With no Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading in sight (sob), this year's Capclave schedule is a peach. I'll be participating in just three program items
Friday, 7 p.m.
Magical Worlds–The various uses of magic in fantasy, science fiction, horror and mainstream fiction. From the Force to spells, the panel will also look at unique forms of magic in a variety of books. Panelists: Danny Birt, Stuart Jaffe (moderator) and Jean Marie Ward
Saturday, 8 p.m.
Capclave Mass Autograph Session–A gathering of all the Capclave authors in one place, ready to sign books and chat!
Saturday, 9 p.m.
Washington Science Fiction Association Small Press Award and Party–Join us for the announcement of the winner of the WSFA Small Press Award. There will also be some other surprises revealed, plus cake! (Have I mentioned I'm nominated? With Capclave guests of honor Carrie Vaughn and Catherynne M. Valente? And Sarah Monette? And Jack McDevitt? And RJ Astruc? (You can't see it on the page, but my grin's reeeeeeaaaaaalllly wide right now. 
Heck yeah, there will be cake! And photos, too.)
This leaves me a lot of time to hang with friends, take pictues and, hopefully, shoot a few new author videos for Buzzy. So drop by and take in a few panels–they don't even have to be mine. You'll be glad you did. Promise!
Posted 7 months, 1 week ago at 10:58 am. Add a comment
For those of you who view clicking through picture galleries with the same horror our parents reserved for slide shows of Aunt Ermintrude's trip to the Catskills, today's post at Beyond the Veil is for you. I've cherry-picked some of my best photos of Dragon*Con 2011 and wrapped them in the lightest of all possible con reports. And there isn't a panel table anywhere in sight. Enjoy!
Posted 7 months, 3 weeks ago at 9:25 am. Add a comment
This one totally blew me away. Lord Bai’s Discovery” from the anthology Dragon’s Lure has made the short list for the Washington Science Fiction Association’s 2011 Small Press Award, along with stories by Sarah Monette, Carrie Vaughn, Jack McDevitt, Catherynne M. Valente and RJ Astruc. The awards will be presented at Capclave, October 14-16, in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
I’m still pinching myself–to think my story about a foodie dragon is being read in such company… I may need a glass of champagne just to calm down.
And to think the only news I thought I’d have today was the posting of Michael Swanwick’s Balticon interview. Which you should totally read. He’s one of the best raconteur’s ever. Then you can go back to watching me shriek and caper around the computer.
Posted 8 months ago at 6:58 pm. 1 comment
Thursday, September 15th, 2011 | Author: jmward14 | cover art | No Comments
I’m not the only one who thinks the cover for Hellebore & Rue is simply gorgeous. The cover made it to the finals in the first round of Rainbow Awards judging. So did a cover by one of my favorite people: Anne Cain. Let the best cover win, even if I really, really hope it’s ours. 
Posted 8 months ago at 12:00 am. Add a comment
Cruxshadows violinist JoHanna Moresco demonstrates violin technique to a young friend before Monday morning's concert.
It’s been a challenging week here at Casa Ward/Uchrin. Days of rain succeeded in doing what earthquake and hurricane failed to do: postpone my work on my Dragon*Con photos and videos.
We’re still dealing with the aftermath of the flood, but the photos are sorted and posted at Flickr. I plan to post a Thursday Thirteen at Beyond the Veil in the near future, but Flickr’s the place if you want to see the complete set.
Meanwhile, Buzzy Multimedia has posted my interviews with authors Maria V. Snyder and Paolo Bacigalupi. We’re also tweaking my Tour of Tor. I’ll post the link soon.
Finally, I want to remind everybody that my story “Billy’s Monster” will be published in Hellfire Lounge II: Rat Pack Redux. The story leans more toward horror than my usual, but with a scheduled publication date of late September/early October, it’s certainly in keeping with the season. 
Posted 8 months, 1 week ago at 7:34 pm. Add a comment
One of the best things about being a writer is being able to post a convention schedule. Not only is it a measure of your achievement, it also means you’ll be seeing your long distance friends. And when the schedule happens to be for Dragon*Con, well, let the party begin!
