My World Fantasy Con Wrap-Up
Check out my World Fantasy Con wrap-up, posted over on the Enchanted Inkpot blog today! Here’s just a small taste: Favourite Quotes from WFC “If you think teenagers aren’t having sex, I wish you’d been my parents.” Laura Anne Giman when asked whether there was too much sex in YA. x “Horror is the literature of hopelessness; fantasy is the literature of hope.” Patricia Briggs. (Horror writer Sephira Giron disagreed!) x “In horror you survive; in fantasy you triumph.” Tanya Huff x “When I picture urban fantasy, I think of the bastard love child between fantasy and romance.” S. M....
Read MoreWhere I’ll Be at World Fantasy Con
World Fantasy Convention November 1-4, 2012 Sheraton Parkway Toronto North Hotel, Suites & Conference Centre Toronto, Ontario Thursday, November 1 9:00 p.m. OUR MONSTERS, OUR SELVES The best monsters—ghosts, vampires, werewolves, zombies—all begin as human beings, as US. All have their roots in the ideas of lost/ strayed/stolen humanity. Freud alludes to the factor of semblance in The Uncanny, and that idea, with the tensions inherent in duality/ dichotomy—an otherness both projected, and found within—is crucial. Think...
Read MoreSCBWI Ottawa-and My Crystal Kite!
I’m just back from a whirlwind trip to Ottawa, the highlight of which was undoubtably receiving my SCBWI Crystal Kite Award! SCBWI conference organizers Lizann Flatt , Rachel Eugster and Alma Fullerton did an incredible job gathering a stellar lineup of speakers. Here are some of the published attendees at a reading at Collected Works bookstore on the Friday night: On Saturday the conference officially started. Promptly at 8:30 AM we were welcomed by the hilarious Alan Silverberg and for the next two days, our time was crammed with workshops, lectures and break-out sessions....
Read MoreWitchlanders Nominated for a White Pine Award!
The told us two weeks ago and all the nominees have had to keep it secret since then. I have an enormous mouth, so I can tell you, it was pretty difficult. Anyway, I can finally spill! Very delighted that WITCHLANDERS is part of this exceptional list: All Good Children by Catherine Austen (Orca Book Publishers) Dark Inside by Jeyn Roberts (Simon & Schuster BFYR/Simon & Schuster) First Day On Earth by Cecil Castellucci (Scholastic Press/Scholastic Inc.) Getting Over Garrett Delaney by Abby McDonald (Candlewick Press) Karma by Cathy Ostlere (Puffin Canada/Penguin Group) The Opposite...
Read MoreWorst Self-Promoter Ever Forgets Own Book Birthday
Hey! Witchlanders is out in paperback today! Thank goodness for a tweet by IndigoTeenBlog because…I sort of forgot. I still haven’t seen the pb’s in the wild and I haven’t gotten any author copies yet, so anyone who’d like to send me a pic will receive…my eternal gratitude? A signed bookmark? Yes, that’s it, a signed bookmark. (Actually I’ll mail a signed bookmark to anyone who wants one.) Happy book birthday to...
Read MoreAbout Me
Hi! I'm Lena, a young adult fantasy author from Toronto.