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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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Title: Reading: Leanna Renee Hieber
Time: Sun 02:30 pm Location: Vinings - Hyatt (Length: 1 Hour)
(Tentative Panelists: Leanna Renee Hieber)
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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)
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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)
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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!

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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

Out of the Deadline Cave and Into the Taco Church...

Greetings, Dear Reader! Those of you who follow my goings on know that I've been a bit under a rock on  major major book deadline(s). I've come out briefly for things like one day at the Steampunk World's Fair and one day at Book Expo America, but the most important thing of late has been getting THE ETERNA FILES ready for your delectable consumption come this fall with a teaser novella and early 2015 with book one's magical release, as I shift my writerly career into the hands of Tor Books, a transition I am very excited to make.

I've also been working background on the HBO show Boardwalk Empire lately, I'm so proud I've worked every season of the show. ANOTHER TREAT was the thrill of seeing myself featured in the James Gray film The Immigrant, a 1920s period drama that's a really amazing film. I'm sitting next to Marion Cotillard (Ewa) as she watches Jeremy Renner (Orlando the magician) wow the Ellis Island audience with his performance. My hair is in a bun, I'm in glasses, and you see me several times in those shots and I'm really thrilled, as working that particular Ellis Island scene as well as working several days on the whole production, was a really wonderful experience, especially as a historical novelist, their eye to detail and care for us as a group was great.  

I'll ALSO be featured in the upcoming episode of the Urban Fantasy web-series full of kick-ass fights and general genre fabulousness, SKYE OF THE DAMNED, episode 5, in which I play Danae, Queen of the Unseelie FAE. I know, ME? Queen of the dark fae? No. That so doesn't suit me at all. *grin* So stay tuned for that episode launching next week!

If you haven't caught up with my books and want some insight into THE ETERNA FILES, as I'll be taking some of the darkest plot threads of the Magic Most Foul saga and making it all A WHOLE LOT CREEPIER (I know, it's hard to do, because it's damn creepy already, but in my coming works, the creepy expands on a far grander scale), please check out the Magic Most Foul series and in book 3, The Double Life of Incorporate Things, I introduce some of my Eterna Files stars.

ETERNA will launch a teaser novella with Tor this fall and we'll have an early 2015 debut, so STAY TUNED! (And catch up on Magic Most Foul. It certainly isn't a prerequisite, however if you like Gothic Victorian Paranormal Fantasy, well, then, you're in the right place as that's entirely what I do.)

IN THE MEANTIME - THE HOLY TACO CHURCH and PHOENIX COMICON!

The amazing Kevin Hearne, who might be one of the most utterly delightful gentleman on the planet, as fabulous an author as he is a human, has organized an amazing author group that I'm very tickled to be a part of. Follow our religious love of food (particularly Tacos and Margaritas) alongside the goings on of our books. I'm holding down the Vegetarian quotient of the Holy Taco Church as Our Lady Pico de Gallo and will be offering up some of the ways I taco it up without dead carcass. My first post goes up June 12th, but please check out the site and our fabulous authors and sign up for our mailing list.

If any of you are in the Phoenix Comicon area, a great deal of "The Church" will be in attendance so come see us! I'll have all three Magic Most Foul saga books available via the wonderful Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore to sign over in our Author Alley, if you have stock of any Strangely Beautiful editions that are now out of print (But not for long as everything begins it's new and shiny re-issue next year thanks to Tor!) feel free to bring them along and I'll love to sign those too! Cheers!

Here are my favourite BEA pictures taken by the lovely Alexis Daria! The first is of me side by side with my beloved Alethea Kontis, we celebrated 5 years of being Kindred Spirits this BEA, and Alexis got the next picture of me during my signing at the Science Fiction / Fantasy Writers of America booth. Cheers and happy haunting! 

Writing Process Blog Tour! Eterna Files, YA and more: In which Leanna explains why she does what she does...

Thanks to YA author Lynne Kelly for getting me involved in the Writing Process Blog Tour! Here we answer some basic questions about our process. The questions may be basic, but writing a book is far from it, and every author's process is as unique and as individual as the array of books throughout history. I love talking shop, so here goes....

