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!

All the ways of my life, I'd rather be with you

Ten years ago today, my beloved and I ran off to Gretna Green, Scotland, and eloped.

It wasn’t our first plan, not by far. We’d gotten handfasted in California as an engagement ceremony before we moved to Wales, and intended to move back in a year and plan a big SCA wedding. But the British government had other plans. Apparently my plan to stimulate their economy by being supported by my husband and spending lots of money on tourist travel and antiques and whatnot was only feasible to them if we had this particular piece of paper.

(They lied, by the way. We didn’t have to be married for me to get that damned visa. They lied and took away my lavish ceremony. Two husbands, three ceremonies [four if you count the handfasting], and I still haven’t had what I’d consider the perfect ceremony. I’ve come to terms with that. Goodness knows two of the ceremonies are such great stories, nobody would believe them if I wrote it in a book. Large ceramic ALFs. A drunken Scotsman trying to beat down his new bride's door. That's just the tip of the iceberg.)

But I digress. The point is, if we had to get married, in Britain, this was the place to do it.

Our attendants were Elizabeth and Chris Flagge, SCAdians we’d met only twice before. When they heard at our second meeting that we were running off to elope, they asked who our witness were, and we said, “Erm, we were just going to grab someone out of the chip shop across the street…” They brought something old, etc., as well as a bouquet for me, which was so unexpected and sweet (I still have the pence for my shoe). They also brought Elizabeth’s (I think) mother, who took pictures and was just lovely. (Sadly, we’ve lost touch—if you’re reading this, guys, send me an address or phone number!)

We were married in the Registry Office in the room for 20 people (remember, there were only 5 of us, and 4 of us were standing up) because the room for 8 was already booked. Our Registrar, Donna, had a delightful Scottish accent.

Afterwards, we had our picture taken over the historic anvil, took our entourage out to lunch, then hopped on the bike and spent the weekend in the southwest of Scotland.

It’s strange…we don’t usually celebrate this anniversary, because it’s just not the important one for us. The day we moved in together (February 25, 1996) was really the day we made our commitment to each other. Our handfasting (March 14, 1998) comes a close second. This one, not so much.

Today is our 10th, though, and we have to celebrate it apart, and that’s making me feel maudlin and droopy.

So I’m looking at pictures of that day (except I can’t find the one of us and the anvil), and quietly celebrating that even if we can’t be together, we are together. 983 miles means nothing to the heart.

So tell me something about the person (or persons) of your heart. About your ceremony (any kind) or your favorite memory. Help me celebrate this day….

I broke down...

...and joined Facebook. Drop by and say hi!

(I'm already on MySpace here.)

LoJ 2008 photos!

Labyrinth of Jareth photos finally uploaded—you can view them here!

Submit or perish!

Pooh. Realms of Fantasy passed on “Oroflex (Patent Pending),” saying “this is a cute fairy tale variant, but I’m trying to cut back on those a bit.” Just my luck to get an editor who’s on a literary subgenre diet!

But I had a stack of returned stories to send out today anyway, so here’s what happened:

• “Soulsearching” to Coyote Wild
  
• “Hell’s Belles” (reprint) to Clonepod
  
• “The Queen’s Gardener” to Doorways
  
• “Matchmaker” to Serpentari.us
  
• “A Familiar(’s) Tale” to Renard’s Menagerie
  
• “Oroflex (Patent Pending)” to F&SF
  

I have no idea where to send “A Father’s Blessing” right now, but some markets open up on 8/1, so I can wait a week or so.

---

Currently Reading: Heaven Sent, Christina Jones
Lately Listened To: 7 Deadly Zens, Tommy Shaw
Recently Watched: Graham Norton, The Middleman

Onslaught...brace yourself!

I just added back posts from 7/4, 7/6, 7/7, 7/8, 7/9, and 7/11, in case anyone's interested.

Now I have to catch up about Labyrinth of Jareth, my talk at the Alternative Lifestyles Group, the latest Styx show, Meg's visit…but right now, I'm off to the gym!

Important note to self

It's perfectly acceptable to stay up until 3 a.m. Thursday night when you've gotten home from a Styx show at 1:30 a.m. and you're still buzzed from all the love your boys showered on you (it was, after all, your 75th show. And you did put a light stick in your cleavage.).

It's entirely acceptable to stay up until 3 a.m. Friday night because Meg is visiting and you can't stop talking to each other.

It's not acceptable to stay up until 3 a.m. tonight, because you have to be on the road to the LARA meeting at 8 a.m.

