I used to be thinner, better looking and smarter...no, really.

It's true. I've been going through some boxes in the basement--ones that we've now carted around to three houses and never opened. I found some old pictures from college. It's impossible for me to believe I was ever that THIN. And at the time, I know I was worried that I was getting fat, the freshman fifteen. Not to mention the definitive lack of wrinkles, dark circles under the eyes and general downward tilt to the mouth. I looked more...sparkly back then. Now, I just look tired and old(er) even though I feel pretty much like the same person on the inside.

I also found a box with some old English papers in them. Damn, I used to be pretty good at that. I used to be able to string together whole sentences--long ones too--with four syllable words in them. Working has destroyed this ability. When you write for the general public, you have to write at about an eighth grade level--I'm being serious--to ensure that your audience will understand you. I'm not even sure I could think that hard any more. Do you think I should get workman's comp? I swear, thanks to working, my intelligence is hitting a downward spiral. Soon, I'll just be publishing blank entries here...

I want to walk around and wave those English papers around at people and shout, "See, I used to be smarter than this!!!" Of course, doing so would probably not prove my point...or maybe it would : )

Latest issue of GalaxSHE and Road to Romance...

Just a short little update today...

I sent out the latest issue of GalaxSHE yesterday, so subscribers, be on the lookout! : ) For those who don't know, GalaxSHE is my monthly (*cough* quarterly) electronic newsletter on yahoogroups. Subscribers get the latest book news, reading recommendations and...some other random stuff *grin*

Also, my page is now up at Road to Romance. I've been added to the First Timers Club, a list of first-time authors. It's a club I'm glad to have joined, but I'm also equally eager to get out! You leave the First Timers Club when your second book is published. You can check out my individual page here.

Monday night...

So, it was late Monday night/early Tuesday morning, and I was half awake, already in the early throes of bad pizza. I heard the extremely loud sound of tires screeching and something crashing. At first I wasn't even sure I'd really heard it. You know that, I'm almost asleep, did I dream it, kind of thing. But then I heard screeching start up again and another crash. It was really loud and very close. Can I tell you that I'm not sure what other more terrifying sounds there are than a car that is clearly out of control and very close by?

By this time, my drowsy brain has managed to wake up enough to start sending panic signals to the rest of me. I fumbled for my glasses--totally blind without them or contacts--and realized that my husband was no longer in bed.

I got out of bed, wound my way through the sleeping dogs, and started down the stairs. At which point, my husband yelled, "Don't come down here. This guy...I think he's going to run into a house or something." Well, now if that doesn't wake you up, all bright eyed and terrified...

After a couple of seconds, I decided to ignore my husband and come downstairs anyway. We watched out our dining room window as lights came on in houses up and down the street. By this time--it all happened really quickly--the screeching tire noises had completely stopped, and I heard sirens in the distance.

Let me just say this, living with a writer is occasionally dangerous. We can't keep our noses out of what is really other people's business. The cops arrived and I saw some people, probably our neighbors, walking down the street toward where the cops had pulled in, about one house down from us. So, I decided to go check it out.

Yes, I decided to go outside in my pajamas in the middle of the night where some rampaging lunatic, who might still be on the loose, was trying his level best to crack into anything that didn't jump out of the way. Couldn't help it. I needed to find out what was going on. So, I walked out, alone, and bumped into some people that I presumed live down the street from me. Our neighborhood is a little bit isolationist--we don't know anyone's name--or maybe they're just isolating themselves from us, the crazy girl in her pajamas and her poor husband. I asked my possible neighbors what had happened. Apparently, on the other end of my street, this guy in car had driven up on the lawn and taken out five or six baby trees, a light post and a set of mailboxes. And if that weren't enough, he turned around in someone's driveway and then promptly proceeded to the other end of the street (my end) where he collided with ANOTHER light post. Hello? I've been drunk. I've been too drunk to walk properly or to have enough common sense not to sing loudly and off-key. But I don't think I've ever been so drunk that I'd mistake a lamp post for empty space, not once but TWICE.

At the end of our street, I saw a blue minivan stopped diagonally across our cross-street. I'm pretty sure he didn't so much park as hit another lamp post at a slow enough speed to stop the vehicle dead.

Police started walking up and down the street checking out the damage and an ambulance circled, looking, I'd imagine for potentially injured people. Fortunately, no one was injured as far as I know, except for possibly the driver. Which I only say that because I'm guessing that taking out two lamp posts doesn't exactly leave you with a nice healthy glow.

Next day, after I'd started to recover from the bad pizza incident, I took myself outside again and checked it out in daylight. Dude. When you're driving a car, you forget that it's basically a weapon--a ton of metal and glass hurtling toward whatever you point it at. He'd mowed down garbage cans, trees, mailboxes, and lamp posts and still kept going. Our house is one of the few on the block that wasn't affected. Our garbage cans were right out there on the edge of the curb and our cars were in the driveway. We were very fortunate not to have sustained any damage. And we were all extremely lucky that he didn't mistake a house for empty space.

