Now in its third year, the Dragon Awards are held during Dragon Con, the legendary convention in Atlanta that brings the city to a halt by bringing together tens of thousands of fans of speculative fictions novels, movies, comics, games, and more.

I...have never been to Dragon Con, but that will not stop me from lobbying for your vote! You also do not need to go to Dragon Con to nominate my eligible fantasy novel, Wings Unseen, for a Dragon Award. These awards are entirely voted on by fans, and all that needs to be done to nominate is to register and confirm your email address then fill in your nominations - and you don't even need to give a nomination for every category. But you can! Categories include not only best novels and comic books but best games and movies from multiple platforms.

Don't you want me to have one of these bright, shiny trophies?

If you deem Wings Unseen worthy, go ahead and give it a nod. It'll just take a few minutes to complete the form here. I suggest the Best Fantasy Novel category vs Best Young Adult Novel category, but use whichever one you feel the book most fits. And thanks for your support!

Tomorrow night (5/31) at 7 pm, I'm reading at the Literary Speakeasy, an awesome collection of writers from many genres, curated by James J. Siegel, a San Francisco-based poet and all-around great guy. Here's the Facebook invitation.

The Literary Speakeasy takes place at Martuni's, everybody's favorite bar for karaoke and fruity, high ABV cocktails on the corner of Valencia and Market in San Francisco. Head straight toward the back room to find us. James always makes sure the energy is warm and welcoming, and I'll make sure to read you some stories that'll entertain. My fellow readers this evening will be Rohan DaCosta, Bud Gundy, Chad Koch, and Riss Rosado. There will also be a raffle!

Come take in the unexpected journey through five writers' minds, with a cocktail as your compass. See you tomorrow!

It's the Nebulas Weekend! Rejoice!

I leave tomorrow for Pittsburgh, and though it'll be raining for the whole conference, I am excited to spend these next five days in the company of my fellow Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). Last year, I hit up a bunch of cons to aid in promoting my first book, Wings Unseen, and the Nebulas Weekend was absolutely the most beneficial to me. It's essentially a professional development conference for speculative fiction authors, though the public is welcome to attend as well.

Last year, I just took in all that the Nebulas Weekend had to offer. This year, I'm dipping my toe into programming--not paneling yet, but I'll be available for consulting on what I've learned this past year, and over my several years of fiction writing and critiquing, and for the Mass Autograph Session that closes the weekend. You can access my list of events here: (CLICK ME!)

The quick overview is that I'll be holding Office Hours twice during the conference:

• Thursday, May 17th, 4-5 pm
• Friday, May 18th, 12-1 pm

During those sessions, I'll be available for any conference attendee to drop in for advice on my areas of expertise:

• Organizing book readings/tour
• Organizing in-person critique groups
• Submitting fiction and novels

And one area of expertise I forgot to add to my description...

• Blogging about food, drink, and travel, which I do primarily at the Gourmez.

Please drop by! I'm sure it'll be a little lonely in there...actually, I'm not so sure! Because the Nebulas Weekend is great networking for writers, no matter whether at a session or over the hotel bar.

I will also take part in the Mass Autographing Session for the first time, as this is the first time I have a novel available for signing.

I believe that image has all the info you may want on the Mass Autographing Session. Wings Unseen should be fully stocked in the onsite bookstore, though you can bring already purchased books-- so feel free to bring a copy of Dark Luminous Wings or Through A Scanner Farkly as well, the two anthologies that published my short stories last year.

I'll be ready and waiting to sign a copy for you. This session is open to the public, and it's a great opportunity to hobnob with a huge number of SFWA authors in one place.

Off I go to finish my last bit of packing! Will I see you there?

Live in wine country? Come check out the Reading Between the Vines Salon Series at Moshin Vineyards in Healdsburg! On Monday, March 19, 2018 at 6 pm, I'll be reading in Moshin's tasting room as part of this unique literary series (Full info here).

Reading Between the Vines celebrates the writers in residence for the Writing Between the Vines fellowship, for which I was a runner up last year. Writing Between the Vines is an organization that offers yearly retreats for writers, sponsoring their lodging at the host wineries. Can you imagine the freedom to write unfettered with a beautiful winery for your scenery? Talk about a dream...I really need to re-apply this year!

I do hope you'll join me if you live in the area. I'll be sharing wine-soaked selections from my fantasy and horror fiction. Also appearing will be Rick Bailey, a winner of the fellowship:

Rick Bailey grew up in Freeland, Michigan, on the banks of the Tittabawassee River. In college he studied English language and literature. He then moved to Detroit and taught writing for 38 years at Henry Ford College. Sometime after finishing his doctorate, he wrote textbooks for McGraw-Hill: The Creative Writer’s Craft (2009), On the Go (2011), and Going Places (2011). A Midwesterner long married to an Italian immigrant, he has learned the language and food of Italy. University of Nebraska Press published his memoir in essays, American English, Italian Chocolate. And he is currently preparing a second collection of essays, tentatively titled When the Wine God Speaks. http://rick-bailey.com/

Sounds like Rick's work will have us salivating! See you at Moshin next Monday.

