Sometimes, I really love technology

1. I wasn’t entirely sure I understood the point of Facebook, especially since I already had a MySpace account. But I had a few friends who were on one but not the other, and I have to say, Facebook is much prettier and easier to use. My point, though, is that an editor I worked with five years ago (on Dyke the Halls) managed to track me down via Facebook, and was delighted because he wanted to invite me to submit to a new anthology! In fact, he said, “Hope it might be of interest to you (maybe even a few times, since I can use more than one story under your many pseudonyms...).” Major warm fuzzy, and I’ve already sent him a Sophie reprint; a new solo story will be written before the deadline.

2. Ken bought a tracking device for the bike that pings a website about every half an hour. I’m trying so hard not to get obsessed with checking the site to watch his progress across the country, but it’s so addictive!

3. YouTube, and finding video clips of David Tennant licking an ice cream cone. (Yeah, I’m in that kind of mood.)

4. Digital cameras allow us to capture random but wonderful images. When the cats sleep in the laundry basket, Eostre always picks the whites basket and Grimoire goes for the colors basket…

(Yes, we have a window in our closet...)

Random Things to Celebrate

• I got my comp copies of The Pagan Anthology of Short Fiction, which contains the Sophie Mouette story “Under a Double Rainbow.” It’s a truly pretty book. I love the cover design, the feel of the cover (close, but not quite matte), the title and author fonts. I keep picking it up to pet it… It's just luscious.
  
• I get to see Ken Thursday!
  
• I get to see Styx Friday!
  
• I worked out today with Jen, and it felt goood.
  
• I get a massage tonight. Not only will it feel great and help put my body back the way it ought to be, but Melanie and I always have fun.
  
• Extra-tasty and smooth hummus.
  
• The last scene of Ghosted is almost finished! Of course, the book is far from done, since there’s roughly the last quarter of it to write to catch up to the end. But I sort of know the second-to-last scene—I’ve typed up some brainstorming notes about it, anyway—and I feel in my gut that that’s the one that’s going to crack the code of this book for me. And even if it does’t, it’s going to be a fun ride.
  
• I’m meeting with Christine tomorrow to write together (and laugh and inspire each other and, I suspect, eat lunch).
  
• Trader Joe’s dark-chocolate-covered Joe-Joe’s. Like fudge-covered Oreos, only infinitely better—and they’re all natural. I try to limit myself to one a day…
  

Okay, off to write until Melanie gets here!

Irrational fear and the breaking down of sanity

Dammit, why does CB&TL have free wireless now? I come here to escape the temptations of the Internet!

~ ~ ~

I have this urge to run away. Go on a retreat. I wish I had some cottage or cabin where I could gather all my writer friends for a long weekend, to write and read and talk and take long walks. No Internet, no TV, although maybe a DVD player to watch movies while we drink wine and laugh.

I wish I had the money to rent such a place. Of course, the hotel in Oregon is now for just this purpose, but then I’d need the money to fly all my friends there….

~ ~ ~

For now, though, I’m sitting here in CB&TL with Sabrina, and I’m writing, and it’s mostly crap but it’s happening. I’m writing the last scene of Ghosted, because I have to write the last scene in order to figure the rest of it out (or figure the beginning out. Or to move ahead. Or something.). Then maybe I’ll write the next-to-last scene, because I don’t know a lot of it, and the only way I’m going to find out is if I write it.

That probably sounds insane to a non-writer, but there you have it.

~ ~ ~

Ellenie and I had an extremely productive writing day today! I forgot to note my starting wordcount (in part because I’m trying to get away from worry about exact counts and enjoying the process more), but I think I wrote about 1K. Kinda lame for 3.5 hours of work time, but the important thing is that I broke past my irrational fear of…whatever I was irrationally fearing.

Then, because a mom and her small boy plopped down on the couch next to her while she was working on a love scene, Ellenie suggested we go out for an early supper, which we did at Roxsbury Deli.

