Newsy Bits

As we come into my favourite season; Autumn, I'll be busy with events, releases and new work. I've a new Strangely Beautiful series release in A Midwinter Fantasy, huzzah, and I'm very excited to be working with some of the crew of Unhallowed Metropolis on upcoming ventures.
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Around and About, or, My Writer Friends are Awesome:
1. Congratulations to my friend, colleague and Lady Jane's Salon co-founder Hope Tarr who launched Beer Gardens NYC, an awesome App that gives you the rundown on all the Beer Gardens in the Big Apple, so very useful for tourists and natives alike, be sure to check it out, the upgrades they have planned are as great as the App itself already is. Having had such a wonderful experience with tasty beers while visiting Germany, I'm so excited to have a way to find those brews here in my city! They've gotten a mention on The Gothamist already, yay! For their latest news, fan them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter. (And the App is a $1.99 well-spent)
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2. Congratulations to my friend and colleague Stella Price who, in the midst of the superhuman feat of organizing Authors After Dark Paranormal Weekend has managed to release the latest in Stella and Audra Price's American Satyr series, and since she hasn't had time to promote her really fun work as best she'd like to- considering she's so incredibly trying to make all of us Authors After Dark authors look good- the least we can do in return is tell everyone about it, so check out her latest!
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3. I'm very excited about the signed ARC of Skyler White's IN DREAMS BEGIN that I picked up from Skyler herself at DragonCon. We were on the Angels in Fantasy Literature panel together and she's so lovely, and the subject mattter of this book deals with one of my favourite authors, the poet Yeats, so I'm very excited to read the rest of it AND very excited to be hosting a giveaway of this lovely work via Twitter. Join me there to be sure you don't miss it, as this is a book not to be missed.
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4. And a huge THANKS to photographer and woman-of-many-talents Jessica M. Coen for her amazing photos of DragonCon, several of which include me (like this one), and all of which I love. Her Flickr account is full of delightful things, especially for those of you interested in STEAMPUNK...

(And for those of you who missed my gushing DragonCon ode to Doctor Who fangirl love, please see my previous post, "Being Romana")
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5. Katiebabs of Babbling About Books (mega-congrats to Kate on her many book contracts this year!!) knows the coolest people. She introduced me to Brian Solomon and thusly to his blog, The Vault of Horror. It is so full of awesome win. Visit it and enjoy!
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6. And lastly, while I wish I could call author Caleb Carr my friend, I just have to say that I finished The Alienist and it may be one of my favourite books of all time. Dr. Kreizler has nestled himself into my personal canon of literary loves.

Newsy Bits on Leanna in particular:

I am VERY thrilled an honoured to be named the 2010 RWA NYC Author of the Year on Thursday! Thank you RWA NYC and to all the people who made this amazing year possible for me in so many ways.
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Regarding A Midwinter Fantasy:
Please note that due to changes at Dorchester Publishing, this anthology will release digitally (eBook) ONLY. I am sad about this change, as I like having my work in every format possible, because I have readers who like all the different formats and this limits my ability to do signings for this particular work. Moving forward with Dorchester, the rest of the series should be available in Trade Paperback Format but that transition isn't coming in time for this release. If you were one of the wonderful fans who pre-ordered this title, I thank you for your support, your accounts shouldn't be charged as the item scheduled to ship actually won't exist. Double check and if you have any concerns, I'd try and contact customer service and any other questions to Dorchester directly.
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I do hope you'll be willing to join Rebecca, Michael and the whole Guard coterie in "A Christmas Carroll" on September 28th, Midwinter Fantasy's release day, in digital format. I'll have a small "Christmas Carroll" blog tour right around release day so stay tuned for that, and also, on release day I'll be posting an excerpt from the novella. It picks up directly between where the last chapter of The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker ends, and the Epilogue. It is the "Christmas miracle" to which Percy refers. - As for the rest of the Strangely Beautiful series, it's scheduled to be both in print and in digital simultaneously, so we won't have this problem going forward, it's just that A Midwinter Fantasy got caught amidst the transition. (Ohioans: Please note: I will be in Ohio October 9th to teach my Direct Your Book! Workshop for the wonderful OVRWA Chapter in Cincinnati.)
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Other works:
1. Thrilled to report that my "Marketing Smackdown" column that I write for RWA NYC Keynotes newsletter has now been picked up by many regional RWA newsletters, even in Canada! Very glad all my in-the-trenches and trial-by-fire marketing knowledge has been taken as useful by many RWA Chapters.
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2. I'm very excited to be joining the team of Unhallowed Metropolis for some fun fiction involving their incredibly awesome RPG game of "Neo-Victorian Horror" - stay tuned this fall for more details!

Happy September!