Nov 24
2008

Sheesh

Wow. I’m already getting the “You’re going to give me a free book when it comes out, right?” from people I know.

But, I think I’ve come up with the perfect comeback. I’ve started responding with, “If a friend of yours was opening up a restaurant, how would you show your support? By giving him your business and dining there, or by asking him for a free meal?”

It’s amazing how many people don’t make the “writing=business” connection until it’s emphatically pointed out to them. I have to say, though, that there’ve also been quite a few people who’ve told me that they’re buying several. I do love them so!

Nov 20
2008

Now with ad copy!

Mark of the Demon has been available for preorder in quite a few places for some time now, but I just saw that the Random House website now has the cover up, complete with the little tag line at the top:

“A killer on the loose. A demon in her bed. She’s walking a dangerous line between heavenly pleasure–and one hell of a death.”

This is just so darn cool. :)

Oct 30
2008

Calgary

I’m in Calgary, which is–from what I’ve seen so far–an extremely nice city. Unfortunately it’s also frickin’ cold, so I doubt I’ll ever be moving here.

I had a very nice trip up here. I splurged on skymiles and went first class for the New Orleans-Salt Lake City leg of the trip, and I’ve decided that I need to become filthy rich because OhMyGod is that the way to fly on long flights! Then I ran into L.E. Modesitt in the Salt Lake airport, and since the flight to Calgary was only half-full we shuffled seat assignments and chatted the entire way to Calgary. And to complete the good-trip experience, Lee had a rental car reserved, so he gave me a ride to the hotel, which saved me the expense of a taxi. Woo!

Once at the hotel I ran into a number of savory and unsavory characters, including (but not limited to) Jeremy Lassen, John Picacio, and Jay Caselberg. I also got to meet some new people, such as Marjorie Liu (who is just awesome crazy beautiful and nice!) and Todd Lockwood–whose art I’ve admired for quite some time. Later I joined a group for dinner in the hotel, but my energy died out right about 9pm, so I paid my portion, made my excuses, and crawled back to my room where I died for several hours.

Unfortunately my far-too-efficient internal clock woke me up at about 5am (sigh). This morning I took a walk to find someplace (other than the hotel) to have breakfast, but after about six blocks I decided that I didn’t give a crap about food anymore, I just wanted to find a place to warm the &^$! up! It also took me far too long to figure out why the hell it was still full dark at nearly 8am. Finally my coffee-deprived brain kicked into gear and reminded me that Calgary is quite a bit further NORTH than Louisiana. Duh. (Actually I think this is the farthest north I’ve ever been, but I’ll need to look at a map to be positive.)

More later, hopefully with pictures.

Oct 23
2008

Cool book stuff

The revisions to Mark of the Demon have been accepted, and it is now on its way to the copyeditor. Whew!

Plus, the release has been pushed up to June 23, 2009, and coolest of all, it’s now available for pre-order!!

Random House

Amazon

Target

Sep 30
2008

My book has a cover!

Mark of the Demon

Forthcoming from Bantam Dell in August 2009!

Sep 22
2008

Back to the farm

Okay, so I don’t actually live on a farm, but while I was in New York there seemed to be an underlying theme that I was a bit of a hayseed who was unfamiliar with many aspects of “Big City Life.” [g] I’ll admit–I got a stupid little charge out of being buzzed into Mary Robinette Kowal’s apartment, because I’ve only ever seen that done on TV. See? Hayseed! (And then I experienced some moments of Total Fail when trying to get on and off the elevator in her building, which caused John Scalzi no end of amusement.)

However, I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to the city, and from a purely professional point of view it was a complete success. I had extremely productive meetings with both my agent and my editor–my first time meeting either one face to face. To be honest, last week my enthusiasm for this trip had dimmed since it had originally been planned with both Jack and me going for several days, and had then morphed (post-Gustav) into just me going for only a couple of days. Jack was the one who had insisted that I should go, advising me (quite correctly) that there’s just no substitute for “face time.” You can have all of the email exchanges or phone conferences in the world, but it’s just not the same as getting to know someone in person. And he was absolutely right. Moreover, I believe that even if I had met either one at a convention, it still would have been worth making the special trip to New York, because this way I was able to spend several hours with each of them with essentially no distractions. Not only was there a great deal of professional-level discussion, but there was also the chance to really get to know the other party’s personality, which makes any relationship–business or personal–easier and more productive.

However, it wasn’t all business! Thursday night I hooked up with Lindsay and experienced Forbidden Planet, chocolate soup (and chocolate martinis!) at Max Brenner’s, the Village, New York-style pizza, and Lindsay’s unintentional impression of lemur. Oh. My. God. Fun!

