Hallowe'en Stories on Sunday!

Cute picture by v-collins on Deviant Art!

I'm going back to Pinhey's Point on Sunday, from 11-4, to tell scary stories!  Audience appropriate scary stories, so yes, you can bring your little ones!

There will be ghosts, and carnivals, and owls and, um, I haven't figured out my set yet. But it'll be cool!  Storytelling should be every hour, so come on out, enjoy the pumpkin carving and classic Hallowe'en pranks this Sunday, and listen to some stories!

More info here.

Can*Con - Paper Airplane Contest Rules!

WARNING: I SCREAM AT YOU IN THIS POST AND I DO NO APOLOGIZE.

Back by popular demand, the paper airplane contest shall once more wreak havoc upon CAN-CON. I've been asked mutliple questions by citizens: what shall I bring?  Do we need our own band aids?  A change of clothes? To sign a waiver?

Well, here are your answers: BRING ONLY YOURSELVES!

I've also received questions on the rules.  Some of you poor souls didn't make it last year.  So, here are the rules:

THE ONLY RULE IS TO FEAR ME!!!!

That's it.  Bring yourselves only, and be prepared to earn your way to even just folding the paper airplaine.

THIS IS NOT FOR THE WEAK!

It is for the strong.

BUT WAIT!!

I've been asked if people, whom I shall now refer to as show-offs, can bring a pre-constructed plane. I've pondered it and decided that I shall graciously accept to allow show-offs to bring pre-made planes within the competition grounds.  

BUT YOU MUST EARN YOUR RIGHT TO FLY. 

An even harsher skills competitions will be demanded of those who bring a pre-made plane.  If you only bring the supplies and build it on site, I shall be less harsh with my demands.  Slighly.

HOW DO YOU WIN?

I've been asked that, especially considering all of the fine prizes I make available.  Fine, fine prizes. 

YOU MUST BE THE BEST!

That's how you win.  And I define best based on my daily whim. 

... If this contest doesn't sound like a good time, I don't know what is! 

SEE YOU THERE.  8pm. Saturday evening.

GUEST POST: KT Bryski's New Novel!

*Editorial note included at end of post.*

Hi! I’m KT Bryski—Canadian fantasy author and podcaster and writing comrade of the ever-lovely and talented Marie Bilodeau. She’s welcomed me to her blog with a few questions. Simple questions, she said. Easy questions. Nothing to worry about. Not at all.

I’m not nervous. Not at all.

*eep*

What’s your current project?

That’s…that’s it? Wow, okay. Well, my new novel Heartstealer is a historical dark fantasy. When Sara Wolfe’s husband disappears in a northern backwater village, she doesn’t quite believe the story she’s told. She travels north to find him, quickly becoming embroiled in the village’s old hurts and older magic. The curtain between worlds is thinning, and if Sara doesn’t find her husband soon—well, the ghosts aren’t the only ones stalking the night.

What colour is your novel?

The cover’s mostly blue…

No, what colour does it feel like?

Oh. Deep, deep blues and purples, maybe hints of deep orange. The colour of a late October twilight.

Very poetic.

Thank you.

So if you could eat anything in Heartstealer, what would it be?

NEW BOOK! Eye of Glass, set in Ed Greenwood's Hellmaw!

I'm super thrilled to announce that I'm part of the The Ed Greenwood Group (TEGG), a revolutionary publishing venture by the creator of Forgotten Realms himself!

My first book, set in his new Hellmaw realm and already written, will be coming out in February 2016! Hellmaw is a dark world, where ruthless daemons stalk our streets, seeing humanity as little more than cattle.

And then, there's my character, who's by far the quirkiest character I've ever written. You'll get to meet her a bit more later on, but for now, I can tell you that book 1, Eye of Glass, is the first of six books, for my longest series yet!

Here's the book copy:

Following a slight misfire with a prank (on a cop, involving herself as the dead body), Jaeda finds herself confined to a small room, with only a TV as company. Relaxing will help her regenerate her mostly missing body, but that's entirely too boring for her liking. Besides, she has better things to do with her time, like becoming a model.

But when her guardian and keeper vanishes, Jaeda has to move quickly to avoid capture and save herself, her guardian, and her new human pets. Regenerating will simply have to wait.


It's going to be a fun and wild ride.  Make sure to check out the rest of the Hellmaw lineup and meet Jaeda in February!


THE "BODYLESS" SERIES, BY MARIE BILODEAU
Set in the Hellmaw world

Eye of Glass (Feb. 2016)
Lips of Blood (Feb. 2018)
Shoe of Bone (Feb. 2019)
Hand of Knives (Feb. 2020)
Flesh of Decay (Feb. 2021)
Spine of Steel (Feb. 2022)

More announcements soon!

Being Thankful For Writing

I'm thankful for writing today, on Thanksgiving Day.  So many memes on Facebook say that writing is like pulling out your own eyes and eating them (along those lines, anyway), but I don't believe that.

I'm thankful for writing because of the worlds it opens up to me, some with rolling hills ablaze with magic, others with distant star systems to explore.

I'm thankful for the characters I meet, and their stubborn refusal to stay passive, for the heartache their deaths (sometimes) bring, for their joys and successes, for the bumps and hills they climb to reach The End.

I'm thankful for story, for that thread that runs neatly through fiction, weaving a tale that helps make sense of the world around us, with its pain and confusion and powerlessness.

I'm thankful for my laptop, my coloured pens, my coiled notebooks, my desk and my comfy chair, for being that conduit for conveying ideas to words on a page.

I'm thankful for the friends I've made thanks to writing, for the people who have become like family, for those I'd call upon during bad days or to share my greatest joys.

I'm thankful for the community that gets words, that loves them as much as I do, and that meets online or in-person to share that love.

I'm thankful because I know that, in another time or another place, I wouldn't have even learned to read and write, and even if I had, I might be too terrified or too busy surviving to put word to page.

I'm thankful because I know that writing can be hard, it can be confusing, it can be downright frustrating and make you feel kind of ill. But it can also bring the greatest joys, successes and the best damn day dreams.

I'm thankful because I know that I choose to write, and that I can write, and that I live in a world with so many options for getting my words out there that I just want to hug all of publishing and all of writing and hold it close forever.

I'm thankful for words.

And I hope you are, too.