We're still waiting to get the whole scoop, possibly from the local newspaper. Our subdivision is out in the middle of nowhere, so it's a little weird that someone would just arbitrarily choose it for a destructive bender. It's also a little strange that he picked our street--he would have had to have driven down one and past several others to get to it.

So, anyway, that was my scary/weird/interesting Monday night. Tuesday morning, I started off the day by throwing up. Oh yeah, it's been a good week.

I'm never eating again...

A bad pepperoni pizza, I kid you not, has laid me low today. I stayed home sick from work with what I'm pretty sure is food poisoning. It sounds stupid, but I forget how much I hate throwing up until it happens again. It's been years and the last time, it was from the flu which actually landed me in the emergency room. This time, it wasn't quite that bad, but still...ugh.

But something very weird/interesting/scary happened last night in my neighborhood. I don't have the energy right now to get into describing it, but I'll cover it tomorrow. All I can say is I don't remember the last time I was that scared just sitting in my own home.

Okay, help me, I think I'm addicted...

We saw Star Wars again on Saturday night. And I enjoyed it as much or more than the first time. I also just downloaded the entire soundtrack to my ipod, which is kind of dumb, considering I have trouble believing that I'll listen to it straight through. But the music does give me chills, especially the opening title.

Also, one last note on the Star Wars, then I promise I'll drop it. But I feel okay mentioning this since Meg Cabot also mentioned this very thing as one of the plus sides to the movie. For all those female fans who cringed at the obvious ploy of having Princess Leia in the gold bikini thing in Return of the Jedi, George Lucas has included a scene just for you. In one of those very obvious "hey, we're trying to appeal to the women in the audience" moments, Anakin gets out of bed and the camera totally focuses on his very nicely muscled upper torso as he tosses on a robe. Oh, Hayden Christianson how you've grown up *grin* Think Patrick Swayze in that scene in Dirty Dancing with the oh, so prominent back muscles--remember Beck? And Ed? We probably trapped you in the room a time or two when we were watching that movie, and that scene, over and over again in college.

I can't wait for the DVD. Not just because of that scene (though it is nice!) but I still can't tell what a certain character's last words are. I'm being careful about how I phrase that, just in case. If you've seen the movie and you know what those last words are, please let me know. If I'm being too cryptic, email me and I'll be more specific. I really would like to know what is said, and even seeing it twice, I couldn't tell.

That's it on Star Wars, I promise...for now.

In other news, I'm stuck on a particular scene in my Bitter Pill revisions, argggh! It's just this one scene, I hope, that's keeping me from doing the final clean up on the first three chapters and sending them out to the various people who've so graciously agreed to read them. *grinding of teeth* The change in Rennie's attitude--her awareness of and concern over finding dead bodies all the time--affects the tone of her conversations with Bristol.

In the previous version, he's sort of exasperated with her because she doesn't call him when she thinks there could be trouble. She checks it out on her own first and then calls him. But in the original version, the trauma of finding Doc Hallacy really didn't register with her as much. Nor was she worried about what it meant for her, being cursed, etc. So, they have this kind of banter back and forth. But it doesn't feel right to have her bantering, when she's secretly worrying about what's wrong with her. Nor does it seem right to have him so exasperated with her because it should be fairly clear that she's upset and taking that tone wouldn't really solve anything. So, I've still got to work all this out. *sigh* I'm just eager to see what people think, the old version versus the new version. I'm way too close to it now for any sort of rational opinion. Oh, well, I'll keep working at it! Usually that's the only solution : )

A brief note on Star Wars--no spoilers

I just want to tell you that if you wavering about whether to see the new Star Wars movie--especially based on the last two--YOU SHOULD GO. It was excellent. Very reminiscent of the original. The humor has returned--gotta love R2D2--and it isn't stupid Jar Jar Binks humor either. It was, of course, beautiful and sad, too. But as you watch it, you get this definite sense of the final piece fitting into the puzzle. I simultaneously got tears in my eyes and a chill as I watched the final scene. It was a perfect end...and beginning. That's all I'm going to say because I don't want to take the chance of ruining it for someone. And most, if not all, of my questions were answered. There's some really cool continuity stuff happening too to make it synch up with Episode IV. Empire Strikes Back is still my favorite, I think. But now, if I were to sit down and watch the movies back to back, I'd only skip the first two. I'd start with Episode III, that's how good it is.

In other words, Go See It!!!!

Four hours and fourteen minutes...

