I decided I'd try my hand at Hourly Comic Day this year, and somehow I managed to finish the thing! (Although it ate into my ability to get much of anything else done, admittedly.)

If you're into this sort of thing, there's a growing directory of completed hourlies on the TenCentTicker forums. My thread is here, if you're curious.

( Twenty panels behind the cut! )

As it's the holidays, I've decided to sell a few copies of Zuko's Story here on my LJ! All books will be signed of course (and personalized, if you tell me who you want it made out to) and I'll do a little sketch inside them as well!

Books are $15, which includes shipping via Priority Mail. (If you want something shipped internationally, let me know in the comments and we'll work something out.)

If you'd like a copy, please comment below with the following info:

- Who you'd like the book made out to
- What character you'd like the sketch to be of

I'll respond to confirm I have a book for you. Once I've replied, please paypal me at: awilgus [at] gmail [dot] com. PLEASE make sure your mailing address is correct, and include your LJ name in the paypal message so I don't get mixed up!

If you'd like the book mailed to someone else as a gift and wrapped before I put it in the priority mail envelope, add $1 to the price and make sure I have all the relevant info.

New York Comic Con is this upcoming weekend, and I'll be sharing a table in its artist alley* with my buddies gallo_de_pelea and rufftoon! It's a "strictly paper goods" kind of scene, and with that in mind I plan to have the following:

- Copies of Zuko's Story!
- Preview booklets for Chronin, with the prologue and first chapter!
- The special Nick Magazine issue "Avatar The Last Airbender: Enter The Fire Nation," which feature the "bridge" comics that covered the weeks between the end of Season Two and the beginning of Season Three. This was the first issue of NickMag I worked on, and has been out of print for years, but I'll be bringing my last few extra copies along!
- A small selection of prints

Please come by and visit if you can! I'd love to see you!

*The NYCC artist alley, not the New York Anime Fest artist alley, just to be clear, as both cons will be going on at once in the same building. (!!!)

(...or know interested parties in attendance)

I'm lucky enough to be a guest at Infinitus, the HPEF conference for 2010, and tomorrow there are three event-type things at which I'll be appearing! The listings for "informal" programming are a little hard to find in the con material, so it seemed that much more worth mentioning here -- I'd hate for someone to miss the chance to be a nerd with me in person because of unclear documentation. ;)

SO! Friday's schedule is as such:

10:00-11:00AM - Reading (in Banda 1, with Naomi Novik)

12:00-1:30PM - Keynote Luncheon, "Fandom-Trained Writers" (with RJ Anderson, Sara Rees Brennan, Karen Healey, Naomi Novik and moderator Pegg Kerr)

1:45-3:00PM - Autograph session (in the vendor room, with all of the aforementioned ladies)

I'm admittedly pretty nervous, but the con has been fantastic so far and hopefully that trend will continue!

Dave Roman (yaytime) and I will be doing an event at Kinokuniya's NYC bookstore tomorrow afternoon! The focus will be on "Zuko's Story" and our hopes (our beautiful dreams!) for the unpublished NickMag ATLA comics. We'll talk a little about the process of making Zuko's Story, and we'll be doing a read along of the "Swordbenders" comic I wrote for Nick Magazine, in which Sokka and Zuko spar for their friends' amusement at the Western Air Temple.

The event starts at 4PM -- I hope to see some of you there! I'm pretty excited, as I've always loved Kinokuniya -- maybe if there's a decent turnout, they'll let me come back when Chronin finally debuts!

If nothing else, maybe we can stand around and share our ~*~feelings~*~ about a certain movie that came out today. ;)

Things were a little up in the air, which is why I didn't post about it before, but it looks like I'm going to be at the Big Apple BBQ festival tomorrow afternoon with a pile of books to sign and hand out (for free, I believe!) -- both "Zuko's Story" AND the comic adaptation of "The Last Airbender," which won't be in stores for another week and which I haven't actually seen except for the cover. (!!!) So you know, that is pretty exciting!

I'll be there from 12-2PM, although the books may go fast so folks should try to get there early if they're interested. The booth will be up in "sponsor's row" which you can see on this handy map of the park. I'll be the lady with glasses and short hair drawing pictures of Zuko on the tablecloth. ;)

So if you're free tomorrow afternoon and want to chat with me about Scorching Fire Nation Angst in a park full of delicious flame-licked meats, please do! I'd love to see you! (And feel free to repost/link to this elsewhere, particularly since it's such short notice)

I'd thought this was going to be a slow summer -- maybe go to Comic Con, maybe try to set up some kind of event with yaytime -- but as it turns out, June and July are going to be pretty crazy! I've added a little sidebar thing on my journal with all the events I'm currently planning to be at, but here are some of the details in case anyone's curious.

