Well summer is gearing up to be a busy busy time! An and I will have a very exciting announcement coming up about a Bath Salts launch party this month. Stay tuned for that! You will not want to miss it if you're in the Toronto Area. It's sure to be a wild time. No one throws a party like An Tran, and with the two of us colluding on it, well... hilarity should ensue! Preliminary plans involve food, drinks, and zombies walking around. Now we just need to find zombies...

Speaking of zombies, we have officially signed up for Toronto's Zombie Walk as vendors for this October! I know it seems like a long time away, but you have to plan ahead. I am excited about this one! Me, An, and thousands o zombies set loose on the streets of Toronto. I have been practising my makeup application to look sufficiently zombie-like. I think I may have to go with the stage makeup look I did on myself when I played Beth in Little Women as she was dying horribly. It looked sickly from the audience point of view with the stage lights, but up close, everyone said I looked like a member of the undead.

Also coming up this summer, An and I will be returning to The Pirate Festival! Yaar! We will be selling both Bath Salts and the new Prizm Books version of The Strings of the Violin. Come on down and see us in full pirate wench garb in our awesome tent! Later that month we will be official guests at the Toronto FanExpo along with Max Brooks (so excited about that!), Lena Heady, and George Takei! Norman Reedus will be back, as well as his Walking Dead brother Michael Rooker.

As for my other books, Book Three of the Hadariah chronicles is underway, I have started a sequel to Sitnalta, and I have a new novel idea that will be set in Sitnalta's universe tentatively title The City of Arches. Also, Sitnalta is scheduled for release this August as well. I have been having weekly phone meetings with my Pandamoon editor, and everything is right on track. I am so excited!

This month is also the Toronto Fringe Festival, and like every year I have a whole list of shows I'd love to see there, and hopefully I will get to at least most of them, if not all. There seems to be quite a few Shakespearean spoofs going on this year, one of which has puppets. I have to say that this intrigues me...

I know that this blog is a bit disjointed today, but I am feeling a bit disjointed. Apparently I somehow managed to perforate my eardrum. How did I do this? When did it happen? The weird thing is that I have no clue! I think I'll blame the triplets. It seems like the simplest answer. It's just one of those things.

In the land of disjointed entries, this is where I will put my estimate for a release date for The Dybbuk's Mirror I'm going to say that I hope to have it out by early 2014. Should all go well with The Strings of the Violin (Out now! Get your copy!) this seems reasonable to me.

Oh! Also August, The Canadian Jewish News will resume printing! I don't know how many of you know what was going on, but The CJN had to stop printing due to budget issues. There was a public outcry, and lots of public support rallied, and now our paper is back! Coming up in the August edition, I was interviewed by one of their reporters, and this interview will be printed there. It's amazing what we can accomplish if we band together. Eh?

Today is the day everybody! The Strings of the Violin is officially out with Prizm Books! I am ridiculously excited about this. I have been waiting for today for what feels like a lifetime. What does today hold? Well, today holds chances to win free stuff like tote bags, shirts, and a free autographed copy of the book itself! How do you win that stuff? Well, here's the great part, you go to my Facebook page here and like today's posts. A random number generator will then pick you out and you will be told what you got! 

Today is the culmination of an attempt at self-publishing, editing, frustration, and ultimately what feels like almost giving up before this book found its new home. I am eternally grateful to the great people at Prizm who found my book and gave it new life with my fantastic editor Jessica. I hope you guys like what was done to it. I know that I could not be happier with what was accomplished with this novel, and I can not wait to send along the other books in the series so that you guys can read more about Carrie and her adventures in Hadariah.

As for the book itself, right now it can be purchased through their website which is right here! Please do go and check it out! Other buy links will be along shortly.

So, take part in the excitement of today, and good luck with the draws!

It's going to be a quick one today!

Tomorrow is the official launch date for The Strings of the Violin with its lovely new home  Prizm Books! I will be doing an awesome on-line launch through my Facebook page here where you can win The Strings of the Violin merchandise as prizes as well as a free signed copy of the book! So stay tuned. I will post a better, fuller, longer blog here tomorrow to commemorate this occasion! Lots to do, and lots to plan and prepare. Much excitement is on the way!

Tomorrow is the big day! Bath Salts is being released by Severed Press for purchase as an ebook. A hardcopy will be available as well, but we are a tad unsure of the date that's happening. Yay! Come tomorrow I can officially call myself a commercially published author! An can as well, and we are both over the moon!

We are celebrating our success tonight by going to see Night of the Living Dead Live at Theatre Passe Muraille. It's fitting, non? We thought so.

