Mightier Than the Sword #74 - February, somehow

[Paul Carroll]

​ Mightier Than the Sword The Newsletter of Paul Carroll Welcome to a new edition of Mightier Than the Sword, in which one writer navigates time and relative dimension. (Wait, this isn’t Doctor Who.) January has come and gone in the blink of an eye, and it’s somehow February. Since the last newsletter, I’ve had my first convention of 2023, closed pitches for a book, and have gotten some good news for later in the year. Let’s dive right in. MegaCon Live While I still cringe at the name of the convention, MegaCon Live was a success for me as a trader. For the first time possibly ever in Ireland, I attended a major convention with no prints or stickers - you know, the cheaper things that people might buy with a spare euro or two. I loaded up a suitcase with every Limit Break Comics title, and whatever stock I had left of Cupán Fae’s books and my own novels, and packed up a few pins, and that was it. ​ At conventions, prints tend to be the thing that bring in the easy money - they cover table fees and allow for some ease of mind as we sell the things that contain fragments of our souls. Books and comics are, at times, a hard sell, so bringing nothing but them and some shiny pins was a bit of a risk. Actual numbers aside, we did about a third as well at MegaCon as we’d do at Dublin Comic Con, but with a quarter of the audience. I don’t think we could have asked for more than that. Plus, we made some new friends! ​ Fractured Realms After the wonderful Tango pointed out a mismatch of dates for the closing of pitches (the website said January 29th, the form said January 27th), I had to move the date to the former. This meant staying up late on Sunday to close the pitches. All in, we received 196 pitches for the book, a small increase on Down Below a year ago. I had thought for a while that we might not get as many, because so many things about Down Below lined up in pop culture (such as Hades, and Hadestown, and Lore Olympus) but we got there in the end. Now we have the hard job of trying to pick stories out of them. More news on that when we have it. Dublin Comic Con After a wee bit of back and forth and an awful lot of panicking, I can finally confirm that Limit Break Comics will be tabling at Dublin Comic Con! There was a small technical hitch that looked to mess up our weekend plans, but James Sharkey (the Artist Alley Liaison) worked to fix it for us. We’re excited to return to the convention, and have pitched a couple of panels to run - one by Seamus, and one by myself and Gary. We’ll see how that goes soon. Worst comes to worst, they can be resubmitted for August or I can request a spot in Octocon’s Programme. (I have some say in the con, after all…) With the delay in confirmation, we won’t have brand new books with us - but we will have Down Below at the show for the first time, and possibly some new zines to add to the mix. I practised my table set-up the day after I’d had it secured. ​ It’s a bit of a mess without there being any thought behind what titles go where, but it works. I think. We’ve only the one table for this show, but I did my darndest to make all our titles fit in a way that doesn’t look cluttered. Octocon News Coming Soon I feel like ‘back and forth’ is my expression of the day, but that’s what it took to finalise some exciting news for Octocon. I’ve to leave it to the official Octo-Channels for the announcement, but we’ve secured our venue and dates for 2023. Eight-ish months to go! I can’t wait. My first Octocon as Chair! Book Shop Day! As part of my Lovely Day Job, we went on an excursion to Bray and Greystones to visit the children’s books shops. Our day began in Bray, at Tales For Tadpoles, and end in Greystones with a visit to Halfway Up The Stairs and a stroll along the pier. ​ I picked up a fair few books by Shaun Tan at Tales For Tadpoles. One of his latest books, The Arrival, is a title we put into schools regularly - it’s a chonky silent graphic novel, meaning anyone can read it regardless of language. If I could draw, I’d aspire to create something like it. (A man can dream.) ​ If you’re ever in Ireland (or already live here) and looking for children’s books, both of the shops are worth checking out (and are only a few minutes away from each other on the train) and the owners are always happy to make recommendations. A dream for me would be to launch a kids book in Greystones. We’ll get there! I always love a good book shop day. I must remember to leave time for one the next time I’m abroad. ​ Until next time! Paul ​Support me on Ko-fi​ Thanks for reading! If you loved it, tell your friends to subscribe. If you didn’t enjoy the email you can unsubscribe here. To change your email or preferences manage your profile. 113 Cherry St #92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2205