Perilous Prophecy and the Hometown Signing

A homecoming is always good.

My Westchester OH Barnes & Noble always treats me well, and my friends and family never disappoint me.

I had a wonderful, warm crowd to read to, and read I did. (The actress in me does so love a chance to read aloud). I chose a ghost-busting selection from the beginning of The Perilous Prophecy of Guard and Goddess. In this prequel we meet new characters, expand the horizons onto other lands as well as familiar haunts within London and rejoin the stories of our beloved favourites.

I was particularly delighted to see three young, supremely talented writers, Lizzie, Sammi and Hanna (pictured with me here), along with some of their wonderfully sweet family members, and to have a moment playing one of my favourite roles; that of being a writing cheerleader. I've told them they're not allowed to give up on their dreams or on their writing, otherwise I'll get angry. And I'm not an angry person, so this isn't to be trifled with. :) You'll see that demand in writing in the back of Darker Still , on the acknowledgement page. Hanna is right in her very kind blog post to me, my ghosts will come to haunt them otherwise. :)

I simply can't allow the opportunity I have to go to waste, that of being the voice of an author whose work is out in the world, to be an encouraging one. Yes, being a writer is tough. Yes, the business is hard. Yes, it's frustrating and exhausting to stay disciplined and to hone your craft. But that's the way of everything truly worth doing. So if I have an opportunity to be in any way an example as well as a cheerleader, I take gladly to that role. Sometimes it just takes one person saying 'yes, you can' to motivate turning dreams into a reality.

It also just so happens that Hanna comes up with the greatest shirts for my signings and events. I've been treated to several. This year was a new one, what she's wearing in the picture reads: FRONT: "If I was born in 1853..." BACK: "My last name would be Rychman!" (The last name of my beloved hero).

-- This, of course, caused me no end of glee! Thank you, Hanna, for your creativity, and also for your exceedingly kind post.

Thank you friends and family in Ohio for showing up and making it a wonderful night! In case you missed it, Ohio, stop by the Streets of Westchester Barnes & Noble because they've still got some signed copies of books 1, 2, and of Perilous Prophecy, all now reissued in Trade Paperback format. The manager, Gail, will be happy to help you. We can even arrange for a signed bookplate to be sent to the store!

For a bunch of fun ghost stories from The Perilous Prophecy of Guard and Goddess and giveaways, be sure to check out the Haunted London Blog Tour, contests are still open for those who comment on the posts!

Aeternitas 2011

Well, release week celebrations for The Perilous Prophecy of Guard and Goddess is nearly done, though I hope your Strangely Beautiful reading pleasure will continue... (The contests for my HAUNTED LONDON BLOG TOUR are still up and running! Check them out!) and my cross-country travels have brought me back home again to NYC. I'm still attempting to process the Week of Awesome. Admittedly, I'm really tired, fighting a cold that I always get after exerting myself as madly as I do on release weeks, but I'm very blessed in having some amazing events to show and tell.


Starting with... Aeternitas 2011.

I was there because The Group That Shall Not Be Named kindly asked, since I am an unabashed Harry Potter nut, if I would be a Keynote Speaker along with friend and author of Knightley Academy, Violet Haberdasher, about the threads linking our love for Harry Potter into our own unique fantasy worlds. The Keynote video can be found on the Aeternitas page. Also, who can say no to a Harry Potter convention benefiting Lung Cancer research and the HP Alliance?!
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So. Gather about 300 Harry Potter fantatics into one charming, thoroughly House-decorated hotel on a lake, with a tent, with Ray the Dark Lord of the Bar, the great DJ Swish aiding our parties, a lineup of Wizard Rock and Hogwarts school programming, serious cosplayers and costumers, the beautifully led Keynote discussion with Violet and I about our love for HP and how that translates into our fiction and the awesome questions from the audience, me gladly taking on the reins of a very plausible Narcissa Malfoy (as noted in the MuggleNet article)... OMG the level of Geek-tastic could be split between a thousand Horcruxes and the squee would still need containment. I honestly have NO idea how to recap this weekend. It was one of those 'you had to be there' weekends.
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When you really love a genre, any genre, book, series, whatever it is, and you gather with others who share the same love, an automatic bond forms. You have a specific language, code, inside jokes, and a certain freedom that you certainly don't find in the Muggle world at large, because you are around people who, yes, admit that they own a level of geek that is larger than your average bears, but in context this is, in fact, encouraged. And as the con was filled with very talented, accomplished people, we all return to our lives to go on with our own art, our music, our work, etc, all the better for it. As I sit here trying to summarize, it's all a bit of a squee-blur, frankly. -- And we got a write-up (and a fabulous mention) in MuggleNet!!
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Here are a few favourite moments among countless:

