Boosting the Signal for a Good Cause and a Fun Promotion

Nope, no RavenCon pictures...yet. But give a girl a break. I've got over a hundred photos and three interviews to assemble.
Meanwhile, I thought I'd join the chorus pimping David Farland's Book Bomb. Per the Book Bomb Facebook page, David's son Ben suffered catastrophic injuries earlier this month. Conservative estimates, place the cost of his care at over $1 million. I don't know David or his family personally, but like many folks, I've learned a lot from his journal and frequent kicks in the pants. Now's the time to say thanks by helping out.
On a much happier note, my good friend and frequent co-conspirator Danielle Ackley-McPhail has an interesting promotion in the works. In her own words:
Hi, All. I received a wonderful review yesterday for my solo science fiction collection, A Legacy of Stars (DTF Publications/Dark Quest Books). It made my day, but it came with something of a mystery, which I’ll quote here: “One of the cleverest first contact stories to come along in a long time.” (Analog, June 2013 issue)
Where is the mystery, do you ask? See…there are two first contact stories in the collection. Now I could just ask the reviewer which one he thought was the cleverest, but where is the fun in that? I say this calls for a contest. For the next week I will be taking a poll on what you thought was the cleverest first contact story in the book.
How it works: If you really like me and want to give some support to a small press author buy the ebook version of the book for $2.99 and give it a read.
Kindle
NOOK
Or, email me at greenfirephoenix (at) aol.com and I will send you a PDF file of the two stories in question. Whichever route you take, read the stories: "Building Blocks" and "To Look Upon The Face of God" and click the rafflecopter below by April 20 (EST) with your pick for which is the cleverest. Afterwards the reviewer, Don Sakers, will answer the question on my Facebook page. Two people will win a free, autographed copy of the print version of A Legacy of Stars.
Rafflecopter
To help share this promo visit this link. Click here to read the full review
Danielle Ackley-McPhail

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Of Anthologies and Podcasts

I knew from reading my co-contributors' stories, that I lucked out placing "Personal Demons" (aka The Little Story That Could) in Hellebore & Rue. But I didn't realize all the fascinating stories behind the anthology until I sat in on an interview with Catherine Lundoff and fellow writer Lisa Nohealani Morton this Sunday. Host Julia Rios plans to post the interview this weekend. I'll share the link as soon as it goes live. In the meantime, I think you'll enjoy Tracy S. Morris's interview with Catherine and co-editor JoSelle Vanderhooft.

You'll also enjoy Tracy's Tranquility Series which really is The Beverly Hillbillies meets The X-Files, but that's a different blog entirely.

On the podcasting front, it was my privilege to host the March edition of the Broad Pod, a monthly selection of short readings from the members of Broad Universe. Broad Universe is an international organization dedicated to promoting, celebrating and honoring women writers of science fiction, fantasy and horror. March is Women's History Month. In honor of the occasion, the selections of this month's five featured authors focus on the many aspects of Woman Power:

- Charged with treason, Gail Z. Martin’s pregnant queen Kiera must wage a war of words to save herself, her friends and her unborn child.

- In Larissa N. Niec’s selection, the goddess Rhianna’s high priestess embarks on a dangerous spirit quest to seek help for her dying land.

- Theresa Crater introduces her heroine—and us—to the legendary Morgan le Fey in the land beneath the hallowed hill.

- Then journey with Diane Whiteside to present-day Virginia, where a psychically gifted homicide detective learns just how powerful a woman working for the FBI can be.

- Finally, soar into the future with Danielle Ackley-McPhail and a squadron of hell-raising women fighter pilots led by the infamous Scarlet Jay.

And this is only the beginning of the week's entertainments. If I've been quiet on the blogosphere of late, it's only because so much will be happening this week. There will be blogs at Beyond the Veil and Samhain, as well as Julia's interview for Outer Alliance.

To say nothing of lots of green beer. Cheers!

