Weather Update and Pictures

It's been a while since I updated the blog,and since I'm stuck at home I thought I'd do some blogging. Things have been crazy around here lately, lots going on (and not all of it good), but not all of it is my news so can't really share it. As a result I've been doing a lot of thinking (but not much writing). I've been modifying my evil plans, hope to get them implemented sooner rather than later. I've also been working out the changes I need to make to the ghost story (and really must stop calling it a ghost story since he's no longer a ghost). I want to work on my schedule, make more time to write (and blog). I'm also getting my apartment organized and cleaned, I'm hosting my first Thanksgiving dinner (Should be fun).

And since I'm tired of talking about the weather (I've been talking about it on my Facebook page), I've finally posted some of the pictures from my trip to NY for the Author's After Dark weekend. Some of the pictures weren't as in focus as they looked in the camera, and if I owed you a picture I apologize it was too fuzzy to send. So now, on to the pictures.



1) The author in her element (aka Mechele at home). I drove to her house and then rode with her to NY. She's good people and I had an awesome weekend hanging with her. Am talking her into riding together to RT this spring.

2) Crossing a bridge on I-95, not sure which river.

3) Reduce Eed- in other words- Ow Down.

4) Fall! The most awesome trees I didn't get pictures of, came and went by too fast for me to aim and shoot. but the pictures I did get were pretty good.

5) Audra Price (and her mum)- it was really cool getting the chance to meet her (and hang out with Stella).

6) Jennifer Armintrout- had a blast hanging out with her. She's so much fun. Can't wait to see her again at RT (hint, hint).

7) Stella and Jacqi had a baby shower for Audra and ninjababy- complete with cake and presents. Isn't the bear great?

8) I saw these and thought of Larissa- Star Trek toys- pretty cool, huh?

9) These were taken during the book signing- this is Teresa Noells Roberts and Selena Illyria (who I met at RT in Pittsburgh).

10) Tilly Green- had a great time hanging with her, told her all about my evil plans for world domination. She agreed to participate when the time comes (insert evil laugh here). :)

11) The very nice Cat Johnson-

12) And Eliza Gayle-

13) Samantha Summersby

14) Jennifer Armintrout during some down time.

15) Taken on the bridge over the Delaware River.

16) This is a picture of the bridge itself- an impressive structure.

17) Another picture of Mechele- who very generously did not smack me on the head for taking so many pictures. :)

18) Road signs leading us home

19) More pictures of fall (cause I can't ever get enough of fall).

20) More fall.

21) Mechele again. :)

22) The Potomac (I think). For some reason our bypass around DC took us to the west.

23) the Potomac from a different direction.

24) Not sure what this is, but it's outside of DC.

25) The Barnes & Noble outside DC- it looks huge.

26) Quantico- it can be the oddest things that capture your attention on long drives.

Weekend Update

My friend Susan at West of Mars does this thing on her blog called only good news, which is pretty smart if you think about it, it makes you think of good things instead of the bad or just bleh. So with that in mind, here it goes. Yesterday was the first day of summer, and I celebrated by going out with two friends after work (who both also had to work) and had a lovely meal at one of my favorite Mexican restaurants. It was nice to sit and chat. I've started dealing with the mountain of books that have taken over my dining room table, and of course found duplicates, as well as books I need to send out to peeps. I've also been working on my ghost story today and am up to 75 hundred words and 32 pages. I'm still enjoying the story, even if I don't know how it ends (I do know, sort of, where it's going). I also saw Race to Witch Mountain Friday (on what was otherwise a supremely lazy day), it was interesting, very different from the original, but in a good way (much better special effects but I would have been surprised if that hadn't been the case). In an effort not to get overwhelmed with things I need to do, I've made myself a mental check list and limited it to five goals for the summer. They are:
1) finish the ghost story
2) buy a bike (and use it)
3) visit Larissa
4) go home and see mom
5) send in my submission (the finished book)
There are others that I will probably also work on as the time permits, I've got plans for a website, maybe a teen oriented blog for the dayjob, a database for all of the people I've met at RT and other conferences, and other evil plans (which involve the quest for world domination or a three week vacation- whichever comes first).
Have a Happy Father's Day, and here's hoping we all have a healthy, happy, and hurricane free summer.

