A. Cook's Books

Gen Con Indy is just two weeks away, and I’m beyond excited about this year’s convention! If you don’t know anything about Gen Con, it’s a huge convention/nerdfest centered around all kinds of gaming that happens over four days every summer in Indianapolis. It’s also my favorite time of year, a weekend of playing games and catching up with friends from all over the country. There are literally thousands of events to attend, and the massive exhibit hall showcases board games, role-playing games, fantasy/sci-fi artists and authors, and vendors selling supplies for all your geek needs. If San Diego Comic Con is THE con for comics, then Gen Con Indy is THE con for games … at least in North America.

Gen Con also houses a wonderful Writer’s Symposium, chock full of workshops, seminars, and panels devoted to all things writing, especially in the fantasy, science fiction, and gaming arenas. Do you want to try your hand at writing? Then check out the plethora of seminars on how to do just that. Are you already a writer? There are workshops and seminars for you, too. It’s a magical place and where I go during Gen Con to tighten my writing skills and learn from award-winning published authors. It would be a dream come true to one day sit on one of those panels, but I’m getting ahead of myself…

I’m exceptionally excited about this year’s con because I’m going to be giving away my book there! FOR FREE! My friends from Zombie Orpheus Entertainment/Dead Gentlemen Productions are being gracious enough to allow me to hang at their booth each day and hand out The Golden Orb to unsuspecting passersby … ahem, I mean their fans.

(Full disclosure: my husband and I have been friends with one of the founding members of ZOE/DG for several years–he was my first GM–and we’ve become friends with many of the other members since. We’ve backed several of their film projects, including their most recent feature film, “The Gamers: Hands of Fate”, which we executive produced through their wildly successful Kickstarter campaign. If you’re a gamer or a lover of fantasy, I highly recommend checking out their work. They’re also the creators of the fantasy web series, “JourneyQuest”, which guest starred Fran Kranz last season, of “Dollhouse” and “Cabin in the Woods” fame.)

So if you think you might be making the trip to Indianapolis this year for Gen Con Indy, come by Booth #114, conveniently located between Paizo and Mayfair Games, and grab a copy of my book! I’ve ordered a limited supply to bring with me, because the book’s kind of big and heavy, especially forty of them stacked on top of each other. Also, I intend to be more of an attendee this year, and less of a vendor, which is why I’m not selling it this time. I plan on being at ZOE’s booth about an hour each day of the con to chat and sign the free copies of The Golden Orb I’ll have on hand. Here’s my tentative schedule:

Thursday, August 14, at 10:30 am

Friday, August 15, at 1:00 pm

Saturday, August 16, at 11:00 am

Sunday, August 17, at 2 pm

 As I do at every Gen Con, I plan on cosplaying a couple of those days, so you may find me in costume when you stop by the booth. I’ll let everyone know when I’ll be there and if there’s a change in plans. (This con is crazy busy, and sometimes, events change locations and times.) You can follow me at my Facebook page for A. Cook’s Books or on Twitter at @AmandaCook627 to keep up with the haps. There’ll probably be lots of pictures involved.

If you plan on attending and I don’t see you there, have a fabulous time at Gen Con! And as one of my favorite writers/actors/mild-childhood-crushes, Wil Wheaton, always says: “Play more games!”.

Thanks for reading.

A. Cook