Hello, Everyone! Well, after some delay, we finally made it back from the amazing MarsCon 2025 in Virginia Beach, VA! But before I go into that, I’d like to give a hearty welcome to my newest subscribers! Glad to have you aboard!

This year’s MarsCon, though not quite as busy as last year’s, was a big success for me. Not only did I sell more books that I’d expected with the lighter foot traffic (and many folks took me up on my free Kindle download offer), but I also made some great new friends and learned a new strategy for promoting my work. My sons had suggested creating videos about myself and my work before (covering some of the same ideas I cover in these website posts), but hearing it from the highly successful author Christopher Ruocchio really made sense to me. He said for some reason many avid readers are also avid video watchers. I guess you really can teach an old dog (like me) new tricks, it just takes a little longer to sink in!

I also got to see lots of great cosplay! The costumes were great and you could tell a lot of work had gone into them.

Another great success for me returning to MarsCon was that some of the people who’d bought Mariner Valley, Seed of Aldebaran, or AlCent Sagas: Book One – Formation last year (the only 3 books I had at the time), stopped by to tell me how much they loved them. And they were in a hurry to buy the whole AlCent Sagas series! That is a high compliment, and I sold quite a few sets that weekend.

I also got to do some shopping for myself, and of course I headed for the used books to replenish the books I’d lost in the storm. These were some old favorites as well as some new finds. I ultimately bought many more books than pictured here.

Like last year, I had wanted to hang around in town a little longer to take in some of the sights of the area, but also like last year, impending winter weather moving in prompted us to head south the next day. We stopped over at our son’s house in SC and the weather caught up with us there. After visiting a friend on Tuesday, the snow moved in on Tuesday night and covered everything. It ended up being only about 2 inches, but as snow equipment is minimal to non-existent, we ended up staying an extra few days. (The snow would start to melt in the day, but refreeze each night icing up the roads again.) We whiled the time away playing Phase 10, Parcheesi, or just watching movies. It was a nice break.

So it turned out to be a great trip after all. And another happy bonus came – I’ve been accepted to the 2025 Amelia Island Book Festival on March 1st! Whoo-hoo! I need to hurry and order more books! Until then, thanks for tuning in and keep warm. Winter is a good time to cozy up to a good book. Happy reading! – James

P.S. – Be sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and X (Twitter). See links below.

Novels by James Crawford (available in print, eBook, and audio book) –

Mariner Valley – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0141N9UXO

Seed of Aldebaran – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08SHXTRMP

AlCent Sagas Book One: Formation – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQ5C3TQT

AlCent Sagas Book Two: Revelation – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D2FRH6Q8

AlCent Sagas Book Three: Investigation – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D5SBFYMW

AlCent Sagas Book Four: Desperation – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D8767LHL

AlCent Sagas Book Five: Confrontation – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D9PPTX6G

A Noble Paradise – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QG6LZ10

Cover artist Wojtek Kapusta – https://www.artstation.com/kapucha76

Audible narrator Lyle Blaker – https://www.acx.com/narrator?p=AXZPXFQRN07M3

Follow me on –

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/james.crawford.9277583

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/authorjamescrawford/?hl=en

X (Twitter) – https://x.com/AuthorCrawford