World Fantasy

I went north, to Canada, and it was good. Calgary is a delightful city that reminded me a lot of Denver. They understand the concept of closing off streets during the day so we bipeds can wander around without fear of vehicular traffic. The shops were eclectic, ranging from the tourist places to the high end boutiques. And the food was nummy. The weather was very nice for Calgary this time of year and one of the surprises was this magnificent "clockwork" horse sculpture. So steampunk.

My advance scout for this trip was Jean Marie Ward who can scout with the best of them. She arrived a few days earlier and immediately began to map the environs. By the time I arrived Wed afternoon, she knew where to find the restaurants, the pubs and the shops. We grabbed a quick bite of food and then headed back to the hotel for the Hades Publications party. I'm published by Dragon Moon Press, which is a Hades imprint, so I was eager to be there. They served delightful munchies, had a cash bar and entertained us with The Plaid Tongued Devils. I've never seen a band that could mesh Roma, Klezmer, Middle Eastern and Celtic music like they did. It was a rousing time. Their fiddlers were incredible!

Now I'm usually pretty stupid after any plane trip and Wed noc was no exception. I've never met my publisher and have seen only one photo of her. So Jean Marie and I are chatting away while I enjoy some rum on the rocks and this lady walks up. I give her a smile and then turn back to Jean Marie. I look back and see this impish smile on the lady's face. Then I see her name tag. Gwen Gades. My publisher. I felt like an idiot. We hugged, repeatedly, and then starting catching on on all the stuff you don't put in an email.

Thursday morning was open for us so Jean Marie and I did some trekking around. I figured out how to get to my emails via the iPhone without roaming (Starbucks) and we bought some wine and champagne to celebrate the launch of my new book. I did make it on a panel (Adding Mystery to Your Fiction) which went very well. After some time signing at the Hades booth (lots of folks bought Sojourn) I popped off to lunch with the roomie, the publisher and Christine, a friend of Gwen's. We went to one of the highly recommended Chinese places and the food was awesome. Way too much of it.

Saturday involved a book launch party in the afternoon courtesy of Hades and that went very well. Lots of excellent chocolate. And to celebrate, Jean Marie, Maggie Bonham (her book Lachlei debuted this weekend) and new author Lizzy Shannon joined me for a trip to the James Joyce (pub) which Lizzy proclaimed to be truly Irish. She would know. She comes from Northern Ireland. So after some Irish Stew, lots of grand gabbing, a couple of pints and a quaff of Aberlour (single malt) and I headed for my room. And crashed. The rest of the evening was spent reading and relaxing.

Sunday involved more time at the booth, which was a kick. Lots of folks came over to talk to me about my panel (thank you programming coordinators for adding me to it, by the way) and to buy books. LOTS of books. I was thrilled to see so many readers coming back for the later books in the series or taking that brave first step with Sojourn.

Which leads me to Josh Langston. Mr. Langston was on both my planes from Atlanta to Calgary. I noted him because of the steel gray piping on his shirt. (What can I say?) We met again at the Hades party and then he surprised me with something so cool I still can't believe it. Josh and I had never met before, but he created a book trailer for Madman's Dance. It is awesome. What's even more awesome is that he'd never read the series! That's being remedied at the moment. So here's this gent who spent at least 14 hours of his life creating a book trailer for some author he's never met. What a lovely gesture. He's making a few changes to it as I type, especially since he read the first book over the weekend (I did warn him it was addictive). From what I gather there may be a book with Hades in his future. Wishing you all the best Josh! I'll be sure to post the trailer once it's available.

