For Reference, here's the ones I've already reviewed, just so you have everything in one handy blog post. But, I've added a few, too.

Note: I'm only mentioning the ones I thought were really helpful. For me and what I'm stressing about in my writing. There were a lot of great workshops that aren't on my list because they're not relevant to where I am in my writing career. Your Mileage Will Definitely Vary.

And I'm not mentioning ones that Did Not Work for me, so actually, this isn't a review of all the workshops.

14-001 Opening Keynote Session, Janet Evanovich. Looking for career inspiration? She tells a great rejection letters about-to-give-up story.

14-002 Keynote Luncheon - Linda Howard OMG, her stories are so funny I could hardly breath. The lawn mower story....

14-009 Homeland Security: was actually REALLY interesting. The speaker had some really great stories and she just loves her job so much you can't help but catch the enthusiasm. Great details to be tucked away in the brain vault.

14-011 Google Book Settlement - informative. Probably worth a listen if the settlement is still alive or not substantially changed by the current negotiations.

14-012 Pro Session: Make sure you listen to Madelaine Hunter. She gave a GREAT talk. The rest is pretty good, too, but for me she was a standout. The agent panel was good, too.


14-015 Writing Dark Love Stories, Anne Stuart. Entertaining. Ways to think about the hero, heroine relationship and risk taking.

14-034 Writing the Hot Historical - everything Pam Rosenthal said was fascinating and thought provoking, whether you write historicals or not.

14-035 Secrets of the Best Selling Sisterhood- SEP and Jayne Ann Krentz. Worth a listen.

14-039 - Joan Johnston - Writing the Breakout Novel. Lots of interesting tips and things to think about.

14-042 Buy this Book - Gardiner, Poelle - Give this a listen. Top agents.

14-047 Under Their Skin and Straight To The Heart: Creating Emotion With Significant Detail, Robin Wells- Very good. Give a listen.

14-054 Intellectual Property - Moderated by Nora Roberts. Make sure you listen to Nora's story about how she was plagiarized. Riveting. You'll get angry and want to cry on her behalf. The speakers were good, but hard to understand at times (heavy accents, unclear diction).

14-056 Eloisa James Awards luncheon. Her speech will make you cry.

14-062: The Fire in Fiction. Donald Maass. Will def make you think. Some is kind of obvious but he tells a story (toward the end I think) and the room was COMPLETELY silent while he told it. A masterful example of show not tell. Have a listen. I have already listened to this one a second time.

14-071 Why we Love Mr. Darcy. Brenda Chin, Julia Quinn, L. Ghurke: Recommended. This quickly veers off into career decisions and discussions. Worth a listen for everything Quinn says about her career.

14-072 One, Two or Three. Kristin Nelson, Natasha Kern. This one is a MUST listen. Chilling bad-agent story. Great discussion of the thinking behind agenting a book deal. FYI, Kristin Nelson is my agent.

14-076 Setting as Character. Jade Lee. Worth a listen. She says some very interesting things. Plus she's funny and a great speaker.

14-082 Mauled Men etc. This one is about what happens after someone dies mostly in re funeral homes. I recommend listening because the speaker is good and there's all kinds of unexpected interesting facts and information in this that will probably come in handy one day.

14-084 Spotlight on St. Martin's. I consider this a MUST listen. Jennifer Enderlin in particular has some GREAT tips and insights. You probably won't have to listen to all of it, but don't miss the first half.

14-088 The good the bad the ugly in New media. Depressing, but do listen. It's about marketing and having a publicist. The min. budget of $7500 for EFFECTIVE marketing is just freaking depressing and out of reach for must authors. There are some good ideas and tips.

14-092 Make it Happen. 10 Tips to Breaking in. Christie Craig's story was inspirational. I heard about this one at the conference -- she made quite an impact and I can see why.

14-094 Legal Flavored Research. Some interesting stuff here.

14-101 How to Sell to Harlequin's London Office. Despite the title, there was some truly awesome story advice in this one. I gave this one 5 stars.

14-102 Anatomy of a Best Seller. This was good. Chris Keeslar of Dorchester is a great editor and I think writers need to sit up and pay attention when editors are speaking.

