Doing RT The Untraditional Way: My Book Family Meets Up With My Other Family, or, You Know Jenn's Going To Be A Headless Chicken

Nope. Didn't fly. I'm protesting the stupid Airline Bundling Program in my little way. Hey, Airlines-Looking-For-Revenue, I'm a customer, not a package you have to delivered. I'm someone looking to go somewhere in the easiest, most relaxing way possible, and right now, YOU ARE NOT IT. And I'm not a hassle to your BUSINESS. Not a piece of stinky meat you have to pass on. Not some group of strangers you can trapped in an airport or a tarmac for three hours because you think we're animals wasting your fuel. I REFUSE. So, I'm driving. And taking my own sweet, relaxing time. Eff you.

Ahem. Rant Button Off.

I spent most of yesterday and most of last night driving to Ohio. It dawned on me last night, while careening through the dark mountains in Virginia and West Virginia, that I've never driven through the Appalachians in the dark. It's always been breathtaking scenery and wonderful mountain driving. Umm. Not in the dark. There was fog and crazy, intense truck drivers, with none of the view, which perhaps, was a good idea, since, everything seemed to be hurtling past at a near-uncomfortable speed, even though I wasn't speeding. Mountain curvy roads in the dark--chalk that experience for a future commando scene!

At the rest stop, I was the only little car there and there were many big burly truck drivers stamping their feet and stretching out inside the facilities. Me not skeered. I bravely donned my Florida hunting jacket and marched inside to get me a candy bar. IT IS WINDY COLD at night in the mountains! Whoa, my poorh Floridah Butth.

Quickie memories from daylight:

***Strangest sight was watching this huge mosque loomed up out of the blue while listening to Christian channels sermonizing and singing. It was very pretty but gave me an unexpected laugh because I was just fiddling the radio stations, which jumped from one Christian gospel thing to another--which was fine, only I was getting tired and wanted something more peppy--and then I looked left and the sight of the huuuuge golden dome amidst local bluegrass music woke me up. I won't forget that too soon.

***I got a kick out of listening to the West Virginian weather lady on some channel. Her accent was totally mesmerizing. She sounded as if she was putting the accent on the wrong syllable. Kinda like me, to many people, heh heh. Anyhow, she came on faithfully every fifteen to twenty minutes, and I loved her for making repeated weather patterns of the coming 24 hours seemed so exciting.

***Taking a side trip to my university. It's still the same, down to the same two pubs I hung out in--The Pub and Pawpurrs. Down to the SAME table with my scratched lover's name in the corner. I loved the windy roads that shouldn't be able to fit two cars at the same time. I checked out the woods where I threw away the ring my first boyfriend gave when he broke up with me, and had a good laugh because man, that was a gold ring, bought when gold was $300 an ounce. Gold is over $1000 now. Shoot. Damn. Pooh. I peeked into the library that I'd loved so much (8 storys of books!!!). Of course, I bought an over-priced teeshirt. Gah. Tricked by sentiment again.

Anyway, I'm staying overnight at my sister (yes, I have many, many siblings and we have invaded many of the states). My two nephews just came home and they're these TALL GAWKY teens. When did they grow that tall? Also, the Chinese just don't call their relatives "cousins" or "aunts" or "hey," we actually have designated names that tell each other where we stand in relation to age and which side of the family. Only, I've kind of forgotten. Usually, it's my sisters introducing me to the kiddies all over again and then they mouthed the proper respectful term. But my sis is at work. So the two TALL GAWKY teens, used to being to nudged by my mom, just stood there looking at me to prompt them and I...blanked. Was I the "YeeMah" or "KuMah" or "KuChieh" or "Tai-something-other?"

They stood there and stared. I stared back. Awkward silence ensued."

Finally, I said, "Hey."

LOL. I'm very traditional, can't you tell?

This is the start of my weeklong adventure. Romantic Times Convention meets family stuff. Romance models meet siblings attending signings. Crazy costumes vs well-bahaved author. Oh, boy.

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What Do You Think?

More OASIS-22 Convention fun.

The clinch cover for my next romance ;-)!



The cover for my Urban Fantasy! :-D

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Oh Gennita No!

I finally got to meet John Ringo, great military SF writer. I've enjoyed his books. John Ringo is also famous on the Internetz for the phrase "OH JOHN RINGO NO!" because of A SERIES OF SEAL BOOKS he wrote, in which the protagonist did a lot of horribly sexist and offensive things. Definitely NOT a romance hero, 'kay?

This link is a short summary from FANLORE of how the phrase started. For those who want the whole darn thing in stereo, here is the whole livejournal review (VERY DETAILED) by the reader, hradzka, who coined this phrase and made it so famous. Here is the intro:

GHOST is Ringo's own admitted Lord King Badfic, his id run wild. By his own account, he was trying to write several books he was actually contracted for, but GHOST kept nudging at him, and finally he just wrote the damn thing to *make it go away* so he could get back to fulfilling his contracts. Ringo locked the spewings of his id away on his hard drive, until he mentioned in passing on an online forum that yeah, he'd written another book, but it was *awful* and would never see the light of day. Naturally, folks were curious, and when Ringo posted a sample, nobody was more surprised than him to find that the response was, more often than not, "Hey, man, I'd buy this."

So his publisher put it out, and the books are now doing pretty well for them. I'm sure this is a pleasant surprise if you're Ringo or his publisher, but it's also got to be a little embarrassing; he's committed the literary equivalent of charging money for folks to watch him roll naked in a pile of dead and smelly fish. And then being begged for encores.

