PEOPLE OF ATLANTIC CANADA AND QUEBEC! There are but seven scant days until solarbird and I will be among you for two weeks of hanging out, meeting up with people, and general musical awesomeness!
We are looking very, very forward to meeting up with cow, with fellow Le Vent du Nord fan Susan, with framlingem hopefully (HEY EM ANSWER YOUR MAIL mmkay?), with lyonesse if she’s still in Montreal by the time we get there, with scrunchions, with Krista in St. John’s, with lethendy, and with anybody else we get a chance to talk to at Memoire et Racines, the Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival, or the Great Big Sea show in Torbay!
Internets, I AM EXCITE! Almost as much for the chance to see Les Charbonniers de l’Enfer as I am Great Big Sea, really–because this’ll very likely be my only shot to see the Charbonniers, and did I mention the part where HOLY CRAP THOSE MEN CAN SING? And did I also mention the buying of French Canadian SF/F, and of tasty maple sugar products (I am informed that maple sugar ice cream is a thing that exists and THIS MUST BE SAMPLED IT IS REQUIRED), and of taking the Haunted Hike tour through downtown St. John’s (research opportunity WOO!), and of going to the Duke of Duckworth pub, renowned to me in song and story and Twitter updates?
Save us some bagels and Growers cider! We’ll be there next week!
First and foremost, re: that poll I had up for y’all the other day, I have reached a formal decision. For reasons I still can’t tell you about yet (but which I will be doing ASAP), y’all should look for the name of Angela Highland to be coming into play on this site in the near future, probably later this summer. I’ve already bought the domain name angelahighland.com, which as of right now redirects on my servers to angelakorrati.com, so nobody has to worry yet about changing any bookmarks. Stand by for further news on this as I can give it.
Meanwhile, given that Faerie Blood has gone out in ebook form to Kickstarter backers and the print copies are Very Very Nigh, I have taken the liberty of updating Faerie Blood’s official page with updated information about it. The beautiful new cover is there, as well as links to the four sample chapters I provided to Kickstarter backers. I’ve refreshed the data about my offer to hand-sell ebook copies to people until I can deploy for general release. And I’ve put in a bit about what to expect for how to get the print copies as well. This page will be updated again as soon as the book becomes generally available, so keep an eye on that link as well as my update posts!
On a related note, I’ve also updated the sidebar to properly reflect the Very Very Nigh-ness of the release of the Second Edition, and also just because I wanted to give the new cover some prominence on the front page of the site!
Lastly, I updated my In Progress page with a couple of tweaks to the information on Lament of the Dove, as well as adding Mirror’s Gate since it wasn’t in there before.
And now, I CAN share with you the first of the Things I Haven’t Been Able to Tell You About Yet because important pieces of paper have been signed. Here we go, drumroll if you please:
I have an agent! I have accepted literary representation from Miriam Kriss at the Irene Goodman Literary Agency, who will be working with me on the Other Thing I Can’t Tell You About Yet but will be ASAP! Miriam came to me highly recommended, and I was very, very fortunate to get a chance to query her. Y’all may take it as read that I am MASSIVELY EXCITED, to levels I normally reserve for imminent Great Big Sea and Le Vent du Nord concerts!
Watch this space for more revelations as I can share them, in between updates about deploying all the Kickstarter goodies! This, O Internets, is shaping up to be one HELL of a summer!
And now, O Internets, in the category of Things I Can’t Tell You About Yet, the issue has arisen that I need to take on a pen name. Not for issues of needing to conceal what names I’m writing under–because I won’t be–but more in the interests of using a name that’s easier to spell and search for on the Internets. I have narrowed down my names of interest to the following list!
“Angela” is to be considered since it’s my actual first name and therefore easy to remember. “Anna”, because it’s my commonly used nickname, and again, easy to remember. “Renee” because it’s my original middle name and therefore still has personal ties to me.
