Appearance Alert: SC Comicon!

For my second signing event in 2026, I'm over the moon (with Artemis II) to get to tell you I will be at SC Comicon this weekend! Saturday and Sunday, 10-6ish, I will be in the Vendor Hall in Artist's Alley with books ready to go home with you!

I will be in space 1032 (marked on the floor map below) which is on the opposite side of the hall from last fall if you came to the one day Fall Comicon, and will have all of my Orana Chronicles epic fantasy novels, The World of Arcstone litRPG duology, and the first in the alternative fiction series Luminous Beings series, Strið.

I hope to see you, not just because my books need homes but because the line up for this Comicon is amazing! Anson Mount (Star Trek: SNW), Ron Perlman (Beauty and the Beast), Ruth Connell (SPN), Mark Sheppard (SPN, Firefly)...it's going to be amazing! Also, there will be authors I love there, including Darin Kennedy, Matthew Saunders, and the Crowded Shelf!

For more info, click here. See you this weekend!

Music Monday: Geeking Out in 2025

This weekend I had a table at the Geekery Market in North Carolina. 

My festive safe space, complete with books.

It's like a Christmas Market for nerdy types and it's always a good time. Even though I didn't sell many books, I feel like the ones that found homes were where they were supposed to be. 

But this song is one of a group of songs that really seem to address how this geeky lifestyle makes you feel...they have several others (Sometimes you've gotta backstab a MF is one of my favorites) but this one reminds me of my own group, Lorem Ipsum, and our poor DM ("why are you like this?") The line, "You can't stop what can't be planned," absolutely is our table at any given session. So after a fully geeky weekend, I bring you Chaotic Stupid Forever. Enjoy. No roll required.

The Upstate Renaissance Festival, 12-14 September!

My wee bookshop, September 2023

 So it won't look exactly like that, but you can look for the tapestries and some bunting to find me! The Upstate Renaissance Festival is one of my best events all year, and I'm so excited for next weekend. I started out with this faire working with The Hounds of East Fairhaven, who are hosted each year by Livy & Co, purveyors of the finest collars and other accoutrement for your canine friends. But after that I thought about applying to sell my books and I believe the first year (not 2022, when the monsoon hit and my canopy tried to pull a Mary Poppins) I was one of only a handful or less of authors there. Last year I was inside a building which was fantastic because SC isn't quite convinced to move on to autumn by September.

The booth indoors, September 2024

This year the faire has outgrown the lovely spot in downtown Greer and will be at the Piedmont Interstate Fairgrounds in Spartanburg, SC. I'm excited, but this will be a new experience for me. I always have help setting up and breaking down thanks to Hubs, but the last time I was solo in my tent outdoors I was still in the throes of chemo. We'll see! I did the faire last year solo, but as I've mentioned I was indoors.

I will be right next to the Livy & Co. tent, though, which will be good because our new Irish Wolfhound, Stanley, will hopefully be making his HOEF debut with my friend Anne...you may remember her as Bryn's "Auntsie" and resident Wolfhound Whisperer. Fingers crossed, and more on our big blond boy in another post. 

But if you're in the area next weekend and looking for something to do, this faire has been charming fun for the last few years and can only be more so with more space. Come see me, get copies of my books signed (as well as the other authors that will be there), and just generally enjoy the day! The faire opens Friday the 12th at 5pm - 10pm, then Saturday and Sunday from 10am - 6pm both days. There is more information here, so have a read and then come visit!

Huzzah!

Music Monday: In the crystalline knowledge of the Baskervilles

[So, I am very sorry that this video doesn't have Mama Stevie actually on the screen singing, but I wanted to find one that included the lyrics so here we are.]

I heard a Sheryl Crow song this past weekend that was being performed live in a duet with Stevie Nicks and I just stopped what I was doing to listen. Love her or hate her, think she was better in Fleetwood Mac than solo, it is my humble and often correct opinion that Stevie Nicks is an American treasure as far as music goes...and that made me think of the soundtrack to the movie, Practical Magic, which has some of her best work on it.

(It didn't hurt that I have been thinking a lot about my novel Strid, which I've always said is kind of Practical Magic meets Clash of the Titans.)

