Confluence / DogCon 3

July 25-27, Four Points by Sheraton Pittsburgh North

This year DogCon 3 is being held during Confluence. Dog Star Books authors Matt Betts & Albert Wendland will be involved in the regular programming as Michael Arnzen, Lucy Snyder and John Edward Lawson from parent publisher Raw Dog Screaming Press. There will be a rapid-fire reading, we'll announce the winner of this year's Readers' Choice award and host an End of the World launch party for Lucy Snyder's Soft Apocalypses. Below you'll find a schedule all the events our authors will be involved in.

Friday

4 pm Opening: John E. Lawson

5 pm Making the Science Sing: Albert Wendland

6 pm Happiness in Horror: Michael Arnzen, Lucy Snyder

My (Girlfriend, Mother, Sister) will Kick your Butt: J.L. Gribble

Kaffee Klatsch: Matt Betts

7 pm The Games We Play: Lucy Snyder

Autographing: Matt Betts

Kaffee Klatsch: Michael Arnzen

8 pm RDSP Rapid Fire Reading: Matt Betts, Michael Arnzen, Lucy Snyder, J.L. Gribble, Albert Wendland, John Edward Lawson
ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE WINNER OF THE READERS’ CHOICE AWARD

9 pm ***SOFT APOCALYPSES launch party*** Lucy Snyder, Room 525

Saturday

10 am What Dreams May Come: Albert Wendland

Writing Workshop: Matt Betts, J.L. Gribble

11 am Non-SF books every SF reader should read: Albert Wendland

What Makes You Think That? John Edward Lawson

Autographing: Michael Arnzen

12 pm SF as Games; Games as SF:  Lucy Snyder

Making it on Mars: Albert Wendland

1 pm Humor and Genre: Michael Arnzen

2 pm The Writing & Publishing Game: John Edward Lawson

Autographing: Albert Wendland

4 pm Collaboration: Lucy Snyder

5 pm Why did Steam punk? Matt Betts

Want to see something REALLY scary? Michael Arnzen

These Kids Today: J.L. Gribble

Kaffee Klatsch: Albert Wendland

7 pm Beyond the Experiment: John Edward Lawson

9 pm Movies as Series: Michael Arnzen

10 pm Erotica: Writing, reading in more than 50 shades of grey: Lucy Snyder

Sunday

12 pm Writing and the Day Job: Lucy Snyder

SF Art and Illustration: Albert Wendland

1 pm How Alien is too Alien: J.L. Gribble

Truly Creative: Financial realities of the writing life: Lucy Snyder, Matt Betts

2 pm The Amazon’s Right Breast: Women in Combat: Lucy Snyder

SF Rediscovers the Solar System: Albert Wendland

COVER REVEAL AND PRE-ORDER: Ambasadora: Marked by Light by Heidi Ruby Miller

Finally, the much-anticipated re-release of the book that gave us the Ambasadora-verse, reworked with a new beginning, cover and foreword.

If everyone told you love wasn’t real, would you still be willing to die for it?

Sara Mendoza and Sean Cryer are.

In their multi-partner, caste-ruled society, love and jealousy are considered emotional fallacies, nothing more than fleeting moods and sentiments biased by hormones. Relationships and conceptions in this world obsessed with celebrity, beauty, and power are based on DNA and lineages…or should be. But not everyone believes in the ruling traditions of the all-powerful Embassy. A quiet rebellion prowls the dark underground of this shiny world where techno-militants calling themselves fraggers grow in numbers and bravado. The Embassy intends to silence the fragger movement before the heresy of equality spreads throughout the system.

Sara Mendoza is part of the Embassy’s plan. Captured, tortured, and falsely accused of treason, she is given a chance to win back her freedom. She only needs to charm information from one of the fragger leaders, then kill him. But by the time she figures out the Embassy’s intel is flawed and that Sean Cryer is her true mark, she’s already in love with him.

Sean knows why Sara is on his ship from the start, but as a lonely, anti-social doser, he doesn’t value his life, only his ideology within the fragger organization. Against his better judgment, he becomes her protector, each day caring more about a future he was always afraid to hope for.

