Hello friends,
I've been neck deep in revisions for the second book in the ETERNA FILES series, titled ETERNA AND OMEGA, releasing August 2016, as well as the page proofs for the amazing new edition of Strangely Beautiful, releasing April 2016. (With the paperback edition of ETERNA FILES releasing Feb 2016). Working on the next Eterna and the omnibus of my first two novels, all the stories wove together in my mind in a rich, heady soup and with some of the characters crossing over from Strangely into Eterna, it was a field day of my whole book career in swirling editorial speed.
Yesterday I dove into the first draft of ETERNA book 3, as my editor at Tor and I hope to be able to release the 3rd Strangely Beautiful book and the 3rd Eterna book within the same year (2017). So I've got my work cut out for me and I love the prospects. The characters have some wonderful things in store and I can't wait to see the paces they put me through, exhausting as they can often be, and share it all with you.
I'm full of fuel and fire after the extensive revisions on ETERNA AND OMEGA, and I'm very excited about these next ETERNA installments. I'm a character-driven author and I really love what my characters and I have come to in their adventures. The cover concept is fantastic so far, with a few more tweaks ahead, I look forward to the final cover reveal.
I wanted to share a few tidbits of what I'm most excited about in the forthcoming ETERNA novel, and address a few concerns trending through some of the reviews of ETERNA book one.
If you were concerned about either the cliffhanger ending of THE ETERNA FILES, or the fact that the first novel keeps both of my X-files-like teams apart in a parallel narrative between New York and London, let me reassure you...
A FEW DELIGHTFUL THINGS TO EXPECT AND LOOK FORWARD TO IN ETERNA AND OMEGA and why nothing should dissuade you from THE ETERNA FILES:
- Picking up right where The Eterna Files left off, right at that cliffhanger ending
- The teams meet up and boy are there some fireworks...
- Really fun scenes featuring The Guard from the Strangely Beautiful saga
- A return of Miss Natalie Stewart
- Harold Spire is a badass
- Adira Wilson is a badass
- Clara Templeton comes into her Spiritualist own and takes paranormal charge
- Harold Spire creatively uses fire (to be a badass)
- One hell of a spooky parade
- Haunted, haunted houses
- Myriad perilous situations
- Mesmerism!
- Hints of fairly adorable and/or delicious romance
- Fabulous teamwork leading to inextricable bonds
If all of this sounds up your alley and you were one of those on the fence about THE ETERNA FILES, come join me in this Gothic, Gaslamp Fantasy romp full of colorful characters across New York and London in 1882, where trying to find the cure for death opens up realms far more deadly...
And yes, by the way, while the cover of ETERNA AND OMEGA isn't finalized yet, there are some tweaks to be done, it IS available for PRE-ORDER!
Cheers and as always, HAPPY HAUNTING!
P.S. Cyber Monday is almost here! You can directly support the Arts and Small Business via my Etsy shop! Coupon Code HOLIDAY15 for 15% off! Steampunk Jewelry, Gothic Jewelry, Angelic Art, Signed Books, Neo-Victorian Brooches and more!
Sunday, November 29, 2015
Monday, October 5, 2015
Updates, Asimov's Magazine Review, Appearances, Dreadpunk and more!
Darlings!
The whirlwind paces continue! DragonCon and Space Coast Comic Con were really wonderful across the board, amazing panels and audiences! I signed tons of books and sold a great deal of art! The rest of the month has seen me busy restocking and working on a few short stories, with Eterna Files book 2 edits up ahead.
This month, as you all should know, it is Halloween Awareness Month! And I'm all over New York City and the surrounding environs in really amazing capacities, whether giving ghost talks at local libraries (Hoboken, East Meadow) or signing books and selling art at amazing festivals in incredible historic, haunted locations (Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Morris Jumel Mansion) check out the upcoming APPEARANCES here on the website and come get a signed book and some one of a kind jewelry and art!
In spectacular Industry review news: I'm honoured that in the September issue of Asimov's Magazine I was given this truly incredible review for Eterna Files, I'm so humbled and in awe of the beautiful things said:
Eterna Moonshine of the Spotted Mind
The alert book-shopper will find an advance-publication quote from me adorning the front cover of Leanna Renee Hieber’s novel The Eterna Files (Tor, hardcover, $24.99, 320 pages, ISBN 978-
0-7653-5674-5). Without much real acquaintance with the author, I was motivated to provide a quote based sheerly on the high quality of the book. So I thought I would use a small amount of this column to explicate my admiration further.
The novel falls squarely into the steampunk genre, but exhibits a richer helping of metaphysics than is common in that game, and a bit more gravitas. Hieber’s MacGuffin is the quest for immortality,
surely a subject that can bear the symbolic weight. In the wake of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, a small group of eccentric talents are given the assignment of learning how to defeat death. Chief among these is our heroine, Clara Templeton, a psychic. We pick up her tale when the project is at a crisis point after many years. Several of the researchers have been brutally murdered, including Clara’s lover. Is the project doomed, or so close to success that it has aroused great powers?
Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the British government has learned of the Eterna project and decided to steal or preempt it. They have assigned London detective Harold Spire to the case, and given him the assistance of the redoubtable Rose Everhart. Needless to say, presented with such a formidable array of allies and antagonists, many sparks, supernatural and otherwise, are going to fly. Hieber’s approach to the “science” of anti-death protocols is fascinating. (She even gets in a nod to Clarke’s Third Law: “All sciences, at their zenith, create what is tantamount to sorcery.”) Blending a kind of alchemy with unique “patriotic magic,” the pursuit assumes epistemological magnitude.
Says Louis, Clara’s lover (who continues to play a role as a ghost), “The key of Eterna, ma cherie, is to determine the boundaries of meaning. Nothing that may have meaning in terms of life can be overlooked.” This is a wide remit, and eventually Clara comes to wonder if they have bitten off more than they can chew. “Eterna was full of the restless living and the restless dead. It needed to die once and for all.”
Rich in conceits as anything from Alan Moore, Hieber’s novel mixes action and the emotional lives of its characters into a fascinating stew. Anyone who enjoyed Paul Cornell’s London Falling and The
Severed Streets will certainly cozy up to Hieber’s parallel depiction of questioning savants and heroes versus the forces of anarchy and despair." Asimov’s Magazine - September 2015 - Paul Di Filippo
(More about The Eterna Files here)
--
In GENRE news: I was also really psyched to be a part of the first ever DREADPUNK panel at DragonCon, "Dreadpunk" being a new word to talk about some of the great things happening in the Gothic Genre today, and to talk about those trends in new ways. Considering I exist under similar parasols as Steampunk and other retro-futurist genres, "Dreadpunk" helps me express the Gothic Horror underpinnings of a lot of my work and inspiration, without being beholden to the traditional feminine issues represented it traditional Gothics. The Daily Dot did an incredible article about the Dreadpunk panel and I was fortunate enough to be very featured. Check it out here.
Book Stuffs: THE DARK NEST CHRONICLES are now out across the boards; digitally, each as separate novellas 1-3, Dark Nest, Dark Nest: Reckoning and Dark Nest: Song of Saire or in the compilation The Dark Nest Chronicles, AND they have all been collected in a paperback edition available via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, so if you haven't taken a turn to this lesser-known Space Opera series of mine, go forth! These are action-packed quick reads with inspiring psychic characters you'll fall in love with and root for as they try to save their people from genocide.
O Ye Lovecraftian Devotees! I'm also quite pleased to have been asked to contribute a chilling and very strange (even for me, so that's saying something) piece for THE BOOK OF STARRY WISDOM, an amazing new high-end and very artistic Lovecraft volume currently funding HERE. The book features newly edited editions of the main cult of Cthulhu stories as well as original fiction from a slew of talents. I'm really thrilled to be in amazing company of artists and authors here, it's going to be a must-have volume for any Lovecraft fan. If you get a copy, everyone wins as the stretch goals will also be amazing!
Lots of new things up on the Etsy store! Tons of new Poe pieces honouring my favourite author and foremost inspiration (my best selling items!). Everything is one of a kind and original, never are two pieces alike so if you see something you like, pick it up before it's gone and never made again! (Commissions are welcome). BLOG10 is a coupon code for you fine folks, so don't forget to use it!
October will see the re-issue of my short story "Sea-Found" in Fantasy Scroll magazine, there will be an audio edition starring yours truly that will accompany the reissue as well!
As always, there's a lot going on in the Hieberverse so I shall try to keep you all updated here as best I can, thanks for being a part of these worlds! Happy Haunting!
The whirlwind paces continue! DragonCon and Space Coast Comic Con were really wonderful across the board, amazing panels and audiences! I signed tons of books and sold a great deal of art! The rest of the month has seen me busy restocking and working on a few short stories, with Eterna Files book 2 edits up ahead.
This month, as you all should know, it is Halloween Awareness Month! And I'm all over New York City and the surrounding environs in really amazing capacities, whether giving ghost talks at local libraries (Hoboken, East Meadow) or signing books and selling art at amazing festivals in incredible historic, haunted locations (Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Morris Jumel Mansion) check out the upcoming APPEARANCES here on the website and come get a signed book and some one of a kind jewelry and art!
