Registration
Reminder! The $165 registration rate, which includes all 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 a dessert reception, two lunches and a breakfast, is available until April 30, 2011. After that, it jumps to $180. You can register at the registration page. Airport shuttle and Sirens Supper tickets can be purchased separately.

Sirens Review Squad: On Hiatus
We’re skipping reviews this month to bring you even more programming!

Programming
The deadline for proposals is May 7, 2011. Sirens’s programming is conceived, proposed, and presented by attendees, and your contributions, discussions, hypotheses, and analyses related to women in fantasy are the heart of the conference. Please consider participating!

To get involved, check out our how-to series on LiveJournal.

General programming information: http://community.livejournal.com/sirenscon/33408.html
What type of presentation should I propose?: http://community.livejournal.com/sirenscon/33952.html
Putting together a paper, lecture, talk, or presentation: http://community.livejournal.com/sirenscon/35020.html
Putting together a panel: http://community.livejournal.com/sirenscon/35496.html
Putting together a roundtable discussion: forthcoming
Putting together a workshop: forthcoming
Putting together an afternoon class: forthcoming
Free summaries!: forthcoming
All the posts tagged “programming”: http://community.livejournal.com/sirenscon/tag/programming

Visit the latest brainstorming post here to pick up an idea or to drop one off, to encourage presentations, or just to start your own brainstorming process. At present, there is a panel seeking panelists on Indian myth and folklore and some GLBTQ ideas up for grabs, there are roundtable discussion ideas on offer for the monstrous feminine and portrayals of women in fiction, and there are musings on everything from lamias to specific fairytales to music and art. Please check it out!

If you’d like more room than a comment to sketch out ideas, particularly if you’re seeking co-presenters or want to offer yourself up as a panelist, please feel free to start a thread on the Sirens message boards. We’ve cleared out old threads to prevent confusion and to make sure your new ideas will rise to the top. Not really sure what you’d like to do? Offer yourself up as a panelist or co-presenter here.

And Chat!
If you’re interested in programming, please join us for our April chat. Our next chat will be held on April 16, 2011, at six p.m. Eastern (3 p.m. Pacific) and last about two hours. We’ll focus specifically on those burning programming questions, help you proofread your summary, or whatever else you might need. We hope you’ll join us at the Sirens chat. No special software is needed, but you might have to refresh the page when the chat starts.

We’re Excited About…

I look forward to being able to read Cindy Pon’s Fury of the Phoenix! –thistleingrey

Also, Malinda Lo’s Huntress releases April 5 :)! And I really want to recommend Chime by Franny Billingsley, which is perfect for the monster theme. It came out March 17. SO GOOD. –newsboyhat

I’m looking forward to the release of Alison Goodman’s Eona, sequel to Eon, on April 19. 😀 –smilie117

Nnedi Okorafor’s Akata Witch is out on the 14th. –Anonymous #1

Janni Lee Simner’s Faerie Winter comes out on April 5. –Anonymous #2

Gail Carriger just announced she’ll be doing a 4 book YA series called The Finishing School set in the same world as Souless/Changeless/Blameless/Heartless/Timeless and revolves around steampunky girls finishing school on a flying dirigible…tea and assassin training from what I can tell! SO EXCITED! –Manda

Sarah Rees Brennan (http://sarahtales.livejournal.com) sold a new YA trilogy to Mallory Loehr! –Anonymous #3

There are a whole bunch of April 5 releases mentioned on the Sirens Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/sirens_con. –Hallie

The first book on the heroine’s journey (which I was describing nonstop at the last Sirens) is out. From Girl to Goddess: The Heroine’s Journey through Myth and Legend by Valerie Estelle Frankel has been published. –Valerie

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. (Obviously, it’s fine to go anonymous!) We love good news! (P.S. It’s okay to send us neat stuff as it happens in April, or that we missed in March, too.)

BEA and ALA
Will you be at Book Expo America in May or the June American Library Association conference? We’d like to snap pictures or get news on community members in action. Please e-mail Hallie at (hallie at sirensconference.org).

Have questions? Please ask them here or write to (help at sirensconference.org).