Overheard at RT: A man mumbled, "OMG I'm buying a drink for a man in wings."

I had a great time at the Faery Ball. I was wearing a wig and had my little shifter tail on too. But for some reason, my wig kept getting snagged by wings and waving hands of dancers all night and by the time I was sitting at the bar with my gang, I looked quite strange. I told people staring at me not to worry, as I was just shapeshifting.

I wrote a post about my Bond James Bond workshop at the RT BLOG. Do click on the link and check it.

Sat on Cindy Gerard's panel. Shared a drink with the wonderful Brenda Jackson. Talked non-stop with a great group of readers who had a bunch of questions.

Dropped by at a John Scalzi's table when he was here to do a signing. As always, he was amusing, gracious, and absolutely funny. I always have a great time when he's around.

Whew. I was so pooped that I needed an hour to recuperate. Then it was off to the Faery Ball (video above). I took some great photos of authors and readers glammed up as the fey. While you're patiently waiting for me to get home to resize them, check out the embedded video of the costume contest.

I didn't get back into my room till 2.45am! You know my body is protesting right now.

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Amazon vs MacMillan pt 2, or, Authors: What About Us?

As of this writing, Amazon hasn't re-activated the BUY button to many of the MacMillan books, physical or ebook versions. I'm not a MacMillan author (which covers Tor, St. Martins, many others) but many of my friends are. John Scalzi says it best on his blog today, A Call For Author Support, that it isn't just about big corporations. There are authors whose livelihood have been affected by this tug-of-war.

Remember there’s more to bookselling than Amazon. Offline there are brick and mortar bookstores — go visit one. They like visitors. Tell them I sent you. Online there is Barnes and Noble. There’s Powell’s. IndieBound will hook you up. Specialty bookstores have their own web sites. You can often buy books online from the publishers themselves. Hell, even Walmart.com sells books.

Yes, yes. I know, you know Amazon isn’t the only place to buy books online. But that doesn’t mean you use those other places. I had a friend who used Barnes & Noble’s web site for the very first time in a decade today, because, as it happens, Amazon wouldn’t let him buy a book. He was pleased to discover B&N let him use PayPal. Good for him. The point is, he didn’t let a balky retailer keep him from getting a book he wanted. I suspect too many people do just that; they get used to going to that one place online and forgetting there are any other options.

I know most readers who want a book will know how to get that paticular book, on or offline, but there are so many people who are so focused on this Amazon-MacMillan thing right now, yelling at each other about prices and rights and ebooks and whatnot, that I feel the need to help my author-friends who are trying to reach readers LOOKING FOR THEIR BOOKS. Maybe even readers who are unaware about what's happening.

Man, it's like a war zone out there. I read posts telling authors they are stupid to side with MacMillan, while others want to boycott Amazon, and yet others threaten to forever buy MacMillan books second-hand or pirate its authors. No matter what, the losers are still the authors because readers looking for their books can't buy them, and you know how clicking off a page could be a lost sale.

There are so many conspiracies being bandied about, I think we need Jack Bauer to save the publishing world. ;-P

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I Start Them Out Early ;-)

As you can see, my two nieces are either great actresses or brilliant readers ;-).

Aren't my girls the cutest? They are just too cute.

Sorry for not posting more RWA pics and news, but since coming home, I have an emergency with my furbaby and life has been hectic. Please bear with me while I resize the photos slower than a gopher crosses the road. Tomorrow, I'll take a pic of my RWA Book Loot for y'all to drool over, 'kay?

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It Makes Me Wonder

REMINDER: DON'T FORGET FREE BOOK AND CALENDAR CONTEST ENDS FRIDAY (ck out last weekend's post)

*****************************

A reader wrote me an email and asked whether I wrote The Hunter with Don Henley's song, All She Wanna Do Is Dance, in mind because that song was so like my story. I was, like, Huh? I only remembered the beat to that song from the eighties, with the refrain, "All she wanna do is dance, and make romance." Do you remember it? It was very danceable.

