Philippa Ballantine - Author

Award-winning Author of fantasy, science fiction, and steampunk

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Guest Lolita – getting steamy!

I feel like I am remiss in saying how much I enjoyed Balticon– and it wasn’t just being able to announce the Eos deal. It was without doubt the most fun I have ever had at a con. Low drama, high friendship. I got to meet old friends, and meet lots of brand new ones. The only downside was I feel like I missed out on spending quality time with everyone- but that is just me wishing the event could have gone on for another four days.

I highly recommend Balticon as a convention where you are going to meet cool people, have a great time, and yet not be as overwhelmed as attending something like DragonCon.

But in lieu of a full run down, I present my post as a guest Lolita over at Steamed. I give the dish on the steampunk awesomeness I witnessed at Balticon, and talk about the wonderous Jared Axelrod and his fabulous news too.

If steampunk is your thing (and I sure hope it is) then subscribe to Steamed and get the dish from the lovely Lolitas.

Joining the Ministry

The big news- the news we announced at Balticon- is now out there.

Coming in summer 2011 the project Tee Morris and I wrote and talked about many, many times whose working title is Books and Braun, will be published by Eos Books.

Diana Gil will be working with us to whip this steampunk romp into taunt, terrific shape, and both of us are very excited about that. Eos is an imprint of HarperCollins, so you will be able to find this book on your shelves. This is a two book deal, so the title of the book will most likely be the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences: Phoenix Rising.

The second book is being written, and once again I am having a blast being in this universe. These characters have snappy dialogue, fabulous fashion and tend to make things go BOOM!

There will be a complimentary short story podcast planned- where many backstory threads will be explored- including why exactly Eliza got exiled from New Zealand, and what sort of childhood made Wellington into an Archivist.

Keep an eye on the website ministryofpeculiaroccurrences.com where these things will appear, and an introduction to the Ministry and its Agents can be found.

Eliza and Welly are also continuing their sparring on Twitter- and also sharing a daily news story in the world of steampunk. Follow them on BooksandBraun

This is big news- especially after my recent move of leaving my librarian day job, and to say this is a thrill is an understatement. As Super Agent Laurie McLean says so often ‘ONWARD!’

Art and Fun

You know I love the cover Jason Chan did for Geist. I know the people at Ace love it too. Jason is an amazingly talented artist, so having him bring Sorcha and the Rossin to life was just wonderful to me.

So I encouraged him to make the print available, and he has! I have placed my order for the biggest one for my wall- and if you want the same, then head on over to the print shop and order.

So that’s the art, now here’s the fun….

Balticon!

This Memorial Day weekend in Baltimore, writers, costumers and tons of New Media producers will be gathering for networking, partying and chit chat. If you can join us then please do.

Here’s where you will be able to find me

Readings

From the upcoming release Geist- 1PM Sunday in the Pimlico Room

With Tee Morris- Books and Braun Chapter Two (including a special announcement!!) – 11PM Sunday in the Chesapeake Suite

Live Recordings

Metamor City – 5pm Saturday at the Chesapeake Suite

Girls’ Rules- 4PM Sunday in the Chesapeake Suite

Panels

Social Media for the Midlist author – 6pm Friday in the Chesapeake Suite

What’s Steamy in New Media? – 11AM Monday in the Derby Room

DragonMoon Press Booth

A host of DragonMoon Press authors will be there; Christiana Ellis, Val Griswold Ford, PG Holyfield, Tee Morris, and Phil Rossi. We will all be taking turns manning the DMP booth in the dealers room. So pop on over, buy a book (or three) and have it signed. We’d all love to meet you.

Books of the Order

Just got back from New York- which is a city which both excites and confuses me. I love the energy of it, but it also is the one place in the world where I seem to be always in the wrong spot on the pavement.

However it was also the place I got to do something I had dreamed about. I got to see the inside of the big publishing house. I am sure that such things become very run-of-the-mill to people who have long been published by the likes of Harper-Collins, St Martins or Penguin. However for me it was breathtaking.

I got to meet my editor Danielle, chat with the marketing department, and pass pleasantries with Ginjer Buchanan (who I share a byline with in the upcoming a Taste of True Blood). I also got a bunch of free books to read. If I had only had larger luggage!