This is your only reminder. Pay attention…

Fabulous Whitby is finally here!

Great news! The anthology Fabulous Whitby, which contains my story "Proof of Devotion" (which I wrote all the way back in 2002 at the Oregon Coast Writers Master Class!), is finally available!  ::squee bouncity::

Right now, amazon doesn't seem to be supporting it well: amazon.com doesn't list it at all, and amazon.co.uk and amazon.ca are listing it as out of stock or whatnot.

The good news is, you can order it from a place called York Publishing Services out of the UK.

The better news is, they charge only $3.99 to deliver to the US, which is the same as what they charge to deliver in the UK (using the current exchange rate). That's right—international shipping is the same as UK shipping!

Click on the link above to go to the Fabulous Whitby order page. I'm soooo excited about this one. I'm in an anthology with Liz Williams and Esther Friesner and Cherith Baldry and Jay Lake andandand…!

Haunted Hearths: more great reviews!

Rainbow Reviews called my story the "the unexpectedly romantic heart-wrenching 'Some Old Lover's Ghost.'"  ::beam::

Queerhorror and Bay Windows also have lovely things to say about the anthology as a whole. Yay!

Everything, all the time

Rejection from Intergalactic Medicine Show for “Matchmaker.” For anyone keeping score, that’s four rejections in six days.

However, I think I forgot to mention a sale! Teresa and I sold “Food for Thought” to Best Lesbian Love Stories 2009. We brainstormed that story on a drive from San Jan Capistrano to Westminster, and first subbed it in 2004.

~ ~ ~

You know you’re an Eddie Izzard fan when all someone has to say is “penne all’arrabiatta” and you start to giggle.

~ ~ ~

I spent almost an hour at the chiropractor’s today, trying to get my body back into alignment because every. single. part. of. me seemed to have gone walkabout. I have to admit, after a few weeks of feeling “energetic” (which I realized really was “normal” for most people), I’ve been rather despondent by this turn of events.

~ ~ ~

Dave arrived safe and sound from the UK, although the shuttle trip that took 1.5 hours in May took 3+ hours today… Then again, it included two cushy gated communities, one of which Britney Spears is allegedly moving to. We went out for dinner at Armando’s because I’ve had no brain or impetus to gather food to actually cook.

~ ~ ~

My faerie skirt is done donity done done done! (Well. Unless I add little flowers to the dags in front. The jury’s still out on that. And bells. It might need bells.) Morgana’s outfit is done. Brian only needed to do his leafy bits, and they’re done. Tomi is still phutzing, but she came into this late—she’s buying Ken’s ticket and is mostly just using her Russian, but she wanted to add to it.

~ ~ ~

Tomorrow we collect 9 sweet kittens and their mama and deliver them to Morgana’s friend Michelle for fixing and shots and whatnot, and then we’ll have dinner before heading off to the Masquerade. Finally! We’ve been wanting to do this for years, and I’m gobsmacked that it’s actually going to happen…

Wait...what day is it?

Apologies for the recent silence. My back has been acting up, resulting in me taking half a muscle relaxant on two separate evenings, which resulted in the day between those pretty much disappearing in a fog. I'm now behind and confused.

Plus, I've been violating my cardinal rule of costuming by working on my Labyrinth of Jareth costume this week—and paying for it. Plus I've been helping Morgana with hers, because it's a project she wouldn't have undertaken (redoing her utterly gorgeous wedding outfit, a cream velvet German) if I hadn't said I would help. The good news is, my skirt is done except for covering the grommets (which isn't required for actual wearing, but is nice and prevents anything getting snagged). The better news is, it looks beyond awesome! But we still have to get together tomorrow night to finish up hers…

Plus our friend Dave from the UK arrives tomorrow, and LoJ is Saturday, and I've got a speaking engagement on Sunday that I'm not yet prepped for and then taking Dave to Pasadena for his conference. Did I mention our cleaning lady has essentially retired to care for her ailing father? And the house is a mess?

Ah well. It's not like anything tragic has happened. And once I have a moment to breathe, I'll finish up all the partial journal entries I have written and inundate you all!

Descent into...meh

A double-whammy of rejections:

• GUD passed on “A Father’s Blessing.”
  
• Podcastle nixed the audio rights to “Hell’s Belles,” which I still think would be great as an audio piece. Hmmm…
  

~ ~ ~

Today was…meh. Whether it was the lingering effects of the muscle relaxant or the precursor of my now-elusive period, all I know is that I was grumpy, tired, unmotivated, unfocused, and still uncomfortable even after my chiro adjustment. My chiro said I could work out, but at a fraction of what I usually do, and it didn’t seem worth the time to drive to Bally’s.

