Robin Burks's Blog, page 5

MidSouthCon Schedule

In case you missed it, I’m going to be a panelist at this year’s MidSouthCon at the Memphis Hilton in Memphis, TN March 15-17. In fact, I’ve got a series of panels on Saturday, March 16 and would love to see you all there. I’ll also be available in Pro Row with books on hand if you’d like a signed copy of any of my works. Hope to see you there!

Here’s my full MidSouthCon schedule:

Saturday, March 16, 2019

11 a.m. – Competitive Costuming, Promenade 2

12 p.m. – What’s New In the MCU, Grand Ballroom C

2 p.m. – Pro Row (I will have copies of all my books available)

7 p.m. – And It All Started With Wonder Woman, Promenade 1

Setting Up Shop

You may or may not have noticed, but there’s something new here on the website. In case you missed it, there’s a shiny new “Shop” link at the top of the page.

So what does that mean? It means that you can now buy autographed paperback copies of any of my books and have them shipped directly to your home! Even better is that all orders come with free shipping.

With the holidays right around the corner, books make great gifts. So consider gifting yourself or someone you love (or even just like) with an autographed copy of one of my books.

Also, happy holidays!

A Big Thank You And Looking Ahead

September was a whirlwind of activity, but it was also a great deal of fun, despite the lack of sleep and scratchy throat that I now suffer from. That fun is thanks to you, my readers, for coming out to see me at SEMO Con, Penned Con and Steampunk Who.

So I would like to offer a huge heartfelt thank you to everyone I saw at these three events. A huge thank you to everyone who came and talked to me about my books. A huge thank you to those of you who bought my books. A huge thank you to the con organizers who put together some awesome events. THANK YOU.

With that said, I am officially done with signing events for the year. I am going to rest up and prepare for my vacation at the end of the month (we are Disney World bound) and then start thinking about what comes next.

So what comes next? I plan on spending the last few months of the year knee-deep in writing. I started a novel earlier this year, but I got stuck and somehow ended up not finishing it. Then life got busy, and I had appearances to promote and, suddenly somehow it’s October. I plan on returning to that novel and getting a rough draft written by the end of the year, though. After that, I’ll put it away for a while and start doing some rewrites of another novel, which will probably be Children of Magic or The Book of Revelations. But I will always be working on something because I hope to have a new book published each year.

In the meantime, I hope you all enjoy the books I have already had published, and if you need more reading material, please visit my wonderful publisher, Crossroad Press.

Thank you all again for your support and here’s to an awesome Halloween/fall season!

Win Tickets to Penned Con in St. Louis

Do you live in and around the St. Louis area? Do you love books? Then you should enter to win tickets to go to Penned Con on September 21-22. I’ll be there. Will you?

That’s right, I’m giving away two 2-day tickets to Penned Con, which will occur at the Red Lion Hotel St. Louis City Center in St. Louis, Missouri. All you have to do to enter to win is participate in the activities below. The contest will run through July 31 and a winner will be chosen on August 1.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Madame Vampire Has Arrived!

If you were paying attention to Amazon over the weekend, you might have noticed an addition to my list of books now available on the digital platform. If not, here is the official announcement: Madame Vampire is now available as an ebook.

This is my fourth novel and I’m really proud of it. It’s been a work in progress nearly half of my life and I finally got around to writing it last year. I have always loved books about vampires (I’ve spent countless hours, days, months and years with Anne Rice’s works), but I was always a little too afraid to publish a book of my own. But then the idea for this came along and I felt it was different enough and interesting enough that it deserved its own story.

Madame Vampire began as a short story several years ago, but those few people who read it loved it enough to encourage me to make it something more and tell the full story of Madame de Pompadour, the vampire. I’ve loved following her on her journey and I hope that you enjoy the reading as much as I enjoyed the writing.

And, as always, I ask that you please consider leaving a review on Amazon. Reviews help other readers find my books and are always appreciated.

(For those of you who prefer physical books, I promise that those are coming soon.)

Children of Time: The Companions of Doctor Who Available Now!

I’ve had a lot of people asking me about this book, so here’s the official announcement: Children of Time: The Companions of Doctor Who is available on Amazon now.

Here is the official description:

The Doctor’s Companions. They’ve been through Dalek Invasions, Android Invasions, Zygon Invasions and Christmas Invasions. They ask questions, get in trouble, get out of trouble, and challenge the Doctor to think and act in new (usually better) ways. Children of Time: The Companions of Doctor Who features profiles of companions from all formats of Doctor Who: television, novels, comics and audio dramas. Our contributors include well-known authors, four librarians, two ukelelists, a playwright, podcasters, publishers, students, and the writers and artists behind some of the Doctor’s companions.

Why am I posting this you ask? Well, the answer is two-fold. First, I contributed an essay to the book on Donna Noble and why she’s the most important woman in the universe. The best reason to get this book, though, is that all proceeds go to Furkids, which is Atlanta’s largest no-kill animal shelter and rescue. That’s right: if you buy this book, you get to not only read about the Doctor’s companions, but you also get to help animals. That’s a no-brainer, right?

The book also features some gorgeous artwork by a variety of artists.

If you do purchase the book and bring it to me at any of the events I show up at, I will gladly sign it for free.

You can purchase your copies of Children of Time: The Companions of Doctor Who right here.

