Meeting Authors at SF Comic Con 2018

Books from SF ComicCon. Photo by Kara Hartz

I was a little disappointed that they didn't have any novel writing focused writing talks on the schedule this year. There were a few on screenwriting and comic writing though. The last couple years they had several, but I noticed the author who did those talks was not there this year.
There was also only 1 novel table in the vendor hall that I found, that had books from several authors. I bought a book from each (1 was an ebook because her paper copies didn't show up apparently) and got them signed.

I had hoped for more, obviously, since I am a book lover more than anything, and am considering writing to the con to say how much I missed the writing talks and hope to see more of them in future years.

Still, I have fun new things to read, and that's always a win.

Authors at the California State Fair

I paid more attention to the California Authors display at our visit to the State Fair this year. I even bought some books. One was a very cute children's book about sharing. It's called Bears on Chairs by Shirley Parenteau and illistrated by David Walker. It has so much rhyme and repetition, that it started to become quite a tongue twister if I read too fast. My kiddo has requested several more readings since we brought it home, so that makes it a winner to me.


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The other I haven't let myself start reading yet since I have way too many books started right now, but if the Prologue is anything to go by (I had a quick read while we ate lunch at the fair) then it is going to be an exciting read. It's called Emerald by M.L. Hamilton




Both authors were very pleasant to talk to and wrote nice, personal things in the books that they signed for me. That's a whole other skill set that I suppose authors should work on nowadays.

What I didn't ask either of the women I spoke to, and have wondered about since, is how one gets a spot at the Authors table at the State Fair. A simple Google search didn't turn up anything, but I've sent out an email, and will report in when I know anything. From what I've found so far, it appears that the organizer is very self-publishing/ independent publishing friendly.

Here is a list of all the authors that participated in the event.