To all the veterans out there, including the many veterans in our own family, wishing you the best on this Memorial Day - thank you for your service! Here are my girls at our local parade this morning.

​I'll be doing a reading and writer chat with my fellow Fairfield Scribes authors Elizabeth Chatsworth and Gabi Coatsworth, and we'll be joined by local sci-fi author Roman Godzich.  The event will take place from 7pm-8:30pm in the aptly-named Steampunk Library in The Storyteller's Cottage at 750 Hopmeadow Street in Simsbury, Connecticut.

From the Storyteller's Cottage website:

I'm excited to say that several of my books and shorter works are eligible to be nominated for the Aurora Awards, one of the top Canadian speculative fiction awards.  These are awards for Canadian speculative fiction authors and artists, voted on by Canadians.  All you have to do to nominate works for the award is to join the Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy Association (1-year membership is $10).  Nominations close on May 18th, so there's a bit of time left to get your votes in before the final ballot is chosen.

Here are my works that are on the lists:

Best YA Novel Eligibility
 
- The Rose Queen, Alison McBain, Fairfield Scribes
 
Best Short Fiction Eligibility
                                                
- Red, Alison McBain, Tesseracts Twenty-One: Nevertheless, EDGE
 
Best Related Work Eligibility
 
- When to Now: A Time Travel Anthology, Alison McBain (Lead Editor), Fairfield Scribes
- Nevertheless (Tesseracts Twenty One), Rhonda Parrish and Greg Bechtel, EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing

And last, but not least, my dad is also eligible!  Here is his work:

Best Fan Writing and Publication Eligibility
 
- Danger, Will Robinson!, John McBain, Bewildering Stories

And there are many, many more works by amazing Canadian authors and artists.  I hope you get your nominations in!

Looking for some fun stuff to do this weekend? Come say hi! I'll be at two literary events this weekend on Saturday and Sunday.

First off is the Torrington Author Expo and Book Fair.  It's on Saturday from 12-4pm and includes a great variety of local authors who will be there, including Rick Arruzza, Katie L. Carroll, Suzanne Cordatos, Rich Cyr, Shelby Davis, Terri Dixon, Charlene A. Donaghy, Olyvia Freeman, Sheryl Kayne, Tabitha G. Kelly, Christine Pakkala, Renée Pirie, Donna Marie Merritt, C.R. Quinn, Susan B. Roara, Jack Sheedy, Jamie Jackson Spannhake, and yours truly.  My friend and fellow author/editor from the Fairfield Scribes, P.C. Keeler, will also be there.  There will be raffles and giveaways, coffee and munchies, and a panel to help you "Just Write it Already!"

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Then on Sunday, I'll be joining 3 other fab local poets at the Fairfield Public Library at 2pm for a poetry reading and a Q & A session about poetry writing and publishing.

The poets include me, Edward Ahern, Jeff Schwartz and Jack Powers.  The event is free, and all are welcome to attend!  You can find out more info about it on the library's website HERE.

So if you're looking for something to do inside to get out of the rainy weekend forecast for our area, I hope you'll be able to stop by at one of these great events and chat with me about writing, poetry, and publishing.