1.      What am I working on:

Book 2 of The Eterna Files, a Gaslamp Fantasy saga set in featuring two rival teams of secret agencies between New York, each tasked with finding the ‘cure for death’ on behalf of their respective governments. A teaser novella for the series launches this fall and book 1 launches February 2015. Close on Eterna’s heels, my acclaimed, award-winning and bestselling Strangely Beautiful saga (also Gaslamp Fantasy in nature) re-releases. Both series are with Tor/Forge. I’m having such fun with The Eterna Files, which takes and runs with all the themes I’ve been working on throughout my career; the spaces between life and death, the fine lines between faith, belief, spirituality and doubt, the arcane, the magical and the unfathomable mysteries of the human heart. I’m so in love with infusing the paranormal into a ‘realistic’ Victorian world and I’m blessed to have had the opportunity to do so book after book. Some of my Magic Most Foul characters will appear in Eterna, and in the finale of the series, The Double Life of Incorporate Things, I introduce two of Eterna's stars. I love weaving all my characters through different series to show them all from different angles.

2.      How does my work differ from others of its genre:

I love this question because it’s in my particular brand of Victorian Gothic Fantasy that I truly hope to make a lasting mark. Readers and reviewers tend to compare my books to 19^th Century Gothic authors rather than contemporary authors, mainly because my style borrows so heavily from my Gothic forefathers and foremothers. While I don’t utilize the density of 19^th century style, between my themes, interests and the bent of my language, my work is entirely entwined with a dark, dramatic, dare I say ‘strangely beautiful’ tradition.

What I attempt, while honouring and valuing my Gothic forefathers and foremothers, is to allow for my female characters to have a broader range of experiences and agency in my work. Most women in the traditional Gothic are victims and/or trapped by their material confines of the age, of expectations, mores, roles and more. The women of my novels are tasked with saving themselves and others, rather than being a less dimensional plot device. 

3.      Why do I write what I do:

This is closely tied to how my work differs from others of its genre. I feel called to voice the Victorian Era that I love so deeply, but to do so via a modern lens, and allow for voices that would have been marginalized by the constraints of a classist, excessively patriarchal society. I do so not because I think our society ‘knows better’ than the Victorians (we have just as many skeletons in our modern closets as they had in theirs, in some ways more insidiously considering the pervasiveness of modern technology), but I do have current freedoms and platforms a Victorian version of myself would have chafed heartily against. So much of the freedom, laws and safety we take for granted today were changes born of the constraints, injustices and traumas of 19^th century pedagogy, changes that people fought and died for.

And yet, we live in a new gilded age in terms of income inequality and the rapidity of technological advancement mirrors the industrial revolution in an uncanny way. There are beautiful ways to parallel the past and the present and those connections keep me coming back time and time again to the themes of my work and the fascinating complexities of the Victorian era and the resilient human spirit throughout time.

4. How does my writing process work?

*Chortle* I am entirely haphazard. Such a pantser. While I have to know a general arc and trajectory of where I'm going, every book is as mysterious to me as the last. Every book is new, every book's process feels like I'm back to square one and every time I wonder if I can cobble a book together out of the quilt pieces laid out before me. The only common theme is that I write non-linear, out of order, I write the scenes that compel me and keep me up at night. (Beloved characters are the anti-sleeping-pill).

I write what I want to write first, daydream about all the things the book needs, and eventually I put in all the connective tissue, which is the most exhausting part of the process, making all those pieces make sense. That's when it feels like work. The initial process of the book is like taking a vacation into a foreign land and I'm seeing it through the eyes of my characters, it's rather magical, really, but then the connective tissue is where the muscle comes in, and the editorial part of my brain needs to make the hard choices about making sure none of my characters have run away with the storyline too far off the core course, which has happened a few times in my career. That's where critique partners and editorial staff come in so handy, as a book that's only seen your eyes and mind alone just isn't as capable of a story as it is when it's gone through multiple revisions and some trusted viewpoints.  

All in all, writing books is what I love most in life and feel is my purpose in life, and so writing process, for me, isn't just something I do, it's something I live. And I hope you'll enjoy my books!

DARKER STILL (Magic Most Foul book 1: http://tinyurl.com/darkerbn  )
THE TWISTED TRAGEDY OF MISS NATALIE STEWART (book 2: http://tinyurl.com/twistedbn )
THE DOUBLE LIFE OF INCORPORATE THINGS (book 3: http://tinyurl.com/tdloitaz )

I tag my darling Alethea Kontis, award-winning, NYT Bestselling author and certified Princess on this tour, catch her responses next Monday on her blog!
 

