Vixenwriter

Me and the ever so lovely Angie James~

Megan, Fred and me - no groping, just a hug. And hello, he’s so very pretty.

Megan, Sasha White and me - Wheeee!

Megan, Me, Kimberly Kaye Terry and Vivi Anna

Me and Megan when we sort of took over the Black Lace spotlight that no one at Black Lace actually knew about!

Maya Banks, me, Beth Williamson (I love these ladies)

I love me some Laura Bradford.

Booksigning with TWO security guards even!!

Me, Jennifer Dunne and Megan

me and Taylor Hartt

Me, Anya and her husband James

me and Ann Aguirre (LOVE HER!!)

me and the creator of my man Jed - Gennita Low

MH and LD

Reader Party!!

I’m still loading pics from my laptop to my desktop and getting pics from people so this isn’t it at all! I have one with the ever so wonderful Rhyannon Byrd and one of me and Jessie and some other readers from the bookfair so keep checking back!

Gracious me - I feel the need to blog about RT a bit because I must say I get so VERY TIRED of hearing people proclaim they’d never go because they’re just too classy or whatever. Like they are speshul snowflakes and everyone who does go is turning tricks in the stairwells or something.

Here’s my thing: I go to RT and I enjoy myself. Do I like everything I see? No. As a matter of fact I do not like it when people take something as horrifying as 9/11 and demean it. I don’t like to see drunk people falling over themselves in the bar either. But frankly - I’ve seen drunk people in bars at many conventions and I’m quite sure stupid stuff happens at dental hygenist conventions too.

I go to RT and I meet up with my writerly friends I see only once a year. We sit in the bar and laugh (and eat pizza and drink lots of water too), we dance at the parties (and this year I only dressed up for one, but you know what I am sick of authors sneering about people who like to dress up. I am sick of hearing “horny housewife” comments. I am sick to fucking death of this “I am too good and/or too special to go to RT” attitude.

Lots of people bitch about RT but you know? They have been really good to me. I’m not just talking about reviews but they’ve been supportive - they’ve put little bits in the magazine about my upcoming books. All my dealings with Giselle for ads have been fabulous and Jo Carol and other conference staff have been good too. Are there mistakes? Yep. Vegas wasn’t at the signing. It sucked. But - THAT IS LIFE. I’ve done enough signings to have experienced books not showing up, books I didn’t order showing up and none I did order showing. That’s how it works. Now, it may not work that way when you’re a big time author but down here many rungs on the ladder, that’s been my experience. I would have preferred Vegas been there, I was disappointed but it’s not the end of the world.

And in truth - You know what? RT isn’t for everyone. There’s not a darned thing wrong with not wanting to go to RT. It’s not RWA National or BEA or NINC or any other writer’s conference. They’re different conferences and you’ll get different things from them. I don’t think National is boring or more classy - I think National is different.

At the book signing on Saturday I met dozens of readers and book sellers and over the course of the conference I met hundreds as well as loads of authors and editors too. I LIKE that. As a conference, RT is like a working vacation for me. I do network. I do meet people and work - yes. But I also dance and I might have a few drinks (although this year the hotel was toxic and I didn’t really drink much). Our reader party was a total blast! We met lots of folks and we’ll be doing another next year too.

I laugh with the cover models (who were TOTAL gentlemen - Fred, Christopher Howell, Chris Winters, Traaavis was there to say hello, Luke - all very nice men who never did one untoward thing in my sight at all). One of the Chippendale dancers sat with us for a while on Wednesday night - Kimo - and he was very nice, answered all sorts of questions from the assembled authors at the table with humor. When I see people talking shite about these men I just want to remind folks that these guys are people. Yes, judged on their looks but when I see people who never met say Christopher Howell, talking negatively about him I want to say, “Hey, you know what? He’s a total sweetie pie, he’s got manners and a sense of humor and he’s pretty to look at. And he has feelings so you know, it’s easy to dehumanize people you see on a screen and all, but they’re real.”