This entry was so popular that John Ringo replied to give it the thumbs-up.

Anyway, OH JOHN RINGO NO! is on teeshirts and cups these days, used by those to express dismay at any boneheaded acts or books. I met the rascally John Ringo yesterday and told him to ravage me like Mike Harmon (the SEAL in this series). Here is the pic:

And then, after I* ravaged him, he signed his book:


Heehee. Loved it.

Just another OASIS-22 Convention encounter to remember. Anyway, I do recommend John Ringo's books but this particular series of SEAL, ahem, adventures are over-the-top crazy, so Buyers Beware and Be Ready to yell out OH JOHN RINGO NO! a lot.

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Visiting Other Worlds

Had a wonderful time last night. It's good to meet new people who write and read our kind of books. My panel was outstanding--Linda S. Cowden, Kimberly Raiser, Yyvonne Wisdom were great, giving lots of insight about the urban fantasy heroine (specifically, Anita Blake, Sookie, Bella) and whether they were role models or good girls gone bad.

I think I was probably the only author on board who didn't write vampires, LOL, but hey, I'm definitely a fan of the genre and have read my share of vampire romances, so I didn't mind having a little discussion fun. I played devil's advocate and went for "good girls gone bad" against the girl empowerment standard. It was fun because I got to talk about enlightening topics such as "the reduction of the female role to being a magic hoohah," which drew some laughter from the mostly male audience.

It was fun precisely because of the male readers in the audience. They were attentive and some of them had insightful observations about the series they read, mostly the Anita Blake one. Do you hear that, writers? They have INSIGHT, which means they read the books and continued reading them even as the romantic elements are expanded. I loved it. I mentioned some series that they might want to try--not necc. vampire series but since we were talking about tough chicks who could be either role models or bad girls--such as Saintcrow's Danny Valentine series, Iona Andrews' Magic series, and even J.R. Ward's bad ass Brothuhs ;-) as the extreme example of "protected" females.

At the end of the panel, a male reviewer came forward to ask for my book. A radio station wants to do an interview. Several male readers came up to ask me whether I was at RT because they were there during the Book Fair and now they've found a new author--me--because they like spy/thriller romances. That's what I was talking about, folks. A chance to get new readers who don't necessarily classify themselves as romance readers. A chance to network with reviewers and talk radio interviewers who I'd never meet if I hadn't gone outside the box and promote at different CONs. A few of these readers have even read Virtually His because of John Scalzi's recommendation last year. I was totally wowed by this. And gratified. This is what I want, to bring my stories to all kinds of readers who aren't necessarily "romance" readers but are just after a good story.

Now...I'm off to check out the panel about military SF and how to write great battle scenes. Then I want to meet John Ringo. And where else could a writer get to ask questions face-to-face with a scientist from NASA on one side and a Star Trek writer on the other? I'm just so psyched!

Later, dudes, may the force stop the rain.

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Wish Me Luck

I'm tempting fate by taking my car through the water (they pumped the streets a little) so I can go to my panel at OASIS 22, the Sci-Fi Con I went to last year to see John Scalzi and C. L. Wilson. They asked me to host two panels this year! Unfortunately, it's been raining cats, frogs, dogs, and water buffalos, so I wasn't even sure I could make it up my poor river/street without my car getting drowned.

Since the water level is SLIGHTLY lower, I'm going now, and hopefully--fingers-crossed--won't hit any flooded streets on the way to the highway. See how responsibly I take my commitments? So, please do come check out the CONVENTION if you are nearby and wanting some place to go that's inside, away from the rain. It offers some interesting panels, including two of mine: "Kickass heroines: new role models or good girls gone bad?" and "Writing Sex."

So, wish me luck getting there?

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Another Orlando Gig

Okay, Canada! I'm warning you! STOP sending cold air down here!!! This is beyond ridiculous; we're freezing our butts off here in Florida. I usually turn my heater on once during our "winter," but tonight and this week will mark the THIRD time I'm doing this. Knock it off!

Grrr. This prolonged frigid weather is really making my mornings miserable. You can always tell the "snowbirds" from the natives. They're the chirpy people walking around in shorts saying, "I'm loving this!" to everyone nearby. The answering growls are from the bundled-up natives who know better. Warning: the next person who comes up to me all bright-eye and bushy-tail to merrily point out that "at least there's no humidity" is going to get seriously hurt.

It gets really cold at the labor compound while I wait for a job for the day. Basically, a bunch of us stand around and stamp our feet a lot to try to keep warm (why would stamping feet create body heat, I have no idea). Me, I try to read a book sometimes but my chattering teeth and shaking hands make it tough. It was kind of funny this morning, trying to get into a vampire story while my body was as cold as the undead. It made the idea of gnawing on a poor sod's neck and sucking up some hot blood quite tempting, quite actually....

Talking about doing normal things in different places, remember the SF Convention, Oasis 22, that I attended last year so I could meet favorite authors John Scalzi and C.L. Wilson? Well, I received an email inviting me to be guest panelist for this year's affair. I was quite shocked. Didn't think anyone knew me there. But I had a lot of fun meeting with readers and fans of the SF genre and certainly enjoyed a number of the panels. It's a good way to promote cross-genre books such as Virtually His to new readers, right? And my Viking Dude is urban/alternative fantasy, so I can talk about that too. So...any of you going to be in Orlando around May 22? I promise the weather here should be much warmer by then.

Here's the website to check out the details of CON:

http://oasfis.org/oasis/index.php

One more incentive to go: JOHN RINGO will be there. I need to put on my OH JOHN RINGO NO! teeshirt for him to sign.

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