Friday, September 1
11:30 AM: Just the Facts, Ma’am
Description: Non-fiction is a market that needs good writers. If this appeals to you, come listen to these pros tell you how to make it happen.
M Chapman, G. D. Falksen, John L. Flynn, Anya Martin, and Jean Marie Ward
Location: Manila / Singapore / Hong Kong – Hyatt (Length: 1 Hour)
8:30 PM: New and Next Weird
Description: New weird, mash-up, slipstream, interstitial, crossover… what does the future of “genre” hold, especially for the darker fringes of fantasy?
Lou Anders, Stephen H. Segal, Ann VanderMeer, Jeff Vandermeer, and Jean Marie Ward
Location: Cairo – Hyatt (Length: 1 Hour)
10 PM: Broad Universe Reading
Description: Quick cuts read by some by the women authors of Broad Universe
Gail Z. Martin, Jody Lynn Nye, Jean Marie Ward, Trisha Wooldridge (moderator) and many more.
Location: Greenbriar – Hyatt (Length: 1 Hour)
Sunday, September 4
1 PM: Broad Universe Reading Part 2
Description: More great reads by the women authors of Broad Universe.
Gail Z. Martin, Jean Marie Ward and many more.
Location: Fairlie – Hyatt (Length: 1 Hour)
Monday, September 5
11:30 AM: Win, Lose or Draw – SF and Fantasy style
Description: A replay of our popular game show where your job is to draw sf and fantasy names and phrases to get others to guess them. Prizes available.
MC: Jean Marie Ward
Location: Fairlie – Hyatt (Length: 1 Hour)
Hope to see you there!
Posted 8 months, 3 weeks ago at 1:48 am. Add a comment
Yeah, I know, you’ve been wondering whether I forgot how to do this blog thing. Not quite. I just wanted to save it until I had something to make you go Ooooooh! And I do, Ben Fogletto’s wonderful cover for Hellfire Lounge 2, where you’ll find one of my darker little stories, “Billy’s Monster”.
I don’t have an ISBN or release day yet, but when I do, you’ll hear it here first. Not to worry, you won’t be bored in the meantime. It’ll take days to see all the fabulous details in this image. Enjoy!
Posted 8 months, 4 weeks ago at 12:27 pm. Add a comment
Tuesday, July 19th, 2011 | Author: jmward14 | Blog | 4 Comments
Like everybody else, I’m stricken by the news that Borders, which for years served as my happy place for books, will be no more. I can’t offer enough sympathy and good wishes to its employees–or rain enough curses on the heads of its inept and wrong-headed management.
My mom used to say laughter cures all ills. As far as I know, it doesn’t do beans for a job hunt. But in the hopes that it might make the evenings afterward more bearable, I offer you two BroadPods. I really should’ve mentioned Lord Bai and I were in the April episode, which also features Jody Lynn Nye’s reading from her new comic space opera and K.A. Laity’s meditation on Mad Hatter economics, as well as novel excerpts from from Shauna Roberts and Lynda Williams.
But the real news in this post is the unveiling of the July BroadPod, just in time for bookstore relief. Jody hosts this one, which features Jaleta Clegg’s new take on “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, Tracy S. Morris’s Bubba vacation tale and Justine Graykin’s job security-seeking spies. And, oh yeah, a little passage of mine about sirens and strudel. You know the one. Mwahahahaha!
