Hi everybody! We here at Opus hope that you are all enjoying a happy new year - meanwhile we are gearing up for Opus 2006. First off. A few announcements. --PRE-REGISTRATION DISCOUNT-- THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE FOR THE SPECIAL EARLY BIRD PRE-REGISTRATION RATE OF $29.00! If you have not already taken advantage of the $29 pre-registration rate you need to do so soon. The Opus Pre Registration season ends as of January 31st. So if you are the kind of person that likes to save money, you need to pre-reg now. --OPUS EVENTS- * THE WORLD'S FIRST ELFWOOD MEMBER GATHER Elfwood is the world's largest home to SciFi/Fantasy art and fiction... in the just last year Elfwood has registered over 700,000 hits. Their mission - to provide a place for amateur artists from all over the world to share, teach, and inspire a new generation of dreams." This May they will be celebrating their 10th anniversary - with us at Opus. In honor of their attendance we will be hosting a series of on site art classes, displays, demos, reviews, contests and more. * DRAGAERA FAN SUMMIT If you have not familiarized yourself with Brust's hero assassin witch, Vlad Taltos, you've been missing out. Go out and grab a copy of Jhereg and soon you'll be making regular stops at the bookstore to collect the other dozen books in the series. Then you'll be more than prepared for the Live Action Dragaera World Role playing game, the Assassin game, Dragaera the late night meets and costume contests that will be associated with this event at Opusfest 2006. * AVISTRUM ACADEMY OF SORCERY YEAR TWO This year's school for budding witches and wizards will blow last year's out of the lake. Our ingenious wizarding staff has developed an original American wizarding & witchcraft world for you to come and get lost in. The academy will be housed in the hotel's wonderful Evergreen room-a beautiful multi-sectioned room with high ceiling rafters and wrought iron entry gates--for the entirety of the weekend. * THE 2nd ANNUAL OPUS FREESTYLE SWORD COMPETITION Face other hopefuls in the Opus shanai pit as you and they vie for the cash purse and the glory of knowing that you are the BEST with a blade in Denver (or at least Opus) for the year of 2005. (No lightsabers please) -- OPUS 2006 GUEST LIST -- * ARTISTS - L.A. Williams, Peri Charlifu, Clay Mingues, Jim Humble, Carol Fritz, Michael Georges, Lannie Pihajlic, Tim Kuzniar * WRITERS - Steven Brust, Barb & JC Hendee, Wynette Hoffman, David Summers * BANDS - Voltaire, Caustic Soul, erotic, Born in Winter, Deviant, Raks Benazir, The Brobdingnagian Bards, Pandora Celtica, * NEW HOST HOTEL We have a new host hotel - the Hyatt Tech Center. For Opus in 2006, the Hyatt is offering rooms for $62 a night for two people. You can get your reservations on-line or call their reservations line and tell them you are coming for the Opus Arts Festival. There are a limited number of rooms at this great rate so we suggest you reserve your rooms as soon as possible - as of this date over half of our room block has been reserved. Here's the link to the hotel so you can see all the great things they have waiting for you as well as their contact info. Remote Advertising We happily accept any and all help when it comes to spreading the word about Opus. If you or someone you know would be interested in helping us get advertising in new places let us know. To help out with Opus advertising e-mail Rion at carpovita at earthlink.net. Opus Website - If you want to know what's going on at Opus and get regular updates on special offers make sure you check out our website at www.opusfest.com.