In spectacular Industry review news: I'm honoured that in the September issue of Asimov's Magazine I was given this truly incredible review for Eterna Files, I'm so humbled and in awe of the beautiful things said:
Eterna Moonshine of the Spotted Mind
The alert book-shopper will find an advance-publication quote from me adorning the front cover of Leanna Renee Hieber’s novel The Eterna Files (Tor, hardcover, $24.99, 320 pages, ISBN 978-
0-7653-5674-5). Without much real acquaintance with the author, I was motivated to provide a quote based sheerly on the high quality of the book. So I thought I would use a small amount of this column to explicate my admiration further.
The novel falls squarely into the steampunk genre, but exhibits a richer helping of metaphysics than is common in that game, and a bit more gravitas. Hieber’s MacGuffin is the quest for immortality,
surely a subject that can bear the symbolic weight. In the wake of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, a small group of eccentric talents are given the assignment of learning how to defeat death. Chief among these is our heroine, Clara Templeton, a psychic. We pick up her tale when the project is at a crisis point after many years. Several of the researchers have been brutally murdered, including Clara’s lover. Is the project doomed, or so close to success that it has aroused great powers?
Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the British government has learned of the Eterna project and decided to steal or preempt it. They have assigned London detective Harold Spire to the case, and given him the assistance of the redoubtable Rose Everhart. Needless to say, presented with such a formidable array of allies and antagonists, many sparks, supernatural and otherwise, are going to fly. Hieber’s approach to the “science” of anti-death protocols is fascinating. (She even gets in a nod to Clarke’s Third Law: “All sciences, at their zenith, create what is tantamount to sorcery.”) Blending a kind of alchemy with unique “patriotic magic,” the pursuit assumes epistemological magnitude.
Says Louis, Clara’s lover (who continues to play a role as a ghost), “The key of Eterna, ma cherie, is to determine the boundaries of meaning. Nothing that may have meaning in terms of life can be overlooked.” This is a wide remit, and eventually Clara comes to wonder if they have bitten off more than they can chew. “Eterna was full of the restless living and the restless dead. It needed to die once and for all.”
Rich in conceits as anything from Alan Moore, Hieber’s novel mixes action and the emotional lives of its characters into a fascinating stew. Anyone who enjoyed Paul Cornell’s London Falling and The
Severed Streets will certainly cozy up to Hieber’s parallel depiction of questioning savants and heroes versus the forces of anarchy and despair." Asimov’s Magazine - September 2015 - Paul Di Filippo
(More about The Eterna Files here)
--
In GENRE news: I was also really psyched to be a part of the first ever DREADPUNK panel at DragonCon, "Dreadpunk" being a new word to talk about some of the great things happening in the Gothic Genre today, and to talk about those trends in new ways. Considering I exist under similar parasols as Steampunk and other retro-futurist genres, "Dreadpunk" helps me express the Gothic Horror underpinnings of a lot of my work and inspiration, without being beholden to the traditional feminine issues represented it traditional Gothics. The Daily Dot did an incredible article about the Dreadpunk panel and I was fortunate enough to be very featured. Check it out here.
Book Stuffs: THE DARK NEST CHRONICLES are now out across the boards; digitally, each as separate novellas 1-3, Dark Nest, Dark Nest: Reckoning and Dark Nest: Song of Saire or in the compilation The Dark Nest Chronicles, AND they have all been collected in a paperback edition available via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, so if you haven't taken a turn to this lesser-known Space Opera series of mine, go forth! These are action-packed quick reads with inspiring psychic characters you'll fall in love with and root for as they try to save their people from genocide.
O Ye Lovecraftian Devotees! I'm also quite pleased to have been asked to contribute a chilling and very strange (even for me, so that's saying something) piece for THE BOOK OF STARRY WISDOM, an amazing new high-end and very artistic Lovecraft volume currently funding HERE. The book features newly edited editions of the main cult of Cthulhu stories as well as original fiction from a slew of talents. I'm really thrilled to be in amazing company of artists and authors here, it's going to be a must-have volume for any Lovecraft fan. If you get a copy, everyone wins as the stretch goals will also be amazing!
Lots of new things up on the Etsy store! Tons of new Poe pieces honouring my favourite author and foremost inspiration (my best selling items!). Everything is one of a kind and original, never are two pieces alike so if you see something you like, pick it up before it's gone and never made again! (Commissions are welcome). BLOG10 is a coupon code for you fine folks, so don't forget to use it!
October will see the re-issue of my short story "Sea-Found" in Fantasy Scroll magazine, there will be an audio edition starring yours truly that will accompany the reissue as well!
As always, there's a lot going on in the Hieberverse so I shall try to keep you all updated here as best I can, thanks for being a part of these worlds! Happy Haunting!
Friday, August 21, 2015
DragonCon Schedule! Space Coast Comiccon! New Ventures!
Dear Readers,
I've been busy promoting Pre-Orders for the amazing STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL new edition! Formerly The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker and sequel, the two volumes are now one, freshly edited and spruced up in many new way. Now up at Barnes & Noble, Amazon and wherever books are sold. (Yes, please do go forth and pre-order this beautiful new edition with NEW SCENES and extra content! It's a whole new book done exactly as I've always wanted it! The Pre-Order price is at a handsome discount so please support these books of my heart, and their resurrection back into print after many years out of print, thank you!)
And I'm hard at work on the ETERNA FILES world as I get ready to edit book two, titled, ETERNA AND OMEGA, which will release next summer!
And yes, it's that crazy time of year when the preparations for the madness that is DragonCon is in full swing!
DRAGONCON:
Be sure to note Princess Alethea's Traveling Sideshow, you really don't want to miss this performance on Friday, I have something wonderful cooked up and the whole team has a Fairy Tale Rant lined up that will be legendary. Plus you get lots of FREE GOODIES! Come! And then after the Sideshow we're doing an impromptu signing! See times below. ALSO note my reading on Sunday, as there will be new exclusive content to readers' ears plus MORE GOODIES.
DRAGONCON 2015 SCHEDULE:
Title: Faces of the Tarot: Penny Dreadful's Monsters & Magick
Description: Fans discuss the Showtime series that updates classic horror's most enduring archetypes
Time: Fri 05:30 pm Location: Peachtree 1-2 - Westin (Length: 1 Hour)
(Tentative Panelists: Corvis Nocturnum, Cherie Priest, Leanna Renee Hieber)
-------------------
Title: Princess Alethea's Traveling Sideshow
Description: Readings, music, & more from a motley band of costumed authors, plus swag!
Time: Fri 07:00 pm Location: A707 - Marriott (Length: 1 Hour)
(Tentative Panelists: Alethea Kontis, Leanna Renee Hieber, Gray Rinehart, Lisa Mantchev, Delilah S. Dawson, Zac Brewer, D.B. Jackson)
-------------------
Title: Blending History & the Fantastic
Description: Panelists discuss both the challenges and advantages of using historical settings and events in speculative fiction
Time: Fri 08:30 pm Location: Chastain ED - Westin (Length: 1 Hour)
(Tentative Panelists: Delilah S. Dawson, Clay and Susan Griffith, Cherie Priest, D.B. Jackson, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro)
-------------------
Title: Magepunk: Sorcery as Technology
Description: Alchemical rules or arcane industrial revolution? We focus on media depictions of magic as technology.
Time: Sat 05:30 pm Location: Augusta 3 - Westin (Length: 1 Hour)
Moderator / MC for panel
(Tentative Panelists: Leanna Renee Hieber, D.B. Jackson, Aristotle Christopher Pramagioulis, Cherie Priest)
-------------------
Title: The Demimonde and Dark Victoriana of Penny Dreadful
Description: Demimonde = fringe people; penny dreadfuls = cheap fiction. How this relates to the show.
Time: Sat 08:30 pm Location: Augusta 1-2 - Westin (Length: 1 Hour)
(Tentative Panelists: Leanna Renee Hieber, Aristotle Christopher Pramagioulis, Ciara Knight, Nick Valentino, Elizabeth Valentino)
-------------------
Title: Historical Horror
Description: The usage of history in horror fiction
Time: Sun 11:30 am Location: Peachtree 1-2 - Westin (Length: 1 Hour)
(Tentative Panelists: Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Anya Martin, Leanna Renee Hieber, L. Andrew Cooper, Kenneth Mark Hoover)
-------------------
Title: The Source: Folklore & Mythology in UF
Description: Urban fantasy is rooted in age-old myth, legend, and folklore. Authors discuss influences.
Time: Sun 01:00 pm Location: Chastain ED - Westin (Length: 1 Hour)
(Tentative Panelists: Alethea Kontis, Leanna Renee Hieber, Jean Marie Ward, Jonathan Maberry, Valerie Hampton, Samantha Sommersby)
-------------------
Title: Reading: Leanna Renee Hieber
Time: Sun 02:30 pm Location: Vinings - Hyatt (Length: 1 Hour)
(Tentative Panelists: Leanna Renee Hieber)
-------------------
Title: Dreadpunk: The Gothic Horror Revival
Description: A discussion of the Gothic Horror Revival in contemporary pop culture
Time: Sun 08:30 pm Location: Peachtree 1-2 - Westin (Length: 1 Hour)
(Tentative Panelists: Leanna Renee Hieber, Cherie Priest, Delilah S. Dawson, Clay and Susan Griffith, Aristotle Christopher Pramagioulis)
-------------------
Title: Realms of the Dead: Ghosts and Spirits in UF
Description: Panelists discuss the various types of ghosts and spirits found in the genre
Time: Mon 10:00 am Location: Chastain ED - Westin (Length: 1 Hour)
(Tentative Panelists: Jim Butcher, Leanna Renee Hieber, Gail Z. Martin, D.B. Jackson, Karen E. Taylor, Myke Cole)
--
WHEW! Busy! And the fall is only just getting started! MORE EVENTS:
Post DragonCon, Dear Florida, marks a return to the glories of the Eterna Files book tour!