So please enjoy this, the first of several songs that always make my summer playlist as well as remind me of Lucy and Annie Boyd...I think that they need another mystery to solve, eh?

Music Monday: Don't Dream, Con is Over

This weekend was amazing! I spent my time with a table and some authors at ConCarolinas in Charlotte, NC and got to see faces I only see now and again and hug a lot of necks (more on that later). It is never long enough, and I'm reflecting on why this morning with the help of a little Crowded House (I mean, 80s music...GenX, y'all). Enjoy...I'm going to need more coffee.

(lyrics are in the CC)

Book Signing News! The Upstate Renaissance Faire In Greer, SC

Author Event, 742 in Rock Hill, 8/6/2022

So, I'm taking this crazy show on the road again, but not that far up the road this time. I will have my own booth (provided I can get that sucker set up and it isn't too windy that day) at the Upstate Renaissance Faire in Greer, SC this coming Saturday (Sept 10th). 

Y'all... I'm nervous. The good thing is that if I need something I have loads of people nearby that can come help - instead of at least two hours away like at the Carolina Ren Fest or the Atlanta Steampunk Expo. My trusty Sherpa, Anne, will be at the same faire but is working with the Hounds of East Fairhaven, and while hubs has the day off we don't want to leave the dogs alone that long.

You know what will make it better, though? If you come out to see me! You don't even have to buy a book (though that would be amazing, I really don't want to have to take all this stuff back home with me). Just come say hi and hang out in what I hope is a properly decorated booth run by a mostly properly decorated author.

Question...can I actually sign books while wearing my usual rennie garb? Only one way to find out...for more info, check out the link above or go to my website.

Upcoming Event: ConCarolinas 2022

In Author's Alley, ConCarolinas '21

So, this weekend is ConCarolinas in Charlotte, and while I'm a bit disappointed to not be invited to be in Author's Alley, I'm hoping for a timeslot at the Featured Author table and I will be speaking (or dying of impostor syndrome, one or the other) on four panels throughout the con weekend and one of them is about Star Trek. 

Y'all, I'm trying not to lose my EVER LOVING MIND because... Star Trek. I think we can all agree that one will be a full on struggle between what I know (having watched ST all my life) and impostor syndrome. It should at least be entertaining, right?

I will also have copies of Red with me for either the Featured Author table or to sell out of my hotel room (I'm just kidding.) (Maybe.), so come find me and grab a signed copy. I'm not bringing all of my stock this time since I'm not going to be set up for the weekend, so it will probably just be Red and Strid.

Come see me! Have Geeky Fun! Do all the things! And if you see an aging Kaylee from Firefly cosplayer hiding in doorways, just point me in the direction of the lifts and mind ya bidness. Shiny.

Strid: A Luminous Beings Mystery Launch Day!

It's here! It's finally here!!! The Luminous Beings series has officially begun as its first volume is published today. Click here or on the cover there to visit the book on Amazon, where it is in Kindle, paperback, and hardback format as of today! I can barely believe this day has arrived because it seems forever since Lucy and Annie first knocked on my door to tell me their story.

Several years ago, in what I lovingly call The Before Times, my sewing partner, Rennie ride-or-die, and friend Anne suggested that I should write a book about a duo that solved crime and looked steampunk-fabulous while larking about with giant hounds...not unlike those called Baskervilles. This was after I wrote a short piece about a train heist gone wrong, a mysterious woman with an Irish Wolfhound, and a gun that could shoot a rope of pure electricity rather than bullets. 

I did, and after several revisions and the decision not to include ALL the characters I came up with in one book (because that, children, is how 200k word count/800p fantasy novels are born), I managed to produce the lovely book-baby shown here. It is a steampunk-adjacent reimagining of West Yorkshire in the Edwardian industrial age, with a retelling of Irish mythology, an underwater gorge, and some very large hounds. 

Lucy and Annie Boyd were orphaned when their father and mother disappeared under strange circumstances. Annie, a tinkerer and inventor, had been working on some clockwork to help her mother after an accident in the mill - but losing her mother did not destroy her interest in creating. Lucy, a bookworm and general loose cannon, helps her sister test her creations with an eye to helping local law enforcement solve crime and clean up the village of Ingrow where they live.

