them.

Of course, the Right is just as pompous, just as self-righteous, and just as dangerous as the Left.  Somewhere along the way, our country was hijacked by elitists from the extremes of each end of the political spectrum, people who believe that they know the best way for everyone else to live.  This mentality — the belief that we “average” people are incapable of thinking for ourselves — is the biggest threat to our democracy, and the arrogance of this belief is staggering.

So to James McMurtry — and all the pseudo-spiritual children of famous people like him — come down here and walk in our shoes for awhile before you pass judgment on how ignorant and unenlightened we are.  Not all of us grew up with Lonesome Dove money and connections.

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