DragonCon 2012

Casting a spell on my dear Alethea Kontis

Ahhh, DragonCon. It has been a tradition every year, it will be a tradition every year. I know it's a convention I'm guaranteed at least a little quality time with my beloved Alethea Kontis, and my former goth-in-NYC buddy Mari Mancusi too, who I still haven't quite forgiven for moving to Texas. Oh, yeah, and 54,000 other people. One of the most packed sci-fi/fantasy conventions in the country, DragonCon has to be seen to be believed. But here are some pictures anyway. If you saw my schedule I posted, you know I was busy. Author readings, panels, signings, giving out Auror's Tale swag, I was kept busy. But not too busy to represent the House of Malfoy amidst my author activities. My Family in cosplay crime, the LePages, weren't around to accompany my Narcissa Malfoy so I had to send updates home... Like this one: 

 

It's always a bit of a rush to get from one panel to the next, so I was delayed to my Frightening Folklore panel on Friday. As I was dressed as Narcissa Malfoy, Alethea, who was on the panel with me, prepped the crowd in my absence. As I entered, she announced, "Ladies and Gentlemen, Narcissa Malfoy!" And the crowd hissed and booed. I took a moment at the door, and then I tilted my head and narrowed my eyes in a most distinctive Narcissa look of indignance. I then stared the audience down as I approached the dias to take my seat with the other panelists. This is what resulted. If you don't know what happened in the last book or film of Harry Potter, well, then, what I say to the crowd won't make much sense. But thankfully this is a crowd I didn't have to worry about. We all speak the same language. Geek. Suffice to say, I think Narcissa kicks ass, she's one of my favourite characters in literature and I really love taking her on for moments like this:

Fellow author Delilah S. Dawson was dressed as a Ravenclaw
so of course after the panel we had to duel...



Rachel shows off her tattoo, mine and
Laurel K. Hamilton's author signatures

There were so many highlights, one of them being a dear reader, Rachel, who I see every year at DragonCon, showed me her new tattoo, the signatures of her favourite authors, taken from our book signatures. Mine is on top, followed by Laurel K. Hamilton. That's dedication. I said in a Facebook post that now I've a few folks who have tattoos inspired by some part of my work. Like Voldemort summons his Death Eaters by touching his wand to his Dark Mark, I wish I could press a wand to my tattoos and it would summon my tribe to do something beautifully inspiring and creative.

I had some really great panels this year, one on Victorian Gothic Literature (which is both my great passion and my entire novelistic career), another on Victorian Mysticism, Spiritualism and the Occult. I had an amazing time reconnecting with friends I see here every year and making new ones. I love the chance to speak passionately about the subject matter of my books to like-hearted fans of the genre, there's really nothing better. AND, I GOT INTERVIEWED BY THE DAILY DRAGON! This was a big deal. Enjoy the photos, especially the really convincing Ron Weasley and Loki!

Leanna says some stuff about stuff...
(Victorian Gothic Literature panel,
which she does know something about...)

 



Weasleys. Ugh. No class.





That's Mrs. Malfoy to you. (Before the Yule Ball.)





Reading from DARKER STILL at
 Princess Alethea's Traveling Side-Show

God. Of. Chaos. Such. Goooooood. Hugs...

 

A picture, a thousand words and all that...

OCTOBER IS HALLOWEEN AWARENESS MONTH, And I've got prizes.

Ladies & Gents, it's October. My favourite month of the year. You know what October means: NATIONAL HALLOWEEN AWARENESS MONTH!

Fabulous New York things to do this month include:

1. The Great Pumpkin Blaze
2. Boo at the Zoo
3. Embrace your inner Slytherin. (Shouldn't we all?)

To share in the joy of this month, I'm giving you, dear readers, prezzies.
Each week of October I'm hosting a different giveaway, either here on the blog, on Twitter or on Facebook; I'm rotating, so be sure you're following each site.

First off? My partner in crime, the Diana to my Anne of Green Gables, the wondrously talented author, artist, Jill of all trades and princess, Alethea Kontis is featured in a just-released anthology that is very appropriate fare for Halloween Awareness Month:

DEMONS: Encounters with the Devil and his Minions, Fallen angels and the possessed - featuring Neil Gaiman, Kim Harrison, Maggie Stiefvater, William Peter Blatty and the aforementioned Ms. Kontis and many more!

And I'm giving away a copy! Signed, no less! Keep reading for details:

Also, it's only appropriate that I mention Alethea is also the author of the popular AlphaOops H IS FOR HALLOWEEN - which is something everyone should have for their little ones this season. And she is ALSO the author of forthcoming YA Fairy Tale magic twisted and made new as only she can, ENCHANTED. (Yes, you can pre-order it!) No, this is not the last time you'll see us talking about one another's books. She's the "Once Upon a Time" and I'm the "It Was a Dark and Stormy Night". Together, we're all your favourite kinds of stories in one.