I'm on to SpaceCoast ComicCon to be a special featured guest alongside my bestie and fey alter-ego Alethea Kontis Sept 11-13 - come see us on panels and at our tables for signed books and amazing handcrafted art!
--
MORE ART:
On the handcrafted art side of my world, as many of you know, I am a renaissance creature of many talents. I've very recently gone into Steampunk medal-making and brooch creation, as I've not seen anything like what I create out in the marketplace online or in person, so I've been welcomed to an Etsy shop run by fellow artisans where I am responsible for the Neo-Victorian, Steampunk, Gothic and Historical Inspired jewelry and accessories on the site, do take a look! Specially for you, Dear Readers: Enter the code BLOG10 for 10% off your purchase from now until Halloween!
Cheers and as always, HAPPY HAUNTING!
Leanna
I've been busy promoting Pre-Orders for the amazing STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL new edition! Formerly The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker and sequel, the two volumes are now one, freshly edited and spruced up in many new way. Now up at Barnes & Noble, Amazon and wherever books are sold. (Yes, please do go forth and pre-order this beautiful new edition with NEW SCENES and extra content! It's a whole new book done exactly as I've always wanted it! The Pre-Order price is at a handsome discount so please support these books of my heart, and their resurrection back into print after many years out of print, thank you!)
And I'm hard at work on the ETERNA FILES world as I get ready to edit book two, titled, ETERNA AND OMEGA, which will release next summer!
And yes, it's that crazy time of year when the preparations for the madness that is DragonCon is in full swing!
DRAGONCON:
Be sure to note Princess Alethea's Traveling Sideshow, you really don't want to miss this performance on Friday, I have something wonderful cooked up and the whole team has a Fairy Tale Rant lined up that will be legendary. Plus you get lots of FREE GOODIES! Come! And then after the Sideshow we're doing an impromptu signing! See times below. ALSO note my reading on Sunday, as there will be new exclusive content to readers' ears plus MORE GOODIES.
DRAGONCON 2015 SCHEDULE:
Title: Faces of the Tarot: Penny Dreadful's Monsters & Magick
Description: Fans discuss the Showtime series that updates classic horror's most enduring archetypes
Time: Fri 05:30 pm Location: Peachtree 1-2 - Westin (Length: 1 Hour)
(Tentative Panelists: Corvis Nocturnum, Cherie Priest, Leanna Renee Hieber)
-------------------
Title: Princess Alethea's Traveling Sideshow
Description: Readings, music, & more from a motley band of costumed authors, plus swag!
Time: Fri 07:00 pm Location: A707 - Marriott (Length: 1 Hour)
(Tentative Panelists: Alethea Kontis, Leanna Renee Hieber, Gray Rinehart, Lisa Mantchev, Delilah S. Dawson, Zac Brewer, D.B. Jackson)
-------------------
Title: Blending History & the Fantastic
Description: Panelists discuss both the challenges and advantages of using historical settings and events in speculative fiction
Time: Fri 08:30 pm Location: Chastain ED - Westin (Length: 1 Hour)
(Tentative Panelists: Delilah S. Dawson, Clay and Susan Griffith, Cherie Priest, D.B. Jackson, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro)
-------------------
Title: Magepunk: Sorcery as Technology
Description: Alchemical rules or arcane industrial revolution? We focus on media depictions of magic as technology.
Time: Sat 05:30 pm Location: Augusta 3 - Westin (Length: 1 Hour)
Moderator / MC for panel
(Tentative Panelists: Leanna Renee Hieber, D.B. Jackson, Aristotle Christopher Pramagioulis, Cherie Priest)
-------------------
Title: The Demimonde and Dark Victoriana of Penny Dreadful
Description: Demimonde = fringe people; penny dreadfuls = cheap fiction. How this relates to the show.
Time: Sat 08:30 pm Location: Augusta 1-2 - Westin (Length: 1 Hour)
(Tentative Panelists: Leanna Renee Hieber, Aristotle Christopher Pramagioulis, Ciara Knight, Nick Valentino, Elizabeth Valentino)
-------------------
Title: Historical Horror
Description: The usage of history in horror fiction
Time: Sun 11:30 am Location: Peachtree 1-2 - Westin (Length: 1 Hour)
(Tentative Panelists: Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Anya Martin, Leanna Renee Hieber, L. Andrew Cooper, Kenneth Mark Hoover)
-------------------
Title: The Source: Folklore & Mythology in UF
Description: Urban fantasy is rooted in age-old myth, legend, and folklore. Authors discuss influences.
Time: Sun 01:00 pm Location: Chastain ED - Westin (Length: 1 Hour)
(Tentative Panelists: Alethea Kontis, Leanna Renee Hieber, Jean Marie Ward, Jonathan Maberry, Valerie Hampton, Samantha Sommersby)
-------------------
Title: Reading: Leanna Renee Hieber
Time: Sun 02:30 pm Location: Vinings - Hyatt (Length: 1 Hour)
(Tentative Panelists: Leanna Renee Hieber)
-------------------
Title: Dreadpunk: The Gothic Horror Revival
Description: A discussion of the Gothic Horror Revival in contemporary pop culture
Time: Sun 08:30 pm Location: Peachtree 1-2 - Westin (Length: 1 Hour)
(Tentative Panelists: Leanna Renee Hieber, Cherie Priest, Delilah S. Dawson, Clay and Susan Griffith, Aristotle Christopher Pramagioulis)
-------------------
Title: Realms of the Dead: Ghosts and Spirits in UF
Description: Panelists discuss the various types of ghosts and spirits found in the genre
Time: Mon 10:00 am Location: Chastain ED - Westin (Length: 1 Hour)
(Tentative Panelists: Jim Butcher, Leanna Renee Hieber, Gail Z. Martin, D.B. Jackson, Karen E. Taylor, Myke Cole)
--
WHEW! Busy! And the fall is only just getting started! MORE EVENTS:
Post DragonCon, Dear Florida, marks a return to the glories of the Eterna Files book tour!
I'm on to SpaceCoast ComicCon to be a special featured guest alongside my bestie and fey alter-ego Alethea Kontis Sept 11-13 - come see us on panels and at our tables for signed books and amazing handcrafted art!
--
MORE ART:
On the handcrafted art side of my world, as many of you know, I am a renaissance creature of many talents. I've very recently gone into Steampunk medal-making and brooch creation, as I've not seen anything like what I create out in the marketplace online or in person, so I've been welcomed to an Etsy shop run by fellow artisans where I am responsible for the Neo-Victorian, Steampunk, Gothic and Historical Inspired jewelry and accessories on the site, do take a look! Specially for you, Dear Readers: Enter the code BLOG10 for 10% off your purchase from now until Halloween!
Cheers and as always, HAPPY HAUNTING!
Leanna
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
The DARK NEST saga of Space Opera novellas returns!
The DARK NEST saga returns!
Dear Readers,
The rights to my very first piece of published fiction, DARK NEST, and their sequels, have all returned to me, and I'm thrilled to be making all three DARK NEST saga pieces available in separate digital formats, or in a compilation volume that will be available digitally and in print.
The first DARK NEST novella occurred because I was dared, truly, to write it. I've long been entrenched as a staunch historical fantasy author. However writer friends pointed to my great love of Star Trek as a reason why I should try my hand at a futuristic tale. And they were right to dare, as this tale made it into print long before my far more well-known Strangely Beautiful saga did (which is also slated for it's revised new edition! Pre-order Strangely Beautiful now!).
Huge thanks to the visionary and inspiring Kat Tipton whose support and guidance made these books possible in the first place. Kat has been critical in their reinvention in the world. A blessed thanks to the very talented artist Thom Truelove for these really incredible covers! I am amazed by their depth and unique style! Thanks to Anessa Books for further formatting, and thanks to my incredible friends and family who have always had a soft spot for these tales and encouraged their second life. Thanks to you, dear readers, for picking up the individual tales or the compilation! Everything is available either directly or on pre-order via Kindle, with the compilation, the Nook and print editions forthcoming!
