My son as the 11th Doctor Who at Dragon*Con 2010

A great moment, if not a great photo. A pipe burst in the ceiling, causing water to pour from a light fixture. Luckily, two Doctor Whos were on the scene to address the problem with their sonic screwdrivers (before hotel security removed everyone from the area)

And then … there was THIS:

From Left: Dark Fantasy Track moderator Carol Malcolm, track coordinator Derek Tatum, author Skyler White, author Diane Whiteside, moderator Michael Edward Miller, and some dude who jumped in the photo

Dragon*Con was more fun than pigs. The costumes, the energy, the panels and ideas … This must be what it felt like to be immigrant Scottish in the states, and go for the calling of the clans. I’ve never felt so related to strangers, or more at home.

All the best to my co-conspirators on the Dark Fantasy, Alternate History, Podcasting and Skepticism tracks: Derek Tatum, Carol Malcolm, Ginger Campbell, Chelsea Quinn Yarboro, Michael Edward Miller, Clay Gilbert, Leanna Rene Hieber, Christiana Ellis, Rosemary Laurey, Diane Whiteside, Laurell K. Hamilton, Linda Roberts, Christopher Golden, Ay-leen the Peacemaker and many more. Hope to see you all again next year!

• 1 Signed copy of and Falling, Fly
• 1 Signed copy of In Dreams Begin
• 2 ‘Damned’ Temporary Tattoos (just like Olivia’s)
• 1 pair Scarecrow Classic Dental Fit Fangs
• 1 pair Scarecrow Subtle Sexy Fangs
• 1 vampire bite tattoo
• 1 Victorian Ladies Hat with black spider tulle veil
• 1 Nightmare Factory T-Shirt

She’s also doing a bunch of other giveaways, and all you have to do to enter is tweet or blog about the contest. Visit the Nightmare Factory to learn more!

Can’t wait for ‘In Dreams Begin‘? We’ll, you’ll have to wait a little more, because the book comes out November 2; but pre-release coverage has started rolling in, beginning with this piece on the beautifully redesigned FanGirlTastic (formerly Pretty-Scary):

“The story is sure to be a mind-twister, but with White’s amazing ability to weave words and breathe life into characters, it will be thoroughly enjoyable … Much like and Falling, Fly, Skyler’s newest novel is destined to be a potent blast of change to a genre filled with werewolves, vampires, and love-struck zombies.”

In the meantime, the price of ‘and Falling, Fly‘ has dropped to just $6 on Amazon with free shipping. It won’t be a cool signed version complete with tattoos and fangs like you can win from the Nightmare Factory, but hey, it’s a pretty good deal if you haven’t checked out the book yet or would like to pick up a copy for a friend.

Have to finish packing — see you at Dragon*Con!

I can hardly wait for Dragon*Con next weekend! This will be my biggest con yet, and I’m excited to appear on the ‘Dark Fantasy‘ track with writers like Sherrilyn Kenyon and Laurell K. Hamilton and (guilty pleasure alert) the actors from ‘True Blood’.

The ‘Alternate History‘ track discussions should be fun, too, as will my Sunday live discussion for Ginger Campbell’s ‘Books and Ideas‘ podcast. Capping it off is an adults-only, late-night Sunday discussion of BDSM themes in vampire books, featuring Laurell K., Rosemary Laurie, Diane Whiteside and yours truly.

Here’s my schedule; I’d sincerely like to see you at some of my panels, so please stop by and join the conversation!

Friday 9/3

7P: Hyatt Cairo: The Wickedest Man In The World

The life, times, and influence of Aleister Crowley (Dark Fantasy Track)
Appearing with: Rosemary Ellen Gulley, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Jonathan Maberry
Moderator: Clay Gilbert

8:30P: Westin International C: The Myth and Reality of Victorian London

(Alternate History Track)
Appearing with: Jana Oliver, Carole Nelson Douglas, G.D. Falksen, Angelina Sparrow

Saturday 9/4

11:30A: Hyatt Roswell: Reading from and Falling, Fly and/or In Dreams Begin

5:30P: Marriott M301-4: Autographs

Sunday 9/5

11:30A: Hyatt Mont / Van: Dancing on the Head of a Pin

Angels & divine messengers in modern fantasy and horror (Dark Fantasy Track)
Appearing with: Christopher Golden, Jackie Kessler, Leanna Renee Hieber
Moderator: Carol Malcolm

