P.J. Schnyder's Blog, page 19

Jojo's Book Corner Blog Bash

I'm over at Jojo's Book Corner helping her celebrate her blogoversary with some fun pics, one of my favorite Thai recipes and a giveaway featuring Hunting Kat.

Come visit: Jojo's Book Corner Blog Bash Day 21 with PJ Schnyder

Are you done yet?This is gonna be a brief post, cause I'...

Are you done yet?

This is gonna be a brief post, cause I'm in the middle of working on several works in progress.

As you can see, even ninja kitty and Chelsea are keeping vigil to be sure nothing distracts me.

Suffice it to say, I'm back from cons and I've settled into the new day job.

I'm not going to promise I won't get distracted. I am me, after all, but I definitely have my head down and am working hard to get my stories out of my head and onto "paper."

Have a great weekend and for now…

Authors After Dark Aftermath

It's taken days to recover from the excitement and energy of Authors After Dark 2011 in Philly. I gotta say, that was some event. Even though I was a bit involved in the behind the scenes working, I was pleasantly surprised by the awesome welcome bags for every attendee and the incredible giveaways presented by groups throughout the convention. While I didn't win anything, I came away from the convention with many happy memories having met lots of wonderful readers and fab authors.

I had the opportunity to speak on 5 panels this year.

When the Ending Isn't HEA

This was my first panel of the convention and I sat in great company with Jae Lynne Davies, Jennifer Armintrout and Yvette Hines. My fellow authors gave me great insights on why their titles were or weren't happily ever afters. Many questions posed by the audience also gave me food for thought. It was interesting for me sitting on this panel because Hunting Kat doesn't have a HEA.  While all the books in the Terra's Guardians series and Drowning Tides in Love's Immortal Pantheon V do.

eBook Authors

I had great fun on this panel discussing being an ebook author and how it might differ from the more traditional paper publishing route. It's the first panel I've presented alongside Robert C Roman and I loved meeting Jean Murray, Brynn Paulin, Crymsyn Hart and Melissa Schroeder.

One of the interesting points for me was learning from readers how many converted completely to eReaders and never bought paper books anymore.

 

Guess the Book bythe Sex Scene

Funniest panel ever! Props to Nicole Peeler for her masterful readings even under pressure of camera crew and raucous laughter. Carolyn Crane and Dakota Cassidy were fabulous. Seriously, I thought I was going to fall out of my chair several times as we read hot sex scenes from various books.

Details: Food and Clothing in Romance

Tilly Greene, RA Vaughn, Rita Sawyer, Jean Murray, Nancy Holzner, and Leanna Renee Hieber were wonderful panelists to join for this fun discussion on details in romance.  Our audience joined in on this in a sort of round table discussion, sharing preferences and opinions, personal quirks and pet peeves.

Author Blog Fail

Great fun here with fellow panelists Robert C Roman and Theresa Meyers. Our discussion rambled through several points of view, from the author to the reader to the blogger reviewer and back again. It was a learning experience for us all, those with failed blogs and those with successful blogs looking to improve even more.

And then there was the Book Signing. Can I say [squee!] ?

This was by far the largest book signing I've been a part of and I have to thank the wonderful readers/authors/bloggers who stopped by and asked for my signature and bought my books.

Many people came out of that looking extremely happy.

Yes, there were a lot of unfortunate issues throughout the convention due to last minute rescheduling and SNAFUs by the hotel.

I have a lot of admiration and warm fuzzies for the people who took away the positive aspects from the convention experience. Personally, I took away some incredible memories in addition to the lessons learned on the panels.

The Mythos Masquerade was a beautiful night and I loved all the gorgeous outfits everyone put together.  The Steam Ball took a step off the main stream and provided a chance for attendees to experience steampunk in a fun way.

And of course, I do love the chance to dress for the occassion.

Considering the enthusiasm and big plans many shared regarding their outfits for both balls in the weeks before AAD, Stella had the forethought to get a professional photographer for both evenings. The idea was to be sure everyone had the chance to get a great picture of themselves in the outfits they'd worked so hard on for each evening.

All in all, huge thanks to the readers, authors, bloggers and industry people I met and made me feel welcome.  I hope you all had a great time. I know I did.

And I've promised several people that I'd get back to writing like the wind. I'm on it.

Find the PJ at Authors After Dark

Keeping the post short and sweet. I'm at Authors After Dark 2011 in Philly andif you're a fellow attendee, you can find me at the following panels:

"When the ending isn't HEA"
"E book Authors"
"Guess the book from the Sex Scene"
"Food and Clothing in Romance: DETAILS"
"Author Blog Fail"

If you're not attending the full con but in the Philly area, please do join us all for the Book Signing on Saturday, Aug 13 @ 2pm – 4pm. It's open to public and you can meet some o your favorite authors, get books signed and have some fun. Consider joining us that evening for the Steam Ball at 9pm too. Admission is $20 for the public and it should be a fun steampunk night with DJ Kiltboy and the Olde City Sideshow.