We're going to the 9:10 show tonight. I'm so excited. I've heard from those who were bold enough to stay up last night and go to the midnight showing that it's worth getting excited about. Here's hoping...


I read an interesting article on MSNBC today about this company that basically lets you test-drive a new career before you quit your existing job. You select from one of the professions and they match you up with someone who's currently in that job. Then you go out there for a couple days or a week and learn from them. It helps you decide if that' s something you really want to do. Right now, none of the professions they have listed are ones I'd be all that interested in trying out, but they do have some good ones. VocationVacation is the name of the company. Check it out and see if they have your dream job available. Prices actually seem pretty reasonable, I think. Let me know if you decide to partake...

Okay, I'm getting ready to head out of here for dinner and the movie. I may not be around a computer long enough tomorrow to make an entry as I'll be at home, running around doing all the stuff that never seems to get done unless I take a vacation day from work.

Have a good weekend!

*jittery*

I had the beginnings of a migraine headache (the funny sparkly spots in my eye) this afternoon, and following migraine-avoidance protocol, I chugged an entire 20 oz. bottle of fully-caffeinated and sugared Pepsi (my former boss taught me this and it works every single time). Ah, sweet Pepsi, how I've missed you. I've been off caffeine and most soda now for about two and a half years. I sleep better and I feel a lot better during the day, instead of falling from the caffeine high and trying to boost myself up again all the time.

However, that means caffeine is pretty much a shock to my system these days. I was once up to a two or three bottle a day habit, but now, just that one bottle made me *jittery*. But the migraine was averted, so a little jittery is worth it. Trust me, if someone tells you slamming your hand in the door will help you avoid migraine, migraines are bad enough that it almost seems worth it to have the sore hand instead.

Thank you to the people who wrote me about yesterday's entry. I appreciate your concern : ) I'm working on figuring out some changes that will help me be in a better mood. As always, writing about it helps me sort things out. In the meantime, I'm just praying for patience and guidance. Oh, and little wisdom wouldn't hurt either.

Random things that I've forgotten to tell you...
For those who might be interested, a review of The Silver Spoon and an ad for it are running in the June issue of the Romantic Times Bookclub Magazine. I think you can pick it up any major bookstore. I did this because this is the issue that was given away at the RT convention earlier this month. It completely did not occur to me that other people outside the convention might also notice the review and ad until I got an email from my aunt (Hi Aunt Carol Ann) telling me she saw it in there.

I was pretty happy with the review. 3 stars out of 4 1/2. I think that makes it "A pleasant, enjoyable read," according to the legend. The only criticism in the review itself was that the reviewer felt the book ended too quickly and left her hoping for a sequel. If that's criticism, I'll take it. : )

The ad came out very nicely as well. It's a small black and white ad with other small black and white ads in a full page layout, if that makes sense. Linnea has an awesome ad in there as well for Finder's Keepers. Hers is in color and looks amazing.

I had a lot of fun looking through the magazine and seeing my name in there. : ) It was also fun to go through and see all the names I now recognize because I've met the authors!

And finally, it's time for the monthly (uh, quarterly) edition of GalaxSHE so I'm working on getting that out to you as well. Anything in particular you all want in there? Reading recommendations? Questions answered? My take on the trainwreck that is Britney Spears' reality show? Just kidding. I want the newsletter to be useful...or at least something worth reading! So let me know...

Blah

That pretty much sums up how I feel right now. Even with one of the most anticipated movies only day(s) away, I can't seem to get myself out of this down-in-the-dumps feeling. It's probably due to a couple of things. One, work is insanely busy right now, so I've just put in a very full day. Two, I'm working on several writing projects all at once and enjoying myself, but I'm at that point on at least one of them where I just want to have something to show for it. I'm revising the first three chapters of Bitter Pill to add a supernatural element. It's not really too much of a stretch. The whole concept for the series was, what happens if you have a character who's always stumbling over dead bodies, as characters are wont to do in cozy mysteries, and made her aware of the oddity. You know...hmm, is there something wrong with me that I'm not a cop or a coroner and yet I keep finding dead people everywhere?

I'm nearly done with the first three chapters and I think that it's actually fleshed out (fleshed, not flushed...As a former English major, that common usage error drives me crazy!!!) the story quite a bit. But it's also made it considerably darker. I mean, how could it not be? You have a character who's struggling with thinking she could be cursed, essentially. Part of what I liked so much about the original draft, though, was the humor in it. It was, and I hope, still is a fun read. I want to make this series a "take it to bed with you" kind of book. You know, interesting, fun, cozy, not something you're afraid will give you nightmares if you read it before bed. (For those who've read the book, wouldn't it be fun to have marketing materials--bumperstickers, bookmarks, etc--that say "Take Bristol to bed with you" or "Take Rennie to bed with you." Hee, how fun, I think!)