14-106 Turning Points, Jennifer Crusie. I'm looking for new ways to think about story, and this gave me some.

14-108 - Spotlight on Sourcebooks. Listen to this one.

14-112 - Evil 101 - Where True Crime Meets Terrific Fiction, Sherri Lewis Wohl. This is one of the ones shortened by the Fire Alarm (RATS!!) but there are some great stories if you're interested in the criminal mind.

14-117 - Chemistry: How to Create The Sizzle That will Keep your Readers Glued to the Page - Sherry Thomas This one is also Fire Alarm shortened, but she was able to come back and go through more material. Give a listen.

14-125 A&B No Holds Barred, JR Ward, Jessica Anderson Both authors have interesting and insightful things to say about writing and the writing process. Plus it's funny to hear Ward say she's a plotter and then describe a process that sounds to me like it's seat of the pants.

14-130 The Scoop! Using Television's Secrets and Techniques For A Top Notch Novel, Hank Phillippi Ryan I've listened to this one a couple of times. Good stuff about deadlines.

14-133 A Look Inside the Editor's Mind, Leslie Wainger. She's an editor. Of course you should listen to this one.

14-136 A&B More How to Make a Living Writing Romance Novels, Stephanie Bond. As you might expect, there is some great stuff here. I do feel, however, this is not really one-size fits all.

14-145 Digital Initiatives With Your Publisher, Various Presenters. Keep yourself informed. Listen.

14-146 Spotlight On Kensington This might be one of the best spotlights I heard. There's some great information about how to think about and manage a career.

Labels: RWA Nationals, workshops

I consider the $100 cost of the RWA Conference workshops money well spent. Worth every penny. I have now listened to all the workshops, other than 2-3 that I knew I had no interest in.

I am NOT going to comment on all the workshops since some, for whatever reason, I did not care for or the subject matter wasn't one I'm interested in at this point in my career. YMMV.

Workshops I end up not mentioning you may love. Ones I loved you might hate. Also, this is only part 1 because I already had most of this noted so it's a quick post for me. There are more workshops to talk about. (For what it's worth, right now I'm most concerned with story and character -- making them bigger and better.)

One surprise was how much GREAT information was in the publisher spotlights. Not so much about what they're buying but about story-telling -- amazing stuff in each and every one. (NB, I did not listen to the Avalon or Steeple Hill spotlights since I don't think I'll ever write inspirational. Given that all the other spotlights were fantastic, this may be a mistake.) The Harlequin workshops were also really good. I did skip the one about moving from category to single title, as those issues don't apply to me.

14-009 Homeland Security: was actually REALLY interesting. The speaker had some really great stories and she just loves her job so much you can't help but catch the enthusiasm. Great details to be tucked away in the brain vault.

14-011 Google Book Settlement - informative. Probably worth a listen if the settlement is still alive or not substantially changed by the current negotiations.

14-012 Pro Session: Make sure you listen to Madelaine Hunter. She gave a GREAT talk. The rest is pretty good, too, but for me she was a standout. The agent panel was good, too.

14-034 Writing the Hot Historical - everything Pam Rosenthal said was fascinating and thought provoking, whether you write historicals or not.

14-035 Secrets of the Best Selling Sisterhood- SEP and Jayne Ann Krentz. Worth a listen.

14-039 - Joan Johnston - Writing the Breakout Novel. Lots of interesting tips and things to think about.

14-042 Buy this Book - Gardiner, Poelle - Give this a listen. Top agents.

14-047 Under the Skin - Very good. Give a listen.

14-054 Intellectual Property - Moderated by Nora Roberts. Make sure you listen to Nora's story about how she was plagiarized. Riveting. You'll get angry and want to cry on her behalf. The speakers were good, but hard to understand at times (heavy accents, unclear diction).
14-056 Eloisa James Awards luncheon. Her speech will make you cry.

14-062: The Fire in Fiction. Donald Maass. Will def make you think. Some is kind of obvious but he tells a story (toward the end I think) and the room was COMPLETELY silent while he told it. A masterful example of show not tell. Have a listen. I have already listened to this one a second time.

