I’m just back from OASIS, a small convention in the Orlando area that featured the fabulous Faith Hunter as their Guest of Honor. Pre-con festivities started with the GoH’s day out at Universal. A wonderful group gathered to take in Harry Potter World, The Hulk, Kong, The Mummy and many other rides at both Universal Parks, orchestrated by the amazing Peggy Stubblefield. And, of course, Faith Hunter and I had to take a moment to surf some waves and fight Death Eaters pre-park.
OASIS was small but mighty. Panels were packed with great guests like Faith Hunter (of course), Jack McDevitt, Alethea Kontis, Christina Farley, Aria Kane, Owl Goingback, Erica Cameron, Richard Lee Byers, Elle E. Ire, José Iriarte, Elizabeth Schechter, William Hatfield, E. Rose Sabin and others. Unfortunately, I only had my cell phone camera, which doesn’t like inside shots very much, but I did manage to snap a few pics to share with the class! (1st pic, L to R – YA Chicks: Christina Farley, me and Racquel Henry; 2nd pic, L to R – Christina Farley, Alethea Kontis (top), me, Erica Cameron)
Unfortunately, N.K. Jemisin’s novel THE OBELISK GATE didn’t win the Nebula Award Saturday night, but the winners do sound like an amazing bunch and my TBR pile is now that much more overwhelming! Also, since OASIS live-streamed the event, we got to hear and see the slides from astronaut Dr. Kjell Lindgren’s amazing toastmaster speech. If you can find it online, it’s absolutely worth your time.
James Alan Gardner, whose new novel ALL THOSE EXPLOSIONS WERE SOMEONE ELSE’S FAULT is coming out in November from Tor Books, tied for best short story for “The Mutants Men Don’t See” in the Asimov’s Readers’ Choice Awards!
The Locus Award finalists were announced last week, and I’m very pleased to have both N.K. Jemisin and R.S. Belcher up for awards! Two authors, three categories – not too shabby!
Fantasy Novel: THE OBELISK GATE by N.K. Jemisin
Horror: THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE WHEEL by R.S. Belcher
Short Story: “The City Born Great” by N.K. Jemisin
In other news, Book Riot did a great list of book recommendations based on favorite Harry Potter characters. Genevieve Cogman, her editors and I are all tickled pink that their recommendation for fans of Hermione Granger (and aren’t we all?) is THE INVISIBLE LIBRARY! Genevieve’s series is so much fun, I heartily recommend it to everyone!
And speaking of recommendations, The Portalist offered suggestions of 11 Books like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” including BLOOD OF THE EARTH (the Soulwood series) by Faith Hunter and GLASS HOUSES (the Morganville Vampires series) by Rachel Caine! So, for you Joss Whedon fans out there, you know what to read!
Oh, one final thing! At the risk of burdening your To Be Read piles, Lore Seekers now has print versions available of the new editions of VAMPED and REVAMPED. I’m so, so excited! And look for the new editions of FANGTASTIC and FANGTABULOUS very soon, along with the all-new conclusion to the series, FANGDEMONIUM.
Lucienne Diver's Drivel 