Diana Rowland — Writing, Life, and the Stuff in between

Doug Knipe at SciFiGuy.ca reviews Mark of the Demon.

I think he liked it.

::dies::

Margaret Ronald’s post at the Magic District today is utterly awesome and funny.

That change in air pressure you felt was my huge sigh of relief after turning in Blood of the Demon (sequel to Mark of the Demon) with hours to spare before my deadline. Hours! ::faints in relief and exhaustion::

My poor neglected blog. (Yeah, how many times have I said that before?!)

CoastCon was more fun than I could have ever expected. The convention staff was awesome and treated me quite well. My reading was surprisingly well-attended, i.e. there were several people there who I did not already know! My panels went very well, and the audience was absolutely fantastic–asking terrific and well thought out questions that really kept the topics moving along. I met several new people: the very lovely and nice Jeannie Holmes, who also has books coming out from Bantam; Mark van Name, an incredibly interesting and fun author; as well as Raymond Boudreau and Randolph Allen who were instrumental in making my con experience a delightful one.

I also had the chance to hang out with old friends, including John Picacio and Chris Roberson. Through them I was able to meet Michael Moorcock, and when we all went out to dinner I had a bit of a “Is this really my life?” moment when I realized I was hanging out with a writer whom I’d practically idolized.

Anyway, I had a great deal of fun, and I very much hope to be invited back next year!

85 days left until the release of Mark of the Demon!

The sequel, Blood of the Demon, will (hopefully) be turned in quite soon (right now I’m just waiting for my agent to approve the rewrites,) and I’m currently at work sketching out the plot for the next book, as well as the details to the series arc in general. I’m super-excited at where these books are going to go, and I think that the readers are going to really enjoy it as well. Yes, there is a definite end to the series (right now I think it will be ~6 books in all,) and it already makes me cry (in a good way!) thinking about the final outcome of it all.

But, in the meantime, be sure to check out the great group blog that I participate in: The Magic District ! Lots of really great content there, and we’ll be having some nifty giveaways fairly soon, so be sure to bookmark it!

I’ll be at Coast Con 32 in Biloxi, MS this weekend! If you decide to stop in, you can find me at the following times and doing the following things:

Friday

4:00 pm: Reading (Panel Room Two)

6:30 pm: Function - Meet the Guests Party (Hotel Ballroom)

8:00 pm: Panel – Crime Scene Investigations For The Writer (Panel Room One)

Saturday

11:00 am: Panel – Writing Urban Fantasy (Panel Room Two with Jeannie Holmes)

3:00 pm: Panel — Adding A Little Dixie Into Sc-Fi (Panel Room Three with Michael Moorcock and Jeannie Holmes)

I think I’m also doing a panel with Mark van Name on Sunday, but I’m unsure of details. At any rate, I hope to see some of y’all there!

We’re still not quite sure what adventures my beautiful banner went on during Mardi Gras, but apparently it turned up again after the festivities were over! (See earlier post for more details)

::happy happy dance dance::
This banner had been made for me as a gift from one of my husband’s friends who is part owner of a print shop. He had a stage near Gallier Hall during Mardi Gras (and the week before), and he had offered to have a banner made and then hang it at his stage–where it would be seen by a few hundred thousand people. And then it disappeared, and everyone assumed it had been stolen.

Obviously it simply decided it wanted to go and party down in the French Quarter. I hope it got a lot of beads!

For all of my talk about how to network, and how to make friends, and how to work a room, I have to confess that I still tend to come away from conversations with people I admire/respect absolutely certain that I’ve said something that has convinced them that I’m a socially inept boob whose presence is something to be endured and whose departure is a reason for sighs of relief and high-fives of celebration.

Seriously, I’ve never claimed to be sane.

Anyway, Gena Showalter was signing books at the Borders in Metairie on Monday, and since I happened to be on that side of the lake for my writer’s group meeting I decided to swing by and meet her. Besides, she’s been high on my list of authors whose work I want to read (especially lately since I’ve been on a paranormal romance bender), so I figured it was fortuitous. She turned out to be a truly delightful woman with a great sense of humor and I had a marvelous time talking to her. I told her that I had a book coming out this year, and I was even able to show off my awesome cover art (since I’d brought a couple of flats to my writers group.) She oohed and aahed, we chatted briefly about writing (oh my god, the woman writes a chapter a day! I’m in total awe of that kind of production!), and then I bought one of her books and headed on home.

And, of course, the entire way home (45 minute drive) I agonized over our conversation, utterly certain that any number of my various comments had been insulting, or that I shouldn’t have mentioned my forthcoming book, or that all of things that I’d thought were witty and interesting were, in fact, boorish and dull… So, Ms. Showalter, if I did happen to say anything that was offensive or just plain uncool, I sincerely apologize!

Hello, my name is Diana, and I’m ridiculously neurotic! *g*

Dear person who stole my very awesome and beautiful 2′ x 8′ banner advertising my book from the stage near Gallier Hall–yes, the banner that would have been seen by about a hundred thousand Mardi Gras revelers had it remained where it was:

I hope you at least buy a copy of the book.

Not-very-best regards,

Me

The Magic District is up and running, and my latest post is up: After the sale–Part One

I’m thrilled to announce that tomorrow is the launch of a seriously cool new group blog of fantasy and paranormal authors at The Magic District! And look! I’m one of the authors! Woo!

I’m really excited about this, and I think it’s going to be a terrific site for readers and writers. The other authors participating are Tim Pratt, Greg van Eeekhout, Rachel Aaron, Margaret Ronald, and Nora Jemison. Needless to say I’m utterly delighted to be in such awesome company!

To quote from the opening post:

We’re a small group of fantasy authors, with books ranging from alternate history to paranormal to fantasy that defies categorization. Drawing upon a broad range of experience, we hope to provide to our readers (and potential readers as well) an insight into our work and craft, while also giving behind-the-scenes glimpses into our experiences in the publishing industry. We plan on having articles that will cover a wide range of topics such as: themes in urban fantasy, whether heroes can really be trusted, how writing is like making chili, and how to improve your chances of landing the right agent for you.

But that’s not all! We’ll also have contests and giveaways of awesome prizes and signed copies of our books, as well as the occasional special feature piece of short fiction.

So, drop by tomorrow for our official launch and get to know us!