14-071 Why we Love Mr. Darcy. Brenda Chin, Julia Quinn, L. Ghurke: Recommended. This quickly veers off into career decisions and discussions. Worth a listen for everything Quinn says about her career.

14-072 One, Two or Three. Kristin Nelson, Natasha Kern. This one is a MUST listen. Chilling bad-agent story. Great discussion of the thinking behind agenting a book deal. FYI, Kristin Nelson is my agent.

14-076 Setting as Character. Jade Lee. Worth a listen. She says some very interesting things. Plus she's funny and a great speaker.

14-082 Mauled Men etc. This one is about what happens after someone dies mostly in re funeral homes. I recommend listening because the speaker is good and there's all kinds of unexpected interesting facts and information in this that will probably come in handy one day.

14-084 Spotlight on St. Martin's. I consider this a MUST listen. Jennifer Enderlin in particular has some GREAT tips and insights. You probably won't have to listen to all of it, but don't miss the first half.

14-088 The good the bad the ugly in New media. Depressing, but do listen. It's about marketing and having a publicist. The min. budget of $7500 for EFFECTIVE marketing is just freaking depressing and out of reach for must authors. There are some good ideas and tips.

14-092 Make it Happen. 10 Tips to Breaking in. Christie Craig's story was inspirational. I heard about this one at the conference -- she made quite an impact and I can see why.

14-094 Legal Flavored Research. Some interesting stuff here.

14-101 How to Sell to Harlequin's London Office. Despite the title, there was some truly awesome story advice in this one. I gave this one 5 stars.

14-102 Anatomy of a Best Seller. This was good. Chris Keeslar of Dorchester is a great editor and I think writers need to sit up and pay attention when editors are speaking.

14-106 Turning Points, Jennifer Crusie. I'm looking for new ways to think about story, and this gave me some.

14-108 - Spotlight on Sourcebooks. Listen to this one.

That's it for now. This is roughly 3/4's of the workshops with some great ones yet to come. But I think I missed a few.

FTC Disclosure: I don't have to disclose a damn thing. I paid for these workshop recordings. Plus there's no advertising here.

Labels: RWA Nationals, workshops

At the RWA National Conference in Washington D.C. this past July, I bought, for the first time, the workshops on DVD.

Oh - aside: I also went all cash at the conference and let me tell you how freeing it was to NEVER use the credit card. I had to hand over the card at the hotel, but after they took the card (in case I turned out to be a room destroying deadbeat) I paid cash for the room. The first day. Never once did I have to worry about how it would feel when the bill came due as there was no bill.

So, yeah. Anyway, I plunked down my cash for the conference DVD -- because the hotel was paid for, all the rest was food and gravy, right? My DVD came a couple weeks ago and I've been listening to the workshops. I'm perhaps a quarter of the way through and I now have some tips for people giving workshops of any kind.

1. Do not simply read your workshop essay. It's BORING no matter who you are. Listeners will mentally check out as you drone on (because an essay just isn't as exciting as, say fiction) so what's the point? They're not listening. Also, writers, being excellent readers, will invariably read TOO FAST. Not even the people with their butts in the chair can follow you if you're reading too fast. (And you are.)


2. When you're told you MUST repeat questions from the audience, that's true. Because Here's what it sounds like if you don't:
   Speaker: And that sums up my list of sekrit tips for getting published. Any questions?
   Question Asker:
   
   
   
   mmhrt
   
   hjd.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Speaker: Oh, good question! I can't believe I forgot to mention that. Yes.


3. The more conversational you sound, the more interesting you sound.


4. Do not approach a workshop as nothing more than an opportunity to pitch your books. Really. Don't. Even if you're not a self-centered b*tch, you'll sound like one.


5. If you're on a panel and you're sitting in front of a mike, be aware that all the little noises you make will be on the tape. Like, huh, tsk, yeah. It's really really distracting.


6. If there is dead air during your workshop, if you can, preface that with an explanation of why things are so silent. Or explain what's happening.


