I've moved

JoyCrelin.com has moved to new hosting and a WordPress site, so the blog will be going with it. This blog will no longer be updated; however, I will keep it up as a historical document of sorts (haha).

Goodbye, Blogger. Stay cool.

Peace.

Win a free copy of Like a Treasure Found, edited by Joy Crelin

Do you like sexy pirates?

Want to win a free copy of Like a Treasure Found, the latest anthology from Circlet Press?

Read on!

Below, I've provided the titles of the stories in the anthology and the opening line of each. To enter the contest, simply comment on this post and match each story to its opening line.* I'll even give you the first answer to get you started—1d.

The first commenter to answer correctly will win a PDF copy of the anthology (other digital formats may be available, so please let me know if you prefer a particular one). If no one gets it completely right, the commenter with the most correct matches will win. The contest is open until someone answers correctly, or until 11:59 pm (Eastern Time) on Monday, September 5—whichever comes first.

If you are comfortable doing so, please leave an email address in your comment so I can notify you if you win. If you aren't, please make sure to check back here at the end of the contest.

EDIT: Like a Treasure Found is now available for purchase!

Titles

1. “On Arid Seas”
2. “Of Great Renown”
3. “The Pirate from the Sky”
4. “The Ancient Shrine of the Double Cross”
5. “A Shelter From All Storms”
6. “Daniel”
7. “The Final Voyage of the Devil's Prow”

Opening Lines

a. Jim Slade hacked his way through the jungle, sweating and tired and almost feral with how close he was to his goal.
b. Don't they often say that the way to hell is paved with good intentions?
c. In Seok-Teng's dream, a great pale dragon twined through a labyrinth of shifting clouds.
d. Dust swirled around Jamie's feet.
e. Blossoming into a woman at an early age, Catalina had always been, among the legion of young criollo men of Lima, widely considered to be the finest, the most sought after, and easily the one with the most legitimate offers for marriage.
f. "At last we make the acquaintance of the so-called Pirate Queen Blade."
g. When Willoughby finally met Captain Sable in the interstellar pirate port, his shoulders sagged.

*Independent publisher Circlet Press has been celebrating the erotic imagination since 1992. As such, Like a Treasure Found contains explicit sex, so please do not enter this contest if you are under the age of eighteen. Thank you :)

Renovation--Worldcon 2011

Oh my god. Worldcon is addictive. I started planning my trip to next year's Chicon 7 while still in Reno, which should tell you something.

This photograph by my friend Jensen accurately summarizes my time in Reno:

(The word you're looking for is "awesome." Or maybe "badass.")

Anyway, I had a wonderful time and met some very cool people. I've discovered over the years that I'm terrible at convention reports—lots of "I went to [panel name], which was [adjective]"—so I'll leave it at that.


On a completely unrelated note, I wanted to mention that my latest anthology from Circlet Press, Like a Treasure Found, is scheduled to launch on September 6. I'm thinking of holding a contest to celebrate its release, so if you like SFF pirate erotica, check back here next week!

Renovation!

I leave for Worldcon in Reno on Tuesday morning! Super excited. Now, I'm a notoriously bad blogger, so I wouldn't expect to see at-the-con updates from me here. However, I will be tweeting throughout the convention--and don't forget to check out #renosf!

I plan to post about my newish job (etc.) at some point, but as I've just moved to a new apartment in a new town and am a little discombobulated, this is not that post. Please bear with me.

However, I did want to pop in here and make it known that I will be at Readercon (Burlington, MA) this weekend. I plan to arrive Friday evening, and I should be around for most of the day on Saturday and Sunday. I will not be working the New Genre booth this year (I'm not sure if there'll be one), so if you see a woman wandering around looking befuddled, there's a decent chance it's me.

Also, Circlet Press is hosting a group reading at Readercon! I'm super excited about it, and you should be too. 8 pm on Saturday in the New Hampshire room. Be there.

My college career, by the numbers

Classes:

• Honors: 5 (+4 semesters of Honors Colloquium meetings) (+1 Honors Thesis)
• Interdisciplinary: 3
  
• Writing: 5 (+1 BFA creative project)
  
• Literature: 6
  
• Publishing: 4
  
• Other/GenEd: 5
• Classes not taken due to AP credits or other waivers: 5

Pages in Honors Thesis: 22

Pages in BFA creative project: 52

Essays written: let's not talk about it

Sugar-free Red Bulls consumed: all of them

Awkward moments at graduation when the commencement speaker forgot the WLP department existed: 1

Diplomas received: 1



Offers of full-time, salaried employment received: 1
Offers of full-time, salaried employment accepted: 1

I spent this weekend at the second Circlet Press editor and author retreat, which was a.maz.ing as usual. Good food, good company, and tons of plotting world domination brainstorming. I also had the pleasure of meeting one of my authors (!), the talented and adorable Julie Cox, in person for the first time.

'Twas a fantastic weekend.

So yeah, as you may have guessed, I'm already suffering from retreat withdrawal. :(