~~ "She has so many aliases, you'd think she was a spy!" ~~

Friday, March 12, 2010

Attention, San Diego friends


Ken will be giving his IBR talk at San Diego BMW Motorcycles this Saturday:
The Iron Butt Association is a group of loose-knit riders dedicated to safe long-distance motorcycling. Entry into the club is obtained by documenting long-distance riding challenges, such as 1,000 miles in under 24 hours, or Coast-to-Coast in under 50 hours. Every two years the IBA hosts their premier event, the Iron Butt Rally. Billed as "11,000 miles in 11 days," this Rally tests the mettle of selected riders by sending them all over the US and Canada on a giant two-wheeled scavenger hunt. Although the Iron Butt Association has over 40,000 members, barely 400 riders have successfully finished an Iron Butt Rally. In fact, more people have gone into space than have completed an Iron Butt Rally.

Ken Meese has been riding ever since he snuck his parents' 125cc bike out of the garage as a teenager. He has logged several hundred thousand miles on BMWs and has ridden in Asia, Europe, and North America. Ken has ridden numerous Long Distance Rallies and Iron Butt certificate rides that have covered nearly every US state and most Canadian Provinces. 2009 was his first Iron Butt Rally, but definitely not his last.

This evening will be full of road tales, travails, and triumphs as Ken shares his experiences of competing in the ultimate motorcycle endurance Rally. In addition, Ken's Rally-prepped bike will be on hand so you can see just what it takes to survive on a BMW for 11 days and 11,000 miles.
I don't know what time (early evening, I think), so call the dealership to confirm:

5673 Kearny Villa Road, San Diego CA 92123
Phone: 858-560-BIKE (2453)

Thursday, March 11, 2010

"Exceptional prose"


Thank you, Reviewer Emily at Three Dollar Bill Reviews!

"'Queens Up' by Andrea Dale is the tale of Josephine who uses her skill at poker to undo her father’s mistakes and reclaim a home for herself and Margaret. This clever historical tale flows beautifully with excellent characters and exceptional prose."

("Queens Up" appeared in Lesbian Cowboys: Erotic Adventures, and was reprinted in Best Lesbian Romance 2010, which was the focus of the above review.)

Tied and bound for first place!


Thank you to all who voted!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Marching forward

I felt universally crappy yesterday—thought I was coming down with a cold, because my throat felt wonky and I had the energy of a newborn kitten—so I self-medicated with a hot bubble bath and the Nora Roberts that finally popped up in my Holds queue at the library (Vision in White).

I also decided, looking at my schedule for this month, not to go to San Diego with Ken this weekend, where he’ll be doing his IBR talk again. Besides, he would’ve had to take the extra gas tank off (because it sits where my seat is supposed to be), and that would be silly because attendees will want to see it and poke at it and so forth.

That said, we’ve scheduled a mini-vacation down there near the end of April: two days to play (we have free passes to Sea World, and maybe we’ll hit the Wild Animal Park and/or the Zoo, and we also want to see The Marston House), then we’ll do an 8-hour rally (together! Because 8 hours is as long as I ever want to do a rally, really), and finish up with an SCA event in Orange County.

Before that… Yep, this month is getting pretty busy. The weekend after next is Black Oak Lodge, our Shire’s annual weekend-long event. We’ll be heading up early on Friday to help with set up, and I’m running Gate. Since we always help with clean up and tear down, we’ll get home after lunch on Sunday. In terms of work, the weekend’s mostly shot (plus Thursday will be packing and Sunday afternoon/evening will include unpacking, laundry, etc.).

The following Tuesday, we’re motoring up to Monterey to visit my sister and her family, which will include the Aquarium! because what’s the point of going to Monterey without going to the aquarium and seeing the otters? (Okay, yes, seeing my sister and her family, since they moved there last August and we still haven’t made it up there. But still.) We’ll come home on Thursday with my mom, who will have flown to Monterey the week before. She’s staying with us for a week.

The weekend after she leaves is King’s Hunt, another weekend-long SCA event, although because we don’t camp, we’ll probably just go for Saturday. The Monday after that is my birthday dinner (although my birthday is actually Tuesday, but that’s Textiles Guild night). Which reminds me, I have to send the invitation…

Anyway. Some busy weeks coming up, so I have to grab all the work time in between.
  • I’ve got three short story deadlines at the end of the month. One story’s in progress and should be done this week, if not within the next day or so.
  • I have novel submissions to do (got all the Waking the Witch e-mail ones done, but I have to buy more ink cartridges to do some postal ones; today and tomorrow will be catching up on Out of the Frying Pan, and then it’s on to Possessed, Undressed, and in a Mess.
  • I have to get back to work on Out of the Frying Pan so Teresa and I can get it back out to the editor who said she’d look at it again with some revisions.
  • I’ve got some nonfiction and editing proposals to get moving on.
So that’ll keep me out of trouble for a little while. :-)

---

Edited to add: I swear to you, we had a conversation last night about the 8-hour rally and I expressed how excited I was that we could run it together. But apparently he/we aren't running the rally; he's helping run the rally. WTF? He has no explanation for why my excitement didn't cause him to explain this last night. So that'll be 8 hours I sit in a corner of a BMW dealership (which usually have nice comfy sitting areas and tea-making facilities) and work!

Monday, March 08, 2010

An epic win!



I just learned that Coming Together: Against the Odds won a 2010 Eppie for Best Erotica/Erotic Romance anthology!

The Coming Together collections each benefit a different charity; all proceeds from the sale of Coming Together: Against the Odds will benefit Autism Speaks.

The reason I'm popping virtual champagne here is because I'm proud to be a part of Coming Together: Against the Odds, which contains my story "Always a Bridesmaid"! The anthology also has stories by Teresa Noelle Roberts (aka half of Sophie Mouette), Kathleen Bradean, Maxim Jakubowski, and many more amazing authors.

So, to recap: Buy this award-winning anthology (or any of the fabulous Coming Together anthologies) and not only get a book of sexy-hot stories, but you can also write it off on taxes and get the warm fuzzy feeling of having donated to a very worthy cause.

Have a Kindle? Looking for something to read?


I have no idea how many of ya'll have Kindles, so I wanted to mention that a good number of my stories are available that way, at least as part of anthologies.

The cupcake-scrumptious Rachel Kramer Bussel just listed a slew of her anthologies that have Kindle versions, and you can find that list here. I have stories (either as Andrea Dale or in collaboration with Teresa as Sophie Mouette) in 11 of them.

I'm also in negotiation with my publisher to get my two novels into electronic editions.

This digital world is pretty amazing, isn't it?!