7. The workshops I've enjoyed most so far are the ones where the speaker(s) sound the most interested in genuinely communicating what they know or have learned. (See previous point about people who are just trying to sell their books...)

Labels: public speaking, RWA Nationals, workshops

All righty! I have returned from Washington DC where Romance Writers of America held its annual national conference. As a west coaster, this means jet lag and I am such a sleep wimp. But it wasn't bad and I took naps when possible. I won't be able to remember things in order so bear with me.

In previous posts, I mentioned that the Risky Regencies members were interviewed on XM radio. I hope to have a link for you soon. The interview was Wednesday. I met up with fellow Grand Central Publishing authors for breakfast one day. It's always so nice to talk about the business with people who are in the writing business.

A couple of times I was lucky enough to hang out with the wonderful historical author Joanna Bourne. She also won a RITA for My Lord and Spymaster. Joanna must be about the nicest person on the planet. I told a couple of fellow local chapter members that we need to lure her out to SF to talk to us. She'd be an awesome speaker.

Other writers I got to hang out and talk with include Bella Andre (hot firefighters!!), Amy Lau, Victoria Wolff, Ammanda McCabe, Andea Pickens, Diana Gaston and many many many more I'll name in other contexts in a bit.

I also attended Ann Aquirre's pajama party and someone was talking too loud or something because at midnight, hotel security called and asked that we pipe down. I believe that's a sign that a good time was had by all. The party was well attended by bloggers, readers, reviewers and writers, including KatieBabs, Katie Garrabrant, Victoria Dahl, reviewers for Dear Author, oh, just gobs of great people who told funny stories etc. There were, as well, some fairly awesome pajamas.

My roommate, Megan Frampton got the doughnuts for our doughnut party and we sat around with writers etc in our room eating and watching the interesting bits of True Blood Season One, and reading bits from I don my wizard cap and cape. Google it. Not Safe For Work.

I had meetings, too. Lots of meetings. I meet with editor Amy Pierpont of GCP since my editor wasn't there. We solidified the schedule for my next two paranormals for them and brainstormed about what marketing we'd do during 2010 since the two books will likely be back-to-back in June and July 2011. My meeting with my agent was also very helpful. It was great to talk about a big plan that covered my writing for both houses. I met with my Berkley editor, Kate Seaver, who edits my historicals. We talked about future projects.

There was unanticipated excitement, too. For example, the arrival of the Italian soccer team. OMG!! Some gentlemen associated with the team expressed wonderment at arriving at the hotel (by the way, the Wardman Marriott is a gorgeous hotel!) to find that all the guests appeared to women, many of them quite attractive.

Then there was the fire alarm, which required an evacuation. I stood outside with Jade Lee (Dragons) and Jessica Anderson (Mayan hotties) and we talked about books and stuff and I managed to get a couple of pics of the firefighters arriving. I think they were a bit startled by all the women taking pics of them. They had no idea. But come on! Firefighters at a Romance Writers convention? Then, after we were allowed back in Jade and I were in a hallway talking while interrupted talks were resuming and she was waiting for editor Chris Keeslar of Dorchester Publishing and I was waiting for the Ballantine spotlight to start when three more firefighters appeared! They were cuties, too and also looked at bit disconcerted by all the women. I didn't get my phone out fast enough to get a close up shot.

I'm afraid my biggest reqret is missing the Marines. But that was post RITA's and I had to go finish drying my jeans with an iron after someone's glass of wine accidentally broke and splashed yours truly well and good. I was mentally worthless anyway but *sob* Marines! They too, as I hear it, expressed wonderment and awe at 2000 (well, 1999) women in party dresses.

The RITA awards were very nice. They did a great job keeping things moving along. The biggest excitement for me was Pam Rosenthal's win for Edge of Impropriety and Joanna Bourne's RITA win as noted above. Fellow Twitterer Karen Templeton won a RITA, too, which was also very exciting. There were a lot of very classy and touching acceptance speeches for the Golden Heart and the RITAs. My understanding is that all the RITA winners in the historical categories are Beau Monde members. If you write historicals, you might want to think of joining.