Anyway, I'm worried these changes might be taking it too far away from that original tone. But I've decided to do just the first three and send it to a few people, along with the original, to see which version is preferred. But it feels like it's taking forever to get them done!!! And I think it's because in the back of my mind, I'm afraid I'm ruining it instead of making it better. Or worse yet, I'm worried I'll feel ambiguous about both versions--as in "I like certain parts of this one and certain parts of the other one, but neither one very much."

Ack. Seriously. Because I love this story and these characters, and I think they deserve more than to sit on my shelf growing faded and dusty. Plus, it's important to get something else out there while I'm working away on my other stuff.

I also think this book provides a unique opportunity with the greyhound link. Rennie Harlow, the main character, has a greyhound. She's the only one of my main characters that has a pet. The others don't have nearly stable enough home-lives to have an animal dependent on them. (Side note: originally, I wanted Zara to have a dog at home--even named him Galileo--but I knew she'd worry about him at home with no one to take care of him. She'd never have gone with Caelan then!) If I get this book published, I might be able to work out a deal with one of the many excellent greyhound organizations around. I donate a portion of my royalties to them in exchange for them using my book as a fundraiser-type thing or just promoting it amongst themselves. I'd love to be able to do something good for the greyhounds--the story itself raises awareness of their fine character and their plight at the track--but the rescue orgs always need money too.

On a completely unrelated but utterly depressing note, I've discovered that I'm pretty much not qualified to be anything except a writer. That would be good news if I could just write books and book-related stuff all day. But I can't. *sigh* I know that sounds rather cryptic, but that's as far as I'm going with it here. It's a little too public and a little too depressing to further elaborate on it here.

I'm running late...surprise.

Have to run to make dinner (aka pick it up at Boston Market...ha!) But I found this article in which MSBC readers responded to the Star Wars article I found the other day. Interesting all the details I didn't know. Still, I wonder where some of these people are getting their information--Yaddle?!? Really?

Readers talk Star Wars plot holes.

No time today whatsoever...

Normally I have a little more time to think about what I'm going to write here, but today was a hectic one. Emergency project at work. We got it done, mostly, but when that adrenaline rush wears off, it leaves you exhausted and feeling like you've worked about eight days in one.

So, no interesting Star Wars articles today : ( But I do have to tell you that George Lucas is reportedly doing a cameo on The O.C either tonight or next week. Very interesting. Not the match up you would think of first. I'm not even sure it's the right demographic. Right age range, probably, but not the right gender. Though, I could be wrong. My husband watches The O.C. with me. I guess I'm making the assumption that most of the audience for Star Wars will be male, though I know there's a big female contingent too. Maybe The O.C isn't that strange a match for Star Wars. It would probably be a little weird if Lucas just suddenly showed up on Battlestar Galactica or something. : ) Not to mention that BG is now in reruns until JULY!!! I think.

I also want to tell you that I'm doing something very out of the ordinary for me. I'm reading, wait for it, *gasp* a business book! I know, I know. Normally, I go out of my way to avoid these books except as coasters or door stops, but this one seems really interesting and I heard M. J. Rose mention it at RT. It's called The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. In it, he explores the concept of how ideas spread like diseases in a way. Cool ideas pass from person to person in an ever-expanding circle until they reach the tipping point, about 30,000 people, which is when almost everyone knows about whatever the cool idea is. I bought it because I wanted to understand more about grassroots, word of mouth marketing. But it's also just an interesting read.

Speaking of cool ideas, check out this site. I saw a woman at RT with a purse like this, only instead of photos or napkins or whatever, she had her book cover in there. I just ordered one for myself!!! : )

Veronica Mars and more Star Wars stuff

Okay, I just want to go on record and say...I KNEW IT. I knew who killed Lilly Kane on the show Veronica Mars. I kept forgetting to write it down here, but I did mention it to Susan, my sister, so she can vouch that I had it right ahead of time. This does not speak to my deductive skills as much as it does to the quality of the show. The clues, tricky and subtle, were there, but the only reason I figured out was because I thought about it from a writing perspective--like if I were the one writing the show (hello, dream job!?!). Who had motivation to kill her? Who had opportunity? Who were the obvious red-herring suspects? Oh, it was so much fun. That's one of the things I love about writing mysteries! The end, if you do it correctly, seems so natural and right to the reader but only because there's all this subtle background, sneaky stuff going on. They're giving you clues and most of the time, we don't even realize it. LOVE that.

