Midwestern fun, Top Ten honours, and Audio Books!

Greetings from the great Midwest! I'm enjoying my trip to Milwaukee WI to visit my dearest's family.

I had an awesome time speaking to the Wisconsin RWA (Milwaukee Branch) - where the kind and talented Edie Ramer has been such a gracious contact, peer and friend of the Strangely Beautiful series - I gave my workshop about merging theatre techniques into writing novels, a subject I'm very passionate about. I believe it resonated with this wonderful group, I had an incredible time.

Here are a few respective rundowns! Edie wrote a gorgeous post about it at one of my favourite blogs, Magical Musings. The fabulous Liz Kreger (one of my new inspirations) wrote about the meeting (I was so grateful to have found her- as you read in her post, I was wandering), as did Elle J Rossi, and Casey Clifford, ladies I was very pleased to meet. The group was full of great ideas, energy, and talent from every corner of the room, it was lovely to be counted in their number for a morning. I'm thrilled that my workshop seems to have made an impact!

And then I was off to a booksigning with Casey Clifford at the Greendale Waldenbooks. I do dearly love booksignings and the chance to connect with other authors and readers. I was so thrilled to be there with Casey and have the company during the lulls. Lots of books were sold and we both had wonderful support from family, new writer friends and shoppers who thought our books looked interesting. And, well... they are. I can't wait to dive into Casey's Black Ribbon Affair!

Today I had the honour of speaking to the Creative Writing department of the Milwaukee High School of the Arts, my sweetheart's alma mater. What a wonderful group of talented teens. I think arts education is vitally important, and I love the opportunity to tell talented writers to never give up on their dreams, no matter what.

News!
Recent news has me quite thrilled. The inimitable Barbara Vey of Publishers Weekly held a Readers Poll at her popular Beyond Her Book blog of the Best Books of 2009. And The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker made the Top Ten list! Thanks friends and fans who have truly loved this book and have gone the extra mile to spread the word and to so vocally support it! I owe you such gratitude for such an awesome honour to be listed here among some really talented authors. Very exciting!

No More Grumpy Bookseller has listed Miss Percy Parker as a favourite of 2009! Thanks Becky!

AND...
THE STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL TALE OF MISS PERCY PARKER has gone AUDIO!!! I'm so excited, I can't wait to hear it! I'm surprised at the average industry price of audio books, but it's available in two formats (Audio CD / MP3 CD) with two different price structures, so I hope you'll check it out!

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I hope everyone has a beautiful Thanksgiving! I'll be rocking the Tofurkey! :) I'm feeling very thankful for all the blessings in my life, and I hope the season brings everyone a warm and thourough joy and a ceaceless multitude of blessings- the least of which being some freaking awesome pumpkin pie...

Blessings from Brew City, Milwaukee, and I hope you'll share with me some of your blessings!

The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker

Well friends,

Thanks to Book Blogger extraordinaire Katiebabs for breaking this lovely news first.
The Strangely Beautiful sequel has a title, and, in my humble opinion, a gorgeous cover. Are you ready for the next installment in the Strangely Beautiful series? I am! Honestly, April 27 2010 will be here before we know it! Right?

In the meantime, may I present to you THE DARKLY LUMINOUS FIGHT FOR PERSEPHONE PARKER (April 27, 2010 from Leisure / Dorchester):

The full cover layout includes my awesome Booklist and Publisher's Weekly reviews on the top:

From the Back Cover of The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker:

With radiant, snow white skin and hair, Percy Parker was a beacon for Fate. True love had found her, in the tempestuous form of Professor Alexi Rychman. But her mythic destiny was not complete. Accompanying the ghosts with which she alone could converse, new and terrifying omens loomed. A war was coming, a desperate ploy of a spectral host. Victorian London would be overrun. Yet, Percy kept faith. Within the mighty bastion of Athens Academy, alongside The Guard whose magic shielded mortals from the agents of the Underworld, she counted herself among friends. Wreathed in hallowed fire, they would stand together, no matter what dreams or nightmares—might come.
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And in the very good news category, it has been confirmed that in its first two weeks, The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker hit #26 in Mass Market on Barnes & Noble's Bestseller list and #32 overall! That means the Strangely Beautiful series is officially bestselling!

Thanks to all of you for your support! Stay tuned as upcoming excerpts from THE DARKLY LUMINOUS FIGHT FOR PERSEPHONE PARKER will post and a new book trailer will be up in December!

Blessings!

Halloween with Miss Percy Parker

Hello friends!

Well it has certainly been a glorious time for costuming in my world. You may recall in my last post that I was going to dress up as Miss Percy Parker, the heroine of my Strangely Beautiful series for my favourite day of the year, Halloween. Friends and I went to Dances of Vice for the big Hallows day - I love these people, they really know how to throw a cross-genre, history lovers' party. Now I did have pictures done professionally at the venue, however those are going to take a while to get to me, so in the meantime, from my not professional camera, may I present to you, Miss Percy Parker! And special guest (and really good sport of a boyfriend) Professor Alexi Rychman (Imagine him with longer hair, a bit older, and it's about right...) :

What was really incredible was to see how people reacted to me- to Percy. It being Halloween aside, when people expect outlandish looks, I still really had a sense of what she goes through. Especially when I would look people in the eyes with those ice-blue contacts I'm wearing, there were gazes of fascination, curiosity, outright shudders as I met their gaze- It confirmed all the little daggers of not being able to belong, of being a curiosity, all those little hurts that en masse would indeed make a sweet girl quite shy and withdrawn. And make the man that loved her all the more special. Stay tuned for the professional shot, I saw the proof that night - it's gorgeous.
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As always, The Great Pumpkin Blaze in the Historic Hudson Valley was one of my favourite events of the year. Thanks to Biz of Biz Urban Photography for this unique shot!

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In film/tv news, I got to see a real live movie car crash on The Adjustment Bureau where I worked again, this time as a stand-in. Must admit, that was pretty cool. Happy to report Matt Damon continues to be a prince of a man, dedicated to his craft, and lookin' good.

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In Miss Percy Parker news:
She's a Recommended Read at CK2s Kwips and Kritiques!

Thanks Debbie!

AND The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker has been chosen as a Hidden Gem of 2009 by Rhapsody Book Club! This is really exciting and great national exposure for the Strangely Beautiful series. I'll be doing an audio excerpt of the book for their site to go up at the end of November so stay tuned!

Blessings to all!