In other news, I have a legitimate work space at home again. My office had become the "let's store stuff in here so it's out of the way room. With all the projects I'm working on, that became a tad impractical. The family room couch is not conducive to writing. I have a desk again! And bookshelves! And a futon! Now all I need is a proper desk chair. The one I have is literally fifty years old and made of wood. It's not working for me.

I had my first phone meeting with Pandamoon Publishing about Sitnalta and there is a lot of exciting things in the pipeline for that book. The Strings of the Violin is almost done it's next to last round of edits, and I am almost at 15,000 words with the third Hadariah book's first draft. Yay for productivity!

In non-book related news, I am loving the props work on I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change. (How much do you love the title of this show?) We open next week, and it is going to be awesome! Seriously, check it out if you're in Toronto. Go here. Also there you will see what's up for next season, and can I say "WOW!" tick... tick... BOOM!, Stars of David, The Life is Sweet Project, and Liza and Babs! So much excitement!

But really, tomorrow, BATH SALTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Basically, this small announcement is one I am very excited about! I have all three of my upcoming release dates! Bath Salts is coming up fast with the ebook ready to drop on May 10, 2013. The paperback edition will follow shortly after that. One week to go! Yikes! There is much to do to get ready for this.

The Strings of the Violin will follow shortly after that with a release date of June 26, 2013. I will be having an online launch party with contests and games. 

After that comes Sitnalta which is being released on August 27, 2013. This is definitely shaping up to be a very busy summer. Lots to do, things to plan, and celebrating to be done! 

As if I don't have enough on my plate, I am props manager for Angelwalk Theatre and KooGle's coproduction of I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change. This loads in to the theatre tomorrow, and show week continues from then. Oy. It looks to be an amazing show. If you're in the Toronto area between May 14- June 2 you should definitely check it out. (An says she's probably going four times!) Tickets are available here.

This week was the Jewish holiday of Roash Hashannah. This marks the start of the Jewish new year, and is also the day the G-d opens the gates of heaven and accepts our prayers and apologies. This is a time for introspection, where we examine the kind of person we were this past year. We make amends, and promise to do better. We also gather with our families and have wonderful dinners, and time together. I have a minor confession to make: I really enjoy going to synnagogue. I like the way the cantor sings the prayers. I like eharing the rabbi's sermons. I find something comforting in the way it stays the same every year. I like being able to go and sing the same tunes every Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur. There is something soothing for me in the ritual. I know many people who find it boring, and I can understand perfectly why that is. And that's fine. But I like it.

Any way, next Tuesday evening, Yom Kippur begins, and we sing the Kol Nidre, where we ask G-d to let us out of our vows and promises we couldn't keep. The gates will close, and we will be either forgiven or not. So, I state here, that if I have done anything this past year to offend any of you, or have wronged any of you, I assure you that I didn't mean it. I am sorry. What I look forward to on this day is the fact that I do dinner for my whole family before we walk to synnagogue for the Kol Nidre. This service also marks the beginning of a fast day. My mom traditionally does the breaking of the fast meal the night after. Once again, it's a great time to see all the cousins and friends that you don't get to spend a lot of time with the rest of the year. I love it.

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In other news, this weekend I will be sharing a table at Toronto Word on the Street. Who will I be sharing it with? Why Angelwalk Theatre! So I will be there with the incomparable Jonathon Shaboo from Angelwalk, and I will be selling copies of The Strings of the Violin. So come on down to see us. Pick up a copy of my book. Find out about Angelwalk's awesome season this year. This book festival should be amazing. I hope I can find some time to walk around myself. It looks great!

Anyway, for those interested, here's a video of cantors singing the Kol Nidre.

On August 30, I had the honour of being a guest on The Tony Zee Show on Reality Radio 101. He was an excellent host, and very accomopdating to my needs as a guest. As a mother of toddlers, it was very difficult to just up and leave them to get down to the studio, especially since they were already upset with me for abandoning them for the duration of Fan Expo. Therefore, I did my interview from the comfort of my bedroom, over the phone.

The interview was set to begin around 7:30, and at 7:00, Gary the producer called me up to do a sound check, and to make sure my phone connection was clear, and we could all hear each other. This went swimmingly, and afterwards, I got to hang up and put my kids to bed. Sidenote: currently, Phillip is insistant on hearing Where the Wild Things Are each night at bedtime, while Joseph refuses to sleep without hearing Goodnight Moon. Hailey doesn't care so long as she's read to.

Around 7:40, the station called me back, and after a few initial sound glitches, the interview started. We ended up talking for over a half hour. Both Tony and Gary were involved, and I was asked about everytthing from my inspiration, to what I liked to read, to my education. It felt more like a conversation than a formal interview. I had a lot of fun doing it. We also did a give away of a couple of copies of The Strings of the Violin over the course of the show.