I didn’t see them all. I am sure some of them were idiots - that’s a given that in any group there will be assholes. I do know of one incident where some of them jumped over a low banc of seats and if they’d fallen they could have injured a friend of mine with more than a few pins in her body holding her together. I did see some not so very lovely behavior in the bar toward the end of the con (and by the Saturday night all I want is some popcorn, some dancing and a last night of laughing with my friends - I had that and pretzels too, mmmm - and went to bed by midnight. And yes, the situation with the contestant who had to be arrested and taken to the hospital (and was let back into the conference the next day and wasn’t made to leave) was concerning to me.

I’ll never stay at the Pittsburgh Hilton again. The staff were awesome but the building was not prepared to house us all appropriately and I’m still coughing. Also, 17 dollars for a breakfast buffet? Come on! Good god, for a hotel with so many missing ceiling tiles and dust in the air, we sure did get charged a premium for everything. But again, the staff were totally awesome! From the front desk to the servers and the bartender in the lobby bar - folks were very helpful and I do appreciate that.

RT is NOT a bunch of drunken authors writhing over cover models. Does that happen? Yes. Is it even a sizable minority? No. In my personal experience, RT is fun. A bunch of women (and some men) get together away from home and they talk about books and writing and life for a week and they all schlep back to laundry and making school lunches.

Apparently there were a thousand people at RT this year. A lot of folks. And 900 of us behaved ourselves quite nicely I am sure. I can’t promise I didn’t annoy people with my calls to “bring me my hookah!” but whatever, if that’s the wildest I ever get, well that’s just fine. Most of us realize we’re in public. Most of us have a nice time without cheating on our spouses or groping anyone or even taking pictures of our naughty bits on other peoples’ cameras. It’s pretty unfair to take the behavior of those few who don’t know how to control themselves and paint an entire conference that way.

RT isn’t mandatory. It does tend to be a very high energy, fast paced experience and I am always feckign exhausted by Sunday and so ready to go home. But you know what? I love RT and I’ll be back. I always meet someone new who makes my life better (last year I met Sasha White and Kimberly Kaye Terry and Vivi Anna and I love them all to bits). It’s not for everyone and you know, that’s totally fine.

I’ll see many of you in Orlando next year!

So on day one there was the Hollywood Glamour Party -

Megan Hart, Lauren Dane and Jennifer Dunne

The very lovely Anya Bast

Me and Gennita Low

The dress I had was really lovely. I will definitely wear it again but the pretty silver stilettos not so much. I thought my toes would fall off! After dancing we all hung out talking until very late but it was nice to catch up with people I haven’t seen since last year.

Day two was the Under the Sea party and it was SOOOO much fun! We did miss Anya and her lovely husband but it was fabulous to have dinner with them beforehand along with Gennita Low and Jeri Smith Ready.

Megan, the lovely Laura Bradford and me before the dancing started.

Me looking dorky and Ann Aguirre (have you read Grimspace yet? If not, get to it!)

The absolutely gorgeous Patrice Michelle and me

Day three:

Reader Party!!! A big thank you to all the wonderful readers who showed up and spent part of their morning with us. And even more thanks to Anya’s husband who went way above and beyond in helping us set up, stuff bags and haul huge amounts of stuff everywhere. Also to Laura Bradford who was awoken early (by me) and came to help and stayed to take pictures and hand out bags and prizes.

Karaoke with the fabulous Carolan Ivey

More from the party!

Club RT with Megan Hart, Anya Bast and me

Lauren, Anya and her husband James at dinner (and I won’t tell you where because the place had the most atrocious service ever, I’d never go back there in a million years but the company was fabulous)

And I’m off to the vampire ball. More later!!!

First - we arrived on Tuesday after a road trip in which Megan Hart and I began channeling a character we’ve been unable to stop imitating since. I’m sure to the irritation of many.

Tuesday in the bar….

A Fred sandwich… Fred is one of the Mr. Romance competetors and he’s a very good sport and not an idiot at all as well as being well, LOOK AT HIM!

Lookit who I found in the hall! Maya Banks and Beth Williamson!!

More later I must away to breakfast and then to torment Megan at her presentation…

Heard back from our editor at Black Lace today and he said he really enjoyed TCOB. His comments made me quite happy and I’m looking forward to plotting out the next book with Megan next week!