(Speaking of mysteries, I'm rewriting the first three chapters of Bitter Pill. Nearly done with it. Just a little stuck on one important scene. )

I'm a little worried, though. Good shows often have a lackluster second season. Though, Buffy seemed to do all right. I just can't imagine what the central mystery will be next year that has as much personal impact as finding out who murdered your best friend. Those of you who've not seen this show yet, but love the snappy writing of Buffy, you now have the chance with the season of reruns fast approaching. It's on UPN...at the risk of sounding like a commercial, check your local listings : )

Speaking of fast approaching, one week from tonight at midnight the very first showing of Revenge of the Sith will be playing--tee, hee!!!! I won't be going to that showing because I'm a loser and have a day job. But I know plenty of other people who will be going and I can't wait to hear--in a very generic, non-spoiley way--what you thought. In preparation for this big event, and yes, it is a BIG event, I found this article on MSNBC today. It lists the ten things that this final movie should explain. As I'm sure most of you know, I have some questions that I think should be answered by this final movie. Turns out this guy who wrote the article has the same questions and even more. Very thought-provoking. So, check it out.

Mastering the art of resizing photos...

Okay, I've been playing around with this for a while this morning...let's see if I've got it.


Greg with his present from Linnea (the button says, "Ask me about my wife's books!"):

Some photos from RT--UPDATED

UPDATED--Thank you to Linnea who resized all my photos for me--they're not so HUGE now!!! Much, much better. Thanks, Linnea ; )

This is Linnea, Robin Owens, Denise, and me at the bar:






Me, at the book fair:







Isabo Kelly and me (yes, I know it should be I, right?!? But that sounds funny) at the bookfair:








A photo with Bonnie Vanak:

A photo with Kelley Armstrong:

Romantic Times, Part 4 (the last part, I think)

Okay, in that I've delayed the tail end of this report so long, I'm going to try to summarize Friday and Saturday in one entry instead.

On Friday, we had more panels. The one I attended focused on world-building, creating believable fictional worlds. One of the more interesting tidbits I picked up was about the "rule of strange," which goes something like this: You can't overwhelm readers with the strangeness of these new worlds at all once. It's too jarring and it makes reading too much of a struggle for them. I'm sure those of you who read sci-fi have read books like this. It becomes too difficult to read because you have nothing familiar to relate to in the story. So the idea with the rule of strange is to only introduce roughly one strange concept per page. That helps readers stay in the story. I'm sure there are more details on this idea somewhere, but I can't remember where to find them (Linnea, do you know where?)

Also important--making sure character names are pronounceable. I mean, even my character names cause a little stumbling, but you can kind of work it out. They're real names. Most of them, anyway. The example they gave was using names made up of all punctuation marks or something. Yeah, that would be sort of difficult to wrap your mind around.

And swearing in an alien culture--this was really interesting. Our insults are based heavily on our culture, particularly our moral or religious beliefs. "Bastard" being a prime example. That's only an insult, in the traditional sense, in a culture that values children born in a marriage. So your alien culture and things valued within that culture dictate how insults are created. Very interesting.

After lunch, I waited in line for a bit to meet MaryJanice Davidson. I love her "Undead" books. I also sat in the Hospitality Suite for a little while longer. While on a trip out to Promo Alley to get more of my bookmarks, I bumped into Jon, Laurell's husband, who then introduced me to Laurell's agent. Very cool! And very nice of him. It's difficult to manage these introductions, particularly for someone like me who is too shy to walk right up to someone and introduce myself coherently. But because it happened this way, I didn't have time to be nervous. I just told what I wrote and gave her my postcard. : ) Huge thank you to Jon for saying the nice things he said about me to her agent!

Then it was pretty much time to get dressed for the Vampire Ball. Again, this is another big event hosted by one author, Heather Graham. Some people get dressed up in costume. I wore--you guessed it--another black dress. But I love this one as it has panels of sheer fabric mixed in with the velvet in the skirt. Linnea called it my Morticia Addams's dress and she's right!!!! It looks exactly like something Morticia would wear : )

At the Vampire Ball, I sat with Linnea and Denise and we ended up at the same table as the bookseller who would be managing the big bookfair the next day. The bookseller(s) brought their daughter and a friend, who were just a few years younger than my sister, so I had fun talking to them, finding out what they thought of all that they'd seen. And man, there's a lot to see there. : )

After the ball, we retired to--where else?--the bar to drink and hang out.

