This is the official newsletter for Sirens, a conference dedicated to women in fantasy literature. The newsletter is published once a month to the Sirens News page, message boards, mailing list, LiveJournal, and Facebook. Certain other updates are posted on the conference’s Twitter.

Sirens
Volume 4 – Issue 5
March 2012

Programming Kickoff
We’re ready to receive proposals for papers and presentations, pre-empaneled sets of papers, panels, workshops, roundtable discussions, and afternoon classes. The proposal deadline is May 6, 2012, and the vast majority of the programming for Sirens comes from the proposals submitted by attendees.

March is our month of how-to, and the first of our informal posts about how to get involved in programming can be found on LiveJournal under the programming tag: http://sirenscon.livejournal.com/tag/programming.

These posts are designed to walk you through the process of proposing programming for Sirens. They’re lengthy at times, but please don’t be overwhelmed: we want you to have plenty of chances to ask questions.

Chat
The Sirens team will host a chat on Sunday, March 11, 2012. We’ll make it a combined chat: lots of book talk, lots of reconnecting, and lots of programming brainstorming talk. Questions welcome!
Date: March 11
Time: 3:00 p.m. Eastern/noon Pacific
You don’t need any special software or programs to participate; the page at http://www.sirensconference.org/chat/ will turn into a chat room at the appropriate time. (You may need to refresh the page.)

You’re Excited About…

From Manda Lewis: “I’m excited about the release of Robin Hobb’s City of Dragons! I’ve been imagining every possible outcome for her characters and now I get to know more. 🙂 I’m also excited to have seen the cover art for Cinda Williams Chima’s Crimson Crown, which she put up on Valentine’s Day! It looks fantastic!”

From Sabrina Chin: “I’m excited about the release for Timeless by Gail Carriger, the fifth and last book in the Parasol Protectorate series, due out on March 1st! I also can’t wait for Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta, the sequel to Finnikin of the Rock, which is due out on March 13th!”

From Hallie: “I forget where I saw this, but I recently heard about Mary de Morgan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_de_Morgan), and she sounds like someone to check out.”

What Are You Excited About?
Do you have a book coming out, or are you excited about something new on the shelves? Have you just discovered everyone else’s old favorite fantasy series? Found an interesting fantasy-related link? Send your preferred name, a sentence or two about the exciting news, and any important dates or links to (hallie at sirensconference.org) or leave us a comment, and we’ll feature you in next month’s newsletter. We love good news!

Registration Tip: March 31 Price Jump
The next price jump for Sirens will happen on March 31, 2012. Right now, the cost to register and receive entry to conference programming and events, including the three keynote presentations by our guests of honor and a conference T-shirt available only to attendees, as well as four meals or receptions, is $180. It jumps to $190 at the very end of March. Visit http://www.sirensconference.org/registration/ for more information or to register now.

Reminder: New News!
If you like to read the news in a blog-style setting but aren’t so fond of LiveJournal, we have great news. All newsletters for Sirens going forward–and, eventually, from the past–will be hosted at http://www.sirensconference.org/news/. You can pick up an RSS feed there, comment on posts, and search by tags. To see all of the other ways you can get news about Sirens, please visit http://www.sirensconference.org/connect/newsoutlets.php.

Flying to Sirens
The closest airport to Skamania Lodge in Stevenson, Washington, is Portland International Airport (PDX). You can investigate everything from their extensive shopping to airline carriers to on-site Wi-Fi here. We’ll run a shuttle from PDX to Sirens. We’ll have more information about riding the shuttle and ticket costs in the summer.

Questions? You can comment here or write to us at (help at sirensconference.org).