Cancelling a Con

For months now, I have been looking forward to going to Paganicon in Minnesota. (Like, 6 or 8 months...a long time.) Llewellyn, the publishers of my nonfiction books and decks, are located nearby, so I was going to get to go to the Mother Ship at last, meet my editor Elysia's famous cats, and hang out with a bunch of my Pagan peeps.

 

Plus, of course, I was going to do my "Cat Magic" presentation, a ritual, and Llewellyn was going to have a "Meet the Everyday Witch" night in their party suite. I bought swag, people. Lots of adorable swag.

 

But then Coronavirus happened, and I had to make a tough decision. They're still holding the con, but I won't be there. I'm heartbroken, but it was going to mean traveling on four planes, through four airports, and being at a large (ish) convention. I've agonized over the decision for over a week, but I didn't feel that I could risk my health (almost 60 with asthma and other health issues) or that of the medically fragile folks in my close circle, of which there are a number.

 

So today I cancelled the plane, the hotel room, and my attendance. It felt like the socially responsible decision. There is no way to know if things would have been just fine, but with any luck, I will be able to attend at some future time. I'm still hoping that my book signing with Anne Bishop at Flights of Fantasy in Albany is still on for the 28th. That at least is a car ride away, and a relatively small venue.

 

Stay safe out there, people. I love my readers. 

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!

RWA Report and Book Giveaway

I've been back from my trip to the RWA National Conference for a week and a half, but it has taken me this long to get around to reporting on it because A) as usual, I was exhausted when I came back and B) I've been really busy.

But here, at last, is a quick report on my trip.

It was good.

Oh, sorry, you wanted a little more detail? I got in Wednesday late morning, checked in, and caught up with my roommate, the fabulous Maria V. Snyder. (I adore her books. If you haven't read them yet, go run out and catch up.) The two of us ended up going out to dinner that first night with two of my favorite peeps from the Coastal Magic convention, author extraordinaire Carrie Ann Ryan and copy editor extraordinaire and Official Woman with the Coolest Hair Chelle Olson. We went to a fun brewery restaurant and shared tastes of all the different beers made in house. Also, yummy guacamole.

Chelle, Carrie Ann, and Maria

 One of the best things about going to this particular convention is being able to meet up with people I never get to see anyplace else. I had a great lunch meeting with my agent Elaine Spencer (which I somehow completely failed to get a picture of, dammit), met the glorious Tawna Fenske in person at last

The glorious Tawna Fenske

 Had breakfast and then other meet-ups with one of my favorite people, Harlequin senior editor Patience Bloom (who has the best red hair evah and is also a sweetie of the Nth order).

Patience!

One of the reasons I decided to go this year was because one of my very favorite authors was giving the keynote speech at the luncheon. I love, love, love Susan Wiggs' books (they're an auto-buy for me) and while we follow each other on Twitter, I've never met her. She was a great speaker, and when I got to meet up with her later at the Berkley party, it was absolutely the highlight of my con. (And AGAIN, no picture! Argh!)

Susan Wiggs

At these cons, you tend to run into the same people over and over again. At this particular one, that person was the lovely and charming Susan Elizabeth Phillips. I kept swearing I wasn't stalking her, but I'm not sure she believed me. Either way, she was absolutely gracious about it.

Susan Elizabeth Phillips. And yes, that book came home with me.

At the "Cool Kids" table for the awards ceremony.

 One of the highlights of the convention is the RITA awards ceremony. I actually got to sit at the Cool Kids table between amazing author Kristan Higgins and my lovely pal Patience.

The last night, I had fun in a photo booth with Princess Alethea Kontis (who I also know from Coastal Magic--seriously, you people want to go to THAT convention) at Sherrilyn Kenyon's book release party. It is possible we got a little silly.

As always, I kept my goal to have bacon every day at the con. It's important to have goals in life, don't you think?

Dinner on the last night with roomie Maria. BBQ by the pool, yum!

Best roommate ever

 I always come home from these things with a million books. This time I swore I would limit it to ten, so I didn't have to pay to ship a big box home. Yeah. Not so much.

27 is the same as 10, right?

 Although in my defense, the three books in the middle are ones my agent brought me to read for inspiration on the current book I'm writing, and the pile on the right is for the cat sitters and some friends, and a giveaway. AND I had to mail home the rest of the swag I brought with me to give away.

 Oh, wait, did I say giveaway? I brought home a copy of Susan's last book, The Family Tree (I already have it in hardcover), plus a luggage tag with a picture of her upcoming book, A Map of the Heart. Plus, there are two tote bags! I'll probably also throw in some misc. bookmarks and such. Who wants to enter?

Goodies!

This is going to be a quickie giveaway, only on for a few days, so be sure to enter right away. Oh, and Magic the Cat would like you to know that she helped me pack.

She's never happy about me leaving, and you can tell.

Enter by filling out the Rafflecopter form. You get credit for anything you've already done, like following me on Twitter. (You've already done that, RIGHT?)

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Next up, a blog about my visit to Animal Adventure Park to see April the giraffe!

