Can you introduce yourself to my readers a little?
Sure! *waves* I’m Seleste deLaney, author of the Blood Kissed urban fantasy series, the Badlands steampunk romance series, the original mind behind the multi-author-shared world paranormal romance series Cupid’s Conquests, as well as author of a few other bits and baubles here and there. I’m also a former lab-rat who took a winding path to stay-at-home-mom and author. (A portion of said path involved spending a couple years herding other people teenage demons, I decided to breed two of my own instead. Easier to deal with them if you had a hand in getting the to adolescence :P)
I can be found at: website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter
Can you introduce us to the world that you have created?
Which one? *laughs* Okay, lets go one at a time.
Blood Kissed (The Ghost of Vampire Present): This series takes place in Michigan (largely the Detroit area) and revolves around a woman named Jocelyn whose family bears the curse of the Blood Kissed. Years of…over-enthusiastic supernatural devastation of humans caused their leaders to seek a solution. The curse was actually fashioned by those supernatural leaders to keep their populations from getting out of hand. Fast-forward to today, and killer vamps have finally driven it to awaken…in Jocelyn’s blood. Now she and her two vampire lovers/bodyguards are doing everything they can to keep her safe from the forces that want to control her…or kill her.
Cupid’s Conquests (GunShy): This isn’t the Olympus you learned about in mythology. Cupid’s been a bad boy. While getting his party on, Olympus-style, he’s let love on earth languish. Zeus has finally had enough and sentences him to live on earth, uniting lovers until he gets his priorities straight. With multiple authors working on the series, each story has a fresh voice and a new angle to approach Cupid’s challenge.
Badlands: Brutal Civil War divided America and left us with four separate nations: the slave-owning plantations of the Confederacy; the industrialized, advanced Union; the untamed wilds of Texas; and the matriarchal monarchy of the Badlands (still used by the Union as a penal colony). But machinations from forces within the Union seek to tear the Badlands apart and destroy the peace there—peace won over many lives and generations. Captain Spencer Pierce and the crew of his trading dirigible Dark Hawk have joined forces with Ever, commander of the Badlands Border Guards, and her people to save the nation from this force determined to tear it apart from within.
Will this be your first RT or are you a veteran? Any advice for those who are going for the first time?
This is my fourth RT, and I absolutely LOVE this convention. Advice? I have a lot, but I’m going to try to narrow it down to just a few points:
1—Do not hide. I’m a shy person naturally, but one thing RT taught me is that playing the wallflower gets me nowhere. Break out of your shell and talk to people. Even the most famous authors are just people too—and the majority of them are pretty nice people. Introduce yourself, chat about books (something you’ll have in common with pretty much everyone there), hang out at the bar (even if you don’t drink). Try to make a goal of meeting at least one new person a day (odds are you will meet many, many more than that.)
2—With point 1 in mind, remember to be yourself. If you don’t drink, you don’t have to. If you do drink, feel free. Same goes for dancing, or doing costumes or…whatever. Just remember, not everyone is you, so let them do their thing too (without judgment).
3—HYDRATE! Keep water on you at all times. The hotels are notoriously dry, and the last thing you want is to start retaining water. Believe me, its really depressing to get all dressed up for the party on Saturday night just to find your cute, strappy shoes don’t fit because your feet are so swollen. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!
Are you speaking on any panels during RT? Are there any you are looking forward to?
On Wednesday, I’m moderating “Setting the Stellar Steampunk” (3:45-4:45) and on Thursday, I’m one of the hostesses of the “Steampunk Clockwork Tea” (1:30-2:30.) Here’s one more piece of advice: if you don’t know what steampunk is…go to a steampunk panel. Generally all of the people speaking/hosting will be dressed in steampunk attire and they are a lot of fun.
On Friday, I’m also one of the hostesses (hosts?) of “Hero Speed-Dating” (11:15-12:15) That last event should be a ridiculous amount of fun. Remember when I said authors were people too? Well that panel is your chance to watch us get our silly on while we pose as one of our heroes.
I will also be at the Carina Press cocktail party on Saturday (8:00-9:00) and probably all the other evening parties (though those will be in a less-official capacity). Lastly, I know Entangled Publishing has a couple things in the works, and I’ll be at those as well.
If someone were wanting to meet up with you at RT, who should they look for?
During the day? The person wandering around like a zombie. Just kidding.
Odds are if I’m not in steampunk gear or formal wear, I’m going to be in jeans, a t-shirt (likely with a cartoon character on it), and a fun jacket. The exception to this will likely be “Hero Speed Dating” in which I’m probably going to get my inner flamboyant rockstar on (unless I change heroes, that is.) Also, I have long-ish auburn-brown hair, hazel eyes, never drink coffee, and now that I’m comfortable at RT I tend to be pretty loud. (But I promise, I’m really not scary!)