Next up, tomorrow evening I go into my first rehearsal for Fiddler on the Roof! My return to the stage after two years! I hope I remember how to dance...

So the Pirate Festival is officially over. I found it to be an amazing experience. It was exhausting, and a lot of hard work, but ultimately, it ended up being a ton of fun. Day three went a lot more smoothly than the first two days. For once, Mother Nature decided to cooperate. There was no rain storm, no extreme heat, just a nice clear blue sky and warm breeze. This meant that there were many more visitors to the festival for us vendors to chat up and meet. Several people took interest in The Strings of the Violin.

An and I started our last day by having breakfast at Wimpy's in full costume. I give our server credit for not looking at us oddly as a couple of pirates sat politely at our table watching the olympics on the television. I wish I could say the same about the other patrons. They certainly gave us some weird looks as we ate our eggs and toast!

Brian came that day with Joseph, Phillip and Hailey and their bubbie Barb. His Uncle Harry, Aunt Susie, cousin Amy came as well along with our cousins Behr, Lucie, and their son Liam all the way from France. The kids loved the pirates, and Joseph loved trying to lock his siblings up in the brig. He also cheated in the children's maze by climbing under all of the walls. The people running the maze laughed at this, telling me he thought like a real pirate.

When the day ended, the actors playing pirates kept the entertainment going, playing sea shanty's and dancing around in the tavern, as we vendors dismantled our tents and packed up. I was sad to see it all end. Definitely considering doing it again next year. This time with two books! Until then, only two and a half weeks until FanExpo!

I am trying desperately to work on my next book, and I'm finding that with the kids able to climb things, and figure out drawers and doorknobs, dishwashers and dvd players, there just aren't enough hours in the day. I almost wish for the days when they were little blobs that didn't do much! But then, I see their smiley faces and hear them try to speak, and sing, and dance, and I realize that I like them as they are. I just need a way to add a few hours to my day where I'm not too exhausted to write stuff. I have my outline complete for what may be the finale to a trilogy about Hadariah, and I know how I'm starting it, and ending it. Now I just need to fill in all the middle bits. Easy. Right? No. Not at all. I have this going on, and all the festivals and stuff. I also did a really fun interview which can be read here. So things are happening all around, which is very exciting. I just need to learn to function on no sleep, so I will have more time to actually write. Let's just say that caffeine will become my very best friend. (No offense to my humsn friends.)

In other news not related to anything of importance, I have a simple question: Why do children's toys have an adult proof way of assembling them? I recently bought our kids a castle for the backyard. Three adults, and three days later, the darn thing was still in pieces all over the deck! I was ready to tear my hair out in frustration. The instruction manual had pictograms illustrating how the pieces should fit together, but really, a man doing chinups on a plastic wall is not a very helpful representation of assembling something. Luckily, my sister had purchased the exact same thing for my nieces. She was very helpful in coming over to work on ours. To my eternal embarassment, it took less than ten minutes with her help to get ours in working order. Thank you Jodi. You are appreciated very much.

So, it's official! I am a vendor at The Pirate Festival! I am going to be dressed as a princess (who has a sword. Natch.) and my friend An will be a wench and help me sell books! So excited! I am totally doing a happy dance in my seat right now. I'd show you guys, but then I would have to hide in embarassment.

In other news, last night was the official opening of The Toronto Fringe Festival. Brian and I went and ended up standing with Denis and his crew for the show he worked on Mum and the Big C. I was delegated to be the bag watcher for the poster sprint. Basically what happens is this: Everyone with a show stands around holding tape covered posters of said show, and they wait through all the opening speeches until a bell rings, and then they all sprint in a crazy costume-filled crowd to the tents, walls, and dumpsters that line artist alley and the beer tent. Everyone then fights for space to put up the tape covered posters they were holding. It is complete artsy chaos. I was the bag watcher because I was told I would be best at it. I believe it was because I am the shortest of the bunch, can't reach over people to put up posters and have little legs and can't run very fast. Eh. I don't let it get me down. It enabled me to get pictures of the sprint and postering. See below.

Afterwards, we went for dinner, and saw three shows: Antigone (a Greek tragedy), Mum and the Big C (a comedy), and well, The Princess of P*rn (a musical). (I try to keep this blog family friendly.) Hearing of all of Denis's hard work, it was awesome to see how it all paid off for him. The show was hilarious, full of heart, and the entire cast rose to the occaision. It was great to see how well it all came together.

I love the Fringe. It really has something for everyone, and I look forward to seeing what else it offers.