Anyway, I googled the lyrics and for the first time read the whole song. It's pretty interesting:

Don Henley All She Wants To Do Is Dance lyrics Don Henley All She Wants To Do Is Dance lyrics


They're pickin' up the prisoners and puttin'
'em in the pen
And all she wants to do is dance, dance
Rebels been rebels since I don't know when
And all she wants to do is dance
Molotov cocktail-the local drink
And all she wants to do is dance, dance, dance
They mix 'em up right in the kitchen sink
And all she wants to do is dance
Crazy people walkin' round
with blood in their eyes
And all she wants to do is dance, dance
Wild-eyed pistol wavers
who ain't afraid to die
And all she wants to do is-
And all she wants to do is dance
and make romance
She can't feel the heat comin' off the street
She wants to party (oooo)
She wants to get down (oooo)
And all she wants to do is-
And all she wants to do is dance
Well, the government bugged the men's
room in the local disco lounge
And all she wants to do is dance, dance
To keep the boys from sellin'
all the weapons they could scrounge
And all she wants to do is dance
But that don't keep the boys
from makin' a buck or two
And all she wants to do is dance, dance
They still can sell the army
all the drugs that they can do
And all she wants to do is-
All she wants to do is dance
and make romance
Well, we barely made the airport
for the last plane out
As we taxied down the runway
I could hear the people shout
They said, Don't come back here Yankee!
But if I ever do-
I'll bring more money
'Cause all she wants to do is dance
and make romance
Never mind the hear comin' off the street
She wants to party (oooo)
She wants to get down (oooo)
All she wants to do is-
All she wants to do is dance
All she wants to do is dance
and make romance
All she wants to do is dance

****

Never knew that about the song but interesting how readers connect things while they read, huh? And uh, also tells me that I should listen to the songs I danced to.

Do you connect songs to the books you read? I know I write my stories with a specific song in my head sometimes to set the mood/character's journey.

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It's A Dark And Stormy Night

It's blowing hard outside. Rainy too. But not as bad as those Doppler-crazed weathermen are making it out to be. Sometimes I think they really really really really REALLY want a disaster so they can go "See? We told you it's sooo bad."

Today, I brought some books to my UBS and there were many customers there. It seems that at the first sign of stormy weather, many residents head for the bookstore to get a load of books. I have to agree--what better way to spend rainy afternoons locked up in the house but with a heartwarming romance novel? It was fun spending an hour talking about books with strangers who also loved reading the same genre. I introduced them to different authors and they even bought a couple of my books ;-). Hopefully they'll enjoy my book as well as my recommendations.

There were probably about ten of us in the store and as usual, I liked to ask things that I'm curious about:

"Do you order online?"
"Do you read reviews online?"
"How do you get to know new authors?"

None of these women order any of their books online. They don't go to any romance sites online either. They buy any books recommended by my friend, the bookseller, because that's the only person who knows their tastes. If they need any books that aren't available, they ask her to order/buy it. For example, erotica is the hottest genre and most of them enjoy the stories, but none of them ever go to any sites online to order. They just buy what my friend gets in her store from the Ellora's Cave catalogue book. So, let's say, if I tell them to try my friend's Lauren Dane's books, they'd ask my friend to get those and I can help her by pointing her to the online sites ;-).

This is why I love going to an independent bookstore. The owners that I've met know their customers and read the books themselves. My friend can't return certain books, like the ones sold by Ellora's Cave, so she has to order carefully or eat the expense if the book doesn't sell. She relies on customer feedback as well as friends like me, who know the authors and can tell her what kind of story/style/etc. so she can figure out whether her customers would enjoy such a book.

I feel very fortunate that my friend's store is doing so well because so many inde stores have gone out of business. Through her, I can also gauge what the readers are reading. I feel sometimes that being online so much, I lose part of the big picture. There are so many readers who don't care about the online stuff that I or my friends do, yet they are voracious readers too. They just go about their hobby a different way.

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Uber Author At RWA 2007 Day Two

I woke up in my creaky five-star Hyatt sofabed.

My back hurts right now while I type and I haven't been roofing. What's up with that? I'm sure I didn't do anything wild and crazy with Author Pamela Clare last night because she had to rush back to her hotel to retrieve her lost luggage. It was a happy moment for her because she was walking around begging money from authors for the Buy Pamela Clare Some Underwear Fund. Her line was: I'm a RITA finalist and I can't afford underwear!

