Exciting News

For several years now, I’ve been participating in Fall Folk Festival. This is an annual celebration of international music, dance and arts by the diverse community around Spokane. For my part, of course, I read from my children’s fiction (the Lucy D. Ford byline) and try to sell a few books through the festival store.

After a two-year hiatus, Fall Folk Festival is back — and they’re bumping up my part of it. The local public radio station does a live broadcast during the event, and this year I’m invited to read from my work on the air.

Am I excited? Naw, it’s all casual… Oh, who am I kidding? I’m super excited and can’t want to iron out all the details. Most of you who read this blog are too far distant to attend in person. However, the station will probably have a streaming setup, so you will be able to hear me read if you so choose.

Watch this space for more details!

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Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

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Best Laid Plans?

Actually, these are plans I’m still laying. Coming up in the fall, I’ve had hopes that the pandemic would subside enough that I could make personal appearances again. With new variants and recalcitrant neighbors, I think we all know how that’s going.

Still, I am attempting to lay plans. The first one is around SpoCon, the science fiction convention I help to organize. I’m in charge of programming, which means I gather ideas for panel discussions (and other activities), recruit speakers, and schedule it all. It’s a lot of work, but it keeps me in touch with the other writers and artists in my area. Our dates this year are October 29-31, ending with Hallowe’en. That makes it extra fun!

We on the convention committee are all holding our breath and organizing as best we can. I think we all have a dread that the state will put us back in lockdown before then. Our convention can get up to 500 people, although under the circumstances 200 is more reasonable. So if the Governor halts gatherings of 200+ people, we are done.

The other thing we’ve had to wrestle with is health measures. I’m hearing around the Internet that speakers want to know vaccine cards are being checked. I don’t thing we have enough volunteers to do that, but I brought it up at the most recent meeting. One of our organizers started talking about “yellow stars” and “vaccine Nazis” and the vaccine being questionable. The convention chair, an RN, stated brusquely that the vaccine is valid and safe, and that we will have no more talk of Nazis in regards to public health. I agree with her, but it was pretty sad to hear one of our own lay down the anti-science card.

Anyway, we are going to require masks to attend. If we don’t do that, I’m pretty sure some of our speakers will back out. The same person then wanted to wrangle about what defines a mask. Sigh… It’s close enough to our event that we need to be clear about this. If there are cancellations because of it, we might be better off without them.

The other thing coming up is Fall Folk Fest, which is a weekend of mostly folk music and dance, but other crafts as well. I usually read my short stories there. I’m not part of organizing this one, but I’ve put in to read again and if the event takes place, I’ll be there.

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Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

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Fall Folk Festival

This is something I mention every year, and it’s coming around again. Fall Folk Festival is a celebration of folk music, dance, and other arts. The festival is this weekend, November 9th and 10th, starting roughly at 11 am and going until the folk dancers can’t dance any more.

“Lucy D. Ford” attends to read from her contemporary fairy tales. In previous years, they’ve had me on the children’s stage on Sundays. This year I’m on Saturday. I feel like that’s a promotion.

In any case, I’ll have books to sell at the festival store, bookmarks to give away, and so forth. I’m really looking forward to the weekend.

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Meanwhile, I did get Dancer in the Grove of Ghosts set up on Amazon and Draft2Digital. Click on the image in the sidebar to pre-order from Amazon, or get your other formats from D2D.

Naturally, my next thing is that I need to make a few blog appearances to support the latest book. If you have an opening in your own blog, or you can recommend someone who’s looking for interviews, please let me know!

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Did you know I have an author newsletter? You can get it! I’ll even give you a free e-book for signing up. Just click here.

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Dungeons and Dragons Reborn!

Honestly, this headline is a little deceptive. The iconic role-playing game never really went away, although it’s had waves of popularity like all cultural touchstones do. This article from a year ago in The New Yorker does a great job detailing some of the ups and downs. D&D is now in its 5th Edition, while another popular game called Pathfinder is a spin-off based on the 3rd Edition D&D rules.

As a role-player since 1981, I can attest that doomsayers have long predicted the end of our beloved paper-and-pencil games. Video games have risen to great prominence with their fast action and colorful presentation. Yet there still is a place for the wild creativity of a role-playing game. Much as I enjoy playing video games, I’m constantly chafing at the limited options when it comes to dialogue and decision making. With a good GM, video games just can’t compare with in-person games for spontaneity and nuance.

Most interesting, writer Neima Jaromi highlights a trend I’ve personally observed in schools when I worked as a substitute. Some classes use D&D to teach social lessons. Role-playing encourages kids to imagine themselves in a different life. If they want to have fun, they have to be flexible and work with a group. Role-playing also includes rewards, both as level-ups bringing new abilities, and with treasures found. More flexibility comes into play as the group must decide who gets to keep a certain item. They learn that the entire group can benefit from one character’s success.

I know I’m preaching to the choir, so go ahead and read the article here.

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Coming Up

I will be at Fall Folk Festival this weekend, reading my stories and greeting the public. That makes this a perfect time for a guest post! Author J. Keller Ford, will be talking about the role of dragons in her Chronicles of Fallhallow series. I’m looking forward to that, and I hope you are, too.

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Wyrmflight: A Hoard of Dragon Lore — $4.99 e-book or $17.99 trade paperback. Available at Amazon or Draft2Digital.

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Fall Folk Fest is Coming!

Our local Folklore Society and Community College team up each fall to present a weekend of heritage music, dance, and crafts by regional artists and immigrant communities. It’s Fall Folk Fest, and it’s November 14-15, 2015. And, this year, one of those artists will be me!

That’s right, “Lucy D. Ford” (my pen name for children’s writing) will be reading selected short stories as part of Fall Folk Fest. Some will be from my 2012 podcast, The Dragon King. Others will be new to the public. All are original stories.

I’m really excited about this opportunity, but nervous, too. My plan is to dress up like Mother Goose and sit in a rocking chair to read. We’ll see how far I get with that idea.

Other coming events in the next few weeks are Inside Story, an event sponsored by Inland Northwest SCBWI, where I can talk about my books and how I got the idea for Masters of Air & Fire. That’s at the Spokane Valley Barnes and Noble on October 30, 2015.

I’m also volunteering at a Camp NaNoWriMo “boot camp/kickoff” event on October 31, 2015 at the Moran Prairie Library. And we’re having a Halloween Party the same night. It’s going to be an adventure!

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