Five Authors, Prizes, and Fun April 24

Five Authors. One event.

Sunday, April 24, 2016, 1-3 pm

Join five local authors for fun and food, readings and refreshments, prizes and pretties, cookies and chocolate, and books, all at the beautiful Some Enchanted Evening shop in Spencer, Massachusetts.

Join us for a few hours of exciting readings,  Q & A, and schmoozing with the authors.We've been working hard to put together creative raffle baskets with different themes: Celtic myth, dragon, vampires, and fairies, and everyone attending has a chance at winning.

Who are we?

Becca Boucher was born in Worcester, Massachusetts and remains a lifelong New England resident, which can be seen in the settings of her novels. Her first published work appeared in the Write More Publications anthology Novel Hearts (2013), which was followed by her novel Hunting The Moon in the fall of 2013. Hunting The Moon is the first in a three book paranormal romance series set in central Massachusetts. The second book, Midnight Raven, debuted in May 2015. Both books follow two women as they navigate a chilling Celtic curse, and a vengeful fairy. Besides paranormal romance, Ms. Boucher writes military fiction. Her short stories "Panel 35" and "The Shadow Soldier" are now available in a special print edition. Ms. Boucher is a freelance blogger and writer, and mom to two wonderful sons.

Diane Haynes grew up drawing and painting. Writing was relegated to daily reports written while working with disabled adults. Although she’s written at least a dozen short stories over the years, most were quickly relegated to notebooks in a drawer. Her series The Enchanted Forest, which featured YA Fantasy/Romance, Rift Healer, Sirocco, and Still Hunt, were published by Crescent Moon Press in 2012-2014. Diane lives in Central MA where she and her husband care for their rescued Basset Hounds, Ruby and Boris, whose sad pasts do nothing to diminish their willingness to be naughty. Check out her Facebook page at www.facebook.com/DianeMHaynes/

Jennifer Allis Provost writes books about faeries, orcs and elves. Zombies, too. She grew up in the wilds of Western Massachusetts and had read every book in the local library by age twelve. (It was a small library). An early love of mythology and folklore led to her epic fantasy series, The Chronicles of Parthalan, and her day job as a cubicle monkey helped shape her urban fantasy, Copper Girl. She spends her days drinking vast amounts of coffee, arguing with her computer, and avoiding any and all domestic behavior. Connect with Jenn online at www.authorjenniferallisprovost.com.

Morven Westfield is a fiction writer who lives in Central Massachusetts. The author of a two-book series in which a coven of witches investigate evil in the form of vampires, she regularly contributes non-fiction articles on folklore and the supernatural to The Witches Almanac. Like many writers, she keeps a messy office and drinks way too much coffee. See more at www.morvenwestfield.com.

Under her full name, Trisha J. Wooldridge writes grown-up horror short stories and weird poetry for anthologies and magazines that occasionally win awards. In her child-friendly persona of T.J. Wooldridge, she writes scary children’s novels. She’s also a freelance editor, copywriter, and journalist with info at www.anovelfriend.com. As if she weren’t busy enough, Trish is also a partner in the webcomic Aurelio at www.thevampireaurelio.com.


Some Enchanted Evening
234 Main St., Spencer, MA 01562   
1-508-885-2050
Facebook
Website

Some Enchanted Evening

Morven Westfield and T.J. Wooldridge are both members of Broad Universe, an international, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting, encouraging, honoring, and celebrating women writers and editors in science fiction, fantasy, horror and other speculative genres. For more information, see www.broaduniverse.org.

Vending at In-Con-Ceivable in Northampton, MA

I'll be selling books and hanging out at In-Con-Ceivable in Northampton, MA this coming weekend (August 28-30, 2015). I'll be selling books along with my friends Jennifer Allis Provost and Terri Bruce. Like me, they're members of Broad Universe, but this won't be a Broad Universe table per se; just Broads hanging out and selling books.

Held at the Clarion Hotel and Conference Center, In-CON-Ceivable bills itself as "the NEW fantasy & sci-fi convention in Western Mass."

Some of the highlights include an "E.P.I.C Cosplay contest" with cash and prizes, belly dancing, vendors, guests, and panels. Special guests include author Jacqueline Carey (of the Kushiel's Legacy series), +2 Comedy, Gerro's Game Shows, Sideshow Carnie act Karnevil, and more.

Web site
Facebook
Twitter: @InCONceivableOF

My List of Panels for 8Pi-Con (that is, Pi-Con 2014)

Billed as "the friendliest little convention in New England," Pi-Con is held at the Holiday Inn, Enfield, CT, just south of Springfield, MA. This year it's June 27-29, 2014 (next weekend) and I'll be on six panels.

Here's the list:

Fri 6:00pm     How to be a Good Panelist (mod)

Sat 1:00pm     Day Jobs for Writers

Sat 7:00pm     Broad Universe RFR

Sat 8:00pm     Vampires Past, Present & Future--Are They Morphing?

Sun 11:00am    So You Want to Write a Series (mod)

Sun 1:00pm     Kickstarter and Other Microfunding Programs (mod)



And here are the descriptions and lists of panelists.


Fri 6:00 p.m.

