Johnny is Busy

I write this blog today from fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada. I'm here to play with fabulous Henderson Writers Group. We're talking Theme!

This event kicks off a month of huge writing events for me. 

After this, Thursday August 31st, I'm in Kearns for an Authors in the Round event. Talking "Editing and Publishing" there.

Kearns Library

5350 South 4220 West 

Kearns, UT 84118

Week after that is a big one. The Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Gold Conference. One of my all time favorites.

Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Gold Conference

— September 8-10, 2017

Renaissance Denver Stapleton Hotel

3801 Quebec Street 

Denver Colorado 80207 USA 

Here's what I'm doing there

Friday September 8, 2017

Presentation: Glimpsing Horror

4:00-4:50 p.m. Big Thompson

Saturday, September 9, 2017

Panel: Birds of a Feather — HORROR

11:00-11:50 a.m. Winter Park 

Presentation: The Faceted Story

3:30-4:20 p.m. Big Thompson 

Not even a week after that, I'm off to Boise for their inaugural BOISE BOOK FEST.

Boise Book Fest

—Septmber 16, 2017 

Boise Centre

850 W Front St. 

Boise, ID 83702

Presentation: A Novel in 90 Days.

The week after that, I begin my six week class on Writing Young Adult Literature at the University of Utah. More on that later.

And of course Salt Lake Comic Con! I've been assigned Blue 17 for an awesome table. Come see

Salt Lake Comic Con

— September 21-23, 2017

Salt Palace Convention Center

100 S West Temple

Salt Lake City, UT 84101-1408

Back to back to back events! Kinda cool actually. Come chase me down and we'll talk.

WHAT IMMORTAL HAND - books in hand

Today I share with you one of the rare and wonderful moments in an author’s life. The moment when we get to hold our actual book in our actual hands.

I got my first copies of WHAT IMMORTAL HAND.

Writing is lonely and hard. It’s full of doubt and second guessing. It is years of working and waiting and wading through more rejection than normal human being should bare.

That is why when the box comes and the tape is pulled, the gleaming covers within shine like the rarest gold.

It is a magical moment, simple yet grand. It is the culmination blood sweat and tears, a rite of passage, a reward. It is vindication and redemption.

It is an idea become real.

Magick.

And it is damn cool.

WHAT IMMORTAL HAND blurbs coming in

The reviews are starting to come in for WHAT IMMORTAL HAND, the blurbs too. Check these out.

Also, remember that I'm giving away real paper copies of WHAT IMMORTAL HAND at GOODREADS. Here's the link to enter.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

What Immortal Hand

by Johnny Worthen

Giveaway ends August 31, 2017.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

WHAT IMMORTAL HAND - Book Giveaway

I am giving away copies of WHAT IMMORTAL HAND as a Goodreads giveaway. These are actual shelf-inhabiting copies, made of paper and ink. I'll even sign them, because God knows I'll sign anything. The difference being, these I will have read.

Here's the giveaway portal:

Goodreads Book Giveaway

What Immortal Hand

by Johnny Worthen

Giveaway ends August 31, 2017.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Sign on up. Tell your friends, tell your enemies. Tell your streak.

Namaste!

What Immortal Hand ARCs are afloat

I’ve sent out the ARCs for my new book, WHAT IMMORTAL HAND for reviews, and of course I’m collecting blurbs from other author friends of mine, and acquaintances and a couple flat out shots i the dark of people I like. So far so good.

So far so good.

But I am worried.

WHAT IMMORTAL HAND is dark. It’s a horror—adult and literary, but still a horror. The ideas and directions and content is adult and meant to be challenging if not troubling. All this is well and good and I know all my Horror Writing friends are down with this, but, let’s be honest: most of my fans know me (so far) from my young series, THE UNSEEN—ELEANOR, CELESTE and DAVID. Though there’s some darkness in those books, it’s nothing like HAND.

Granted I have fans of BEATRYSEL and they’ll be down with it, but in offering ARCs to so many of my fans, I know I’ll hit a few who’ll be shocked by my book. Will I lose a reader? A fan? A friend?

Coming September

This is the worry of all multiple genre authors. It’s why writers use pen-names for their different projects: Stephen King, Richard Bachman; JK Rowling, Robert Galbraith. I thought hard about having several pen names, but to be honest, when I started I was too lazy to do the double marketing required for two names. Since I’m now firmly entrenched in at least four genres, I think I made the right decision for me, but possibly not for my career.

Editors and publishers don’t like the multiple genre thing much either. It makes it harder to sell. My fans are spread out, hardcore horror buffs, sensitive YA readers, adult mystery buffs. As with the worry I have about WHAT IMMORTAL HAND, publishers can’t rely on fans of one of my books following me to another. So each books has to stand on its own and that’s kind of working against the momentum and fan base I have gone.

But the ship has sailed (to take a quote from WHAT IMMORTAL HAND). I can do nothing about it now but worry. I write what I do because I need to write it. “I write what I want to read, that guarantees me at least one fan,” is still my mantra, but let’s face it, I’m not alone in this. I like my readers and want them to like me.

I'm consoled in the knowledge that my fans are smart (they like me after all) and also by the strange idea—which most modern media outlets can't imagine—that readers like a little variety. People have favorites but there's room for good writing in any reader's collection.

That's my story anyway, and I'm sticking with it.

In any event, it's out of my hands now. All I can do is worry.