Delia Sherman's Blog, page 6

World Fantasy Schedule

Soon, soon, soon, it begins:  The packing, the repacking, the trying to remember who we've made plans with and what we're going to do.  I have to sit down and fan myself, just thinking about it.

Here is my Official Schedule:

Saturday, 1-2pm
Party!

You are most cordially invited to the pub party for my new novel, THE FREEDOM MAZE! 
A reading/tea party (with Louisiana specialties:  sweet ICED tea, Hubig's pies, and pralines!), with books (if they get there in time)!

Room # TBA.  (it's one of the Lanai rooms, but we don't know which one yet)


Saturday, 9-10pm:
Pacific 1: The Not-So-Fair Folk

The fairies of folklore were no Tinkerbells. They lured humans
to their realm for their own reasons, not to help. Cold iron was
prescribed as a protection against them. A discussion of faeries
as figures of fear, not wonder, in myth and literature.

Holly Black (M), Jenny Blackford, Patrick Rothfuss, Delia Sherman,
Mercedes Yardley


Apart from these scheduled items, I'll be hanging out in the Dealer's Room, going to panels (this looks like a very good year for WFC panels), and trolling the halls and the bar for conversations.  See you there!

Podcast

A month ago, on an unusually hot day in Northampton, Julie Day of Small Beer Press interviewed me for a podcast.  She asked questions; I babbled.  A good time was had by all.  I had all but forgotten about it, and then, lo and behold, it showed up on the Small Beer Press website.  Owing to a certain violent hatred of the recorded sound of my own voice (which is so much higher than it sounds in my head), I haven't listened to it yet.  But it sure was fun to do.

FREEDOM MAZE ARC Giveaway Results

First of all, thank you all so much for your posts and signal-boosting.  Second of all, thank you for your kind words about the book and its cover (which I agree is glorious--thank you, Kathleen Jennings!)

Third of all:  The Random Number Generator has spoken!

(A Tucket Sounds)

The winners of the signed ARCS of The Freedom Maze are slayerem </lj> and lutin .  I will pop the ARCs (and the promised Special Bonus Token of my Appreciation) into the mail to them asap.

Thank you all again for helping me and Small Beer Press spread the word about The Freedom Maze !  Advance orders are being taken here right now (hardcover & ebook) for the release date of November 15th.

The web page also has my first two confirmed November reading/signings (NYC and Philadelphia).  And if you're in NYC, please Save the Date: Monday, November 21st, we'll be throwing a Book Party at the Center for Fiction; details to come.

Chicks Dig Comics!

This is a kind of Save-The-Day notification of the publication of Chicks Dig Comics, sister volume to the delightful Chicks Dig Time Lords, which came out in 2009 from Mad Norwegians.  Yes, I have an essay in it --"From Pogo to Girl Genius:  My Life in the Funny Papers"-- and so does a glittering cast of notables:

n Chicks Dig Comics, editors Lynne M. Thomas (Hugo-Award-winning Chicks Dig Time Lords) and Sigrid Ellis bring together essays by award-winning writers and artists who celebrate the comics medium and its creators, and who examine the characters and series that they love.

Gail Simone (Birds of Prey) and Carla Speed McNeil (Finder) describe how they entered the comics industry. Colleen Doran (A Distant Soil) reveals her superhero crush, while Jill Thompson (Scary Godmother) confesses to being a comics junkie. Jen Van Meter (Hopeless Savages) sings the praises of 1970s horror comics, and Seanan McGuire (the October Daye series) takes sides in the Jean Grey vs. Emma Frost battle.

Other contributors include Marjorie Liu (Dark Wolverine), Rachel Edidin (Dark Horse Comics), Jill Pantozzi (Newsarama), Kelly Thompson (Comic Book Resources), and SF/F authors Sara Ryan, Delia Sherman, Sarah Monette, and Elizabeth Bear. Also featured: an introduction by Mark Waid (Kingdom Come) and exclusive interviews with Amanda Conner (Power
Girl), Louise Simonson (Power Pack), Greg Rucka (Queen & Country), and Terry Moore (Strangers in Paradise).

The paper, Kindle, and Nook versions of the book will be released on April 10, 2012 . There will be an official launch at the C2E2 Convention in Chicago during the weekend of April 13-15 (www.c2e2.com).
 
In the meantime, they've already gone live on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and many other fine booksellers.

Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Chicks-Dig-Comi...
 
Barnes & Noble:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/chick...

Indie Bound
http://www.indiebound.org/book/978193...

Mysterious Galaxy
http://www.mystgalaxy.com/book/978193...

Signal Boost: The High Cost of Making Art

saladinahmed needs a new computer.  What with a recent move and twins and all, he also needs some help buying it.  So he is, very sensibly, mounting a raffle.  Details here. 

The prizes are yummy, the cause good.  $10 will help.

FREEDOM MAZE ARC giveaway

It's 34 days to pub day for my new teen historical novel, The Freedom Maze.  Which sounds like a long time until I start thinking about all the things I have to do between now and then.  Like tell you about my ARC giveaway contest.

