Book Bits: Kelly Meding, JA Saare, Lauren Dane, Allison Pang & more

The Alpha Showdown bracket is being assembled. We’ll launch it mid-May, but you can keep an eye on the Alpha Showdown 2012 page for bracket info, nominated alphas and their champions.

Changeling snippet
Kelly Meding posted a snippet from her upcoming Metawars novel Changeling (releases June 26). And it sounds so good. Will you be reading this one?

Cover Alert: The Ripple Effect
J.A. Saare shared the cover art for her third Rhiannon’s Law novel, The Ripple Effect. The second book, The Renfield Syndrome, was one of my favorites from 2011, so I’m super excited to know this one is coming soon.

Allison Pang reflecting on Buffy
Author Alison Pang (Brush of Darkness, A Sliver of Shadow) had an interesting post this week on the effect Buffy the Vampire Slayer on urban fantasy. She talks about defending her genre to others and kickass heroines. Agree or disagree, it’s a worthwhile read.

Futuristic goodness from Lauren Dane
Lauren Dane just sold a futuristic-themed duology. The official sale news:

Lauren Dane’s LAND’S END, about a lawman who patrols a dangerous landscape run rife with brigands and thieves and the woman who fights to break free of the sheltered life she leads after a deadly siege brings them together, for an upcoming untitled duology, to Leis Pederson at Berkley Heat, in a nice deal, by Laura Bradford at Bradford Literary Agency.

A pretend trip to RT
Last week was the RT Booklovers Convention in Chicago. Twitter exploded with photos of authors and readers having an awesome time. There were panels and book signing and apparently a lot of shenanigans. But I couldn’t attend. Neither could Carolyn Crane.

Or could she? See Carolyn’s amusing answer to attending RT from afar.