Early tomorrow I’m off to Anya’s and then on Sunday we’re off to Megan’s! Then we have a photo shoot with the uber fabulous Scott Church on Monday the 14th. Later that evening a book signing at the Waldenbooks in the Lebanon Valley Mall from 6 - 8 pm so if you’re in the area, please do come by to say hello!

And then on Tuesday we’re off again to Pittsburgh for the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention. I’m all atizzy with prep today. The washing machine is going. I’m nearly totally packed but there are always last minute things and I realized Wednesday that I’ll need to take along another small suitcase for extra promotion stuff because we have 68 people and not 50 sign up for our reader party. I’ll also be able to bring back books in it so I suppose that’s a good thing too.

I have not written as much as I wanted to this last week, which sucks. But I’m still good and hopefully I’ll come back as energized to work this time as I did last year.

Cascadia Wolves: Fated

Just wrote a very emotional scene last night but I think it came out well because I cried as I wrote so apparently it translated, or it did to me anyway.

Bookwise I haven’t read much although I did get an early look at Beth Kery’s Wicked Burn and I have to tell you all, this book is freaking amazing. Dark and sharp, totally sexy with an alpha hero who reminded me a lot of Linda Howard’s early heroes. Speaking of La Linda - I read Now You See Her last week and I have to reiterate how much I love her books. I LOVE HER. I’m reading The Ruins now which is uber creepy and I don’t think I’ll be taking it with me on this trip. I did get Karen Chance’s new one and also Meredith Duran’s Duke of Shadows so we’ll see which one I pick for the plane. I may actually do some plotting out of an idea I have as well. I don’t often have large blocks of time that are solely my own so I have a plethora of choices.

I am finally finished with revisions on Undercover. They were pretty light but I wanted to be sure they were as good as possible so I was extremely careful with them. Whew. Now I’m on to a last polish of Sensual Magic, which is due to Harlequin April 1, that shouldn’t take more than a day or so, and finally I can get back to Unexpected. Yay!

I have to say, I got pretty sweaty when I read back over the sex scenes in Undercover. It’s hard when you’re writing something and then editing the first time. You’re very close to the book so you can’t really gauge. But reading it over again, some months later I was like, “wow!” I think this is the hottest book I’ve ever written but also, I was pleased to see the emotional depth in places too. I feel better about it and I already liked it before. Sweet relief.

I ordered some goodies for RT for our Love Shack reader party on Friday (don’t miss it folks!) This party will have goodie bags filled with excellent swag that’ll be exclusive to the party including books from the participating authors. I also ordered postcards for Undercover and Vegas and they turned out so pretty.

I wanted to take a moment to say thank you to Frauke, the person behind the creation of this website (and also the hosting service for it, Janus Portal Hosting) and a great many other websites you you see around. As well as the person who designs my bookmarks, my RT ads and other various graphics like business cards etc. She is truly wonderful. I will give her a few elements and she always turns them into something wonderful. I’ve been a client of hers for several years now and I’m always just so awed by her talent. Plus she helps me with technical stuff when I just can’t figure it out. She always takes pity on me and with good humor. So thank you, Frauke - truly, you make my job so much easier and you do it with style.

Totally UNconnected to any of the above - did you know there was Fraggle Rock fic? I sat in a corner and rocked for a while once I found that out. And then I saw a guy in a furry suit with black leather assless chaps. Don’t ask where I found it. But, well just don’t ask. I think I may have bad dreams.

Now, I’m off to catch up on the stuff I let slide today to finish up with Undercover. Happy Hump Day!!!

In closing, to combat bad dreams - my dreamboat, let me show you him…

Marcus Patrick

WHEEE! Today I got notes from Amazon that The Outlaw Demon Wails AND Grimspace have shipped. Yes, that’s right, I have read Grimspace but I’m buying a copy too, LOL! Also about half an hour ago, Rhyannon Byrd’s new Nocturne showed up on my doorstep. Much squeeing on my part. OH, and I’ve got an early copy of something that won’t come out until the fall.