Ambasadora: Marked by Light by Heidi Ruby Miller

Cover Art by Bradley Sharp

Foreword by Jenna Bennett

Space Opera Paperback coming from Dog Star Books in April 2014

PRE-ORDER NOW FOR A SIGNED COPY, A FREE EBOOK, AND TO BE IN THE RUNNING FOR A BASKET FULL OF HEIDI'S FAVORITE THINGS

~~~

What They’re Saying About Ambasadora: Marked by Light
"Ambasadora has a lot to say about the human spirit and it says it well."
—Mike Resnick, Nebula and Hugo Award-winning author

"With an anthropologist’s eye for world building and an engaging fast-paced style, Heidi Ruby Miller hurtles her characters through a dystopian labyrinth in which hollow beauty is revered and love a virtual crime."
—Christopher Paul Carey, author of Exiles From Kho

"Beautifully vibrant and intricately textured, Heidi Ruby Miller’s Ambasadora explores the value of true humanity, the limitless power of desire and the triumph of the individual soul. Amidst edge-of-the-seat action, Miller effortlessly incorporates the conflicts of the modern woman inherent in upholding feminist sensibility. Ambasadora is a banquet of sumptuous words, a truly exciting adventure that fans of science fiction are sure to enjoy."
—Mary SanGiovanni, author of The Hollower series

"[Sara]’s a heroine for the ages, and living proof...that sacrifice for love is more honorable than sacrifice for duty. She risks it all, and wins it all, and in the process, helps to change her world for the better."
--Jenna Bennett, NYT Bestselling author of Fortune's Hero and lots of mysteries

~~~

Also from The World of Ambasadora and Dog Star Books:
Greenshift
Starrie (coming July 2014)

COVER: Wasteland Blues by Scott Christian Carr and Andrew Conry-Murray

 

Of Mice and Men Meets The Odyssey in a Post-Apocalyptic Future

Having only ever known the uncivilized wake of nuclear and biological apocalypse, three friends and their wheelchair-bound hostage set out on a perilous fool’s mission--to cross from one side of the devastated United States to the other, in the desperate, half-believed hope of finding a rumored haven. 

Spurred by a dark vision and the murder of their father, rageaholic Derek Cane and his over-sized, simple-minded brother, Teddy, flee the only home they've ever known, a struggling shantytown on the edge of the vast Wasteland. Heading ever eastward, they are accompanied by their friend, John, an orphan brought up by a fanatical religious order, and Leggy, a crippled old drunk who brags that, in his youth, he once traversed the Wasteland as a scavenger.

Wasteland Blues by Scott Christian Carr and Andrew Conry-Murray

Cover Art by Bradley Sharp

Post-Apocalyptic novel  coming from Dog Star Books in March 2014

Many thanks to our participating bloggers:

Cary Caffrey
Deanna Sjolander Lepsch  

Heidi Ruby Miller

Jason Jack Miller 
Johanna Gribble
John Edward Lawson
Kit 'N Kabookle
Maria Hammarblad
Matt Betts

Mike Mehalek
K.Ceres Wright

T. K. Toppin

 

COVER REVEAL: Corpus Chrome, Inc. by S. Craig Zahler

COVERS

 

Who should be given a second chance at life? 

Decades in the future Corpus Chrome, Inc. develops a robotic body, dubbed a “mannequin,” that can revive, sustain and interface with a cryonically-preserved human brain. Like all new technology, it is copyrighted.

Hidden behind lawyers and a chrome facade, the inscrutable organization resurrects a variety of notable minds, pulling the deceased back from oblivion into a world of animated sculpture, foam rubber cars, dissolving waste and strange terrorism. Nobody knows how Corpus Chrome, Inc. determines which individuals should be given a second life, yet myriad people are affected. Among them are Lisanne Breutschen, the composer who invented sequentialism with her twin sister, and Champ Sappline, a garbage man who is entangled in a war between the third, fourth and fifth floors of a New York City apartment building.

