Comic Con debriefs

Two major Comic Cons in two consecutive weekends. Not a bad way to start an October.

At Austin Comic Con I hosted “Martial Arts and the Art of the Fight Scene.” This panel seems to be blessed with unusually good karma. As I was walking through the con, I happened to meet P.J. Hoover, an Austin-based writer and a third degree black belt in shaolin kung fu. (Check out her books here.) I invited P.J. to join me on the panel, and with all of half an hour’s notice she agreed.

This was putting her on the spot to say the least, but she proved her kung fu is strong. What would have been a one-man show became a three-way dialogue between two authors and their audience, and it was a smash hit. P.J. writes children’s and YA fiction, so her take on violence and combat in writing overlaps with mine in some ways and radically differs in others. I learned a lot from the conversation and so did the audience.

Here’s P.J. and me:



This is the second time this panel evolved from a solo act to a duet; at Minneapolis Comic Con it was swordsman and author Doug Hulick who joined me, and that time too the conversation became more than the sum of its parts. I sense a trend growing here.



Then came New York Comic Con, which eclipsed San Diego this year for the first time. With 133,000 fans in attendance, NYCC edged past SDCC’s 130,000 to become the world’s largest comic book convention. A few hundred of those fans came to a standing-room-only panel on Dr. Who featuring Yours Truly. You can see the crowd came gaily dressed:



The panel was a lot of fun, with excellent questions from the audience and the moderator alike. Fellow panelists Alex Hughes, Paul Park, and Anton Strout all made me laugh. Our success deserves a special mention, given the fact that Stan Lee was in the very next room.



One of my favorite things about NYC is the random things you see on the street, things you can’t see anywhere else -- for example, Batman catching a taxi with his Batcase rolling along in tow. Note that none of the other New Yorkers in this picture are even looking in his direction.



I guess it’s just another ho-hum day in the Big Apple. Or Bat Apple, maybe.

BJJ in NYC

Me with Fabio Clemente, jiujitsu legend, at the Alliance mothership in NYC.



Some buddies from New York and me, this time with Fabio’s son Zata.



We worked some cool set-ups to the Bravo choke, and improved my Bravo by about 1000%. Not that that means anything to those of you who don’t do jiujitsu. But if you know your jits, then maybe you agree with me: it’s the tiny little refinements that make this art so fascinating.

Off to NYC and the Twitterverse

Austin Comic Con was a huge hit! I’ll do a debrief on that one and also on New York Comic Con, where I’m headed tomorrow. My panel, “Trust Me, I’m the Doctor” is at 12:00 on Sunday in room 1A18, with autographing at 1:00 on Sunday at Table 19.

I’m also using this event as my launchpad into the Twitterverse. Now I just need followers! Come follow me at allbeinmyself.

Got me a ticket to Mars

Courtesy of NASA! You can get yours here -- and actually send your name to Mars on a microchip to boot: http://go.usa.gov/vcpz

More Comic Con goodness!

Looks like I’m in at Austin Comic Con too!

I’m doing a panel similar to the one I did with Doug Hulick at Minneapolis Comic Con, on martial arts and the art of writing fight scenes. (That one was a big hit, so I figured why reinvent the wheel?) That’s Friday night, October 3, at 7:00 in room 8. I’m looking forward to meeting new fans in Texas!

As usual, Wizard World is bringing lots of star power, but for me the highlight is unquestionably The Great One, Bruce Campbell. Army of Darkness remains one of my all-time favorite films; I can’t wait to meet Ash himself in person.

Trust Me, I'm the Doctor

That’s the name of my panel at New York Comic Con!

This happened very quickly. My publicist emailed me and asked if I was a Dr. Who fan. I said, of course, they had me as soon as they cast British Me as the Doctor. Christopher Ecclestone’s hairline has receded a bit more than mine, but otherwise we’re similar enough that I can pass for him at his own birthday party.

So now I’m on a panel called “Trust Me, I’m the Doctor.” That’s Sunday, October 12, at 2:00 at NYCC. I’ll post final details, photos, and follow-up on Facebook as soon as I have them.

Update, and Happy Pub Day!

Well, I’m back. It’s been three months since I’ve posted anything here, and let me tell you, this summer has been one hell of a roller coaster ride.

First things first: I finished Disciple of the Wind! My agent says this is the best one yet. My editor got to the book right away, and her editorial letter was very short, which is another way of saying she thinks the book is pretty damn good.