Friday I spent the morning and early afternoon just wandering around, playing quasi-tourist. I walked from my hotel (on 31st St.) to Times Square (where I saw the Naked Cowboy,) and then on up to Central Park, then back to my hotel, where I collapsed for a while. I was supposed to meet my editor at her office at 5, so at 4:30 I went downstairs to get a cab–thinking (like a hayseed) that half an hour would be MORE than enough time to get there and would give me the chance to walk around a bit first. I did not understand that 4:30 is in the middle of rush hour, which translates into “no cabs available.” Twenty minutes later, and only with the help of a VERY determined bellhop (who I tipped ten bucks!), I finally climbed into a cab and made my way to the Random House offices. Fortunately, I managed to be only about five minutes late. Once there, I had a great sitdown with my editor, during which I got to see a preliminary mock-up of my cover art. (It’s AWESOME, by the way!) She then took me on a tour of the offices, which culminated in a visit to a room of free books. “Take all you want,” she urged, but all I could do was stare, slack-jawed, at the heaped treasure before me. She eventually just grabbed books and thrust them into my numb little hands.

Saturday I met up with Mary Robinette Kowal and John Scalzi, and we proceeded to brunch at a nice little diner on the upper west side–during which Mary took a nicely incriminating picture of John and me involving his sausage and my bacon. I’m not sure that there’s anything more that can be said about that.

And finally, Saturday afternoon I headed to the airport to return home. Unfortunately I did not have a direct flight on this leg of my journey, so I didn’t make it home until nearly midnight.

Now it’s back to the writing, so that I can justify more trips to the city. :)

Sep 18
2008

In the city

I’m in New York! My flight up here was uneventful and I even managed to write about 3000 words during the flight–which was a surprise to me when I realized how much I’d written. I made it to my agent’s office within about an hour of landing, and proceeded to have a terrific meeting/talk which was briefly interrupted so that we could all relocate to a restaurant down the street where we continued to meet/talk. All told we met and talked for about three hours! Extremely awesome and fun.

I then made it to my hotel without incident where I was pleased to discover that the room was nice and clean and the wireless was free. I am now piddling around for another half hour or so, at which time I will leave and go meet Lindsay for more food and hot chocolate and any other coolness we can think of. Incriminating pictures to follow.

Aug 18
2008

Louisiana and Politics

Dear Louisiana politicians, especially those in Mandeville, Louisiana (you know who you are!):

Thank you for giving me more scandal-related material than I will ever be able to use in my fiction.

Hugz and kissez,

Me

Aug 12
2008

Worldcon: Days four and five and home again

I did forget to mention one thing about Thursday, which was my panel (SF and CSI.) This was the first time I’ve ever been privileged enough to be on a panel, and I think it went really well. The panel was gifted with an excellent moderator (Colin Harvey) who made sure that everyone had a chance to speak and give input and who also deftly steered the conversation back on topic when it drifted. Several people came up to me afterwards and said that they’d enjoyed what I’d had to say, so I guess I did all right. Anyway, it was fun and I hope to get the chance to do it again.

Saturday (which already feels like a million years ago!) started with breakfast with Mary Robinette Kowal and John Moore. I was scheduled for a reading and a signing that day, so I’d dressed in a nice skirt and blouse with some low-heeled MaryJanes. I had assumed that we were going to eat in the hotel restaurant, but then John said that he knew of a terrific restaurant that was about eight blocks away. I didn’t think I’d have any problems with 8 blocks since my heels were fairly low, so we set off walking.

73,236 blocks later we finally made it to the restaurant. My little toes had been lost somehow around 23rd street. I will say, however, that the food was terrific, and if it hadn’t been for the fact that my reading was at 10am and I was beginning to worry about making it back in time I probably would have enjoyed it even more. As it was, I hoofed it back down to 16th street (and where was a taxi when I needed it??) and snagged the free mall ride bus and then jumped on the rail line to get back to the convention center with about five minutes to spare before my reading.

I didn’t expect anyone to show for my reading, so I was incredibly pleased to have about a half-dozen people come in, including a couple of people I didn’t know. I read the first chapter of Mark of the Demon, and then read a portion of a later chapter (since I had the full 45 minutes to myself.) About halfway through the later chapter I realized that it wasn’t the chapter that I’d intended to read, which wouldn’t have been that big of a deal except that it had more sexual content that I’d wanted to read aloud. But, I couldn’t exactly stop reading in the middle of it, so I forged ahead, trying to feel comfortable reading aloud about nipples and wetness and the like and hoping that none of my audience members were uncomfortable listening to it. [grimace] Oh well. I finished up my reading session by reading my Writers of the Future winning story, “Schroedinger’s Hummingbird,” which was met with very positive reaction. I wasn’t sure how that would work as a read-aloud story (since it was a bit of a wonky structure) but apparently it worked pretty well.

My signing went well, especially considering that I had nothing to sign. But, I seeded the table with chocolates, and chatted with Jeanne Stein, and actually signed a few things (mostly Denvention programs) so it was fairly enjoyable. After that was the Hugo ceremony. Two out of four of the people for whom I was rooting snagged awards, but the two who lost did so by a shockingly small number of votes and both seemed pretty cool about the whole thing, so it was a pretty good evening overall. After it was over I snagged a taxi (because, damn, my feet were hurting!) and headed over to the Sheraton with some others to find Parties. We were successful in our quest for Party, but I am SO not a night-owl, and by about 11 I was fading badly. I made my excuses and ducked out, and grabbed yet another taxi and returned to my own hotel.