Signings for Zuko's Story and the Last Airbender adaptation

Dave and I (and in at least one case, adaptation artist Joon Choi) will be doing a few events tied to the Airbender books we co-wrote. The specifics of these are still being pinned down, but as of now the schedule seems to be:

June 26th -- Nordstrom at the Roosevelt Field Mall, 12-3PM

June 27th -- Nordstrom at the Paramus Mall (with Joon!), 12-3PM

July 2nd -- Kinokuniya at Bryant Park

We're trying to get a couple other things put together, particularly at book/comic shops, so you know...more as it develops! I hope to see some of you there -- I'm actually really nervous about this sort of thing! O__O

Conventions

July 16th -- Keynote Luncheon at Infinitus

I've been invited to be part of a panel of "fan writers turned pro" at Infinitus, a Harry Potter conference in Florida. My co-panelists will be Naomi Novik, R.J. Anderson and Karen Healey, and I'm pretty excited about it! If you're planning to be at Infinitus, you can find find more info about the luncheon here. I'm hoping I'll be able to catch up with some old friends from my days in HP fandom, many of whom I haven't seen in years.

July 22nd-25th -- San Diego Comic Con

No details yet, but Dave and I (and possibly Zuko's Story artist Nina Matsumoto!) will be there, so there will be at least a signing of some kind. More info once I have it!

October 8th-10th -- New York Comic Con

My buddy E.K. Weaver and I will have a table! And hopefully I'll have something awesome and Chronin-related put together by then! WOO!

***

I've always loved having an artist alley table at cons -- it's such a great opportunity to get to talk to other creators and fans whom you might not otherwise meet. Fingers crossed that this summer continues that trend!

So "Zuko's Story" is out (although not quite as easy to find as I would have liked, it seems) and some people have read it! Who aren't my editor or co-creators! MAN, THAT IS PRETTY CRAZY!

And a few of them have had some things to say about it! If you're interested in the book but not sure if it's for you -- or, alternately, if you're like me and just enjoy reviews for books you've already read yourself -- here are a few of the reviews I've seen that might prove useful. (Note: most of these contain major book spoilers as a part of summarizing the story.)

• Anthony Castaneda for the Frensno Pop Culture Examiner
• NextAirbender for LastAirbenderFilm.com
• rufftoon on her Livejournal

If you're not keen of the film but are a fan of ATLA and are curious about the prequel, you might be interested in:
• a review by azula on the avatar_fans community
• a review by puffysanjo encouraging discussion on the racebending community

That's it for now, I think? But let me know if I missed anything!

A couple of days ago, my co-writer Dave Roman (yaytime) and I did a podcast interview with a bunch folks from The Avatar Portal. Mostly we talked about "Zuko's Story," the process of working on both books, what we hoped to accomplish, some of the difficulties we encountered and lots of praise for Nina Matsumoto (space_coyote) and the amazing work she did. It's about 40 minutes long, and we cover a lot of ground -- hope some folks find it interesting!

We talked a bit about The Last Airbender film itself, but honestly, I think Dave and I try not to say too much on that topic. We didn't work on the FILM, after all, just the adaptation -- we haven't even seen it yet. And I understand completely that lots of fans who're looking forward to "Zuko's Story" aren't necessarily keen on the film as well. It's a tricky balancing act, but I think we mostly pulled it off.

You can listen to it here on their site, or you can download it from iTunes! (Note: the first section of the podcast is just audio clips from the movie trailers. Skip to 1:20 if you want to go straight to the actual content.)

As I think I mentioned before, there'll be a preview of "Zuko's Story" out tomorrow for FCBD! It'll appear in the Del Rey Showcase, and I BELIEVE it's the first six pages, which should give folks an idea of what kind of story we're telling and the book's relationship with "show" canon (spoiler: it is close.)

Personally, I can't wait to get a copy -- I haven't seen any of the book in print! SO EXCITING!

(!!!!!!)

So if you're in the states or Canada and in the general vicinity of a comic shop, you should totes swing by and pick up a copy of that and anything else that looks interesting. The selection this year looks pretty great, all around!