Pre-order via Kindle - Nook forthcoming
THE DARK NEST CHRONICLES I-III
Compiled into a single volume for the first time, discover Leanna Renee Hieber’s award-winning Dark Nest saga of futuristic, paranormal novellas. Known more widely for her acclaimed and award-winning Gothic Victorian Fantasy novels such as the Strangely Beautiful, Magic Most Foul and Eterna Files series, Dark Nest was her very first foray into published fiction via a small boutique press. Dark Nest was awarded the 2009 Prism Award for excellence in Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal Romance (First place, Novella Category)
In the Dark Nest Chronicles, newly evolved psychically gifted humans have been sent by the Homeworld on a space mission aboard two distinct “Nests”. Relationships between the Light Nest and the Dark Nest have faltered and three distinct sets of commanding officers are sure there’s something insidious behind it. In a matter of hours, in three high-stakes tales told from different perspectives aboard ships and under Homeworld siege, these sets of lovers will be torn apart and reunited, secret survival plans will go into dizzying effect, assassinations and revenges will be attempted and carried out, and death-defying sacrifices must be made. Each of these visionary leaders must do their part to quickly unite their people and discover vast new powers the Homeworld denied them, or else submit to genocide.
Pre-order via Kindle (This edition will be available in print by September 1)
Order via Nook forthcoming
--
I'm very proud of these books, they represent a very fun, streamlined, action-packed and stylistically different side of my fiction, a modern voice but the same Spiritualist heart. I hope they carry within their action, adventure and fast-paced plots a certain overarching message of hope and transcendence; tales that encourage those who would be destructive and invasive to leave people their space and dignity, to leave well alone for great souls to live into their own individual best and in doing so, proving there is room to create an uplifting community of celebrated differences.
Cheers, blessings, and as one of my heroines in the series would say, "Choose Joy"....
Leanna Renee
Dear Readers,
The rights to my very first piece of published fiction, DARK NEST, and their sequels, have all returned to me, and I'm thrilled to be making all three DARK NEST saga pieces available in separate digital formats, or in a compilation volume that will be available digitally and in print.
The first DARK NEST novella occurred because I was dared, truly, to write it. I've long been entrenched as a staunch historical fantasy author. However writer friends pointed to my great love of Star Trek as a reason why I should try my hand at a futuristic tale. And they were right to dare, as this tale made it into print long before my far more well-known Strangely Beautiful saga did (which is also slated for it's revised new edition! Pre-order Strangely Beautiful now!).
Huge thanks to the visionary and inspiring Kat Tipton whose support and guidance made these books possible in the first place. Kat has been critical in their reinvention in the world. A blessed thanks to the very talented artist Thom Truelove for these really incredible covers! I am amazed by their depth and unique style! Thanks to Anessa Books for further formatting, and thanks to my incredible friends and family who have always had a soft spot for these tales and encouraged their second life. Thanks to you, dear readers, for picking up the individual tales or the compilation! Everything is available either directly or on pre-order via Kindle, with the compilation, the Nook and print editions forthcoming!
If you're interested in all three volumes, I recommend ordering the compilation. (Again, available for pre-order in Kindle, soon in print)
About each book:
DARK NEST:
Chief Counsel Ariadne Corinth has just found out her
long-time lover, the powerfully gifted Chief Counsel Kristov Haydn, has died.
Newly evolved psychically gifted humans have been sent by the Homeworld on a
space mission aboard two distinct “Nests”. Relationships between the
Light Nest and the Dark Nest have faltered and Ariadne is sure there’s
something insidious behind it. In a matter of hours, Ariadne must find out what
really happened to Kristov, unite her people to discover vast new powers
the Homeworld denied them, or else submit to genocide.
“Here's a fresh new voice on the scene. This
romance fantasy novella hits all the right notes. Leanna has created a world
that is so descriptive it will dance before your eyes. Set in the future, newly
evolved psychically gifted humans are sent by the Homeworld to charter new
territory. But as they discover betrayal, they also realize their true
potential. I say pick this one up." - Maria of
RomanceNovel.tv on Dark Nest
RECKONING:
Captain Temesia Elysse has just steered her ship through
almost certain death. With the help of her gifted crew, the Dark Nest has
survived. Her newly evolved psychic people are targets of Homeworld genocide.
Hundreds have been killed aboard the Light Nest. Back on Homeworld soil, her
people are being hunted. Her lover may be dead, the gifted teacher Reyn Wolfe.
It will take all Captain Elysse's restraint, with vast new psychic powers
available to her and her people, not to let her infamous temper get ahead of
her. There must be a rescue mission for those still alive. And there must be
justice. There will be a reckoning. The Homeworld council has no idea that their
persecuted victims are alive, or just how powerful they've become.
SONG OF SAIRE:
Professors Brodin and Saire have been tested upon,
persecuted, and kept apart for decades, sacrificing their own freedom and
happiness to raise a generation of newly evolved humans, the Psychically
Augmented, under cruel and fearful Homeworld watch. When what they have always
dreaded comes to pass, a planned genocide of their people, they must put every last
hidden safeguard they created into place and show their students the staggering
scope of their true powers. Whether the Professors can save themselves as well
as their people becomes a race against time.
Pre-order via Kindle - Nook forthcomingTHE DARK NEST CHRONICLES I-III
Compiled into a single volume for the first time, discover Leanna Renee Hieber’s award-winning Dark Nest saga of futuristic, paranormal novellas. Known more widely for her acclaimed and award-winning Gothic Victorian Fantasy novels such as the Strangely Beautiful, Magic Most Foul and Eterna Files series, Dark Nest was her very first foray into published fiction via a small boutique press. Dark Nest was awarded the 2009 Prism Award for excellence in Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal Romance (First place, Novella Category)
In the Dark Nest Chronicles, newly evolved psychically gifted humans have been sent by the Homeworld on a space mission aboard two distinct “Nests”. Relationships between the Light Nest and the Dark Nest have faltered and three distinct sets of commanding officers are sure there’s something insidious behind it. In a matter of hours, in three high-stakes tales told from different perspectives aboard ships and under Homeworld siege, these sets of lovers will be torn apart and reunited, secret survival plans will go into dizzying effect, assassinations and revenges will be attempted and carried out, and death-defying sacrifices must be made. Each of these visionary leaders must do their part to quickly unite their people and discover vast new powers the Homeworld denied them, or else submit to genocide.
Pre-order via Kindle (This edition will be available in print by September 1)
Order via Nook forthcoming
--
I'm very proud of these books, they represent a very fun, streamlined, action-packed and stylistically different side of my fiction, a modern voice but the same Spiritualist heart. I hope they carry within their action, adventure and fast-paced plots a certain overarching message of hope and transcendence; tales that encourage those who would be destructive and invasive to leave people their space and dignity, to leave well alone for great souls to live into their own individual best and in doing so, proving there is room to create an uplifting community of celebrated differences.
Cheers, blessings, and as one of my heroines in the series would say, "Choose Joy"....
Leanna Renee
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
The New Strangely Beautiful Cover Reveal!
My Dears!
The Hieberverse remains busy as ever with so many projects and ventures! I'm preparing to re-issue my futuristic, paranormal, space opera novellas the Dark Nest Chronicles, Dark Nest, Reckoning and Song of Saire as rights have recently returned to me, so stay tuned for those links, all three stories will be available individually and also combined as a digital and print option for the first time!
But BEFORE we get to Dark Nest (the 2009 Prism Award winner for Best Fantasy Romance Novella), we have STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL business! As you may have heard, my babies are coming back!
Right here we have the cover reveal for The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker and The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker, joined for the first time in one volume, titled STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL, including NEW scenes and new content in revised, re-edited editions! Two books in one!
Mandi over at SmexyBooks helped me reveal this gorgeous cover, read more here. Look at this incredible, gorgeous, most beautiful cover ever!
I'm over the moon about this cover, and about the fact that it's up for pre-order wherever books are sold! Those of you who have known and loved this series, you'll know how much this means to have these books back in print after so many years out of print. (You can read more about how heartbreaking and difficult all of this has been here).
For those of you who are familiar with the books, you'll want to get this new edition of books 1 and 2 because there are some brand new scenes with Miss Lucille Linden and other new aspects of this edition, such as deleted scenes and never-before-in-print content.
For those of you who aren't familiar, if you like all things Gothic and Gaslit, if you're a fan of Penny Dreadful and that aesthetic, you'll love Strangely Beautiful, which in many ways was ahead of its time in terms of this recent revival in the Gothic and in Gaslamp Fantasy.
From the new cover:
Originally published as two books, Strangely Beautiful unites Leanna Renee Hieber's critically acclaimed novels in a single revised volume, restoring the author's original vision for the work.
Miss Persephone Parker, known as Percy, is different, with her lustrous, snow-white hair, pearlescent pale skin, and uncanny ability to see and communicate with ghosts. Seeking to continue her education, Percy has come to Queen Victoria's London, to the Athens Academy. What she will learn there will change her life forever. Athens Academy is the citadel of The Guard, an ancient order that battles the forces of evil. The Victorian Guard, led by professor Alexi Rychman, is incomplete. They cannot defeat Jack the Ripper; who is more than the serial killer he appears to be; or the greater monster his appearance heralds.
Percy's lifelong habit of concealment combined with Alexi's fevered search for the Guard's missing seventh nearly prove disastrous as ancient Greek myths begin playing out in modern, gaslit, Victorian London. Percy and her new friends and allies must overcome their preconceptions about each other and their own histories before they can set the world to rights.
--
Pre-Order:
IndieBound
Powell's
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
--
These books, and their resurrection and new life with new content, mean the world to me, as will your support of this series, the books of my heart. Please pre-order today to ensure you'll get your copy when April comes around! Blessings and thank you!