As with Daughter and Demon, the comments from my agent and editor made the book much stronger. One of the unexpected turns in developing this book is that it looks like Kaida is going to get her own stand-alone novella. (At least one, maybe more!) I’ll have more to say about that later, once plans firm up.

Apart from writing, the big news is that I’ve moved to Austin, to take up a teaching position at TExas State University. Everything really is bigger in Texas: one of the first things I saw here was a 99-can case of beer.



Anyhow, when I wasn’t spending time writing Disciple, I was packing, unpacking, selling one home, finding another one -- you know, the kind of chores that make it tough to update a site’s newsfeed on a regular basis.. Sorry ‘bout that. Now that my life is settled in one place, I plan on getting back to posting twice a month.

Last thing: tomorrow is another Happy Pub Day! The mass market edition of Year of the Demon hits shelves tomorrow. Cover price is eight bucks cheap, so you can buy one for all your friends and family.



Look for another post soon about New York Comic Con and Dr. Who!

C2E2 debrief, and an MCC update

I’m back in Minnesota after a very successful C2E2. (Pics to follow.) I signed more books at this con than at all the rest put together, which probably means these books are picking up steam. Many, many mahalos to everyone who came to the panel, stopped by the autographing tables, and visited Penguin’s booth to pick up a free copy of Daughter of Sword!

While sitting at the autographing tables, I struck up a conversation with Doug Hulick, a fellow author who is also a fellow martial artist. Doug trains primarily in European swordsmanship, and as it happens, he’s based in Minneapolis. That makes him the perfect partner for my panel this Saturday at Minneapolis Comic Con.

So now it’s not my panel, it’s our panel, and I’m really excited to have Doug aboard. Here’s the blurb for Martial Arts and the Art of the Fight Scene:

There is nothing lowbrow about kick-ass action scenes! At least not according to award-winning novelist Steve Bein and Locus best-selling novelist Doug Hulick. Together, the two have over thirty years of experience in the martial arts, both Asian and Western. Join Steve and Doug in a discussion about what makes for great fights and gripping action sequences in fiction. 

That’s this Saturday at 4:00 in room M100 I in the Minneapolis Convention Center. You won’t believe the star power Wizard World has lined up for this event. But don’t let those celebs distract you at 4:00!

Fan mail!

I recently received an unusual question from a fan named Marc Weinstein, whose attention to detail is to be commended. He noticed that in Daughter of the Sword, Professor Yamada Yasuo’s name appears in reverse order, but only in one place: on the back cover. In the book, he’s always Yamada Yasuo, but in the cover copy he’s Yasuo Yamada. Marc asked why.

You could say the reason is jurisdictional. Everything inside the book is my territory, but for the cover I have shared custody with the marketing department.

Everything inside the book is as authentically Japanese as I know how to make it, and that includes addressing Professor Yamada by his last name. Japanese culture enforces social stratifications on many levels, and so despite the fact that Yamada and Mariko become close friends, there are at least three reasons why she’d never call him by his first name: he’s much older than her, he’s a college professor (or professor emeritus, anyway), and he’s her martial arts instructor.

Once we get to the cover, the goal isn’t to reflect Japanese culture accurately, or even to accurately reflect every detail of the novel. The function of the cover is to sell the book. The consensus was that people reading the back cover would be thrown off by reading “Professor Yamada Yasuo” on one line and “Professor Yamada” on the next, so we followed the Western naming convention and put his last name last.

Incidentally, this is also why Mariko has ten fingers on the covers of Year of the Demon and Disciple of the Wind: people who don’t know the books might be thrown off by an anatomically correct Mariko. (If that explanation doesn’t suit you, scroll back a few posts and look at the happy face on Sayuri Oyamada, the cover model. Can you look her in the eye and ask her to sacrifice body parts for her art? I can’t.)

Thanks for the great question, Marc! Everyone else, I would love to make answering fan mail a regular feature of this site. Ask ‘em if you got ‘em: steve (at) philosofiction (dot) com.

Con-demonium?

My spring schedule is really getting tight! I can’t believe I have two cons on back-to-back weekends.