- Wand-ball (requirements: wands and balloon)

-Catching up with Violet and talking publishing industry shop, and, of course, our Keynote and three book signings!

-Whatever in the world Ray the Dark Lord of the Bar would come up with next. The 'Dead Hufflepuff' was a crowd favourite.

- Unbreakable Vow!

- Impromptu Slytherin graveyard photo shoot. (Thanks to Violet for humoring us and taking photos). All the photos in general made for riotous fun, especially with The Enthusiasts directing much of the ridiculousness.

- The Dark Lord, Bellatrix, The Malfoys (including myself) and a back-up group of Death Eaters rocking out to Thriller on the dance floor.

-Signing at Annies Book Stop and watching my Slytherin contingent walk through the parking lot and proceed to own the store. (You can order signed books through Annie's! Just email them!)

-Cassie's dueling workshop, and Cassie in general, one of the most incredibly versatile actor/costumers around.

-The amazing costumes featured in the Fashion Show.

-The LePages for being beautiful and letting me play.

-The fact that Jonathon, organizer of The Group That Shall Not Be Named couldn't be seen out of the back seat of the car packed with con-gear because he was stuck sitting behind a cauldron.
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And now, photos. Here are only a few of my faves. More can be found on my FB page in my Convenions and Events album. The Bellatrix is Cassandra Johnstone, Lucius is Perseus LePage, Draco is Draco LePage and thanks to The Enthusiasts, to Cassandra and to Violet for lending photo magic. Huge thanks to Amanda and HP MA and The Group That Shall Not Be Named for some amazing organizing. Thanks to the fabulous attendees for bringing the awesome. Huh-zzah.




























Cheers and if you haven't checked out the latest Strangely Beautiful release, The Perilous Prophecy of Guard and Goddess, there are a lot of fun ghost stories and giveaways as a part of my annual Haunted London release week tour, with our final post tomorrow!
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ALSO, stay tuned. This week I'll be revealing my GORGEOUS cover for DARKER STILL, a Novel of Magic Most Foul!

Perilous Prophecy Release Day!

We're finally here! My Strangely Beautiful prequel, The Perilous Prophecy of Guard and Goddess has arrived! Check out the New Fiction tables in select Barnes & Nobles, get to downloading to your devices, order through your favourite vendor, all your Strangely Beautiful questions will be answered!

And stay tuned for my rundown of Aeternitas 2011 which might have been one of the most entertaining weekends ever. When I have a moment I'll share some highlights. (Pictured here, a rare quiet moment amidst my Keynote presentation with Violet Haberdasher - photo by Cassandra Johnstone):









I'm off on a book tour for the week, so please don't forget to follow along on The Perilous Prophecy Haunted London Blog Tour! Ghost stories and giveaways!

In case you need convincing, the latest raves:

A Buckeye Girl Reads

Bibliophilic Book Blog

Cheers and thanks for your support!

No srsly guys I mean I really love Doctor Who...

In a lively Twitter girl-fight yesterday about who would win Doctor #10, I protested that I (an elder in this fight) had been in love with Doctor Who since I was 7 when the show ran on grainy reruns on PBS in the 80s and thusly I would win by sheer numerical loyalty. I even referenced my passionate 2010 DragonCon post about cosplaying Romana II from the City of Death episode as proof of my undying devotion and fact that K-9 and his nose laser would SO TOTALLY side with ME in a fight.
See?!







