RoberCon 2018

I just spent last weekend making my yearly jaunt to my local SF/fantasy/gaming convention, located at the Roberson Museum in Binghamton, NY, a little over an hour from my house. As usual, RoberCon was a blast. I got to meet Anne Bishop, who was the author guest of honor, and hang out with pal Tamora Pierce and her stalwart assistant Julie. My friend Alethea Kontis, who was visiting the area from her home in Florida, was one of the guest authors this year too.

My friend Ellen went with me (her nickname for this is "The Entourage" since she does the driving, carries the heavy bags, and is generally useful) and we got to meet up with our friend Robin and her kids, my goddess-children Nate and Sophie, who live nearby and come every year. I love it that my friend has raised some serious geeks. (Nate made his own cool steampunk vest, and Sophie wore my favorite shirt, which says, "Trust me, I'm a Doctor."

I was exhausted going in and I'm more tired now, but a great time was had by all. I have the pictures to prove it.

The gang, with the addition of Princess Alethea

Princess Alethea posing on the stairs of the Roberson Mansion

Day One lunch break: Sophie, Robin, me, and Nate. Check out that vest!

That's a lot of adorable. (Sophie got a new dragon. So did I.)

New dragons for everyone!

Crystal Sarakas, Tamora Pierce, Anne Bishop, Alethea Kontis

Anne Bishop, Alethea, me, and a slightly gimpy Tamora Pierce

Dancing authors!

I love that last picture. It really captures the spirit of these amazing authors. As soon as I stepped away from our "serious official picture" they all started dancing, even Tammy with her cane! Now you can see why we always have so much fun.

RoberCon with Faith Hunter

One of the best things about being an author (besides writing books, of course) is being able to meet and get to know some of the other authors I like and admire. Many of these folks are people I follow online and become friends with, so it is a great joy when I finally get to meet one of them in person.

My "local" SF/fantasy convention, RoberCon, held every year in the Roberson Museum in Binghamton, NY (a little over an hour from where I live) has done an amazing job the last few years of moving this dream forward, by inviting as Guests of Honor a number of the folks on my "Want to Meet" list. Two years ago it was the amazing Tamora Pierce, last year it was longtime pal Alex Bledsoe, and last weekend it was the fabulous Faith Hunter.

Faith and I had been online friends for years, and I always thought she seemed very nice, but she is even more lovely in person (and her husband Rod is a hoot). As always, my best friend Ellen came along as my driver/tote-r of heavy bags of books. One of these days I am going to get her a badge that says "entourage." We had a great time, I also got to see the lovely Nancy Holzner, the astonishing con chair Crystal Sarakas, who somehow pulled this all together, and a bunch of other lovely folks. I also sat on a number of fun panels (including one on dragons!), met up with my friends Robin and George and their kids Sophie and Nate for a couple of hours on Sunday, and went out to a delicious dinner at the always fab Remlik's restaurant.

I can't share my food with you, but here, have a few pictures from the weekend.

Saturday's book signing

The dragon panel. Yes, I AM wearing a dragon hat.

At Remlik's for dinner. They gave us our own room :-)

Laughing it up with Nancy Holzner and Faith Hunter

 There are lots more pictures on Facebook, but this last one should give you some idea of how much fun we had together. I hope I'll see you (and someone else on my list) there next year!

Robercon Ho!

I'm working my butt off this weekend, trying to get as much done as I can on the 365 Day book for Llewellyn, because next weekend, I'm going to be at ROBERCON! I'm so excited!

Robercon is my "local" SF/fantasy convention, located in Binghamton, New York, about an hour from where I live. I have gone for the last few years and always had a blast.

Look at all the cool people who attend!

 The convention has both general SF/fantasy panels, cosplay, and the like, plus a bunch of guest authors, including yours truly. Last year, the amazing Tamora Pierce was the author guest of honor, and we had so much fun hanging out together, she is actually coming back this year. I can't wait!

Me and the fabulous Tamora.