Saturday was the day of the big bookfair. All the authors who signed up got a table and a place to sit. The Ballroom was just filled with tables. We got to the ballroom a little early to set up and to check out where all the other authors (whose books we wanted to buy) were sitting. I found myself sitting right next to Isabo Kelly (yea!!!). So glad to have a friend right next to me. The two of us, however, were placed between Sherrilyn Kenyon and Angela Knight--two big name authors. They were both very, very nice. Sherrilyn's line stretched out the length of the table, pretty much hiding Isabo and me from view, but that was okay. We handed out bookmarks to all the people waiting in line for Sherrilyn and Angela's books. I ended up selling 19 that day! Not bad, right? : )

By the time the bookfair was finished and we paid for our purchases, it was pretty much time for the cover model competition. We sat pretty much front and center thanks to LTD Books, a publisher Linnea knows. And my, my this is not something you want to see from the back row, let me tell you. These gentlemen work very hard on their form and presenting the right image. They had to answer questions and do "pose-downs" with female cover models. A pose-down is where they pretty much re-create a book cover in position and body language. Listening to them answer the questions, though, is what I found most insightful. Some of them knew exactly how to play to the audience, a bunch of screaming women. Not that I was one of them. I mean, I was there, but I wasn't screaming or anything. Just blushing...pretty much continuously.

After the cover model competition, Linnea, Denise, Bonnie and I went out for dinner. We went to Max and Erma's! I love the salads there! And we had just a good old time talking. That is one thing that is really fun about hanging out with other writers--everyone has their own tricks and tips to make things easier and they're willing to share them which is so helpful!

Saturday night we didn't even bother going to the party. We hung out at the bar, drinking and chatting. At one point, the cover model winner, Mr. Andrei Claude showed up at the bar and we took a picture with him. He will be appearing as a contest on the Mr. Romance show on the Oxygen network next year--so make sure to check that out. He was actually very nice : )

Saturday night turned out to be an early one as everyone was exhausted after the bookfair. We all retired early in preparation for leaving on Sunday.

On Sunday, I got up earlier and met Linnea before her flight. Okay, so here's the thing. True, I haven't known Linnea or any of these other authors very long, but we'd just spent fourteen hours a day together for the last four days. So, when it came time to say goodbye, I found myself really sad at the prospect. I said goodbye to Linnea and Bonnie (they were both going home to FL) and found myself at loose ends for the first time in days. I went upstairs and packed up my stuff. When I headed home, I felt glad to be going home (I missed my husband, my dogs and my bed!), happy that I'd had SUCH a great time, but sad because I knew it would be awhile before I saw any of those people again.

So, a huge THANK YOU to everyone who made my first RT experience so wonderful! I can only hope that each one after this will be just as great.

Side note: I apologize if my thoughts seem scattered or my typing poor--had myself a minor anxiety/asthma attack this morning and my inhaler makes me all jittery! Makes it hard to concentrate and hard to type sometimes.

Romantic Times, Part Three

Okay, so Linnea busted me on staring at the cover models--tee, hee. You knew that was coming, right? : )

Thursday was our first full day. The first panel I attended was, "Creating a kick-ass heroine," a panel you know I'd be interested in. It was fascinating. Not just from a writing perspective, but as a woman. The women on these panels have done the most amazing things, in addition to writing novels. I'm not sure how much of it they want to be shared to the general public so I'll tell you who was on the panel and then, not in the same order, some of the cool things they've done. Rae Monet, Linnea Sinclair, Cindy Dees, Sue Grant, Merline Lovelace, Lindsey McKenna and Liz Maverick. Among them, you have a former private investigator, a 747 pilot, a former FBI agent, a USAF colonel, a travel writer who's been all over the globe, and an Air Force pilot. And I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting some stuff because most of them have done more than one really cool thing. I mean, these are real life, non-fiction, kick-ass heroines. Which is probably why they were picked to be on the panel! The panel was two hours long, but it went by too quickly.

After the panel, we had an awards lunch where all sorts of authors were honored for their work. Some of them included Susan Grant, Kelley Armstrong, MaryJanice Davidson and whole bunch of others. Lunch included, of course, more free books, which I loved!!! We ended up sitting with a really interesting group of people, some authors, some editors, some readers. But we had a great time talking together.

After lunch, Linnea and I went to the Hospitality Suite. The Hospitality Suite is basically this big room with giveaway baskets along the outer edge of the room and tables and chairs in the middle. Authors sign up for time in the Hospitality Suite so they can meet readers. Linnea helped me put together a basket for the Hospitality Suite--a Silver Spoon t-shirt, mousepad and a copy of my book--so I'd have something to give away. I hadn't originally intended to participate in the Hospitality Suite because I wasn't really sure what all it involved. But it ended up being great! Linnea and I shared a table so we could chat when people weren't coming by to visit us. But a lot of people did stop by--all of them knew Linnea (she knows everybody!) so she introduced me to them.

When we finished in the Hospitality Suite, we wandered around the vendor area for awhile. They have vendors who sell jewelry, books, obviously, clothing, cds, all sorts of things. Linnea had dinner plans with friends from another publishing company, so I headed to Promo Alley to check things out and see if I could find someone to eat dinner with. I met up with Bonnie Vanak and we had a blast talking about all kinds of things. I haven't read one of her books yet--I have one at home and I'm buying another--but they look really, really good. They're historicals set in Egypt and I love that kind of thing--The Mummy and The Mummy Returns are two of my favorite movies. I was amazed at the amount of research that must have gone into Bonnie's books.