C2E2, aka Chicago Comic Con, runs April 25th-27th. I’m part of a panel called “All Things Fantastic” (and by that I’m pretty sure they mean fantasy fiction, not that everyone on the panel is a Fantastic Thing). I hope to see you there: 12:30-1:30 on Saturday, April 26th, in room S402. Afterward, come by Autographing Table 1 between 1:45-2:45 and we can chat one-on-one.

Then the very next week I’m hosting a session at Minneapolis Comic Con. (Click the link to see some of the special guests; the list is phenomenal.) Saturday, May 3rd, at 4:00 in room M100 I, come on by so we can discuss one of my favorite things: kick-ass fight scenes. Believe it or not, I think there is a fine art to writing fight scenes and action sequences, and we can talk about how it’s done.

I hope to see you in Chicago or Minneapolis!

This is a job for RoboChuck

Vladimir Putin continues to distinguish himself as an 80’s Action Movie Bad Guy. Let me count the ways:

First, he gets his ninth degree black belt in Taekwondo, outranking Chuck Norris’s eighth dan. Anyone who challenges Chuck Norris is almost by definition an 80’s Action Movie Bad Guy.

Still not convinced? Consider this: Putin uses the same Soviet supersoldier stretching techniques as Ivan Drago from Rocky IV.

When the BBC and CNN finally get onto this story, just remember, you heard it here first.

Second, Putin decides he wants the Crimea, even though he can only hurt his own cause by taking it. He’s not a dumb guy; he has to know he stands almost nothing to gain, and he was certain to suffer personally and politically just for attempting the annex. Sort of like the execs at Omni Consumer Products deciding to manufacture RoboCops even though all of their other activities are illegal.

Yesterday Putin sank from evil to almost comical. In a move worthy of a Naked Gun bad guy, he conscripted dolphins into his army so he could train them to kill human beings. I swear to you this is not a joke. Get his: he took them from disabled children to remilitarize them.

And today Putin called a meeting with (I am not making this up) Steven Seagal, to talk about (I am not making this up) reinstating Joseph Stalin’s favorite nationwide fitness program. In Uncle Joe’s day it involved throwing fake grenades. Today, presumably, it will include what passes for aikido when taught by an action star not aging well enough to show up in an Expendables movie. Says Seagal (and I’m not making this up either): “I know him well enough to know that he is one of the greatest world leaders, if not the greatest world leader alive.”

So here’s the movie I want to see: Chuck Norris, blown half to bits by a brainwashed, bomb-toting Russian dolphin, gets fitted with an invincible armored exoskeleton and goes to challenge an Evil Russian Dictator to hand-to-hand combat. But he fights bodyguard Steven Seagal first. Soundtrack by Harold Faltermeyer, of course. Hollywood, call me. You know this will kick ass.

A book of firsts

Happy Pub Day! Yes, I know St. Patrick’s Day was yesterday, but I’m talking about a different kind of pub. The US release of The Time Traveler’s Almanac drops today, and Yours Truly has a story in there. This book is a first for me in many ways:

• My first reprint sale. My story in this volume, “The Most Important Thing in the World,” first appeared in Asimov’s, and the VanderMeers liked it well enough to bring it back. (From the past. Into the present. Like a traveler through... well, you get it.)

• My first OMG TOC. This table of contents is amazing. It’s the 1927 Yankees of science fiction: H.G. Wells, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, George R.R. Martin, William Gibson, Ursula K. Le Guin, Ted Sturgeon, Tanith Lee... well, the list goes on. And I’m on the list. Crazy.
• My first book trailer. Not my trailer, really, since it’s not my book. But I’m in there, dammit, and it has a trailer. You can watch it by clicking the link

• My first book heavy enough to use for home self defense. Burglars beware: this thing packs a wallop like Jean Claude Van Damme.
• My first book of required reading. If you know anyone who likes sci-fi and fantasy, this is on their birthday wish list. For reals.

• The first book I’d actually prefer to read on an e-reader. I’m a huge fan of my Kindle, but I’ve never lost that nostalgic love for the feeling of paper in my hands. This book is hefty enough to become the first exception. I’ll still keep it on the nightstand, but it’s to beat up intruders.

Here she is again!

Okay, so I just got this photo from Chris McGrath, who does the cover art for the Fated Blades. The beautiful woman with the mischievous grin is Sayuri Oyamada, a model and actress from Niigata, Japan, who is the cover model for Year of the Demon. Isn’t she great?

Here she is!

