Defcon 5...

By Tony Lee

So, I write this on the Friday before the column comes out. And all I can think of is New York. So this is going to be a bit of a one trick pony this week, kiddies. And I know, I've spoken about this sort of pre-con jitters before – in fact every year's column right before San Diego, and last year before the last New York Comic Con occurred. So I'll do my best to make this a little different.

Actually, it is. Because I'm in New York and then I'm in Los Angeles. So it's not just the usual 'hey, I'm here, bye' that I usually get to do. This time I'm doing more. I'm actually doing proper meetings. I actually have a convention announcement.

Yeah, that one surprised me too. But you'll have to wait until next week until I tell you about it.

This time though, it's not been about the con itself, or the trip – it's been mainly about the amount of work I've had to do beforehand. This week I had to go through my publisher edits of Pendragon: The Legend of King Arthur (the follow up to Outlaw: The Legend of Robin Hood) and work out a second draft. As some of the edits were quite extensive (we removed a whole subplot, which required a lot of shuffling of pages) this took me two whole days to get sorted – two days that I wasn't expecting to be writing, the week before I fly out. But, I'm already packed. My OCD list has been well used again, and I'm actually ready to go.

What's that? You want a little teaser of Pendragon: The Legend Of King Arthur? Okay then. Here's the cover proof for the book, expected out in 2010 from Walker Books...

Of course this year, our pound has fallen into the toilet, and I won't be able to live as much like the king that I have in previous visits. Even more so when, worried about further falling, I bought my dollars Monday at the exchange rate of 1.32 – and the following day the pound gained ground and is currently at 1.42, after rising to 1.47 the day after I bought. Which means if I'd waited one more day? That would have been an extra fifty bucks in my pocket.

So, am I going to have a busy convention? You know, I'm not sure. Here's my schedule for the two weeks that I'm in America, and you can decide...

I have an hour signing each day – I'll be at the Doctor Who Store booth, #2067 at 1.30pm on Friday, and 2pm on Saturday and Sunday. As IDW don't have a booth there, this will most likely be the only times at the NYCC that you'll be able to get your copies of Doctor Who: The Forgotten signed. That said, I will be on the IDW panel on the Friday of the con, the IDW 10th Anniversary Celebration and the Road Ahead: Room 1A07 - 3.15pm – where I'll be telling people all about The Time Machination – out in May - and why they should buy it. Once more, IDW'll be talking about Doctor Who too, and I suggest all Doctor Who fans who are at the con? Should go and watch.

I'll also be appearing at the Captain Action booth, #1862 talking about my upcoming "Lady Action" stories – you should come by the booth if only to see the lovely Niki, the 'real' Lady Action.

But apart from that, and the occasional meeting during the con, I'll be writing. I have deadlines from projects yet to be announced, and I'm a hard worker. In fact, I'll be spending a lot of my week in NYC at the desk of my expansive one room suite, tapping out literary delights on my Eee PC. Or, I'll be laying on it, drooling as I cry sweet, salty tears onto the carpet.

But back to the schedule. Apart from the convention, I'm expecting to be quite hectic in New York this year. On Monday I am talking in a school in Hounslow for the day. I'm staying at my Father's house on Monday night, and then flying out Tuesday morning. I arrive in Newark airport at 1.35 p.m., and expect to get to the hotel by 3.30pm. But can I sleep yet? Can I hell. For at 6.30 p.m. I'm up around 116^th Street as a special guest to record the 177^th episode of Comic News Insider with Jimmy Aquino – there's a Facebook group page for it – and afterwards I'm believing that there will be beers with celebrity chums like Nikki Cook and Ben McCool, among others.

I can't drink much though because Wednesday is my day of meetings and by that I mean I already have eight confirmed – and then Thursday is lunch with celebrity chum Marc Bernardin and then a meal in the evening with Dracula: The Un-Dead writers Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt. And then the convention really starts.

The Monday after the con is a day of writing, topped off with a visit to the Doctor Who New York society with fellow Who-writing Brit chum Paul Cornell, and then Tuesday, right before I fly out, I'm the guest live on stage at Comic Book Club: Live! at the Peoples Improv Theatre. Show starts at 8 p.m., only costs five bucks, kiddies.