Big Mouth House (a very big big deal but a very small establishment) only printed a very few ARCs.  How few?  Only enough for major print reviewers, that's how few.  I, however, am the Author.  I got four.  I gave one to Jane Yolen, who has been hearing about this book and being encouraging and supportive since 1988.   One I'm keeping because I've already marked it up for reading in 10, 15, and 30 minute chunks.

Which leaves me two Advance Reading Copies to give away.

Here's how the contest works.

Post this link to the Small Beer Press page for The Freedom Maze on the social media of your choice--your blog, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, whatever. 

Then put the link to wherever you posted in the comments below by midnight (your time) October 18.

On October 19, I will randomly select two winners from the comments below and send them the ARCs, along with a Small Token of my Appreciation.

Posting a link will not only put you in the running for an advance peek at The Freedom Maze, but is a great way to help the cause of independent publishing. Which, in this increasingly conservative publishing climate, is very important for the future of all writers of odd, provocative, non-dominant-culture books.  Let's show the Big Boys how many of us there are out there.

edited to fix dates.  Sheesh.  And we BOTH proofread it, too.

We Got Respect!

Those of you who read ellen_kushner 's LJ will have heard about the great wonderfulness of The Center for Fiction's month-long celebration of the works of Ursula K. LeGuin and associated fantasy literature.  Those of you who don't, read this.  I'll wait.

Back now?  Isn't she good at explaining things?  I'm lucky to know her. 

I'm very excited by this series.  The woman who wrote the grant that's paying for all this is a big LeGuin fan (naturally enough), but didn't know all that much about anybody else--apart from the Usual Crossover Suspects like Margaret Atwood and Lev Grossman.  Now, thanks to the efforts of Ellen and her jolly crew of wise, scholarly, and well-connected friends, she (and the rest of the Center for Fiction folks) knows a whole lot more.  And are impressed by what they've learned--as they well should be.  Another nice side effect is that people are coming to these events who don't usually come to panels on fantasy, and are staying to talk afterwards and (more importantly) buy books.

We are, in fact, expanding our Fantastic Empire.  Which can only be good.

Thursday's panel features cassandra_clare , blackholly , justinelavaworm , and Chris Moriarty, whose The Inquisitor's Apprentice is the best MG mystery/thriller/magical alt-historicals I've read.  It's all about 19th C. New York and immigrants and bosses and crime and class, beautifully written and researched.  Wears its authority lightly, too.  I loved it lots.  She talks well, too.  They are a grand, grand team.  And I get to drive them order them around moderate.  If you're anywhere near 17 E. 47th Street at 7:00 pm on Thursday, please come and say hello.

Steampunk!

Tor.com has got my story from Steampunk! live.  It's called "The Ghost of Cwmlech Manor," and it's about thugs and automatons and geeks in deepest Wales.  Also class and provincialism, but only as a byproduct.

Steampunk! is a wonderful anthology.  The author's copies arrived a couple of days ago, and I've had a real fight to keep from sitting down and reading it right now.  I mean, look at the TOC!

Cassandra Clare
Libba Bray
Cory Doctorow
Shawn Cheng
Ysabeau S. Wilce
(me)
Elizabeth Konx
Kelly Link
Garth Nix
Christopher Roew
Katheleen Jennings
Dylan Horrocks
Holly Black
M.T. Anderson

But I must Do Some Work before I Can Haz Biscuit.

It's even got its own website.  And it's a beaut.

The Past Two Days

I give up.  I've tried to upload a picture Augusten Burroughs took of me today TWICE, and all that happened was that the whole post got lost somewhere in the ether.  Maybe I'll have more patience with it tomorrow.  Anyway, for a lovely account of what we've been up to (because ellen_kushner has better LJ-fu than I do), I'm linking to her cunning post.  And, while I couldn't get the $&*$(!!! picture to upload to the Scrapbook, I did manage to make an icon of it.  So there it is.

I like it a lot.  It actually looks like what I think I look like.

Bookshops Ahoy!

As you know, Bobs, The Freedom Maze is coming out next month.  And the Big Machine of New York Publisher Publicity arranging my author appearances is, well, me.  And since I'd be the last person I'd hire if I were hiring a publicist, I'm going to need some help--other than Ellen, who has got a book of her own to write, which you will love and must beg her for, because she'll listen to you.

Anyway.

I'm made a beginning:  There will be a launch at Books of Wonder, an appearance at The Big Blue Marble in Philly, possibly something at Porter Square Books in Cambridge--all of which I will tell you all about in due course.  But I'd like to throw my net a little farther afield.  Anybody in training distance (Baltimore, Washington, like that), or in Louisiana (where the book is set), who knows a bookstore or library or anybody at all who they think might be interested in me talking to them about a signing, reading, historical event of some kind, now's the time to tell me.  Because I've finished this draft of my WIP, and am ready to dive into writing people who have never heard of me, asking if I can come talk about my book to them (eep).