Busy-Busy, and--um--BUSY!

Much as I'd love to post about my adventures at OryCon 32, I'm a bit busy today, so this will be a drop in, drop out update, just so you all know I'm not still in Portland.

Though goodness knows, the Voodoo Doughnuts there are so good they should be illegal and are certainly enough to tempt me to set up a permanent base!  I'll post more on that after I clear today's workload!

Right--update:

I've just signed two NEW book contracts!!! They've been in the oven since last summer, but only arrived this week. Yes, commercial publishing grinds slow, but very fine!

First--a new anthology!!!  HEX SYMBOLS for St. Martin's, an urban fantasy collection, is now a reality. Its contributors are a stellar lot:

• Ilona Andrews
• Jim Butcher
• Rachel Caine
• Carole Nelson Douglas
• Simon R. Greene
• Lori Handeland
• Erica Hayes
• Carrie Vaughn

---and your faithful editor!


No release date, sorry--the writers have to turn in their stories first!


The next contract is a long awaited project of mine--my first foray into the land of steampunk!

My excellent agent, Lucienne Diver of The Knight agency (shameless plug) closed a three- book deal with Tor for

ON HER MAJESTY'S PSYCHIC SERVICE

Titles have a tarot card theme: 1) The Hanged Man; 2) The Tower; 3) The Empress--and yes--of course the fate of the Empire is in dire peril!

In 1847, in reaction to increasing paranormal activity, Queen Victoria orders the formation of the Psychic Service, whose duty is to investigate such phenomena and either confirm or debunk it.  Of course the best psychics, physicists, and magicians in the realm are agents! 

This is an alternate history of England as well as a steampunk urban fantasy!

What's alternate?  Women get the vote in the 1850s.

Here ya go:

When informed at the age of ten that she was likely to be queen of England, it was reported that Her Royal Highness Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent replied, “I will be good.”

What she actually said was, “I will do good.”

Sometime in 1835—it is a well-kept secret—the sixteen-year-old princess escaped her highly managed routine and spent two weeks walking among commoners. The revelation of how ordinary folk lived and died made a profound impression on young “Drina.” She resolved to improve the lot of her people, especially that of women.

During this taste of freedom, she met the dashing Lord Arthur Godalming, who was in the right place at the right time to rescue her from street ruffians. It was love at first sight for both, and when she became queen two years later, iron-willed Victoria defied custom and changed law, allowing her to marry a peer rather than a prince.

The love match of Victoria and the Lord Consort Arthur marked the beginning of a new era of Enlightenment for England, and her progressive “Time of Women” policies changed the world.

The young monarch made her childhood declaration a reality.

Victoria’s Empire circles the globe, but the brass and steam progress of the Industrial Revolution has disturbed dark forces. Reason and science are in vigorous conflict with fear and superstition. The empress would not ignore the fact that something was supernaturally rotten in the state of England. In 1847 she called for the creation of a new department under the Ministry of Science.

This special branch, Her Majesty’s Psychic Service, is dedicated to investigating all matters supernatural, using the psychical gifts of those who serve in it to protect and preserve the realm.

The first book takes place in the winter of 1879.

Major players will be the Queen's god-daughter, Alexandrina Victoria Pendlebury (psychic forensics), Captain Claudius Miracle (airship pilot/mechanical engineer) and Alexander Humboldt Sexton (scientist/illusionist/debunking squad).   

They fight crime!  ;)

And now I have to WRITE this!  The first book has an April 2011 deadline.  Cheers!