For the surnames, “Highland” is my original surname. “Carey” is my grandmother’s maiden name, and the name is meaningful to me because of when I went to Grandma’s funeral last year, and had the old gentleman who spoke for her ask me after if I ever found myself randomly singing. When I told him yes, he said that was because “the Careys were always singers”, which I really liked.
Two other notes of interest, before anybody asks: one, I can’t use Anna Carey because that name’s in active use by an established YA author, and two, while I have had it proposed to me that I should work “Piper” in there somehow due to that being the rest of my commonly used nickname, I don’t actually want to use “Piper” since another local writing friend wants to use that as part of HER pen name and I don’t want to be too similar to her.
And also, please note that while I will be taking on a new name (and updating my site accordingly to reflect it), the Warder universe books WILL continue to be available under the name of Angela Korra’ti, because that’s the name Faerie Blood originally sold under. And it’s the name my Kickstarter backers know!
So let me know your thoughts on these options, people! And if you’re reading this post on LJ or Dreamwidth or Tumblr or Goodreads, please click over to the the original post to vote. The poll options won’t work from other sites!
Went in to see my new dentist for gum graft surgery today, which is because I’ve got a few spots in my mouth where the gums have pulled back enough to expose the roots of my teeth. This has caused me all sorts of sensitivity issues, and my new dentist’s recommendation was that we do some simple gum graft surgery–not only to return protection to the affected teeth, but also to prevent the problem from worsening as I grow older.
I’ve had work done on one side of my mouth today, and some time next year, we’ll be doing the other side. Then the problem will be done and dealt with.
Fortunately the procedure was pretty simple. I had to show up an hour early for my 9am appointment, at which point they had me take a tablet of Triazolam, and hang out waiting for the succeeding hour. I noted with interest that about twenty minutes in, I started feeling slightly drunk. And between that and how they gave me nitrous during the actual procedure, I went almost right out. I had massive time compression, and pretty much remember only the doctor asking me to turn my head a couple of times–and then the nurse was taking the gas mask off of me and I was mumbling, “Whuh? Are we done?”
They gave me four, count ’em, four different prescriptions to go pick up after–some Vicodin, some prescription-strength Motrin, this mouth rinse I’m supposed to use in lieu of brushing my teeth for the next few days, and some amoxycillin as well. They told me to rest a lot today, with my head elevated, which I’ve been doing in between doing the latest Murkworks Movie Suckoff! And I figure I’m going to pretty much be zzzzzzz for the rest of the weekend. By Monday though I should be fine, and should be able to use the prescription-strength Motrin during the day if I need it, and hold the rest of the Vicodin for the evenings. I’m supposed to come back on the 15th to have stitches out, and that will be that until next year, when we do this again to the other side of my mouth.
As for the Movie Suckoff, I report to my chagrin that we were unable to find Deep Blue Sea on Paul’s Netflix account! So we swamped it out for Empire of the Ants, a 70’s Bert I. Gordon schlockfest, notably featuring Joan Collins. We did still get 2-Headed Shark Attack, though! I got really sleepy during the shark flick and had to come back and watch the rest of it later, but once that was done, Dara and I decided that Empire of the Ants definitely sucked more. It committed the crime of starting off being stultifyingly boring, mostly! At least in 2-Headed Shark Attack, you got to see things blow up.
There may be a second Suckoff tomorrow depending on if I’m feeling up for it. More on this as it happens, Internets!
Just snagged weekend passes for Dara and me to the Newfoundland & Labrador Folk Festival, the big festival that was our main reason for going to St. John’s to begin with–even if we’ll be skipping out on it on August 4th to scamper up to Torbay for Great Big Sea instead. :D We figured screw it, we’ll just get passes for the whole weekend anyway so we’ll be able to wander in and out at whim. Now I just need to see a full schedule for who’s playing when, since I have particular interest in seeing The Once and the Dardanelles.