I have been sitting on this for months! It feels like forever ago that I got a sneak peek at the cover art for Disciple of the Wind. I loved it. Not long after that, I got my signed print from Chris McGrath, which I loved even more. (I have a growing collection of art associated with my work. Chris is the most illustrious* contributor. He and I exchange autographs, his on prints, mine on novels.)

Anyway, ever since I saw it, I’ve been holding my breath, waiting for the green light from Penguin so I could share the cover art with you. And here it is! Shoot me a reply on Facebook and let me know what you think!

* See what I did there?

Sweet Home Chicago Comic Con

I am confirmed for 2014’s Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo, aka C2E2, aka Chicago Comic Con. This is hands down my favorite public event. I enjoyed New York Comic Con, but 100,000+ people in three days was a little much. Chicago is a much more manageable 35,000+ over three days -- still a madhouse, but it doesn’t make you want to start screaming and throwing elbows.

My dates aren’t confirmed yet but I’ll post ‘em when I have ‘em. In the meantime, you can visit C2E2’s web site to see who else is coming. There are already some big names on the docket, including the man who meant more to my childhood than Santa Claus. That’s right, Stan Lee. Creator of Spider Man and his Amazing Friends, perhaps the most important children’s literature of the 2oth century. Definitely the most important children’s literature on Saturday mornings in 1982.

Free cookies! And a drug bust.

This Monday (12/9) marks a first for me: I’m doing a reading and signing at the State University of New York-Geneseo. It’s not the first event for Year of the Demon. It’s certainly not my first speaking event on a university campus; in fact, it’s not even my first event on Geneseo’s campus. But up until now, every time I’ve spoken in an academic setting, it’s always been about my academic work. This will be the first time I’ll speak on a college campus about my fiction.

I must say this is an event worth attending. Milne Library’s cookie platters are to die for. I’ll talk a bit about my writing process, and about how Year of the Demon is the book I never thought I’d write. Then I’ll do a reading (this is where the drug bust comes in) and some Q&A.

If you can make it, I’d love to see you on Monday afternoon, December 9th, from 3:30-5:30 on the main floor of Milne Library. You don’t have to be affiliated with Geneseo to attend. (In fact if you’re not a Genesean, you get the best parking spots. That’s how courteous we are toward our guests around here. Plus we have cookies.)

Edited to add: My heartfelt thanks to everyone who came out to the library yesterday! I think the event was a big success -- and Milne stepped up its game on the dessert platter. Mini-cheesecake-cupcakes!

Word of the year: Selfie

The Oxford dictionary word of 2013 is “selfie.” I just want to point out that while the word may be new, the self-snapped self-portrait goes way, way back:

Top five!

This week’s issue of Library Journal lists their picks for the best novels of the year. I was thrilled to see their top five in sci-fi and fantasy includes Year of the Demon! Here’s what they had to say in their starred review:

Bein’s sequel to Daughter of the Sword adds new complications to Mariko’s story and opens a window onto modern Japanese culture as seen through the eyes of its crime fighters.... Vibrant and unforgettable characters combine with Japanese history and fast-paced action to create an urban fantasy for fans of Asian culture. (LJ 10/15/13)



Reading the rest of the list, I see I’m in honored company. Surely the most notable is Stephen R. Donaldson, whose The Last Dark is the tenth and final volume of the Thomas Covenant series. Those books have been making best-of-the-year lists since 1977. And I’m very pleased to see The Golden City on the list too! It’s the debut novel from my friend J. Kathleen Cheney. Go J!

Free books!

Fantasy Book Critic is giving away not one but two free books: Daughter of the Sword AND Year of the Demon. Visit their web site here to enter. The contest closes on December 6th.

Diana Rowland says she's "utterly addicted!"

The latest review of Year of the Demon comes from someone who knows a thing or two about demons: Diana Rowland. Here’s what she had to say:

I am utterly addicted to this series! Steve Bein avoids sophomore slump with brilliant ease in this sequel to Daughter of the Sword, and continues to surprise and captivate with exquisite tension and terrific characters in an amazingly well-crafted mystery. I can’t wait for the next one!

Thanks, Diana! And to everyone else, if you don’t know Diana’s work, you should. Click here to visit her web site, where you will find she has many more “of the Demon” books than I have. The heroine of that series, Kara Gillian, is a cop who’s also a demon summoner. If that’s not a good enough reason to pick up one of her books, I don’t know what is.