LunaCon 2012

Lunacon Weekend has finally arrived!  New York's oldest science fiction and fantasy convention starts this Friday, March 16.  I'll be there the entire weekend, along with fellow Hadley Rille Books authors Terri-Lynne DeFino and Lawrence M. Schoen. Guests of Honor for Lunacon include John Ringo, Howard Tayler, Tamora Pierce, and Andy & Kristin Looney. 

I was very excited to learn this past weekend that I've been assigned to several panels and events.  Here's my schedule for the con:

Saturday, May 17

12:00pm -- Hadley Rille Books Authors Panel.  Terri-Lynne DeFino will also be on this panel, as will Hugo Award nominee Lawrence M. Schoen.  The panel will be in William Odelle, and we will follow up with an autograph session afterwards at 1:00pm in Westchester Assembly.

5:00pm -- Ecology of Fantasy Worlds.  I'll be moderating this panel discussion.  Our panelists will include Lawrence Kramer, John J. Pierce and Laura Anne Gilman.  Look for us in William Odelle.

7:00pm -- Reading.  I haven't decided what I'm going to read yet.  It may be an excerpt from Eolyn, or one of my short stories.  Or maybe I'll give a sneak preview of High Maga, the companion novel to Eolyn that is currently in the works.  Look for me in Bartell, and feel free to tell me what you'd like to hear!

Sunday, May 18

10:00am -- The Alternate Regency.  Okay, I admit I don't know what the focus of this panel will be.  Which means it's a good thing I'm not the one moderating.  But I'll be sitting at the table with something to say, along with Byron P. Connell, Meredith Schwartz, and Susan de Guardiola.  Look for us in Birch.

11:00am -- Creating Believable Fantasy Animals.  This one's mine, all mine, to moderate.  Bwahahahaha!  Panelists will include Keira Sokolowski, Robert J. Howe, and fellow Hadley Rille author Lawrence M. Schoen.  We'll be in Birch.

That's my schedule.  Other than these activities, I'll be attending as many panels and meeting as many people as I can, hopefully adding some excellent reads to my list, getting a few books autographed, and all and all finishing the weekend happier than I started it.

If you're planning to go to Lunacon, please stop by and say hi.  If you would like to view Terri-Lynne DeFino's schedule, it's available on our LunaCon Schedule Page at Heroines of Fantasy. 

Speaking of Heroines of Fantasy, I'm up this week with a post on tears and crying.  When and under what circumstances is crying acceptable for our fantasy heroes and heroines?  Stop by to read my take and please, share yours.  Here's the link:  No Woman No Cry.   Looking forward to seeing you there.

Welcome March, and Welcome Spring!



Pre-Launch for Eolyn at Avila University
April 2010

 I'd like to update you on a couple exciting events that are just around the corner. 

The weekend of March 16-18 is LunaCon, the 55th Annual Convention of the New York Science Fiction and Fantasy Society. 

This will be my first LunaCon ever, and I am very excited.  

Guests of Honor this year include John Ringo, Howard Taylor, Tamora Pierce and Andy & Kristin Looney.  I'm especially looking forward to seeing Tamora Pierce again, who was also the guest of honor last year at Kansas City's own ConQuest. 

At least two other Hadley Rille Books authors will be attending:  Hugo Award nominee Lawrence M. Schoen, author of Buffalito Destiny and Buffalito Contingency, and Terri-Lynne DeFino, author of Finder and the soon-to-be-released A Time Never Lived.  To find out more about LunaCon, please visit the LunaCon website.  If you are in the New York area that weekend, you must stop by to say hi!

On April 13, Hadley Rille Books will host Down To Earth 2012, a meet-the-author event at the University of Kansas Bookstore, Jayhawk Ink.  Several area authors who have published with Hadley Rille Books will attend, including James Gunn, Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master and Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas; Christopher McKitterick, Director of CSSF and author of Transcendence; and M.C. Chambers, author of Shapters' Veil.

The master of ceremonies will, of course, be the editor and founder of Hadley Rille Books, Eric T. Reynolds.

All of us will be available to answer questions about our work and sign copies of Hadley Rille Books novels and anthologies. As part of the event, Hadley Rille will launch its new anthology Aftermaths, featuring short stories set in possible futures unleashed by global climate change.  The activity starts at 4:00pm; if you're in the area, please stop by!

Last but not least:

May is Eolyn's Birthday Month!