The Hieberverse remains busy as ever with so many projects and ventures! I'm preparing to re-issue my futuristic, paranormal, space opera novellas the Dark Nest Chronicles, Dark Nest, Reckoning and Song of Saire as rights have recently returned to me, so stay tuned for those links, all three stories will be available individually and also combined as a digital and print option for the first time!
But BEFORE we get to Dark Nest (the 2009 Prism Award winner for Best Fantasy Romance Novella), we have STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL business! As you may have heard, my babies are coming back!
Right here we have the cover reveal for The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker and The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker, joined for the first time in one volume, titled STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL, including NEW scenes and new content in revised, re-edited editions! Two books in one!
Mandi over at SmexyBooks helped me reveal this gorgeous cover, read more here. Look at this incredible, gorgeous, most beautiful cover ever!
I'm over the moon about this cover, and about the fact that it's up for pre-order wherever books are sold! Those of you who have known and loved this series, you'll know how much this means to have these books back in print after so many years out of print. (You can read more about how heartbreaking and difficult all of this has been here).
For those of you who are familiar with the books, you'll want to get this new edition of books 1 and 2 because there are some brand new scenes with Miss Lucille Linden and other new aspects of this edition, such as deleted scenes and never-before-in-print content.
For those of you who aren't familiar, if you like all things Gothic and Gaslit, if you're a fan of Penny Dreadful and that aesthetic, you'll love Strangely Beautiful, which in many ways was ahead of its time in terms of this recent revival in the Gothic and in Gaslamp Fantasy.
From the new cover:
Originally published as two books, Strangely Beautiful unites Leanna Renee Hieber's critically acclaimed novels in a single revised volume, restoring the author's original vision for the work.
Miss Persephone Parker, known as Percy, is different, with her lustrous, snow-white hair, pearlescent pale skin, and uncanny ability to see and communicate with ghosts. Seeking to continue her education, Percy has come to Queen Victoria's London, to the Athens Academy. What she will learn there will change her life forever. Athens Academy is the citadel of The Guard, an ancient order that battles the forces of evil. The Victorian Guard, led by professor Alexi Rychman, is incomplete. They cannot defeat Jack the Ripper; who is more than the serial killer he appears to be; or the greater monster his appearance heralds.
Percy's lifelong habit of concealment combined with Alexi's fevered search for the Guard's missing seventh nearly prove disastrous as ancient Greek myths begin playing out in modern, gaslit, Victorian London. Percy and her new friends and allies must overcome their preconceptions about each other and their own histories before they can set the world to rights.
--
Pre-Order:
IndieBound
Powell's
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
--
These books, and their resurrection and new life with new content, mean the world to me, as will your support of this series, the books of my heart. Please pre-order today to ensure you'll get your copy when April comes around! Blessings and thank you!
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Historical Novel Society Review and Convention Haze...
Hello, Dear Readers!
I've been in so many states doing so many events back to back, I'm dizzy. But I am so thrilled that THE ETERNA FILES, in addition to the rest of my Gaslamp Fantasy career, continues to gain interest in the world. The industry and genre panels I've been on this year have been particularly engaging, and I'm very blessed to see the direct result of my speaking passionately about my work has led to selling out of books at back to back conventions. I've seen awesome cosplays, performed in very fun skits and spoken on countless panels, and all in my signature Gothic all black Victorian regalia.
If you haven't yet gotten a signed copy of ETERNA FILES, the fine folks at Mysterious Galaxy have a few left for you!
And I'm thrilled that the fine folks at the Historical Novel Society gave The Eterna Files a lovely write-up in the latest issue:
--
Stay tuned for news on the re-release of the beautiful new edition of STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL! - Cheers and Happy Haunting!
I've been in so many states doing so many events back to back, I'm dizzy. But I am so thrilled that THE ETERNA FILES, in addition to the rest of my Gaslamp Fantasy career, continues to gain interest in the world. The industry and genre panels I've been on this year have been particularly engaging, and I'm very blessed to see the direct result of my speaking passionately about my work has led to selling out of books at back to back conventions. I've seen awesome cosplays, performed in very fun skits and spoken on countless panels, and all in my signature Gothic all black Victorian regalia.
If you haven't yet gotten a signed copy of ETERNA FILES, the fine folks at Mysterious Galaxy have a few left for you!
And I'm thrilled that the fine folks at the Historical Novel Society gave The Eterna Files a lovely write-up in the latest issue:
Historical Novels Review, Issue 72,
May 2015
“After the death of Abraham
Lincoln, mystic Clara Templeton suggests to Mary Lincoln that her husband
should have been made immortal. Taken with the idea, Mary Lincoln presses the
government to create a group of scientists and mystic to investigate
immortality. Seventeen years later, the group has neared its goal when most of
its members are killed in a strange accident. Clara feels responsible and
mourns the loss of her lover; with her guardian Senator Bishop, she helps to
investigate the accident and follow up on the group’s work.
In England, a similar group has
been working on immortality, and all of its members have disappeared. Policeman
Spire is hired to head the new agency, to discovery what happened to the
missing scientists and to help complete their work. America and Britain are in
a race to see who can understand the eterna compound/process first, but a third
group, mysterious and dangerous, is also involved.
Hieber’s alternate
history/steampunk world is well drawn, and her characters, though numerous, are
fully realized. The mystery is murky and the plot fast-paced. The Eterna Files
must be the first book in a series as the story ends mid-action.” – Elizabeth
Caulfield Felt for Historical Novels Review
Thursday, May 14, 2015
FREE FICTION and Upcoming Appearances!
From Leanna:
Exlcusive Free Fiction! The fine folks over at The Pandora Society, where I am the Author in Residence, have premiered a never-before-seen piece of my fiction, "A Woman's Work", featuring a female Neo-Victorian assassin of a most distinct kind... Go on, have a read...
--
Announcing Leanna's upcoming appearances on the continued ETERNA FILES national tour:
Leanna and her team are very busy this month! Check out the updated APPEARANCES PAGE - listing her upcoming events: The Steampunk World's Fair, MistiCon, Phoenix Comic Con and Book Expo America (Hint, Leanna will only be at BEA one day only, so be sure to come find her at the Mystery Writer's of America booth 2657 where she'll be signing THE ETERNA FILES!)
--
MORE FREE FICTION! Can't get enough ETERNA FILES? How about a bit of a prequel teaser? Available via Leanna's Mailing List by clicking HERE.
--
Cheers, please keep enjoying THE ETERNA FILES, stay tuned for upcoming events and features, and as always, Happy Haunting!
Exlcusive Free Fiction! The fine folks over at The Pandora Society, where I am the Author in Residence, have premiered a never-before-seen piece of my fiction, "A Woman's Work", featuring a female Neo-Victorian assassin of a most distinct kind... Go on, have a read...
--
 |
| Leanna high-fives herself in this fairly meta picture at Atlanta's ANACHROCON, the picture highlighting her recent appearance as a Guest of Honor at the International Steam Symposium in Cincinnati, Ohio |
Leanna and her team are very busy this month! Check out the updated APPEARANCES PAGE - listing her upcoming events: The Steampunk World's Fair, MistiCon, Phoenix Comic Con and Book Expo America (Hint, Leanna will only be at BEA one day only, so be sure to come find her at the Mystery Writer's of America booth 2657 where she'll be signing THE ETERNA FILES!)
--
MORE FREE FICTION! Can't get enough ETERNA FILES? How about a bit of a prequel teaser? Available via Leanna's Mailing List by clicking HERE.
--
Cheers, please keep enjoying THE ETERNA FILES, stay tuned for upcoming events and features, and as always, Happy Haunting!
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Interviews, Features, and Germany!
Greetings, Dear Readers!
While on ETERNA FILES book tour, the amazing folks at FANGIRLISH caught up with me for an exclusive interview! I talk books, inspiration, a new life at Tor and more:
And in print news, I was thrilled that my first installment in the ETERNA FILES saga got a wonderful write-up in this month's Locus Magazine, such a delight to see my work examined in thoughtful comprehension. Stay tuned for further upcoming interviews as well.
-
And I am SO EXCITED by my upcoming German translation of THE ETERNA FILES, Book 1, the edition will release this October via Feder & Schwert. In German, the title is DAS OMEGA KORPS, DIE AETERNA-ACTEN, 1. It sounds so fierce, I'm psyched. Here's the kick-ass cover:
While on ETERNA FILES book tour, the amazing folks at FANGIRLISH caught up with me for an exclusive interview! I talk books, inspiration, a new life at Tor and more:
And in print news, I was thrilled that my first installment in the ETERNA FILES saga got a wonderful write-up in this month's Locus Magazine, such a delight to see my work examined in thoughtful comprehension. Stay tuned for further upcoming interviews as well.
-
And I am SO EXCITED by my upcoming German translation of THE ETERNA FILES, Book 1, the edition will release this October via Feder & Schwert. In German, the title is DAS OMEGA KORPS, DIE AETERNA-ACTEN, 1. It sounds so fierce, I'm psyched. Here's the kick-ass cover:
If you read German, here's the order link, let me know what you think! This is a particular thrill to me due to my German heritage, I've always wanted to be published there. Hopefully I'll have my Turkish editions of DARKER STILL to show you soon as well!
Cheers and Happy Haunting!