I got to meet many of my twitter followers/followees in person. And may I say that Victorial Dahl is as hilarious in person as she is on Twitter?

I didn't pick up as many books as I did at the San Francisco conference because I'd have had to ship them back. One disappointment about the hotel was they didn't do USPS, but I just shipped by UPS which was essentially the same price. I also wasn't able to attend as many of the signings due to meetings or other engagements or to the fact that I was signing myself.

As is often the case, even though RWA members put on some awesome workshops, sometimes the best thing is sitting around talking to people -- editors, agents, fellow writers, bloggers, booksellers, librarians, etc. I did find that the conference schedule was poorly laid out in the booklet and it was hard to figure out what was going on when and I think I missed out on a lot because of that.

Anne Stuart's workshop on Alpha Heroes was interesting, as was Jennifer Crusie's presentation on plot structure (I so need that!) Some workshops I wanted to attend were SRO only by the time I found them so I didn't attend those. I believe I have mentioned before that I am directionally impaired. I spent a lot of time lost. I'm used to it.

I think that's it for now.

Labels: RWA Nationals

OK, first off, I am very tired which I think means things are going well. Had a doughnut party in our room last night which was very fun. We ate doughnuts, talked smack, watch the more interesting bits of TrueBlood for a certain roommate who likes Bill more than Eric (WTF?) and some other stuff.

Today I had breakfast with my agent and had a very good meeting. Then I met with my Berkley editor and also had a very good meeting, which made me pretty happy. The luncheon was wonderful. Eloisa James gave a very inspiring talk and had more than a few people sniffling, too.

The Berkley and Grand Central signings were at the same time, so I went to the GCP signing for half an hour then popped over to the Berkley one, but the copies of Scandal were all gone. I signed a few for people who hadn't left yet and gave away all my bookmarks. Then I went back to the GCP signing and by then all my books there were gone, too. So, rats for having those two at the same time.

After that I met up with Liz Maverick and Megan Frampton and we went to the Samhain get together which was crazy crowded.

In a bit, I'm off to the Berkley cocktail party and then a certain other party I can't talk about but might start with a letter between G and I. Maybe.

Desperately need a nap, though. Will report more tomorrow if possible.

Labels: RWA Nationals

I'm over at the Risky Regencies blogging about our Radio Interview and RWA Nationals be sure to check it out!

The Literacy Signing is tonight, so if you're in the area, stop by and say hello. I would be very pleased and happy if you did.

My flight from SFO to DCI was as an airplane ride ought to be; uneventful. The Wardman Marriot is beautiful and right now the AC is on and I am a happy girl. My roomate, Megan Frampton is behaving herself but I have hopes that won't last. I will report more on RWA later as things get started.

Labels: Risky Regencies, RWA Nationals

Today is a Monday and I am not at work. Nope. And I slept in. Bliss! I am futzing around before I do the final errands necessary before I leave for the Park and Fly hotel tonight. It's fun. No writing, because then I'd have to back up to Fang again (just testing out a potential nickname for the MacBook Pro.) and Fang is currently in the laptop bag.

I got up a bit early (but nowhere near the usual 4:15 am) to finish making coffee cake. Twitter user @RedRobinReader sent me the recipe. You make the (yeast) dough the night before, then make coffee cake rings with it the next day. I had my doubts since I needed to add A LOT of extra flour when I was making the dough yesterday. And then this morning I had a total failure on the merinque and had to start over on that. But my goodness, this coffee cake is heavenly! I can't eat anything else the rest of the day now.

The Next Paranormal is going pretty well. I'm over 26,000 words and had to do my first re-org to get things in a sensible order. For once, the theme has revealed itself to me very early on. I am quite happy with that. I think it's because of the new laptop. Apple is some pretty awesome technology, peeps. So far so good!

I handed over the old laptop to my son after making a new login for him on it. By the time I get back from DC, I should know if I need to pull off anything else. Then I can do a total remove of my files. In the meantime, I have deskspace! Oh my gosh. Do you know now long it's been since I've seen that corner of my desk? It's kind of scary, actually.

