Good morning, Readers!

Skylark is now available for sale.  As of yesterday, the book has been officially published.  Those who have pre-ordered the book should be getting it in the mail shortly.  Don't ask me when.  I don't know.  That's a question for the publisher.

I'm really happy with how the book turned out, and I love the story.  I hope you do as well.

You can find all the purchase options here, if you want to get yourself a copy.

If you're on Goodreads.com at all, the book is there.  I would really appreciate you adding the book.  If you've read it, please post reviews everywhere you can.  Word of mouth is really the only true way to get a book out into the world, and that's especially true of books that are published independently and by small presses.

Don't feel you must.  I just would appreciate it.

Anyway, I'm pleased as punch about it all, and really happy to be sharing it with you.

Yesterday's post was über long, so I'll keep this one short.

Have a lovely day.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

This might be a long post, so bear with me. Also, make yourself a nice cup of tea. You deserve a nice cup of tea, if you're going to read through this nonsense.

This weekend just past was CanCon 2018.  It was an event, and it was wonderful.  Before I get into the nuts and bolts of the weekend, I just want to extend a deeply felt thank you to everyone who put this thing together and worked like hell to keep things going smoothly all weekend.

Two of my favourite humans, who also happen to be the CanCon co-chairs, Derek Künsken and Marie Bilodeau, did a fantastic job this year with getting the convention up and off the ground for another year.

Kate Heartfield was responsible for accessibility, and I'd like to thank her for the work, even though it doesn't really affect me, and honestly I wouldn't have noticed otherwise.  Privilege.  It's a hell of a drug.

Jaggy Sue was the volunteer coordinator, and she did a great job.  Also, to all the volunteers who were there, and helpful and wonderful.  I don't know all your names, but you are so valued.  You did great.

Evan May and Brandon Crilly were responsible for the programming and boy did they ever outdo themselves this year.  It was brilliant.  Thank you, gentlemen.

I've been excited for CanCon pretty much since the last one, and it ramped up when I saw the first draft of the programming schedule last month.  The problem with getting excited for an event is that often the event doesn't live up to they hype.  No fear here. CanCon was absolutely brilliant, and I had a blast.

One of the things I really appreciated was the gender-neutral bathrooms.  CanCon went to great lengths to ensure that everyone was welcomed, and that the convention remained inclusive and fun for all attendees.  Not having gender-neutral bathrooms would not have affected me at all.  Cis privilege, and all.  But I have friends for whom it meant a lot, and so it meant a great deal to me in turn.  I'll be honest, the first time in was a bit jarring.  I'm not used to seeing urinals on the walls of the bathrooms I go to usually.  But it quickly became normal and nothing.  Gender-neutral washrooms are relatively common in Europe now, and honestly it took me no time to adjust.

I really appreciate that CanCon made an effort for our trans community.  Thank you, CanCon, for leading the way with policies of inclusion.  I heart you.

Friday
Thanks to my publisher and friend, Nathan, and his wife, I was able to haul all of my nonsense to the convention and set up well in time for the dealer's room to open at 2:00pm.  It was absolutely wonderful in that room.  I distributed hugs to all my old friends that I haven't seen in a while (shout out to Lesley Donaldson).  I love hugs. They make me happy.  It was so nice to see everyone again, and chat, and laugh.  I do a lot of laughing, which feels weird, considering how much death and misery I write.  Anyway...

Friday night I met with Miriam Weinberg, editor with Tor and Tor Teen.  I was nervous, AF.  I can't pitch.  I'm the literal worst at pitching.  Every time I've pitched I've wanted to cry.  I don't know what I'm doing.  I don't know how to sell what I'm trying to sell.  I get flustered and stumble over my own tongue.  It's a mess.  This time was really no different, though I didn't get all that tongue-tied.  As it turns out, Ms. Weinberg is a genuinely lovely human, and we had a good chat.  She gave me some really great advice regarding my pitch.  It went well, all things considered.

I am, however, suffering a confidence crisis in my work right now.  I pitched Soldier and now I'm terrified that it's just not good enough.  That said, with the guidance I received, I have a number of changes that I will be making before I submit it to Tor.  This story means so damned much to me.  I want to make sure it's good.  Really, properly good.