After dinner, it was time for another evening event. This time it was Brenda Joyce's Masquerade Ball. Brenda Joyce is a huge author and basically, she sponsored this huge party for all the RT participants. We each got a book of hers, too. I totally did not dress up in costume (you can read my entry about this from last week) but it was interesting to see how many people did. Some of them had the most amazing costumes that looked historically accurate. I guess some people belong to the Society of Creative Anachronism (did I get that right?), so they might own historically accurate costumes for that.

On a trip to either the bar or the bathroom, I don't remember which, I bumped in Laurell K. Hamilton and her husband, Jon. He congratulated me again on my book being published, which was so nice. He also noted that I was wearing a white tag--I can't remember if I said this before or not, but published authors wear white name tags and readers, aspiring authors, editors, etc. have blue name tags. So, that was really cool. : )

After a little while in the party, Linnea, Isabo Kelly and I retired to a quieter table out in the hall, also near the bar, to keep talking. Actually, what's funny is I don't even remember now how I met Isabo--I know it was through Linnea--but we hit it off right away. And Linnea had tons of good promotional ideas to share with us--something I desperately need help with!

So, I think that's about it for Thursday. Only a couple more days to recap...hope y'all aren't getting bored. I'm doing it as much for myself, so I'll remember all the details when I think about how much fun it was!!!

Just for fun, here is a picture of Linnea, Isabo and me. This wasn't taken Thursday night, but Friday afternoon, I think. Still, you get the idea! Thanks, Linnea for sending me the picture!!!! Hope it's okay that I'm posting it here--but I think it's a great picture of the three of us : )

Romantic Times, Part 2...

So, after Linnea rescued me from hiding in my hotel room, we went to dinner. At dinner, I met all kinds of cool people! Bonnie Vanak, Nancy Cohen, Sandi (whose last name I can't remember--sorry, Sandi!), Joyce Adams and Wendy Drew. Actually, Wendy and Joyce were sitting at the table behind us, but ended up joining us at our table. That was really neat. To see that everyone is so open and friendly.

After dinner, we went downstairs to check out Promo Alley. On our way back upstairs, I can't remember where we were going at that point, I got my first glimpse of the cover models.

Okay, here's the deal. RT is about 99% women. There are a few male authors and aspiring authors, a few more VERY patient husbands...and the rest are male romance novel cover models. Now, I showed my complete and utter ignorance of this industry because I didn't realize that the men on romance novel covers--except Fabio, of course--were real. I thought they were just drawings from artists who had very good imaginations. But no. Turns out the models pose for photos, and the artist uses the photos to draw from. Duh, makes sense right?

So, let me tell you the other part of this that fell into place for me. That means the men you are seeing on those covers are real. Those pecs, six pack abs and washboard stomachs do exist outside of airbrushing, and I SAW them. Because cover models being...well, cover models, do have a tendency to walk around shirtless.

The one coming down the escalator as we were going up was obviously headed to the Ellora's Cave "What's Your Fantasy?" Ball. He was shirtless, of course, but he wore white wings (think more like an angel than cupid) on his back and brown suede-looking pants.

Now, lest you think I am a bad person, I must remind you that I am a very happily married woman. My reaction to this young man, for they're almost all younger than me, was not lust, as many would accuse. It was complete and utter shock. I looked away immediately, my face about fifteen shades of red. Linnea chuckled at my embarrassment and said, "Welcome to RT."

Later when we went down to the Ellora's Cave party--table favors consisted of condoms made up to look like lollipops, I'll leave you to your thoughts on that one--I found that a whole bunch of people were dressed up like this. Jeez. Anyone else remember that CSI with the plushies and the furries convention? I'm telling you right now, they've got NOTHING on RT. : ) Two Michigan school teachers who happened to be staying at the hotel wandered in at one point and must have wondered exactly what kind of convention this was supposed to be!

But it was a blast. It was at the party that I met Denise Agnew and Rowena Cherry, two more authors and fun people!

Romantic Times Convention, 2005 Part One of Who Knows How Many.

Wow. Where to begin? I had the best time, due mainly to one Linnea Sinclair, who looked after me and introduced me to a bunch of other great writers and people. Linnea has always been a huge supporter of my writing (she gave me a blurb for The Silver Spoon) and she's really become a mentor for me, something for which I'm very grateful.

So, okay. RT, as they call it. Let's start at the beginning, shall we?