If you're going to be at RWA, please come by the Literacy Signing and say hello! It's Wednesday, July 15 from 5:30-7:30. All proceeds go to charity, and there will be some great authors there.

Friday July 17 from 3:00 to 4:30 Berkley and Grand Central have their author signings, so stop by there too! I'll be splitting my time between them. Bummer that they're at the same time...

If you're at RWA and you want to meet up, AND you're on Twitter, the absolute easiest thing to do is dm me via Twitter. Or just tweet me. @cjewel

The conference hash tag is #RWA09 I'll be on twitter and blogging when I can.

Labels: futzing around, RWA Nationals, The Next Paranormal

Since I have tomorrow off, I get to sleep in. Yay! I have various bits of news to report, in no particular order.

I've been working on The Next Paranormal and it's going pretty well right now. Some very good ideas starting to gel. It's early days yet, of course.

The RWA National Conference is coming up. If you're going to be in Washington DC on Wednesday July 15, drop by the Marriott for the Literacy Signing. It's for a good cause! Please stop by the J section to keep me from feeling too lonely.

On July 24, I'll be at the Hachette Books booth at Comic Con in San Diego. They're giving away copies of My Forbidden Desire and I'll be there to sign them! If you're going to be there, by all means, come by and get a free signed book. Personally, I'm hoping some of the True Blood folks will be there. I should be able to wander around a bit and see some stuff.

I've given up on the old and creaky Dell laptop and went to the Apple store to buy a 13"MacBook Pro, which I did, only they're out of stock and now I'm just praying mine arrives BEFORE I leave for Nationals because the thought of lugging the current laptop to DC gives me hives. I've committed to Apple and now I'm impatient to make the switch completely and utterly. Everyone cross your fingers for a delivery prior to 7/14 because I have a very early flight.

Twitter has been hellaciously fun lately. Oh my gosh. @barryEisler is being the world's best sport about what is probably the world's most egregious and embarrassing typo ever. By me. I meant to type spill his guts... with respect to the expected conversation I hope to have when I get to have lunch with him due to my winning lunch w/him at Brenda Novak's auction. But what I type was spill his guys... Much hilarity has followed. @VictoriaDahl has been particularly bold, sassy and amusing.

And now I'm off to get some work done before I go to bed.

Labels: Comic Con, RWA Nationals, The Next Paranormal

Just a quick note to say I'm working on the page proofs for Indiscreet so I have my head down getting through those. Plus too much day job stuff bleeding into my real life and eating up my evenings. Sigh so I am behind in everything now and getting paid less for more work. Should Not Compute. But it does, sadly.

Am also woefully unprepared for RWA in July. However, good news is that I'll be at the Literacy signing July 15 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm so if you're in the DC area, come by!

On July 24 I'll be at the Hachette booth at Comic Con San Diego signing 200 free copies of My Forbidden Desire so if you're there, drop by. When not signing I will be looking for Alexander Skarsgard and all things True Blood related. I'm only there for the day. I'll post better time info when I have it.

Labels: Comic Con, Indiscreet, My Forbidden Desire, RWA Nationals, signing

The HQ party was a blast. Some young gentlemen attended unexpectedly and I believe they very much enjoyed dancing with 500 women. A tree fell down and had to be ported out of the room in pieces, but I only saw video of that. By then, I was back at the hotel hanging in the bar with historical authors Megan Frampton, Kalen Hughes, Sabrina Jeffries, Madeline Hunter, Monica McCarty and sexy contemporary author Bella Andre.

A fun time was had and many stories were told involving microwaved lobsters (oh my gosh) human anatomy (!) and the texted phrase go fish urself because I was unable to text something different which I will leave to your imagination other than saying it was known by all to be a joke as I was texting on someone's behalf and she said something that didn't involve fish. Also, I confessed my music preferences to Megan who knows everything about music. She says she still likes me.

Then we talked a bunch of smack about -- I'm not saying. You shoulda been there.

Also, today I got my tat.

