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

The first FF and P (Futuristic, Fantasy and Paranormal) national conference, the "Fantasy on the Bayou" kicked-off in New Orleans this past weekend, and it was a delight.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oh, and PS. A Highlight:

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

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

Made my weekend. Thanks, FF and P, much love, sincerely,

 

Leanna Renee Hieber, author, Legit Vampire

Happy 2012! Upcoming Events and Cool Cons!

Hello lovelies! I hope you all rung in the new year with lots of merriment and joy, I spent my holidays with my real-life-hero, our friends and family and made a lot of writing and artistic resolutions for the new year. And seeing the new Sherlock Holmes movie several times. *swoon*

There are some really exciting conferences I'm going to be a part of!

NOTE: THIS IS NOT A FULL LIST! I'll be all over the place this year this is just starting off the next few months! :)

1. Firstly, I'll be returning to TempleCon again the first weekend in February. Huzzah.

2. Kick off March in NOLA with the
Fantasy, Futuristic & Paranormal Chapter of RWA!
(From the FF & P website)
Fantasy on the Bayou
March 2 - March 4, 2012 at the New Orleans Marriott
Please check the HOTEL INFORMATION page for information on booking your room. If you are interested in finding a roommate or people to carpool with, watch the Chapter loop for announcements.

FEATURED GUESTS:
Keynote Speaker - Karen Marie Moning
NYT Bestselling Novelist, author of the Fever Series.

Featured Speaker - Leanna Renee Hieber
Actress, playwright, and multiple Prism Award-winning author of the Strangely Beautiful and Magic Most Foul series of Gothic Victorian Fantasy novels
Featured Speaker - Bob Mayer
NY Times Bestselling Author.

Featured Speaker - Kristen Painter
Urban fantasy author and co-founder of Romance Divas.

ATTENDING AGENTS
Michelle Brower, Folio Literary Management
Elaine Spenser, The Knight Agency
Becca Stumpf, The Prospect Agency

VIRTUAL PITCH AGENTS
Sara Megibow, The Nelson Agency

ATTENDING EDITORS
Angela James, Carina Press
Melissa Singer, Tor Books
Liz Pelletier, Entangled Publishing
To be named from LooseId

VIRTUAL PITCH EDITORS
Renee Rocco, Lyrical Press
Donna O'Brion, Crescent Moon Press

CONFERENCE REGISTRATION FEES
$250 FF&P Members/Media
$275 RWA Members
$300 General Attendee
Conference registration includes all workshops/sessions, a sit-down luncheon featuring our Keynote Speaker, and a sit-down dinner including the announcement of the On the Far Side Award winners and PRO/PAN pinning ceremony. Register Now! Questions? conference@romance-ffp.com

3. Keep the muse thriving in March with the
LIBERTY STATES FICTION WRITERS CONFERENCE
MARCH 17th
Renaissance Woodbridge Hotel, Iselin, NJ
Keynote speaker Larissa Ione
Over 17 attending editors and agents
Networking and Panels
Tons of fabulous bestselling authors
And a special edition of Lady Jane's Salon!
Full Details on the Liberty States site. Check it out!

Now I'm back to work on a brand new proposal and eager to finish up edits on Magic Most Foul book II and also to make progress on the last Strangely Beautiful novel! Full steam ahead into 2012!

And lift your glass to Steampunk fiction! Just like in Victorian times, I'm serializing! Check out THE WORLD OF TOMORROW IS SADLY OUTDATED at Doctor Fantastique's Show of Wonders, and while you're there, be sure to subscribe in whatever format suits you so you keep up-to-date on all the installments!
Happy New Year, friends!

RWA 2010: Miss Percy and her Prism Awards

In which I squee loudly about shiny-happy things and also promote my friends.

The 2010 RWA National Conference! A time for panels, workshops, signing books for literacy, discovering new authors, visiting old friends and making new ones. And also time for various genre and chapter awards.

First off was the literacy signing where I signed The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker and The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker and had a lovely time chatting with readers and authors alike. Plus the signing raised $62,000 for literacy! Isn’t that cool?!

And then I had to play hookie for a bit and visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Because if I didn’t, I’d not only lose House Points… but I’d regret it forever and ever. It was AWESOME. Mind you, I’m easily pleased when it comes to HP. But the ride in the castle was spectacular, really felt like you were flying, Hogsmeade was beautifully rendered and exactly as imagined, Olivander was wonderfully played, the shopping was squee-worthy and the BUTTERBEER. OMG. Worth the price of admission. Like nothing I’ve ever tasted and yet exactly how I imagined Butterbeer. Genius. I was vibrating with happy.

Back to business: The great thing about RWA is that I’m constantly reminded how much I like the people in it. My fellow authors and pre-published authors are some of the neatest people in the world. It helped that my beloved Marianne Mancusi was one of the first people we saw in the hotel (I’m still trying to adjust to her living in Texas). Soon met up with the lovely Atlantis star Alyssa Day, hugged my dear Cindy Holby / Colby Hodge and met Cindy Dees over some cheese fries and the conference was off to a great start!

