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 [photo taken by Camille Alexa @ Kennedy Space Center]

I’ll be around & about November 12-14 at the OryCon SFF convention in Portland, Oregon.   This year’s theme is “The Darker Side of Fantasy.”  Guests of honor include Sharyn November and P.N. Elrod.  More info here.

My panel schedule for the weekend:

Artists, Writers or Loonies?* (Fri Nov 12 2:00:pm – 3:00:pm)
It has been said that writers, artists, filkers, and their ilk are successful because they are wired differently…How far off the beaten path are they?
Camille Alexa, Cat Rambo, Alma Alexander, Janet Freeman

Endeavour Awards** (Fri Nov 12 6:30:pm -7:00:pm)
2009 Endeavour Award: The Award honors the best SF/F book written by a Pacific Northwest writer.
Camille Alexa, Jim Fiscus, Cat Rambo, Sara A. Mueller, Sheila Simonson, Marilyn Holt

Camille Alexa Reading*** (Sat Nov 13 10:00:am -10:30:am)

Writing with all your senses**** (Sat Nov 13 1:00:pm -2:00:pm)
Writers are always reminded to write with all their senses…What writers can take for granted, and what they should use to enrich their writing.
Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Camille Alexa, Richard A. Lovett, K. C. Ball

Drowning in slush***** (Sat Nov 13 3:00:pm -4:00:pm)
The best and worst of slush…What makes a story stand out from the slush pile? Sharyn November, Cat Rambo, Camille Alexa, Elisabeth Waters

Steampunk: Victorian marvels of science fantastic******(Sun Nov 14 1:00:pm-2:00:pm)
Discuss and learn about the marvelous world of steampunk. What’s new and what’s classic in books, movies, art, toys and even music!
Andie Letourneau, P.N. Elrod, Gail Carriger, Camille Alexa
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Episode 2 of my serialized novella “Particular Friends” goes live Friday, Nov. 5 over at THE RED PENNY PAPERS. 

[cover art by Natalia Pierandrei]

“Particular Friends” has gone live at Red Penny Papers, offered in bite-sized chunks for greater online readability and suspense.  From Episode 1:

And so I–who loved my mother more at the age of six than any boy the age of seven or eight or ten would ever own to–I nodded, and dried my child-tears on the hem of her dress (widow-black bombazine providing not quite so much drying as one might wish), held my child-chin aloft, and waited for her smile and her kiss.

Oh, how I loved her! And when she left me on the steps of St. Barnaby’s Academy for Younger Gentlemen that day ten years ago in Londinium, I would not have let her go had I known I should never see her again . . . .

Art!  Adventure!  Gender-flip Victoriana!  Yay!

Full link: http://redpennypapers.com/2010/10/29/particular-friends-by-camille-alexa-episode-1/

The publishers are hoping to make Tuesday October 26 a big day for Machine of Death,  which includes my short story “Flaming Marshmallow and Other Deaths.”

From the MoD site:
This was Camille Alexa‘s first published story. She has since gone on to an illustrious writing career; her short story collection Push of the Sky (which includes her MOD story) is a finalist for the Endeavour Award, given annually to Pacific Northwest authors of science fiction & fantasy.

Since this (gorgeous!) anthology was years in the making, I’d argue the story–the first I ever wrote and submitted for publication–can’t quite claim the title of first published.  But there’s no doubt it would never have been written if not for this project.

• buy Machine of Death
• listen to Flaming Marshmallow & Other Deaths  at Escape Pod
• check out Shannon Wheeler, illustrator of “Flaming Marshmallow” in MoD and of Too Much Coffee Man