I’ll Bite

Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is to be made into a ballet. In Winnipeg. Next year.

 

Well, I know I’m going, but I don’t know if I can really say more than that at this point.

C4Lit Fest

So I got my laptop back and I probably should have been emailing people all through this weekend – busy busy, I went to C4Lit Fest instead and played with the puppy. As much as you’ve probably heard wailing and gnashing of teeth over Winnipeg’s weather, a good thing my hometown has going for it is that it does love its arts, be it theatre or music or the written word.

Winnipeg is home to an International Writer’s Festival, a huge Comic Convention, and I’m meeting up with my publisher next month for the first time since I pitched ToO to her two years ago at Keycon. Oh yeah, and it’s also the home of McNally Robinson, a very large independent bookstore that is very supportive of local authors.

My beta R.J. Hore was one of the presenting authors this year at the festival – and because I love to chat up local talent, I’ll mention the books and the blog that were presenters. I already read A.P. Fuchs and Susan Rocan, (and R.J., heh – he gets no link mention because he’s on here lots already) but if you’re in the habit of checking out some local Winnipeg talent, check out the links. My computer is slow, so only a handful of cover images.

Oh, and Guy Gavriel Kay is also a Native Winnipegger, and while he did a booklaunch at McNally’s last week, he sadly was not part of the festival. I could go on about a bunch of fantastic home-grown MB authors, but yeah… the list would get long and it would sound like I’m gloating or something.

Book Blogger: Chapter by Chapter – MaryAnne gave me a bunch of great leads about alternative book blog tours. I’m still trying to get more reviews; good, bad, and indifferent; so the more the merrier.  She said she’s branching out to try more adult titles, but keep in mind she’s doing it with her daughter so check out her guidelines if you want her to review your title. They were really friendly.

Kelly Armstrong – Horror writer, she was the big guest at the event.

Susan Rocan – with Great Plains Publications – wrote a speculative fiction YA novel about a young girl who gets sent back in time to learn about her roots.

Craig Russel – with Great Plains Publications – wrote a fantasy YA novel about two women who sold their souls, but their nephew takes it upon himself to redeem them by finding a champion. Catch, is that he has to offer his soul up as collateral, and can’t stay in one location more than twelve days. Poor guy said he’d like me to review it once I’ve read it. He has no idea what he got himself into…

Rhiannon Paille –  author of Surrender, a high fantasy about a doomed love, it’s sequel Justice, and a few others – just check out her goodreads page, it’s easier.

A.P. Fuchs –  I read his debut novel, “Axiom Man” a few years ago – a novel about a superhero. He owns the publisher, Cosgrove Entertainment, and they have Axiom Man as well as what looks like a bunch of more monster/zombie/horror in their lineup.

S.M. Beiko –  debut novel The Lake and the Library from ECM Press. Looks like a YA fantasy, it’s about a young girl who wants to leave her small Prairie town but discovers an untouched library. Haven’t read it yet, but it technically doesn’t debut ‘til May (I bought a copy and will be reading it shortly – as someone who also has a debut, please help her out by reviewing if you read it).

Sierra Dean – Samhain Publishing – Looks like an Urban Fantasy about a young woman half-vampire, half werewolf hunter and a love triangle between her, a werewolf and a vampire. Link to first book in series here.

Chadwick Ginther – Ravenstone Press has now released two fantasy novels (they were a murder-mystery line – still are but they are now branching out somewhat)  I read Thunder Road a bit back – basically check ‘er out if you like Norse Mythology set in modern day MB.

Shaylyn Willborn– This I Promise – the youngest of the authors, clocking it at sixteen, with her debut fantasy novel about a young girl named Rose who, unbeknownst to her, is a fire elemental or Populous, and she has to stop a war between the other Populous and save her world.

GMB Chomichuk – graphic artist/creator of the Imagination Manifesto. Words cannot describe, check it out.

Spaghetti is not Finger Food – a picture book about Ausperger’s. Written by Jodie Carmichael and illustrated by Sarah Ackerley. This poor woman didn’t get her books on time for the weekend, but she’s confident they’ll be at McNR in about a week.

 I’m thinking most of these titles will be available in McNallyrobinson (Ron’s no – that’s to do with distribution but you can purchase them online) but I managed to get ecopies of most of the titles.  I would have loved to go to more panels, but it was fun hanging out at Ron’s table. Gave me some prep for Keycon, which is less than a month away. Eeee.

I will get back to Broke and Bookish after this week, I swear. I did have a few posts lined up that I couldn’t get to, so maybe you’ll see some variation this week. Since they’re not on time, I can’t call them playing along, but still…

A Glowing Review and My Prrrrrecious…

I should have mentioned this earlier this week, but I just got a glowing review from a writer I’m friends with, author of TimeWarp Inc., Cotton E. Davis. He had some wonderful things to say about Tower of Obsidian, so if you’re curious, check out what he had to say. I’m very pleased with the reviews so far – and don’t get me wrong, I think I’m still a ways away from getting good at this, but I’m glad that the reviews I’ve seen so far indicate that the writing is at-par.

Why have I been so busy? Well, part of it was birthday stuff – mostly because I got a special birthday present. We’re still getting used to each other, but I’d like y’all to meet Dodger:

Timid little guy, but he’s fun when he gets around to playing. I seem to suck with handling the separation anxiety, because I’m all for the cuddling. He’s so soft!

Finally, if you haven’t yet and you’re Canadian, please consider the Aurora Awards. 

No Top Ten Tuesday for me… next week!

I can’t do this week’s Top Ten Tuesday from Broke and Bookish – I know I didn’t do last week’s, but I was kinda busy studying. As for this one – I generally don’t crush on a lot of guys in books. Don’t get me wrong, if it gets adapted into a movie, I will be the first one talking about the choice of actor (Ben Barnes as a 13 year old? It gets a pass because it’s Ben Barnes!), but, if I could play this one: it would probably be like, Gilbert from Anne of Green Gables, and that would be about it. Even though I write characters with gaping flaws, I like nice guys who can banter with me.

So yeah – me and a bunch of others are on a blog, Worlds of the Imagination I’ll be posting once a week, looks like Wednesdays, starting tomorrow, which is also when I officially leave my twenties behind. Not as far as I wanted to be in terms of my life, but I did get my career underway and I was published in my twenties, so yeah: you win some, you lose some. I’m going to be focused on a few educational documents for the sake of world-building, but I’ll be doing some interviews after I work out a template the others will be okay with. So if there’s something you’d like discussed, let me know – I’m a new author, but I do know people who know things, so I can always have them appear as a guest or something.

Also, this sight is my new favorite thing. It’s really only good if you like figure drawing, but I like that I have to work so fast to warm up. (No, I’m not posting any sketches right now).