Another year of FOGcon, Friends of Genre fiction, has come and gone, and I still haven't been present personally. :-P I thank writer friends Janice T (who provided these pics), and Emily Thompson for exhibiting my books with theirs! Gratitude!

If there were two of me, one to run about and promote and (finally) squeeze in workshops and panels, and the other to Write and make books, that would be cool. I think. I've yet to think through the ramifications of being cloned or split in two.

But since it's not possible for me to be in two places at one time (in my ignorance of dimensional manipulation), doing entirely two different things with great passion, sincerity, or whatever passes for obsessiveness (and selfishness), I must CHOOSE!

This is the year of making All The Books. I've finally laid out Charm School Graphique Vol One and I need to draw 3 more illustrations to round out that book plus receive the Foreword, graciously provided by Trina Robbins, a wonderful woman, cartoonist, and living historical figure. The digital comics version is up to 7 issues in DRM-free PDF format and 4 issues (still) in Kindle format. I'm still in the process of making the PDFs available (website hijinks), and I ought to start uploading the Kindle versions, even if they're all not converted yet (for review purposes). I've made the first submission to ComiXology but 'twill be a long while before I learn if I'm accepted into that selling venue.

Isn't the business of Making Books FUN? It beats emptying trash cans. Now whenever it pays more than panhandling on the street, I shall be doubly happy about this sick, sick passion. ;)

all the best,

~~eee

EVENT: COME TO FOGcon 2014, where steampunk authors Emi Thompson of Clockwork Twist and Janice T of ECHOES will be, this Fri, Sat, and Sunday, in lovely Walnut Creek Marriott (CA), slinging books (and my Dark Victorians!) at SCIFI Fantasy and Speculative Fiction booklovers. Among the Guests of Honour will be the GHOST OF JAMES TIPTREE JR. I kid you not! Boo hoo, I shan't be there to get my picture taken with her spectre. :( THEREFORE, you must go and track her apparition down! :D And buy some books whilst you're at it! Have fun! http://fogcon.org/

From the site:

What is FOGcon?

Friends of the Genre (FOGcon) is a literary-themed San Francisco Bay Area SF/F con in the tradition of Wiscon. Each year we focus on a new theme in speculative fiction and invite Honored Guests ranging from writers to scientists to artists. We build community, exchange ideas, and share our love for the literature of imagination.

A big thank you to new BookLikes followers! :) I hope you enjoy it here as much as I do!

Things:

I'm still setting up all things Charm School (am up to digital comic #4, need to work on new pages for Charm School Graphique Vol One--the 'ex-libris', title page, etc), and darn it, but the Dark Victorian short story has not been worked on for 4 days now. :(

I also remembered that March 7-9th is FOGcon: http://fogcon.org/

FOGcon is "Friends of the Genre", a literary science fiction/fantasy convention happening in the San Francisco Bay Area, and James Tiptree Jr is spectral guest of honour this year! :----(

"Why the long face, Elizabeth?" I'm glad you asked. I can't go! There's too much to do, and my gallivanting means nothing gets done (as proven by my events schedule of 2013). To miss out on the ghost of James Tiptree Jr makes me sad however. waaah! :-(

But my good friends and steampunk writers, Emily Thompson (Clockwork Twist series), and Janice T. (Echoes: Neo-Victorian Poetry), will be there and are kind enough to exhibit my books alongside theirs! Thank you, ladies! ^_^

I was so distracted by the ghost of James Tiptree Jr I forgot to say: I also recalled that I needed to make new promo freebies for FOGcon, especially with Charm School relaunching. Thus the 2x6 bookmark designs you see here. One bookmark, two franchises. ;) Everything seems legible and spelt correctly (I hope), and the batch order is now in.

More later, as there are several projects going---including the photoshoot for the new Dark Victorian covers (have I mentioned this already?). I will do a blog post about it.

all the best, ~eee ^v^

3.5/5 Stars

The titular Twist is a London watchmaker during an alternate Victorian era. He's abducted by pirates, one of whom is a vampire, so that he can repair the Clockwork Princess, who is in Nepal.

That's your plot summary.

Thing is, the story is pretty darned good; there's lot of swashbuckling derring-do, as well as some thought-provoking material. However, the book itself is marred by editorial errors (homophone problems, typos, etc.) that just jerked me right out of the tale. And, while I recognize that it is my peeve and maybe no one else's, I am getting kind of tired of seeing vampires in YA books. There was no need for this character to be a vampire, in my opinion; it just felt like a sop to the "Twilight" fans.

A good editing job will help this book immensely.

Waking (Clockwork Twist #1) - Emily Tho...

I received a free copy of this book in return for a review.

"My word, you are cute!" pretty much summarises Twist's character -- he's a little reserved, quirky and oh so innocent; you can't help but like him. Other than Mr. Twist himself, some of the shadier characters (Idris, Vane, Quay) were far more interesting than the "good" ones and I hope they reappear in future novels.

I actually wasn't expecting a romance in this book, but I ended up with a double surprise -- it wasn't the straightforward type of romance. And thank the gods it wasn't because what Thomson wrote was refreshing!

This is only the second Steampunk book I've read (the first being Airborn by Kenneth Oppel), so I found the mixture of Victorian etiquette, clockwork technology and magic really engaging. Although the story is complete, there's a lot more to explore in Thomson's world -- I look forward to learning more about the world in future books.