Saturday, March 24, 2012

COVER REVEAL: US edition of WILLFUL IMPROPRIETY

Cover reveal! Here's the Running Press US edition of the GORGEOUS cover for WILLFUL IMPROPRIETY: 13 Tales of Society, Scandal and Romance
Releasing Sept. 4th 2012 in the US (Pre-Order here from Barnes & Noble) - Release in the UK from Constable & Robinson TBA
Edited by Ekaterina Sedia
Foreword by Scott Westerfeld


Again, I'm thrilled to be in such awesome company!

Revised TOC:

AT WILL by Leanna Renee Hieber

THE UNLADYLIKE EDUCATION OF AGATHA TREMAIN by Stephanie Burgis

NUSSBAUM’S GOLDEN FORTUNE by M. K. Hobson

THE COLONEL’S DAUGHTER by Barbara Roden

MERCURY RETROGRADE by Mary Robinette Kowal

FALSE COLOURS by Marie Brennan

MRS BEETON’S BOOK OF MAGICKAL MANAGEMENT by Karen Healey

THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS by Caroline Stevermer

THE DANCING MASTER by Genevieve Valentine

THE GARDEN OF ENGLAND by Sandra McDonald

RESURRECTION by Tiffany Trent

OUTSIDE THE ABSOLUTE by Seth Cadin

STEEPED IN DEBT TO THE CHIMNEY POTS by Steve Berman

Here's the cover copy from Barnes and Noble:
"Extravagant, alluring, and unabashedly romantic, this anthology of YA historical romances includes stories from some of today’s hottest teen authors, both bestselling and on the rise. Magnificent ballrooms, expansive estates, carriages, and dark alleys set the scene for strong-willed heroines running the gamut from wallflowers to undercover spies to heiresses. Wealth, history, glamour, and romance combine in this thick and inviting paperback."

My story, "At Will", features a talented young Shakespearean actress who is brought to London to play both Shakespeare's heroines AND heroes. She's the only one who really knows her own gender as she becomes a source of gossip, fascination and scandal.

This will be a nice release to look forward to in September as we make our way to November and the release of THE TWISTED TRAGEDY OF MISS NATALIE STEWART... I hope to have a cover reveal for the next Magic Most Foul book for you soon! Blessings!

Thursday, March 22, 2012

The NYC Teen Author Festival!


NYC Teen Author Festival

I am SO excited to be a part of the NYC Teen Author Festival next week! Please note I'll be taking part in The Writer as Time Traveler panel on Friday at 3pm at the 42nd street NYPL and signing at Books of Wonder on Sunday in the 1:45 group. Here's the full schedule:

Monday, March 26 (Mulberry Street Branch of the NYPL, 10 Jersey Street b/w Mulberry and Lafayette, 6-8):
Plotting Dangerously: Doing What it Takes to Find the Story

Coe Booth
Jen Calonita
Paul Griffin
Deborah Heiligman
Melissa Kantor
Morgan Matson
Kieran Scott
Melissa Walker
Moderator: David Levithan

Tuesday, March 27 (McNally Jackson Bookstore, 52 Prince Street, 7-8:30):
The Mutual Admiration Society Reading

Madeleine George
Ellen Hopkins
David Levithan
Jennifer Smith
John Corey Whaley

Wednesday. March 28 (42nd St NYPL, Bergen Forum, 6-8):
Things Fall Apart: World Building and World Destroying in YA

Anna Carey
Sarah Beth Durst
Anne Heltzel
Jeff Hirsch
Andy Marino
Lauren McLaughlin
Lissa Price
Jon Skovron
Moderator: Chris Shoemaker

Thursday, March 29: The NYC Big Read

(See the FB page for further school / library details, all 5 boroughs included)

Friday March 30, Symposium (42nd Street NYPL, 2-6) 

2:00 – Introduction
2:10-3:00: Being Friends With Boys
Elizabeth Eulberg
Jenny Han
Terra Elan McVoy
Stephanie Perkins
Moderator: Sarah Mlynowski

3:00-3:50: The Writer as Time Traveler: Writing the Past While Sitting in the Present

Judy Blundell
Matthew Cody
Jennifer Donnelly
Leanna Renee Hieber

Suzanne Weyn
Moderator: David Levithan

3:50-4:40: No Ordinary Love: How to Create a Satisfying Love Story and a Satisfying Supernatural World at the Same Time

Andrea Cremer
Melissa de la Cruz
Jeri Smith-Ready
Victoria Schwab
Margaret Stohl
Moderator: Barry Lyga

4:40-5:30: New Voices Spotlight

Emily Danforth
Kate Ellison
Lucas Klauss
Carley Moore
Aleica Whittaker

Friday March 30, Barnes & Noble Reader’s Theater/Signing (Union Square B&N, 33 E 17th St, 7-8:30)

