Agenda for the Gathering

Prepare to party at Nationals this year with FF&P on Thursday night. Go to the FF&P home page for information and the registration page to register. Hope to see you there.

The Gathering
Please take note of each time frame.

7:00pm Sit-down dinner
7:30 pm Prism Awards Ceremony
8:00 to 9:00pm Agent/Editor Panel
9:00pm Continue party

This schedule was set to minimize conflicts with other dinners and award events occurring on Thursday July 16th at the Mariott Wardman Park Hotel.

Theresa Kovian & Jennette Heikes, Prism Co-coordinators

PRISM Results

We'd like to congratulate all the finalists. Thank everyone who entered.

Jennette Heikes & Theresa Kovian are pleased to announce and congratulate our finalists in the Prism Contest in alphabetic order:

Dark Paranormal
Immortals: The Redeeming by Jennifer Ashley
Hotter After Midnight by Cynthia Eden
Mona Lisa Craving by Sunny

Erotica
A Mermaid’s Kiss by Joey W. Hill
Carnal Desires by Crystal Jordan
Siren Singing by Isabo Kelly

Fantasy
The Dragon Master by Jennifer Ashley w/a Allyson James
Dragonborn by Jade Lee
King of Sword & Sky by C.L. Wilson

Futuristic
Fallen by Claire Delacroix
Moonstruck by Susan Grant
Shades of Dark by Linnea Sinclair

Light Paranormal
La Vida Vampire by Nancy Haddock
The Trouble with Moonlight by Donna MacMeans
Wicked Game by Jeri Smith-Ready

Novella
“The Spacetime Pool” by Catherine Asaro
“Dark Nest” by Leanna Renee Hieber
“Kung Fu Shoes!” in These Boots were Made for Stomping by Jade Lee

Time Travel
Twist by Colby Hodge
Madman’s Dance by Jana G. Oliver
A Sexy Time of It by Cara Summers

Young Adult
Cave of Terror by Amber Dawn Bell
CHOSEN: A House of Night Novel by P.C. Cast
Sleepless by Terri Clark

Category winners and rankings, as well as the coveted Prism Statue Award, will be announced on July 16, 2009 in Washington D.C. at RWA® National and Fantasy, Futuristic & Paranormal Chapter at The Gathering.
Jennette Heikes, Co-coordinator for Dark Paranormal, Erotica, Novella & Time Travel
Theresa Kovian. Co-coordinator for Fantasy, Futuristic, Light Paranormal & Young Adult

Two Names… One Imagination

We're pleased to welcome author D. Renee Bagby to the FF&P blog in our Wednesday PAN series of blogs.

There are times when someone says something I know will never happen—supervisors giving us rules and tasks that make sense and are efficient, driving in traffic without morons, flipping on the news and not seeing something depressing, etc— and I ask that person, “Are there unicorns in your land of make believe?”.

Well, there are unicorns in my land of make believe, as well as dragons, magic-users, aliens, djinn and a whole host of other creatures my imagination desired. That is good and bad. Good because I shouldn’t run out of stories any time soon. Bad because… I won’t run out of stories any time soon.

To keep from overwhelming myself, I created seven Earth-based alternate universes with set rules for the humans and preternaturals. Some have histories close to ours and others have histories so different that the name of the planet isn’t even the same. That is my Multiverse collection written under my real name D. Renee Bagby.

The latest installment to my collection is Serenity, the introductory book for the Gezane Universe. Published with Samhain Publishing and available in ebook and print, this novel is a fantasy romance with inter-species themes. My hero Melchior is a bhresya, what the humans call demons because they come in technicolors and have horns. But they aren’t from the pits of hell and Melchior is sick of the warring between his people and the humans that developed because of that misconception.

He wants peace. Marriage to Serenity, the daughter of the queen from the largest human kingdom, is the perfect symbol of that peace. There are two problems with his plan. One—Serenity wants more than a political marriage with her husband. She wants love. Two—not everyone wants peace and they’ll go through Serenity to ensure it doesn’t last.

Find buy links and an excerpt for Serenity at http://dreneebagby.com/Books_Serenity.html

While neat little universes full of rules are fun, my muse will not be denied. I continually come up with story ideas that don’t fit my Multiverse. Rather than make the stories conform, I invented Zenobia Renquist, a second name with no boundaries. A pen name also alleviates future confusion as to whether a story belongs to the Multiverse or not.

Zenobia Renquist was officially born—and recognized—when Acknowledging Meirion was contracted with Red Rose Publishing. (Though contracted first it is the second published release under that name, but that’s another story entirely.) This sci-fi romance available in ebook and print has Meirion, the heroine, as the star of her own reality show… and she’s hating every filmed-second of it.

Being the center of attention should be a good thing, but it isn’t Earth-based and it’s more of a nature show documenting the lives of regular humans for viewers across the universe. The Fey have come to Earth several times but this time around they made their presence publicly known so a trade of culture could take place. Several humans have been chosen to be observed, including Meirion.