I’m trying to recover from being sick, which sucks but with three young kids, it’s sort of old hat. I’m sweaty, dizzy and now annoyed at my children but such is life, LOL. Anyway, I’m thinking a lot about three things:

First - The Romantic Times Booklover’s Convention in April. This will be my second year and I’m totally thrilled to be attending again. I’m trying to figure out all the basics, the promotion stuff, the swag for our reader party, costumes and clothes - all that good stuff.

The trip will be jam packed with stuff - I’m flying into Anya’s neck of the woods and she and I are driving to Megan’s! Then we’re getting our author shots with the super fabulous Scott Church. I’ve wanted so much to get him to do my headshots but he’s in PA and I’m in Washington so I wasn’t sure when to make it happen. I’m totally thrilled about it! And then there’ll be a signing and Megan, Anya and I will do a fun live webcast probably Monday night before we head into Pittsburgh for RT on Tuesday. Then you know, RT stuff for days and days. Books, authors, readers, dancing, friends old and new, it’s going to be fabulous.

Second: The release of What Happens in Vegas May 1! (and I’ve heard it’ll be available early at RT!!) Oh my goodness how excited am I about this anthology!! We sold it in late 2006 so the four of us have been waiting a while now for it. Recently we’ve received some early reviews so I’ll be posting those at my website soon and now it’s a matter of making sure the ads are in place, getting my prize baskets ready for RT and contests elsewhere and trying not to break my neck looking at Amazon and Barnes and Noble every three minutes.

Here’s a longer blurb for my story, Stripped:

Dahlia Baker had a reputation in her hometown. It was one of the things a woman with a body like hers had to contend with. As if large breasts and legs for miles made her a dumb bimbo. But it wasn’t like anyone cared that she had a 4.0 and a free ride to UNLV and so she grabbed opportunity with both hands and headed for the sunny heat of Las Vegas.

Still, she has bills to pay and if she wants to keep herself in books and a roof over her head, she has to get a job. And that’s where The Dollhouse came in where she worked as a burlesque dancer.

She’s got a plan for her future. But into her life strolls Nash, the brother of the man who owned the Dollhouse and a reputed player. Nash was literally the hottest man she’d ever clapped eyes on.

And he wants her.

Despite her reservations, they enter into a fiery affair and soon Dahlia’s heart is involved.

Nash knows Dahlia is skittish and over time, he begins to understand why. He may be a playboy, but he knows what he wants and he wants forever with Dahlia. It’s just going to take a very skillful combination of extremely hot sex and unconditional love to get her to see it too.

Third (and related to #2): Getting Sensual Magic finished. This is the follow up to Stripped, the novella I’ve got in the Vegas anthology. I’m nearly done and if I can stop feeling like I’m going to hack up a lung, I’ll be done by the end of this month and have plenty of time for crit and revisions. This is William’s story, he’s Nash’s brother and he owns The Dollhouse, the burlesque club Dahlia (heroine from Stripped) works in. This one has a paranormal storyline (as do the others in the second anthology!)

oy, there’s “pull my finger” talk going on in the other room, must put a stop to it before I get “the talk” from teachers.

I finished To Do List last night. This means in the Sven 70 Days Challenge which ended on Saturday - I wrote 107K words. This makes me very happy because during this time I had a writerly wallow and crisis of faith but I kept writing. In the last 70 days I also edited four books and did print galleys.

Oh lookie here! Well when I look at the Sven site, it tells me the Challenge doesn’t end until the 20th. So wheee, I’m actually at 111K! I don’t think I’ll be adding words though, I’m letting TDL sit and working on my revisions for Stripped this week (although it shouldn’t take me an awfully long time)

After revisions, I have some options but firstly I’ll probably do some sample chapters for a project Megan Hart and I have planned. If I don’t have to do the chapters on that, I want to revise and expand Second Chances once I get my rights back (later this month) and then finish up Standoff, the last Cascadia Wolves book which is due at the beginning of next year but I’d rather just get it done and not have the deadline hanging over me. I prefer to finish things early if I can, it’s a thing, I know.

