Pretty excited to be a part of this event put on by one of my publishers, Crwth Press. It’s on Facebook Live and is free! If you have questions about publishing or writing or illustrating, this is the event for you!
Category: Inspiration
Kamloops Young Authors Conference 2020
This year’s young author’s conference looked quite a bit different than it has in years past. It’s my favourite conference, and one that I look forward to every year all year. In a normal year, I’d take a few extra days off work, take a road trip checking out favourite spots (or newly discovered spots) along the way and then visit family in Vernon before heading home.
This year was different.
When the pandemic hit and many conferences were being shut down (I was also scheduled to be on a Dungeons and Dragons panel for the BCLA conference this year), I took the initiative and suggested to the organizers of the Kamloops YAC that they take their conference online.
I wasn’t the only one who had suggested this, so after a meeting with organizers I pledged any help that I could provide (you do this sort of thing when you believe in the value of something as much as I do this conference) and it was taken online to Zoom.
I was asked to teach a workshop for grades 6/7, and another for teens grades 8-12. And these workshops could not have gone better.
Chances are you can tell I’m a bit of a Dungeons and Dragons fan. I got into the game when I was 12 years old, and was hooked ever since. This was the game that taught me how to write a story, and how to write a book. How could D&D teach you to write books?
That was my first workshop. I talked about the game, how it’s played, the collaborative storytelling, and all my maps. You can see by my table setup above that I wanted them to see how the game can inspire creativity.
My second workshop for the teens was on crafting a great villain–and I talked about my favourite villains (Darth Vader, Johnny Lawrence from Karate Kid, Hans Gruber from Die Hard, and the Governor from Walking Dead) and also about how I got published.
The world has certainly changed. But to me this means creativity and teaching kids to think outside the box is more important than ever. We need the arts and stories to get us through this, not only to help with boredom but also to spark imaginations to come up with creative solutions to problems we encounter in this new normal.
I hope if you’re reading this you’re doing okay. If you’re finding you’re sleeping more and not feeling productive–be easy on yourself. Things will get better.
Social Distancing and an Offer of Free Reading
Not much I can do to be helpful during social distancing when I have a compromised immune system from childhood cancer treatments. Makes me feel a little useless.
However, I have seen a lot of desire for reading material. So, I am offering my novel “Children of Ruin” for free reading on Wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/myworks/111473258-children-of-ruin
Also, I have 20 promo codes of free copies of the audiobook on Audible I’ll give away to the first twenty who ask. (DM me.)
Or, should you want an ebook, it’s 99 cents US until the end of April: https://books2read.com/u/mBMk1Z or https://www.amazon.com/Children-Ruin-James-Alfred-McCann-ebook/dp/B07BPJXD9H/https://www.amazon.com/Children-Ruin-James-Alfred-McCann-ebook/dp/B07BPJXD9H/
Three Spartans Book Launch
Last Thursday, friends and family came out to Vancouver Kidsbooks where we launched The Three Spartans, my newest novel and first middle grade comedy.
This certainly won’t be my final stop in promoting the book! I have a signing at Black Bond Books this Saturday, and more to announce in 2020!
To sign off, here’s the video Crwth Press made of the book.
Free Three Spartans .STL Files
One of the fun things about promoting a book is finding fun and interesting ways to spread the word. For the last few years, I’ve been pretty involved in 3D printing at work (Richmond Public Library) and so I took those new skills and created some .stl files you can have in advance of the book release.
The Three Spartans is my first middle grade novel, and is a parody of the battle at Thermopylae. This was an epic battle of 300 Spartans against 10 thousand Persians under the rule of Xerxes during the summer of 480 BCE.
In the Three Spartans, we see Art, Lea and George gather up a small resistance to battle Zeke and his Immortals. It’s a story of overcoming incredible odds, and inspiring those around you to do the same.
This is a 3D rendering of a spartan warrior I designed using the beta version of Desktop Hero 3D. I’ve been using version 1 of this program (which is publicly available) to make Dungeons and Dragons characters, and have run library programs teaching teens to write character backgrounds.
So, when I was looking at a cool giveaway, I approached Andrew at Desktop Hero and asked if I could create an .stl for a free download. He agreed, and using V2 I made the above Spartan and a rendering of Art Demus, narrator of the Three Spartans, as seen below.
Andrew was great. He’s redeveloping Desktop Hero 3D into V2, and it’s amazing. I’ve used Hero Forge from time to time to create a character, but this new Desktop Hero 3D (it releases in December) will be my only source for creating figures.
The interface is easy to use and the files (they export in .obj) print nice and clean. I printed mine on a Makerbot Desktop Replicator, with .2 layer height, 100% infill, 2 shells, a raft and supports. (Examples to come in later blog posts.) You can download the files below and give them a try.
Fun Fact Friday
I was first introduced to Greek history in university while in my 20s. I studied the Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, and read it cover to cover. Since then, I’ve been dabbling in Spartan/Athenian history from the taking of Troy to the rule of Alexander the Great. I first discovered Birch Bay while on a road trip. I decided to take a road I’d never taken before, and found myself in a small coastal beach town that immediately made me feel at peace. I knew at that moment I needed to write a book that took place there.
You can support this into becoming a series by buying a copy of the book.