Coming home wasn't as much fun. Delta had screwed around with my reservations since I booked them last December. I think there were at last four or five schedule changes, many of which involving a number of hours later than the original booking. I checked in online Sunday night, but couldn't print a boarding pass without a printer. I called Northwest (they were code sharing the first flight out of Calgary) and verified I was confirmed. Fine and good. I arrived at the airport at 5:06 a.m. because it's Monday morning and I know that's always busy. To make this adventure as painless as possible for you, dear reader, here is the sequence of events.
1) Go to Delta counter. They can't check me in.
2) Try to find NWA counter. No can find. The counters change as needed per airline.
3) Back to Delta counter. They tell me NWA's counter doesn't open until about 6 a.m.
4) 5:45 and the NWA counter opens. Try to check in using kiosk. No good. Try again. Ditto. Reach representative who asks why I haven't checked in and then asks if I did it right (grrrr).
5) Return to Delta counter as NWA says I need a printed ticket. Delta rep says they've "closed out" the counter and they can't help me. Points to 800 number of my itinerary. "Call them."
6) 800 number is for flight status. Sigh. Call husband, get actual number.
7) Res line rep TICKETS the NWA flight. Apparently the ticket had never been issued even though I had a seat assignment. (oy!)
8) Stand in line (again). NWA takes pity on me and pulls me forward, prints the ticket and sends me into the long Customs & Immigration Line.

One hour later, after clearing US Customs (in Calgary!) I grabbed a sandwich and hotfooted it to the plane. I did snag an exit row seat with no one in the middle, so I spread out and read all the way home. Heaven.

And my final words?

GO VOTE PEOPLE!

Deadline? What Deadline?

It's been a fun few weeks as I come off the high of finishing Madman's Dance. As I immerse myself completely in a book, it's also a lot like coming off a drug. Withdrawal is always ugly. So to get myself out of deadline mode and into real life, I took a trip to Kentucky.

Bowling Green is home to Western Kentucky University. There an author friend of mine, Dr. Sandra Wales, teaches a Creative Writing class. Given her background in the publishing world, these kids get a dose of reality. So I popped up to teach a class on Genre Fiction and whether it's truly formulaic or not. It was fun. They asked all sorts of probing questions and I had a blast. That night I conducted a reading courtesy of the university, and was surprised to have about twenty people there, especially since Obama and McCain were due to have Debate #2 later in the evening and it was raining. Lots more probing questions, which I enjoyed.

Usually I bitch up a storm about I-75 (which heads north out of Atlanta to Chattanooga). It's always jammed bumper to bumper and is my least favorite route out of the city. Not now. The gas prices have truly cut down on the amount of traffic and I found it a joy to make the trip up in the sunny weather.

The trip home wasn't that much fun as it was raining. Now KY sorely needed the rain (and so did Atlanta) but what was supposed to be a 5-1/2 hour trip went an additional 2 hours. Wisely I bailed off Interstate 75 as soon as I reached Atlanta and took one of the state highways. I got lucky as the heaviest rain hit after I'd taken that route. I wouldn't have been able to see a thing on the interstate.

The rest of the time has been spent mucking out the house and doing a lot of vegging. I've managed to watch the entire first season of The Tudors. I was a history major way back when and I spent a lot of time studying Tudor and Elizabethan England. The show did a pretty good job, though they mucked around with characters and events quite a bit. I'm not used to see that much sex in a TV series, however, but that just shows I don't watch much TV. Though sometimes the sex seemed a bit gratuitous, it wasn't over the top and certainly would fit into the one track mind of the times. Eat, drink, fornicate. Oh, and try to get the best of those French and Spanish bastards.

I've also been reading like a fiend. I'll talk more about one particular book (The Ghost Map) in another post because the book had some interesting insights about our time vs. 1854.

Starting to gear up for my trip to Calgary and World Fantasy. I'll finally get to meet my publisher, Gwen Gades, and launch the new book into the world, and get into some mischief with my roomie, Jean Marie Ward. She is always known for mischief. I'll be sure to do a full post on the con when I return. Not taking my computer this time. This would be the computer that contains detailed info on Irish anarchists, gunpowder and nitroglycerin manufacturing, the layout of London's Docklands, etc. Until our 4th Amendment Rights (see below) are back on track, I have no desire for Customs to go through that puppy. I suppose I could just hand them a copy of Madman's Dance. Or better yet, show them the copy of the Constitution on my iPhone. Yeah, I know. Then they'd have to read it.

Amendment 4 - Search and Seizure. Ratified 12/15/1791.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.