How to be a Good Panelist — Agawam

Susan Hanniford Crowley, Suzanne Reynolds-Alpert, Morven Westfield (M), Michelle Wexelblat

We’ve all been to panels where things got wildly off-topic or where a panelist or audience member hogged the panel. Sometimes it’s been a lot of fun or extremely interesting. Other times, it’s been aggravating. In this panel, experienced panelists talk about preparing for a panel, participating on a panel, being a good moderator, handling someone who’s obviously aggravating, and how different cons have different styles.




Sat 1:00 p.m.

Day Jobs for Writers — Agawam

M. L. Brennan, Ellen Larson, Kristi Petersen Schoonover (M), Morven Westfield, Trisha J. Wooldridge

What’s the best day job for a writer? Is it a writing job that helps you learn to craft a sentence, work with an editor, and meet deadlines? Or a less-demanding job that gives you time—and brain-width—to think about your current work-in-progress. Writers talk about their day jobs and how they’ve helped or hindered their writing progress.


Sat 7:00 p.m.

Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading — Suffield

Terri Bruce, Ellen Larson, Jennifer Pelland, Jennifer Allis Provost, Roberta Rogow, Kristi Petersen Schoonover, Morven Westfield, Trisha Wooldridge

Eight talented writers have six minutes each to blow you away! Broad Universe is an international organization supporting women authors of SF, fantasy and horror. Visit them on Dealer’s Row!


Sat 7:00 p.m.

Vampires Past, Present & Future–Are They Morphing? — Suffield

M. L. Brennan, Susan Hanniford Crowley (M), Morven Westfield

A serious and not so serious discussion of Vampires: Past, Present, and Future. Are they morphing into something else—worse—better? What do the legends teach us? Let’s really get into the teeth of the topic and explore where we would like to see vampires of the future go? Can science create the better vampire?



Sun 11:00 a.m.

So You Want to Write a Series — Somers

M. L. Brennan, Susan Hanniford Crowley, Allen Steele, Morven Westfield (M)

For writers who have written series of two or more books. How do you decide your plot and character arcs for each book? For the whole series? Trilogy or longer? How do you keep track of details? How do you bring new readers up-to-date, or do you put the onus on them to read the earlier books? Are series still being done the same way, or are there new trends in writing and publishing series?


Sun 1:00 p.m.

Kickstarter and Other Microfunding Programs — Suffield

David Larochelle, Jennifer Allis Provost, Morven Westfield (M)

Writers, artists, and musicians are using crowdfunding for their projects. People with experience with this booming trend this tell us how it’s done, what does and doesn’t work, and what they’d do differently.

Guest Blog: Jennifer Alllis Provost

Join me in welcoming a new guest blogger: Jennier Allis Provost. Jennifer's novel, Copper Girl, will be released June 25, 2013. I asked her about the magic system in the novel and here's her reply.

Available June 25, 2013 from Spence City
Copper Girl by Jennifer Allis Provost

Making Magic From Scratch

My newest release, Copper Girl, focuses on Sara Corbeau, a woman who lives in a world that used to be full of magic, until it was forbidden. Then, magic rears its glorious head, and Sara’s forced to reconnect with her heritage. The farther I got into the writing process, the question became, what sort of magic did Sara reconnect with?

I knew that I wanted the magic system to be different, but, being that one can only suspend one’s disbelief so far, I didn’t want it to be too different. After all, there are certain basic principles of magic one must adhere to: it has to have some sort of cost, there has to be something (or someone) generating the power, and the power cannot be limitless. Especially the not limitless part; omnipotent protagonists do tend to be boring.

Inspiration struck in the most unlikely of places – the bathroom of a bar in Portsmouth, NH. The fixtures were a beautiful, rich copper, and I mentioned that copper was my favorite metal. A friend of mine mentioned that I should write a story about copper, and there it was: Sara’s magic would be derived from metal.

It was only a short hop from that eureka moment to my Elemental magic system, with the Elements in question being earth, air, fire, water and metal. Each Elemental would bear a mark of their respective Element somewhere on their skin. Have a peek at Copper Girl’s cover – that ain’t no tramp stamp on Sara’s back. That’s her Element, the copper that lives within her body, taking the form of a raven.

Of course, all the magic couldn’t be Element-based. Sara’s world is also populated by satyrs, mages and elves; in fact, quite early on in the story Sara meets Micah, a silver elf. There’s a definite line between the newer magic of Elementals, and the older magic of the hills, so to speak. That’s a pretty hard-core spoiler for later in the series ;)

So I ran with the idea of a copper girl and a silver elf; all Elementals pretty much stick to their own, but Sara does have a significant interaction with a water being. The sequel, Copper Ravens, will introduce both stone and fire Elementals. Sara, our copper girl, will need all the help she can get.


Jennifer Allis Provost is a native New Englander who lives in a sprawling colonial along with her beautiful and precocious twins, a dog, a parrot (maroon bellied conure, to be exact), two cats, and a wonderful husband who never forgets to buy ice cream. As a child, she read anything and everything she could get her hands on, including a set of encyclopedias, but fantasy was always her favorite. She spends her days drinking vast amounts of coffee, arguing with her computer, and avoiding any and all domestic behavior. 

Friend her on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jennallis

Follow her on Twitter: @parthalan

http://jenniferallisprovost.com/

http://jenniferallisprovost.blogspot.com/