I arrived home from a very fun, very informative, very useful WorldCon in Melbourne (blogpost to come on that), to find the uncorrected proofs of Geist. These are not the final product, but still being able to actually hold my bound words was quite the moment, and one more step towards the novel in stores.

Once it is, the market will decide its worth, but my aim is to make people aware of it. Yes, with all the books being published, getting yours noticed is the real battle.

So, as part of that effort I am doing a blogtour for three months. I’ll be talking about all sorts of things, but the first is an interview with Odin1Eye over at View from Valhalla. There were some pretty probing questions that made me think hard, and I hope you find it interesting.

Check it out here and see what other places I will be hitting.

In addition I have some beautiful Geist postcards to distribute- so if you can think of a place to put them where they would attract interest, then please email me motherabbey@booksoftheorder.com – I’ll send you a sweet treat to go along with it

With just over a week to go until WorldCon I thought I’d make a quick post about where you might run into me there- should you be so inclined.

HarperCollins talk about ebooks – Thursday 2 September (invite only, so if you’re in or nearby you might be able to catch me)

Voyager Party- Friday night (invite only, so if you’re in or nearby you might be able to catch me)\
Reading of Geist- Room 215, Mebourne Convention center, Saturday, 04 September 2010 5pm

You will also be able to catch me at;

Anachronistic fiction: successors to steampunk- Room 219, Melbourne Convention center, Sunday, 05 September 2010 11am

Also sharing a Kaffeeklatsch with Tee Morris – Room 201, Melbourne Convention center, Saturday, 04 September 2010 1pm

Hope to see you somewhere in Melbourne. Come up and say hi.

Just over two months out until the release of Geist, and I am beginning to gear up.

First off, you will find me at WorldCon in Melbourne. This is my first experience at a big literary con, and I am really excited to get into it. I know that Gail Carriger, Mur Lafferty, Dr. John Cmar and rocket scientist Laura Burns will also be venturing south to Australia.

Tee Morris and I will both be there too and we will have give aways. There will be Geist buttons and postcards, as well as Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences buttons too. So look for those on the freebie tables.

We’ll be attending the Voyager party on Friday night (our editor Diana Gill from Eos will be there!), but apart from that I cannot tell you where else we might be. We’re still waiting on confirmation from the organisers. But even if I am not on any panels I’ll be there to hang out, enjoy the atmosphere before the big dive into the year.

I just have this feeling once Geist is launched its going to get a little crazy….

Also if you pop over to my Appearances page you will see two things.

1) The Geist blog tour. It’s shaping up, but my plan is to have two guest blog or podcast spots each week for September, Ocotober and November. Hopefully you won’t get sick of seeing me pop up, because I will be talking and writing about different things in each one. From steampunk suffragettes, to were-creatures, to plot vs character, to interviews.

2) After WorldCon you will find a tentative schedule for what I want to get to between now and October 2011. This is all very contingent on a business visa from the American government. But hopefully supporting three books in one year with a con a month will be enough of a reason. If that fails, I still plan to get to some events, but they will be fewer. So *fingers crossed*

You know I love the cover Jason Chan did for Geist. I know the people at Ace love it too. Jason is an amazingly talented artist, so having him bring Sorcha and the Rossin to life was just wonderful to me.

So I encouraged him to make the print available, and he has! I have placed my order for the biggest one for my wall- and if you want the same, then head on over to the print shop and order.

So that’s the art, now here’s the fun….

Balticon!

This Memorial Day weekend in Baltimore, writers, costumers and tons of New Media producers will be gathering for networking, partying and chit chat. If you can join us then please do.

Here’s where you will be able to find me

Readings

From the upcoming release Geist- 1PM Sunday in the Pimlico Room

With Tee Morris- Books and Braun Chapter Two (including a special announcement!!) – 11PM Sunday in the Chesapeake Suite

Live Recordings

Metamor City – 5pm Saturday at the Chesapeake Suite

Girls’ Rules- 4PM Sunday in the Chesapeake Suite

Panels

Social Media for the Midlist author – 6pm Friday in the Chesapeake Suite

What’s Steamy in New Media? – 11AM Monday in the Derby Room

DragonMoon Press Booth

A host of DragonMoon Press authors will be there; Christiana Ellis, Val Griswold Ford, PG Holyfield, Tee Morris, and Phil Rossi. We will all be taking turns manning the DMP booth in the dealers room. So pop on over, buy a book (or three) and have it signed. We’d all love to meet you.

