15 June 2025

NordCon 2025

 So, I went, this time with my books and my standup banner and all that jazz. Took my place in a row of actual authors and really enjoyed these two days. My kids went about, playing table top strategy games against whoever and I told people about my book series and sold all ten collections of stories I had brought. Could probably have sold twice that but I hadn't had a clue how much would have been realistic and also I was above budget for this whole thing anyways. So I can say that it went great.

It's interesting to see how other authors do things. All of us had "real" jobs. Conventions are the place to sell books. Online is dead unless you really like playing the social media game. Community was really nice. Christian Günther borrowed me a table cloth right when I showed up and without it, my table would have looked like crap. Laurence Horn (and his son) and Finja Stoldt (with her brother) were my direct neighbours – and rather nice as such. I was in good company. Even did a little reading session in a literature jam. Five minutes is a really tight timeframe and I was somewhat nervous and a little too fast but I think people liked what they heard.

I'll be hitting more conventions like this in the future. Let's at least make this hobby pay for itself.

14 June 2025

Once more at NordCon

 So, this year I'm in an exhibiting role at NordCon again. I've ran BrikWars-battles in the past. I've presented my board game. This time it's a bit more serious: I'll be promoting my series of pulp novelettes. And, yesterday, I was asked to be on stage for the literature jam in the evening as well. Which is today.

It would be an understatement to say that I'm a bit nervous. I originally didn't intend to publish Jon Danger. Then I had an interstitial phase where I expected to do so unter a pseudonym. You know because of how much of yourself you lay bare when writing. And the sex stuff. Oh well. Too late for that and the German law makes it hard to legally self-publish under what isn't your own name. At least the website has to have my actual name (and adress) on it, after all.

Wish me luck, whoever you are reading this. I've never read anything of my own stuff on an actual stage. I shall talk about it all in a later post (and also about what my kids were up to at the convention).