RT in photos

Okay, here are photos from RT. Start from the bottom and scroll up. Yes, I know that's backward but it's late and I'm too tired to fix it! : )

Also, take a look at the Rebels of Romance videos on the RT home page. Days three and four are now up. They show snippets of the Mr. Romance competition and the giant book fair! They did a great job!!!

Walker on the floor in my writing room, relieved that Mommy is home after a week of being gone. : )

My favorite piece of SWAG from the RT registration bag--new mouse pad! : )

The gorgeous Chris Winters, Mr. Romance 2008, posing as one of Colby Hodge's heroes in the pose-down portion of the competition.

Aack, sorry this one is out of order. This is more from Isabo's baby shower! Authors Jade Lee, Lisa Shearin and Linnea Sinclair. Did I mention how much fun this baby shower was? : )

Authors J.C. Wilder and Isabo Kelly!

Isabo and me at the book fair. Doesn't her hat look absolutely fabulous? It is SO her! : )

Louise and yours truly at the book fair. (Thanks for the photo, Louise!)

Me, at the huge book fair on Saturday.

Isabo did her best Cousin Itt imitation! Had us in stitches. : )

Baby presents!

Author Isabo Kelly's baby shower. We had so much fun!

Another sideways one! Authors Leanna Renee Hieber and Marianne Mancusi dressed for the vampire ball. : )

Authors Isabo Kelly and Carolan Ivey having a chat in the bar.

One of the advantages of coming to RT early--prime positioning in Promo Alley. Linnea's materials are on the left and mine are on the right.

Sorry, this one is sideways and I don't know how to fix it! The hotel was under construction and this was a door they evidently didn't need anymore. I found it kind of creepy and

very Stephen King like!

Day 2 of RT: Author Colby Hodge is catching a ride down to the lobby on a luggage cart! : )

Checking in...

Don't hate me because I'm warm. I'll be back there in there in negative sixteen degree weather soon enough, right? : ) Donald Maass seminar is tomorrow. Today was the beach : )

Water was too cold to do more than stick my toes in,

but it was warm enough to enjoy the walk and the sand!

Our new house...ha!

What is that big ball of glowing yellow light in the sky?

I swear, I'm not saying this to rub it in but...I'm leaving for a few days to attend a seminar. In FLORIDA! Woohoo!!!!

I'm going to be hanging out with Linnea, and we'll be attending a seminar taught by the great and powerful literary agent Donald Maass. : ) I'm very excited! Writers speak his name in a hushed and reverant whisper, so it'll be interesting to see what he has to say. I've taken classes from people who've taken classes from him and use his techniques and found them to be helpful when it comes to viewing common writing problems in a different way. So, that's great. I'm really hoping to come away with some new methods to try and new ways of thinking, and I'm grateful to Linnea for getting me in to the class. However, I fear I will be fighting back a case of the giggles as well as the urge to whisper, "the man, the myth, the legend" when he's introduced. : )

Anyway, this is my long and roundabout way of saying that I'll be gone for the next few days. Don't know how often I'll be able to post from the road, especially because I have another round of EOB edits that must get done. But I didn't want you to think I'd forgotten about you, and I'll be full of details and photos when I get back!

Ad in this month's SciFi Magazine (Feb Issue, technically, but it's on shelves now!)

The latest...

Going a little crazy this time of year, as you can probably tell by thelack of an updated blog. We did move into our new house, but immediatelyfollowing that day (like, three days later) we had our annual holiday party for friends and family. Yes, we are gluttons for punishment. Right now, we are in the midst of buying, wrapping, and sending gifts, preparing to send Christmas cards, making Christmas cookies (my one culinary contribution toour household) and also having our house (the inside) painted. I didn't even plug my computer into the wall--my writing computer, that is--until this morning. I've been making do with the laptop for email and myAlphaSmart for writing...and not much of the latter has been accomplished in the last week and half, I can assure you.

I'm sort of halfway into my new office. I still have boxes everywhere. Most of them sit shunned in the hallway, so I can try to accomplish something. I am excited, though, because this office gets lots and lots of natural light. I just feel so much better and feel like I'm more productive whenthe sun is shining. Though in Illinois in mid-December, that's rare enough as to be unattainable.

There's a boatload of promotional opportunities I need to be following up on and the lack of time is KILLING me. I actually signed up for a free trial offer of Constant Contact (an email program) and I suspect it's going to expire before I ever even get a chance to try it. I'm also due to turn in an interview, information about my covers, and buy some banner ads. I'm also starting some promotion for Bitter Pill and need to make some headwaythere, but I have to find time!!!! This month, you'll find an ad for The Silver Spoon in RT Magazine and a really cool joint ad with Linnea Sinclair in SciFi Magazine (I will try to post a copy here). I'm SO excited. Also, EOB should be up for preorder on Amazon in the next week or so, and I'm due to post a new excerpt from it here on the site. Overdue, actually. Arrrgh.