Andrea Cremer
Emily Danforth
Lucas Klauss
Stephanie Perkins
Siobhan Vivian
John Corey Whaley
Moderator: David Levithan

Saturday March 31, Symposium (42nd Street NYPL, 1-5)1:00 – Introduction
1:10-2:00 – Rising to the Challenge: YA Characters Facing Down What Life Throws Them
Tara Altebrando
Matt Blackstone
Susane Colasanti
Kody Keplinger
Siobhan Vivian
K.M. Walton
Moderator: David Levithan

2:00-2:50 -- Killer Instincts: Death, Murder, and the YA NovelJennifer Lynn Barnes
Gina Damico
Kim Harrington
Barry Lyga
Moderator: Marie Rutkoski

2:50-4:00 -- Moments of Truth: Characters at a CrossroadsNatasha Friend
Margie Gelbwasser
Jennifer Hubbard
Stewart Lewis
Sarah Darer Littman
Jess Rothenberg
Daisy Whitney
Moderator: E. Lockhart

4:00-5:00 – Looking Forward to FallDavid Levithan
Marie Rutkoski
Eliot Schrefer
…and more authors reading from their upcoming books

Sunday April 1: Our No-Foolin’ Mega-Signing at Books of Wonder (Books of Wonder, 1-4):  

1-1:45:
Jennifer Barnes (Every Other Day, Egmont)
Matt Blackstone (A Scary Scene in a Scary Movie, FSG)
Caroline Bock (LIE, St. Martin’s)
Jen Calonita (Belles, Little Brown)
Anna Carey (Eve, Harper)
Susane Colasanti (So Much Closer, Penguin)
Andrea Cremer (Bloodrose, Penguin)
Gina Damico (Croak, HMH)
Emily Danforth (The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Harper)
Jocelyn Davies (A Beautiful Dark, Harper)
Sarah Beth Durst (Drink, Slay, Love, S&S)
Elizabeth Eulberg (Take a Bow, Scholastic)
Gayle Forman (Where She Went, Penguin)
Natasha Friend (For Keeps, Penguin)
Kim Harrington (Perception, Scholastic)
Barry Lyga (I Hunt Killers, Little Brown)
Daisy Whitney (The Rivals, Little Brown)

1:45-2:30

Margie Gelbwasser (Pieces of Us, Flux)
Alissa Grosso (Popular, Flux)
Jenny Han (We’ll Always Have Summer, S&S)
Leanna Renee Hieber (Darker Still, Sourcebooks)
Anne Heltzel (Circle Nine, Candlewick)
Jeff Hirsch (The Eleventh Plague, Scholastic)
Jennifer Hubbard (Try Not to Breathe, Penguin)
Melissa Jensen (The Fine Art of True or Dare, Penguin)
PG Kain (Famous for Thirty Seconds, S&S)
Melissa Kantor (The Darlings in Love, Hyperion)
Kody Keplinger (Shut Out, Little Brown)
Lucas Klauss (Everything You Need to Survive the Apocalypse, S&S)
David Levithan (Every You, Every Me, RH)
Stewart Lewis (You Have Seven Messages, RH)
Sarah Darer Littman (Want to Go Private?, Scholastic)
Elisa Ludwig (Pretty Crooked, S&S)

2:30-3:15
Carolyn Mackler (The Future of Us, Penguin)
Andy Marino (Unison Spark, FSG)
Wendy Mass (13 Gifts, Scholastic)
Terra Elan McVoy (The Summer of Firsts and Lasts, S&S)
Lauren McLaughlin (Scored, RH)
Sarah Mlynowski (Ten Things We Did, RH)
Carley Moore (The Stalker Chronicles, FSG)
E. C. Myers (Fair Coin, Pyr)
Michael Northrop (Plunked, Scholastic)
Micol Ostow (What Would My Cell Phone Do?, Penguin)
Stephanie Perkins (Lola and the Boy Next Door, Penguin)
Jessica Rotherberg (The Catastrophic History of You and Me, Penguin)
Marie Rutkoski (The Jewel of the Kalderash, FSG)
Erin Saldin (The Girls of No Return, Scholastic)
Leila Sales (Past Perfect, S&S)
Kieran Scott (He’s So Not Worth It, S&S)

3:15-4:00
Melissa De La Cruz (Lost in Time, Hyperion)
Alyssa Sheinmel, (The Lucky Kind, RH)
Jennifer Smith (The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, Little Brown)
Jeri Smith-Ready (Shift, S&S)
Jon Skovron (Misfit, Abrams)
Victoria Schwab (The Near Witch, Hyperion)
Mark Shulman (Are You Normal?, National Geographic)
Margaret Stohl (Beautiful Chaos, Little Brown)
Arlaina Tibensky (And Then Things Fell Apart, S&S)
Siobhan Vivian (The List, Scholastic)
Melissa Walker (Small Town Sinners, Bloomsbury)
K.M. Walton (Cracked, S&S)
John Corey Whaley (Where Things Come Back, S&S)
Alecia Whitaker (The Queen of Kentucky, Little Brown)
Maryrose Wood (The Unseen Guest, Harper)
Natalie Zaman and Charlotte Bennardo (Sirenz, Flux)

Hope to see you there! Support amazing YA fiction! Can't make it but want a signed copy of DARKER STILL from Books of Wonder? Click here.