And then of course I fly to Los Angeles on the Wednesday, where in the evening I'm out for dinner with Rock God Jazan Wild and his gorgeous wife Sharon. On Thursday I'm being shown the best places of LA by Comicraft guru and celebrity chum Rich Starkings and Friday onwards I'm at the convention, doing talks and panels with friends that include Paul Cornell again, Gary Russell, Pia Guerra and Josh Fialkov. I'm also on a panel about Vampires, the 'Liars Panel' and I'm also interviewing Nicola 'Peri Brown' Bryant. That's when I'm not signing at the Doctor Who Booth or signing at the con tables during set times...

And then on Monday Rich is taking Gary Russell and me to a couple of rather cool shops. I then fly out at 6pm, getting into London once more at 12pm the following day.

So all in all? It's not a holiday, but it's not what I would call solid work. I have things to write while I'm over there and I'll guarantee at least three pitches that'll come out of the NYCC will need to be done while I'm in LA, but that's the joy of being a freelancer. You never know what's happening next. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

As the week progresses, I'll be blogging my US trip (as ever) on my Livejournal and twittering so feel free to follow both while I'm away...

Right then. Now I need to print out some pitches and then write a script...

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I know some of you already have this, but I also know I now have a few new readers from my Doctor Who work, and I've had some emails from people asking what else I've done that they should read. And of course my answers to this include Hope Falls (coming out in May as a collected trade - will be announcing this properly next month) and Midnight Kiss, which I still think is one of the most fantastical things I've ever done. And Matthew Sable has repeatedly been likened to the Tenth Doctor, even though it was written before Tennant even took the role...

So here's the deal. I was talking to Harry at Markosia about Midnight Kiss. We're this short of finally making profit (when it first came out from APC, the artist and colourist were paid a page rate, which meant that even before printing costs, we were down several grand) and we're about to sell it into a couple of other languages. During this conversation Harry mentioned that every convention Markosia attends, he's had people asking when the sequel was coming. So, we made a deal.

The moment the book makes a profit? I'll write the Midnight Kiss sequel. And Markosia will release it.

Now, some of you know this and have copies, some of you know this and have never got around to it. Well, Amazon.co.uk currently have it HERE at under eight pounds, so you have no excuse now, do you? And if you'd rather buy from your local comic shop, they should be able to get it from Diamond, as Markosia still sell it. Also, you can get it direct from the Markosia store, HERE. (Amazon seem a little cheaper for the UK, but more expensive for the US...)

But - if you haven't heard of this before, or you'd like to know more, read on...

MIDNIGHT KISS

Described by Comics International as 'The Sandman for the 21st Century', Midnight Kiss is an Eagle Award-nominated story that covers a roller coaster ride of fantastical worlds and emotions.

Young Billy Hart is a normal teenager - until the day that he meets what looks to be a vampire in his local church. But luckily help is at hand in the forms of Matthew Sable and Nightmare De'Lacy who, after helping him escape, plunge him into an incredible adventure amongst the worlds of Faerie.

For Billy isn't a 'rational', one of the many normal humans who never notice this unseen battle between light and dark - unknown to Billy he's about to become something far greater, and Matthew and Nightmare must protect him from the creatures that hunt him, the dark forces that want him dead before he discovers what he really is - or what they really are, taking him on the run through a shattered multi-world where every dream is another world's reality, through sewers to meet Alligator Kings, houses of cards where the Jack of Spades plays poker with gamblers souls, and the mythical land of Oz, currently in the throes of a civil war between President Gale and the Scarecrow, now with a brain...

And while they run, two Manhattan detectives find themselves facing Supernatural Hitmen, a dead Angel with its heart ripped out, and the dimension-travelling hero Jerry Cornelius...

Are Matthew and Nightmare really on the run - or is this all an elaborate plan to stop the creation of a new Lucifer?

Believe in Faeries. If you don't, they'll kill you.

Midnight Kiss collects all five issues of the critically acclaimed series, with an introduction by Michael Moorcock.

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Please, pass this about. Let's get some more copies sold, so I can finally finish this story...

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And that's it for another week. Next week will be a short one, most likely – but will talk about the announcement I'll be making at the New York Comic Con...

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© 2008, Tony Lee

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