And so, to kick off HALLOWEEN AWARENESS MONTH I've a copy of the DEMONS anthology, SIGNED BY THE AUTHORESS herself, to give away right here right now.

Extra entries if you Follow Alethea on Twitter and/or on Facebook.

HOW TO ENTER:

All you have to do to enter is tell me your favourite thing about Autumn! (Include follows so I can include extra entries. Winner by Random.org on Friday, October 7th!)

NEXT WEEK?

We'll be running a Twitter contest for a copy of CANDLE IN THE ATTIC WINDOW: An Anthology of Gothic Horror published by Innsmouth Free Press and featuring my short story "AT THE DOORSTEP" which is set in the world of DARKER STILL: A NOVEL OF MAGIC MOST FOUL.

DON'T FORGET!

Pre-orders are up for DARKER STILL at WORD Bookstore; get a signed, personalized (if you like) copy! Also WORD is hosting my 11/10/11 Launch Party at 7pm.

Cheers!! And remember, only YOU can hold Halloween in your heart, and keep it all the year!

DragonCon 2009

DragonCon in Atlanta, GA is hard to sum up. And I was only there for half of it. I'm going to give you the top five things I learned at DragonCon
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5. There are A LOT of people in one set of spaces. Hold your wings or the train of your dress tight in the elevator you've waited a while to squeeze into. Many of the assembled thousands of people are pretty cool people.
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4. There is no geekery too geeky.
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3. There is NO limit to the human imagination for costuming.


2. Saying "why, thank you Gandalf," for holding the door, or "Pardon me, Doctors (as all the various Dr. Who(s) are assembled in your path)," or "they're just past the Storm Trooper battalion but before you get to those zombie Smurfs" - becomes entirely mundane and commonplace language. (Here's me going "Ooh! K-9! K-9!!")

1. Thing I learned at DragonCon: It felt like coming home!

I had an incredible time with my roomie/soul-sister/New York Times Bestselling Alethea Kontis and her dear friend soon my dear friend Chris - aka Token Poet on Twitter. I got in on Thursday, got the lay of the land, and Friday was my big day. 3 panels (with really, really cool writers and new friends - such as Heather Brewer- pictured here - as well as Caitlin Kittredge!)

Capping off my panels on friday was the resounding success I hope is the first of a grand tradition to come... Princess Alethea's Travelling Sideshow! (See the lovely Princess Ringmistress Herself here, reading some of her magical work - please note prominent presence of Skull Bucket.)

I got the chance to read from The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker and the numerous attendees got bags full of neat swag - that included my book, thanks to the fine folks at Dorchester Publishing. Psst, by the way, Dorchester is giving away a Kindle - check it out.

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On Saturday Alethea invited me into the parade to walk with the Sherrilyn Kenyon minions - I'm certainly a proud minion and devotee of the Queen of the Con herself!

Saturaday afternoon I participated on another panel about characters in fiction, which I loved - I love the chance to share and swap stories about process and writing tidbits with readers and other writers. Plus, at DragonCon - you get to do it all in costume. Or, for me, what I'd like to be wearing daily. Elaborate outfits make everything more fun, plus it meant I could speak about Victorian London with that extra air of authenticity. Gosh I love this outfit...

(Thanks Liz Maverick for this shot!)

(My fellow panelists and dear writing buddies Liz Maverick, Marianne Mancusi and me- yes, I am wearing eerie contacts.)

Did I mention we laughed a whole lot and had a great time being goofy? Really goofy? That, also, was perhaps my favourite part of DragonCon.

Team Joke, subtly different from Team Loser, thanks for breaking me with laughter.

Can't wait till next year!

DragonCon - the adventure begins!

And now on to the BOOK TOUR part of my whirlwind.
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The Strangely Beautiful Haunted London Blog Tour is on hiatus due to my travels and Release Party in NYC on the 7th. It will resume again on the 11th at fellow Dorchester author Elisabeth Naughton's Blog. (see Haunted Tour Schedule).
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Tomorrow I leave for the experience that is DragonCon! (And I get some quality time with my separated-at-birth Lee - and hang with my awesome NYC writer buds as well as meet new ones!)