It's also that time of year when I start to think about my plan for next year. I must admit that my plans usually do not go according to, well, plan. I never know what's going to sell, what I can finish and reasonably polish during the course of the year and what opportunities might fall in my lap.

According to last year's blog, these were my 2007 goals:

So that means for writing projects in 2007, I’ll be:
-finishing edits on the second Zara book (I’m working on those now, and I’m nearly done. Hope to be finished by the middle of January at the latest—yea!).
-editing/revising the second Rennie book.
-writing the third Zara book.
-working on something new!

Well, the second Zara book is done and sold to Echelon, so that's a good thing. Third book, honestly, has not even been started yet because I need a little distance from the second book to see where I'm going next. However, I realized, in discussion with Linnea, that a major character is not going to survive our next outing. That sucks, but the weird thing is, that more than anything else has motivated me to start thinking about how this third (and possibly, final) book is going to come together.

I also sold The Silver Spoon to Echelon this year. Need to cut myself some slack because prior to April or so, I didn't have a publisher for that book, which meant the series was going nowhere, at least temporarily.

Didn't even touch the second Rennie book. However, I did finally drop the vampire mystery that I started, struggled with and ultimately hated. I'm NOT a vampire writer. Very clearly. Lesson learned. *full body shudder* I also wrote a proposal and the first 40 pages for a new book for the Dorchester Shomi line. It didn't go anywhere (at least, not yet), but I'm pleased with the idea and the pages that came from it and I'm definitely going to pursue finishing it. I'm also proud of myself for making time to write those pages instead of sticking so rigidly to my plan as I probably would have in the past. First, because I LOVE what came from it, and second, it was just a really cool opportunity. This was the year of NOW. No Opportunities Wasted, and I like to think I did much better on that than I would have in other years. I think I'm going to make that my permanent motto, actually!

I'm in the midst of working on a shorter SF romance story, probably novella length, though I'm not sure. It leans a little more toward the space opera side, and I'm enjoying the change of pace, both the shorter length and the different twist on things. My goal was to finish the first draft by the end of the year, but I'm going to have to really work hard on letting go and writing a sh*tty first draft if that's going to happen. I'm hanging on just a bit too tight. I know it, and yet, haven't had time to force myself toget over it.

Now, for 2008 goals...I feel like I need a spreadsheet or Microsoft Project or something to try to be more productive and measure out my year in what Iwant to accomplish rather than just making a list and trying to guess at timeframes. I am blessed to be able to work on whatever I feel like instead of obeying set deadlines, which is fortunate, but that also means I can vacillate for days. : ) Anyone have a suggestion on how they make goals and schedule them for completion?

Down Home Zombie Blues

Just a short little fan squee here....I was lucky enough to read a copy of Linnea's upcoming book, Down Home Zombie Blues, and oh, my gosh, I loved it!

This, of course, is no big shock since I love her stuff (Finders Keepers, I'm looking at you most especially!), but I particularly enjoyed this one because it was right up my "earth-based science fiction" alley. I'm not going to give away plot details here as the book is not up for sale until November, but the basic premise is a female (alien) zombie hunter comes to Earth, searching for missing technology and a fellow tracker who has disappeared. She discovers that zombies (which are not, in fact, zombies as we traditionally think of them but machines that have taken on a life of their own, of sorts) are on Earth and threatening the planet. Because the zombies were her people's creation, Jorie feels responsible for hunting them down. Of course, her exploits take her straight into the path of a human policeman, Theo.

I don't want to say much more for fear of giving away pieces of the story that you will delight in discovering for yourselves. However, my favorite parts involved Jorie's observations about human culture and her understanding of certain cultural imperatives (such as stopping for red lights). Linnea excels at something (lots of things, actually *grin*) that I have trouble with as a writer--removing her human and earthly perspective from her characters. How do you think like an alien without making it so alien like as to be be completely foreign to readers who need to understand and relate what you're saying?

When I was contemplating writing a short story (kind of a prequel for TSS) in Asha's perspective, I had the worst time thinking like an alien. Particularly one with no context for the world around her. Asha kept thinking about beating people up--of course--but I would hear about it human terms. Bones breaking like fragile chalk, for example. Well, does a recently awakened alien on earth know about chalk? Maybe, given the downloads they probably received in preparation for missions, but it probably wouldn't be her first choice of wording. And she had no memory of her homeworld so...*throws hands up in the air*

But Linnea is very good at this, and the story is a blast (ha, pun intended!) from beginning to end. As I told her, Theo is my new favorite among her heroes. So mark it down on your calendars, November 27, 2007, Down Home Zombie Blues.