During this smackdown I realized that I never ended up posting the photo of our cosplay trio from said referenced DragonCon event, a trio that includes none other than one of my fave editors in the world, the uncannily Davison-like Stephen Segal as Doctor 4 into 5, and his oh-so-awesome dad Stu as The Master.

So here you go:












(I love how only The Master looks knowingly at camera):

I think we're pretty fabulous.

I've been challenged to cosplay Romana in her pink coat outfit from Destiny of the Daleks this year at DragonCon. *sigh* I mean, I never turn down a Doctor Who challenge, but really? A Goth girl in pink AND white? With BROWN boots?! That's SO not fair.

RIP Sarah Jane Smith

RIP Elisabeth Sladen. Sarah Jane Smith. Feb. 1 1945 - April 19 2011












Beloved Companion of The Doctor. Bold adventurer of your own. May that beautiful blue box in the sky be bigger on the inside indeed.

You will be missed more than I can say. You've been with me nearly all my life, and the universe I love so dearly, The Doctor's universe, is less bright without you. But the heavens are all the brighter for your being there.

Free Read: LEGACY via Crescent Moon Press

The Glade at Crescent Moon Press has been updated to include LEGACY

Hop on over to The Glade, the magical free read clearing at Crescent Moon Press. There you can find my latest free read, a Victorian-set short story LEGACY, featuring the familial (and paranormal) legacy of one of literature's most beloved Gothic heroines...

Read LEGACY

While you're there, check out my first free read at the Glade, (my first piece of published fiction)-- SEA-FOUND, a twisted little ghost story...

Strangely Beautiful, The Musical - Status Update

Greetings! I've fielded some questions lately about the status of Strangely Beautiful the musical, optioned last year. Being in this process from the very beginning has taught me just how long it takes to begin mounting a show. A long time.

Because first... it has to be written. I'm proud to say a draft of the show is complete. (Rough draft, but a draft nonetheless). An earlier post described my intitial breakdown process of adaptation (a lot of index cards). This eventually, along with inserting lyrics and song sections into the piece in the best places and chewing over where and how exactly to do that, has resulted in a script.

Taking that rough index-card structure, I glanced at the book a few times, but for the most part set it aside. It did not serve to go moment by moment or scene by scene from the novel. The show calls for different things out of the characters at different times, it becomes more convenient to use some characters for one thing while clipping and combining other moments. Suddenly a scene that took place in the office needs to be in the library. Suddenly a character needs to take bold action when they were contemplative. Things are being stated that the characters only thought in their minds. It's a fascinating thing, really, adaptation. The work becomes like a relative to the original product. There was never a time when I particularly struggled over cutting a character or shifting scenes and/or intent. It was just what had to be done and I thankfully know theatre well enough to allow it its due process. Hopefully I'll have this same relative flexibility when working on the second, third, fourth draft, etc...

And yes, there's music! Beautiful music that reflects the many moods and actions, human and inhuman, that course this tale.

So where are we now? Well, I can safely say our team is awesome, music and lyrics are spot-on, gorgeous and exactly what I could have hoped, now we just need to become a hive-mind in revisions. We need to make our respective three voices into something utterly seamless, from dialogue to music to song lyrics, one voice. Which can be difficult with three distinct voices but thankfully the tone of the work is the overarching voice itself, and the team really understands the particular fantastical Gothic voice and tone that has become my niche - for which I'm grateful. Once we can get three very busy people in the same room together for a bit of a retreat to create the next draft, then we can begin thinking about workshopping, and we've a couple of places where we might do that. Our biggest challenge so far is getting said group of exceedingly busy people into one room for any length of time. So that's where things stand. The producers are working their contacts, seeds ae being planted. Things will be growing within the year.

Thankfully, I've got the next Strangely Beautiful novel releasing May 3rd and I've had a lot of early prep for DARKER STILL (Magic Most Foul #1) to keep me plenty busy in the meantime. Stay tuned for lots of goodies and news on those fronts!

Cheers and Strangely Beautiful blessings!