My friend and roomie extraordinare Sarah MacLean facilitated hanging with some wonderful people throughout the conference. Like Sophie Jordan (How excited am I for her RT Top Pick FIRELIGHT, a YA novel about Dragons?! So excited. Gorgeous cover, fab book trailer, and she's an awesomely nice person too!) and Gwenda Bond who won RWA’s Veritas Media Award for excellence in covering the genre, also got to see Tara Lynn Childs again, very excited for her next in her series too, not to mention the aqua highlights in her hair.

In a gathering hosted by Tessa Dare and Courtney Milan, (along with NAL author and buddy Sara Lindsey who I’ve not yet forgiven for moving out of NYC) two really great authors who I hadn’t previously gotten a chance spend time with, I was thrilled to find them as lovely hostesses as they are writers, which just makes me enjoy their books even more. I finally met Twitter buddy and fellow Gothic Romance author Erica Ridley who is as much of a live-wire as I am, and who uncannily understands me and my sense of humour- total soul-sister moments of awesome. I was reminded just how delightful Diana Peterfreund is, and we all lusted after Gwen Hayes' gorgeous cover for Falling Under with all the black roses. Gwen happens to also be exceedingly kind and sweet, which lessened the sting of cover jealousy. :) Are your TBR piles growing with this blog post? They should be!

Attended the PASIC soiree with my dear Delilah Marvelle where we waxed rhapsodic on many things, including her gorgeous new Harlequin covers. Chatted with former PASIC prez and unparalleled bestselling Thriller author Allison Brennan, who is ever a delight, and enjoyed chatting with the fabulous Jessa Slade over dessert, laughing at war stories over book covers.

Two panels of particular note were the Steampunk Panel facilitated by Suzanne Lazear of the Steamed! Blog, who was dressed in beautiful Steampunk regalia the whole time. So thrilled she’s found a great home for her Steampunk YA in Flux books, look for it next year. Cindy Holby / Colby Hodge was a panelist and fellow “Steampunk Lolita” kind enough as to mention my books as an example of using established characters from history in your re-envisioned Victoriana. Shelley Adina dressed in incredible regalia herself. Jennifer Jackson of the Donald Maas agency, who is one of the very best in the business, had great things to say from the agent perspective. Her opinion is sage, awesome, and uncannily correct. The core message was that Steampunk is still growing in popularity and visibility, and while it’s taken hold more strongly in Sci-Fi/Fantasy, crossing it into Romance still has a lot of possibility. Want to know more about Steampunk? Be sure to visit Steamed! and also make sure you get the whole Steampunk world-view by visiting Silver Goggles and Beyond Victoriana for multi-cultural Steampunk featuring amazing resources and people.

Carrie Lofty, Zoe Archer, Sherry Thomas, Jade Lee and agent Kevan Lyons put on a great panel about Unusual Historicals. Visit Unusual Historicals for the pulse of this most exciting part of Historical Romance / Fiction. Core message here is that you might be carving out a harder road by using unique and untried places / settings / scenarios, but a good book will out, as each of these women have awesomely proven.

Had a lovely Dorchester soiree where I got to catch up with Liz Maverick who's also now working at Macmillan in audio marketing – I know, we both live in NYC but its funny how it takes conferences to catch up, met Jennifer Ashley and had a fan-girl moment, met new Dorchester authors such as Kerri Nelson and Alicia Dean (very excited to read Heart of the Witch), she and I traded books and talked about our love for the horror genre.

And then it was time for The Gathering; this year a Steampunk costume party for the Prism Awards. Sponsored by the Futuristic / Fantasy / Paranormal Chapter of the RWA, the Prisms are awarded each year for excellence in the genre and broken down into the various subcategories supported within the chapter, so essentially, for those of us that write it, it’s a jury of our peers and means a lot to us. Jeffe Kennedy is an absolutely wonderful president (check out Petals and Thorns!) and our Web-Diva Allison Pang (whose debut comes out from Pocket next year!) was there as quite literal wing-woman to the awards. The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker finaled in the Fantasy Romance category and was eligible for the Best First Book category. I was up against authors that I know and love. As you all know, Miss Percy and her tale is the ‘book of my heart’ – and so... when she won the category… and then won Best First Book… there were some tears, some screams, some dancing and lots of jumping up and down. And a lot of thanks. Thanks to the FF and P chapter, and huge thanks to my editor Chris Keeslar at Dorchester, who took a chance on me and this oft hard to categorize book – and who was there to cheer me on. It was so meaningful to win two Prisms when he was there to see it. I met so many wonderful FF and P members, was really impressed by all the costumes, and cheered wildly as one of the nicest ladies in the business, Cynthia Eden, also took home two Prisms. It was an incredible night to say the least. I think my crazed-thrilled expression says it all. I’m still reeling from the honour – I’m humbled and so grateful, because it means so much for a book that struggled to find its way in the world.