Coastal Magic Report Part One

So I just got back from attending the Coastal Magic Convention in Daytona Florida (well, I got back on Sunday, but it always takes me a while to recover from these things). This was my second year attending, and if anything, I had more fun this year than I did last year. It helped that my roommate, author/agent pal Lucienne Diver didn't have to leave early because of a bad back this year, and also that the weather was nicer, so I actually got to spend some time sitting on the beach. I love the ocean, so this is something of a motivator for me to go to this con, although there are a zillion other reasons besides this one...

Although you have to admit, it's a pretty good reason.

 I left by bus on Wednesday afternoon, arriving in Schenectady in the early evening, where I had dinner with my sister Sarah and adorable niece Addy (they live there, along with my poor BIL who couldn't come along because he'd just had cataract surgery). After dinner they took me to the Colonie Barnes & Noble, where Addy gleefully showed me some of my books on the shelves!

Seriously, isn't she adorable? Also, I love to see my books in the wild.

 I flew to Orlando in the morning, where Lucienne met me at the airport and we drove together the hour or so to get to the hotel at Daytona Beach. After we checked into our room, we went to this fun seafood restaurant called Bubba Gump's, based on the movie Forrest Gump. The food was delish! Thank goodness there are no calories in food eaten at a con. That's right, isn't it?

NOM

The lunch gang, including Lucienne, Eric Asher, Nancy Northcott, Gail Z. Martin, and Alethea Kontis.

 That evening, there was a fun author/blogger meet up, where some folks managed to find the elusive stuffed unicorns!

Unicorns!

 This was the sunrise outside my window on Friday morning. Unfortunately, they were doing construction at the hotel, so on Thursday and Friday, the calming sound of the waves was interspersed with the not-so calming sound of circular saws... Still, ocean.

Glorious!

 My first panel on Friday was a fun one--A Kind of Magic, where various authors discussed the use of magic in their books.

The "Magic" gang: Chudney Thomas, Eric Asher, Larissa Ione, and me.

 Later, I managed to find some time to relax on the beach. This is my happy face :-)

I'm at the ocean!

A Katie Fforde book from across the pond, and look, a unicorn!

That afternoon, Lucienne, Alethea, and I took part in a paranormal authors "Meet and Greet." The theme for ours was Tea and Tiaras, and we all dressed up as princesses and/or goddesses. (My tiara was borrowed. Can you believe I don't own one? I do have a witch's hat, though.)

Goddess Lucienne, Princess Alethea, and me.

We started out behaving so well...

It didn't last.

 The funny thing about this picture was that Alethea and Lisa Kessler, seated in the front, had no idea what was going on behind them. They didn't realize until we put the picture up on Facebook!

The evening ended with a fabulous dinner and Lucienne dragging me out onto the dance floor at the Mixer/party, gimpy knee and all. But more about that in the next post. For now, have a look at the beautiful sunset we saw as we walked to dinner.

 Beautiful, wasn't it? The six inches of snow outside my window is making me very nostalgic...

World Fantasy Convention Report

Sorry I haven't been around, but I literally haven't been around. (Although I have read all of your comments on the giveaway post!) I left on Thursday night for the World Fantasy Convention, held this year in lovely Saratoga NY, about 2  hours from where I live, which is one of the reasons I went when I was already traveling too much this year. I just got back last night.

It was an interesting con...the convention itself wasn't great (for a number of reasons too complicated to go into), but I got to spend time with some fabulous folks (including authors I knew from Facebook but had never met in person, as well as an old friend I hadn't seen since 2008), see the amazing art show, and eat WAY too much wonderful food. Here are a few highlights:

Either Magic the Cat was helping me pack or telling me not to go away again. Which do you think it was?

Dinner Friday night with Lucienne Diver, Nancy Holzner, Esther Friesner, Carol Berg, and a couple of other folks.

This was my dinner! Crab stuffed shrimp--YUM!

The hysterical Esther Friesner, charming C.S. MacCath, me, and the brilliant Carol Berg

 Getting to meet Esther Friesner and Carol Berg (two of my favorite authors) and spend time with them was such a treat! As was hanging out with the gorgous Lucienne Diver, and my old pal C. S. MacCath, who I met back in 2018 at Pantheacon. We're both in the Llewellyn Pagan Anthology together. She and I and Crystal Sarakas, another friend, may have hatched a sekret plan. Or not. I can't say.

Esther, Lucienne, me, and Carol Berg. It is clear that we were plotting something and Esther was setting it into motion...

Dinner Saturday night...or what was left of it. We went to the Boca Bistro, which was an amazing tapas and wine place. Best food evah!

Author pal and roommate for the con, Nancy Holzner. She was great company!

Naturally, I didn't make it home without some books. A few of those were given to attendees in a cool bookbag, and others I bought to get signed by Esther and Carol, or just because I didn't have them yet. Lucienne and I swapped books, because we each had the other's books only on Kindle.

To top the whole thing off, I got to have breakfast on Sunday morning with my sister Sarah, talented brother in-law Rich, and my much-adored niece Addy, who live nearby.

It was a lovely time, but I'm glad to be home with the kitties and getting ready to dive back into working on Baba #4. Plus, of course, Veiled Magic is out in a week! The KINDLE FIRE HD GIVEAWAY is still on for another three days, so be sure to enter if you haven't done so yet! (And the Tweet about it option can be used every day.) I'll be posting another giveaway soon, too!

Have you gone anyplace interesting lately? (Or, you know, eaten anything good or bought a cool new book?)

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?