Otakon Aftermath

You really never know what shenanigans will ensue at Otakon.  Me? I started out the first day of the con as a generic school girl, complete with plaid skirt.  I stopped by The Five Wits booth in the Dealer's Room and bought my very first wig. Oh yes, I decided to try out the red head look.

Then, I wandered past a few steampunk booths and got ambushed. Japanese school girl PJ transformed into steampunk PJ. Oh hai!

Trust me when I say the Dealer's Room at Otakon is vast and full of wondrous items. I also popped by to visit Stephanie "Flash" Burke and D Renee Bagby, taking some time to help them pass out swag for the steampunk vendor they were helping out. Shout out to their awesome friends and family.

Day 2 of the convention was a little more hectic, filled with awesome cosplay and fun events. The siren call of the Dealer's Room only snagged me for an intense 30 min run through. Towards the end of the night, I stepped out of the mind set of the blend into the crowd con-goer and stepped up on stage to run my very first panel alongside Stephanie "Flash" Burke.

If you missed it, oh boy did you miss some insane fun. Our panel filled with over 500 otaku, laughing and having a great time for the full hour.

Here's a YouTube video of highlights from the panel.

Check it out, enjoy, and hopefully Steph and I will be able to run the panel again at Otakon 2012. We had a great time!

Play 'Find the PJ' at Otakon 2011

Otakon 2011

Oh yes, it's the yearly road trip down to Baltimore for the Convention of the Anime Girl Generation.  Otakon is one of the biggest conventions on the east coast for otaku, featuring anime and manga, industry panels and workshops. Last year, over 29,000 were in attendance. That's a big freaking con and I've gone every year for about a decade now.

Yup. I'm headed to Otakon, people, and make no mistake about it, this will be one to remember. Yours truly is running a panel this year.

Panel 1, Saturday at 12:30am-1:30am

with

PJ Schnyder & Stephanie " Flash " Burke

Ladies Choice: A Guide to Hentai

An exploration of hentai that girls may find fun, even empowering for women. Tired of the tentacle rape guys show us to shock and appall?

This panel provides a brief intro to hentai terms/genres to help navigate the sea of choices out there, then dives right into the fun, frisky and fantastic. We'll hit titles with great sex, nifty plot lines and scenes your boyfriend will never, ever show you.

A little bit of sweetness, a dash of steamy ground and pound and a taste of yaoi action to round out the hour.

We'll even do a quick overview of hentai production/distribution studios so you can get started on your very own Super Sekrit Frisky Collection. (or maybe not so sekrit!)

This is an 18+ panel, my friends. Attendees MUST go to the information booth prior to the panel and obtain an 18+ wrist band with show of ID.

I'll be there with prizes, swag and promo in addition to the saucy video clips I plan to share!

 

Con Planning

Several people have asked me what I do at conventions/conferences. Some blink and say, you don't go just to hang out and meet people? Well, that's part of why I go but not all of why I go to cons.

Let's reference a recent guest post I did for AAD – wherein I touch on the differences in types of cons I attend (Day Job vs. Anime vs. Literary Cons)

http://authorsafterdark.blogspot.com/2011/04/authors-after-dark-on-con-schedule.html

Obviously there's big differences between each of them and the driving force behind why attend is particular to each individual. There's one thing I do for all of them though, and that's plan ahead.

On speaking…

I've spoken at day job conferences for years, to audiences as small as a dozen to as large as hundreds. I'll be on panels for literary cons this year -> Steampunk World Fair, Authors After Dark, possibly AlbaCon, ConText and PhilCon. All of them required sign up, forms filled out or some other contact/info as early as January of this year. Heck, I had filled out forms to be considered for panels at Romantic Times Booklover's Convention in July/August for the con in April of this year.

I'm not kidding when I say speaking at a con means finding the appropriate contacts and filling out the appropriate forms as early as 8 to 10 months in advance of the actual con.

If you want to be a featured author, panelist, workshop lead or whatever, plan far in advance.

On networking…

I do research on who is going and whether I'm scheduled for formal pitch sessions. Sometimes, I'm looking forward to meeting my publishers or my editors – the face to face time really gives us a chance to get to know each other. In other cases, I'm hoping to make a connection with a new editor or agent. I might be looking to meet authors so we can team up our efforts and cross promote. Maybe someone has a fantastic new creative project and they want partners to make it happen or maybe I have an interesting idea and want to grab a few collaborators.

