Sheacon 2022

I’ve got some awesome news/updates for Sheacon 2022, Champions!

First of all, a date has been chosen! Mark your calendars for July 29th, 30th, and 31st! For those of you who are new to the community, Sheacon is a weekend of book-dedicated community fun held on a private discord server. We have guest panelists, games–like my favorite, Drawing With A Twist where moderators give piece by piece descriptions of a scene from one of my books and you franticly try to fix your personal drawing to match their description–activities, and more! (This year, RayJay even made us the above icon! The cat with the crown is my favorite part, buwahah!)

As the weekend draws closer we’ll release instructions about joining Sheacon, but you do need to be a member of my Discord server so you can get an invite to Sheacon! Additionally, In June I’ll announce our guest author-speakers and some of the planned activities, so stay tuned for more information.

In other Sheacon news–which some of you might have heard previously–I’ve added another member to the Shea Team as the chief Sheacon planner: Cindy!

Cindy has been helping plan Sheacon since our first year back in 2020. As an official team member, she’ll use her awe-inspiring skills of organization and leadership to map out Sheacon, and is responsible for inviting and scheduling the authors/panelists who speak during the convention, plotting out everything that needs to be done in order to make Sheacon happen, and leads all the other amazing volunteers in everything from vetting games to helping me find artists to commission freebies I give away to you Champions.

This year we’ve got a wonderful pack of volunteers who are helping Cindy take on this task! Without them, Sheacon wouldn’t happen, so a huge thank you to: Anneli, Battatack, Bluefires, Chelsc, Cheybri, Cwang, Dino, Ellarose, Gwen, Kay, Lavalectrix, LouBerry, Miriel, Narel, PumpkinPi, Rachel, wish.I.was.in.a.fairytale, Wertful, and last–but certainly not least–Zooknar.

I’m very aware that having an entire online conference dedicated to…uh…me (which, I feel really sheepish even saying that) is rare and special. I’m so proud of our community, and I’m happy and honored to be a part of it, and there’s a part of me that still thinks this whole thing is a dream. I can’t thank you Champions enough–from those like Cindy and the Sheacon volunteers to everyone who comes to Sheacon to join in the fun. Thank you for making the community so welcoming, inviting, and fun. I can’t wait to see you all at the conference, beginning July 29th!

NaNoWriMo Begins!

It’s November, which means NaNoWriMo–or National Novel Writing Month–has begun!

National Novel Writing Month began in 1999 as a daunting but straightforward challenge: to write 50,000 words of a novel in thirty days. The event is run by an official NaNoWriMo nonprofit organization–which is where I got the description from. 😉 It’s free to sign up and join in the fun–you get a nifty tracker and some fun discounts if you “win” and write 50,000 words by the end of November. But you don’t have to sign up to officially participate–and you don’t even have to write 50,000 words of a novel to join! Some participants are writing D&D campaigns, journaling, or writing/planning out a comic book, so you can put your own unique spin on the month!

This year, Vin–our lovely Community Manager–is holding a slew of fun for the month, so she’s going to tell you all about it!

Hello Champions!

This is my second year hosting a NaNoWriMo Event. Most everything will take place on Discord as that platform is the easiest to chat on and do the sprints. For the Facebook group, I will be sharing Kitty’s posts and doing a few of my own.

For the Discord Event, I will be hosting writing sprints every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 2-3:30 pm Central. Each session has three sprints (15 min, 20 min, 20 min) so even if you miss the beginning, come for the others! On the last day, November 30th, I’ll be hosting sprints at 10am, 2pm, and 6pm Central.

Apologies to those that cannot make it during the day, but my evenings are ever changing and hard to consistently schedule around (plus: family time!). However, I always encourage Champions to feel free to host their own sprints! Special roles for word counts can be earned from Undiscovered Magic User at 100 words during a sprint all the way up to Pegasus, clocking in at a whopping 1,250 words during a single 20 minute sprint!

