elektra

The DarkoverCon memorial book, honoring our late con chair Jaelle of Armida aka Judy Gerjuoy, is now available on amazon.

A number of Jaelle’s friends wrote remembrances of her and/or stories. It contains my short (flash) story “Come Now to War.” Copies will be available at the convention, and all proceeds go to support DarkoverCon.

Send to Kindle

Mirrored from Until Midnight and Occasionally Later.

Last night I had an epiphany. I was working on (struggling really) with my work-in-progress, which is late in one direction and pushing deadline in another, and suddenly words starting flowing. This was a strongly outlined story–which suddenly went off in different directions as the characters just started, well, doing things on their own. Other writers talk about their characters taking on a life of their own, but its never happened to me before.

Now I routinely write movie reviews over at buzzymag, and I can crank out 400 words on just about any film with no problem (although I do take notes in the theater). My first fiction story was published in May 2011, and I’ve written book reviews and cat articles for various magazines over the years.

Yesterday I had a 2000+ word day. I didn’t want to stop to go to sleep.

I feel like a writer now. For real.

Mirrored from Until Midnight and Occasionally Later.

This weekend is the 17th Annual Baltimore Book Festival, a three-day extravaganza of book-related fun spread over several blocks of downtown Baltimore. Readings, panels, demos, and signings will be taking place, as well as all manner of books, new and used, for sale. Dark Quest Books is handling the book sales for SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America), who is a program partner for the event this year. I’ll be helping out with the book sales.

I’m also scheduled for two panels, both on Saturday, 29 September at the SFWA tent:

12 noon The Electronic Age
It’s here and it’s booming. A plethora of bonuses come with reading in the electro-optic age, including: eBooks, animation, audio books, and who knows what in the near future. Come hear what’s up in one of biggest developments in publishing.
Panelists include: Kate Milford, Sarah Pinsker, Harry Heckel, Elektra Hammond, Philippa Ballantine

1pm Steampunk and Gaslight: It’s Hot and on Top
Come talk with steampunk and gaslight authors about this immensely popular new genre.
Panelists include: Tee Morris, Tiffany Trent, Ellen Datlow, Richard White, Elektra Hammond

If you’re at the festival, stop by and say “hi.”

Mirrored from Until Midnight and Occasionally Later.

I’m heading down to Chattacon this weekend, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Last night, the programming schedule turned up in my email, and I’m very pleased to announced that they’ve put me on some panels! Without further ado:

FRIDAY
8:00pm Gallery A&B
Meet the Pro’s Reception
Wherein I will be hanging around mostly playing fangirl to the major guests of the convention . . . .

SATURDAY
2:00pm Gallery B
Stories: The Long and Short of It
[panelists: Lee, Miller, Van Name, Hammond]
Note: This panel is opposite the Baen Traveling Slide Show, and everyone on it (other than me!) is a Baen author. Odd scheduling]

5:00pm Gallery B
The Virgin Chronicles–Newbie Writers
[panelists: Hammond, Conley]

I will also be at the FOL (Friends of Liad) breakfast if there is one.

Mirrored from Until Midnight and Occasionally Later.

The year 2012 actually started the way a new year is supposed to–with champagne, and music, and friends. Of course, it was a bit of a slow start–I’m still limping from the toe surgery I had on the 28th, and I don’t get my stitches out until the 3rd. I’ve been sitting down a lot.

2011 saw a lot more editing work come my way, as well as my first published story. Of course, more editing work means that I’m writing less to keep up with the editing. I need to find a better balance. The year also saw a shift in the balance between the sci-fi/fantasy and cat show worlds. BlueBlaze produced two litters of maine coon kittens (now all sold), and is now showing a havana queen, but on the whole I spent more of my available [weekend] time at conventions or book-related events rather than cat-oriented events. This shift has made me a happier person, and I plan to continue it. I have some [cat show] judging assignments coming up in the next year, and I look forward to them [particularly spending Valentine's week in Malta], but I am severely curtailing my exhibition-only weekends in favor of sci-fi conventions, book fairs, and steampunk events.

Thanks to my GP sending me back to Physical Therapy, I finally started exercising, and I was doing close to an hour of cardio at a stretch prior to having my toe sliced open. I’m still trying to figure out how to do something, but I fear I need to wait until the stitches come out before either the exercise bike or the treadmill is an option.

In 2012, I want to:
Write more. And get better about putting aside time for it. To help achieve this, I’ve signed up for Jonathan Maberry’s Novel in Nine Months class, starting in mid-January. It’s about an hour-and-a-half drive each way, but only meets physically once a month, and I’ve heard very good things about it. Hopefully that will be the push I need.