Meanwhile, keeping a sharp eye on the Memoire et Racines site, waiting for tickets to be on sale for that too so I can snag passes for Dara and me for July 28th, the Day of Podorythmie! Priority interest will be with Galant Tu Perds Ton Temps and the Charbonniers, but really, my little fangirl heart is desperate to know if I get to see Le Vent du Nord twice in one year.
And speaking of Dara and me in Quebec, side note to either framlingem or scrunchions–if either of you might be interested in hosting a tiny house concert for Dara, let us know, hey? Dara’s got one for Toronto and one for Moncton, and if she could do one in Montreal, that’d make it a TOUR. ;D
And hell, for that matter, anybody following me in St. John’s, if YOU want to host Dara for a teeny house concert, we’ll have way more time to play with there than we will in Montreal! Talk to us if you want to host a Cascadian Supervillain with her Bouzouki of Mass Destruction!
Dara and I started serious work on booking this last night, and discovered to our chagrin that the fares for cross-country Canada trains are prohibitively expensive! So our Trainventure is going to have significantly fewer trains than expected.
But that’s OKAY. Because this entire trip is going to brimming over with so much awesome that we may have to break some laws of physics to cram all of the awesome into two and a half weeks! Hey, I’ve got a supervillain for a spouse, if anybody can break laws of physics, it’ll be my beloved solarbird!
First up–Toronto, from roughly the 24th through the 26th of July! Agenda: enjoy the hospitality of cow, the very best bovine in the eastern provinces! Meet up with Susan, the most awesome Le Vent du Nord fan that ever awesomed, because we owe that woman a proper thanks for the wedding champagne! And there may even be a house concert featuring Dara at Chez Cow!
Next–Montreal, from roughly the 27th through the 30th of July! Agenda: meet framlingem and scrunchions! Convene the Independent Panel of Montreal Bagel Judges! Locate and raid the best possible music store to get me yet more Quebecois trad for my ever-growing collection, and bonus points if I can find anywhere that’ll sell me any album I’m missing with Éric Beaudry on it. :D Locate a bookstore and see if I’m brave enough to bring home some French SF/F! And, if at all possible, find and boing to any appropriate nearby source of podorythmie! (I note, O Internets, that there are TANTALIZINGLY OPEN HOLES in the tour schedules of Le Vent du Nord AND Les Charbonniers de l’Enfer AND De Temps Antan AND La Bottine Souriante and you had better believe that if ANY of them drop shows into this time frame, I am ALL OVER THEM.)
Next–Moncton, from July 30th through August 1st! Agenda: enjoy the company of brightbeak, and perhaps there will be another house concert! Pauline is flinging us a million awesome Moncton-area things we may be doing as well!
And last but not least–St. John’s, from August 1st through August 6th! Agenda: meet lethendy and any other local GBS fan crowd peeps! Absorb the general ambience and look for inspiration for Book 3 of the Kendis and Christopher books! Attend this which will, assuming that the booking of things goes well, is in extremely easy walking distance of this place where we want to stay!
And the crowning, shining glory of this entire Adventure: go to THIS because ZOMG GREAT BIG SEA IN NEWFOUNDLAND YES B’Y! Dara and I had previously been sure it would not be possible to top the magnificent awesomeness of our beloved B’ys at the Olympics in Vancouver. Our beloved B’ys on their home turf, with a Newfoundland crowd, is very likely the ONLY POSSIBLE WAY TO DO IT. You thought I got good altitude on La Danse Verticale for Le Vent? This concert’s Movement will not only be Vertical, it may well reach ORBIT.
Bookings of planes and trains and places to stay begins TONIGHT. Any of you in these places, Internets, who want to meet up with Dara and me–let us know! We look forward to seeing you all!
Which is to say, I’m going to take the entire week of Labor Day off since I have the vacation time to spare, and work on finishing my edits. To further this goal, I will be also dropping off the net for the duration of that week. I’ll still be answering email, but I won’t be monitoring Twitter, Facebook, or Google+, and for the most part I’ll only be answering email sent directly to me (as opposed to any of the mailing lists I’m on, or comments on any of my posts).