Find me at FogCon this coming weekend! I'll be moderating, sitting on panels, and giving a reading during this jam-packed three days of speculative fiction lovers and writers coming together in Walnut Creek.

The Borderlands vendor table will have copies of Wings Unseen for sale, should you be looking to pick up a copy. And I'll have a pen for signing, of course. Don't be shy, just come up and ask for that signature!

Here's my schedule during the con:

• Friday, 3/9, I'm moderating The Play Within the Play: An Analysis of Going Meta in Speculative Fiction at 3 pm. Description:

Among many other qualities, Shakespeare was a master of using plays within his plays to amplify his themes and plot arcs. This technique of self-reference has been used for dramatic and comedic effect in many works. Orson Scott Card had Ender Wiggin playing through a story game that ultimately tied into and reflected his "real life" story; P.C. Hodgell has traditional stories in her novels that shadow the main action; Stephen King pulled the ultimate coup and wrote himself into his Dark Tower series as a character, incorporating his struggles with substance abuse into the decay of the universe; Michael Ende's novel The Neverending Story famously loops in on itself. Is this an effective tool for writers to use? What makes it work and when does it fall flat? Let's analyze the phenomena!

• At 8 pm on the same day, I'll be a panelist during the Speculative Fiction, Science and the Sacred session. Description:

As scientists learn more and more about our astonishing universe, from the macro to the micro, does science begin to awe and inspire, as religion can? Does religion fall away, or evolve? How does science affect our mood, our hope, and our outlook on life? What might religion look like in "the future" (very scientifically advanced societies, such as in Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota series)?

• And immediately after that, I'll be participating in the Broad Universe: Rapid Fire Reading at 9:30 pm. This is the second year we've done a rapid fire reading at FogCon. They are a fun way to liven up a reading, cycling through the authors two times, reading short selections rather than a longer work. The variety never stops! Broad Universe is an organization that supports the work of female speculative fiction writers.

• On Saturday, 3/10, my final panel will be Wilderness in SFF at 10:30 am. Description:

Wilderness is an interstitial space, existing between cities, roads and settlements. People have held many different views of wilderness form a place to be tamed, to a place to be preserved. Yet the idea of “untouched” wildlands remands problematic. Recent scholars such as William Cronon have questioned if wilderness even exists. How have works such as Lord of the Rings, Zahrah the Windseeker by Nnedi Okorafor & Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley engaged with these ideas? How will our changing ideas about wilderness effect new and future work?

Interested in attending FogCon? More info here. Let me know if you're coming! Though I will not be on the agenda after the Wilderness Panel, I will definitely be at FogCon for the rest of Saturday and likely Sunday, too.

Join me on Thursday, 1/25/18 at 7 pm at the Octopus Literary Salon for a brand-new Bay Area reading series: Terra Incognita! Sponsored by the Escapery, a Bay Area organization offering adventures for artists and writers of all levels, Terra Incognita is a genre fiction-based reading series that showcases Bay Area authors. Each month, a different genre or hybrid genre will be represented, ideally including a range of authors of varying skills and publication history. And the first month's theme is Speculative Fiction!

That, of course, is fortunate for me, being a speculative fiction writer. I've met Terra Incognita's host, Haldane King, a few times, and I'm thrilled to be a part of his new reading series, especially as genre fiction is underrepresented on the literary scene at large. Though I must say, I've always been warmly welcomed when reading horror, fantasy, or science fiction anywhere I've gone in the East Bay and San Francisco. Thus, I'm mostly excited we'll have one more outlet of creative genre expression for us all.

Nick Mamatas, J Curtis, Jackie Haudek, Samuel Walsh, and myself will be the inaugural Terra Incognita readers. Enticements include a free drawing for Nomadic Press poetry chapbooks, and the great refreshments at the Octopus. Donations are welcome, and I'll have copies of Wings Unseen for sale.

If you'd like, sign up at the Facebook event. Or just show up! I hope to see you there.

Last time I read at the Octopus Literary Salon.

It's award nomination season among science fiction and fantasy writers! As is the custom, I'm offering a list of my short stories and novel publications from 2017 that are eligible for nomination--yes, that includes nearly all my 2017 publications. Qualifying isn't that difficult. ;)

If you are a member of SFWA, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America professional guild, then you may nominate works until February 15, 2018 for the Nebula Awards. Here's how to vote. If you attended WorldCon 75 and/or registered as a supporting or attending member of WorldCons 76 or 77 by January 1, 2018, keep your eyes on this page, as nominations are bound to open soon and will likely run through March. WorldCon awards the Hugos every year.

I'm planning to attend both conferences, and gosh, it'd be awfully sweet to have an extra special reason to go. ;) But seriously, the Nebula Weekend is a fantastic professional conference for speculative fiction writers, and well worth your time and money--and you do not need to be a member of SFWA or even a writer to attend. I have never been to WorldCon before, but I am hoping to get on paneling or in a reading session for this one, and I think it'll be great fun.

Thank you for considering my 2017 published works for nomination!