We have planned some very special surprises and events leading up to the birthday celebration for Eolyn.  Please watch this blog, or subscribe to Eolyn's facebook page, for more information in the coming weeks.

This week on Heroines of Fantasy, our special guest is author Peadar O'Guilén.  Stop by to read his take on what fantasy readers want, and while you're at it, tell us what you want from the fantasy novels you read.  Looking forward to seeing you there.

The Magic of Flight

In Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, Serafina Pakkala, like the other witches in her world, achieves the power of flight with branches of Cloud Pine.  I really liked this idea when I read the trilogy, and so adapted it for Eolyn's world. 

Flying is not nearly as easy for the Magas as it is for Serafina Pakkala.  (Nor, for that matter, is it as easy for them as it is for Harry Potter and his friends.)  It requires integrating the power of the staff of High Magic with the magic of flight found in a particular kind of fir tree.  The fir's capacity for flight, in turn, is released by brewing together special herbs and a mushroom that appears only in spring, called white magenta.  The process is described in detail in Chapter 15 of Eolyn, when the young maga prepares to return to the land of her birth, after many years of growing up in exile and isolation. 

I'd love to be able to simply snatch a branch off a tree and lift up into the air, but me, I need a jet plane to fly.  Which isn't a bad way to do it, really.  This weekend I'll be getting on a jet plane and travelling to Europe to visit friends and family, and to pay my last respects to my maternal grandmother and all the wonderful memories she gave me during her long and fruitful life.  I'm not sure how consistent my internet access will be during my travels, so you may not see a post here for a couple weeks; say, between now and December 1. 

However, there will be a lot of exciting things happening over Thanksgiving -- some, in fact, happening right now -- that I want you to be aware of.

This week on Heroines of Fantasy, Terri-Lynne DeFino has us writing a collective story about Maia and the magic/horror of light.  Come join the fun; read the crazy twisting tale we've crafted so far, and add your own five lines as the muse inspires. 

Speaking of Terri-Lynne DeFino, the Kindle edition of her wonderful novel FINDER is being offered for a special price of $2.99.  This is a limited time offer, so take advantage of it while it lasts.  The sequel to this book, A TIME NEVER LIVED, will be available next summer, which makes now a great time to read the first book, if you haven't already.

During the week leading up to November 29, Hadley Rille Books will be celebrating its birthday with special offers on all its titles, and even giveaways -- yes, you understood correctly, FREE books -- for selected novels.  For regular updates on this great event, you can friend Eolyn on Facebook, or check in on the Hadley Rille Books website.  You may want to start browsing some of Hadley Rille's titles now. 

Next Monday on Heroines of Fantasy, author Kim Vandervort will be up with her regular monthly post.  Then, on Monday November 28, we have some very special guests:  Carlyle Clark and Suki Michelle, co-authors of the awesome sci fi and fantasy adventure, THE APOCALYPSE GENE. 

That should be enough to keep you all busy and entertained while I'm out of town.  I wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving week next week, and I look forward to seeing you back on this blog in December.

Tomorrow We Ride South Together

The title for today's post is taken form a quote out of a soon-to-be-famous book by a largely unknown author. I chose it because it marks the end of one journey and the beginning of another; a new adventure that will not be undertaken alone, but in the company of good friends who share a common vision. 

It seems an appropriate quote for this particular moment in my internet life.  Next week, I will get on my virtual horse and trot over to another corner of the e-universe to begin a new project with fellow authors and esteemed Magas Terri-Lynne DeFino (FINDER) and Kim Vandervort (THE SONG AND THE SORCERESS, THE NORTHERN QUEEN).  Our project, entitled Heroines of Fantasy, is a new blog dedicated to the discussion of fantasy fiction in general, and women in fantasy in particular.  I wrote about this last week as well; if you'd like a preview of the new blog, please click HERE. 

It's been about a year and a half since I started this blog for EOLYN, and while I'm very excited about the new project, it's a bittersweet moment to be letting go of my weekly posts on this site.  I've really enjoyed sharing the backstory of EOLYN:  the history of Moisehén, the structure of its magic, the landscape in which its people live.  It's also been fun relating the journey of publishing this novel with Hadley Rille Books.  In a very real way, this blog has documented one of the most exciting periods of my life, and to be able to share it with all of you -- to feel your support and enthusiasm while bringing my first novel to press -- has made it a truly unforgettable experience. 