I'm speaking on the following panel schedule on the DARK FANTASY TRACK - if you're at the Con - come say hi!

Friday:

11:30-am in Mont/Van Room - NEW BLOOD - Debut Authors or New to the Track

1:00-pm in Mont / Van Room - A WRITER'S GUIDE TO GOTH AND PUNK

4:00-pm in Mont / Van Room MEMENTO MORI: GHOST STORIES

5:30- pm in Roswell (Hyatt) - PRINCESS ALETHEA'S TRAVELING SIDESHOW - in which there will be books, entertainment, free stuff, readings, all manner of vaudevillian or perhaps just villian behaviour... And in which I shall be dressed as Miss Percy Parker Herself. All white, all Victorian, eerie contacts and all...

























Speaking of Alethea - check out our GENRE CHICKS interview for Ingram! Oh, you should see it in print in the Advance Magazine... it's all teacups and swirlies and script font and gorgeousness... *swoon*
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And of course... On September 7th I return to NYC to host
A STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL RELEASE PARTY at Lady Jane's Salon!
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And then comes the Ohio part of my Book Tour I'll talk about when I get closer to that part...

Whee!!!!! Atlanta, here I come!

Hey - don't forget about my CONTEST...

BLESSINGS!

More lovely and Strangely Beautiful Reviews!

Oh my goodness.

I made it into Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show with a stunning-made-me-cry review by New York Times Bestselling Author, essayist, reviewer Alethea Kontis.

Here is the review, if you see it on the Intergalactic Medicine Show page you see all the beautiful graphics.

Princess Alethea's Magical Elixir
Book Reviews by Alethea Kontis
Title: The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker
Leisure / Dorchester Publishing EAN: 9780843962963

Percy Parker can see dead people. She can also hear dead people and, due to her remarkable fluency in almost ten languages, she can carry on conversations with them. Percy even looks like a ghost herself, with skin and hair like a marble statue and eyes so pale and sensitive to light that she must wear dark glasses at all times. But for all her unique characteristics, Percy is the typical mythic heroine -- orphaned, gifted, attending a mysterious Academy, and destined to fulfill a prophecy written back when the Temple of Athena still stood in one piece atop the Acropolis.

I fell in love with this book as soon as I read the title. It's one of those fabulous titles that adeptly distills the essence of the novel. Forget what's pictured on the cover -- to be fair, the title takes up most of the cover anyway -- this title is the best warning label of what you're about to get yourself into. Percy Parker's adventure promises to be poetic, wordy, Victorian, haunting, shadowy, subtle, and romantic.

But before I started Miss Parker's Tale, I met her author. I was invited to an intimate publisher brunch at BEA, and Leanna was the guest star. Now, I've met a good many authors in my time. If I like the author, I will make a whole-hearted attempt to read their book. (If I don't like the author then I don't attempt at all . . . but I can count the number of authors I don't like on one hand.) Similarly, just because I enjoy the author doesn't mean I'll love their fiction. I have some very best friends who know I don't care for their particular bent, and it doesn't affect our relationship one way or another.

All that said, by the end of said brunch Leanna and I were not only talking a million miles and hour, but we were also finishing each other's sentences. I couldn't wait to read the book. When I got back to Tennessee, I pestered the publisher until they emailed me a copy of the manuscript, and the second it popped up in my inbox, I dove right in.

I was in exactly the right mood to read this tasteful, gothic Victorian adventure. Its pages are like the petals of a rose: a many-layered tale gorgeously told. The reader immediately finds the strangely beautiful Percy Parker haunting the halls of Athens Academy along with her specters. We realize she is seventh in an ancient prophecy of gods and demons. It is up to The Guard -- the original six who have kept London safe from the otherworldy thus far -- to recognize their Prophecy and follow the path of destiny. Easier said than done, though, as The Guard is constantly distracted by an evil force they call "The Ripper."

The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker is Bullfinch's Mythology and Harry Potter and Wuthering Heights mashed in a blender. It is a historic, dark, fantasy mystery . . . Add Miss Parker's sudden and torrid love for her dark and brooding tutor Professor Alexi, and it also becomes a delicate and understated romance. A simple dance raised more goosebumps on my arms than the steamy scenes in most of the usual romance novels of today. I miss that.
I am happy to have been as impressed by this book as I was by its author . . . and happier still that Leanna is currently working on a sequel. Huzzah!

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And at FantasyLiterature.net, I've been given a gorgeous page replete with bio, backlist and author photo, and the following review by Kelly.