Sunday was far more relaxed. I snagged some breakfast at Einstein’s bagels, and then headed to the convention center to catch Daniel Abraham’s reading. Holy crap, but that man is talented. I would have to hate him, except that he’s awfully nice. After his reading I made a few rounds of the dealer’s room, picking up gifts for various people and starting to make goodbyes. By noon things were starting to definitely wind down, and I went over to the Hyatt Regency where I hooked up with Mary Robinette Kowal and the Australian contingent. A short while later Pat Cadigan and Ellen Klages joined us, and we had an eye-opening conversation about how every single one of us had at some point during the convention experienced an episode of insecure neediness, i.e. “Oh my god, no one wants to hang out with me, I don’t know anybody, these people are just talking to me to be polite, I should just go back to my hotel room.” Considering that some of the people making this confession were People made me feel a lot better about my own bouts of utter craziness wherein I became convinced that I was the most uncool person at the convention and my presence was tolerated at best.

I have never claimed to be sane.

By mid-afternoon people were starting to trickle off to catch flights. A group of us who were staying until Monday decided to go on a pub crawl which ended up being more fun that should ever be legal. (At one point I had to convince a few of the guys that dropping trou in the middle of 16th ave was perhaps not a good idea.) We spent most of our time at the first bar we stopped at, which had a truly spectacular selection of brews, including several varieties of cider which I enjoyed (since I’m not much of a beer drinker.) After a while, though, I expressed a desire for some form of chocolatey dessert, so Jim Minz led us down the street to another restaurant where we obtained chocolatey desserts and more drinks. I’m really not doing the evening justice, because I can’t remember the last time I laughed so much. Truly awesome fun.

Monday morning was fairly uneventful with breakfast, checking out, and getting to the airport. By this time I was at the point where I was aching to get home, and missing my daughter and husband so much that it hurt. Fortunately my journey home was uneventful, and my family was delighted to have me home again. I know I’m not naming all of the people who need to be named, but I’m almost afraid to because I am certain to leave someone out. However, I’ll get some pics posted soon and hopefully apply some names at that time.

Aug 9
2008

Worldcon: Days 2 & 3

Umm… I may have waited too long to post anything, because now I am trying to remember what I did the past two days.

The coolest thing on Thursday was definitely having lunch with my best friend from high school, who I have not seen in close to fifteen years. We fell right back into the comfortable ease that we had back then as if there’d been no break, chatting and catching up and roaming around the Tattered Cover bookstore. We, of course, talked about books and writing and she mentioned a few authors whose books she enjoyed. So, after we parted ways again, I ducked into the dealers’ room and snatched up copies of books from said authors, and then hunted them down to get them signed for her.

Later that evening I had a terrific dinner with Lee Modesitt, during which he was his usual charming, classy, and companionable self. After dinner we cruised through the ConSuite and sat and talked with some fans, but by 10pm I was already starting to wear out, so made my excuses and made my way back to my hotel. Without getting lost!

Friday was the Codex breakfast, of which I was the organizer, which had not involved much work beyond calling the restaurant and arranging to have room for 25-30 people and explaining that we were all going to have the buffet in order to make it easier (and avoid the nightmare of the Gigantic Communal Bill.) The breakfast went great, until the server dropped the check on the table. One check. For all of us. Sigh. So, I had to take the check up to the manager and explain that I had, in fact, called ahead of time concerning the separate check issue. It all eventually got sorted out, and I headed to the convention.

But first I called my friend up and asked her if she could break away from work for a couple of minutes so that I could give her some stuff (the autographed books!) She suggested a meeting place near the convention center (she works close by) and gave me directions, and I dutifully headed off. Unfortunately, I missed part of the directions and ended up having to clamber over a rail line and an embankment, and then had to pass the books down to her because I didn’t want to make the six foot jump down to where she was. It probably looked like I was passing contraband.

I had some down time in the afternoon, so I went down to the Sheraton and gave blood for the Heinlein blood drive, which made me feel very virtuous.

In the evening I went and watched the Masquerade, which I always get a huge kick out of since I used to costume. However, my attempts at costuming couldn’t touch some of the creations from the masters-level participants. I was totally blown away by several of the entries. Cool stuff! After the masquerade I made my way over to the Sheraton where the Tor party was in full swing. At least I assume the Tor party was in full swing, because I never actually made it to the Tor party. I stopped first at the SFWA suite, and found it to be just the right amount of crowd for my taste, and then after hearing about “The Smell” in the Tor party, I decided that I had no great pressing need to go on up. However, once again I proved myself to be a total weenie about the whole late-night-partying thing, and made my escape around 11pm.

Tomorrow I will do my best to post recaps of days 4 & 5, but I will say that overall it’s been a really enjoyable and fun convention.

More later. :)

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