I have a sore throat and Morrigan appears to be snotty (not just her normal attitude) and I had to give her cold medicine last night because she was coughing and feverish. Every year like clockwork, the beginning of school plague. I’m determined to resist so I’m chugging tea and taking all 800 of my vitamins and trying to eat as healthily as possible. My middle kiddo resisted it thought I was worried at the end of last week, he broke through this weekend and D is happy and healthy and chattering about Pokemon.

I picked up, and then tossed down three different books this weekend but did love the Mandy Roth books I read on my laptop. I also read a few Michelle/Mandy books and it gives me hope that dual author books can work. They work really well together.

Ironed eight million things for all my charges and there’s still more laundry. Good lord I hate laundry. However, there’s something about the mindless repetitive movement that helps me plot and get past story blocks so that’s always a good thing.

I’m all registered for RT in April and I’m talking to Frauke about designing some stuff for me to promote the Spice anthology. It’s all very exciting. We’re planning a fun workshop/reader appreciation party with swag and snacks - me, Anya Bast, Cynthia Eden, Megan Hart and Ann Aguirre. It’s on Friday so keep that in mind.

And cripes! I missed Rock of Love last night!! Writing comes before television of course and I wanted to finish the book. But now I don’t know who got sent home. Was it crazy Lacy, questionable taste in clothing Heather or One S Jes? Did anyone watch? I need to know.

Oh and to brighten those Monday blahs,

I heart Dominic Purcell.

I arrived on Tuesday and waited forever for the shuttle I reserved in advance. I would have been more miffed but it was the beginning of the trip and I met up with several other authors at the airport and we all stood around together and chatted while we waited. Nancy Liedel, Monica Burns, Sylvia Day, Mackenzie McKade, Bianca D’arc and some lovely readers from Australia and one from here in Seattle. The shuttle was packed to the gills and I was worried Sylvia and Bianca were going to get a suitcase to the back of the head if the driver stopped short but we made it without incident.

Once at the hotel I stood in a very long line and heard people shouting my name. Turned out to be Sasha White and Vivi Anna saying hello and inviting me to drinks. Holy cripes, they said hello! Like I was a real author and everything - and thus began the oddness of the week for me.

Got checked in, the boxes I shipped were delivered, I freshened up, tried to call Megan but her number in my cell was wrong! I met up with Renee and tried to stalk a few other people, left messages and hit the bar with a huge table of folks. Met Beth Williamson and Kimberly Kaye Terry. Bonnie Edwards came over later (I LOVE her) and I saw Angie and Crissy too and a bunch of other people I am sure I’m forgetting so please forgive me! That first night was relaxed but I had a moment were someone approached me and said some really sweet things about my writing.

Me: Blink, looks around to see if she’s talking to me and not someone else. Blushes, tries not to cry and thanks her for such a sweet compliment. She told me the following day she woke up to an email with her first sale to EC, which was a lovely thing to be able to celebrate at RT!

Bed by 1 am but I slept like shite because it wasn’t my bed and the noise was bad and it was smoky and I wasn’t at home.

Day two:

Got up early and registered. Got the blue badge that had “published author” on it which was pretty cool and checked out promo alley. They were just setting up so I had breakfast with several people -Renee of course, Liz Wolf who I already knew, Alexis Fleming and Lyn Cash - all really fun ladies!

Anyway, Renee came and helped me stuff my giveaway bags and then helped me set up my promo alley area and Anya’s too. I would have saved Megan a place but I didn’t have any extra containers. I went back to refill it several times but in less than one day all the pens and bookmarks were gone. Renee was such a wonderful friend during the whole thing! She helped me out so much and was just generally a total sweetie pie.

I went to the EC bag stuffing party and had to leave after two hours to go to the Samhain stuffing party. By this point I was shaking from the lack of food and Megan called to say she’d arrived so after an hour and a half, I left to get something to eat and see Megan.

We went into the restaurant to grab some appetizers because we were going to have dinner with my agent later on before the EC party. As Megan and I sat in the restaurant a woman approached and said, “Megan Hart?”