News, News, News, News

No sooner did I finish the story that kept me hunkered down in the writing cave all January, when another New! Shiny! request landed in my email box. So I'm going to play prairie dog and head back to the burrow until sometime this spring. But before I do, I wanted to catch everyone up on all the good stuff.

First, if you want to get a taste of the story that occupied my January, head over to Beyond the Veil, the Samhain Publishing paranormal writers blog, for a discussion of how I developed one of the names for that story, aka "Fixed". Yes, there is a cat involved, and a shelter, and the cat winces a lot.

The next two items are personal appearances that might be of special interest to folks in the Washington DC area. On March 5, from 10 a.m. to about noon, I'll be moderating a panel of comprising noted science fiction and fantasy authors Catherine Asaro, Mindy Klasky, Pamela Palmer, Diana Peterfreund, Rebecca York and special guest Colleen Gleason. The panel is part of an all-day seminar hosted by Washington Romance Writers at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Service Center, Bethesda, MD. It will continue after lunch with Colleen's workshops on the hero's journey and world-building. Click here for more information (including links to driving directions). This event is free and open to the public, and I know from personal experience, WRW always offers prizes, including books signed by the participating authors.

The spiffy logo belongs to SynDCon II, the Washington DC area's premiere gaming convention, set for the Rockville Hilton (former home of Capclave), April 1-3. The convention will feature board games, role-playing games, miniature war games and a host of special events, including a writing workshop and panels targeted to the needs of gamer writers and developers. The cast of characters will include Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Vonnie Winslow Crist, Kelly A. Harmon, Diane Whiteside and me. I'll post more details on the program as they become available.

Finally, I'm celebrating the release of "Person Demons", my short story about a Tibetan-American sorceress practising her craft in America's most romantic city, Alexandria, VA. The story appears in Hellebore & Rue, an anthology celebrating queer women magic users. It was was a big stretch for me on a number of levels. I'm one of those writers who follows characters around taking dictation, and I was very worried about getting it right when the lead character was so different from me. But some things are universal: love, hope--and devils manipulating people's emotions for their own ends. I hope you'll check out the anthology, if only for the cover, which is as lovely as any I've ever seen.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Coming Soon to a Balticon Near You

Normally I wait until I’ve got my schedule in my hand to do a long Balticon promo post, but I think this merits a special post. Danielle Ackley-McPhail—writer, editor and hostess of some of the wildest con parties around—will be launching not one, not two, but three anthologies at Balticon from 7-9 p.m., Sunday May 30, at the Hunt Valley Marriott outside Baltimore, Maryland.

On the surface dragons, fairies and vampires might not seem to have a lot in common, but as Dani says, fiction readers never grow tired of them. “Each of these anthologies takes one of those legends and gives the reader what they want…and so much more.”

Since one of my favorite short stories, “Lord Bai’s Discovery”, is included in Dragon’s Lure, I must heartily agree. :-)

As always with Dani’s parties, there will be scads of writers, great refreshments and marvelous prizes, including a hand-sculpted dragon box by acclaimed artist Linda Saboe. There will also be readings by the anthology contributors including Dani, Linda, Elaine Corvidae, Keith R.A. DeCandido, John Grant, Kelly Harmon, C.J. Henderson, Brian Koscienski, Jeffrey Lymon, L. Jagi Lamplighter, Terri Osborne, Chris Pisano and me, Me, ME!

Well, to be honest, I won’t be reading three times. But I do plan to read “Lord Bai’s Discovery”. Hope to see you there. In the meantime, if you want to learn more, check out Dani’s launch page.

Enjoy!

Library of Congress... Squeee!

The Library of Congress Science Fiction and Fantasy Forum has invited four Broad Universe members--Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Susan Avery, Christine Norris and me--for a Rapid Fire Reading at the Library's Madison Building at 12:10 p.m., April 13. You can see the details (and our neat flyer) here.

This is not Broad Universe's first RFR at the Library of Congress this year. We were preceded by Catherine Asaro, Kelly A. Harmon, Ellen Kushner and Sue Lange earlier this month. Which means we've got a tough act to follow.

I'm bringing Bai.

Hope to see you there!