I may do some more work tonight, since I’m back to being fired up about it and don’t want to lose that, but first I’m going to do some other bits that need doing (e-mail, etc.) and then I think I’m going to indulge in a celebratory bubble bath. Because, among other things, I’ve realized lately that I need to celebrate the small successes!

~ ~ ~

I also stopped stressing about the fact that Ken hasn’t called, because it’s probably due to the fact that he has to buy a new phone charger. He’s set up a tracking device on the motorcycle that occasionally pings my e-mail with a link to a Googlemap that shows me where he is (how cool is that?!), and he was nearly Salt Lake City mid-afternoon today. Since he still had a banquet ticket to the rally he couldn’t run due to the second bike problem (the clutch), he figured he might as well attend, and then continue on to Arkansas. He’ll probably call me from a hotel phone later.

Just. STOP. It!

Today Ken’s computer bag was stolen. Laptop, iPod, passport, work badge, work checkbook, work files, various charging cords, etc.

That’s it, Universe. Cut it out!

Thursday 13: Thirteen Things to Do in September

1. Take a fabulous trip in Utah. We’re going to CCR, our annual BMW motorcycle get-together, staying at the Zermatt Hotel and Spa. (DONE!)
   
2. Fly to Arkansas and meet Ken there, to visit his 95-year-old grandmother. Oh, and to see a Styx concert, too. ;-)
   
3. See Styx in the Bay Area.
   
4. See Styx in Orange County. (Is this a theme or something?) ::gg::
   
5. Celebrate Ken’s birthday! He wants to go out to one of the Channel Islands.
   
6. Celebrate more birthdays: Cat, Fran, Morgana, Lucrezia!
   
7. Start prepping for Great Western War.
   
8. Keep sewing…
   
9. Celebrate the Autumn Equinox.
   
10. Go on the Henry T. Onxard Historic District Annual Home Tour.
    
11. Get my hair done.
    
12. Write like a big ol’ writing fiend.
    
13. Salvage the last threads of my sanity.

Coming Together...At Last press release

Celebrate the Diversity of Desire with Coming Together and Phaze BooksCincinnati, OH – The latest in the critically acclaimed Coming Together anthology series, Coming Together: At Last, will debut in January 2009 from Phaze Books. Due to the overwhelming number and quality of the submissions, it was decided that two volumes of this title would be published simultaneously, both containing the stirring Introduction penned by New York Times bestselling author, L.A. Banks. A complete list of the contents can now be found online at the Coming Together website.

The release of these collections of interracial erotic fiction and poetry will coincide with the celebration of the birth of one of history's most passionate proponents for human rights and equality, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and it is from his famous speech given forty-five years ago on this day that the title words "At Last" are taken. Accordingly, proceeds from sales will benefit Amnesty International.

Having published four of the nine currently available titles in the charitable anthology series, Phaze Books is now poised to release its fifth and sixth. The diverse collections of erotic fiction and poetry feature the work of many well-known authors in addition to fresh new voices in the genre. Previous Phaze titles in the series include Coming Together: For the Cure, Coming Together: Under Fire, Coming Together: Special Hurricane Relief Edition, and Coming Together: With Pride. Each is available in both ebook and print from all major online booksellers.

All proceeds from the sales of Coming Together publications are donated to charity, with the authors and its EPPIE Award-winning editor, Alessia Brio, donating their time and talents.

Coming Together anthologies have received many accolades including the 2008 Next Generation Indie Book Award for Erotica as well as Top Pick and four star reviews from the romance industry's premier publication: Romantic Times BOOKreviews Magazine. In its most recent review, Romantic Times favorably compared the series to Susie Bright's Best American Erotica series. In addition, the organization was a finalist for the Electronic Published Internet Connection's 2008 Friend of ePublishing Award for what Ms. Brio has termed "erotic altruism."

Phaze Books, the erotic imprint of Mundania Press LLC, is one of the fastest growing and most recognizable publishers in an exploding genre. Its unprecedented support for Coming Together, a voluntary nonprofit association, puts Phaze on the cutting edge of philanthropy in the publishing industry, a commitment that will continue with its upcoming releases in the series. Coming Together: Against the Odds will have a mystery theme and will benefit Autism Speaks, while Coming Together: Into the Light will include stories about the revelation of secrets and will benefit V-Day. Both are currently open for submissions and will see publication in the coming year.