I celebrated the first day with drinks with Lesley, who is a wonderful human and a great writer, and I'm so happy I was able to reconnect with her again.

Saturday
Friday night was rough.  For no reason whatsoever, at 4:00am Saturday morning, I awoke.  Not a slow, easing out of sleep.  No.  It was sudden and permanent.  BANG!  Eyes open, brain working a mile a minute, cats still happily asleep beside me.  I tried to go back to sleep.  Everything I did was all in vain, until just after six, by which time it was too late.  My alarm went off and I had to start my day.  Needless to say, I was utterly exhausted when I dragged myself to my table in the dealer's room at CanCon.

Luckily, JenEric beside me sell coffee, and there were free samples.  I was highly caffeinated by the time I had to attend my first panel.  I, along with K.W. Ramsey, Eric Buchanan, and Pat and Linda Poitevin sat down in front of a very packed room (seriously, we had people sitting on the floor and standing against the walls) and talked about what it's like to be in a fight for real, and what licenses you can take when writing fight scenes.  It was absolutely fantastic.  I really love being able to talk martial arts and, even better, my women's only kung fu class may have acquired two new students!  That makes me happy.  Also, I was later told by someone who attended that panel that I was, and I quote, "a formidable woman."  Honestly, that's the most flattering thing anyone has ever said to me.

I returned to my table immediately afterwards.  I didn't have help this weekend, so I couldn't be away too long.  Chatted it up, and laughed with friends and readers, had a great time until my panel at 2:00pm.  Reimagining the Hero was a great panel, but by this point, lack of sleep, too much caffeine to compensate, not enough food, and so much socialising had all colluded to turn my brain to mush.  I'm not sure that I said anything useful, let alone intelligent.  I hope it was good for the people attending.  I honestly don't remember too much about it, except that I accidentally threw my pen at someone.

Yup.

That was me.

I did that.

Couldn't have the whole weekend go smoothly for me now, could we?

Anyway, I did that panel, then returned to my table until we closed the dealer's room.  Then it was to dinner with my good friends K.W. Ramsey, and T2.  It was the first proper meal I'd had since breakfast, and holy hell, did I need that food.  I perked up quite a bit after dinner.

Then it was off to Derek Künsken's launch party for The Quantum Magician.  It was genuinely wonderful.  I'm so proud of Derek, and so happy for him.  He is genuinely good people, and nothing makes me happier than seeing good people succeed.  It makes for a nice balm to smooth over the burns of shitty people rising to the top.  In any case, I bought myself a copy, had it signed by Derek, and then fled the scene.

The room was entirely too full of people (which is a beautiful representation of the kind of person Derek is - so many people came in support) for me to be able to deal with, especially with how tired I was.  I took my book, and stumbled to the bus stop.  No, literally.  I was stumbling.  From the outside it might have looked like I was drunk.  I wasn't.  I was just so damned tired.

Sunday
I slept all the way through Saturday night, which was nice, so I had a little more energy starting the day than I did Saturday.  I had no panels or other responsibilities Sunday, so I stayed behind my table and chatted, laughed and otherwise had a good time.  I faded fast, though, being well and truly spent before the room closed at 2:00pm.

If you happened to be in the room and saw me staring into nothingness, that was just my brain.  Shutting down.

There was an after party, which I briefly attended.  But having spent so much time socialising, I wasn't really prepared to do yet more, so I spent what time I did have at the party with a couple of good friends, rather than being properly social.

Then it was home and to bed.  I slept like the dead Sunday night, and pretty much all of Monday.  Now I'm at work, preparing for the week ahead.  This week, I plan on rereading Soldier and making a list of changes required.  Next week, I begin making those changes.

Honestly, CanCon was so damned good this year.  I mean, it's good every year, but it seems to me that it keeps going from strength to strength.  Another thank you to everyone who made CanCon happen, and I will see you all next year.

​Hugs!

Good morning, Readers!