In the Spring of 2058, Corpus Chrome, Inc. announces that they will revive Derek W.R. Dulande—a serial rapist and murderer who was executed thirty years ago for his crimes. The public is horrified by the decision, and before long, the company’s right to control the lone revolving door between life and death will be violently challenged….

Corpus Chrome, Inc by S. Craig Zahler

Cover Art by Bradley Sharp

Cyberpunk/Transhumanism novel  coming from Dog Star Books in January 2014

---

  

What They’re Saying About S. Craig Zahler

“Zahler’s a fabulous story teller whose style catapults his reader into the turn of the century West with a ferocious sense of authenticity.”
—Kurt Russell, star of Tombstone, Escape from New York, Dark Blue, and Death Proof

“If you’re looking for something similar to what you’ve read before, this ain’t it. If you want something comforting and predictable, this damn sure ain’t it.  But if you want something with storytelling guts and a weird point of view, an unforgettable voice, then you want what I want, and that is this.”
—Joe R. Lansdale author of Edge of Dark Water

 Many thanks to the supporters who participated in the Corpus Chrome, Inc. Cover Reveal:
Cary Caffrey
Heidi Ruby Miller
Jason Jack Miller
Johanna Gribble 
John Edward Lawson
K. Ceres Wright
Maria Hammarblad 
Mary DeSantis
Matt Betts
Mike Mehalek
RDSP
Stephanie Wytovich
T. K. Toppin
Theodore Webb -  winner of a Corpus Chrome, Inc. paperback!

EVENT: Dog Star Books Authors at Capclave 2013

Capclave Schedule

October 11-13, 2013 • Gaithersburg, MD

The Raw Dog gang will be at Capclave on panels, doing readings and taking pitches. We will also be launching a Dog Star Books release, Greenshift by Heidi Ruby Miller! More info can be found at the official Capclave site.
Friday Schedule

• 4:00p So You Want To Be A Writer? Matt Betts
• 5:00p
  -Saturday Morning Cartoons Matt Betts
  -Diversity In Fiction John Edward Lawson
  -New to Conventions? Start Here K. Ceres Wright
• 6:00p
  -Buy My Book Jennifer Barnes, John Edward Lawson
  -Space Marines and Goblin Troopers K. Ceres Wright
• 7:00p
  -Doctor Jerky and Mr. Hide: Private & Public Personas Jennifer Barnes
  -Are Prose Superheroes Still Novel? Matt Betts
  -New Media, New Markets, New Business Models K. Ceres Wright
• 8:00p
  -Perishing Publishers Jennifer Barnes, K. Ceres Wright
  -Grim or Grin? Jason Jack Miller
• 9:00p Amazon, Hero or Villain? John Edward Lawson
• 10:00p Nice Shoes Jason Jack Miller
• 11:00p Strange Adventures — The Sub-genres of Science Fiction Action Adventure Matt Betts (M), Heidi Ruby Miller, K. Ceres Wright

Saturday Schedule

• 9:00a
  -Reading Heidi Ruby Miller
  -Fire the Literary Canon? K. Ceres Wright
• 9:30a Reading: Jason Jack Miller
• 10:00a When the Dark (Fiction) Comes Rising Jason Jack Miller
• 12:00p Lightening Students’ Backpacks: Text Books in the Digital Age Heidi Ruby Miller
• 1:00p Kickstarter: The Pro’s and Con’s Jennifer Barnes
• 3:30p Reading K. Ceres Wright
• 6:00p Reading Matt Betts
• 7:30p Mass Signing Matt Betts, John Edward Lawson, Heidi Ruby Miller, Jason Jack Miller, K. Ceres Wright

Sunday Schedule

• 9:00a Author’s Table Matt Betts
• 11:00a Soon to Be a Major Motion Picture Matt Betts
• 12:00p Self Publishing and You / DIY Publishing Jennifer Barnes, Jason Jack Miller
• 12:30p Reading John Edward Lawson
• 1:00p Pitch Sessions Jennifer Barnes, John Edward Lawson, Heidi Ruby Miller

Dog Star Books Author: Albert Wendland

An early interest in astronomy, the comic books Strange Adventures and Mystery In Space, and the Sunday comics of Flash Gordon, led Albert Wendland to a life-long fascination with science fiction. Science projects, early efforts at art, and “creativity exercises” all had an SF vein, and the first novels he read were by Andre Norton, Poul Anderson, Arthur Clarke and Robert Heinlein.