Weekend Update

I wrote this yesterday, most of it, and decided to post it as is. It gives a better idea of what yesterday was like. And I'm not really up to rewriting the whole thing.
I'm typing this sitting in the Boston/Logan Airport, with a 4 hour layover, and no free wifi. Which is just wrong. And evidently none of the coolers are cold, so no cold soda (or more importantly- no sandwich for dinner). There are three gates that seem to be completely separate from all of the others, and there is no restaurant, no fast food, no coffee shop; just a sandwich stand (with evidently room temperature sandwiches) and a newsstand with not cold drinks. Joy.
I must say though, that the rest of the weekend totally rocked, so I'm not ready to pitch a blue fit (yet) more in the nature of a cranky in need of a nap or maybe a comfy chair with a cop of tea and some quiet. Which I won't get, unless I want to go through the hassle of going out and coming back in through security. Still not decided so I'll tell you about this weekend while I think about it. I left Friday morning and flew to Akron by way of Atlanta, and landed in Akron with no problems (despite the rain that made 64 slow down in several areas), and met Susan (from West of Mars) when she picked me up. The drive to Cinnci took us longer than we thought, but it wasn't too bad. Driving through Ohio is (I must confess) boring. No mountains, no water, not much variation in the scenery (which was nice- just the same for the whole trip).
We stopped for dinner along the way, and got their about 8, and registered for our room, and went back down to register. We ran into some old friends: Lorelei James, Shiloh Walker, and Bianca D'Arc, and also met some new ones: Valerie Tibbs and Jambrea Jo Jones. I even managed to surprise Kensana Darnell, who didn't know I was going to be there (for those of you who don't know- I met her through the Write-Minded Readers Group, and then met her in person when we found out that she lives not far from my mom).
The room was nice and comfy, the two doubles beds were loaded with pillows. Friday was an early night, which was good as we got up early and made it down for breakfast.
(I went out through security but didn't find anything that looked comfortable and schlepped my way back through security and am back in the gate waiting area- it is now 7:11 pm- and I have just under 2 hours to go).
We ate breakfast with Emma Holly and bought more raffle tickets and distributed them around to the various gift bags (there was one bag with a selection of ya books that I was seriously coveting. There was also a great big basket from the Ohio Romance Writer which included a one day pass to their September contest, and I threw one in there, as well as a bag of Suzanne Brockmann's books, a couple of bags from Shiloh, and Bianca, and Lorelei (and also Lori Armstrong), and a few that I can't remember.
After breakfast we went to the talk that Angie gave on e-publishing. I always learn something when I listen to one of Angie's talks. She talked about the various myths concerning epubs, and talked quite a bit about contracts and pointed out clauses you might want to negotiate before you sign (because once you sign you are bound to the contract): clauses such as ownership of your author name, ownership of your characters and world, worldwide rights and length of contract. And of course, hamster shifters. :)
After the talk we went through the booksale to get the books for the book signing, which took a long time (they only had one cashier). Then we went to lunch and got ready for the booksigning. I was relatively good at the bookstore, I bought:
Long Hard Ride by Lorelei James, Firedrake by Bianca D'Arc, “Tween Heaven and Hell by Sam Cheever, Winter's Daughter by J.C. Wilder, Fragile by Shiloh Walker, Chains by Shiloh (for Charli), Hallowed Ground by Lori Armstrong, and Fairyville by Emma Holly. The book in my goody bag at registration was Maverick by Lora Leigh (which she signed for me). It was great to get to sit around and just talk with everybody and make new friends. And of course get new books.
After the booksigning, Susan and I went upstairs to crash before dinner. And I crashed hard. And woke up still feeling groggy. Dinner was good, and after they did the raffle drawing. I won the big read basket from the Ohio Romance Writers. Susan and Angie both generously offered to take it for me since they were convinced it wouldn't fit with my luggage (I'd come prepared).
After dinner, we somehow ended up in the bar with J.C. Wilder and Lorelei and several other awesome people, watching the hockey game and listening to J.C.'s crazy stories.
This morning we were up and out by 8?9?/ We stopped at the first Cracker Barrel we saw and had breakfast, and made it to the airport with more than an hour to spare. We had to sit on the tarmac for a while, but it wasn't that long and then we were in the air and made it here.
This weekend (layover in Boston not withstanding) was very relaxing. I've got plans. Big plans, little plans, long and short range plans. But not right now. It's too noisy to concentrate, so I think I will save this, shut George down,and go find a bottle of water. TTFN.
I'm home now, I some how managed to get up this morning and get to work. The morning was spent on books and book keeping, the afternoon on putting together three flag stands and one display stand. I seem to be the designated assembler of furniture and displays.
And now I'm thinking about going to RWA (at least for the literacy signing).