Cape Comic Con Wrap-Up And What’s Next

It’s been a busy few months as I’ve recently finished the final edits for Madame Vampire (which is now getting a nice cover made for it) and started a new novel tentatively titled Goodbye, Fare Thee Well. I also started covering news for ScreenRant and appearing at a few cons. That doesn’t leave a lot of time for leaving notes here, but I try to remember when I can.

To start with, I want to thank Ken Murphy and the staff of Cape Comic Con for such a wonderful event this past weekend. I got to meet a lot of amazing people, including those interested in my books. Thank you to everyone who came by my table to say hello, as well as thank you to those who purchased books or just came to chat with me about reading and writing. It was an amazing weekend and I hope to get to do it again next year.

With that being said, I’ve got another appearance coming up in a few weeks. I will be at WHOlanta May 4-6 at the Hilton Atlanta Airport in Atlanta, Georgia. I’m looking forward to hanging out with a lot of awesome Doctor Who fans, but I’ll also be doing a few panels, too. I hope to see some of you there! I will have books available for sale, too, of course, so please come by and say hello.

After that, it’s a quiet summer with cons I’m just doing for fun, including my annual trip to Metropolis, IL for Superman Celebration. I’ll also be hanging out at Fanboy Expo in Knoxville, TN this year. So if you’ll be at either of those events, please track me down and say hi. Then it’s back to work in September with three cons, which are all listed on my Appearances page. Then I’m going to need a vacation, so I guess it’s a good thing I have a trip planned to Walt Disney World in October, right?

All in all, I’m hopeful for a great year. I’m looking forward to getting Madame Vampire out there for you all to read, as well as start working on a few other things I’ve got in the pipeline. I look forward to seeing you all wherever I end up, and as always, feel free to drop me a comment or an email if you feel like it.

An Update to End All Updates (Not Really)

So I thought I would check in before hopping on a plane next week to make my annual sojourn to Los Angeles for the Gallifrey One convention. I’ve had a lot of balls up in the air and I’ve been successfully juggling them for a few months now, so I thought I would post an update of everything I’ve got going on.

First, since I already mentioned it, Gallifrey One starts next week at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott. I would tell you to get your tickets now, but it sold out shortly after tickets went on sale last year. However, if you are going to the con, be sure to check out the panel I’m doing called “”Rage Against the Sequel of the Light” on Friday, February 16 at 1 p.m. in Program C. We’ll be talking about the crazy world of movie sequels. Hope to see you there!

The narration for the audiobook version of Zeus, Inc. is complete! Be looking for that soon on Audible.com. I’m really looking forward to hearing it myself.

I wrote an essay on Doctor Who‘s Donna Noble for an awesome book called Children of Time: The Companions of Doctor Who. I’m not sure what the release date is on that yet, but I’ll keep everyone informed. It’s a great project, with a lot of great writers, as well as some fantastic art by Kelly Yates and Stephanie Lane Jackson, as well as a contribution by Jo Grant herself, Katy Manning. All proceeds from sales of the book will go to Furkids, Atlanta’s largest no-kill animal shelter and rescue organization.

I’m still plugging along on Madame Vampire. I hope to have an announcement about that soon. But I am in final edits, so that’s great news!

I’m also still writing for The Things and FanGirlConfessions.com. I also write for ScreenRant.

Be sure to keep an eye on my Appearances page, too. I plan on adding a few more for 2018.

2018 Darrell Awards Coger Hall Of Fame

Last night, I received word that my three novels (Zeus, Inc.; The Curse of Hekate; and Return of the Titans) would get inducted into the Coger Hall of Fame for the Darrell Awards. How great is that? I am officially an award-winning author.

This is such an honor because it not only means that there are people out there who enjoyed what I wrote, but that those people think I did a good job of representing the MidSouth. This is from the Darrell Awards website.

“The Dal Coger Memorial Hall of Fame Award is given for an author who has made exceptional contributions to Midsouth Literacy by having published a substantial body of work that is or would have been eligible for the Darrell Award.”

I am beyond thrilled to get this recognition and only hate that I cannot attend the subsequent banquet because of a previous commitment. I am so honored, though, and excited about this newest development in my writing career. It’s also the kick in the pants I need to keep writing and to keep working on the final edits to Madame Vampire.

Coming Soon: ‘Zeus, Inc.’ The Audiobook

In case you haven’t seen me mention it on Twitter or Facebook, there’s an exciting new development in the world of Alex Grosjean. My first book Zeus, Inc., is getting an audiobook adaptation!

I’m really excited about the prospect of getting my work out there in a new way, and even more excited about the narrator working on it. My publisher, Crossroad Press, sent me several emails with auditions, but it was the first one I listened to that grabbed me and made me think “this is the voice of Alex.” The narrator is Sara K. Sheckells and she is currently working on recording the audiobook version of Zeus, Inc.

How awesome is that? Sara offered a little taste of her work on the book on Instagram:

#AmNarrating #audiobook #ZeusInc @robinburks #GreekGods

A post shared by Sara Sounds (@sara_sounds) on Jan 16, 2018 at 8:33am PST

I can’t wait for you all to hear Zeus, Inc.!

In other news, Crossroad Press just recently finished a complete update of its website. Be sure to check it out to find other indie authors like me. Also, be sure to sign up for the mailing list because I hear you might get discounts on books if you do that.