A Day Out with Nancy Holzner: The Butterfly Conservatory

Author Nancy Holzner is one of my favorite people. I met Nancy online after reading the first of her Deadtown books and we eventually became friends. She lives in Ithaca, which is about two hours from me, so we manage to get together a few times a year. Yesterday was one of those rare days, and we had a LOVELY time.

Of course, we spent a lot of our time together talking writing--a real treat for me, since I don't have any writer friends here in town. She gave me some great advice on promoting the upcoming novels, and we also just talked about the writing process in general, and caught up on each others lives.

Naturally, we did some of this while eating.

Our waitress at The Farmhouse Restaurant was kind enough to snap this picture of us, post yummy lunch.

Then we headed down the road so I could show Nancy the very cool Butterfly Conservatory in nearby Emmons. We spent a couple of hours walking and talking and looking at all the amazing critters, which despite the name of the place, aren't limited to butterflies. There are also many exotic birds, a few lizards, and even a not all that exotic but very friendly giant white rabbit. (Seriously, I kept expecting him to say, "I'm late! I'm late! For a very important date!")

Here are a few of the highlights:

(Amusingly, one of the people working there--it is a very small operation, with no frills--told us this tortoise was a troublemaker, always eating plants he wasn't supposed to be nibbling on, as you can see in this picture. As soon as I'd snapped it, the worker swooped in and moved him away.)

And as promised, here is our pal the Very Friendly Rabbit.

I often have to remind myself that is is okay (necessary, even) to occasionally take a day off from working on writing, jewelry, running the shop, and all the rest. But fun days like this definitely leave me feeling good and recharge my mental and emotional batteries.

Next month Nancy is going to come back and we're going to the Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown to see Madame Butterfly. I detect a theme here...

A Rave Review for Nancy Holzner's BLOODSTONE

Recently, I had the pleasure of spending the day with author pal Nancy Holzner, when we went to a writers' workshop together. Nancy lives in Ithaca, which is a couple of hours from me, and we try to get together a couple of times a year to talk writing and catch up with eachother's lives.

Nancy and I originally "met" online, after I reviewed a copy of her first book, DEADTOWN and loved it. I recently got to read the third book in the series, and I have to tell you, they just get better all the time.

“They call it Deadtown: the city’s quarantined section for its inhuman and undead residents. Mostly humans stay far from its borders—but Victory Vaughn, Boston’s only professional demon slayer, isn’t exactly human…”

If this blurb sounds intriguing to you, I can guarantee that the book itself more than lives up to it. BLOODSTONE, the third in author Nancy Holzner’s Deadtown series, is a fun and fabulous paranormal romp from the very first page. And the action never stops long enough for you to catch your breath. (As if you’d want to.)

Victory (Vicky) Vaughn is one of the most unusual and likable characters I’ve ever come across in an urban fantasy. Although I will confess, I have a major soft spot for her aunt Mab, and her werewolf-lawyer boyfriend. I even like Tina, her former apprentice (the ONLY zombie character I have ever found likable.) Even more, I love the world that Holzner has created; one that looks a lot like ours, until you peer beneath the surface to find various paranormal creatures (including Vicky’s vampire roommate, Juliet—yes THAT Juliet).

In this installment of the series, a killer who uses a curved blade—nicknamed the South End Reaper—is not only causing death and mayhem, he is creating even greater strain in an already difficult relationship between Boston’s human and inhuman residents. And it is up to Vicky, her friends, and her aunt Mab to find out who is doing the killing and put a stop to him, her, or…it.

If you haven’t read any of the books in this series, I suggest starting at the beginning with DEADTOWN, although any of the books can easily be read on its own. Holzner does a masterful job of building on the previous books while still making each volume a stand-alone novel; not an easy task to do, believe me!

Holzner gets better with every book; I loved this one, and I am waiting with baited breath to see what happens next…

http://www.amazon.com/Bloodstone-Deadtown-Novel-Nancy-Holzner/dp/044102100X

The Magical Buffet meets Deadtown author Nancy Holzner

One of my favorite blogs to visit is The Magical Buffet. Blogger Rebecca Elson is interested in lots of things, from Paganism (which is how I got met her), to ghost hunting, to Buddhism, to reading...just about everything. Her blog is always interesting and never predictable, which is one of the things I love about it.

Today's blog post is extra interesting to me, because it is a guest post by author Nancy Holzner. Nancy wrote a wonderful and original urban fantasy called DEADTOWN (which you should run right out and buy, if you haven't read it yet). I'll let you go to The Magical Buffet and read all about it, in Nancy's own words.

http://themagicalbuffet.com/blog1/2010/10/21/the-origin-of-deadtown/

What--you're still here? GO! Go read!