A new year means a new round of convention appearances. Here’s where you can find Crazy 8 Press’ team between now and the summer:

Peter David

As you know, Peter is currently rehabbing from his stroke so his convention calendar is barren until he and his doctors are comfortable with him traveling. We expect to see him back on the road over the summer.

Mike Friedman

At present, the only appearance scheduled so far is Farpoint.

Bob Greenberger

I’ll be at Farpoint in February, followed by Lunacon in March. Without an I-Con this year, the spring will feel fairly empty. Still, I will likely next turn up at Balticon.

Glenn Hauman

As usual, Glenn can be found at Farpoint in February and then at Lunacon in March.

Aaron Rosenberg

Aaron will be at Farpoint, down in Maryland, over Valentine’s Day weekend–his wife is none too pleased about that!

Then he’ll be at ConCarolinas the last weekend of May.

Yeah, we know it’s not Wednesday. So sue us. Still, we wanted to jump on to the Should Be Reading blog’s Wednesday meme. First up, C8 co-founder Aaron Rosenberg offers up his list:

What have you just read?

The last book I read was The Belgariad, by David (and Leigh) Eddings. It’s one of my favorite epic fantasies, and every few years I find myself sitting down and rereading it.

What are you reading now?

Currently I’m reading The Hobbit–I haven’t read it since I was in junior high and we just saw the movie over the holidays so I want to refresh my memory, and see what changed from print to screen.

What is next on your To Be Read pile?

Probably Elmore Leonard’s Pronto, which is the first of the Raylan Givens novels. I’m a HUGE Justified fan, so I’m looking forward to reading the character in Leonard’s own words.

“I like the idea. No–I love the idea. But we can’t publish it.” That’s what one editor told me about  my proposal for a 21st-century Aztec murder mystery series called Aztlan. “Why not?” I asked.

Because, I was told, Aztecs don’t sell.

Because, though Aztlan is an alternate history, it will confuse alternate-history readers who expect to see the immediate results of the historical turning point–in this case, the failure of Hernan Cortes to conquer the Aztecs, which eventually leads to the modern Aztec empire of Mexica stretching from the Arctic to what we call Tierra Del Fuego. In the Aztlan books, that turning point is hundreds of years in the past; it’s backdrop. Detective Maxtla Colhua doesn’t think about it on a daily basis any more than you or I think about the Pilgrims.

Because, though Aztlan is a mystery, it’s set in the kind of world mystery readers aren’t used to–one in which an Emperor makes all the rules, people still worship the Aztec pantheon, and slave brokers are honest businessmen.

A big problem was that retailers wouldn’t know where to put it in their stores. My suggestion, of course, was that retailers put it everywhere in their stores. That didn’t go over well.

So traditional publishing couldn’t offer Aztlan a home. But Crazy 8 Press? Heck, that’s why we invented the imprint in the first place: To give readers access to quality, passion-driven projects that traditional publishing can’t afford to take a chance on.

Aztlan: The Courts of Heaven, the second book in the Aztlan mystery series, is now available as a Kindle or Nook e-book. And a couple of weeks from now it’ll be a paperback, also available through Amazon.

I heartily recommend that you try Aztlan: The Last Sun, the first book in the series, to see how different a mystery can be. Then pick up Aztlan: The Courts of Heaven. And then tell your friends about it, because we’re all in this post-traditional publishing world together.

Pulling up Stakes is now live…well, un-live…on Amazon Kindle, and in short order will be out on B&N as well.

Sick of vampires?  So is Vince Hammond, a vampire hunter who lives in a garrison of vampire hunters and has to keep his deepest secret from them:  that he himself is a vampire.  If his mom finds out, she’ll kill him, and if she fails, there’s plenty of other volunteers to get the job done.

We’re trying something different here at Crazy 8 HQ.  Pulling up Stakes will be released in two parts, each at the bargain price of .99.  First half is out now; the second will be out in December, same price.  A few months later, we will be pulling both halves from sale and instead release it as a single volume at $4.99 (and in paperback as well.)  We keep being told that fans are eager for bargain prices, especially in this economy.  And so Vince Hammond is going to be the canary in that particular coal mine.  If sales blow through the roof, we’ll see this experiment as a possible business model for the future.  If unit sales are the same as previous books, well…then I just lost a lot of money listening to the fans.  It’s not as if C8 has a massive marketing department buying commercials and ads; we need you guys to help.  We’ve listened to you by pricing Pulling up Stakes at the introductory price of .99.  Now we need you to spread the words so that others will listen.