I have posted a few writing resources and other Champions have also contributed to that list. This event is a great way to talk with others about your project and get help and support if you need it.

Last year I went into NaNo just to host and came out writing the beginning of a story. I will always admit that I don’t think of myself as a writer, but it was so fun to hear everyone talk that I was inspired. Have I touched that story since February? ….. nope! But I’m planning to continue working on it in November!

Lastly, on December 4th at 11 am Central there will be an Awards Ceremony on Discord. I have some secret “awards” that can be earned throughout November. Plus celebrating all who participated! If you cannot make that, no worries as I’ll post the results.

See you there!

Vin

Sheacon 2021 Summary

Hello, Champions! I have some fun to share with you Champions who couldn’t attend Sheacon–and a survey for those of you who did!

First off, we have the audio recordings of all the panels! Yes, all of them! There was one or two tiny tech mishaps during the panels themselves, but for the most part the records are fantastic, and we owe a huge thank you to the Sheacon planners for all the work they did to make these recordings available to everyone!

So, are you ready to listen to the panels? Click on the panel name to go to the audio file! (Important note: The free book deals mentioned are no longer available, but you can still download the limited edition coloring pages!)

1. Opening Ceremonies (and Miss Champion 2021 pagent)

2. Fantasy Author Panel with Deborah Grace White, Julie Hall, Tara Grayce, Sarah K Wilson, and Kimberly Rogers

3. WR Gingell panel

4. Kitty Q&A panel

5. Fairy Tale Author Panel with AG Marshall, Allison Tebo, Camille Peters, SR Noulton, and Jill Stengl

6. Celebritity Retha & Dragons with Kitty, AG Marshall, Vin, and RayJay

7. Timeless Fairy Tale/Fairy Tale Enchantress SPOILER FILLED Q&A with Kitty

8. Artist Panel: There is video that goes with this one, but sadly it’s too big for me to upload to the site, so we’ll have to be satisfied with mp3. 🙁 (Although if you are tech savy, here is a link to the Google drive that contains all the audio files, including the video, so you can watch it through there.)

9. Champion Trivia & closing ceremonies. (If you want to see the art that goes with some of my guesses for Champion Trivia, here is a download link to the zipped file that contains these images.)

Fun fact I personally learned from Sheacon. Tara Grace–author of the amazing Elven Alliance series–was a Champion forever ago, back when I released the “Goblins Wear Suits,” the sequel book of the Magical Beings’ Rehabilitation Center. And–get this–at the time I ran a contest to name characters, and Tara won the right to name a particular goblin bodyguard. That’s right, Tara named Harrison! So go show Tara some love and tell her that Harrison sent you! 😉

The Sheacon Planners–in their sweet wish to improve an already awesome event–have an exit survey for all of the Champions who attended this year’s Con. You can take the survey by clicking here. Thanks in advance!

Speaking of which, we all owe the Sheacon Planners a standing ovation! They spent countless hours planning the event, preparing the servers and the games, organizing the panelists, and more. They worked hard so we could have a fun and memorable weekend! So, a huge whistle-filled, flower-throwing thank you to Cindy, Cwang, Emarynn, Zooknar/Miss Champion 2021, Helaine, Anneli, Pumpkin Pi, Lemon Duck, Ellarose, Xoffelokin, Batattack, Kay, and Dino. You all are amazing and produced a professional online convention that was fun for everyone and made so many fun memories for our community. And I’d like to extend an additional thank you to Vin–our Community Manager–and SuperRog AKA Miss Champion 2020.

Finally, thank you to all of you Champions who came and joined in the fun. I’m so glad we have the kind of community that can come together like this and nerd out over books for a weekend. Thank you for being a part of it.

And that’s all, Champions! I’m moving homes, so I’m going to take the next week or two quasi-off. Until next time, Champions, have a lovely day and enjoy the panels!