Hanging Out With KJA

One of the perks of the long and exhausting week at BEA last week was getting to spend time with Kevin J. Anderson.

I met Kevin and Rebecca Moesta at EerieCon a few years ago. They are both great writers and wonderful folks.  I was immediately impressed with just how down-to-earth and approachable this author of well over 100 novels with 20 million books in print was. I'd been a fan of his since first reading a novel he co-wrote with Doug Beason called Ill Wind and there we were sitting on panels together with Kevin treating this particular "unknown" writer with the same amount of respect he would treat a fellow NYT bestselling author.

I had been in contact with Kevin within the past 6 months for a couple of reasons. 

First, I'm re-printing a story (Drumbeats) which he co-write with Neil Peart (yes, the lyricist and drummer from Rush) in Tesseracts 16.  (Link to the book on Amazon -- Link to the book on IndieBound).

Second, Kevin has been one of the beta authors involved in helping provide feedback and insights that helped in the development of Kobo Writing Life, the new DIY portal for self-published authors (which we announced in NY at BEA last week)

During a busy week, Kevin and I had a chance to get together at The Pony Bar - a wonderful little spot that specialized in craft brew.  We sampled some great beer while chatting about writing, science fiction, publishing, digital publishing, self-publishing, hiking, and of course, Kevin's work on Clockwork Angels, a project he wrote in conjunction with Neil Peart as a tie-in to the Rush album of the same name.

Kevin was an author guest at the open discussion media breakfast we held on Tuesday June 5th to announce Kobo Writing Life -- and he was also one of the featured writers in residence at the Kobo booth.

Right now I'm reading Kevin's first novel, Resurrection, Inc. -- this is the novel that he wrote while listening to the Rush album Grace Under Pressure (the album my buddy Pete forced me to listen to and which turned me into a Rush fan - THANKS, Pete!) and it's really fun to read through and pick up elements that were inspired from Peart's lyrics.

It's funny -- here I thought, that with 3 books coming out from three different publishers in the next 6 months, that I was a hard-working and busy writer. But after spending so much time last week with Kevin and realizing he has something like 8 books coming out this year, it would appear that I'm slacking big time. One must admire his non-stop energetic charge towards efficiency (I quite admire the multi-tasking manner by which Kevin writes while hiking -- he brings an audio recorder along on hikes and writes while enjoying the scenery and fresh air.

In comparison, I'm simply not working hard enough!  Time to look at any of those wasted moments where I could be more productive.

The truth is that, hanging out with Kevin, I can't stop thinking big!