Category: Event

Glimmerdark 2017: A Rundown of This Faerie Festival’s First Year

Last weekend, a three-day long faerie revel took over a hotel in Princeton, New Jersey. This misfit faerie festival known as Glimmerdark is one of the newest conventions created by goth/geek/steampunk event coordinator Jeff Mach. A few weeks ago, I gave you all a preview of what I was looking forward to at this event. I would say that although the convention hit a few organizational snags, it met most of my expectations and I had a delightful time—as I always do at Jeff Mach Events.

I got captured by a towering Green Man at Glimmerdark!

Continue reading Glimmerdark 2017: A Rundown of This Faerie Festival’s First Year

Preview of Glimmerdark: A Brand New Dark Faerie Convention

What better way to dispel the midwinter blues than to disappear into a magical world of freaks and faeries for a weekend? Glimmerdark is a brand new convention run by Jeff Mach, who organizes cons throughout the northeast including the world’s largest steampunk event. My favorite Jeff Mach Event, the indoor Renaissance festival known as Wicked Faire, had its final run last year and Glimmerdark has sprung up in its place. The new con has been described as a “misfit faerie festival” and “a hotel party unparalleled in all space and time.” The multi-genre convention encourages people of all worlds and genres to venture into Faerie and enjoy a weekend of performances, workshops, and alluring crafts and creations for purchase. The convention takes place the first weekend of February in Princeton, NJ, and I’ve been invited to attend as press. I’ll be writing up a run-down after the convention, but I wanted to give you all a little taste of what I’m looking forward to most.

Glimmerdark promotional image by Encore Design
Glimmerdark promotional image by Encore Design

Continue reading Preview of Glimmerdark: A Brand New Dark Faerie Convention

Boston Teen Author Festival 2016

Last weekend, I ventured up to Boston to attend the Boston Teen Author Festival for the very first time. Young Adult literature is one of my passions, so I was excited to attend an entire book event dedicated to these authors. But what really motivated me to make the four-and-a-half hour trek was the opportunity to meet the author of the first vampire novel I ever read (and thus the author responsible for changing the course of my literary life)—Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. I was also excited to see a couple of authors that I met last summer at the Brooklyn Book Festival and to discover new authors whose books I might like.

"Create-Your-Own-Family Adventure" panel, with Amelia Atwater-Rhodes on the far left.
“Create-Your-Own-Family Adventure” panel, with Amelia Atwater-Rhodes on the far left.

Continue reading Boston Teen Author Festival 2016

Boroughs of the Dead–Discovering NYC’s Dark Side

Last weekend I went on my first ghost tour of New York City! Reading about ghosts and ghouls is all well and good, but sometimes you just have to get out there and experience their haunts and historical sites for yourself. Ghost tours are a great way to not only get some fresh air with your scares, but also to learn about some local history. And no one does this better than Boroughs of the Dead. Boroughs of the Dead is a local, independent, woman-owned boutique walking tour business that specializes in the darker side of New York history. They offer tours across Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens, and are looking to expand into the other two boroughs as well. Many of their tour guides are writers and are skilled in both research and storytelling. In fact, I first heard of the company because Gaslamp fantasy author Leanna Renee Hieber is one of their tour guides.

boroughs-of-the-dead-logo-1

Continue reading Boroughs of the Dead–Discovering NYC’s Dark Side

Bloggiesta To Do List: Fall 2016

This is a little last minute, but I’m hoping to hop on the Bloggiesta train once again. Bloggiesta is a regularly occurring blogging marathon in which a bunch of bloggers band together to challenge and support each other as we each work on improving our blogs, and it’s starting RIGHT NOW! The Fall Bloggiesta 2016 runs from today (Thursday, September 15th) until Sunday, September 18th. You can learn more on the Bloggiesta website.

bloggiesta-button-fall-2016
I’ve participated in two Bloggiesta events since starting this blog—the Winter 2016 Mini Bloggiesta and the Spring 2016 Bloggiesta (I missed the Summer Mini Bloggiesta)—and I’ve found these events to be very helpful for accomplishing long-term blogging goals as well as for connecting with other bloggers.
Since I didn’t get the chance to do any planning in advance this time around, and since I’m also going to be out of town this weekend without my computer, I’m going to be kind of loose about my timeline for accomplishing my Bloggiesta goals and probably won’t get the chance to participate in any mini-challenges. But I figured I would lay out some objectives and see how many I can accomplish over the coming weeks.
To Do List
  • Post reviews since last Bloggiesta on Goodreads and Amazon with links back to the blog
  • Revisit the Bookish Mastermind Group I joined last time and try to get that going again.
  • Plan out some Halloween posts
  • Comment on at least one other blog participating in Bloggiesta
  • Update my spreadsheet of book review requests

Are you participating in Bloggiesta? What are your goals? How is it going so far? Let me know in the comments!