Cheers!

Friday, March 9, 2012

Fantasy on the Bayou: In Which I am Called A Vampire

The first FF and P (Futuristic, Fantasy and Paranormal) national conference, the "Fantasy on the Bayou" kicked-off in New Orleans this past weekend, and it was a delight.
The first special interest chapter I joined when I first became an RWA member and began networking in the paranormal and fantasy realm was FF and P. I'll never forget my first Gathering at Nationals when I won my first PRISM award, where everyone was so wonderful, everyone was so kind and on my same wavelength, I knew I'd found "my people". And I'll always belong to FF and P. I may not have time to be as active on the loop as I wish I could be, but what was so wonderful about the conference was being present with "my people" in person. Big shout-out to local paranormal author Dawn Chartier who took such good care of me from the get-go - I truly wouldn't have made it there without her, and huge thanks to the entire conference team for such a pleasant event on all counts. The lovely and talented Kerri Nelson also has a great rundown on her blog.

Here's what was great about the Fantasy on the Bayou: Um. New Orleans, for starters. New Orleans is one of my "magic special places", much like London, a place where the spirits of the city open their arms to me and say "welcome home". I'm going to set a novel there, and have several ideas percolating. It's an inspiring and gorgeous city, a dreamland for a lil' Goth girl like me.

The con: I was SO impressed by the level of programming, there were so many interesting and impressive offerings that the only problem I found was not being able to be in two places at once. I tried to juggle a bit of writing research (I'm going to set a future project there), beignet eating (a crime not to), and catching up with friends amidst wanting to soak up as much conference programming as possible. I enjoyed everything, from a valuable Editor / Agent panel to Terry Spear's discussion of Conflict, to keynote guest Maggie Shayne just being flat out amazing, down-to-earth, talented and kind, to Ursula Whistler explaining the science behind the physical effects of attraction - FASCINATING and brilliantly presented. I wish I could have seen everyone's presentations, but darn that inability to be in two places at once.

I had the joy of presenting Steampunk / Gaslight Fantasy 101 and my Direct Your Book: Theatrical Techniques to a Blockbuster Novel workshops, and as always, presenting and workshopping are some of my favorite parts of being a writer. I get so invigorated by panels and by sharing with and learning from others. I also really appreciated some quality time with the wonderful agents and editors the conference brought in. What wonderful company.

Our ghost / vampire tour ROCKED, we had an amazing tour guide (also a writer) and saw some seriously spine-tingling sights. And as I walked beneath the gaslight in my Neo-Victorian regalia, again, it was magic and I was home.

I adored being able to catch up with some beloved authors who I just never see enough of (*poke poke* Angie, Amanda, Maggie) and we managed to "haunt" a couple of New Orleans famous establishments (and they haunted us). I had the best Absinthe of my life in Pirate's Alley and the next night local brew and local ghosts (seriously, major ghost action) at Lafitte's Blacksmith shop, oldest continually operating bar in the country. (1720).

And the book-signing was an additional blast, I sold lots of copies of DARKER STILL: A Novel of Magic Most Foul and talked up the sequel coming this November from Sourcebooks, THE TWISTED TRAGEDY OF MISS NATALIE STEWART. More creepy Gothic goodness with heartfelt characters coming your way soon!

Needless to say, I didn't really want to leave my home away from home, New Orleans, but I was consoled by the fact I'll be back in August for Authors After Dark! Yay!

So kudos, FF and P Board and Conference Committee, for being lovely and charming and making me feel just as at home as New Orleans makes me feel.

Oh, and PS. A Highlight:
As you know, I take rabid joy in my Neo-Victorian wardrobe that ranges somewhere between casual Goth / Victorian to full blown regalia, depending on the day. It isn't really costuming, it's me. I also walk really fast even for a New Yorker. Transplant me to the slow and relaxed South? I appear as though I am moving with preternatural speed when at my normal pace.