Monday, March 9, 2015
Eterna Files Book Tour Round-up: Where can you find a signed copy?
My Dear Readers! (Scroll down for signed stock updates as of 4/15)
Thank you, so many of you, for showing up along THE ETERNA FILES Book Tour routes of Florida where Alethea Kontis and yours truly took the state by storm! As you can tell, she and I had a bit too much fun reading, performing, signing...
From Florida I continued on to AnachroCon in Atlanta where my co-author on the upcoming Captain Marlowe saga Thom Truelove and I spoke on panels ranging from Gothic Victoriana to the Addams Family and I was happy to sign books to a lovely, receptive crowd.
Then the next leg of the adventure was on to my favorite Barnes & Noble in West Chester, Ohio, where a big hometown crowd came out to support me even despite horrible weather, the reunion atmosphere greeted me warmly and the amazing staff transformed a whole wall into an Eterna wonderland:
This whole book tour adventure and extravaganza was really, overwhelmingly amazing, and thanks to so many of you who have shared your "ETERNA FILES in the wild" sightings on social media, it's such a delight to see this very important book finding its way, keep them coming! It's still on the "New in Science Fiction / Fantasy" Shelves at your local Barnes & Noble!
Merritt Island - Books a Million
Orlando Barnes & Noble (East Colonial Drive)
Tampa Barnes & Noble (Dale Mabry Hwy)
Boynton Beach Barnes Noble
PGA/Legacy Place Barnes & Noble
West Palm / Wellington Barnes & Noble
Tallahassee Barnes & Noble
West Melbourne Barnes & Noble
KENTUCKY:
Lexington, KY Barnes & Noble
Newport, KY Barnes & Noble
OHIO:
Dayton Barnes & Nobles (Dayton Mall and Beavercreek Locations)
Fields Ertel Barnes & Noble
West Chester / Union Center exit Barnes & Noble
Pickerington Barnes & Noble
PENNSYLVANIA:
Pittsburgh area Barnes & Nobles: (South Hills Village Mall, The Waterfront, Homestead and Monroeville Mall)
Rittenhouse Square Philadelphia Barnes & Noble
NEW YORK CITY:
Manhattan:
Union Square Barnes & Noble
Rockefeller Center (46th and 5th) Barnes & Noble
Tribeca Barnes & Noble
81st and Broadway Barnes & Noble
86th and Lexington Barnes and Noble
53rd and 3rd Avenue Barnes & Noble
Brooklyn:
Park Slope Barnes & Noble (7th Avenue)
Court Street Barnes & Noble
Word Bookstore, Brooklyn - Signed copies still available for order online! THE ETERNA FILES was Word's # 1 Bestseller in February! HUZZAH!
Queens:
Forest Hills Barnes & Noble
Staten Island:
Barnes & Noble, 2245 Richmond Ave
-
AMAZING REVIEWS:
The talented author Charles R. Rutledge reviewed THE ETERNA FILES here, giving a lovely round-up of our recent panel experiences together at AnachroCon, Atlanta. After reading, be sure to check out his work alongside the equally talented Jim Moore.
Pop Kernel calls ETERNA FILES "The Empire Strikes Back of Victorian Paranormal fiction" and more...
-
WHAT'S NEXT?
Want some ETERNA FILES backstory? As many of you know, THE ETERNA FILES features cross-over characters from my Magic Most Foul trilogy and the Strangely Beautiful saga. If you've not read it yet, DARKER STILL remains on 2.99 Kindle Sale! Stay tuned, as there will be an ETERNA FILES companion novella out this year, and that will give you a glimpse into Clara and Louis' involvement in the early stages of Eterna research.
While in Florida, I put the finishing touches on the STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL revised, re-edited, author's preferred, new and shiny edition! This new paperback puts Books 1 and 2 together into the full story it was always meant to be, and includes deleted scenes and extras never before put into print! Look for it this time next year from Tor! You can bet I'll be celebrating this reissue with all my heart and soul!
FOR SILLINESS:
While I was with Alethea, having an amazing Writer's Oasis that included the incredible K. Tempest Bradford, we had a BIT too much fun taking part in her Fairy Tale Rants. You really don't want to miss this one:
Or our take on Swan Lake:
Have fun with THE ETERNA FILES and as always, Cheers and Happy Haunting!
Thank you, so many of you, for showing up along THE ETERNA FILES Book Tour routes of Florida where Alethea Kontis and yours truly took the state by storm! As you can tell, she and I had a bit too much fun reading, performing, signing...
From Florida I continued on to AnachroCon in Atlanta where my co-author on the upcoming Captain Marlowe saga Thom Truelove and I spoke on panels ranging from Gothic Victoriana to the Addams Family and I was happy to sign books to a lovely, receptive crowd.
Then the next leg of the adventure was on to my favorite Barnes & Noble in West Chester, Ohio, where a big hometown crowd came out to support me even despite horrible weather, the reunion atmosphere greeted me warmly and the amazing staff transformed a whole wall into an Eterna wonderland:
This whole book tour adventure and extravaganza was really, overwhelmingly amazing, and thanks to so many of you who have shared your "ETERNA FILES in the wild" sightings on social media, it's such a delight to see this very important book finding its way, keep them coming! It's still on the "New in Science Fiction / Fantasy" Shelves at your local Barnes & Noble!
Signed stock can be found at the following stores:
FLORIDA:Merritt Island - Books a Million
Orlando Barnes & Noble (East Colonial Drive)
Tampa Barnes & Noble (Dale Mabry Hwy)
Boynton Beach Barnes Noble
PGA/Legacy Place Barnes & Noble
West Palm / Wellington Barnes & Noble
Tallahassee Barnes & Noble
West Melbourne Barnes & Noble
KENTUCKY:
Lexington, KY Barnes & Noble
Newport, KY Barnes & Noble
OHIO:
Dayton Barnes & Nobles (Dayton Mall and Beavercreek Locations)
Fields Ertel Barnes & Noble
West Chester / Union Center exit Barnes & Noble
Pickerington Barnes & Noble
PENNSYLVANIA:
Pittsburgh area Barnes & Nobles: (South Hills Village Mall, The Waterfront, Homestead and Monroeville Mall)
Rittenhouse Square Philadelphia Barnes & Noble
NEW YORK CITY:
Manhattan:
Union Square Barnes & Noble
Rockefeller Center (46th and 5th) Barnes & Noble
Tribeca Barnes & Noble
81st and Broadway Barnes & Noble
86th and Lexington Barnes and Noble
53rd and 3rd Avenue Barnes & Noble
Brooklyn:
Park Slope Barnes & Noble (7th Avenue)
Court Street Barnes & Noble
Word Bookstore, Brooklyn - Signed copies still available for order online! THE ETERNA FILES was Word's # 1 Bestseller in February! HUZZAH!
Queens:
Forest Hills Barnes & Noble
Staten Island:
Barnes & Noble, 2245 Richmond Ave
-
AMAZING REVIEWS:
The talented author Charles R. Rutledge reviewed THE ETERNA FILES here, giving a lovely round-up of our recent panel experiences together at AnachroCon, Atlanta. After reading, be sure to check out his work alongside the equally talented Jim Moore.
Pop Kernel calls ETERNA FILES "The Empire Strikes Back of Victorian Paranormal fiction" and more...
-
WHAT'S NEXT?
Want some ETERNA FILES backstory? As many of you know, THE ETERNA FILES features cross-over characters from my Magic Most Foul trilogy and the Strangely Beautiful saga. If you've not read it yet, DARKER STILL remains on 2.99 Kindle Sale! Stay tuned, as there will be an ETERNA FILES companion novella out this year, and that will give you a glimpse into Clara and Louis' involvement in the early stages of Eterna research.
While in Florida, I put the finishing touches on the STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL revised, re-edited, author's preferred, new and shiny edition! This new paperback puts Books 1 and 2 together into the full story it was always meant to be, and includes deleted scenes and extras never before put into print! Look for it this time next year from Tor! You can bet I'll be celebrating this reissue with all my heart and soul!
FOR SILLINESS:
While I was with Alethea, having an amazing Writer's Oasis that included the incredible K. Tempest Bradford, we had a BIT too much fun taking part in her Fairy Tale Rants. You really don't want to miss this one:
Or our take on Swan Lake:
Have fun with THE ETERNA FILES and as always, Cheers and Happy Haunting!
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
THE ETERNA FILES - RELEASE DAY!
It's THE ETERNA FILES RELEASE DAY! *runs* *muppet flails* So yes, darling readers, this is your cue to BUY THE BOOK TODAY, wherever books are sold!
Today, 2/10, is the last day to get a signed, personalized copy of ETERNA from WORD Bookstore in Brooklyn before I go on book tour.
If you're a fan of the STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL and/or MAGIC MOST FOUL sagas, cameos from several cast members of both series appear in ETERNA! My worlds are parallel worlds and I've had an absolute blast in weaving my worlds together to culminate in this work!
I'm thrilled to have received a fantastic review of ETERNA from Suspense Magazine!
