July’s newsletter includes news about the Sirens Bookstore, author signings (published authors wanted!), the lineup for this year’s Books and Breakfast, and more!

Programming Update
If you haven’t seen it yet, check out the accepted programming page on our website. Many new presentations have been added over the past few weeks. We’ve also just released our schedule! We know it’s going to be very difficult for everyone to choose between so many fantastic offerings. Thank you again to everyone who proposed a presentation this year. We appreciate your willingness to participate in programming! Once again, we know we’ll all wish we could manage to be in multiple places at once.

Author Signings
If you are a published author, please let us know! We’d love to include you in our author signing times and have new books on hand. We have access to many books from major publishers; for those we don’t have access to, like out-of-print titles or books that aren’t available through a major distributor, we have suggestions for how to make sure that your books are available at Sirens. Please let us know if you’d like to take part in the author signings by writing to (help at sirensconference.org) as soon as possible.

Book Donations
Narrate Conferences, our presenting nonprofit, will again run a new and used bookstore during Sirens. For everyone attending, and friends of women in fantasy literature as well, we hope you’ll help us stock the used section of the bookstore. If you have fantasy books written by or about women that you’d like to donate, and they are in good used condition, we’d love to have them. You don’t need to attend to donate; anyone can send books by regular or media mail to the following address:

Sirens
c/o Narrate Conferences
P.O. Box 149
Sedalia, CO 80135

Be aware that media mail has restrictions, and that we must receive all packages and mail by September 12, 2013, in order to get your donations to Skamania in time for Sirens. And make sure to stop by and see us at the bookstore this fall! We’ll have plenty of recommendations.

Auction
We are starting to gather donations for the Sirens auction! This yearly fundraiser has gone a long way toward covering conference costs in the past, and we are always deeply grateful for our community’s participation and support. All sorts of items are welcome—past auctions have included artwork, crafts, character names in new works, signed advance reading copies, jewelry, and more.

If you’d like to donate an item or if you have questions, please shoot us an email at (help at sirensconference.org). We’d love to hear what you’re planning and address any concerns you might have. Also, for those of you with bulky items, we can give you a shipping address, if you’d like. And, of course, thank you in advance for your support!

Books and Breakfast
Books and Breakfast will be held on Friday, October 11, and Saturday, October 12. For those of you who are new to Sirens, this is where we invite you to bring your own breakfast and join us for informal chats about books before presentations begin in the morning.

This year, our reading list includes tales that are new and different takes on the themes of years past. Some of them are new, some of them were game-changing or controversial books, and some we just loved and wanted to share. We think it’s a pretty good start for a summer reading list. It’s perfectly okay to join in if you haven’t read any of the books yet, but if you’d like to come prepared, the schedule is listed below.

Friday, October 11, 2013
Prophecy by Ellen Oh
A Kiss of Shadows by Laurell K. Hamilton
The Space Between by Brenna Yovanoff
Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord

Saturday, October 12, 2013
Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit by Nahoko Uehashi
Bronze Gods by A. A. Aguirre
Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake
Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi

Sirens Supper
If you’ll be in the Portland area on the evening of Wednesday, October 9, perhaps you’d like to join us for dinner. Each year our conference staff hosts a dinner for a limited number of attendees, and you’re welcome to come. We love having a chance to chat before the conference starts!

We hope to have news about our Sirens Supper menu soon—but you might not want to wait to buy your tickets, as there are only a handful of tickets still available.

Tickets for the Sirens Supper are $60, and may be added to a new or to an existing registration. Attendees may purchase additional tickets for the Sirens Supper for others who are at least 18 years old as of October 9, 2013.

Sirens Shuttle
Tickets are still available for the Sirens Shuttle. You can add them to a new or to an existing registration even if you don’t have your flight details yet. A round-trip ticket on the shuttle, at $75 per rider, is less than half the cost of a commercial van service. The Sirens Shuttle is also a great chance to meet others, decompress, and enjoy the beautiful Columbia Gorge scenery. Your trip to Skamania on Wednesday or Thursday will include a brief stop at Multnomah Falls on the Columbia River. Don’t forget to bring a camera!

Deadlines Approaching
The last day to pre-register for Sirens, to purchase a ticket for the Sirens Shuttle, or to purchase a ticket for the Sirens Supper is September 7, 2013. Between September 7 and the conference, we close registration so that we can finish ordering materials and making arrangements. We will have only a limited number of registrations available for purchase at Sirens, so we recommend that you register in advance.

The last day to make a reservation at Skamania Lodge at the Sirens rate is September 12, 2013. If you require a room with two beds, we recommend that you make a reservation soon; the lodge is a popular destination year-round, and last year, we used all of the rooms set aside for Sirens. Please see the linked page for complete details.

What We’re Excited About This Month

Disability in Kidlit posted Haddayr Copley-Woods’s review of Among Others. –SRG

Mette Ivie Harrison posted 12 tips on writing about grief. –Amy W.

Book Riot spotlights 10 Recent & Upcoming Queer Reads, including Malinda Lo’s Inheritance, the sequel to Adaptation! –Anonymous

Cool: The trailer for Holly Black’s The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, which comes out on September 3. –Michelle

Romance Novels for Feminists discusses 1980s Feminism in Lois McMaster Bujold’s Shards of Honor. –Anonymous

Tanita Davis writes about revisiting Red Sonja and a comic book adaptation. –-Anonymous

Girls of Summer interviews Guadalupe Garcia McCall.

Check out the 2013 Mythopoeic Awards.

Check out the 2013 Locus Awards.

Here’s some nifty cover art for Marie Brennan’s upcoming Tropic of Serpents.

Cover art for Rosamund Hodge’s Cruel Beauty, a retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

Nalo Hopkinson shares discussion questions for Sister Mine. If you missed her guest appearance last year, you might be interested in her talk at the 2012 National Book Festival.

SF Signal shares the covers of 178 science fiction, fantasy, and horror books out this month. (Perhaps not necessarily “all,” but interesting to look at.)

Kate Elliott talks women in epic fantasy at RT Book Reviews.

Thirty years of King’s Quest, designed by Roberta Williams. I loved playing as Rosella and Valanice! –Hallie

If you have fantasy-related links—reviews, news, announcements, or something else that’s of interest to Sirens attendees—we welcome them! Please send them to (help at sirensconference.org) at any time.

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