J.A. Pitts

Norwescon schedule, and I teach a class

Norwescon starts tomorrow. I’ll be at the convention about 5pm. Busy weekend ahead of me.

First off, my buddy Ken Scholes has had to take a pass on the convention this year due to life complications. He’s fine, just a bit overwhelmed with new babies, book deadlines, etc. This left a hole in the convention schedule that I’ve agreed to step in to. I’ll be teaching a class from noon to three on Friday called The Evolution of a Writing Career. Come along and join the fun. Worse case, you can heckle me.

Here’s my weekend.

Friday, 12:00 p.m – 3:00 p.m.
Evolution of a Writing Career
(not sure where yet)

Friday, 3:00 p.m., Cascade 4
Crossing the Rainbow Bridge to Valhalla
Valhalla: home of the fallen heroes and central focal point of Norse Mythology. We review the various concepts and conceits of Valhalla in pre-Christian Scandanavia and what the promise of living in the Halls of
Heroes meant to average Norse men.
Jeff Davis, John A. Pitts, Ben Thompson

Friday, 4:00 – 5:00 p.m., Evergreen 3 & 4
Autograph Session #1

Friday, 6:00 – 6:30 p.m., Cascade 3
Reading: John Pitts
Black Blade Blues, Urban Fantasy Novel excerpt, Rated: PG
John A. Pitts

Friday, 9:00 p.m., Cascade 6
Gender Queers in Urban Fantasy
Where are the novels that discard the gender binary in this genre? Where are the drag queens and other gender queers?
K.C. Ball (M), A.M. Dellamonica, John A. Pitts

Saturday, 1:00 – 3:00 p.m., Baker
Writer’s Workshop Round Robin #2
James Mead – Pathfinder, Stephanie Weippert – Desperation, Douglas Rudoff -
Shade btw Blue & Green
John A. Pitts (M), James C. Glass, Mary Rosenblum

Saturday, 10:00 p.m., Cascade 7
Avoiding Cliches in Urban Fantasy
How many hard-boiled PIs does one genre need? Gritty locales are fun, but why can’t we ever be at the beach? Magic users, vampires, and werewolves, oh my! Do we need something more original?
K.C. Ball (M), John A. Pitts

Sunday, 10:00 a.m., Baker
Writer’s Workshop: Jeremy Zimmerman
Court of the Red King,
Rhiannon Held (M), Andrea Howe, Rosemary Jones, John A. Pitts

I hope to see the lot of you there.

First ever contest for Black Blade Blues

And, I’m not even hosting this one.  My friend Sän, who just happens to be an amazing artist, surprised me by deciding to host a book giveaway contest for artists.  Said, he wanted to cross-pollinate his creative worlds.  Pleases me to no end, let me tell you.  He said some mighty fine things about the novel, as well.

If you want to be creative and artsy, and win a signed copy of my book in the process, check out his contest HERE. Only, I’m sure he’s giving away a final product, unlike the picture here which is an advanced reading copy.

I’ll be giving those away over the next four weeks.

I am certified in Wilderness First Aid

I took Wilderness First Aid training this weekend with the Girl Scouts and the American Red Cross. It was a great time. We were at Camp Lyle McLeod on the Olympic peninsula.

There were nine students and two instructors. It was a great weekend.
All the students really welcomed me, which I worry about being the only guy to attend these training weekends (so far). I’m so excited to be helping the Girl Scouts, especially since it means spending more adventures with my daughter.

Wilderness First Aid is a little depressing. If you are way out in the back country, and help is a long way away, things can go wrong really fast. I feel lucky to have had the training experience I did. The instructors were excellent and the learning environment really helped make the scenerios we practiced all the more real.

I am planning to continue pursuing the outdoor classes, including canoeing, more advanced camping, and more advanced first aid. Who knows — I could go all the way to wilderness EMT. Only time will tell, but I’m jazzed at the thought.

I slept in one of those partial structures, floor, and half-walled tent with canvas sides and roof.

The second night, I had a fairy in my tent. I swear, I totally understand how people think they see them. I guess the mundanes could consider I saw a bat, but the critter flitted around in circles, faster than I could keep up. All I saw was this sparkling flutter flashing through the beam of my light. Whatever it was, I opened the canvas tent flaps on both ends of the tent, and it seems to have flown away. I guess it was a friend of Tadger’s. Tadger is the part tiger, part badger, part fey critter that lives out out at the camp.

Tadger has been known to visit some of the other Girl Scout camp sites in Western Washington, but I’ve yet to have a sighting. But then again, this was only my second over night and my second camp. There are four more camps to visit in our region.

Next I’ll spend the weekend at Camporee as the official First Aider. That will be a hoot!