To give you an idea of how far Eolyn has journeyed since I started posting, here are a few fun figures:

Since its inception in May of 2009, the blog for EOLYN has received nearly 8000 hits. 

The countries most represented in terms of visitation have been the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Costa Rica (pura vida, mis amigos Ticos!), Australia, Germany, Russia, the Netherlands, Slovenia and France. 

The top five most popular posts to date have been:

Middle Magic

Women, Epic Fantasy, and George RR Martin

The Nutcracker Prince and the Mouse King

Epic Love

Strong Female Protagonists

To learn what people are saying about EOLYN, check out the reviews on Amazon, Barnes&Noble, and Goodreads.  You can also read the full text of the Publishers Weekly review of EOLYN on this site. I have been very pleased with how people are responding to the novel; there's nothing more fulfilling for a story teller than to know you are telling a good story.

In so many ways, Eolyn's journey has only just begun, so while I will no longer be posting regularly on this blog, the story does not end here.  You can still come to this site for announcements and updates about events and signings, or friend Eolyn on Facebook to learn what con, bookstore or library I will visit next. 

In the coming weeks, I will probably reorganize this site to make the existing information more accessible to new visitors, so that http://eolynchronicles.blogspot.com/ will remain the best place to go for inside information about the novel and the world in which Eolyn lives.

And, if you would like to embark on a larger journey through magic and fantasy -- one that will include discussion not only about the world of Eolyn, but about many other worlds and their heroines besides -- please get on your virtual horse (or whatever your prefered method of fantasy transport is:  dragon, damselfly, magic carpet...) and 'ride south' with Kim, Terri and me to our new blog Heroines of Fantasy.  I know you will not be disappointed.

I want to thank everybody who has followed this blog over the last year and a half.  Your comments, support and readership have meant the world to me.  Thanks to you, the novel EOLYN is off to a grand start.  I look forward to seeing you next week at our new location, http://heroinesoffantasy.blogspot.com/, where we will begin brewing up some special magic just for you.

Something Good This Way Comes

I have some very exciting news.  In the next couple of weeks -- on September 5, to be exact -- I will be launching a new blog with fellow fantasy authors Kim Vandervort and Terri-Lynne DeFino.  Entitled Heroines of Fantasy, this will be a new forum dedicated to lively discussion of all aspects of fantasy fiction, and especially women in fantasy fiction. 

Kim, Terri and I will take turns posting, and we will bring in guest bloggers once or twice a month -- editors, authors, and artists in the field -- so be prepared for a wide variety of perspectives on and experiences with this wonderful and varied genre that we call fantasy.  We also hope that you, the reader, will take time to participate in those discussions and share your thoughts, insights and inspirations. 

As Heroines of Fantasy gathers steam, I will be moving away from regular posts on my blog for EOLYN.  This website will remain, so that readers can access it as a repository of information about the history and magic of Moisehen, as well as the writing and publishing of the novel itself.  I will also keep the list of events up-to-date, and will likely post special news bulletins once in a while.

But if you want to continue reading the kinds of posts you have seen on my blog for EOLYN on a weekly basis -- now expanded in terms of breadth of topics and diversity of perspectives --  I encourage you to visit and follow Heroines of Fantasy.  I know you will not be disappointed with everything Terri, Kim and I have planned for the new site.

A couple other news briefs for this week:

Signed copies of EOLYN will be available next weekend at Bubicon in Albequerque, NM, Aug 26-28.  Look for Who Else! Books among the vendors. 

The date and time has been set for the Dead Horse Society's Annual Reading, this year entitled Emergence.   Ten authors from this Kansas City Area speculative fiction writers group, including me, will be presenting short works on Saturday, September 10, at the Writers Place, 3607 Pennsylvania, Kansas City, Missouri.  I will be reading from a story entitled 'Born of Fire', written as part of my Spring 2011 Andrews Writers Residency.  Those of you familiar with Eolyn lore will be interested to know that 'Born of Fire' features a scene from the life of Briana, when she was a young maga as as yet untried by love and war. There will also be copies of EOLYN available for purchase and signing.  This is the third year we have done this event, and it is always a great evening with lots of wonderful story telling, so I hope you will stop by if you are in the area.

I'm starting the gear up for World Fantasy in San Diego at the end of October.  More details to come on that...

Have a great week!