On the Fourth of July weekend, we traditionally have a family celebration. This year I had a different kind of fireworks—heading off to Salt Lake City for Fantasycon and Westercon, where we had our biggest exhibit booth ever on a show floor, a 20 x 30′ ft island. We featured many of my titles, particularly my new Tor releases MENTATS OF DUNE and THE DARK BETWEEN THE STARS. We had enough room to give space to bestselling author David Farland and the legendary Peter S. Beagle, author of the classic The Last Unicorn.

My team arrived a day early and set up the booth in the Salt Lake Expo Center, and all weekend long they worked their butts off to take care of the flow of fans at Fantasycon. Many of our helpers were graduates of the Superstars Writing Seminars, WordFire Press authors, and some dedicated fans. A special thanks to Steven L. Sears, Lissa Woodbury Jensen, Michelle Corsillo, David Boop, John D. Payne, Peter J. Wacks, Mark Ryan, Zoe Frasure, Jeannette Sanders, Heidi Wilde, Joe Lance, Chris Baxter, Josh Morrey, Mike Mundt, and Karlee Haupt.

Fantasycon was the large pop-culture con in the main Salt Lake City expo center with programming as well as the exhibit floor; across the street in the Marriott was the smaller sister convention Westercon. I worked for both cons, appearing at Westercon for a memorial for my former writing student and WordFire Press author Jay Lake, and I also spoke on larger panels on the good habits of writers, ray guns and robots, and I gave my solo talk on Building My First Lightsaber.

Other friends who visited the booth were fantasy authors Brandon Sanderson and Peter Orullian, actors William Kercher and Renee O’Connor, and numerous fans dressed up in spectacular cosplay costumes.

with Brandon Sanderson

with Peter Orullian

with Renee O’Connor (Gabrielle, from XENA)

with William Kercher, Bifur from The Hobbit films