October 2006 Blogs

The October Photo of the Month comes from my trip to Bouchercon in Madison, Wisconsin. That's New York Times bestselling author Laurie King on the left and NYT bestselling author Dana Stabenow on the right. This year's Bouchercon was my second, and I had a blast. Thursday October 26, 2006 Tonight, I led a discussion for the Raleigh Write to Publish Group, which meets monthly at the Cameron Village Public Library. Tonight's discussion was on literary agents: what they do and how to get one. I had a blast, and there were some really great questions asked from the audience. All total, we had twenty-six folks who came to the event... At the conclusion of the event, I gave away a couple sample AudioBook CDs for Amber Page and the Legend of the Coral Stone... And then afterwards, a smaller group went out for food and drinks... I had a wonderful time, and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that came. Thank you. Here's a short video clip of the presentation... Wednesday October 25, 2006 I'm feeling far too excited, considering it's 11:59 PM on a Wednesday night. I've got a speaking engagement tomorrow night at the Raleigh Write to Publish Group, and I spent an hour this evening getting my notes together for the presentation. The topic is "How to Get a Literary Agent," and I'm going to speak a little bit about my experience working with an agent last year. I'll probably make copies of the author-agent contract to show folks what a standard contract looks like. If you'd like to come, the public is invited, and there's info under the "appearances" section of the site. I plan on writing tomorrow on the Roman Phoenix novel, and I just got a query in the mail to an editor that I met at Bouchercon a few weeks ago. It's a night to be excited! Stacey P.S. Oh, yeah, and I made this video tonight with my new camera... Saturday October 21, 2006 Pretty exciting day today. I managed to write a little on the Roman Phoenix novel, bringing the word count total up to 12,554 at 66 pages. I had the hardest time finding the motivation to write, but then when I actually started writing, the words came very easily. It was fun. This evening, I told Susan that I wanted to take her to a "different" kind of restaurant, and so we looked up restaurant reviews online for our local newspaper in Raleigh. We decided on a Turkish place over in Cary, and it was really very good. Here's a picture of me, having an after-dessert tea... And here's a picture of the soda I had with dinner... So, now I want to take a vacation to Turkey. I even checked our timeshare catalogue and found that they have three participating resorts there. Stacey Friday October 20, 2006 At staceycochran.com, we strive to provide you with first-rate entertainment. And nothing says "first-rate" quite like pig racing. You heard it right, ladies and gentlemen, pig racing. I took this video tonight at the State Fair... There was also this competitive Duck Race... And, as if that wasn't enough, my very own wife was named a Pig Queen... Thursday October 19, 2006 What a big day today was! After more than a year of work and planning, my first audio book was published today in its entirety at podiobooks.com. It is free to download. All you have to do is click on "Register now!" on the page that comes up if you click on the link above. Via I-tunes I created my first playlist today and I now have my first book on CD... If you'd like to buy a copy of the book on CD, please drop me a line via the comments box up above, and I'll get a copy (six CDs) in the mail to you for $15, shipping included. Stacey

