My RavenCon Schedule, Version 2015

If it’s April, it must be RavenCon, Richmond’s home-grown con. Yours truly will be on the program again this year—as will lots of my favorite people. What you see here is only the smallest part of the whole.

Friday, April 24
5 PM (Panel) Urban Fantasy in the Real World
Room G
Panelists discuss using real-world places and historical figures in your writing. What can you do and what will get you in trouble? How do you keep a place real enough to be recognizable to people who have visited or lived there, but still make it suit your fiction needs?
R.S. Belcher, J. T. Glover, Kurrie Hoyt, Gail Martin, Jean Marie Ward (Moderator)

7 PM Opening Ceremonies
Rooms E and F

11 PM (Event) CJ Henderson Memorial
Bon Air
Friends and fans of CJ Henderson gather together to remember this iconic author and frequent guest of RavenCon.
Danielle Ackley-McPhail (Moderator), Heidi Hooper, Mike McPhail, Michael Ventrella, Jean Marie Ward

Saturday, April 25

4 PM (Presentation/Workshop) Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading
Chesterfield
Bite-sized readings from seven of your favorite authors.
Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Meriah Crawford, Nicole Givens Kurtz, Gail Martin, KT Pinto, Jennifer Povey, Jean Marie Ward (Moderator)

7 PM (Panel) Weird Westerns
York
What is it about the west that attracts speculative fiction writers? Firefly, The Dark Tower, Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, and The Wild Wild West; film, television, anime, and commercial fiction use the west as a setting and place for magic to happen. Why do we love this sub-genre? Where is it going next?
Danielle Ackley-McPhail, R.S. Belcher, Doc Coleman, Nicole Givens Kurtz (Moderator), Jean Marie Ward

10 PM (Panel) The Villain's Journey
Anna
We all know about the Hero’s Journey. But is there a corresponding Villain’s Journey? Panelists will discuss the arc villains (or antagonists) can and should take through novels and other media.
Emily Lavin Leverett, Kate Paulk, D. Alexander Ward, Jean Marie Ward (Moderator)

Hope to see you at the con and at the book launch parties being hosted by my good friends Gail Z. Martin (Saturday, 11 PM—I love her so much I may actually crawl out of my coffin before noon to attend) and the folks at Double Dragon Publishing (Friday, 6 PM—by far a saner hour). ‘Til Friday!

Awesome Con Schedule is Awesome

Friday, Saturday and Sunday will find me at the DC Convention Center, indulging in the delights of Awesome Con. Since this will be my first Awesome Con, my schedule is unusually light:

5:15-6:15 p.m., Friday, April 18
Part Time Writer, Full Time World

11:45 a.m. - 12:45 p.m., Saturday, April 19

Writing Fantasy This means I'll get to hang with buds like Gail Z. Martin and Silence in the Library Publishers Janine Spendlove and Ron Garner. Yay! Even more remarkable, after more than a decade as a con guest, I might actually get to see some panels other than my own. I can't wait!

Hope to see you there.

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!

Back from Balticon

Yeah, yeah, I know I owe you blogs and photos from three conferences, but for Balticon I had help.












If you want to put it all together, check out Kelly Harmon's blog about her first day at Balticon. And if you can't get enough of meme, check out Gail Z. Martin's coverage of the Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading. Better yet, check out the video for the other wonderful writers, like Gail and Kelly, whose stories I highly recommend.

Cheers!

The Podcast

As noted in my tweet, the next voice you'll hear on Gail Z. Martin's Ghost in the Machine podcast is mine. She did an amazing job, especially considering I was having one of those days where my brain wasn't talking to my mouth. LOL Sometimes I think writers have more of those than anybody else. Enjoy!