7P: Westin International C: Gender & Race Inequalities in Alternate History

(Alternate History Track)
Appearing with: Ay-leen the Peacemaker

8:30P: Hilton 204: Books and Ideas live podcast

w. Ginger Campbell (m) and Christiana Ellis (Podcasting Track)

10P: Hyatt Mont / Van: A Taste For The Forbidden

BDSM themes in the vampire archetype. Adults only. (Dark Fantasy Track)
Appearing with: Laurell K. Hamilton, Rosemary Laurey, Diane Whiteside
Moderator: Michael Edward Miller

Friday 8/26

5-6PM: New Weird: Has the Old Normal Taken Over?
Have the concepts of New Weird been used and adapted enough that they aren’t really weird anymore?
http://www.armadillocon.org/sched.html#Fr1700SA
Appearing with: Mark Finn, Sanford Allen, Neal Barrett Jr., Elspeth Bloodgood
Moderator: Mikal Trimm

9-10PM: Links Between Fantasy and Horror
A discussion of the commonalities between dark fantasy and horror.
http://www.armadillocon.org/sched.html#Fr2100T
Appearing with: Jessica Reisman, Matt Cardin, William Browning Spencer
Moderator: Gabrielle Faust

Saturday 8/27

10-10:30AM: Reading from and Falling, Fly and/or In Dreams Begin

3-4PM: Vampires: From Folklore to Fanfic
Our panelists discuss the long history of vampires and the changes they have undergone over the years.
http://www.armadillocon.org/sched.html#Sa1500SB
Rick Klaw, Scott A. Cupp, Nate Southard, Nancy Holzner
Moderator: Mark Finn*,

Sunday 8/2

11AM-12PM: Is Lovecraft Hurting Horror?
H.P. Lovecraft was a brilliant writer. However, some of the people following him are less so. Is Lovecraftian writing hurting horror by giving people shortcuts?
http://www.armadillocon.org/sched.html#Su1100SA
Appearing with: Sanford Allen, Aaron Allston, Joe R. Lansdale, William Browning Spencer
Moderator: Donn Webb

12-1PM: Planning for Your Time Travel
So, you’re going back in time. What will you need to bring and what will you need to remember to make it?
http://armadillocon.org/sched.shtml#Su1200SB
Appearing with: J. Kathleen Cheney, Katharine Eliska Kimbriel, Patrice Sarath, Rosemary Clement-Moore, Tess Mallory
Moderator: Lou Antonelli

2-3PM: Group Signing
Signing with: Stephen Brust, Ilona Andrews, Ari Marmell, Gordon Andrews

Things are beginning to cook on In Dreams Begin in anticipation of its November launch. I thought I’d share a little taste with you; let me know what you think!

As children, Maud and Ida had walked thus, deliberate and slow, down Donnybrook Road, both of them shaking, although only Maud with fear. Arm in trembling arm again now, through the dark October graves, toward Georges’s tomb, Ida still needed to caution herself against skipping in her first giddy moment since arriving in France almost a month ago. The country irritated her, the rigorous attention the nation paid to beauty, the constant wine in small glasses, and how at home Maud was within it.

Ever the hostess—ever the French hostess, for all her Irish color—Maud had brought red wine and flowers to the crypt. Ida, always more practical, carried candles, blankets, and lap rugs. Maud unlocked the metal doors of Georges’s little memorial chapel, and Ida stepped into its dark of underground smells and windless cold.

Ida dropped the furs in a corner while Maud cursed benignly, burning matches, unable to make the flame stick to the candle wicks. If they lived together and entertained, they would bustle about thus, in friendly silence, preparing for their guests. But tonight only Lucien was expected, he and whatever spirits came, invited or otherwise. Ida tore the bloom from one of Maud’s flowers and scattered the petals over the altar. “Why don’t you let me light the candles, darling?” she suggested.

Maud leaned her back against the cold and unadorned stone wall. “Ida . . .”

“I know.” Ida kept her smile sympathetic, and took the matches from Maud’s ghost-white fingers. “Pour the wine.”

“Ida, I don’t think I can do what I . . .”

“Go ahead and have yourself a glassful, dear. We have more than enough for our communion.”