I'm not actually writing today's blog post.  I'm likely in bed, recovering from what was likely an awesome weekend, but a little too full of people for my introversion to handle well.  Usual caveat: I love these things, but it does take a lot of energy for me to be so surrounded by so many people I don't know, so I need some recovery time.

Anyway, likely I'm in bed recovering from this.  Later on in the day, I might be firing up my Xbox for some serious orc slaying.  Maybe.  We'll see.  So today you get a pre-written blog post.  Because I actually remembered to do that this time.

So, most of you know that my tastes in music are all over the place.  I adore classical music, have an enduring love for Enya, really love neo-classical pieces (such as the incredible music from Two Steps From Hell), like the occasional pop song, and will rock out to Russian and Indian folk metal.

We all know Disturbed, right?  They reached new highs with their recent, stunning cover of The Sound of Silence.  It made me cry.

Prior to that, their most recognisable song was probably Down with the Sickness.

The video is of the radio version, I think.  It doesn't have the spoken word intermission.

Funny story, when I was younger, I despised metal, considering it nothing more musical than screaming into a microphone.  What a snob.  In fact, I remember hearing this song and hating it; a very visceral hatred of this song, due largely to that intermission.  Now, I absolute love the song.  The intermission still makes me uncomfortable, but the song is fucking fantastic.

Their most recent album, Immortalized, is hands down the album in my library I listen to the most.  I know every song by heart.  Don't ask me to sing it, though.  Your ears will bleed.  I'm a terrible singer.

Part of what I love about Disturbed is not just the music.  It's what the music is about.  Certainly there are the usual everything-sucks-and-I'm-fucking-furious kind of songs, which, frankly, I need more often than not.  But so many of their songs are about much, much more.

It's about finding your strength, gathering your courage, speaking out, standing up, fighting back.  It's about not losing hope in spite of the tide of bullshit you face.  I'm finding more and more that I need that, particularly in today's climate, when people are trying to strip me and my sisters of personhood, to reduce women everywhere to nothing but incubators, our bodies mindless currency for masculine consumption and exchange - and that's just the stuff that personally affects me.  I cannot imagine how terrifying it must be for people of colour, and transfolk right now.  My heart goes out to them all.  I only know a fraction of what they're going through, and frankly, given how poorly I'm functioning right now, I am in awe of their grace and strength.

Anyway, back to the music.  The point is, Disturbed produces music that helps me cope with the world.  It inspires my continued existence, even if it's only in spite sometimes.  Honestly, Immortalized carried me through some of the roughest seas I've yet sailed.

So, in case you're in need of similar survival inspiration, here are a few of my favourite songs by Disturbed that I listen to when the world becomes too much to bear (I'm restricting myself to only two songs from Immortalized, or I'll end up posting the entire fucking album):

These next two are from their soon-to-be-released album, I think.  Don't quote me on that. I might be wrong.

And lastly, this song isn't survival inspiration, but it is just so damned good - my current favourite from Disturbed - that I had to share it:

(Note: I am aware that plenty of genre snobs dislike Disturbed because it's usually listed as metal and they disagree, and to those people I say, who gives a fuck what genre it is?  It fantastic music)

Right, I have to stop or I'll just end up posting the entire discography.

I would like to thank Disturbed for being there, for finding a way through to me when nothing else would.  Music is incredibly powerful.  I think many musicians forget that.  I feel like Disturbed has not.

What's your favourite music/song(s)?  Post them in the comments below. Expand my musical horizons yet more!

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

Tomorrow, CanCon starts.

I AM NOT READY!

Thanks to the most amazing Melanie Pauze, to whom I own many drinks, I have my books, but I have to organise them and get everything sorted out for tomorrow; including getting a float and other minutiae involved with selling at a convention.  Foresight would have helped me a few days ago, when I should have gotten everything together.

Alas, I'm an idiot and didn't get anything done.  So I'm doing it all tonight.  No training.  Which might be for the best, considering how sore I'm feeling currently.

This is a very short post, simply meant to inform you that I'M PANICKING OMFG I'M NOT READY!

Ahem.