Labels: partying, RWA Nationals, talking smack

Beverly Jenkins and Sabrina Jeffries at RWA Literacy Signing July 30, 200

Larissa Ione at GCP Signing, RWA

Andrea Pickens At GCP Signing

Jade Lee and Friend Carol snapping pics

Me at GCP Signing

Labels: Pictures, RWA Nationals

I a bit sad to say I spent most of the Beau Monde conference in my room doing revisions. Then I went to the literacy signing and had a blast. I'll try to get some pics and video up in a bit.

Then I attended my agent's swanky agency dinner. Ohh la la! Great food. And it was really nice to meet my agent, too! And then all of a sudden it was midnight and time to go to bed. Did that.

I have not yet witnesses any bad behavior which is a disappointment, but it's only Thursday morning so there's yet time.

Off to see if I can find my videos...

Labels: RWA Nationals

Got to the Marriott about 1:00 pm and immediately ran into Candace Hern. Hung out reading His Wicked Witch until Megan F arrived and our room was ready. Then we hung out some more and went to dinner. We had ice cream at Ghirardelli with Amanda McCabe, Sabrina Jeffries and some other writers whose full names I will track down tomorrow I hope. The hotel is very nice. Our room is not stinky and all the lights are on. No flashlight necessary.I didn't realize how many people came on Tuesday before conference.

Tomorrow is the Beau Monde conference. Fun!

Going to bed now.

Labels: RWA Nationals

I'm pretty much packed except for all the important stuff I forgot. Now just last minute chores so things aren't gross when I get back on Sunday.

I'm close but no cigar to being done with revisions for His Wicked Witch. I'm taking a print out with me to RWA for a final read through for continuity and egregious errors. Note to self: turn on the printer.

Although My Wicked Enemy isn't quite officially out, I know it's shipping from Amazon and that it's available in stores now. So, w00t!! Go get your copy now!

One more RWA-related comment then I'm off to finish getting ready:

It's in San Francisco. In July. Of course it's cold!!

I'll be blogging and twittering at the conference so see you on line!

Labels: His Wicked Witch, My Wicked Enemy, Revisions, RWA Nationals

Just a quick post. As many of you probably know, RWA has its national conference in San Francisco July 30 to August 2. Which is soon. Really soon. (Yay!)

I have the copyedits for Scandal (due date: July 31) Snort. Real drop dead last day: July 28, because I head down there the 29th since the Beau Monde Conference is the 30th.

Today I got the revision letter for His Wicked Witch or whatever it ends up being called. Argh! I've only given it a quick glance to make sure I wasn't being asked to write a completely different book. No. Very good, there!

And, of course there's the WIP and today I didn't get a chance to work during lunch because I worked through lunch which means 0 words today. Panic is setting in.

Right so I'm really busy and may not be blogging too much between now and July 29 when I will be blogging and twittering the conference. Hopefully on my iPhone...

For now, I'll be twittering more reliably than blogging because that's easier, shorter and faster than blogging. Also you can't get carried away and keep writing some big old longer than you intended post.

In Carolyn's perfect world copyedits and revisions are done by July 28.

Wish me luck.

Follow me on Twitter

Labels: copyediting, His Wicked Witch, Revisions, RWA Nationals, The List

Avoidance Behavior

Sunday was a tough day writing-wise. Basically, I wrote my characters into a boring place. Now, I knew better than to try to make it un-boring so I left everybody on the stairs because I had no idea what to do with them, and did other stuff so that the old brain wouldn't realize I was trying to trick it into giving me the answer.

Let's see. I fiddled around with MySpace and Facebook stuff, but that wasn't un-writing related enough. So then I read a book for a while. Also not un-writing related enough. I went grocery shopping. Definitely not-writing related, plus I listened to my MP3 player while I shopped. But that didn't help much. Groceries are expensive and I think I was in sticker shock the whole time. Then I came home with sandwiches and frozen yogurt and yes, the child was up, but he was cranky. Then I started cinnamon rolls after which I had a vague idea that turned out to be stupid so I picked up the dog and walked up and down part of the driveway for a while. Then I came back, stared at the computer, felt a bit panicky and decided to take a nap. Because NAP is just a short word for Avoidance Behavior.