Maud took glasses from the wooden crate they had provisioned over several trips to the little mausoleum. Ida lit the candles, humming to herself. Maud already had a reputation for pleasant evening gatherings, but Ida would raise the tone of the soirées. She and Maud would talk Art and God with their guests, not only politics. The tomb’s rich, under-earth smell of graveworms and mushrooms crept over Ida. Maud had been too frightened of tonight to eat, but when they entertained together, Cook would serve duck in whiskey sauce, or salmon with morels.

The candles blazed like a birthday cake, dancing in the drafts admitted through the glassless windows and the open grate in the door. Possibly too from the colder metal doors in the cold stone floor. Maud sat on the provisions box, wordlessly taking her wine like the poison or medicine it was. “Did you want some, Ida?”

“No.”

“He will be here soon.”

“Yes, I should think so.” Ida stood over Maud, strong and unafraid, behind Maud’s sloping, robed shoulders. In Paris, Halloween festivities would be mocking the rites and devils Ida and Maud hoped to make real tonight, in the little village of Samois. Through the provincial streets to its tiny cemetery, Maud had walked, a priestess or a secret witch cloaked and hooded with Ida, her familiar bird, wing-in-elbow beside her. But inside Georges’s little burial chapel, Maud shrunk to an Irish crone, her ritual robes a weathered shawl wrapped over curling shoulders and the hollowed-out hole where her heart had been, and Ida, her carrion bird behind her.

She plucked the pins from Maud’s hair. “Let’s prepare you,” she whispered.

Maud did not move while Ida’s pecking fingers unwound the braided skeins of rust and shadow. It slithered free over Maud’s shoulders, and she absently pushed back the strands snaking into her face. She caught Ida’s hand in an icy grip. “Ida, I’m frightened.”

Maud choked on the blood-scraped whisper, but Ida had heard, and her smile broke like a towering thundercloud. Maud’s deathbed promise to her father broken—to never be afraid of anything, not even death—and Ida here beside her. She sank down beside Maud’s shuddering shoulders and wrapped her robe-winged arms around them. “Shhh,” she murmured, cheek in flowing hair, lips to sunken throat. “You must master your fear. There is no other way.”

Skye and son Egan at the 15,000-seat 4th-century BC Theatre of Epidaurus, Greece, 12 August 2010.

Wikipedia article on ancient Epidaurus

Skye in the ancient beehive tomb of Agamemnon, Mycenae, 11 August 2010.

So, they CALL it the ‘Tomb of Agamemnon’, but it isn’t, actually. (Nor is the Mask of Agamemnon actually Agamemnon’s.) It’s technically called the ‘Treasury of Atreus’, though it’s not a treasury either (though it was thought to be during Victorian archaeological expeditions).

It’s a ‘tholos’ or ‘beehive tomb’ from the 13th century BCE, the best-preserved such tomb in the world, and is an amazing space to be in. Thirteen rows of monolithic stones rise about 45′ to a conical center, like the inside of a beehive. The whole of the ancient city of Mycenae, where Agamemnon did in fact hang his helmet, is a one-of-a-kind place to visit.

Wikipedia article on the Treasury of Atreus

Another article about beehive tombs

Skye at the Theatre of Dionysus, the birthplace of theatre. Acropolis, Athens, Greece, 5 August 2010.

Theatre of Dionysus on Wikipedia.

Late at night, she calls me forth to cower in the corner whilst she watches Deadwood. Among the special features on the DVD was an incredible interview with creator David Milch, focused on his recipe for crafting gritty, historically influenced fiction. I’d love to share the link to this, but HBO in their infinite wisdom has locked down all Deadwood videos. You’ll need to pick it up on Netflix, etc.; but if you’re interested in the topic, you’ll be glad you did.

In the meantime, we find the last of the and Falling, Fly reviews continuing to trickle in, whilst we begin muddlings on the publicity plan for In Dreams Begin (November – here’s a nice preview/discussion from author friend Tracy Wolff).

Also, Skye is enjoyed her new friends and the lovely city of Minneapolis at the 4th Street Fantasy Con a week or so ago and is ramping up for appearances at RWA Nationals (7/28-8/1, Orlando, FL), Armadillocon (8/27-29, Austin, TX), Dragon*Con (9/3-6, Atlanta, GA), FenCon (9/17-19, Addison (Dallas), TX), and the Sirens women’s fantasy literature con (10/7-10, Vail, CO). Of these, I am only allowed to participate in Armadillocon (as her humble driver) and Dragon*Con (as her luggage-porter).

She approacheth — I must slink to the shadows.

Bitter hugs -

Thrall