 But the REAL reason I am so, so, so excited this year is that my friend Alex Bledsoe is flying in to be the author guest of honor. Alex and I have been friends for years, supporting each other's careers and cheering each other on, but this will be the first time we will actually get to meet in person!

Handsome devil!

Plus, of course, there is the convention guest of honor, Chase Masterson, who had a reoccurring role on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. This year is going to ROCK.

As an added bonus, for the folks who make it there, my publisher has kindly arranged for me to have my author copies of DANGEROUSLY CHARMING in time to take them to the con, even though the book isn't officially out until October 4th. So a few lucky people are going to get their hands on the book a week and a half before everyone else! Whoo hoo!

I hope I get to see a few of you there. Here's the schedule of events for those who are thinking of coming: Robercon Schedule I will be at both author signings (Saturday and Sunday). I will undoubtedly have a few goodies with me too.

Whoo hooo!

Looking Back at 2015

First off, can someone explain to me how it is the end of 2015? Seriously. What the heck happened to this year? Oh, wait, this happened...

WRITING
This was an insane year for the writing--probably the busiest I have ever had.

1. I wrote the book for the fabulous Llewellyn Tarot Deck I'm doing with illustrator Elisabeth Alba. 
2. I signed the second contract with Berkley for the next two books in the Baba Yaga series, a novella, plus Veiled Magic, the urban fantasy I'd written a few years ago.  
3. Everyday Witchcraft came out from Llewellyn in April (and is still #4 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > New Age & Spirituality > Wicca, Witchcraft & Paganism on Amazon!) followed by the Midsummer book in May. 
4. Witches & Pagans Magazine  put out an edition (#29) with me on the cover
5. Veiled Magic came out in mid-November. 
6. In the midst of all that, I was doing major revisions on Veiled Magic, writing and revising the third Baba Yaga book WICKEDLY POWERFUL and the novella Wickedly Ever After (both of which are up for pre-order, she said with a wink) and writing the first Rider book, Dangerously Charming. [More on that in another blog post, because OY.] 
7. Plus, of course, there was promo and giveaways and all that for all the books I had out already. Plus my column for Witches & Pagans, and a few misc. articles for Llewellyn.
8. Then in December, I signed a contract with Llewellyn for one more book, tentatively called "365 Days of Everyday Witchcraft." 

This was 2015!

So a good year, but INSANE. Hopefully 2016 will be a tad bit calmer.

Yeah, sure. That could happen.

TRAVEL
Then there was the traveling. I rarely travel much, in part because the cats don't like it, in part because frankly, I am a lousy traveler, and in part because I don't have the time or money. None of that seemed to stop me this year. This is where I went:

1. February--San Diego to visit my family and then on to San Jose for Pantheacon, one of my favorite Pagan conferences, where I got to hang out with my step-daughter Jenn, my beloved Llewellyn editor Elysia and publisher Bill, as well as lots of other cool folks.
2. July--New York City for the Romance Writers of America National conference. There I met up with my editor, my agents, lots of writing friends, participated in a panel, and hatched some interesting plans with Mindy Klasky. (Plus I finally got to meet the lovely Patience Bloom in person, which was a huge treat, and go to two panels by author Jennifer Crusie, who knows more about writing than anyone else I have ever met.)
3. August--Eight days after I returned from NYC, I took off for Boston to join my extended family for a long-overdue family reunion vacation in Cape Cod for nine days. The highlight of that was getting to spend time with my cousin Peter and his wife and two amazing boys, who I hadn't seen in years (or in the youngest boy's case, ever). Also, you know, BEACH.
4. September--I spent two days in Binghamton at an up-and-coming local SF/fantasy con, Robercon, with my pal Ellen. The best part of that one was meeting and hanging out with the shockingly talented and equally nice guest of honor, Tamora Pierce, who I have adored for years. We were online pals for ages, but now that we've met in person, we're best friends. (Okay, she probably doesn't realize that, but really, we are.)
5. November--Author pal Nancy Holzner and I headed to Saratoga Springs for World Fantasy Con, where I got to spend lots of time with author friends old and new, including the fabulous Carol Berg and Lucienne Diver.

