Squeal...

You know there are just those times when you have to squeal in delight. Seeing this today did that for me...

Eloisa James mentioning The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker in her Barnes & Noble Review column.

When I got my cover quotes from bestselling authors I admire and adore; Kathryn Smith and C. L. Wilson, I squealed.

And when NYT Bestseller Eloisa James said she was going to mention my "exciting debut" in her column... well, there went another noise up to the heavens ... one of my ultimate heroes liked my book?! Squeal! It may sound a bit fan-girl, but hey, I'm a fan and I'm nothing if not enthusiastic and honest. It feels sort of surreal, thinking back to the New Jersey Romance Writers conference where I listened to her clever, touching and funny (like her writing) keynote speech, was inspired, and wondered when my 'book of my heart' would make its way into the world. That's now, and it's such an honour.

In other squeal-worthy news, True-Blood.net will be recommending The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker to fans of Charlaine Harris (Leanna raises hand to be counted) and True Blood while that awesome show is on hiatus. The link will go live on 10/9 with a coupon code and a giveaway - stay tuned, check out the site!

It was just the first Monday of the month, so that meant Lady Jane's Salon! Had a lovely time, as always- and we took a moment to remember the dearly beloved Kate Duffy of Kensington Publishing. While our similarly beloved Kathryn Smith was unable to join us, I had the great pleasure of putting on my actress hat (which I do so enjoy doing) and reading from her fabulous book, When Seducing a Duke, and it was awesome. The crowd loved this book, and so do I. Though we'll have the talented author back with us in person soon, and that will be even more awesome. Mari Mancusi read from the first of her re-released Blood Coven series, one of my favourite scenes of mistaken vampiric identity, which was a delight to all. I'm so glad she's continuing this series. She'll be giving a wrap-up at the Lady Jane's Salon site so stay tuned. Our November lineup will be hosted by Scandalous Woman Elizabeth Kerri Mahon, and includes Caridad Pineiro and Joanne Rendell!

Blessings and may many squeal-worthy moments strike your days!

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!

I'm on .TV!

So Better.TV, thanks to the fabulous producer AND author extraordinaire Marianne Mancusi, filmed a coffee taste test starring our writer group as guinea pigs.

Check us out! Fun! Funny! See what coffee we picked (we were shocked):

Writers Vs. Coffees...

"Behind the Scenes" #3 Back from RT

So the Romantic Times convention was mind-blowing on many levels.

Some highlights:

-Meeting great, fabulous, talented and wonderous new people.
-Interviewing famous authors and having cocktails with many more.
-Fabulous pitch-sessions with high-profile editors.
-Dressing up.
- Lots of fun with fangs! My Maverick, Mancusi & Me favorites:

(Made me miss my old Dracula days in the theatre...)
-For more particulars on Fun with Fangs, Marianne Mancusi has now posted the rest of her pictures of our veritable fun with fangs performance art piece on her blog.


-Buying more books than I could afford or carry.


-Meeting the owners of my publisher, Crescent Moon Press and attending their Publisher's Spotlight. Congratulations on the launch, Crescent Moon!

















-Great live music by The Impalers causing an incredible air-guitar solo by myself and Liz Maverick that had people inquiring if we had fallen and we couldn't get up.


- My kick-butt boots won me a toaster oven. Random. But I needed one. A toaster, I mean.


















-And... Fabio ain't lookin' half bad:


















That's all for now! I'll be posting new updates on DARK NEST soon!