Have a lovely day and hopefully see you at the con.
Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

A few of you have noticed that I'm not quite myself of late.  You're right.  I'm not.  The news cycle recently has hit harder than I expected, and the hits just kept coming.  I was left reeling and a little too much in my own head as I tried to grapple with the fallout.

For the record.  I'm alright.  I oscillate between furious and numb, but that means every so often, I hit fine and normal, too.  Being around good people has helped.

Saturday was a great day for that.  I taught my martial arts classes, which are generally the highlights of my week, then volunteered for CanCon in the afternoon and into the evening.  There were only two people I knew there, so my introversion was in full effect.  I had a blast.  Everyone there was absolutely lovely, and we got work done, ate great food, and had a fantastic time.  It did, however, take me a full two days to recover.

Still, I laughed really hard for the first time in a long time, and I'm so glad I went.

Last night was also one of those nights that was good for me.  I went to training.  There is nothing like giggling with your training partner as you throw punches and kicks as hard as you can for two hours.  Also, I'm (re)learning a new sword form, so that's great.  I like it when my brain is active.  Focussing on the learning helps tear the focus away from the things that are troubling me.

I'm feeling much more myself today.  I don't know how long that will last, but while I'm here, I just wanted to apologise to everyone who I have ghosted, failed to reply to, ignored, or have otherwise been unavailable for in the past few weeks.  I needed to turtle up for a little bit.

Hopefully the worst is behind me.

Right now, I'm gearing up for CanCon, which begins Friday.  That is a whole other level of anxiety, but at least there's some excitement there too.

Speaking of gearing up, I have some serious prep work to do, so I must go do it.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

This weekend is Can Con, only the best speculative fiction convention I've ever attended.  Okay, so I haven't attended many, but I still have an enduring love of this convention.

The programming this year is absolutely stellar, and they've really gone above and beyond to draw in great guests.

On Saturday, I went over to one of the co-chair's houses to do some work.  I was promised food.  I'm easily bribed.  In any case, it was a great night, and I'm really impressed with what they've done for the guests and panellists.

Right, enough gushing.  Here is my  schedule, in case you're interested.

Friday
14:00 - 18:50 (Dealer's Room)
Manning my table... mostly.

Saturday
11:00 - 11:50am (Salon D)
This is What Really Happens in a Fight.

14:00 - 14:50 (Salon E)
Reinventing the Hero.

I will be at my table for the remainder of Saturday.  If I'm not there, then I'm off experiencing some of the conventions most epic programming.  Check back later.

Sunday
10:00 - 14:50 (Dealer's Room)
Manning my table... mostly.

Honestly, this convention is really wonderful, and I really do hope to see you there.  Pre-registration is now full, so let's hope you can snag entrance on the day.  Check out all the awesome programming here.  And see you there.  Hopefully.

Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

In case you did not know, Skylark is now up on Goodreads.com.  And already it's gotten a couple of reviews.  Full disclosure about these reviews, they're from friends who read the almost-final version of the manuscript, before even the publisher did.

​The first is from awesome author and fantastic human Cait Gordon:

I had given Cait the manuscript for a more thorough edit (she's an editor, guys.  I highly recommend her.  You can check out her services here.)  Since editing it, she's become a huge cheerleader for the book.  I appreciate her so, so much.

The following is from my friend PY.  It's quite a lengthy review (holy crap, PY! Thanks so much) so it required two screen shots to cover it all.

I loved Skylark a lot.  However, after countless rejections, I had started to lose faith in it.  Maybe it's utter shit, and I am proud of a steaming pile of it.  I knew PY liked sci fi, and so I asked him to read Skylark and give me an honest opinion; should I give up on this story?

It was an emphatic 'no' and so I sent it off to Renaissance Press, who have kindly agreed to publish it.

Last night, PY wrote up that incredibly detailed and flattering review while on my God of War live stream.  It was a lovely thing to wake up to.

Thanks to PY and Cait both for their constant encouragement.  Skylark would likely be collecting dust in a drawer somewhere without them.  Now it's going to be published in twelve days.

I'm so excited, and I really hope that it's as well received by people I don't know as it has been by people I do know.

Right, I have work to do.

Ciao!