It turned out to be Susan Pezzack Swinwood, our editor from Harlequin and she recognized Megan from her website photo! She sat with us and began to visit. This was at 4:00 and we had some appetizers and hung out and chatted with her until my agent, Laura Bradford called me. We were supposed to have dinner but she’d been late in on her flight and had to rush to the hotel for her appointments so she joined us in the restaurant.

This lovely gathering went on into dinner and lasted four hours! I can’t tell you how wonderful, charming and funny Susan is and I can’t tell you how totally in awe I was at several points during the evening that in just a few years I’d gone from writing a book on a second hand laptop on bedrest to having dinner with my harlequin editor, my agent and my friend whose book was on everyone’s lips.

Anyway, it was truly fabulous several hours and I laughed a lot, setting the tone for the whole convention by the way. Megan always makes me laugh, there are times when I feel like we share a brain, LOL.

We left to go and get ready for the Moulin Rouge party EC was putting on and I loved my costume. It was a bit large but I can’t complain about that. Still I think it turned out very pretty. It also set the stage for one of the annoyances of the Con - standing in long lines far after the start time of an event. However, EC authors should have been there early, a fact I was unaware of, and so I waited outside and didn’t realize this until I walked in and the lovely Ruby Storm said, “get your butt back there, they’re lining up!”

But no one knew I’d shown up so they had to tell the announcer at the last minute, as in right as I was next, LOL. Still, they got my covers up on the screen and announced me and some cover model dude escorted me across the stage but I didn’t really even notice him because I was wearing four inch heels and I’d been so flustered getting in line and then no one knowing I just walked across the stage and tried not to fall. Still Megan got footage on her camera so I heard people cheer for me and saw that they had indeed put up my covers.

The party itself was lovely. EC did a great job decorating the room and the costumes were all quite lovely although sometimes I’d say just because you can pull out your lingerie and wear it in public doesn’t mean you should. Renee looked postively gorgeous in a white flowy top!

Great music and dancing! Time in the bar. Sleep way after midnight and there was much giggling until we just sort of passed out.

Thursday:

I was supposed to be at the EC author brunch but I had club RT time. Another issue with the con was the lack of time between things. Many times I ended up going directly from one thing to the next and didn’t eat for long periods of time and ended up feeling sort of shaky.

Club RT turned out really well. We did a maverick author basket and I did a Dynamic trio basket too. And this is where we met Travis. LOL. Travis, the sweet, soon to be medical student walking around with a rubber duck on his head. He referenced Terry Pratchett when we demanded to know why and this won me over. He sat with us and answered our questions about why we should vote for him and he blushed charmingly. This also attracted many women from all over the room who sat with us and ganged up on Travis, who handled himself quite well.

Met Terri, who is a total doll! And Serena from FAR as well! Yay!

Amelia June joined our crew at this time and livened the group up! There was a lunch hosted by Brenda Joyce which was nice and then bar time and the nocturne mixer. Free books! I picked up something that appeared to be cheesecake but so was NOT! Renee and I made faces at each other. It was vile and there were several dozen plates of this substance with one bite out of it propped all over the place. I chatted with Joy Nash and Mardi Ballou, which was wonderful. I also met Rhyannon Byrd and Patrice Michelle on my way out along with several fabulous readers and signed my cover card in the EC deck for the contest.

Then getting ready for the faery ball. I discovered I’d left my slip at home and the back of the costume is very see through so I ended up wearing the black vintage dress instead and even false eyelashes which felt like spiders on my eyes but they did look rather lovely. Renee saved us a place in line and we all sat together.

dancing and more dancing - costumes, lots of wings. Tawny Taylor’s costume was freaking amazing. All these lovely feathers on a head dress and train. She of course made it too. Sigh. She’s nice too. The food was all vertical. Chocolate vertical towers with mousse inside. Yum. Renee left early as she wasn’t feeling well and we missed her!

Free books.

Some sort of after party where I got a Vote For Travis button from his mother and Megan did not. Ha! Still, it is my sincere belief that Megan was number one in his heart. The mimosas were nastay! We got caught in a turf war between Traaavis and Chris. Chris who is a very naughty young man. And no, Chris, from the waist up it doesn’t make you gay but I’d so pay to see naked spooning with Fred.

More later…