Every now and then I like to do a roundup of where I’ve been on the net.

View from Valhalla- keep an eye on this blog- Odin is doing a series of these ‘How I Do It’ from all kinds of podcast authors. I look forward to reading answers from others.

Great Hites – the prompt ‘Nature’s Wrath’. Jeffrey Hite has a great writing podcast- where prompts are presented, stories are written and votes are taken. It was my pleasure to be a guest host.

Don’t forget I will be at Balticon at the end of May signing books, doing panels and helping at the DragonMoon Press booth.

And if you want to keep more up to date I have a Group Page on Facebook. Once a month a do a round up of my writing life there.

Last week I had the honour of being one of the panel on Litopia After Dark. Hanging with the wonderful folks and talking writing was a lot of fun. I was a little nervous, but the panel made me feel at home very quickly.

Peter and Litopia do a great deal for the writing community- and their After Dark show is one I look forward to every week. I was so glad to be asked.  The best thing was I got the panel to give me their evil nemesis laugh- all except Peter. So there is something to go back for.

So have a listen to Word Wars for Fun and Profit

Litopia, which is a podcast and a community I have really come to appreciate, is running a week highlighting podcasters- and one of them was me.

I had a delightful chat with Peter Cox- and tried my best to sound as grown up as possible.

I hope to be involved with them again, and I think the interview came out quite well.

This is my last post before Christmas- which for me will involve BBQs, sun and homemade trifle. I hope where ever you are, and however you celebrate the holiday season, you are with people you love.

I will be doing a yearly wrap-up in the great tradition of every person and blog online. 2010 is going to be an exciting year, and I hope you will join me on the ride.

Just had to share this news… the BlogTalk Radio edition of Podioracket.com made it to the top of their Books Category. Now this was the show that Dan Sawyer, Chris Lester and I took over, since the lovely hosts were unable through sickness to attend. I worked the switchboard (which was very cool) and we had callers and everything.

Now Blogtalk is a big site, so it is quite a big deal to get the top of any of those categories. We had a blast- so here is a chance to have a listen to it.

The Triple Threat on Podioracket

After the whirlwind of Double Trouble in 2008, I decided to get together with fellow podcasters Dan Sawyer and Chris Lester and launch our follow up podcast novel on the world- but taking it one bigger. So was born the Triple Threat.

Check out Chris Lester’s Metamor City and Dan Sawyer’s Free Will.

So we’ve been hitting the podosphere.

Check out some of the recent interviews I’ve been on.

Touching the Monolith

The Creative Penn

If you are going to be at World Fantasy Con on 31st of October, please come along and hear the debut reading of Books and Braun; Phoenix Rising. It will be the first chapter which is full of explosions, gun battles and maybe an airship or two. It is 10am Saturday and I would love to see you all there!

Suddenly realized that I haven’t blogged in awhile- and that isn’t because things aren’t happening. In fact it is because they are! There have been more nibbles writing wise, that are both sureal and exciting– and none I can talk about. One of them does involve my steampunk story. It has a new title, Books and Braun: Phoenix Rising. Yes, this is easily a series.

And here we come to the title of this post. San Jose is the city hosting World Fantasy- and I will be there. I will be meeting with publishers and my lovely agent Laurie. Also Edge Publishing will be there, and hopefully there will be stocks of Chasing the Bard and Digital Magic available to be bought. Also Dan Sawyer and Gail Carriger will be in attendance. (Gail is also having a party to release her fantastic new novel- Soulless) So let me know if you are going to be there.

A couple of new interviews I have done recently- I am talking about my journey. Both The Creative Penn and Coach Ian Scott give great interview. Have a listen- I think there are some pearls of wisdom in there.

The Creative Penn

And

Coach Ian Scott (with Tee Morris)