Confluence in Pittsburgh!

As most of you know, I'll be attending Confluence in Pittsburgh this coming July 24-26th. Here's a peak at the schedule for me and Zombies Need Brains. Again, ZNB will have a booth in the dealer's room at the con, which will be manned by me and my mom and will have all of my books and all of the ZNB merchandise available at the moment. (Note: We will NOT have the anthology Temporally Out of Order, but you can preorder the Kickstarter edition if you'd like to receive it before the general public release. The Kickstarter edition will be shipping as soon as I receive the order from the printer.) This is what's planned, just remember to check the schedule once you arrive, since things have a habit of changing at the last minute.

Friday:

7pm: "It Came From the Slushpile!" Editors talk about cover letters, writing samples, what works, what doesn't, and more!

8pm: Literary Beer: Crowd-funded Anthologies: Creating successful crowd-funded anthologies.

Dealer's Room: 5pm-8pm

Saturday:

9am: Kaffeeklatch: Zombies Need Brains: Come talk to the founder of ZNB and two of the contributing authors of its anthologies.

10am: Seven Things and SF/Fantasy Novel Always Includes: Checklist or bucketlist, your mileage may vary!

2pm: "As Long As Anyone Can Remember . . .": Surely everyone hasn't REALLY been doing things the same way for thousands of years. Authors talk about the causes and consequences of social evolution in the real world and epic fantasy.

7pm: The Manuscript on the Doorstep: Successful relationships between writers and editors.

Dealer's Room: 10am-6pm

Sunday:

10am: Magic for the 21st Century: No matter how our technology advances, we still want something out of the ordinary. Come explore magic realism, Clarke's law, and alternate sources of wonder.

Dealer's Room: 10am-3pm

Book Review: "King Kelson's Bride" by Katherine Kurtz

I discovered Katherine Kurtz when my dad bought me her original Deryni series for Christmas ages ago and I realized I could OWN the books I was reading from the library . . . a grave mistake on my dad's part. *grin* In any case, I loved the series and devoured all of the books then currently out by Katherine Kurtz and anything that was coming out shortly after that. Then Kurtz turned to other non-Deryni novels and I wasn't as interested in those, so I ended up not reading anything of hers for a while. Happily, she's returned to the Deryni world. I bought the books (I think there's four of them now) as they came out in hardcover, but only just got to reading this first one.





Premise: King Kelson needs to choose a bride. His first choice--made for political reasons--died in his arms at the altar after a betrayal by the bride's brother. His second choice--made for love--refuses to accept, after her own "betrayal" of marrying Kelson's traitorous cousin when she thought Kelson himself had died. Now he needs to choose again. But how can he reconcile marriage with the love he still feels for Rothana, even though he knows a king cannot ever be expected to marry for the heart? Kelson struggles with this as he and his court accompany their ward of four years Liam-Lajos of Torenth back to his homeland to claim his crown and throne. But Liam's uncles and mother are loath to give up their regency, and have their own plans for betrayal . . . that may take the life of both Liam and Kelson!

I have to admit that I was worried when I sat down to read this book. I have such fond memories of reading the Deryni novels a good *coughcough* twenty years ago. I thought that perhaps I'd have "outgrown" the world or the characters or the writing style and that picking up another Kurtz book after so long would somehow ruin those memories. But I was wrong. I immediately sank back into the world of King Kelson, even recalling the majority of the events and dangling plot threads that this book picks up and ties off. I immediately rediscovered why I'd enjoyed Kurtz' books so much and thankfully dove into the world anew.

And that's one of the best parts of Kurtz' books: this is a true medieval fantasy. It isn't the trappings of the medieval world, you really feel as if you are living in medieval times, although of course you're getting the aristocracy's view of it, since the books deal with the king and his court. But it isn't just the world that's so realistic that keeps you reading, it's the characters as well. Kelson is like a dear friend and with this book you pick back up with his life and get to revisit him and all of his cohorts as they travel from the familiar Gwynnedd to Torenth. So here we get to see a new part of the world, a new land, and get to (attempt) to crown its kind, even though Torenth is considered a vassal state of Gwynnedd.

The only drawback to the novel, and the reason that it wasn't given 5 stars, is that the plot itself was slightly weak. Overall, it moved along well, and the confrontation between Liam, Kelson, and the traitorous uncles was everything that you'd expect. If hat had been the culmination of the book, with the wedding of Kelson afterwards, than it would have been a deeply fulfilling novel. However, that wasn't the culmination. One of the traitors escapes and threatens to ruin the upcoming wedding. This by itself wasn't a bad plot move, in particular, but Kurtz drives the tension up so high, and gives the villain enough character, that when the attack finally comes . . . it's kind of anticlimactic. This doesn't ruin the whole book--there is plenty here that I thoroughly enjoyed--but as an ending it was kind of a letdown.

Not that that will stop me from reading the next few books or any of the others that might come out in the meantime. I'm happy to report, for those of you like me who read the Deryni novels years ago, that fears of ruining those hopefully fond memories are all for naught. This is a grand revisit to the realm that you loved . . . and if you haven't read any of Kurtz's novels, you should start now, with Deryni Rising. You won't regret it.

Book Review: "Dragon * Thief" by S. Andrew Swann

I loved the first book in this new series and immediately moved on to the second. I'm happy to say, it's just as much fun as the first. In fact, I'm a little miffed that I'll have to wait almost a year before the third book comes out. (Although I'm not miffed because there's a giant cliffhanger or anything, nothing of the sort.)





Premise: Frank Blackthorne is a thief who somehow finds himself trapped in a princess' body, basically taking on the princess' role . . . which leaves something to be desired. He'd desperately like to be back in his own body, but that's just not possible. So for second-best, he'd like to at least be back in a MAN'S body. So, one night, drunk and not thinking, he uses the cursed artifact given to him as a wedding gift . . . and finds himself not only in a man's body, but a thief's as well. One of the most dangerous thieves in the world, wanted by nearly every country. A man who is now inhabiting the princess' body, with all the power it entales, in the defenseless Lendowyn court.

Again, a great rollicking story that starts off with a terrible and stupid mistake that escalates into a disaster of monstrous proportions, with that little twist of switching bodies. Frank's escapades as he tries to get back to the Lendowyn court and change everything back to the way it was are hilarious and fun, especially with all of the characters he meets along the way. If you like humorous fantasy that plays with the tropes we're all used to, then you should definitely be reading this series.

But the best part of this series--and what makes a truly good humorous story rise above all others--is that there IS some seriousness behind all of the tongue-in-cheek fun. In this case, most of the seriousness comes into play with the outcast group of teenage girls, all with their own little stories. These little serious elements are what takes the book out of simple fun and give it that extra kick, making the story work on multiple levels.

As usual, lots of little twists as Frank works his way back to the castle, with a ton of twists at the end, especially with exactly who this master thief really is and how he's used his newfound powers to mess with the Lendowyn court. But that would be spoilery, so . . .

A great, fun, enjoyable read that works on many levels--some more serious than others. Definitely go find Dragon * Princess, the first book in the series, or this one and read them. Both of them. (You don't NEED to have read the first one to read this one, but you'd be missing out on another fun read if you didn't.)