I have been attending LibertyCon for a long time (see my post from last year lamenting my inability to attend that one). My first was in 2016 and i’ve been there every year except for 2020 when it was canceled and last year when my daughter was born.
My wife remarked to me that it’s been interesting to her to see how I’ve changed from a regular con-goer just there to enjoy the time into a professional attendee with responsibilities and a mission to sell books. That gave me pause for a second, because she’s right: it’s certainly very different for me these last couple of years. No less enjoyable and no less exhausting, but different.
On the subject of being a professional attendee, I did a super-duper professional thing and actually sold some books!

I brought a pretty good haul of books with me to Chattanooga because I had not only an author signing table, but for the first time I got a two-hour slot in the Author’s Alley area. I’ve got a novel and seven short stories out now (My Collected Works), so I had a nice table of stuff to display. And it worked! At least a little. I sold three books (two copies of To Have and To Hold and one of Magic & Mischief) at Author’s Alley and two more copies of To Have and To Hold at my author signing.
I want to give a huge shoutout to Mary (also a subscriber to this newsletter!) for being my very first in-person sale. Thank you so much!
I’ve got a few thoughts on selling books in person that I’m ruminating on a bit. I’ll probably do a short post next month talking about my ideas there.
After I got home, I also noticed a little bit of a page reads bump in a few anthologies and an increase in traffic to my Substack. For those of you who are new, welcome and thanks for stopping by!
Other than my Author’s Alley and Author Signing spots, I got to particpate in a few panels at LibertyCon.
I got to be on a panel discussing Western and SciFi with my friends
and among others. With a bunch of my AlphaMerc brethren (Jamie Henson, , , , Rick Cartwright, and David Bock) I got to talk about how writing groups should function and how the AlphaMercs have been so successful. I had a reading on Saturday night where I read an unpublished short story of mine. For my last panel at the Con I got to be on a 4 Horsemen Universe panel with a ton of incredibly talented authors.I also got to meet a bunch of AlphaMercs in person for the very first time. Putting faces to names I’ve only seen on Discord was great, and I love in-person events for just that reason.
But the highlight of my trip was that my little girl turned one whole year old.
That’s all for today. For all of you who stopped by and said hi or bought a book, thank you so much! Your support means the world to me and I couldn’t appreciate it more.
It was great to meet you! Enjoyed our panel together!
Looking forward to reading your book in the Four Horsemen universe.