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!

In which a grand time was had at TempleCon

How awesome was TempleCon? So very, very awesome. Beloved friend from the Goth scene back in Cincinnati back-in-the-day, incredible artist Kelley Hensing and myself packed her art, my Strangely Beautiful books, and a ridiculous amount of poofy skirts, corsetry and hat boxes into her car and drove to Warwick, Rhode Island where the moment we walked in, the magnificent Creative Director Madame Ximon recognized me immediately by my absurdly large hat and showed us graciously to our booths. She is a consummate hostess and runs a damn good convention.

As we set up our wares, we gaped and grinned as spectacular Steampunk, Neo-Victorian and other Retro-Futurist costumed ladies and gentlemen strolled by. Please visit the TempleCon site for fabulous photos of these incredible feats of costuming and imagination. (Shown here, me at my booth - with said large hat - Kelley's work to the right)

After a day of selling wares and greeting fellow gaming and fantasy fans, Kelly and I were invited by our talented booth-neighbors to their Unhallowed party and thus begun my realization that the Unhallowed crowd were just about the ultimate in cool. Unhallowed: Metropolis is a Live Action Role Playing game designed by Jason Soles & Nicole Vega and described as: a gas-mask chic role-playing game of Neo-Victorian horror. SIGN ME UP! Not only did these ladies and gents know how to dress up beautifully (a skill I hold in the utmost esteem), and throw a party, but they've tossed everything I love into one beautifully realized and inventive world. Mr. Soles and Ms. Vega have surrounded themselves with fabulous artists and authors like photographer Marc17, puppeteer and artist George Higham, and author Simon J. Berman.

The next day the Unhallowed crowd were my fellow guests (again, all of us impeccably dressed to the Victorian nines, I might add) on the Neo-Victorian panel where we all gushed (okay, I gushed, they were all much more composed) about why we love the 19th century, infusing paranormal into it, and why everyone else should be just as obsessed with it too. And then I was graciously granted the opportunity to read from The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker and had (as I always do when I get to play the actress and read) a most delightful time of it. And then we relaxed with another party. A Tea Party, of course, with sumptuous trappings (and more costumes). Particular kudos to our Neo-Victorian cage match/pit-fighting discussion replete with appropriate WWF characters and etymology. Bartitsu!

Other highlights included my fantastic chats spanning 300 years of history with The Major of Big Bear Trading Co.

(pictured here in striped finery is Miss Kitty of Big Bear Trading Co. who made me an Edgar Allan Poe brooch that I'm positively in love with) The friendly people working the Privateer Press booth, and The General and his Lady, Chief Security Officer of the S.S. Icarus and the Penny Dreadfuls company. And I've more to look forward to! Continuing my Neo-Victorian / Gaslight Gothic tour, now I can't wait to be a guest author at the Steampunk World's Fair in May, where I'll see a lot of familiar faces and new friends!

Huzzah!