I arrived in St. Louis a couple of hours later than I expected. After a few heart-pounding moments of "what the hell does that interstate sign mean?," I managed to find my way to the hotel. Unfortunately, I arrived at the hotel at the EXACT moment as the Ellora's Cave tour bus. Ellora's Cave is a growing publisher of erotica. Erotica is exactly what it sounds like, folks, and it's huge, no pun intended, these days. I'm not linking to their site here because I'm not sure what pops up (ha!) and I know some people read this at work. I don't want you to be surprised.

So, I managed to find a small parking space in the hotel turnaround and parked illegally to unload all my stuff. Now, keep in mind most of the conferences/conventions I've been to have been small to medium sized ones. This place was a ZOO from the second I walked in. All the bellmen were unloading the tour bus and the line to check-in was pretty freaking enormous. Not to mention this crazy air of energy just buzzing from person to person. As Linnea would say, and often did when something strange, crazy, messy or generally f*cked up happened, "Welcome to RT."

I finally got my room key--sweating the whole time about my car being towed--and proceeded to make three trips up to my room. I had no idea what to bring for this trip, so I ended up bringing too much. Clothes that I never even unfolded. Books that I never even cracked open. And hello, duh, Stacey, you BROUGHT books?!? Yeah, I know. Dumb, right? It's a book convention. But books are like my security blanket. I don't go anywhere without at least one and preferably three.

My room, which I'll hopefully have pictures of later to show you, was really cool. The Millenium Hotel consists of two towers. I was on the eighth floor in the North tower. So, my room was like, pie-shaped. Narrow at the doorway and circular at the wide end. Very modern looking furniture and a bathroom countertop that lit up! Yes, I am easily fascinated.

I got all my stuff upstairs and took a second to breath. Then I decided to go downstairs and get registered for the convention. I thought, I'm a big girl. I can do this by myself. I work for a big company, I can handle talking to a bunch of strangers.

Uh, yeah, right. See the thing is about RT is that's MASSIVE. Like, 1,000 participants. I left my hotel room went to the lower level to check it out. People were swarming around everywhere, tables filled with freebies and promotional items (hence the term, promo alley) lined the hallway, and not a single person in sight who seemed to be in charge. The inmates had taken over, y'all.

I finally found my way to the registration desk, only in time to see it closing. The website had said they'd be open until seven. The website lied. After pleading a bit and probably looking scared to death, the staff took pity on me and gave me my nametag and bag o'convention stuff (which included free books, of course).

So, there I am, with my little name tag and schedule. And I have no freaking idea what to do next. The only people I knew were people I'd never seen in person before--names from emails or chat groups. Everyone else is milling around me with purpose or at least, with a vague idea of purpose, which is more than I had. So what did I do?

I did what any sensible person would do in that situation.

I high-tailed it back up to my hotel room to curl in the fetal position and wait for it all to be over.

Well, that's almost what happened. I did go back upstairs. But instead of crying, which is pretty much what I felt like doing (I hate that helpless feeling of I don't know what to do or who to talk to, and I'm a naturally shy person [yes, I am!] so I'm not very good at sorting it out on my own), I did something kind of unusual for me. Linnea had given me her cell phone number before I left. I hadn't really intended to call her because I didn't want to be a pest, nor did I want to be that annoying person who you feel compelled to be polite to but you just want to be rid of--you all know someone like that, right? I didn't want to be that person.

But at that point, I was operating in crisis mode. I'd paid several hundred dollars for this convention and even more for the hotel, and I felt like crawling under the covers, eating the snack food I'd brought with me and watching The Simpsons.

But instead, I called Linnea, hoping when she gave me the number that she really meant for me to use it, instead of intending it as a polite gesture. Of course, with my timing, she had just gotten there, so I caught her in the elevator. But she immediately recognized my name and told me to call her back in fifteen minutes when she got to her room...and she called me "doll," I think. I LOVE that. Women with moxie call you doll.

I waited the fifteen minutes and called her back. I told her that I had no idea what I was doing and she was the only person I knew. She immediately told me that she would meet me and we could get a drink and dinner. Of course, we had to laugh when we realized that neither one of us knew what the other looked like.

So, she came to my door and we got to meet face to face for the first time. It's always strange when that happens, particularly when you know someone through their emails or books or both. You may like someone in emails or from their writing, but in person, you just don't click. But it was so NOT like that this time, thank goodness. Linnea's a total hoot--totally reminds me of her characters in some ways. I LOVED hanging out with her. She made me a little braver than I ever thought I would be at this kind of thing. If you haven't read her books, you should. Particularly if you read and liked mine. Finders Keepers is my absolute favorite of all of hers so far, and it was just released by Bantam last week. She's got a free sample chapter up at her site and also at barnesandnoble.com.

She's a petite blonde (shorter even than me) with just a hint of a New Jersey accent. She's also extremely funny and completely outrageous, which made me feel totally comfortable.

I think that's probably enough for one entry...I'll continue tomorrow!