"Extremely descriptive, the supernatural plot is intriguing. The author has offered up a rainbow of characters, from the guilt-ridden to the intellectual to the satirical, which will have readers chomping at the bit for more." - Amy Lignor for Suspense Magazine
If I won't see you on BOOK TOUR, then TODAY is the last day to get a signed, personalized copy of Eterna via the fabulous WORD bookstore in Brooklyn. Please put personalization requests in the
The latest blog roundup: Today on TERRIBLE MINDS: I WRITE WHAT I WANT (aka Ignoring the Haters since 1764) - In which I talk about the importance of writing whatever genre calls to you no matter the slings and arrows.
Find me on Myke Cole's blog talking some silly fashion tips.
On Nick Kaufmann's "The Scariest Part" I talk about what was the most terrifying part of writing the Eterna Files: Clara's countdown to unconsciousness.
At the Tor/Forge Newsletter: "It's Not a Costume its My Day Job" about dressing up, writing and the art of character.
For DAILY GEEKETTE: On the Importance of Celebrating Differences
- More updates as I go, cheers, blessings, please enjoy THE ETERNA FILES and Happy Haunting!
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
The Eterna Files: Blog Tour round-up round one!
I've been promoting THE ETERNA FILES far and wide, with some wide ranging guest posts as well, I hope you'll peruse what I've been up to and gain insights into parts of my writing process:
For Nick Kaufmann's "The Scariest Part" I talk about what was the most terrifying part of writing the Eterna Files: Clara's countdown to unconsciousness.
For the Tor/Forge Newsletter: "It's Not a Costume its My Day Job" about dressing up, writing and the art of character.
Book Tour updates! Are you in NYC, Florida, Atlanta or Cincinnati, Ohio? Check out my latest book tour appearances. Barnes & Noble West Chester Ohio, 3/3 at 7pm has just been added!
If you'd like a signed, personalized book, get your orders in before book tour begins! Order now from WORD Bookstores, please put personalization requests in the "comments" section of the order.
Stay tuned for more fabulous guest posting and further reports from the paranormal front lines!
Cheers and happy haunting!
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
THE ETERNA FILES: Official Book Trailer!
I hope you enjoyed this short and sweet little book trailer for THE ETERNA FILES, made by PsychWing R & D, a production company founded by yours truly, who did the voice-over in the piece, writer, illustrator and producer Thom Truelove- co-author of several upcoming novels and projects, is responsible for title cards, and the biggest thanks to the fabulous Nerdy Duo; they filmed everything and put it all together per our collective visioning. It's a gasp of a glimpse into the ETERNA world and I hope you'll dive in further by ordering a copy of this new Gaslamp Fantasy adventure!
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SIGNED, personalized copies of ETERNA, book 1, can be ordered via WORD, Brooklyn, where your purchase will support not only this very critical new series for me, but a community indie bookstore!
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Cheers and Happy Haunting!
Thursday, January 15, 2015
THE ETERNA FILES Excerpt 2 - Via the Holy Taco Church - And get a signed, personalized Eterna!
Hello my dears!
I've taken my turn today over at the Holy Taco Church, where I am the resident Our Lady of Pico de Gallo to present the second excerpt of THE ETERNA FILES as we count down to release!
So read about our good, beleaguered, hard working Mister Harold Spire...
AND if you like what you read, please go ahead and get a signed, personalized copy of Eterna AND support a fabulous independent local bookstore, WORD in Brooklyn, at the same time! Please put personalization requests in the "Comments" section of the order.
Cheers, enjoy the excerpt and happy haunting!
Leanna
I've taken my turn today over at the Holy Taco Church, where I am the resident Our Lady of Pico de Gallo to present the second excerpt of THE ETERNA FILES as we count down to release!
So read about our good, beleaguered, hard working Mister Harold Spire...
AND if you like what you read, please go ahead and get a signed, personalized copy of Eterna AND support a fabulous independent local bookstore, WORD in Brooklyn, at the same time! Please put personalization requests in the "Comments" section of the order.
Cheers, enjoy the excerpt and happy haunting!
Leanna
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Countdown to ETERNA: Excerpt 1!
Counting down unto The Eterna Files, my debut from Tor Books in a new Gaslamp Fantasy saga! In the coming days various excerpts will be forthcoming here and on the Tor sites. -
Read on and check out my still-in-progress Appearance schedule for book tour, launching first at WORD, Brooklyn on Feb 11 in NYC!
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Pre-order a personalized, signed copy of The Eterna Files from the fabulous independent community bookstore WORD!
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From The Eterna Files cover:
Their first mission: find the Eterna Compound, which grants immortality. Catastrophe destroyed the hidden laboratory in
Also searching for Eterna is an American, Clara Templeton, who helped start the project after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln nearly destroyed her nation. Haunted by the ghost of her beloved, she is determined that the Eterna Compound—and the immortality it will convey—will be controlled by the
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ADVANCED PRAISE FOR THE ETERNA FILES:
“Hieber’s
formidable imagination is given free reign in this smart, boundlessly creative
Gaslamp fantasy. She blends historical fact and paranormal fiction with ease,
creating a world that is lush and fascinatingly strange, and reveals her
secrets sparingly, keeping fans on edge for more information about these
intriguingly powerful characters and the ties that bind them together. Patient
readers will be well rewarded for letting this haunting novel unfold around
them and savoring the expansive world and complex plot that Hieber has
constructed.” – Bridget Keown for RT Bookreviews Magazine
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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THIS SERIES:-
The Eterna Files follows a parallel storyline in two cities following a complex cast of characters. If you like your stories very simple and small-cast, this is not the series for you. Hopefully you won’t mind a host of colorful, quirky characters in a darkly rich Victorian atmosphere. I write the worlds I want to spend an increasingly deep amount of time in. So come along on what has been called a fascinatingly strange journey with my whole madcap cast.
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EXCERPT ONE: The Prologue! Why not start from the very beginning? They say that’s a very good place to start.
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PROLOGUE
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The White House, April 16, 1865
The sanity of a bloodied nation hung by a
precarious thread. Hundreds of thousands of bodies rotted in mass graves.
Mountains of arms and legs lay just beneath the earth in countless pits of
appendages. Thousands of young men had been torn into wingless birds, stunned,
harrowed, and half whole. No one had gone untouched by the war; everyone was
haunted. A gunshot in a theater tipped
the straining scales and the nation’s battered, broken heart faltered and
stopped.
This was the
world in which twelve-year-old Clara Templeton grieved. She wept for her land
with the kind of passion only a young, gifted sensitive could offer. When she
was called to the side of the first lady, she did not hesitate.
Clad in a black
taffeta mourning gown, Clara stood in a dimly candlelit hallway outside the first
lady’s rooms, awaiting admittance alongside her guardian, Congressman Rupert
Bishop, aged twenty-five—though his prematurely silver hair gave one pause as
to his age. He’d been silver-haired as long as she’d known him. When she’d
asked about it with a child’s tactlessness, he’d simply responded with a wink
and a smile: “It’s the fault of the ghosts.” Soon after, Bishop took her to her
first séance and Clara began to understand just how dangerous the thrall of
ghosts could be. . . .
A red-eyed maid opened the door and gestured
them in.
Inside the small
but well-appointed room, a low fire mitigated a cool draft and cast most of the
light in the room. Mary Todd Lincoln sat on a chair in the shadows, staring out
a small window, her bell-sleeved, black crepe dress spilling out in all
directions. Only the ticking of a fine clock on the mantel and the occasional
sniff from the weeping maid broke the silence. The congressman beckoned Clara
forward, into the firelight. Her step creaked upon the floorboards as her
petite body cast a long shadow behind her.
Finally the first
lady spoke in a quiet tremor. “Do you know why I called you here, Miss
Templeton?”
“I’ve a
supposition,” Clara replied quietly, nervously moving forward another step.
“But first, Mrs. Lincoln, my deepest sympathies—”
“When your
guardian here first brought you to visit the White House two years ago, you ran
up to me, a perfect stranger, and gave me an embrace from my William. My dead
William.”
“Yes, Mrs.
Lincoln,” Clara murmured, “I remember—”
“I need you now,
Miss Templeton,” the first lady began with a slightly wild look in her eyes,
“to give me an embrace from my dead husband.”
Alarmed, Clara
looked at Bishop, her eyes wide. The tall, elegantly handsome man lifted a
calming, gloved hand and Clara attempted to gather herself
“I . . . well,”
she stammered, “I’m unsure my gifts can work on command, Mrs.—”
“Try!” the
grieving widow wailed, turning to face the girl, her face drawn and hollowed.
Clara rushed over and fell to her knees beside the first lady, removing her kid
gloves to take Mary’s shaking, bare hands into hers.
“I know that he
is with you,” Clara murmured, tears falling from her bright green-gold eyes.
“The president is with all who mourn him—”
“Prove it,” Mary
Todd murmured. She snapped her head toward the door. “Rupert. You’re a spiritualist,
have you not trained Miss Templeton
since she became your ward?”
“Only charlatans
cue up the dead precisely when the grieving want them, Mary, you know that,”
Bishop said gently. “And this is far too vulnerable a time to try.” He shivered
suddenly. “Too many things want in.
We risk inviting malevolence, not comfort.”
“No one should ever have to suffer what I have—” the
first lady choked out.
“No, they
shouldn’t,” Clara replied. “Never.”
