Andy Zach’s Penned Con Report – Plus Free Books

Here’s Andy Zach’s Penned Con Report – Plus Free Books. Enjoy! Ask questions! Get your books.

 

My Undead Mother-in-law front cover. Click to get for free!

And other free books are on the linked page too.

Andy Zach’s Penned Con Report – Day 1

Thursday, September 20, my assistant Tori Smith and I arrived at the Red Lion hotel in City Center block of St. Louis. The hotel is a repurposed block of downtown St. Louis, complete with three thirteen-story atriums. The Penned Con convention resided on the lucky thirteenth floor. Gander at these pictures from the outdoor lounge:

Here’s my assistant, Tori Smith in the lounge:

And here’s a picture of my fellow author Bess Sturgis:

But wait! There’s more!

Penned Con Report – Opening Mystery Party

The mystery party was a rather clever author and reader mixer. We were randomly put into groups to solve a murder mystery, while dressed in garb of the 1920s. How random? We selected our desired time, and the 10-15 people in the 5-minute time slots between 8 PM and 10 PM got put together.

Here’s a picture of our 9:55 group:

You may be happy to know we solved the mystery. We reviewed five scenes and interviewed five characters and it wasn’t the butler.

Penned Con Report – Day 2 – Selling Books

After all, we authors LOVE to get our books into the hands of readers.  We even give them away. (See above).

Now, to the right from my table:

Then, looking to the left of Andy’s table:

Next, from the front of the table:

Finally, my table itself, adorned with my lovely assistant, Tori Smith:

The Elevator Adventure

You may ask, “Is this like Willy Wonka’s glass elevator?” Don’t I wish! No, the hotel had a bank of three elevators and one hundred and thirty five authors and eight hundred and ninety readers all wanting to get to the thirteenth floor at once. Every day. At the same time.

The adventure begins with one elevator permanently dead.  Oopsie.

To the hotel’s credit, everyone had wonderful positive attitudes and they all worked to solve the problem. They led herds of authors (is that the right collective noun?) to the freight elevator to circumvent the constriction.

They put one elevator on manual and had an employee run it. That’s how Tori made a Pokemon game friend:

Day 3 – The Big Dinner

Once more, Tori and I dressed in 20s mufti for the awards dinner.

We had a scrumptious meal and heard from the head of the Autism foundation. Penned Con gives to that worthy cause. Then the awards came out. I don’t know who won, because we went to bed.

The next day, we drove home to Peoria.

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