(P.S., Yes, I did consider this important enough to say it twice. I originally posted this on my News page, but I felt it needed wider play. After all, how often does a girl get introduced by Jody Lynn Nye? )
Posted 10 months ago at 2:35 pm. 4 comments
This is so good I’m dancing. Patricia Bray and Joshua Palmatier announced the table of contents for their new fantasy anthology, The Modern Fae’s Guide to Surviving Humanity, coming from DAW Tekno Books in March 2012. And the writers are:
Introduction by Patricia Bray and Joshua Palmatier
“We Will Not Be Undersold” by Seanan McGuire
“Changeling” by Susan Jett
“Water-Called” by Kari Sperring
“The Roots of Aston Quercus” by Juliet E. McKenna
“To Scratch an Itch” by Avery Shade
“Continuing Education” by Kristine Smith
“How To Be Human™” by Barbara Ashford
“How Much Salt” by April Steenburgh
“Hooked” by Anton Strout
“Crash” by S. C. Butler
“Fixed” by Jean Marie Ward
“A People Who Always Know” by Shannon Page & Jay Lake
“The Slaughtered Lamb” by Elizabeth Bear
“Corrupted” by Jim C. Hines
Yes! That’s me on that list! “Fixed” is the story of a teenaged cat shifter who gets taken to an animal shelter while wearing fur. Needless to say, he really REALLY doesn’t want to get “Fixed”.
Although you won’t be able to hold the book (or the pixels of the ebook version) in your hands until March, The Modern Fae’s Guide to Surviving Humanity is available for pre-order on a number of sites, including Amazon. Buy, buy, buy! In multiples, if you can. Patricia and Joshua were so much fun to work with, I’d love to do it again.
Meanwhile, I’m grinning from ear to ear.
Posted 10 months, 1 week ago at 8:56 pm. Add a comment
Wednesday, July 6th, 2011 | Author: jmward14 | Blog | No Comments
I flatter myself to think some of you wondered where I disappeared to after announcing my return from New York. I planned to spread my usual nonsense on Facebook and Twitter after I finished my docent shift at Alexandria’s Carlyle House yesterday. Instead, Greg and I attended the after hours viewing of a friend who shouldn’t have died.
We say that a lot when someone dies, especially if we don’t want them to leave us behind. In this case it was the bald truth. Brian was healthy and happy, a top stagehand with a wife who loved him and a teenaged daughter who, by her own description, didn’t know the sun didn’t rise and set on him until she was somewhere around thirteen. But last Thursday, when he was heading home on his motorcycle after an evening show, he was struck and killed by a drunk driver.
His family, his wife’s family, the extended family of his union local and all the people like Greg who’d been his friends from college made the viewing a crowded, loving affair. It would’ve been even livelier if we could’ve lifted our glasses as befitted his Irish heritage. Unfortunately, U.S. funeral homes don’t have liquor licenses–a terrible, terrible oversight on their part.
As a stagehand, Brian wore black nearly every day of his life, and he hated it. So black was banned from the proceedings. His daughter and I wore pink. Greg donned peacock blue. The dress code for the packed funeral mass was Hawaiian shirts. I never thought I’d wear a Hawaiian shirt to a funeral. Yet it fit on so many levels. There was a great band–playing liturgical music, but you can’t have everything. Even better, the soloist “didn’t step on the cat” during “Ave Maria”. The priest and the folks delivering the eulogies made us laugh and cry in equal measure. The priest, in particular, seemed determined to talk about “the life of Brian”. He must’ve been a Monty Python fan, too.
After it was over, Brian’s daughter gathered friends and family to sing “Piano Man”, because he’d turned her on to Billy Joel when she was seven. His college buds lined up beside the hearse to give him a Benny Hill salute and vowed, whichever one of them was next, to make sure “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” was played at the ceremony.
It was as good a send-off as it gets. But that doesn’t change the fact that he shouldn’t have been in that box. It doesn’t change the fact that his wife has lost her best friend, or that his daughter will never have him applauding at her high school graduation, moaning about college costs or giving her away at her wedding. They were robbed of his presence and his love for no reason at all.
I try not to inject too much of the personal into my posts. I keep politics off my Fan page and the inevitable writer whining to a minimum. But this needs to be said, and I don’t think anybody will disagree when I say it. When you’re driving in your car, your truck or whatever kind of wheeled carton you take on the highway, look out for motorcyclists and bicyclists and pedestrians. There’s nothing between them and the pavement except you.
And for the sake of Whomever or Whatever you consider holy in DON’T. DRIVE. DRUNK.
Posted 10 months, 2 weeks ago at 4:01 pm. Add a comment