Edit more. And perhaps more effectively. I’ve decided it’s time for a refresher–I’m planning on the EFA Advanced Copyediting class, which I haven’t taken yet. In the past I’ve found the online EFA classes to be extremely worthwhile and well worth the cost. The class runs six weeks and starts in late February–I’ll assess at the beginning of the month if I can manage it while taking Jonathan’s class.

Get more organized. I’ve started this, but I need to keep up with it, and refine it. I’m freelancing in enough different directions I need to be certain nothing falls through the cracks. I’m starting to think I need a virtual corkboard–or maybe a real one.

Get back into shape. This is somewhat contingent on the healing of the toe, but I had a pretty good start on it before the surgery slowed me down.

Lose the last blasted fifty pounds. Related to the above getting in shape. I’m tired of being overweight. It’s a bit tricky trying to diet when traveling, but I’ve done it before. I just need to wrap my head around it again. Exercising will help, I think.

De-clutter. Especially the extraneous paperwork. Some of this is part of various ongoing projects to scan and dump old stuff, and some of it is just dumping old stuff that we’ll never look at again anyway. There’s a lot of paperwork that we have no room for, and I’m tired of having it in the way.

Read my way through some of the backlog. And sift through some of the books and donate them. I could read from now until doomsday, and I’d never get through them all . . . it’s time to be merciless and cull the backlog again.

Clean out and organize the craft stuff/sewing stuff/needlework stuff in the guest room so guests will fit in there. ’nuff said

I think that will keep me busy until next year.

Mirrored from Until Midnight and Occasionally Later.

There’s a nice review of In An Iron Cage: The Magic of Steampunk over at Book Spot Central. Kudos to Bernie Mojzes, Jim Chambers, Jeff Young, David Sherman and Danielle Ackley-McPhail, whose stories got called out for special praise.

Mirrored from Until Midnight and Occasionally Later.

We’re giving away a copy of In an Iron Cage: The Magic of Steampunk on Goodreads. It contains my first published story, “The Case of the Duchess’s Dog”–enter early and often!

Mirrored from Until Midnight and Occasionally Later.

There’s a great guest blog at the Literary Handyman today by Jason Franks on writing good prose. He makes a lot of good points, and he does it in an entertaining way. Check it out here.

Mirrored from Until Midnight and Occasionally Later.

In An Iron Cage: The Magic of Steampunk edited by Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Elektra Hammond & Neal Levin

My steampunk story “The Case of the Duchess’s Dog” is in this anthology, which is now available, if you want the Kindle version.

Here is the full table of contents:
The Winter Court, by Bernie Mojzes
House of Automatons, by James Chambers
Drinking Down Death, by Jeff Young
Speaker For The Mayans, by Brenda Cooper
To Love And Hope, by C.J. Henderson
Little Girl With Pink Ribbons, by Stuart Jaffe
Scoundrel’s Magic, by James Daniel Ross
On The Wings Of An Angel, by Danielle Ackley-McPhail
The Trans-Siberian, by A.C. Wise
The First Flight of the Valhalla, by Darren W. Pearce
The Case of the Duchess’s Dog, by Elektra Hammond
That Voo Doo That You Do, by Patrick Thomas
Iron and Brass, Blood and Bone, by Alma Alexander
Greater Crater Gremlins, by David Sherman

You can also preorder the print version direct from Dark Quest Books here.

Mirrored from Until Midnight and Occasionally Later.

I returned to Lunacon this year after a very long absence^*. I was only able to attend for Saturday (I zipped to Reading, PA Saturday night and judged a cat show all day Sunday), but I tried to squeeze in as much con-going experience as I could into the day.

I went to a few nice panels, said a brief hello to Laura Anne (and got my books signed!), spent a little time at the Dark Quest table in the Dealer’s Room, had a very productive meeting with Neal about Sparkito Press (an Imprint of Dark Quest Books), talked with a few friends, and chatted with the folks at the fan tables about how to do a better job of promoting Darkovercon. I also went to the book launch for Buffalo Contingency and ended the day with a nice deli sandwich with the Dark Quest folks before heading off into the night. And I signed a contract for my first fiction sale, a short story going into the anthology In an Iron Cage http://www.darkquestbooks.com/store/product-info.php?pid91.html.

I wished I could have stayed for the whole weekend.

^*The last Lunacon we were at, the GOH was Roger Zelazny. The Program Book tells me that was 1989. I need to get out more.

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Mirrored from Until Midnight and Occasionally Later.