Today, I’m guest-blogging over at Fantasy Matters in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Madeleine L’Engle’s Newbery-award winning book A Wrinkle in Time.

Read Signed, Sealed, Delivered: A Paean to Madeleine L’Engle there.

Joli from Actin’ Up With Books!!!

Joli did a really cool post about UNNATURALISTS for Waiting on Wednesday.

Thanks to everyone who entered, retweeted, FB-friended and just generally got excited about the cover reveal!  Stay tuned for more contests in the very near future!

I’m very excited to say that my story “Resurrection” will be available in the forthcoming YA anthology, WILFUL IMPROPRIETY out from Constable & Robinson (UK) and Running Press (US) and edited by Ekaterina Sedia. (The UK edition is out in June–still not sure about the US).

Not only am I excited that Kathy was keen on my fascination with resurrection men, but I’m also ecstatic to be part of such a fabulous Table of Contents:

Genevieve Valentine
Leanne Renee Hieber
Steve Berman
Seth Cadin
Stephanie Burgis
Karen Healey
Sandra McDonald
Marie Brennan
M.K. Hobson
Barbara Roden
Mary Robinette Kowal
Caroline Stevermer

Today’s guest-blog about place as person in the RIVER anthology is here: http://maryvictoria.net/?p=3435

(With thanks to Mary Victoria!)

Although I don’t write middle-grade (yet), I’m a big fan of it.  One of my favorite series comes from Stephanie Burgis, author of the Kat Stephenson middle-grade series. These award-winning books are KAT, INCORRIGIBLE (A MOST IMPROPER MAGICK in the UK) and RENEGADE MAGIC ( A TANGLE OF MAGICKS in the UK) with a third to follow (RECKLESS MAGICK in the UK, due August 2012).

If I tried to tell you how much Stephanie’s books, friendship, and encouragement have meant to me over the years, it would probably take an entire book just to do so. We met, of all places, in a hallway at WisCon many years ago for literally five minutes.  When I first was putting my toe in the waters of LiveJournal (also many years ago), I remembered Stephanie and her husband Patrick Samphire (also a wonderful writer whose work I adore). I can’t remember who tracked down whom, but the rest, as they say…and we’ve been BWFs (Best Writing Friends) ever since. (A couple years ago, I even got to visit Steph and Patrick in the UK and had the most magical tea imaginable, as the pictures below will attest!)

Steph and I share a keen love of history, magick, and strong,     smart female characters. I love Kat Stephenson because she is both fearless and compassionate, impetuous yet smart, stubborn and full of questions. I very much wish I could have had these books back when I was 11 or 12, but I suppose that would mean I wouldn’t have gotten the chance to know Steph. So, I’ll just be glad they’re out in the world for everyone to enjoy now.

Stephanie was kind enough to stop by the blog and answer a few questions.

1) Tell us about the places that inspired the Kat trilogy.  What was your favorite place and how did it end up in the books?  (I think I know the answer to this one…;))

Bolton Abbey!!!! (You know this one, Tiffany, since I dragged you around there when you visited. And I have pictures as proof!) In Kat, Incorrigible, Kat and her family go to a houseparty at Grantham Abbey, but that’s just my fictional version of Bolton Abbey, a real estate (owned by the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire) which I used to visit all the time back when I was living in Yorkshire. I’ve got a whole flickr set of photos (which includes photos of you and me together there)!

And then Kat Book 2, Renegade Magic, was inspired by my love for the city of Bath, where it is set. Ohhh, Bath… (You can read me raving about Bath at length on my website.)
2) Is chocolate necessary for a writer’s existence?  Expound upon that one with favorite treats, if you dare.

Is this actually in question????? The answer, of course, is: NEVER TAKE AWAY MY CHOCOLATE.

And as far as favorite treats…mmm…
-Rich dark hot chocolate, made by melting my favorite bars of dark chocolate into hot milk
-Chocolate hazelnut brownies from my local café (which I ate FAR too many of while writing the second and third Kat books!)
-Coffee-chocolate truffles
-and…no, I can’t continue. My mouth is watering too much. MUST FIND MORE CHOCOLATE!

3) What has been your favorite experience with readers thus far?

I’ll always cherish the first email I ever got from a Kat reader, a smart, book-loving twelve-year-old who was given an ARC by her local independent bookstore manager. I actually cried the first time I read that email. I’d written Kat for the girl I used to be at that age, and it was so incredible to hear from someone who’d connected with it in just exactly the way I’d dreamed – but never really believed – might happen.

4) What’s next on the Steph agenda?

Kat Book 2 comes out in the US and Canada on April 3, 2012, as Renegade Magic. Kat and her family go to the fashionable spa town of Bath, which turns out to be full of gossip, Napoleonic spies, and wild magic! And then Kat Book 3 will come out in April 2013. (Pleasepleaseplease let me have thought up a good title for it by then! The novel is written and edited and is in copyedits now, but oh I am not gifted at titles.)

5) Also tell us anything else we need to know. 

OK! Anyone who hasn’t read Kat, Incorrigible yet can read the first three chapters on my website.

Anyone who HAS read it and wants more can read a free short story set a couple months afterward, also on my website: Duelling Magicks.

(Have I mentioned how much I love my web designer? He’s super-patient with me…which is not surprising, since he’s also my husband.)

Thanks so much, Steph!  And everyone be sure to run out and get KAT, INCORRIGIBLE and RENEGADE MAGIC for yourselves and your young readers!

Just wanted to update you on a new anthology out now from Dark Quest Books.

Edited by Alma Alexander, this anthology is truly one of my favorites in which I’ve been privileged to be included.  I think the beautiful Map of Contents speaks volumes.

I hope if you get a copy, you’ll enjoy it.  Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

It’s been a terribly long time since I’ve posted here and for that I apologize.  In the last couple of months, I’ve attended two conventions back to back (World Fantasy Convention and FaerieCon),  sold another book in the Unnaturalists series and begun working to a VERY tight deadline, edited and submitted final page proofs for THE UNNATURALISTS, worked on proofs for a short story for the RIVER anthology, and wrote and submitted a short story for another anthology.  To most writers, that would mean I’m actually being slow at my job.  But in my defense, I also have a dayjob and 17 chickens to manage!

I hope that I’ll be posting here much more frequently in the coming year.  If there’s anything you’d like to see, please let me know.

So, happy holidays from me to you!  And here’s a little present–a sneak peek of something you might want to see.  Much, much more to come in 2012!!

Unnaturalists page proofs

I will be at FaerieCon in Hunt Valley, MD on November 4-6.  Please join me at the following panels:

Friday, Nov. 4

3:00-3:45 Urban Faerie- Not Just In the Country Anymore:
Delia Sherman, Melissa Marr, Tiffany Trent, Amy Brown

Sunday, Nov. 6 (Don’t forget Daylight Savings!)

2:00-2:45 Finding Faerie at the Edge of the World:

Carolyn Turgeon, Tiffany Trent, Linda Ravenscroft, Annette Curtis Klause

4:00-4:45 Author Readings:
Ellen Kushner, Delia Sherman, Charles de Lint, Tiffany Trent, Annette Curtis Klause, Carolyn Turgeon

I hope to see you there!  As is tradition, I will offer a fairy gift to the first person who comes to me and gives the password *after* my first panel on Friday. (I would prefer that this be someone I’ve not yet met, but I’ll try not to be too picky).

The password is:

Syrus Reed