Storied Charlotte
Storied Charlotte
  • Home
  • Storied Charlotte
  • Monday Missive

Contact Me

Office: Fretwell 290D
Phone: 704-687-0618
Email: miwest@uncc.edu

Links

  • A Reader’s Guide to Fiction and Nonfiction books by Charlotte area authors
  • Charlotte book art
  • Charlotte Lit
  • Charlotte Readers Podcast
  • Charlotte Writers Club
  • Column on Reading Aloud
  • Department of English
  • JFK/Harry Golden column
  • Park Road Books
  • Storied Charlotte YouTube channel
  • The Charlotte History Tool Kit
  • The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Story

Archives

  • May 2025
  • April 2025
  • March 2025
  • February 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013

Tags

American West anthology Black History Charlotte Charlotte Lit Charlotte Readers Podcast Charlotte writers Civil Rights Movement cookbooks dog fantasy adventure novels fantasy stories fiction foodways genre fiction grand reopening graphic novel historical fiction historical novels Judy Goldman lesbian characters Main Street Rag memoir middle-grade novel mystery novel mystery novels mystery series nonfiction novel novels Oz pandemic picture book picture books poetry poetry collection President Jimmy Carter Promising Pages Reading Aloud The Independent Picture House urban fantasy used books Verse & Vino Writers young adult fantasy novel

science fiction/fantasy community

Gail Z. Martin and the Launching of ConTinual

August 24, 2020 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

As one of Charlotte’s most prominent writers of fantasy novels, Gail Z. Martin is a frequent guest/speaker at fantasy conventions.  This time of the year, Gail is usually making plans to attend Dragon Con, the giant fantasy convention that normally takes place in downtown Atlanta during the Labor Day weekend.  For Gail, participating in Dragon Con provides her with an opportunity to promote her latest fantasy novels, and she has several new novels to promote this year, including Sellsword’s Oath, the second volume of her new and critically acclaimed Assassins of Landria epic fantasy series.  This year, however, Dragon Con has been turned into a virtual event because of the coronavirus pandemic.  In fact, all of the fantasy conventions in the region have been cancelled or converted into online events.  For Gail and all of the other fantasy writers and fans who normally flock to these conventions, the shuttering of these events has been a tremendous disappointment.

Anyone who knows Gail would not be surprised to learn that she quickly resolved not to let a measly global pandemic stop her from interacting with her fans and collaborating with her fellow authors.  As soon as she realized that Dragon Con and the other area fantasy conventions would have to cancel their in-person gatherings this year, Gail decided to launch ConTinual, an innovative, ongoing, online experience for fantasy writers and fans.  ConTinual has its roots in Charlotte,but it has already attracted attention in fandom circles from around the country.  I recently contacted Gail and asked her to provide me with an account of ConTinual’s origin story.  Here is what she sent to me:

Creating an online, ongoing event bridging a variety of fandoms isn’t a one-person task—it takes a village. Having the idea is the easy part—bringing all the pieces together requires the dedicated commitment of many people.

That’s important to keep front and center, because while I had the idea for ConTinual (the online, ongoing, multi-genre convention that never ends), and I’m its biggest cheerleader and its official ‘face’, I couldn’t do it without a fantastic operating committee of volunteers as well as all of the many, many authors, performers, musicians, vendors, readers, fans, and attendees who make it all happen.

I write epic fantasy, urban fantasy and more as Gail Z. Martin; and as Morgan Brice, I write urban fantasy MM paranormal romance. I’m based in Charlotte, where I live with my husband and frequent co-author Larry N. Martin and our two dogs. I’ve been very involved in NC-based fandom for more than a decade, and in normal years, I’m a guest author/panelist at sci-fi/fantasy and romance conventions up and down the East Coast (and sometimes even farther afield).

One thing I had noticed last year was that Romance authors had a more active and accessible online network of bloggers/reviewers than the science fiction/fantasy community. I’ve seen how valuable that active online network can be to readers and authors, and I had been musing about how we might create something like that to bring multiple fandoms/genres together online, since people read a variety of kinds of books and like a lot of the same movies/shows. (I’m also a huge fan of the TV show Supernatural).

Then I was at Disney World the week everything shut down. Book and fandom conventions both big and small were cancelled. And it hit me that there weren’t going to be conventions for a long while. I’d been talking with Charlotte-based authors John Hartness, Jim McArthur, Theresa Glover, and Nancy Northcott as well as VA/MD-based authors Jeanne Adams and Jean Marie Ward about how fantasy/SF needed to build the kind of online infrastructure that Romance had, and broaden it to include a larger range of fans. 

It seemed like the Great Pause would be a perfect time to build an online community, because authors/creators needed an outlet and were at loose end and thus available to do Zoom panels, online readings, performances and more. We also had a ready audience that was bored and looking for diversion. I didn’t just want to do something temporary. I wanted to build an ongoing platform/event/community to last long after the pandemic.

So before breakfast one day while I was still on vacation, I set up the ConTinual Facebook group, and asked one of my cover artists, Natania Barron, to create a logo. And then I messaged my friends and said, “Hey guys, I just did a thing….” 

They came in as the original operating committee. We started to plan discussion topics and reach out to our fairly extensive personal networks of authors, musicians, performers, and more to record panels, add programming, and think about how we could make ConTinual a great experience for everyone and keep it going long after the ‘current unpleasantness’ fades. We’re currently building out a website, as well as content on YouTube, Discord and Twitch. Right now, we’re focusing hard on holiday programming, to add some geeky good will to the upcoming season. We hope to be constantly evolving and growing, so that there’s always something new.  Anyone who wants to learn more about ConTinual should click on the following link:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/ConTinual/?tn-str=*F

Launching ConTinual has been a challenging project for Gail, but it has not diverted her from her many writing projects.  One of Charlotte’s more prolific authors, Gail is especially well known for her fantasy adventure novels.  She has published more than 30 novels and short story collections, not counting the ten or so novels that she has co-written with her husband, Larry Martin. For more information about Gail’s many books, please click on the following link:  https://ascendantkingdoms.com/  As Gail sees it, launching ConTinual and writing her fantasy novels are not really separate activities—they are more like different sides of her role as a player in the larger drama that is Storied Charlotte. 

Tags: book and fandom conventionsepic fantasyfandomfantasy adventure novelsRomance authorsscience fiction/fantasy communityurban fantasy
Skip to toolbar
  • Log In