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.

Gratitude Giveaway and Year's End Summary

Well...this has been a year, hasn't it? Lots of good things, and lots of bad, alas. But in the end, I am still so grateful for all I have. And especially grateful for YOU, my friends, readers, and fans. So I'm doing one last giveaway this year for no reason other than to say thank you for taking this journey with me. Thank you for buying my books, and for putting up reviews (really, THANK YOU), and for generally spreading the word and being supportive. Y'all make the hard work worth it. So I'm doing this:

Carried away? Moi? Never.

So, here's this year in review--briefly, because otherwise we'll be here all day.
Good stuff:
Well, I had two books out, which is great. WICKEDLY POWERFUL was the third Baba Yaga novel, which was then followed by DANGEROUSLY CHARMING the first Rider novel.

BOOKS!

Got to go visit my friends in Connecticut, got visits from pal Bethany and her charming hubby Jarrod, and my stepdaughter Jenn, and FINALLY met long-time author pal Alex Bledsoe in person at Robercon (where I also got to hang out with the fabulous Tamora Pierce, which is always a joy).

Terry and Glenn in Connecticut

Jarrod, Bethany, and me

My kid and her two moms (no, not THAT kind of two moms)

Alex, me, and the fab Tammy

Plus, of course, the tarot deck is coming out any minute, so that might end up counting toward this year too.

Mind you, there was a lot of not great stuff too. I lost Mystic and Magic's mother Minerva in March (wow, that's a lot of M's). Had to rehome little Luna, because she couldn't adjust to the other cats (although she IS blissfully happy at her new house and I get to visit often). Angus was sick for months with an eye infection, then Mystic got seriously ill and almost died. (They both got better. That definitely counts toward the "good" column.) I seriously hurt my knee on the first of April, and it is still taking it's slow time recovering, and then I got shingles (which are brought on by stress, so I blame the election, plus all that other stuff...). Plus, you know, life.

Overall, I'd have to say it was a pretty tough year, where the not-so-great stuff often overwhelmed the great. But I survived and have hopes that next year will be better. And in the meanwhile, I still have a lot to be grateful for, including all of you. So thanks! And now, I'm going to do one last giveaway for the year, just because I can. Maybe it will finish off a few other people's years right.

Here's what we've got! A Fire tablet, a set of ALL FOUR BOOKS (signed, of course), winner's choice of one of three book cover notebooks, and a Deborah Blake calendar for 2017 plus a broom pen to write in it with. Four prizes, four winners. Woot!

No, Magic the Cat doesn't come with the prizes.

Winner gets his or her pick!

No, Angus doesn't come with the prize either. But his picture is in the calendar.

As always, all you have to do to enter is fill out the Rafflecopter form below. You get credit for anything you've already done, like following the blog, or signing up for my newsletter. And because it is my big end-of-year giveaway, I'm opening it up internationally. There is no purchase required, although of course, if you want to give ME a year's end present and buy one of my books, or put up a review for one you read, I won't tell you not to!

Good luck, thanks for everything, and happy holidays, whichever one you happen to celebrate.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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.)