For more information about Coming Together, visit www.EroticAnthology.com or email editor Alessia Brio at alessia@eroticanthology.com. For more information about Phaze Books, visit www.PHAZE.com or contact Promotions Manager Crystal B. Bright at Ecrystal@PHAZE.com.

###

[Note from me: The anthology includes a reprint of my story Just Be, and I'm thrilled to be a part of this amazing series!]

Home…mostly

I’m back home from Utah!

Well…mostly. My heart is largely in the Portland area, as Ken had to go back to work, and my brain…gods know where that is. I’m not unpacked, I haven’t sorted all the mail (most of it, though), and let’s not even talk about e-mail (although I had some access at Zermatt—they claim there’s wireless throughout, but we were at the far end of the chalets, so we had to haul laptops to the main building for access).

But I’m the geekily proud owner of a new iPhone, as well as the recipient of many amazing experiences (hot air ballooning! birds of prey! snorkeling in a crater!). Plus I arrived home to find comp copies of the luscious The Mammoth Book of the Kama Sutra, containing my lead (!!) story (aka “translation”), “The Tale of the Tigress.”

For now, though, I’m headed off for a nice long relaxing sleep…

---

Currently Reading: Nightkeepers, Jessica Anderson (urban fantasy about the Mayan prophecy)
Lately Listened To: potential ringtones
Recently Watched: Eureka

Conjugatin' the verbs

Tomorrow I get up at a disgustingly early hour and fling myself onto a plane (bless Oxnard Airport and its “be there half an hour before the flight” policy) (since there’s only one gate and the plane doesn’t hold more than about 20 people, security is a snap), and a few hours later I’ll be in Utah and with Ken! Six days of conjugating!*

Of course, the best laid plans, and all that. The original plan was that I was flying out tomorrow and returning the following Tuesday. Ken was riding there and running a rally from the following Tuesday, then heading to Arkansas** (which I was then flying to). But the blown clutch on the bike spewed bits of metal everywhere, and it’ll take longer to clean up safely. So now he’s flying to Utah as well, and flying back to Oregon and working for another week before heading to Arkansas. We’re both flying out on Sunday, because while there were interesting things around Salt Lake City to see and do, it wasn’t near the top of our vacation spots, and we’re both better off getting back to work before the next jaunt.

When he called the rally organizer to say he wouldn’t be there, the organizer said “Damn, you were the favorite to win!” Crap.

But, in the overall scheme of things, it’s probably a good thing. The extra time at work for Ken means less craziness later in September, when we Have Plans (Styx shows in Saratoga and Newport Beach, the annual Historic Home Tour, and, oh, his birthday), as well as October (Great Western War and a visit to my parents in NY). The company in Oregon is asking him for more work, and he also has a lead on a regular job down here, so it’ll be an interesting few months!

Me, I’m just looking forward to CCR this week. We’re having High Tea, and planning on a hot air balloon ride and snorkeling in crater, and sharing a condo with our friends Ernie and Pauline. Plus there’s all the bike friends we see only once a year, and a banquet, and mountains, and a carousel…

~ ~ ~

At some point I’ll have to find time to talk about my amazing weekend and the cosmic two-by-four, too!

---

*A friend e-mailed me tonight and asked if that was like Schoolhouse Rock, and I said it was—the adult version. Which now has my brain contemplating adult Schoolhouse Rock stories. Maybe an anthology?! (I know, copyright restrictions…but it's fun to contemplate!) Anyway, the Interjections song makes a whole lot more sense now…

**To visit his 95-year-old grandmother and go to a Styx show. We were overdue for a visit, and Styx is playing in her town, and that’s just what we call serendipitous.

---

Currently Reading: Skinny Dipping, Connie Brockway
Lately Listened To: 13th Star, Fish
Recently Watched: Firefly

"What Dragons Prefer" podcast!