World Goth Day 2016 and Some Reflections on Goth

This coming Sunday, May 22, is World Goth Day. Yes, you read that right—there’s a whole international holiday all about goths! World Goth Day was created to celebrate the gothic subculture and promote visibility and acceptance of goths—a group who are often feared, maligned, and misunderstood by the general public. The event originated in the UK in 2009, but quickly grew into an international affair. On Sunday, groups all around the world will host local goth events under the World Goth Day banner. You can look around online for events near you, start your own, or just take the day to indulge your inner goth in solitude or with friends. Here at The Gothic Library, I’m celebrating World Goth Day by sharing some of my thoughts on what the subculture means to me and how I got into it.

The official World Goth Day logo. Learn more at worldgothday.com
The official World Goth Day logo. Learn more at worldgothday.com

Continue reading World Goth Day 2016 and Some Reflections on Goth

Bloggiesta To Do List: Spring 2016

Earlier this year, I participated in my very first Bloggiesta event—the Winter 2016 Mini-Bloggiesta. For those who don’t know, Bloggiesta is blogging marathon in which a bunch of bloggers band together to challenge and support each other as we each work on improving our blogs. This whole week, starting today and going until Sunday, March 27, is a week-long Bloggiesta event. You can learn more at the Bloggiesta website.

Bloggiesta-Spring 2016

Last Bloggiesta I got a lot done: I got to know a  bunch of other bloggers, participated in some twitter chats and mini challenges, linked to my reviews on other websites, rearranged parts of my blog design, and started to actually plan out my blog posts in advance! I’m not going to be particularly ambitious with this Bloggiesta because it’s hard to do blog things during the week when I work full time, and I’ve been really struggling with time management lately. That said, I’m going to try to set myself a few reasonable goals.

To Do List:

Are you participating in Bloggiesta? Have you done it in the past? What are your goals? Let me know in the comments!

Bloggiesta To Do List: Winter 2016

I’m very excited to be participating in a Bloggiesta event for the first time! For those who don’t know, Bloggiesta is blogging marathon in which a bunch of bloggers band together to challenge and support each other as we each work on improving our blogs. This coming weekend (Saturday the 16th and Sunday the 17th) is the yearly winter mini Bloggiesta! You can find out more at the Bloggiesta website.

Bloggiesta-Mini 16

On New Year’s Day, I posed a list of broad goals I’d like to accomplish with this blog over the coming year. But today I’d like to share my to do list of concrete tasks to accomplish this weekend in order to get going down the right path.

To Do List:
  • Leave at least 5 comments on posts by other bloggers
  • Participate in the Bloggiesta twitter chat on Sunday at 2pm Eastern
  • Do a Bloggiesta mini challenge
  • Post reviews on Goodreads and Amazon with links back to the blog
  • Sort through my genre categories
  • Plan out my next 3-5 posts
  • Evaluate my sidebar, and rearrange if necessary

Are you participating in Bloggiesta? Have you done it in the past? Let me know in the comments!

All Hallow’s Read: Neil Gaiman’s Halloween Tradition (Plus a Giveaway!)

Several years ago, one of gothdom’s most reverend authors decided to start a new Halloween tradition. We love books. We love Halloween. Why not combine them? Thus, Neil Gaiman created All Hallow’s Read. Celebrating All Hallow’s Read is simple—just give someone a scary book either on Halloween or during the week leading up to the holiday. To learn more about the tradition and its origins, check out the All Hallow’s Read website. Not sure what books to give? Lists of suggestions abound, but below are some of my favorite spooky stories to share with family, friends, or strangers of all ages.

Also, in the spirit of this tradition, I’ll be giving away a spooky book myself! Read through to the bottom to find out how you can enter to win the horror/humor collection Blood Lite II: Overbite.

Continue reading All Hallow’s Read: Neil Gaiman’s Halloween Tradition (Plus a Giveaway!)

Death-tastic Book Signing with Caitlin Doughty

IMG_8274Last week, I got to hear author and revolutionary mortician Caitlin Doughty speak at the Strand as she promoted the paperback release of her New York Times best-selling memoir, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons From the Crematory. My review of Smoke was one of my very first blog posts here on this site back in July, and I’ve been a huge fan of Caitlin for several years. Needless to say, I was delighted to have the opportunity to finally meet her and get my advanced reader’s copy of the book signed. But before she signed any books, Caitlin addressed the modest crowd that was gathered in the Strand’s rare books floor to discuss her work in the death industry and answer any questions we might have about our own mortality. Her talk was both fun and informative, as you might expect from an alternative mortician-cum-Youtube star, and I’ve written up some of the highlights to share with you below: Continue reading Death-tastic Book Signing with Caitlin Doughty