“The country can
bear no more,” Bishop added quietly, his fine black mourning coat making him
almost invisible in the shadows by the door. “We must guard against the basest
evils grasping for purchase—”
“What could be
more evil than what I have endured?” the first lady exclaimed.
The last two years had taught Clara that
Rupert Bishop coddled no one, even the grieving. She spoke before he could
offer another example of his oft-sobering perspective. “Such a powerful seat
needs protection,” Clara exclaimed, squeezing the widow’s shaking hands with
innocent, sure strength. “Such a man should never have fallen. He deserved to
have been made immortal!”
“Why
. . . yes, child!” Mary Lincoln exclaimed, a sudden light in her eyes. “Do we
not have resources, researchers, scientists, theorists? Should we not have
granted a man like the president eternal protection while he bore the nation on
his shoulders? My dear Congressman Bishop . . .”
The
small woman rose to her feet and began to pace the room, skirts swishing and
sweeping with renewed determination.
“I charge
you,” she said, bright gaze fastened on Bishop. “If you’ll not bring my husband
back to me in spirit or form, then you must do this. Take Clara’s idea. For
this bled-dry country. For the seat cloaked in immense power. Do this,
Congressman, so no other wife in this dreadful house might go through such agony
again. . . .”
“Do
what, Mary?” he pressed.
She
stared at him with steely ferocity. “Find a cure for death.”
***
Seventeen
Years Later, New
York City
“It was
born of good intentions,” Clara insisted in a choking murmur.
She
sat on a bench in Central Park on a mild June
day, beneath a willow tree, looking out over the southeastern pond. She could
not move. Her breath was shallow against the double stays of corset and
buttoned bodice; soft ivory lace and muslin ruffles trembled around her throat.
Tendrils of dark blond hair, blown free from braids beneath a fanciful straw
feathered hat, tickled around her streaming eyes. Her world was again cracking
open.
“Wake
up,” she heard a voice calling. “Wake up.” It was not a human voice but that of
some ancient, cosmic force.
She
had known there was something different about her since the age of nine, since
she’d awakened in the middle of the night to see a wild-haired woman in a cloak
sitting at the foot of her bed.
“You’re
special,” was all the woman said before vanishing.
The
next day, Clara’s father, a prominent doctor to Washington Greenwood
Cemetery mausoleum in their native Brooklyn . Clara was the marble sepulcher’s most frequent
haunt. The Templetons’ will ensured that Clara would be educated at fine
institutions and looked after by prominent figures.
Rupert
Bishop, then a talented young New
York
The
visitor returned the night Bishop brought Clara to the White House the first
time; Clara saw the creature watching her from the shadows. She had not seen
the strange herald since, not even after that fateful second encounter with the
first lady, a meeting that had set an unlikely destiny in motion.
Paperwork
left on the slain president’s desk established a “Secret Service” to
investigate counterfeit currency. A tiny cabal, headed by Bishop, supposed the service
might also, in some unnamed office, investigate immortality. Bishop assembled a
team of occultists, mystics, and chemists and set them to work in a secret
location.
Once
Clara completed finishing school, Bishop gave her a key to a nondescript office
on Pearl Street Manhattan
In 1880,
Eterna theorist Louis Dupris secretly told Clara that he’d made a breakthrough
in localized magic. The world had suddenly seemed full of possibility. But now
. . .
The
Eterna Compound had been born out of grief. At this moment Clara wondered if it
should never have been born at all, for now it bore grief of its own.
“Something’s
wrong,” Clara murmured, wanting to cry but feeling wholly paralyzed. “I can
feel it. . . .” All of Clara that had ever been could feel it; a love torn from
her like layers of skin.
Before
her eyes, in layers of concentric circles stretching out like mirrors
reflecting mirrors in dizzying multiplication, she saw lives. Her lives, those
she’d had before. She was twenty-nine years old . . . with a soul a thousand
years older.
Pried
open in a painful awakening, she knew her life was far more than the boundaries
and limitations of her current flesh, but at present she felt the pain of all
those centuries all at once, things done and undone. The sheer, heavy press of
it all was staggering.
A
mockingbird alighted on a branch above Clara’s head. It squawked and stared at
her, then made the sounds of a police whistle, a bicycle bell, and some
roaring, whooshing thing: the sound of something tearing.
And
then there was a woman next to her. The visitor.
Though
she couldn’t turn her head, in her peripheral vision Clara saw skirts, gloves,
and long hair that was scandalously unbound. The presence of the visitor
confirmed what she was feeling; something terrible was happening. Clara tried
to move again, to fight the gravity lashing her to the bench, wishing tears,
something, anything could be set free.
“What
is it this time?” Clara gasped.
“Hello,
Clara,” the visitor said quietly. One didn’t mistake an ordinary person for the
visitor, for it brought with it the weight of time itself. “It’s been awhile.”
The visitor smoothed the skirts of its long, plain, black, uniform-like dress,
something a boarding school girl might wear. “Have you been waiting?” the visitor
asked.
“I’m
not a girl who waits,” Clara replied.
“That’s
why I trust you,” the visitor said, pleasure in its voice. “I last saw you when
you impetuously gave the first lady an embrace from her dead son.”
The
mockingbird gave a raucous trill from the limb above them. The woman adjusted
what Clara thought was a hat—she still couldn’t get a good look. The mockingbird
had flown across the path and alighted on a limb at her eye line, trilling
accompaniment to their conversation.
“You
presage terrible things but I never know what,” Clara growled.
“You’ve
always been gifted,” the visitor replied. “Sensitive.”
“And we
see what good sensitivity has done
me.” Clara choked out her words. “I’m a freak of nature. My ‘fits’ render any
hope I might have had for a normal life or a place in society laughable. I
curse my gifts for all the misfortune they bring.” Embarrassing, traumatic
memories paraded through her mind, her past lives staring on in pity. Clara
hated pity. Perhaps it was best, then, that the visitor had none.
“Don’t be
ungrateful, child,” the visitor chided. “You’ve two friends in a world of loneliness,
you had a lover when many never know such pleasure, you’ve worked when hordes
seek pay, you’ve a guardian who dotes on you when countless orphans have no
one, and you’ve money and a fine house in a city that denies both to thousands
of its denizens.”
Clara
wanted to lash out at the creature. But it was right, which only sharpened her
pain.
“Something
terrible has happened, hasn’t it? To the Eterna team?” she whispered, her
throat raw as if from screaming even though she had loosed no such sound. “To
my Louis? My love is among them. . . .”
An amulet
of protection, tucked beneath her corset stays, was a knot against her shaking
breaths. The amulet had been given to her by Louis, an item charged and blessed
by his mother. Clara never felt she had the right to it, and now, he, who
needed protection, lacked it
“I
am very sorry for your loss,” the visitor said solemnly.
“I
must go,” Clara insisted, trying to fight free but failing. “Maybe I can help
the team—”
The
visitor held up a hand. “It’s no use. They’re gone.”
“Why
can’t you stop terrible things if you’re aware of them?” Clara demanded. “Why
can’t I?”
“Not
in our skill set,” the visitor replied. “You’ve taken too much ownership of something
that is not your responsibility, Templeton. What is your responsibility, is
to—”
“‘Wake up?’ Yes, I hear it, on the wind.
In my bones. What does it mean?”
The
woman gestured before her, to Clara’s iterations. “You see the lives, don’t
you?”
“Yes.”
Clara swallowed hard. “Do you?”
“Of
course I do,” the visitor replied. “I’m here to tell you that a great storm is
coming. It will break across two continents; two great cities, the hearts of empires.
Your team is gone and storms are coming. Weather them, find special souls and
shield them. Second-guess your enemy. Find the missing link between the lives
you see. Do this for yourself. And for your country.”
Clara
snorted bitterly. “Do I hear patriotism?”
The
visitor shook its head. “I owe allegiance to no land.”
“Then
what are you here for?” Clara begged.
The
visitor’s voice grew warm. “I care about certain people.”
“Why
me?”
“Show me why you, Templeton,” the visitor
proclaimed. “You’re at the center of the storm. Be worthy of the squall.”
The
mockingbird made the strange, roaring sound again and the woman was gone.
Clara’s
hands shook. The people she had been in her many lives turned and looked at
her, male, female, all with certain similar qualities that she recognized as
uniquely hers. Curiosity. Hunger. Restlessness. Intensity. Independence
She was awake. But Eterna had died, taking with
it the lover no one knew she had.
(End of Excerpt)
Next Tuesday we'll reveal excerpts from the first chapter!
Already hooked? You can Pre-Order THE ETERNA FILES now in hardcover or in digital wherever books are sold. Get a personalized, signed copy from WORD! - Barnes and Noble - IndieBound - Amazon
Want to get a book signed??!! Check out the TOUR APPEARANCES so far! We're starting in New York City on February 11th with several Barnes & Noble signings in Florida, hitting Anachrocon in Atlanta at the end of February, Ohio readers, stay tuned for Ohio dates, and stock signing locations around the country. See the current listings.
Join Leanna's no-spam mailing list for release day announcements! Visit her website and put your email address into the column on the right or via the Appearances / Contact page.
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Cheers and happy haunting!
Join Leanna's no-spam mailing list for release day announcements! Visit her website and put your email address into the column on the right or via the Appearances / Contact page.
-
Cheers and happy haunting!