To say that I am happy to be done with traveling for the year would be a huge understatement, although I am heading back out in February for four days in Daytona Beach for Coastal Magic.

The beach in San Diego. In February.

Me and Elysia

With Jenny Crusie

Alex, Mariana, Misho, Peter and me on the Cape

Nancy, me, Tamora, Crystal S at Robercon

Esther Friesner, Lucienne Diver, me, and Carol Berg plotting world domination

Personal Stuff
In between all this, I was dealing with my step-daughter Jenn's mom Jo (also a friend of mine) who had a massive heart attack in March and then another smaller one in early November. This has meant a lot more visits from Jenn, mostly to see her mom, and adding care-taking to my list of things to do, now that Jo is in a nursing home (since Jenn lives across the country and can't do handle most things from there). But we had a lovely Christmas together with our friend Ellen this year, so that was nice. (Ellen gave us all imaginary perfect gifts...that's what we're holding up.)

Me, Jo, Jenn on Christmas morning

Plus, of course, CATS:

Angus & Mystic

Luna

Minerva & Mystic

Magic the Cat, Queen of the Universe

 And running The Artisans Guild and making jewelry, and doing all manner of work on my house...so pretty much, life. But a good one.

I hope that you had a great 2015. I'd love to hear what the highlight of your year was. I think mine was meeting Tamora Pierce. What was yours?

Thanks for spending this year with me, and I look forward to sharing 2016 with you--may it be filled with health, prosperity, achievement, joy, love, and at least a little magic!

A Robercon Report

Last weekend, I went to the RoberCon Science Fiction convention in nearby Binghamton, NY. This is my report.

Short version: IT WAS A BLAST.

What, you wanted a little more detail than that? Okay.

First of all, I got to spend much of the weekend meeting and then hanging out with one of my favorite authors, Tamora Pierce.

Amazingly enough, she seems to think I'm pretty cool too, and loves the Baba Yaga books!

One of the many panels we did, along with moderator/con organizer Crystal Sarakas and pal Nancy Holzner and a horror writer who was surprisingly nice :-)

We went out for an amazing dinner (that's my friend Ellen grinning on the other side of Tamora)

Oysters Rockefeller! One of my favorites. They were delish.

In the Green Room with Nancy, Tamora, and Crystal on day two. (I'm holding my new friend.)

On Sunday I got to see Sophie, Robin, and Nate (and dad George)

Look who we found!

In short, it was a great weekend. I came home with a bunch of signed books and some terrific memories. Oh, and a red dragon, in honor of Wickedly Powerful...

This is me at the end of the day on Sunday. Cons are exhausting.

Stay tuned, because there are all sorts of fun things coming up here on the blog, including a bunch of giveaways and some cool announcements. I'll be sending out another newsletter soon too, so make sure you're signed up. (Just fill out the form at the top left of the blog.)

What did you do this last weekend?

RoberCon Weekend!

I'm pretty excited about this upcoming weekend. No, I'm not going to the dump again. (That was last weekend.) This weekend I'll be in nearby Binghamton NY, taking part in ROBERCON 2015 a fun SF/fantasy convention held at the very cool Roberson Museum on Saturday the 26th and Sunday the 27th. I went last year and had a blast...

Me with authors Joshua Palmatier and last year's Guest of Honor Laura Anne Gilman

You just never know who you're going to meet!

My friend Robin and my goddess-children Nate and Sophie live nearby, so they came too!

Lots of interesting panels.

Talking to a fan.

But this year is going to be even better, because the Guest of Honor is one of my all-time favorite writers, who I've never gotten to meet in person before--Tamora Pierce!

Soooo excited to finally meet her! Plus I get to moderate her chats on both days.