Thursday Thirteen #???

13 Reasons I’ve Been OD’ed on Books
Yes, evidently it is possible to od on books, and for the past two weeks, I have not wanted to have anything to do with books. I’m still reading, and have read a couple of really good books, but when reading you are only dealing with one book at a time, which I can handle. But any collection of books larger than what you can carry in one hand and I want nothing to do with it. Why you ask? Let me tell you. 
1) The dayjob- first there was the weeding (the entire library- parts of it more than once), then there was the rearranging (parts of it were moved more than once), and lastly there was the tagging (which involved putting a sticker in every book, cd, and dvd in the collection), which is in preparation for putting in a self checkout system. Which means I have handled, inspected, and stickered a larger percentage of the collection, frequently more than once.
2) Then there are my own books- which are in a constant state of running out of room. So I’m frequently shifting, shuffling, and weeding books from my library, making room for the new books I knew were coming. Such as…
3) Mount RT- the stacks of books that came back from RT with me and are currently camped out on my dining room table while I find homes for them all (make no mistake, I’m very happy to have them all- especially the freebies and the signed ones- I’m just tired of dealing with large collections at the moment, and they definitely qualify as large collections).
4) Then there are the books that were weeded from the dayjob collection that somehow or other made it into the personal collection (all of which were paid for with a donation to the friends of the library- I just went a little overboard and am now looking for homes for them as well- you can stop laughing now).
5) Then there are the friends (not the friends of the library- my friends) the ones who all put out books at the same time, which makes me want to buy, you got it, more books. It’s getting to the point where I can’t afford any new friends. Srsly.
6) And the library books- shelving, weeding, shifting- invariably I find books that I want to read (but thankfully don’t feel the need to own), Library books that I check out still need space, specifically a space where I won’t lose them and find them again months later (don’t laugh- I misplaced a book I’d gotten at a book signing and only found it last week).
7) It got to the point where I didn’t even want to browse the shelves at B&N, not that I didn’t want any new books so much as I didn’t want to have to find a place for them (sad, I know).
8) But. I think I’m getting over my book binge. I can look at the book shelves at work and not feel overwhelmed by all that needs to be done.
9) I haven’t done anything with Mount RT yet, but I’ve got an idea of what I can do. It would even take care of the books I brought home from the library (research sources- honest- okay, stop laughing).
10) It involves cleaning out the closet off the dining room, putting a bookcase (or two) in there, and keeping the research materials in there (as well as my papers and records and stuff). That would free up space in the other book cases.
11) Which would give me enough space to clear off the dining room table, and the computer desk. And once I cleared off the computer desk, I could set up the laptop, and hook it to the printer, and print out stuff (and submit said stuff).
12) And once all of this is done, I would get back to writing more, and getting more done.
13) Which would make me feel better, which I think is part of why I’ve been so wah about all of the books in my life.
14) Did I mention I’m going to Lori Foster’s get together in a week? And no doubt will return from Ohio… with more books.

Weekend Update

Not much to say, honestly. The dayjob has been kicking my butt (we've been tagging the entire collection to get ready for them to install a self check-out system and new security gates- and we're almost done), getting ready for summer and not one but three summer reading programs, as well as scheduling as many programs for the kids who are going to live in the library as we can. So today I am tired and stiff and sore and don't want to do anything with the mountain of books currently taking up my dining room table.