That's Emma Holly on the far left and I'm not sure whether she'd ever want to have a drink with me again ;-).

Yesterday was when the madness really began--arrivals (hah! So many late from delayed planes. Hahaha, I cackled triumphantly inside. I'm early this year, girls, earlyearlyearly, nyah nyah). Then there were lines to the counters, lines to the restroom, lines to the restaurant. Nothing like 2000 hungry and talkative women in the hotel lobby ;-).

As always, this turns quite a number of men in the hotel into wide-eyed, scared, bewildered, "I'm surrounded by female hormones," whimpering lost souls. You can easily spot them holding on to their luggage in the corner of the elevator, crowded in by 3 dozen RWA ladies, standing at the end of the bar, shivering over his beer as 500 RWA women talk over him, scuttering into the shadows as he avoids being trampled by 1000 females going for the restroom after a conference lunch.

Oh, lunch! I totally forgot. I was starving still from having not eaten since yesterday's plane fortification! My stomach was complaining like crazy when I finally joined Pamela Britton for lunch.

It's usually a bit quiet on Weds because of regional chapter meetings. I talked to many of my old Golden Heart buddies at the Golden Network annual meeting and made plans with Gayle Wilson about our publisher dinner tomorrow night.

I ACTUALLY TOOK SOME TIME AT THIS POINT TO WRITE MY BOOK. Hallellujah. Nothing like feeding off the creative energy of writers buzzing around one. Stomach full, creative temperature rising, I was ready for the big event of the day, the Literacy Signing.

When I entered the huge ballroom, the first table to the right was filled with raffle baskets, hundreds and hundreds of donated items from different chapters and writers for Literacy. You could buy a raffle ticket and drop your name/number into the bag(s) attached to the basket you want. These goodies include signed ARCs, so there were quite a number of interested readers!

Before I sat down at my corner, I managed to snag two books for myself:

La Nora was looking her usually sophisticated and beautiful self.

Eileen Wilks had the most gorgeous brown outfit on. And she let me drape myself over her table for some reason.

Then, it was signing time and the doors opened for the waiting readers outside. They poured in and headed immediately to their favorite authors, for example:

Yup, that's La Sherrilyn Kenyon with a black swan head ornament. She looked dynamite, glitter make up, vampire teeth, satin gloves, her favorite coffin handbag. I just love her outfits. A couple of years ago, she wore these killer spiked gogo leather boots that went up to her thighs. This year...black swan. Why didn't I think of that instead of a boring stud belt?

This is part of the line in front of me, waiting for Sherry:

Friends and readers stopped by in the two hours I was there. Here are a few of them:

Casee and Ing, who has a long Thai name I couldn't spell, are readers of this blog and my Yahoogroup. It was so wonderful to put a face to the people who post and had emailed me the last year. Casee made me laugh when she kept bringing the McNaughties (Judith McNaught fan forum group) to get my books. Thank you, Casee!

Michelle Buonfiglio from Romance: By The Blog (with her infamous Bellas) dropped by and we air-kissed. I told her it would only be fair that we go bad boys hunting in Dallas for her blog.

A very old friend from the Philippines, Kathleen Dante, is at her first RWA booksigning event (BUY HER BOOK!). I took several photos with her because if you look closely, she is SHORTER than moi. I told her that makes her four foot to my four foot four, heh heh. I then pulled her to Marjorie Liu, sitting not too far from me, so Kathleen can scream at the Tall One and call her names, like I do. ;-)

By the way, I. AM. NOT. PREGNANT. 'kay?

Just a stupid misbehaving belt and sitting on my ass for two hours, 'kay?

Marjorie, Angela Knight and me. I AM NOT PREGNANT!!!!!!! If I am, alien baby is growing very, very fast.

One more photo and I have to split for today's workshops (I'm already late. All your fault!)

This man looking bemusedly at the long lines of Sherrilyn fans dressed up in vampire make up and costumes?

He made me wish I had a Giant Black Swan on my head too. Hey, if this was RT, you wouldn't find me sitting so well-behaved at my seat. This man would have been Gennita Low toast, baby. (Toast? Where did THAT food item come from?!)

Instead, I could only pat on my pregnant stomach and sigh.

Back later, dude, if I have a break.

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