First signing for Black Blade Blues

Black Blade Blues is almost here.

It’s official. I’ll be reading & signing at the UW Bookstore on the Ave on April 27th at 7pm along with Mark Teppo for his book Heartland, the second in his Codex of Souls series.

Come help us launch our books into the world.

Mark has done this before, but I’m a rookie. Hear about my series and the life of Sarah Jane Beauhall.

I’d love to see you there.

It will be a total kick. I’ll even answer questions, for those brave enough to ask.

Proud of my daughter!

My daughter survived the private black belt test last night at our Tae Kwon Do school, Overlake True Martial Arts. This is for her provisional black belt. She has to have that a minimum of a year before she’s eligible to test for her first degree. She’s twelve. I’m so stoked for her. This is a significant effort for anyone to go through. Years of hard work and dedication, extra classes, outside work, stress, worry and joy. She’s really earned her shot at this and I could not be prouder.

My son has his first degree, and he’s nineteen. He started at a later age than my daughter did, so she’s ahead of the curve in our family. I’m proudly on my blue belt, though my two jobs are preventing me from attending class as regularly as I need to be. It’s a way of life, not something you can just toss off every now and again.

I’m looking forward to getting back into it in a couple weeks and begin the long slog back to ground zero, and then onward to advanced blue.

Meanwhile, tonight we celebrate the second, public, test. Will be fun to see those who survived last night’s private test, in with all the other ranked students who test.

Black belt tests only happen a couple times a year. Excitement is the order of the weekend.

OMG, so very cold

Went to my next camping class with Girl Scouts. Saturday from 10am to Sunday at noon. Learned a TON, and had a blast, but man, was it cold — at or below freezing. And if you’ve never slept on a bunk, in an open-air A-frame cabin, that was made for kids, you haven’t enjoyed the real life.

At about 4am, as I trudged across the field to the ranch house to use the bathroom (yes running water) I was reminded how Conan the Barbarian was always stripping to his birthday suit and scrubbing down with snow or something as crazed.

That’s rough living. Me, I was glad for my 5 layers, nice wool hat my wife had knitted for me, mittens and the super cool sleeping bag I had. Only got about 3 hours sleep Saturday night, but was worth it. Next time, I’ll be better prepared.

Up next, I’m taking Wilderness First Aid. Two night sleep out in March. Crazy living, but I’m having a grand time. Wish I’d done this when I was younger.

Publisher Weekly Reviews Black Blade Blues

With the launch date coming up fast, I’ve got my first ever Publishers Weekly review.

Great opening line. “Pitts brings Norse mythology into the modern world in this amusing debut.”

Here’s the link

I’m pleased. Money Shot, as my good buddy Jay Lake would call it, is: “…there’s enough entertainment and romantic tension to keep readers interested in the planned sequels.”

Not too shabby. Working on readings/signings and will post again as they become real. Stay tuned.

New boots, new blisters

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’m training to become an outdoor specialist with the Girl Scouts. My next class is Outdoor 2, which consists of my first overnight camp out. It’s Feb 20th. I’m very excited about it. I went to REI and bought some new boots.

Couple problems so far. I have wide feet, so they are a bit tight. And, it takes about fifteen miles to break in a pair of boots. I thought I’d try and break them in before the camping trip. Sunday I went for a 2+ mile jaunt through the greenbelt. It was great. Very peaceful. Now, of course, my legs hurt, and I have a brand new blister — little toe, right foot — about the size of a dime.

So, bandaids for now, but I wore the boots to work. Not a ton of walking, but more than having them sitting under my desk at home.

I’ll take them to RADCON this weekend.

Sending ARCs across the globe

Sending ARCs out. Packaged six tonight. One to Australia and one to South Africa. The rest are more local in geography.

Feels good to start the process of getting them out there. April 27th is rushing along at a breakneck pace and I’m feeling like I won’t get enough done.

Of course, what I need to be doing is writing the next thing. I know this. I’ve had some pretty influencial people the likes of Jay Lake, Kris Rusch, Dean Wesley Smith, Cameron McClure (super agent)… and on and on… explain this concept to me. But part of my day job is project management, and it’s hard to let that go.

I’ll do some interviews (yeah!) and give some ARCs away at conventions. I’ll even send some more out to reviewers, but really. The book is going to do as well as the writing will allow. If folks like the story and the characters, I’ll do just fine. Deep breath time.

Free books from talented friends

If you love Halo, and who doesn’t, you need to rush over to Eric’s blog and sign up for a free copy contest he’s running.

Also Lisa Mantchev (and a surprise guest) has a contest over at her place

Who says you can’t get anything awesome for free.

Better hurry, timing is limited