I'm delighted to announce my very first podcast publication!

Not only that, but it's a resale (can't call it a reprint, can I?) of my first professionally published story. "What Dragons Prefer" is a short fantasy tale with a wicked twist at the end. It first appeared in Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine in 1996.

You can listen to "What Dragons Prefer" here or download it for future audio pleasure on your computer or iPod.

Because, that's right, it's free! So go forth and enjoy!

My mother never said "If you think too hard, you'll hurt yourself."

So I was just sitting at the computer trying to come up with a short story idea for an anthology, and apparently thinking hard is enough to pop a rib or two out of place. I'm back from the chiropractor now (my regular visit was this morning…), undoubtedly bruised (apparently I have strong muscles that require adjustments to be near violent to actually work) with orders to ice my shoulder for 45 minutes.

No writing. No sewing. No computer work. Sit and ice.

Well, fine then. My writing has been sucking like a 2-ton sucky thing anyway.

Just can't find the words

Ever have one of those days (or several days) where you're afraid to say something or write something because every time you do, your words/intent are misconstrued? Or, I suppose, they're coming out wrong (because you're not blaming the other people for not understanding).

Problem is, I need to deal with certain things today; I can't put them off. Which means everything is going to take 9 times as long as I agonize over every word and phrase to make sure I'm saying what I really mean to be saying.

Sigh. Wish me luck!

Thursday 13: Thirteen Favorite Things

(I’m going to skip the blindingly obvious, like, say, Ken, and my cats, and Styx.)

1. The lace-edged Post-It Notes I keep in my purse.
   
2. Otters.
   
3. PG Tipps tea. It’s my daily tea, so it must be my favorite. The rose tea from the Huntington Library is my favorite “special” tea, and I just got my hands on Glengettie, a Welsh tea (!) (despite the name), and ohmigods is it good! It would be my daily tea if it weren’t a wee bit pricey in comparison to PG Tipps (which, as an import, isn’t exactly cheap-like-Liptons).
   
4. Cheese. A good stinky bleu (I love Trader Joe’s ), a slightly runny Brie, a sharp biting cheddar, a salty mizithra, creamycreamycheeseycreamy cheese… Bring ‘em on!
   
5. Rose-scented anything.
   
6. The sound of running water: a brook, a fountain…
   
7. Pre-Raphaelite artwork.
   
8. The microwave, the rice/veg steamer, and the George Foreman grill. Without those, I’d probably starve to death.
   
9. ICanHasCheezburger.com
   
10. The nesting pair of red-tailed hawks that lives in the high trees by the 1904 church about two blocks away.
    
11. My friends all over the world. I squee every time I get a comment in my journal, or an e-mail, or a phone call….
    
12. Silk.
    
13. Reuben sandwiches. I make ‘em with pastrami or turkey, low-fat Swiss, low-fat Thousand Island dressing, rye (natch), and mounds of sauerkraut, on the aforementioned George Foreman grill. Yum!
    

If you can't laugh, what's the point?

Morgana and Brian came over tonight to watch last week’s episode of Eureka, which they’d forgotten to record and thus had asked me not to delete off the DVR. They then watched the most recent episode, and after I finished talking to Ken (who finally had a U-Haul and was about to drive the rest of the way to Oregon, after many annoyances and further delays), I watched the latter half with them. I’d watched only 40 minutes of it up ‘til then anyway.

If you’re concerned about spoilers, don’t read the next few paragraphs. Skip to the next section.

Dammit! Stupid show! I’m so not happy that they killed off Nathan. (Although, as Morgana said, it’s a time paradox, and you never know…) If they’d done it last season when he was still just a jerk, fine. But he and Jack had a great conflict banter, and he wasn’t a bad guy, even if his ego barely fit in the building. (Oh, his reaction when Jack asked him that…to raise his eyes and gauge whether the building really was big enough. So sardonic. Loved it.)

My favorite interchange between them was, I think, in the first season, when Nathan wouldn’t even say Jack’s name. Jack walked in and Nathan said, “Sheriff.” And Jack replied, “Scientist.” Hee!