There is no privacy, except in the bathroom, and the camera is very obvious since it is located in the eyes of the three men sent to watch her day and night. To make matters worse, she’s attracted to Kiar, one of her cameramen, and he’s not allowed to even tell her if he reciprocates because of his people’s no acknowledgment policy.

Meirion isn’t one to let things lie. She wants an answer from Kiar and she’ll do whatever it takes to get it. To find out what she does and how Kiar reacts, visit http://dreneebagby.com/ZR_Books_Meirion.html for an excerpt and buy links.

I invite you to visit my land of make believe but have only one rule, no matter which name you choose… Leave Your Reality Behind.

D. Renee Bagby
Building New Realms of Passion…

Zenobia Renquist
Discover Different and Unique Romance

New Releases to Look For

From our FF&P authors this week:

NO FEAR by Allie Harrison is now released by ImaJinn Books
Released May 4, 2009

$14.00 U.S.
ISBN: 978-1-933417-48-6

http://www.imajinnbooks.com/

BLURB:

Welcome to Medusa's Island...
a vacation paradise complete with beautiful beaches and the quaint town of Medusa.

But the island's serenity is shattered when two young women are found dead from no apparent causes despite their expressions of terror. Chief of Police James Winchester and Emma Gray fear a monster from the past has returned to make Medusa its feeding ground.

With passion flaring between them and a storm isolating the island, Emma and James have no choice but to again face the horror of a killer who exploits the deepest fears of his victims.

When James and Emma discover that Emma is destined to be the next victim, will the love they share be strong enough to save them? Or will the monster finally finish what he stared five years before?

Seeking Truth
by Francesca Hawley

Publisher: Ellora's Cave Publishing
ISBN: 9781419922190

Release date: May 29, 2009

Buy link: http://www.jasminejade.com/ps-7260-50-seeking-truth.aspx

Excerpt link: http://www.jasminejade.com/productspecs/9781419922190.htm

Blurb:
Baron Eaduin Kempe, a man of intense passions, seeks a healer at a nearby abbey. When the abbess introduces convent-raised Lady Vérité de Sauigni, he knows he’s hellbound for desiring her. He wants to tie her to his bed until she sobs with the pleasure of his touch.

Eaduin offers Vérité marriage in exchange for easing t he pain of his dying foster mother. Years ago, Vérité secretly watched Baron Eaduin arouse a lover and has dreamed of his touch ever since. She desires him enough to risk exchanging the imprisonment of convent life for that of marriage. On their wedding night, Eaduin craves dominance and Vérité submits with enthusiasm. Each heated encounter thereafter binds them closer together.

When Vérité’s father accuses her of witchcraft because she won’t use her psychic gift of seeing truth to aid him, she begs Eaduin to kill her so she doesn’t suffer. Instead, Eaduin challenges her father to trial by combat, determined to save her because she owns both his passion and his heart.

Creating Dark Characters

We'd like to welcome PAN author Cynthia Eden to the our blog for the first installment of Fantasy, Futuristic, and Paranormal Chapter's Published Authors Network guest blogs. Check back every Wednesday for a new PAN guest.

In a little over a month, my next release, MIDNIGHT’S MASTER, will be on bookstore shelves. This was such a fun book to write—but also a very challenging one. You see, this book is the third in a trilogy, and in the previous books, well, my hero wasn’t exactly one of the “good” guys. In fact, he’d killed in other books.

So my challenge with this dark character? Redeeming him. Making him into an anti-hero that the heroine and reader could fall for, while still keeping the dark edge that he’d acquired.

Now, please, don’t get me wrong. I love dark characters—I’m a long time fan of Spike and to me, he is one of the best dark characters out there. But dark characters do pose a challenge. You have to be careful and not go too dark with them.

For the other authors and readers out there, what is too dark for you?

And, in case you’re curious, here’s the blurb for my dark story, MIDNIGHT’S MASTER (available 6/30/09 from Kensington Brava):

***

Tall, dark, and formidable, Niol Lapen is the last demon on earth most people would ask for a favor, yet the sexy little reporter who wanders into his club dares to do exactly that. Holly Storm already knows too much about his kind, and Niol has no wish to help her get in deeper over her head. But working alongside her may be the only way to stop a killer, even as it ignites a primal desire unlike anything he’s known.

Holly has seen firsthand what Niol is capable of, but that doesn’t frighten her nearly as much as her body’s instinctive reaction to him, or the wild, fierce passion that would tempt her to follow him through hell itself. Something evil and relentless is prowling the streets of Atlanta. And as Holly’s search leads her into danger that even Niol could never have predicted, she’ll uncover a secret that could rip her world apart….

***

Happy Reading!
Cynthia Eden
http://www.cynthiaeden.com/
IMMORTAL DANGER—Available now
MIDNIGHT’S MASTER—Available 6/30/09
Play on the dark side…