On Saturday I'll be taking part in a panel with Tamora and some other authors on "Writing strong women," and then doing the first chat with Tamora at 2 followed by a group book signing at 3. On Sunday there will be two more panels (including one I'm really looking forward to called "Something about magic") plus another chat with Tamora. And of course, I'm going to get to hang out with a bunch of very cool people, including writer pal Nancy Holzner and best friend Ellen (aka "The Entourage").

There's something for everyone at this convention--gaming and cosplay, panels on Doctor Who and Star Wars, and generally geeky goodness. If you live anywhere nearby, I hope you'll come see me!

(If you do, feel free to bring books from home for me to sign if you like.)

Rober-Con and Home Again

I spent this last weekend at Rober-Con, a fairly new SF convention in Binghamton, NY--but not as just a con-goer. I was actually invited to be a guest author and presenter, and took part in four panels, as well as doing a book reading. I'm not going to lie--I had a blast. It was pretty cool to finally be a published fiction author out there in the world.

The panel on Worldbuilding, with Jill Schultz, me, Joshua Palmatier, Laura Anne Gilman, and moderator and con-Goddess Crystal Sarakas

My best pal Ellen and I drove (well, she drove, because I fall asleep behind the wheel after about 30 minutes, which is annoying as hell...especially to innocent bystanders), since it was only about an hour and 15 minutes from my house. We stayed overnight so we could go out to dinner with the con organizer and some of the other authors, and not have to make the drive back and forth. As with most cons, it was exciting and exhausting, and a few little things didn't go as smoothly as you'd like them to, but for an only-two-year-old con, it was amazingly well run. All my panels were well attended, and I had a wonderful time hanging out with the author Guest of Honor, Laura Anne Gilman. Laura Anne and I had never met before, but we had about a zillion author pals in common, which was nice. She was an editor before she became an author, and she knows more about the writing biz than just about anyone I have ever met.

Me, Joshua Palmatier, and Laura Anne--we look pretty shifty here, but it was really end-of-con exhaustion. Laura Anne joked that only two of us had gotten the shirt color memo :-)

 One of the great things about going to a con this close to home was that some of my Binghamton-area pals could come, including my friend Robin and her kids Sophie and Nate (my goddess-children), who had a blast at their first con.

My friend Rob came too, only to feed me to author April Steenburgh's Bag of Death. It got poor Laura Anne, too.

The con took place at the lovely (albeit confusing to get around in) Roberson Museum, which was filled with costumed folks, cool authors, and fabulous vendors. (Yes, I bought some used books--why do you ask?) I had a fabulous time, and plan to return in future years if they continue to invite me.

But one of the BEST moments happened on the trip home, when my friend Ellen managed to surprise me (not easy to do when you're a psychic). We'd stopped in the museum's gift shop on our way in on the second day, and I spotted a cool blue stuffed dragon. I'd been sort of thinking of picking it up as both a memento of the con and as tribute to Chudo-Yudo, the dragon characters in my books.

Alas, when I went back for it at the end of the day, it was gone. And they'd only had one. (I know, because as soon as I saw it was gone, I suddenly realized how much I'd wanted it--you know how that happens--and had the gift shop staff check their inventory. But nope, only one, and it had sold.) So I settled on a cute little black one instead.

He IS cute, isn't he? I'm thinking I might have to have a contest to name him.

 So we're driving home, and stop so I can have a pitstop. And when I get back into the car, Ellen says in a mysterious voice, "You know, I think the Force has shifted in this car." Needless to say, I had no idea what she was talking about... And then she pulled a bag off of the top of this mound sitting between the two front seats, and there was THE BLUE DRAGON!

He's going to need a name too.

 I couldn't believe she'd managed to buy it earlier in the day (the liar told me she was going off in search of a bottle of water) and then managed to sneak him into the car trunk without me knowing. It made me absurdly happy :-)

And now it looks like I have the beginnings of a collection. I don't normally collect things (although I have always liked dragons, and actually have a few already), but I believe I'm going to have to make an exception.

TWO! And clearly just the beginning...

In short, I had a fabulous weekend. I took today off to recover, but tomorrow, things go back to (coff) normal. In other words, I'll be writing.