Noting this now by way of general accountability. I may post status updates during that week–again, for purposes of accountability–but I can’t guarantee I’ll answer any comments on them.
We’ll see how much I can get done before then; any little bit I can get done before does after all further the goal. And anything I can write above and beyond finishing the edits on Lament will be bonus. Christopher and Kendis are looking VERY expectant in the back of my brain, you know.
So there you have it. If you think you might want to get a hold of me during that week for whatever reason, email, text, or phone will be best! If you think you should have those means of contacting me and you don’t, let me know.
If you’re there, feel free to look for me as “Angela Korra’ti” or via either of my gmail addresses. Thanks to both and Tia Nevitt for inviting me, although Shawn’s invite got to me first.
Mind you, I didn’t really need a whole new social network to keep track of. And I’m pretty sure that at least for a while, this one will suffer the same problem that all the clones of LJ do, including Dreamwidth: i.e., that it won’t get really interesting unless there’s a critical mass of people that move to it. But hey, now I’m at least part of the initial wave. We’ll see what happens.
So here’s a super-quick summary of the various awesome things about Norwescon 34, this past weekend:
At least a couple people seem to have taken my Faerie Blood cards off the freebie rack, because two more people have added me on Goodreads. Thank you, Goodreads adders!
I did actually sell one of my Faerie Blood CDs, on Sunday afternoon while I was waiting for ! Thank you, nice lady in fairy dress who stopped to talk to me in the lobby, and I hope you enjoy the book.
Dara got props from the Seattle Geekly podcast for the awesomeness of her music programming!
I discovered that nerdcore is, in fact, pretty cool.
My and Dara’s friend took Best in Show for her Na’vi costume at the Masquerade! Go Torrey!
(Mira Grant) up for Best Novel Hugo for Feed! BOOYA!
I volunteered officially for the first time ever. I got over 15 hours helping Dara by running water to various performers, and by helping man the merch table as well! This netted me several free books and a shirt. Go me!
Stood in line for nearly two hours to get books signed by and his wife Shannon. Worth EVERY MINUTE. Also got to get a book signed by the awesome , and said hello to Mary Robinette Kowal as well. Told her I very much looked forward to reading my copy of her book.
Bought several awesome shirts, including one of Jayne’s shirts from Serenity and a new Matt Smith Doctor Who shirt!
Got a mass market copy of ‘s (Benjamin Tate’s) Well of Sorrows, bought directly from him after a great panel on ebooks. He very kindly signed it for me right then, too! Thanks, Joshua!
Had the pleasure of meeting Heather Dale and her husband Ben, and watching them do a joint double set with and and and . Bought a couple more of Heather’s CDs and a shirt, and she very kindly signed a CD for me as well. Her song about Sedna, the Inuit goddess of the sea, was GREAT. She is now clearly part of the ongoing conspiracy to make all my favorite music Canadian. :D
My and Dara’s favorite Barcon quote: VODKA OF THE RIGHTEOUS! APPLE TINIS OF THE JUST!
All in all this was a very, very enjoyable convention and I look forward to doing more Actual Volunteering next year! And maybe doing some actual readings or something. ‘Cause, like, I have a book and stuff.
Taking a moment to put up a post before having dinner, just to say that I’ve left assorted business cards on the freebie table and the flyer rack here at Norwescon. If anybody happens to pick one up and comes by this site to visit, hello and welcome, and I hope your convention is being awesome so far!
If you HAVE come by because of Norwescon and you’re interested in buying my book, arrange to find me before EOD on Sunday and I’ll sell you one of my small number of Faerie Blood CDs. That will get you an ePub AND a PDF of the book, both DRM-free, along with a free short story, “The Disenchanting of Princess Cerridwen”. I’m offering Norwescon attendees a special price of $5 per disk!
So say hi if you are at the con and you see this, and tell me how your con is going! Better yet, find me and do it in person. :)
solarbird