On the writing front, again not much to say but this weekend I plan to set up my work space and set up the printer with the laptop and print out the first three chapters of whistle to send out. Not sure if I want to continue working on the urban fantasy or maybe take a step back and work on something else, maybe what I need to do first is take stock of my options.

At the moment I'm reading Ecstasy by Jacquelyn Frank and enjoying it. Not sure what I'll read next, but I have plenty of options (I even checked out a few books from the library), I brought the new Monk book home from the library (by Anne Perry), and might read that one next (Love the Monk mysteries).

And lastly, for a good laugh, this is me as a Lego:

Update (sort of)

I know, I've been a bad blogger. I meant to have posts from RT, but the highspeed wireless was as highspeed as molasses flowing uphill in January (in a raging blizzard). And then after the long-ass drive home, I got thrown back into the hustle and bustle of the dayjob, and still don't feel up to snuff. But I won't whine about that here (although I have been whining about it in person), I will say that due to the evening thunder storms this is the first time in three days that I've been able to post. So I thought I'd tell you all about my trip. This is kind of long, but not as long as it could have been, I think I took about a quarter of the pictures I took last year. Also, if I owe you pictures, I will try to get them out to you as soon as I can.

RT was a blast. The drive was long but not so bad, I got to see my sister, which is always fun, and then I got to see people. Some were people I had met last year: Sasha White, Lauren Dane and Megan Hart, Anya Bast, Beth Williamson, Jeanne Stein, and Richelle Mead. Others I met for the first time this year: Cynthia Eden, Stella Price, Angie Fox, Anna Evans, Jenna Black, and Christine D'Abo (although I've been reading her blog for a while now). And of course I got to see Jo Carol, Kate, and the rest of the awesome RT staff again, without needing them to save my bacon as they did last year. Which is always good.

The panels were good, and informative, and just plain fun. The first day I went to to of the bookseller programs and learned a lot, but except for a couple of events for the booksellers, I mostly went to writer panels. The first one I went to was on writing Demons, with Stella Price, Larissa Ione, Jenna Black, Jacquelyn Frank, and Bianca D'Arc.

This was Larissa's first RT, and her first panel. It went well, despite her penchant for one word answers, and several people said they thought it was the best panel they'd seen. The cool thing was I got to hang out with pretty much the entire panel at one time or another during RT. I even sat with Bianca during the Vampire Ball.

The next panel was humor in paranormals, but the pictures didn't come out well, so I'm not going to try and post them here. The panel included Dakota Cassidy, Mario Acevedo, Michele Bardsley, Judi McCoy, and Mark Henry.

I then went to a vampire panel, with Patrice Michelle as moderator, and Caridad Piniero, Angela Knight, L.A. Banks, Jeanne C. Stein, Vivi Anna, and Kerrilyn Sparks.
I'm including this one because you can't see Vivi in the other.

L.A. Banks in the vampire panel.

These pictures were taken while in line to go into the Fairy Ball

Wings!

More Wings!

Shoes!

Ann Aguirre and Cynthia Eden at the book signing

Jeanne C. Stein

Lorelai James

Michele Bardsley

Sasha White

Christine D'Abo

Lauren Dane

Cynthia Eden

Mario Acevedo

Ash aka A.D. Roland aka Adra Steia

Mechele Armstrong

Shayla Black

Jenna Black

Anya Bast

Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Dakota Cassidy

Cash Cole

Cynthia Eden

Annaliese Evans

Angie Fox

Kayleigh Jamison and Myla Jackson

Cat Johnson and Stephanie Julian

Stacia Kane

Isabo Kelly

and her side-kick

Judi McCoy

Stacey Kade

Robin Rotham

Michelle Rowen

Jeri Smith-Ready

Jeanne C. Stein

Beth Williamson

The Bags of Swag

The mountain of books that came home with me.

Happy Easter

You can buy this at art.com