Two seconds after my head hit the pillow I was falling asleep at which time a little voice says Send in George Brooks. He's a psycho and he'll make something happen and then I dreamed about this other story I want to finish up. But when I woke up an hour later, I sat down to write and brought out George the psycho and darned if he didn't get some conflict on the pages to the extent that I met my minimum for the day and knew the next 3 things to happen. One of which I wrote today, far exceeding the minimum, I'll have you know. Because I was stuck in the car at soccer practice.

Shopping Aversion

People have contacted me in various ways about my clothing dilemma. Thank you every one, and please keep with the advice and links. But I will say that I am now in this odd state of decision paralysis. I have some cute suggestions and I'm afraid to take any of them. I'm paralyzed by my lack of style. What if I only think something looks cute but in reality it's totally dorky? I was kind of hoping to avoid stores and shop online but I think I'm going to have to hit the stores anyway. I'm going so far beyond my comfort zone here (and the really sad thing is it's like an inch, not a mile) that I need to see what I'm getting into. I think. Or maybe I should order stuff online-- only so late that I can't return anything and have no choice but to wear this new stuff.

Waaaah!! I just want to put on my plain blue shirt or maybe the plain red shirt and pretend no one can see my feet.

On the other hand, I decided today that I would be okay with painting my toenails and that boots might be a nice shoe choice.

I am so pathetic.

Labels: I'm a dork, RWA Nationals, shopping, writing, writing process

FACT: The Romance Writers of America (RWA) National Conference takes place in San Francisco at the end of this month.

FACT: It's best to look nice YET feel comfortable at the same time.

FACT: My day job is so casual for the Systems department that Casual Friday is a dilemma. Benchmark: Wednesday, the CFO was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and Birkenstocks.

FACT: I no longer own nice clothes. I have jeans and have not worn a dress or pantyhose in, golly, six or seven years. In the next 6-7 years, this dress and pantyhose thing is unlikely to have changed.

FACT: I loathe shopping.

FACT: I have little to no sense of style. Put me in a store and I will admire pretty things while thinking people who wear stuff like that sure look cool and then I wander over to the casual stuff thinking that looks comfortable. Plus no ironing! There's a reason all my clothes look the same.

Carolyn has a Plan

The plan is that I will wear jeans but purchase (yes a flaw in the plan as this requires shopping) really really nice tops and some fancy cool shoes that are, miraculously, comfortable.

Read the above facts carefully. Like all plans, there are weaknesses. I've identified one right off the bat. Another glaring weakness is that I would be in charge of executing said plan.

Yes, I need help. I need links to pictures of cool tops and fancy shoes. Because if I go shopping on my own I will come home with clothes that look like the boring stuff I have now.

In short, I need help. Your help. Your fashion sense can save an author from going to RWA looking like the CFO of her day job company.

If I have time and anybody takes pity on me, I'll think of a prize or something.

Labels: RWA Nationals, shopping

Today I was at a Microsoft product launch in San Francisco. I now have some idea of what SQL Server 2008 has to offer (a lot it seems) and some expensive software; Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 -- latest release candidate (kind of like an ARC), and Windows Vista SP1. All free.

Why give away very, very expensive software? (SQL Server is typically $10-19,000, depending on how you license it. Can be cheaper, but not a wise choice in the Enterprise.) Well, because the kind of people who go to such events are typically the very people who will show their comrades in geekdom the cool stuff they can do. And they will tell their friends they have Vista. Probably a very good investment. It will lead to more sales down the road.

So, writers do have giveaways. But do they do enough, and do they (we) give away the right stuff? I have all these ARCs. Should I be giving them away to readers or reviewers?

All righty, I'm tired because I had to go to SFO and back today. But, then, I was right down the street from the Marriot where RWA will be, and I can tell you, it's going to be totally awesome there. I remember in NYC, downtown Manhattan was SHUT DOWN over the weekend. DEAD. This will not be the case in San Francisco. That city is hopping with fun stuff to do within easy walking distance.

I managed to get Xia back to 69K even thought I deleted a lot tonight.

off to bed.

Who wants an ARC and what are you willing to do for one? Email me. Or leave a comment.

Labels: free stuff, RWA Nationals, Xia