Whee

My back/hip’s been bothering me for a couple of days now, and my massage therapist, who for several weeks has been struggling to fill the time because I’ve been in such good shape, could’ve spent hours on the muscles that were essentially making it hard to find my spine. =8-0 So I popped half a prescription muscle relaxant, took a long bath in Epsom salts, and generally called the day a bust. Hopefully tomorrow the chiropractor will put things back where they ought to be (and the relaxed muscles won’t pull things back out of whack 0.2 seconds later), and all will be well with the world.

For now, though: whee.

You can never have too much glitter and lace

Today Morgana, Tomi, Elizabeth, and I got together for a rare Girls’ Day Out. Elizabeth needed lipstick from The Body Shop, so we all trooped to the mall for lunch (California Pizza Kitchen, where three of us had salads and one of us had a Asian-wrap appetizer) and shopping. (Which is rare because most of us shun the mall for the most part!) Everyone but me bought lipstick (they didn’t have any shades that were good for me, and I like the brand I’m using anyway), and we came away with a few other products as well (moisturizers, under-eye-circle cream, etc.). Then it was off to Hot Topic and Torrid, where I loaded up on purple hair extensions, purple glitter eyeliner, body glitter (silver and a peacock mix), and purple glitter nail polish, all for Labyrinth of Jareth this weekend.

Afterwards, Morgana and I hit a couple of fabric stores and I picked up lace trim for my faerie skirt. I may not have time to put it on before Saturday—the skirt has to be wearable, and can survive without the extra bits if I run out of time. I hate working on any of it this late, but it is what it is. I’ve been so focused on work that costuming has taken a back seat these past few months.

Still, it’s going to look fucking awesome, and yes, there will be pictures!

~ ~ ~

Woo hoo! It’s been confirmed that I’ll be signing at the “Readers for Life” Literacy Autographing at RWA Nationals this year! Last year Teresa and I were there (as Sophie, natch) but our books weren’t. This year I’ll be there as Sarah Dale—fingers crossed that I’ll actually have things to sign this time ‘round!

Glowing

Feh. Rejection from Lace & Blade for “Soulsearching.” And here I thought that was a perfect match. But since I think Lace & Blade is an awesome anthology theme, I’m just going to have to write another story before the deadline!

~ ~ ~

Spa Day was über-fabulouso! We had eight ladies, although two left early due to other commitments or whatnot, so we had two tracks: facial and hand/foot. Plus massages done by my own amazing therapist, Melanie. (Six ladies got massages. I was the floater and ended up passing because Melanie was exhausted…but I was scheduled for my regular massage on Tuesday, so I soldiered on. ::gg::)

For me, I looooved the facial steam. Must do this more often. Perching on the edge of the tub was perhaps not the best thing for my back, but the foot scrub was deliriously wonderful. I put on a lavender nail polish when I got home, which made me even more happy.

So, six months of planning and prep went off famously (Morgana and I were the sole guild members at the first meeting in January and, I believe, for several thereafter; other folks came to later meetings for some prep). Not only did I have a fantastic and restful time, but another friend (not involved in the SCA, much less Spa Day) told me my skin looked good today!

~ ~ ~

Another Sunday, another Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf with the local RWA ladies. Ellenie and I were prolific. Go us!

A supernova born of our bliss

I am still so messed up. I’ve been pretty much a day off in my brain since last Friday when we went to the Fashion Institute. Now today felt like a Saturday, too, because Morgana came over this afternoon and we watched Eddie Izzard’s Definite Article as well as Hunting Venus (gods I love that movie! I miss the 80s! Wah!) and went out for Indian food at Bollywood.

So I keep thinking tomorrow is Sunday and CB&TL with the other writers, when in fact it’s Saturday and Spa Day. Good grief.

I’m a bit grumpy because I love the 4th of July and its attendant fireworks, but I end up hating the 4th of July here, because many of the Hispanics feel the need to be setting off illegal fireworks here in the dry desert (Goleta is burning, have you heard?) for days before and after the actual holiday. I’m happy to say that today has been the quietest since we moved here, although a loud bang just startled me so much I jumped. (It’s after midnight as I type this.) Grrr.

~ ~ ~

Oh, and before I forget…June stats:

6 stories subbed
3 stories sold (!!)
10 stories rejected

11 novel submissions (all the same novel, though)
1 full novel subbed by request
2 novel rejections (same novel)