Wednesday October 18, 2006 It's 11:27 PM, and I'm so tired I physically hurt. It's one of those feelings like you know you're going to sleep like a log. My plan is to write tomorrow morning, and tomorrow afternoon. Stacey Tuesday October 17, 2006 Today was the first day in about a week where I felt like I was able to get some really productive work done on the writing front. I managed to listen to the whole audio book for Amber Page in the past four days, in order to add episode descriptions. The production staff at podiobooks.com has done a tremendous job with preparing the book to publish, and I think it will probably go live sometime in the next few days. It's been quite a journey to publish this audio book version of Amber Page. I started last fall when I had lunch with a writer friend in Arizona who recommended a good podcast mic. From there, I had to navigate the waters of learning an entire system of recording, editing, uploading, etc. Really a huge amount of stuff that I had to learn from scratch. The cool thing is that now that I know how to do it, it's much easier to repeat. What I don't know is how effective all of this is in terms of exposure and sales. That's the point I'm at, now that the project is finished and ready to be published. I also revised some of the Roman Phoenix novel and worked on two query letters that will probably go out in the next few days. I'm battling a bad chest cold with Vitamin C and lots of water, but all that considered, it was a very productive day. Stacey Sunday October 15, 2006 I'm home from Tennessee. I'm very tired. Stacey Wednesday October 11, 2006 It's like 1:40 AM, and I'm in the middle of burning a CD in I-tunes of an audio book that my good friend Gene Curtis sent me, so that I can listen to it on a roadtrip that I'm taking tomorrow to Tennessee. The audio book is actually his The Seventh Mountain: Chronicles of a Magi, and from what I've heard so far, I would highly recommend it. I just checked my Amazon.com ranking, and it looks like I might have actually sold a couple copies of Amber Page and the Legend of the Coral Stone today! That's really cool. Tonight, I drove over to Durham for a new writers group. It was a great event with a great group of writers, and I managed to actually sell a couple copies of my books. Thanks, Laura! Well, I really do need to go to sleep. Outside, there's thunder and lightning in the distance, and so maybe I'll dream of storms tonight. Stacey Tuesday October 10, 2006 I don't have a lot of time to blog tonight, but I thought I should get on here to let everyone know what's been happening the past few days. I've managed to make a little bit of progress in Novel #10, which I've taken to calling Roman Phoenix after the title character's name. Right now, I have about 11,000 words. I wrote about 1500 words whenever I could find time yesterday and today. I've also managed to get my novel Amber Page and the Legend of the Coral Stone paired with a top selling novel at Amazon.com for sale together at a reduced rate. If you've got a few minutes, check out the Amazon.com link for Amber Page and you'll see its pairing partner (reduced 5% together) if you scroll down the page a little ways. I've got a lot of other stuff going on writing wise, but it's 11:00 PM, and I've still got about two more hours worth of work to go before I can go to sleep. So, I better sign off for the night. Take care, people. And thanks for reading. Stacey Saturday October 7, 2006 Bored on a rainy Saturday afternoon. Thursday October 5, 2006 Hey, folks, I've got some photos tonight from an Open Mic Night I attended over in Pittsboro, North Carolina at McIntyre's Bookstore. The event is open to the public, and it is held the first Thursday of every month. If you live in the area, I would encourage you to come. The group is supportive, and there's no better exercise for public speaking skills than to read your work to a good group. Pictured here, you'll see the bulk of the group that met tonight... Each reader is given about 15 minutes to read from anything they've written. People read from short stories, novels in progress, poetry, and sometimes from things that don't fit any of those categories. Here's a picture of one regular, Michael, who read from his novel tonight... This next fellow, Peter, was a newcomer tonight, and he read a terrifically funny story about an old man with a "velcro chin" that caught particles of the food he ate... I can't say enough about how important groups like this are. If you're a new writer, you don't have to feel alone. Look for Writers Groups in your community and get out there and join them. Stacey Wednesday October 4, 2006 It's been a busy week so far, but I did want to hop on here to give you all an update. I'm alive and home safe and sound from Bouchercon. I managed to capture a couple of cool video clips from the convention that I haven't put up yet. I'll just do one tonight. This is from the Anthony Awards Ceremony last Saturday night.

Sunday October 1, 2006 A few quick photos from yesterday at Bouchercon. Here's one from my panel... Another from my panel... And a third... Here's one from dinner last night... And here's one of New York Times bestselling author P.J. Parrish and I at one of several parties I went to last night... This afternoon, I'll be flying back to Raleigh and my lovely wife, who put up with me being gone for four days. I miss her, and I miss home. Stacey Friday September 29, 2006 Day 2 of Bouchercon 2006 is in the books. I didn't take nearly as many photos today, but I did capture one very dark video clip of a group at the Berkley Prime Party... I also got this overhead shot from the St. Martin's Press Minotaur Party... Tomorrow, I've got my panel first thing in the morning. Wish me luck! Stacey Thursday September 28, 2006 Alrighty, folks. My first day at Bouchercon 2006 is in the books. I started this morning at 5:00 AM in Raleigh, North Carolina, and it is currently 11:45 PM and I am in Madison, Wisconsin. So, let's get this party started. Pictured here from left to right is Robert Walker, JA Konrath, and yours truly... This one is of Brett Battles, Sean Doolittle, and me... This is one of David Morrell and I... This is an overhead shot of the Crimespree party, where all of the above photos were taken... Here's the group I had dinner with tonight. That's me, Amy Alessio, Dusty and Lynn Rhoades, Susan Gibberman, and Kathleen Ernst... Here's a picture of me and Jennifer Colt. NOTE: Jennifer is a shadowy figure of intrigue and mystery, and for some reason, her head is cut off in every photo I have of her. Strange. To find out what she really looks like, you'll have to visit her website jennifercolt.com. Here's one of me and Pat Dennis... And finally, here's one of me in front of the Wisconsin Capitol... Hard to believe that's just day one. I am very, very tired. Stacey Wednesday September 27, 2006 By chance, if you are attending Bouchercon this weekend, please be sure to come by my panel discussion Saturday morning at 9:00 AM. The panel is titled "Young at Heart," which you have to be if you're attending a panel first thing on a Saturday morning. I would love to see you there. The hotel where I'm staying has free wireless internet, so I should be posting photos from the convention all this weekend Thursday-Sunday. Check back often, and tell your friends and family. Stacey