Announcing MAGIC MOST FOUL... a new series!

(Photo by Barbara Vey - Thanks Barbara!) Monday night was quite an exciting night. It being the first Monday of the month, it was Lady Jane's Salon and we had an incredible lineup of bestselling authors; from L to R, Sabrina Jeffries (who recently hit #8 on the NYT with her latest!), innovator, author and activist Donna Hill, the charming and hilarious Janet Mullany, and myself in my Victorian regalia, de rigeur whenever I'm reading. We also had the pleasure of Publishers Weekly's Barbara Vey being our guest Emcee for the evening, thanks to Barbara for this picture and for mentioning us on her Beyond Her Book PW blog! Getting to step from Lady Jane's co-founder into the spotlight to read is always one of my favourite events, since I don't have time to be on stage in productions anymore, reading at Lady Jane's certainly scratches that itch. I read from "A Christmas Carroll" featured in A MIDWINTER FANTASY, and since there's been a delay in the release, Dorchester has put up a special MIDWINTER Page where you can join the mailing list and receive coupons too! Check it out!

The crowd was filled with industry professionals, authors and readers. It was here, as I took the stage, that I got to make the announcement of my really good news; a new book deal!

Come November, 2011, I'll begin my new Victorian Paranormal Young Adult series: MAGIC MOST FOUL...


Set in 1882 New York City, the story is told via the diary of eighteen-year old Natalie Stewart, a spirited and intelligent young woman who, despite innate talents, suffers from Selective Mutism due to a childhood trauma. When her father, who works for the new Metropolitan Museum of Art, gets wrapped up in a supposedly haunted painting, Natalie's world is turned upside down. A sensitive young woman who has always wondered about the supernatural, she has no idea how profoundly her curiosity is only the tip of a terrifying iceberg of dark magic. The portrait of young Lord Jonathon Denbury is no ordinary painting. Inside that canvass is a trapped soul, while a body possessed is terrorizing New York's infamous Five Points. Its up to Natalie and her newfound guide, the wealthy and compelling caretaker of the painting, Mrs. Evelyn Northe, to solve the mystery of the curse and up to Natalie alone to reverse it. All while on a ticking clock; the soul of Lord Denbury is fading. The harrowing mystery must be solved before more murders take place, and Natalie must find the courage to not only stare a demon in the face, but to use her most hidden of all gifts; her own voice.

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With ties to my favourite 19th century novels, this series will create common ground for those who love the classics and those who love YA/Teen paranormal fiction. I get to maintain my background in and my profound love of Victorian-era stories, continue with my theme of unusual, unique, underdog heroines; as Natalie is a strong and vibrant character despite her disability, and weave in the sort of dark, lyrical, fantastical paranormal reality that I love most in storytelling. For those of you who have loved the Strangely Beautiful saga, I promise you this will appeal to you as well. While entirely new; it will feel familiar; a different dress out of a similar fabric, creating a fresh design from my favourite materials.
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The series will release in Trade Paperback format, as well as in digital, from Sourcebooks and their Teen Fire line. I'm very, very excited. My editor, Leah Hultenschmidt, is fabulous, and the Sourcebooks team is a thrilling cast of individuals passionate about the book arts. Follow Sourcebooks on Twitter, Paul their Fire publicist, and Danielle their Romance publicist, they've got a lot of exciting things going on. Those of you who love YA fiction check out the Teen Fire forum.

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Blessings and thanks for your support along the way! I couldn't do it without my committed readers, friends and fans. I am so blessed to have the opportunity to continue writing the fantastical stories that keep me up at night for the love of them.

Happy Birthday Lady Jane!

The delightful Barbara Vey of PW's Beyond Her Book featured my post about Lady Jane's Salon one year anniversary, so I wanted to make sure I posted it here at home base. :)

Monday marked the one year a

nniversary of New York’s only reading series devoted to Romance Fiction; Lady Jane’s Salon. Lady Jane’s was founded in late 2008 by myself, fellow romance authors Hope Tarr, Maya Rodale and internet guru Ron Hogan over drinks one night discussing why New York, in all its literary splendor, didn’t have a reading series for Romance Fiction. So it was up to us to start one. And we did, in the red-velvet-drenched upstairs of Madame X, with our first authors Cara Elliot and Lauren Willig- who because of their partnership at Lady Jane’s are now teaching romance in the big leagues (Yale).
While the night boasted champagne, corsages and cupcakes, the spirit of Lady Jane’s is always about great fiction and a good cause. Now New York Times bestselling author Lauren Willig returned to our stage to help us celebrate this landmark year with her latest hit, The Betrayal of the Blood Lily, along with guest emcee and fabulous Historical author Leslie Carrolland her Notorious Royal Marriages, and scintillating debut author Sara Lindsey with Promise Me Tonight.

And so a year later… thanks to the support of people like you, Barbara, and Romantic Times Magazine, our wonderful venue Madame X, a host of bloggers, newspaper articles, radio interviews, thanks to a slew of talented authors and an ardent crowd of loyal supporters, Lady Jane’s is one of the most vibrant forces in New York’s experience of fiction in real-time; a face to face opportunity for readers, authors, industry and fans to talk about and applaud (literally) the genre we love. And then, of course, to share the love, by donating money and gently used romance novels to women in need, as charity remains a core part of our Salon’s identity.

A ton has happened through the year, for the co-founders, our readers and authors. Our co-founders published new books, the year marked my dream-come-true with my debut; The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker, we watched as our featured readers’ books hit lists and thrilled at the news of contracts for our some of our Lady Jane’s audience who will now be debut authors too, Ron Hogan got a cool new job ruling the interwebz for the very smart New York publishing house who snatched him up, and 2010 proves to be no less than spectacular. With featured readers returning to the Lady Jane’s stage unveiling new names and new initiatives, we’ll also have a host of debut authors take the stage. We’ll continue our mission to promote every single sub-genre within Romance. We’ll be expanding our charity options, we’ll have a Salon at the Romantic Times convention (please come!), and most importantly, we’ll get to see Barbara Vey again, our supporter from the beginning, and we can’t wait for it all to unfold. Keep in touch at Lady Jane's Salon and come see us!

Blessings, thanks and happy reading!

Midwestern fun, Top Ten honours, and Audio Books!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

OMG Barbara Vey drive-by-videoed me!

Oh, wow.



So I'm here, with my Mom, at the wonderful Lori Foster Reader and Writer Get Together to meet other writers, readers, connect, and give back to my hometown of Cincinnati with events sponsored for charity, and to do my first BOOKSIGNING! And guess who I cornered; the awesome Barbara Vey of Publisher's Weekly.



I walked up, introduced myself and handed her a copy of Dark Nest. She responded with what may become my first publicity coup. All I have to say is my terrified Mom was a total trooper and took one for the team to promote her daughter. I love you Barbara, and Mom. Lookie:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/blog/880000288/post/390027839.html

Leave a post on Barbara's blog and tell us what you think!