How could they know that the murders at the mill were linked to ancient Celtic warring fae, who made their entrance into the human realm via the Strid, a dangerous underwater gorge in the middle of the River Wharfe?

This book is the product of a love affair with the North of England, and I hope that it will intrigue and inspire you as much as that part of the world did for me - and that you find your own Annie to round out your Lucy, and an Aoife and a Beaux to watch your back.

Just be careful where you discharge those weapons, okay?

It's here! Sorta...

Strid preorder opens today!!

A magical detective tale set in Victorian Yorkshire. Irish mythology meets the Industrial North through a deadly underwater gorge. Sisters Lucy and Annie must find their roots to save West Riding from an ancient threat.

Cast your mind back to a Yorkshire that could have been...

Head to Amazon and preorder your copy today! Strid releases on 27 October and I can't wait for you to meet Lucy and Annie.

Next time, on Brave Lettuce...

Image by Darwin Laganzon from Pixabay 

So, there are two projects on the horizon that I want to tell you about - two upcoming novels, that are special...SO special to me, but in very different ways.

The first one is special because it is at least three years in the actual writing, but probably ten years in the making. When I lived in West Yorkshire for two years, I took copious mental notes about the landscape, the architecture, and the people, knowing that there was a novel in there somewhere. Then I discovered steampunk and thought I could write a novel in that genre. Spoiler alert? I was wrong. However...I did manage to cobble together a story involving dodgy Irish mythology, an underwater gorge that has killed people (that part is true), and two enterprising Victorian sisters who happen to have very large dogs and solve crimes.

No? Okay, how about this: A magical detective tale set in Victorian Yorkshire. Irish mythology meets the Industrial North through a deadly underwater gorge. Sisters Lucy and Annie must find their roots to save West Riding from an ancient threat. Better?

Anyway, my first Luminous Beings novel called "Strid" will be opening for pre-order on the first of October. Watch this space for more information and ordering links to Amazon.

The second piece that is coming out in November is special to me because it revisits Orana and introduces readers to one of my favorite characters I think I've ever written. She was a secondary character in the Nature Walker Trilogy, though her actions (under the control of everyone's least favorite wizard, Taeben) brought about the resolution of that story arc and brought Gin and Sath into their roles as Guardians. Now that they are off saving the world, again, I thought it was time for my readers to get to know Tairneanach a little better. 

Born into power and forged by betrayal, Tairn's life has blown off course more often than it has kept true. She survived retribution for her role in the death of the Qatu'anari Princess Royal by agreeing to live in the far northern citadel of the dwarves, Thror Mydin, where Tee could keep an eye on her.

A decision to take a well-deserved break from her nanny duties leads Tairn to a chance meeting with an old friend on the road to the Outpost. From there, she joins a rescue mission and goes up against a demigoddess bent on resurrecting an ancient evil and enslaving the above-ground citizens of Orana. All in a day's side trip, right?

The second in the Guardians of Orana series, "Red" will be open for ebook pre-order on the first of November, so watch this space for more info for that book as well.

Second Verse, Same as the First: #PITMAD

I'm hoping that I'm not turning this into the definition of insanity. You may remember that in September I pitched my New Adult Paranormal Historical Fiction Mystery, Luminous Beings to the PitMad event on Twitter. I got one bite from an agent (that wasn't part of a vanity press). I sent the requested material.

(insert the sound of sad crickets here)

So I'm trying again with this manuscript today and I hope that with a slightly tweaked pitch I can attract some attention. If I don't, or if it ends up like it did in September I don't know that I will shop this one around for the third time. I mean, I'm an indie author at heart because 1) I'm not dependant on my career as an author to live and 2) I really like the control I have. If that turns agents off...well, I'm going to keep on being me. I just want to bank some experience in the traditional publishing world if I can.

All that to say that if you follow me on Twitter (and if you don't, come on, I'm delightful!) and you see me post my pitch, don't hit the like button - that is for publishing types that are interested in the manuscript. You can certainly retweet it if you like, and I would be very grateful. The more eyes on it, the better the chance it will end up in front of someone that wants to work with it and me! :)