But here’s the thing. With Nathan out of the way, once Allison gets over her grief, there’s nothing standing between her and Jack. And that’s not interesting anymore. Love triangles are monumentally more interesting.

So I’m just going to hope for a time paradox tweak.

~ ~ ~

I’m sorry to have been such a slacker about rambling here. I hate not keeping up with things, because it makes the days slip by even faster… Sometimes I’m talking to Ken and I can’t really remember what I’ve been doing. I’ve been doing lots of stuff, but it all blurs together and just fails to be interesting. Even doing a talk at LARA with two other writers, and going out to lunch with a few ladies afterwards. Or lunch with my trainer (Katrina) and my training partner (Jen) (Katrina’s no longer working for the gym, and it’s ugly, and…ugh.) Let’s face it, errands and cat litter scooping and doing dishes just aren’t scintillating conversation. And it’s hard to talk about writing, even with other writers sometimes.

And then I think of other perfect moments. Of doing a full moon ritual with Morgana and Brian and Caterine and Eleanor and Janet, because Morgana was teaching Eleanor and Janet her Wicca 101 class and it was, after all, the full moon. It’s so…so…so uplifting to see their reactions, to know that even if this isn’t the path they eventually follow, they’ll have a broader, more open outlook. And it was so wonderful to spend the day with Caterine (I took her out for sushi, and we talked for hours); I wish she hadn’t had to move just far enough away that it’s not easy to see her, but not really that hard, either, even with gas prices what they are.

I worked out with Jen on Tuesday, and it was the first time I’d been to the gym since coming back from RWA Nationals. I’m grumpy at the gym in general for forcing Katrina out, but so far I haven’t found a decent option to change to (I’ve got one more gym to check out), so I guess I’m here for the count. Jen and I are looking at maybe doing the online training program Katrina offers.

My massage therapist makes me laugh and I make her laugh, and she gives me insight into what it’s like to be cute and single and navigating through a world full of clueless men (not that all men are clueless, mind you. But we agree that many are just as insecure as women are.). All while helping put me back together. I still hurt. But not as much as I used to. We take our successes where we find them.

~ ~ ~

And then there’s the writing. But more about that later. Now it’s time to curl up in bed with a good book, and then sleep…

Because I really should start getting to bed earlier in preparation for my godawful disgustingly early flight this coming Tuesday. Bleargh.

---

Currently Reading: The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes, Jennifer Crusie, Eileen Dreyer, Anne Stuart
Lately Listened To: Hannah Fury, various
Recently Watched: Eureka

...aaaand then you lose a little more

Ken's in Washington, headed back to Oregon.

And the clutch just went on the bike.

Bloody hell.  :-(

You win some, you lose some, but you always learn something in the process

Ken was on a 7-day motorcycle last week, one that took him all over the continental US (there was a bonus location in Alaska, but I don’t think anyone tried for it). He left on a Thursday from Nebraska, and around midnight that night called to tell me that he’d be at Pink’s the next day at 1:30 p.m., and could I meet him there? Well, duh? Given that I hadn’t seen him since July 2, there was no question. Driving 4.5 hours total (abysmal Friday LA traffic) was worth 1.5 hours to stand in a loooong line and eat a hot dog with my beloved. (I had a Rosie O’Donnell Long Island Dog—mustard, onions, chili, and sauerkraut*—yum!)

Of course, to actually get Pink’s as a bonus point, he had to have a hot dog at another deli…in New York City.

Yeah, it’s that crazy.

Anyway, the longest rally he’s done so far has been 3 days, I think, so this one was a challenge, one he’d been looking forward to. His ultimate goal is the Iron Butt Rally: essentially 11,000 miles in 11 days (yeah…), and this was a step in proving he could do a real mult-day rally.

He was doing great. A few hiccups that he recovered from (misreading the Martha’s Vineyard ferry schedule, oversleeping by 4 hours), but overall, he had a good sense that he was going to make a podium finish.

