My First Con...!

The Con Experience...
I spent the weekend at my first fantasy convention - it was a local one here in Cincinnati, called Millenicon. Overall, I met some really great people, and had a lot of fun. This picture was me on a panel with Steven Barnes, who has written for TV quite a bit as well as novels, and Tobias Buckell who just won a Nebula award - very cool!


It was a fun weekend, and I always enjoy new experiences. I even heard my first Filk music - always something new!
I'll be going to Marcon in Columbus this spring as well, and I'm sure some more in the future...

Love and kisses,
Kaza

A fun interview from Kelly Parra!

Hot and Fresh of the wire...
Kelly Parra, author of Graffiti Girl and Invisible Touch, did a fantastic interview of me on the website she shares with YA author Tina Ferraro. It was really fun! I loved that her question about "sharing a typical writing day" was one she asked other authors. It was fun for me to look through her other interviews and compare. But I got jealous when I saw that Meg Cabot writes in bed all day, and has a husband who is a chef downstairs sizzling up lunch and dinner for her when she wanders down into the kitchen. Sounds like some writer's fantasy...

I'm getting ready to turn Book Three, The Search for Truth, in to my editor next week, and am polishing the last few details. I've been hearing a lot from my Thai publisher lately, too, who wanted me to write a letter to my Thai readers. I can't wait to see copies in the other languages soon!!

Love y'all!
Kaza

Beautiful Re-views

Here's to Reviews!!


Ka-blam!
I've been looking online and realized there are a few more reviews out there that I have not mentioned here before. They're all lovely, and give me giant smiles when I read them. So I'll share:

The Writer's Notebook has a great review of Monsters of Otherness posted. This fantastic site also has a review of The Dragon's Eye, which I mentioned before, and a "Best of 2007" book list where Erec Rex came into more winning slots than any other book - which I loved!! This site is chock-full of helpful information about books. Check it out!

Stephanie's Confessions of a Book-A-Holic asks if you Want a Little Magical Adventure? I was lucky to be a guest of Stephanie's blog on my cyber-tour, so I was happy to see her great review. Stephanie still wins in my book for Most Beautiful Blog - you have to see it...

Holly Parry of Meridian Magazine posted a great review titled Books for Boys
that was really sweet. Holly is a top-notch reviewer, and I was lucky she chose Erec Rex to read!

Of course it was Awesome when The Book Trolley reviewer, Robbie Fisher, put a review of Erec Rex on that famous site! I had to love that. Since it was a Harry Potter site, he did a great job describing that it's NOT Harry Potter, (something that continually needs to be explained!) and points out Erec Rex's merits in a very well put-together review. Thanks!

TCM Reviews is an interesting site with a short, sweet review of Monsters of Otherness by Ranaa Tasneem. It looks like a professional site for book reviews. An incredibly nice review from beginning to end -- with the small exception that the reviewer seems to think I'm a man! Oh well, that's life with a weird name like Kaza!!

Last but not least, Katie's Reading did a really good review of The Dragon's Eye back in November, but I don't think I mentioned it here. I love any reviewer that says one of the books we should all be reading is Erec Rex: The Dragon’s Eye! This was a highly detailed and wonderful review - thank you, Katie! I hope you were able to read Monsters of Otherness!

I'm waiting for notes from my editor on Book Three - The Search for Truth. This one is my favorite - can't wait 'til it's out!

Love, love, love,
Kaza :}

(Public domain image created by NASA and the European Space Agency. Hubble material is copyright-free and may be freely used on the condition that NASA and ESA are credited as the source of the material.)

What can ONE Author Do?

What can ONE Author Do?
James Dashner, Author of The 13th Reality, may have the answer to that!

I am proud to say that my new friend and fellow fantasy author, James Dashner, is doing something that makes me smile. He found a charity that is trying to "make poverty history." Who can't like that idea? And he is going to donate all the royalties he makes from the first week of sales of his new book to The One.

Here is James - check out his new book, The 13th Reality, new in stores now! I'm in the middle of reading it, and am happy to say it's great!!


By the way, James,
You aren't the only one who can do this! I'm going to look into similar things to do as well. I'm all for making this world much, much, better, but if every one of us doesn't do it, who will???

Love and Hugs,
Kaza

The Amazing Kaleb Nation

It's been a little while
since I posted here. Writing The Search for Truth got me off track completely, but I'm back in the real world finally ... for now!

Kaleb Nation
So before I'm lost again in the next book I write - I've got a lot to talk about. This post is dedicated to a great guy, a brilliant, talented individual who I am glad to know. Did I say he's talented? He's not only the mastermind behind my website, but he also composes music for fun when he's not writing novels (his first hopefully to come out soon,) hosting online radio shows, doing art and design work, and just starting college - in case that wasn't enough on its own!

Kaleb made this amazing video about the first Erec Rex book that I'm happy to share with you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHvopiire70
Check it out! I love it, and Kaleb is so funny.



He's also done another really funny video about "What College Guys Eat," that I loved -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8ITVV1etfM

You might also want to look at Kaleb's blog, too, at http://kalebnation.com/blog/
Who else could have created a huge controversy from one of his many tongue-in-cheek entries about what it's like to be chosen as the lead actor in the upcoming Stephenie Meyers flick? (He's not, actually, before I start that up again!)

I'm glad to know you, Kaleb, and may we someday meet in person!

By the way, I just found this sweet video someone made about Erec Rex on YouTube!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY7kHDgL7bY&feature=related

Love and hugs,
Kaza

Yea!! I'm Done!!!!!

I am floating on a cloud.
Yesterday night I finished Book Three of the Erec Rex series, The Search for Truth. I can't be happier with it. It was a ton of work and concentration, so it feels strange to be done with it! Now I just have to go through the edits and wait to see it on the shelves in October. Sooo cool!!!!

Thanks
for everyone who's given me support and fun emails during this time. It helped a lot! Now just a little breather before plunging into the book on Aoquesth...

Love always,
Kaza

Blog Tour - Day Sixteen!

Surprise! We have one more day of the blog tour added on for fun! It's at Young Adults Books Central - an awesome and fun blog all about my favorite topic!

So, rounding out a completely awesome tour of some of my favorite sites online, I get to end up with some really fun, light questions that nobody else thought to ask!
Hope you join me for this last day. And thanks for touring with me!

Luv,
Kaza