When all was said and done, I got the chance to celebrate with just about everyone I’ve mentioned above, with the awesome addition of Serena Robar. My roomie Sarah MacLean in particular made sure I was well taken care of, and Gwenda made sure I was treated to some champagne – thanks ladies! Got a chance to see my Lady Jane’s fellow co-founder Maya Rodale looking lovely in a tiara and enjoying her fellow Avon ladies, like Tara, Sophie, and Katharine Ashe.

And then in fine fashion, we closed down the very Dolphin itself with the likes of Shiloh Walker, whose books I so enjoy, so it was a thrill to meet her and she was gracious enough to tweet a picture of me and one of my pretty Prism statues. Thrilled to run into Stacia Kane (always one of my favourite people to see and to party with because I so dig her style and she makes me laugh). She also writes a damn good book. People, if you don’t know her Chess Putnam series starting with Unholy Ghosts, get on it. Really incredible Urban Fantasy.

And now I’m off to England! I’m so excited to be signing at Forbidden Planet August 5th at 6pm! So excited to return to my soul’s home and drink in some atmosphere and research! I turned in Strangely Beautiful #3, THE PERILOUS PROPHECY OF GUARD AND GODDESS to my editor just before traveling, so now as I let those edits percolate, I’ll be on a mission for Strangely Beautiful #4 details. And remember, you don't have long to wait for more Strangely Beautiful goodness! Sept. 28th - A Midwinter Fantasy releases, including #2.5 "A Christmas Carroll" - Preorder!

Strangely Beautiful blessings!

DARK NEST wins the Prism Award!

To my utter shock and delight, my novella Dark Nest won the 2009 Prism Award in the novella category.











The Prism is sponsored every year by the FF & P Chapter of the RWA and presented at The Gathering ceremony to celebrate excellence in Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal Romance. And it just so happens to be one of the prettiest trophies ever created. I've coveted one for years.

Needless to say, I was ridiculously thrilled, hadn't prepared a speech because I didn't imagine I'd need one, and winning next to my dear friend Isabo Kelly was icing on an amazing cake. After the awards were presented I had the privelege of being on a panel, upon which I babbled excitedly. Well, no one can say I don't absolutely love what I'm doing.

(From L to R, fellow Prism Winner and fellow Dorchester author Colby Hodge, Isabo Kelly (with baby Destructo) and I)


The next day Toni McGee Causey creator of one of my favourite characters, Bobbie Faye, took me to lunch and took this, the excitement still not having worn off, clearly...


Thank you to the entire hard-working FF & P Board and all the Prism judges for making a dream of mine come true.

Dark Nest is a finalist for the Prism!

I'm thrilled to have just gotten the news that DARK NEST, my futuristic fantasy with a psychic punch, is a finalist for FF & P's Prism Awards in the novella category! I'm really honored and excited and I'm in terrifyingly talented company. I'm very proud of the friends and colleagues on this list.

Here's the official list!

(Permission to Forward):

Jennette Heikes & Theresa Kovian are pleased to announce and congratulateour finalists in the Prism Contest in alphabetic order:

Dark Paranormal
Immortals: The Redeeming by Jennifer Ashley
Hotter After Midnight by Cynthia Eden
Mona Lisa Craving by Sunny

Erotica
A Mermaid's Kiss by Joey W. Hill
Carnal Desires by Crystal Jordan
Siren Singing by Isabo Kelly

Fantasy
The Dragon Master by Jennifer Ashley w/a Allyson James
Dragonborn by Jade Lee
King of Sword & Sky by C.L. Wilson

Futuristic
Fallen by Claire Delacroix
Moonstruck by Susan Grant
Shades of Dark by Linnea Sinclair

Light Paranormal
La Vida Vampire by Nancy Haddock
The Trouble with Moonlight by Donna MacMeans
Wicked Game by Jeri Smith-Ready

Novella
"The Spacetime Pool" by Catherine Asaro
"Dark Nest" by Leanna Renee Hieber
"Kung Fu Shoes!" in These Boots were Made for Stomping by Jade Lee

Time Travel
Twist by Colby Hodge
Madman's Dance by Jana G. Oliver
A Sexy Time of It by Cara Summers

Young Adult
Cave of Terror by Amber Dawn Bell
CHOSEN: A House of Night Novel by P.C. Cast
Sleepless by Terri Clark

Category winners and rankings, as well as the coveted Prism Statue Award,will be announced on July 16, 2009 in Washington D.C. at RWA National and Fantasy, Futuristic & Paranormal Chapter at The Gathering.

Jennette Heikes, Co-coordinator for Dark Paranormal, Erotica, Novella & TimeTravel
Theresa Kovian, Co-coordinator for Fantasy, Futuristic, Light Paranormal &Young Adult
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If you're an author and you write and/or appreciate Futuristic, Fantasy and Paranormal Romance, then you definately need to join FF & P, it's a diverse, knowledgeable and wonderful chapter.