In part (or... Read with Synopsis and see the pretty page):

I had a lot of fun reading The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker. Leanna Renee Hieber creates a sense of enchantment from the very beginning, and the novel caught me up in its spell during a week when my real life went completely haywire. It has the feel of a fairy tale, which is not an easy mood to sustain in a full-length novel. The Strangely Beautiful Tale is elegantly written and chock full of interesting characters and mythic themes. I especially loved watching the development of Percy from a meek mouse to a woman who knows what she's willing to fight for.

I was briefly bothered by Percy's mathematical bumbling, since I've spent much of my life bristling at "girls can't do math" stereotypes, but when I thought about it a little more, Percy's lack of math skills makes perfect sense for her times. Because of those same stereotypes, a woman in the Victorian era would not have received much math education before enrolling at an unconventional school like Athens.The plot of The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker is satisfactorily wrapped up at book's end, but there's plenty of room for future world-saving.

Hieber has planned a series of four books. I'm definitely looking forward to them!Recommended for fans of historical fantasies like Marie Brennan's Onyx Court series and romantic fantasies like Maria Snyder's Study series.

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Thank you to Alethea and to Kelly at Fantasy Literature for making my day and back again.

BEA and Lady Jane's Salon!

WOW what a past few days.

I got an inside look at the publishing industry at Book Expo America, got thoroughly overwhelmed and walked away with some fabulous books. I saw dear friends, made new friends, one of them a total and immediate kindred spirit, and learned a lot. And, yeah, schmoozed.

Here's the kindred spirit/BFF/Diana to my Anne and vice versa, NYT Bestseller Alethea Kontis. I just hijacked this picture from her blog. (I never remember to take a camera anywhere). Let's just say we were finishing each other's sentences by dessert and jinxing. We knew every reference the other one made. She even noticed that the red matter from Star Trek was the big red ball of mass destruction from Alias. She too is Spock over Kirk and a mutual devotee of The Rickman. That, my friends, is love.

When one is so busy in one's own rat race, it's so nice when the cosmos steps in and says: "You need to know this person." Happily noted.

In the sphere of journalism greater than mine, there's BEA and LJS-tastic coverage at Barbara Vey's fabulous Beyond Her Book blog, also I got some quality time with the fabulous ladies of RomanceNovel.tv who also have great stuff to say about BEA and Lady Jane's Salon. We appreciate their support so very much.

Thanks to blogger extraordinaire Kwana for this great photo of another blogger extraordinaire Katiebabs and I at the larger-than-life Harlequin booth.

Because of the fabulous talent in town, we had a fabulous Lady Jane's Salon on Monday night replete with the above bloggers all in attendance and giving their own wonderful renditions.

(Thank you as always RT Webmaster Rob for being my photo hookup, check out his rundown of the event) From Left to Right: NYT Bestselling Author Wendy Corsi Staub, NYT Bestelling Author Marjorie M. Liu, Award-winning authors Diane Gaston and Amanda McCabe / Laurel McKee.

Each of these talented authors read from four very different books and each of them brought something compelling and delightful to the table.

It's what I love about Lady Jane's Salon; we get to showcase the huge range of fiction that falls under our wide and welcoming umbrella. Founders Maya Rodale, Hope Tarr, Ron Hogan and I just sit back and go... "Wow"

What I love just as much are the fabulous supporters we draw constantly, readers, authors, the RWA NYC posse, and my dear friend from college Biz Urban who is an awesome photographer. Authors? Actors? Publishers? You need her to shoot your photos.

Brenda Novak's online auction to benefit Diabetes Research closed this week, my Strangely Beautiful gift basket including a signed copy of Dark Nest had many bids and raised $57! The total raised from all the wonderful donations was $270,611! Way to go Brenda and all the industry professionals who donated their time and talent!

In my whirlwind few days I now find myself in Ohio and relaxing at my childhood dinner table. I'm getting ready to attend the Lori Foster Reader and Author Get Together, a great event that also serves local charities back in my hometown of Cincinnati (Really I live north of Cinci in the middle of nowhere but people don't know where that is)

Because my parents are awesome, when I got in the car they asked if I wanted anything. I thought a moment, then replied; "Ooh! Soy Jerky!" I've been a strict vegetarian for years now but I do miss beef jerky and so Tofurkey Jerky is the super-best. When we walked into the big Health Food store, we saw this Golden Arches irony:

Welcome home, Ohio.

See you after the Get Together!