Part of the marketing push is my new site dedicated to the Geist series. Not much there yet, but it will be hosting the wallpapers, stories, and podcasts connected with the series. So if you want to keep an eye on the coming developments, jump on in and subscribe.

I’m looking forward to the anthology series, and seeing what others do in my universe- including my delightful agent Laurie McLean.

Give it away…

If you are in the podcast fiction sphere you will have heard of P G Holyfield and Murder at Avedon Hill. Patrick spent countless hours entertaining people with his full cast production of this fantasy murder mystery.

As well as being full of great voice talent (achemmm) MaAH is a great story- so it was only natural that Dragon Moon Press picked up the novel. Patrick is doing an Amazon rush event tomorrow the 15th of May, so read the flyer about what you need to do.

If I haven’t convinced you yet… how about a free taste? Then I have a sample for you here.

I know what I will be doing tomorrow!

The endless list

Week Two of professional writer and gentle reader, I do hope you have stuck with me. [CAUTION; this blogpost contains more than its fair share of brackets…see I already I am knee deep in them]

Here’s what I have been up to.

Dropped into LA, and this was the first time I have actually been outside of the airport! (Even if only briefly). I met [CENSORED] to talk about [REALLY CENSORED]- which as you can imagine was pretty cool. (As soon as I can possibly talk about this I will)

But because of all that I got a chance to hang out with three fabulous stars of the pod/vidcast community. Mark Jeffrey of the Pocket and the Pendant, Earl Newton of Stranger Things and Matthew Wayne Selznick of Brave Men Run. I’ve met Earl before (the details of how however stay in DragonCon) but never had a chance to meet Matt or Mark.

Mark was lovely enough to drive me to Venice where all of us sat down for a night of sushi and sake. Needless to say, we made Earl late for his late night LA meeting, but it was hella fun, and hopefully we didn’t wreck his chances of being the next (INSERT YOUR FAVOURITE DIRECTOR HERE)

Every time I meet with people from the podosphere I have a blast, and this was no different. I’ve come to the conclusion that aside from a few outliers, those in the community of creators are just as they appear to be online. It is always a delight to meet them.

I then flew to Virginia, and was on the road when I finally managed to get the first draft of Spectre to my editor at Ace. I don’t mind saying I was sweating bullets when I sent it to super agent Laurie. This is my first real sequel. (Yes Digital Magic is the sequel to Chasing the Bard, but only one character is the same, and the time elapsed is huge) And here’s the two things I realised.

  1. When you sign the contract, start immediately!
  2. Sequels are harder-because you just don’t have the flexibility you had in the original. The world rules are laid down, and you must abide by them.
  3. Relax and have fun within those rules

Luckily Laurie came back and said she loved it- now we just wait to hear from Ace. I am sure there will be plenty of edits, but I will enjoy the breather.

Since then I have been attacking the aforementioned endless list. You know all those- things that pile up while your concentration is diverted. The email. The promotional ideas. The opportunities you couldn’t afford to miss.

I wrote myself a long list at the beginning of this week, and am slowly getting through it. Each one I strike off (even if others do spring up like the heads of the Hydra) seems like a little victory. I am slowly whittling it down to just ‘the big things’- like write another book or two.

Some of the other things I have managed to get in motion are

  • Digital Magic back on track
  • Erotica a la carte itunes app in the pipeline
  • Applied for my free trial of Voices123.com (we’ll see how much professional work I can get there)
  • Got permission to make some Geist promotional items with Jason Chan’s awesome artwork for Geist
  • Started work on the website that will contain all the promotional and podcast work for Geist geistnovel.com
  • Started work on my three short stories for Books and Braun: Bookmarks from the Ministry
  • Sort out who I want to ask to write for me for the Geist podcast anthology.
  • Send out scripts for the 3rd quarter of Digital Magic podcast
  • Started planning and plotting for a third Order book to pitch to Ace

Ahead lie so many cool things, that I want to clear the desk a bit first.

I will be in New York City on May 17th, so if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook there will be an announcement of an casual get together. And then of course there will be a chance to catch me at Balticon– along with a clutch of other podcast authors. I’ll be at the DragonMoon Press booth, doing two readings, panels and participating in live recordings for other peoples projects. It’s going to be a fun weekend- so come along and say hi if you can.