So imagine, dear reader, I am walking at dusk along Jackson Square, dressed in a long black velvet coat with capped sleeves and corseting on each side, tall black boots, black corset, my black raven choker and black roses pinning up my hair, all beneath the beautiful gas lit sconces of the French Quarter. I pass a gaggle of teenagers. One elbows another, another claps hands over their mouth, another says as I pass: "Ohmygod. That was a LEGIT vampire!"

Made my weekend. Thanks, FF and P, much love, sincerely,
 
Leanna Renee Hieber, author, Legit Vampire

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Apocalypsies Feature: E. C. Meyers

Welcome to my next APOCALYPSIES Debut feature starring E. C. Meyers!

In this feature I ask a bit about these fabulous debut novels and of course something about fluffy animals and ghosts because this is my blog after all, and I'm nothing if not true to my themes...

Welcome E. C. and his fabulous new book!


Shop Indie Bookstores


Title: Fair Coin

Release Date: March 6, 2012 - Today!

Synopsis:
Sixteen-year-old Ephraim Scott is horrified when he comes home from school and finds his mother unconscious at the kitchen table, clutching a bottle of pills. The reason for her suicide attempt is
even more disturbing: she thought she’d identified Ephraim’s body at the hospital that day.

Among his dead double’s belongings, Ephraim finds a strange coin—a coin that grants wishes when he flips it. With a flick of his thumb, he can turn his alcoholic mother into a model parent and catch the eye of the girl he’s liked since second grade. But the coin doesn’t always change things for the better. And a bad flip can destroy other people’s lives as easily as it rebuilds his own.

The coin could give Ephraim everything he’s ever wanted—if he learns to control its power before his luck runs out.

LRH: Your Fave thing about your book:

E.C.: You mean other than the fact that it's finally out in the world? I'm really pleased that my protagonist has a good relationship with his mother, and that this is something many readers appreciate so far. I think Fair Coin breaks with some YA conventions, such as the missing or dead parents, and it straddles some lines. That makes it a weird book indeed, but it's exactly the story I wanted to tell.

LRH: Your Fave fluffy animal:

E. C.: Red panda! It's like an adorable mix of a raccoon, a panda, and a fox.

LRH: If you were a ghost, where would you haunt?:

E. C.: The Jefferson Market branch of the New York Public Library. I'm assuming that I'll be able to manipulate objects so I can read all the books there, but even if not, I want to be around people who love books as much as I do. I would also enjoy just hanging around that beautiful building, and something tells me I'd have a lot of ghostly company there.

(Leanna says: OMG this is one of my fave responses I've received to that question. You rock, E. C.)

Website, Twitter, FB links:

Website: http://ecmyers.net/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ecmyers
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/flipthecoin


Cheers and congratulations on release day!

Friday, March 2, 2012

Anthology Announcement: Queen Victoria's Book of Spells: Tales of Gaslight Fantasy

NEW ANTHOLOGY ANNOUNCEMENT: Close on the heels of announcing that my story "At Will" will lead off the anthology WILFUL IMPROPRIETY: 13 Tales of Society and Scandal (Constable & Robinson / Running Press, release date TBA)...
I am beside myself with ANOTHER anthology announcement appearance. My story "Charged" will be in... *drumroll*

QUEEN VICTORIA'S BOOK OF SPELLS: TALES OF GASLIGHT FANTASY
Edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, published by TOR Books (Early 2013, release date TBA)

Um... I really don't have ANY WORDS for how excited this list makes me.

Table of Contents
Preface Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
Introduction Terri Windling
The Fairy Enterprise by Jeffrey Ford
From the Catalogue of the Pavilion of the Uncanny and Marvelous, Scheduled for Premiere at the Great Exhibition (Before the Fire) by Genevieve Valentine
The Memory Book by Maureen McHugh
Queen Victoria ’s Book of Spells by Delia Sherman
La Reine D’Enfer by Kathe Koja
For the Briar Rose by Elizabeth Wein
The Governess by Elizabeth Bear
Smithfield by James P. Blaylock
The Unwanted Women of Surrey by Kaaron Warren
Charged by Leanna Renee Hieber
Mr. Splitfoot by Dale Bailey
Phosphorus by Veronica Schanoes
We Without Us Were Shadows by Catherynne M. Valente
The Vital Importance of the Superficial by Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stevermer
The Jewel in the Toad Queen’s Crown by Jane Yolen
A Few Twigs He Left Behind by Gregory Maguire
Their Monstrous Minds by Tanith Lee
Estella Saves the Village by Theodora Goss
---
And there was much rejoicing. *huzzah!*

Seriously, I can't wait for you all to see this, and for you to meet Mr. Mosley of "Charged", who is, I confess, dangerously preoccupied far more with electricity than gaslight. I'm in some darn thrilling company here. Obviously, I'll share more news as it comes, but if you want to put it on your Goodreads To-Read list, someone graciously already put it up there.

Cheers!