His dream career was to do astronomy in the day and write science fiction at night, but majoring in physics at Carnegie-Mellon (as preparation for graduate work in astronomy) was not satisfying or inspiring enough, so he double-majored by adding English with the intention of eventually teaching literature and writing. In graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh, he wrote one of the first dissertations on science fiction, and his interest in both mainstream literature and popular culture brought him to the attention of Seton Hill University (a College then), which hired him. He taught there happily for many years, pursuing his interests in the contemporary novel, Romanticism, the sublime in art, the graphic novel, popular fiction, and, of course, science fiction, while getting many of his poems accepted in the school’s award-winning literary magazine, publishing articles on science fiction. Then a call for graduate programs led him to co-create the MFA in Writing Popular Fiction, which—unique in academic writing programs—focuses solely on the popular genres. This experience in developing and eventually running the program, and the ongoing communal inspiration provided by its students and faculty, encouraged a return to the thrill of writing SF novels, which he excitingly is continuing now.

Albert's debut novel, The Man Who Loved Alien Landscapes, is due out with Dog Star Books in June 2014. Contact him at AlbertWendland@gmail.com.

EVENT: DogCon2

DogCon 2 • Columbus, OHio

August 2-4

HOTEL INFORMATION

Red Roof Inn Downtown
The hotel is near downtown and close to the Short North. It is just a few blocks away from the North Market. The DogCon rooms rate is $85 per night. You must book by July 2nd to receive this rate.

Making Reservations:
Individuals may call the Red Roof Inn Columbus Downtown direct at (614) 224-6539 or email Jim Greenhalge, Director of Sales at jgreenhalge@redroof.com. Please refer to the Group Code DOGCON when making reservations.
Amenities: Free Continental Breakfast, Free WiFi, a Free Airport Shuttle is available 8am to 6pm--please schedule 24 hours in advance
Parking is $10 per night.

Event Schedule

Friday, August 2, 7-9pm Kafe Kerouac hosts the Raw Dog Screaming Press Literary Circus
Poetry and Short Fiction readings including a tribute to poet Stephen Wilson
8pm Whiskey Tasting

Saturday, August 3, 1-3pm RDSP 10 Year Anniversary Celebration at the Thurber Center
Help us celebrate 10 years in publishing and launch our Science Fiction imprint Dog Star Books
-FREE Creative Workshops (complete schedule coming soon)
-Kid's Activities
-Tour the Thurber House
-Light refreshments will be served
 
4-5:30pm Reading at Bexley Library
Readers: Matt Betts, John Edward Lawson, Donna Lynch, Heidi Ruby Miller, Jason Jack Miller,
D. Harlan Wilson, K. Ceres Wright, Stephanie Wytovich

4-10pm Short North Arts District Gallery Hop

Sunday, August 12-6
Writer's Retreat at The Sanctuary for the Arts: Gather with fellow artists and explore or, wander off to contemplate or create on your own or do both. Stroll the garden path, walk the labyrinth, play in the creek, draw on the bridge. Bring a picnic if you like; lemonade and cookies will be available. Donations appreciated.
Reading by Matt Betts and open mic

EVENT: Dog Star and RDSP Authors and Editors to Teach Workshop at Confluence 2013

EVENTS


FREE RDSP WORKSHOP AT CONFLUENCE 2013
As part of the DogCon2 celebration at Confluence 2013, award-winning editors and authors from Raw Dog Screaming Press will offer a free 3-hour writing basics workshop on Saturday morning. The event is open to all registered convention participants on Saturday, July 20, 2013. Pick and choose from 6 different 1/2 hr. sessions or attend them all.