Three hours from the end, the rear drive on the bike failed.

Now, with the LT (which he used to ride) this was a know problem, although BMW won’t cop to that. Note that two of his LTs had rear drive failures. They swore, however, that the GT (his bike since last year) didn’t have the same problem. Hah.

The folks in charge of the rally tallied his points, and had he made it in, he would’ve been the clear winner by a buttload of points.

So, yeah.

All things told, Ken’s pretty pragmatic about it. He learned a hell of a lot, including the fact that he could survive a multi-day rally, much less nail one. And the way things worked out, a hell of a lot of people know how things sussed out, too.

And at CCR in a few weeks, he’ll be having a wee talk with a BMW rep. :-)

But can I say that I’m beyond way proud of him?

---

*because a girl’s gotta have her veggies, don’tcha know

Thursday 13: Thirteen Books I Brought Back from RWA Nationals

1. The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes, Jennifer Crusie, Eileen Dryer, Anne Stuart (and signed by the latter two, plus they gave me a Dogs and Goddesses bumper sticker! Squee!)
   
2. Betrayed, Jamie Leigh Hansen
   
3. Night’s Rose, Annaliese Evans (ARC) (a person I was in line with convinced me to get it—all they had to say was “erotic fairy tale” and I was so there!)
   
4. Eve of Darkness, S.J. Day
   
5. Night Keepers, Jessica Anderson (why didn’t I think of writing a contemporary fantasy about the Mayan end of the world in 2012, oh why?!)
   
6. Dark Needs at Night’s Edge, Kresley Cole (yeah, it’s a vampire novel, but it’s also got the ghost of a famous ballerina from the last century)
   
7. A Little Bit Wicked, Victoria Alexander (I don’t “get” Regencies, but I’ve been saying that I’d be willing to read a good one, and this was a freebie, and she was a great speaker)
   
8. What a Lady Wants, Victoria Alexander (see #7)
   
9. Skinny Dipping, Connie Brockway (Phaedra took one look at the title and said “Oh, a book for you!”)
   
10. No One Heard Her Scream, Jordan Dane
    
11. The Undead Next Door, Kerrelyn Sparks (another vampire one, but it looks funny, so I ‘ll give it a try. I know there are good vampire books out there…I just don’t always know how to find them)
    
12. Silent in the Sanctuary, Deanna Raybourn
    
13. The Hollow, Nora Roberts (okay, technically I’m cheating with this one, since I bought it beforehand to read on the trip. But I brought it back with me, too, and this is Thursday Thirteen and I needed a 13th book. ::gg::)
    

If I had more time/energy/wherewithall, I'd post links and covers, but...nah!

July stats

8 stories subbed
8 stories rejected
1 story sold

9 novel submissions (for 2 novels)
2 novel rejections (same novel)

Sale! For a good cause!

It's a reprint sale, but still one to be delighted about! "Just Be" will appear in the Phaze Books charity anthology Coming Together: At Last. All proceeds of the Coming Together anthologies go to a charity or relief fund, including breast cancer research, the 2007 Southern California wildfires, HIV/AIDS, and more. Coming Together: At Last is a collection of interracial erotic fiction and will benefit Amnesty International. I'm proud to be a part of it!

The anthology will be out in 2009; I'll post ordering information when I have it.

* "Sale" is something of a misnomer, as I will only receive some comp copies. Normally I don't write for no pay, but this was for a really good cause!

Photos from RWA Nationals

My photos from RWA Nationals can be viewed here. No telling when I'll have the brainpower to write up the experience (today was mostly a washout) but rest assured it was fabulous!

Writers in some of the photos:

Teresa Noelle Roberts (one of my coauthors and best friends)

Phaedra Weldon (the other half of my brain)

Christine Ashworth (my travel buddy and dear, dear friend)

Portia da Costa

Madelynne Ellis

Eden Bradley

Jax Cassidy

The cat from Wales

Home from RWA Nationals. Dead tired, yet somehow floating. Maybe that's the wine. Or the information and experiences swirling in my brain.

More when I'm coherent again!