For any of these interactions, I'm hoping to make new friends, enjoy their company and have a great time. After all, be they editor or agent or publisher or author or reader, they are people and I have fun meeting new people.

But I do plan out my con schedule to make time for very important meetings.  There might be a publisher sponsored cocktail hour or a tweet-up. A specific agent/editor/publisher may want to sit down with me for a specific reason. I need to know my schedule so that when these things come up, I'm not a manic mess. I know when I can meet and relax knowing I won't miss anything. Hopefully.

So what does that tell you?

My con attendance is planned out a minimum of 6 months to a year in advance. No kidding. That includes travel, accommodations and registration.
I usually have a printed schedule marked up with highlighters or pen on me at all times.
I work hard to ensure that I can play hard without dropping the ball

Above and beyond all of that, I hope to meet readers. After all, how awesome is it to be able to thank a reader in person for reading my work? (*squee!*)
In the next couple of weeks, you'll be able to find me at Otakon and Authors After Dark Philly. Hope to see you there!

Winner Announcements

I've had quite a few contests going on around the internet. Gotta admit, I love announcing the winners!  Congratulations to each of you and thank you to everyone who entered to win.

For my Reader Appreciation Giveaway:

Congratulations to Beverly @ The Wormhole!

For the Skyrockets in Flight Blog Hop Delight:

Congrats to Crystal ?

For the Book Pushers new site launch for a New Kindle and choice of my backlist:

Congratulations to Jill!

For my interview with The Galaxy Express plus giveaway:

Congratulations to AnnaM!

Also, I wanted to give a huge thank you to the bidders on my gift packages for the LA Banks Auction. I'm so glad my gift packages brought such generous donations to the auction.

 

 

 

L.A. Banks Romance Relief Auction

Author Leslie Esdaile Banks

Meeting Leslie Esdaile Banks, also known as L.A. Banks, was one of the highlights of PhilCon for me last fall. She has the warmest, brightest soul and I couldn't help but smile when with her. Even though she had pressing commitments, she took the time to pause and chat, her presence energizing and friendly. Is it any wonder that she stands out in my memory as a truly wonderful person?

Under multiple pen names, she has 40 novels and 12 novellas across multiple genres and was awarded the 2009 Romantic Times Booklover's Convention Career Achievement Award for Paranormal Fiction and the 2008 Essence Magazine Storyteller of the Year Award, as well as the 2008 Best 50 Women in Business Award for the State of Pennsylvania.

Recently diagnosed with late stage adrenal cancer, she is fighting for her life and faced with heavy medical expenses. There has been an outpouring of love and support from so many people in this dark time.

I'd like to invite you to the L.A. Banks Romance Relief Auction to spread your love and support Leslie.

For my readers, I have donated the following gift packages to the auction:

 

- signed print of Heart's Sentinel

- Heart's Sentinel magnet

- signed Terra's Guardians mouse pad

- ecopy of Heart's Sentinel plus signed cover flat

- ecopy of Red's Wolf plus signed cover flat

- signed Terra's Guardians Ladies XL T-shirt

:

- ecopy of Hunting Kat on release July 4th

- signed cover flat of Hunting Kat

- Hunting Kat bookmark

- TY beanie baby black panther

Many others have donated a wide range of items to the auction including gift baskets, signed books, comic collectibles, jewelry and art. Please stop by, perhaps you'll find something of interest to you. Give for a warm and wonderful woman.

Release Day! Hunting Kat

Hunting Kat is now available from Carina Press! (Buy Link)

As a mercenary, Kat Darah doesn't have to pass for a normal human. On the edge of the solar system, she's just another biped. Most of the time.

Nearing the end of his military tour, Lt. Christopher Rygard debates the idea of hanging up his uniform for good. Looking for answers at the bottom of a glass of scotch, he meets Kat. One shared night of mutual desire seems harmless. But when their tryst is interrupted by attackers hunting Rygard, Kat must reveal her other form, the predator beneath the human façade.

Together they embark on a dangerous mission—a race against time to meet the enemy's demands, while trying to deny the passion between them. Rygard is faced with a terrible choice in the face of duty: Report the existence of a human turned shape-shifter. Or forget he ever met her.

To celebrate the release, I'm participating the Skyrockets in Flight Blog Hop Delight. For this blog hop, I've put together a fun giveaway package including:

-> free ecopy of Hunting Kat

-> keepsake postcard of Hunting Kat, signed

-> Demonlover's hot Man Candy Calendar for 2011, signed by Brand Will

-> sexy bookmark featuring Ian Daviau, signed

 

To enter, leave a comment including your email address and tell me about your favorite way to cool off in the heat of summer.

And visit other spots on the blog hop!

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