The workshop will run from 10:00 AM until 1:00 PM

CRAFT
10:00-10:30 AM - CHARACTER with Matt Betts
10:30-11:00 AM - DIALOG with John Edward Lawson
11:00-11:30 AM - PLOT with Michael A. Arnzen
11:30–NOON - SETTING with D. Harlan Wilson

BUSINESS
NOON–12:30 PM - PUBLICATION OPTIONS with Deanna Lepsch
12:30-1:00 PM - BRANDING AND PROMOTION with Jason Jack Miller

To register for CONFLUENCE 2013, click the link below:

AUTHOR NEWS: Matt Betts' Story "The Safest Passage" in eSteampunk

AUTHOR NEWS

Matt Betts' story "The Safest Passage" debuted in the December 2012 issue of eSteampunk Magazine. It was voted story of the month by readers and will now be included in their best of collection later this year.

"The Safest Passage" is an early version of the story that kicks off his novel ODD MEN OUT for Dog Star Books. Get ready for this steampunk/alternate history in Summer 2013.

EVENT: Dog Star Authors at Launch for Jason Jack Miller's The Devil and Preston Black

EVENTS

Dog Star Books' authors Matt Betts and Heidi Ruby Miller were in Morgantown, WV this weekend to support the launch of The Devil and Preston Black by Raw Dog Screaming Press author Jason Jack Miller.

Author: K. Ceres Wright

AUTHORS

Dog Star Books welcomes author K. Ceres Wright to the pack! DSB acquired Ceres' cyberpunk novel COG. Look for its release in Summer 2013.

K. Ceres Wright signing her contract at Seton Hill's In Your Write Mind Workshop 2012

Author: Matt Betts

AUTHORS

Dog Star Books welcomes author Matt Betts to the pack! DSB just acquired Matt's steampunk/alternate history novel Odd Men Out. Look for its release in Summer 2013.

Matt Betts

Author: Mike Resnick

AUTHORS

Dog Star Books welcomes Nebula and Hugo Award-winning author Mike Resnick to the pack! DSB just acquired the trade paperback rights to Mike's Social/Anthropological Science Fiction novel A Miracle of Rare Design. Look for its release in Summer 2013.

Heidi Ruby Miller and Mike Resnick at PulpFest/Farmercon 2012

EVENT: DogCon 2012 - Dog Star Group Photo

EVENTS

Jennifer Barnes, Heidi Ruby Miller, Deanna Lepsch, Stephanie Wytovich, John Edward Lawson, Leland Pitts-Gonzalez, Mike Mehalek, Jason Jack Miller

With our new Dog Star T-shirts from Skurvy Ink. Thanks to Jason Jack Miller for the photo from DogCon.

EVENT: DogCon 2012 - Doggie Bag

EVENTS

Thanks to Natalie Duvall for this great pic of the Doggie Bags from DogCon 2012!

Dog Star Books Philosophy

"Science Fiction That Goes for the Throat"

WHAT? Science Fiction Adventure imprint of Raw Dog Screaming Press
WHY? To infuse the popular sub-genres of SF with Raw Dog culture
HOW? By presenting readers with the futures that never were or will be
WHO? Authors, new and established, launching their unique worlds
Dog Star Books, like its mother, Raw Dog Screaming Press, is smart, fun, and sexy. We're the girl who was not only voted most likely to succeed, but was also prom queen!

Because Dog Star Books is named after Sirius, the biggest and brightest star in the sky, we want our authors to shine among the best Science Fiction writers today by amplifying RDSP's decade of beautifully thought-provoking and consummately cool books.

Dog Star Books brings readers' favorite sub-genres of Science Fiction Adventure under the imprint's unifying brand. Our explosive covers by artist Bradley Sharp rely on negative space to invoke the ideas of new pulp, strange worlds, and futures that never were or will be.

Our authors are taking their place among an award-winning and best-selling writing community by writing with the intent of burning their words permanently upon the eyes of the industry, marking Dog Star as the destination where meta meets pop, where intellect is fun, and where imagination pulses in all its sensual glory.