Here they are:

For the Best Novel category for the Nebulas or the Hugos and/or the Andre Norton Award (Best YA Novel, which appears on the Nebula ballot) #

Wings Unseen #

Wings Unseen is a YA classic epic fantasy told with modern sensibilities. To fight an invisible foe, three young adults must first fight through their own expectations, beliefs, and shattered dreams to save their shared world. For full information and accolades, head to its page at Meerkat Press.

For the Best Short Story Category for the Nebulas and/or the Hugos #

"Treasure" #

"Treasure" appears in the Dark Luminous Wings anthology from Pole to Pole Publishing, published October 2017. It's a fantasy fable that features a thief thrust into a culture very different from her own, so different she has a difficult time believing such a culture is real.... and is under threat of a flying sea monster and the lure of a rock pillar that manifests jewels. More info here.

"Garbage" #

“Garbage” is a humorous sci-fi tale about crazy old ladies, immature teenagers, and aliens with an unusual appetite. It has a fair bit to say about what it means to be native and how that shifts over time and with new waves of immigration. “Garbage” appeared in Through A Scanner Farkly: The 2017 Fark Fiction Anthology, which was published in July 2017. More info here.

"Holiday Invasion Trilogy" #

I've barely had to the chance to tell folks this flash fiction series even exists since its publication in the Holiday Hell issue of Black Heart Magazine. Exist it does, and I'm proud of these one-shot explorations of what a holiday invasion might mean in three very different situations: a morning full of death and poinsettia, a Thankgiving dinner of new dishes and newly embodied relations, and the chaos of Christmas day for one very anxious, superpowered mom. More info here.

Finally,

"What Scattered in the Wind" #

This piece of horror flash fiction, done in a poetic prose style, tells of a woman struggling with her biggest regret in life and sentenced to forever re-remember it. It appears in the August 2017 chapbook collection, Little Letters on the Skin, from Cleave: Bay Area Writers and the Liminal Center. More info here.

Best of luck to all the authors out there with eligible work for 2017! May the best of our work get on those ballots.

We're only 20 days out from Christmas, and thus the time for gift giving is upon us! For $15, you can send a signed, personalized copy of my epic fantasy, Wings Unseen, to anyone you love - heck, it's cool if you send it to someone you only kind of like, too. ;)

My friends, Paul and Ann, whom I kind of like, I guess, getting their signed copies at my book launch.

$15 includes the book, and my signature and a personal message, filled out from your instructions on whom I should address that message too. It also includes shipping costs! What is Wings Unseen? Here's my full page on it.

This price is only available until 12/16. After that, I won't be able to ship via media mail in time for Christmas. But I am happy to use a more expensive shipping option to get it to your loved one for opening under the tree!

Loki guaranteed for good cuddling.

How to order? You can contact me via direct message on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram or just email me at becca@thegourmez.com. We'll discuss payment and shipping methods - either Paypal, Square, or Venmo will work, and I am amenable to other shipping options, but the price will reflect those other options.

Or you can just order Wings Unseen off Amazon! It's only $12 currently, which is a deal! But that doesn't include author signature...

Happy holidays, dear readers, friends, and family!

Woosh! That was my schedule zooming by too fast for me to keep up with it. Thus, I haven't had time to give my next reading much promotion, but there's still time! Barely.

Tomorrow night, Tuesday 10/24, I'll be reading at the Literally series at the Shop at Flywheel Press in San Mateo at 7:00 pm along with author Peter Carroll. Flywheel Press is an art and design center in San Mateo that has fostered a unique creative space in many different forms: as a letterpress studio, a co-working space for artists, a First Fridays destination, an art gallery, and a provider of classes for kids and adults.

If you'd like to share your own work, there will be an open mic afterward, too! And of course, I'll have Wings Unseen available for purchase, should you like a signed copy. ;)

I hope you'll join me!

I'm going to be busy this Friday promoting my fiction, through two different mediums! You, of course, are invited to join in.

First, S. Evan Townsend will interview me at 3 pm PST for the Speculative Fiction Cantina Livestream and Podcast show.

This show takes place weekly and includes a reading, so I'll be sharing a selection from Wings Unseen. It'll be a chance for my "radio voice" to come out, which people have told me I have for most of my life. I'll be appearing along with author Brian James, and based on past shows, it should be a fun, casual time of speculative fiction appreciation. You can tune in here on Friday at 3 pm PST: LINKY LINK

Second, I'll be reading for the At the Inkwell Flash Fiction Night, which takes place at Alley Cat Books in San Francisco at 7 pm.

This is the second time I'll have read with At the Inkwell, which is a national organization dedicated to helping writers get more exposure through reviews and reading series. The Alley Cat Books space is one of the best I've been to for literary readings, and I'm excited for flash fiction to be the chosen topic - it'll give me a break from reading book excerpts! I'll likely be sharing "What Scattered in the Wind," which is published in Little Letters on the Skin, and some Halloween-themed micro-fiction I've been working on. If there's time, perhaps "Hobgoblin" will also make an appearance at the mic. More info on the event is here: LINKY LINK.

I would love to see you at Alley Cat Books or know you've tuned in to the Speculative Fiction Cantina this Friday!