So I got home Monday from Florida and ever since I’ve been smacked down by seasonal allergies. I get them every year, but for some reason it’s really bad this time around. I’m dopey and half stoned from the allergy pills I’m taking. With any luck it won’t last too long. I have too much to do!
I haven’t dug my camera out yet to upload my pictures, but I’ll try to do that this evening. I really had a fantastic time and was so thrilled to meet many of my favourite authors in person. Added icing on the cake…got to hang out with Anna and December for the first time, and was able to reconnect with Renee, Cathy and Lilly!
Best time ever.
*sneeze*
Wow…I survived my first RT. It was without a doubt a fantastic experience for me. I can’t believe how many amazing people I met when I was there, and how many friends I was able to reconnect with over wine and the pool.
I have a bunch of pictures that I’ll share with you all on either Twitter Pics or Facebook, but I haven’t had a chance to upload them yet. I haven’t even unpacked to be honest LOL!
I had a lot of fun dancing and being silly. I got to meet so many of the amazing readers out there, and I hope I made some new friends. 
I’ll give everyone a full update once I’ve recovered.
*would do a snoopy dance but her feet are too tired*
Honestly, it really just hit me today. This time next week, I’ll be in Florida at the Romantic Times convention. OMG YEAH!!!!
*does a snoopy dance*
This is my first time going to RT, my first book signing, and the first time I’m going to be meeting a number of my fellow authors for the first time.
Who is coming? Who can I harrass?? Who wants to see the snoopy dance live???
I’m sure most of us by now have heard about the craziness around Amazon and their deranking of erotic and GLB material. In case you haven’t heard, here is a good link explaining what happened and Amazon’s response.
Yes, this impacted me. My Amazon sales rankings for The Bond That Ties Us were gone, and you were unable to search for the book from the main page. Yes, I wasn’t pleased that people could find my book for purchase. Yes, I do believe Amazon had a programming issue and that the person responsible has caught hell.
What I find fascinating in all of this was how quickly word spread through the writing community. This was discovered on Easter Sunday. In between chocolate highs and Sunday cooking, Twitter and Facebook exploded with outrage. There was a time not that long ago, it would have taken weeks for this to have circulated around until it hit a major news source. In today’s world, a quick one sentence tweet can ignite people world wide.
The power of social networking is amazing, and quiet frankly, terrifying. It also serves to reinforce the fact that comments made in an online environment are there forever. They DO impact people. They HAVE changed corporations, policies, and called out human error.
In the case of Amazon and the “glitch”, I am thankful this power was used for good. It saved many fantastic books from falling off the radar. On the flip side, for those of you who saw #agentfail, you can see that the power isn’t always on the side of good.
Be careful out there…
Okay, I’m in love! For years I have wanted a miniature Daschund. They are such sweet and loyal animals, and I fell in love with the breed after spending time with my friend’s dogs. Well last night I was on Kijiji looking for something else, when I ran across an add for new puppies that were ready to go home. Never thought I’d get one, but my husband said go for it!
Here is my new baby…Jack!
Over the past month, I’ve been getting caught up on a few TV programs that I’ve had to let slip while I focused on my writing. Two of these shows are now done for good: Stargate: Atlantis and Battlestar Galatica. One of these shows ended brilliantly. The other didn’t.
Now I want to say that I adored both of these programs while they were one. The characters and plot lines were interesting, the acting was good, and generally kept me entertained. As a writer, I’m always curious to watch how other people carry arc stories, how they connect plots and pull everything together. Since this is something I do in my own writing, I’m always looking for other examples.
First, I want to say that BSG is a brilliant show. The ending was satisfying. The plot threads that they’d been laying out for four years finally came together. It made sense! I got excited when I realized the meaning of many of the images they’d built up. I actually cried at the end when we saw the aftermath/goodbye for the characters. Ron Moore knew what he wanted, but more importantly knew what the story needed. It’s one of the reasons I admire them for stopping a highly successful program when they did. The story didn’t need any longer.
Stargate: Atlantis? They’d spent four years building up a great arc with the Wraith. They had a kick ass villain in my opinion in Michael. And…I think they blew it. By the end of the last season, I no longer cared about the characters or what happened to them. There was one moment where I was impressed, but they snatched it away. As a viewer I felt cheated of a great emotional moment (no I won’t say what it was in case someone wants to see it). It was one of those book-against-wall moments…except I’m unwilling to throw my plasma screen.
This was a good lesson for me as a writer. Something that I’m reminding myself about as I’m working on edits for my current manuscript. If I make a promise of events, I damn well better follow it through. I also want to make sure I don’t cheat the reader out of any of the emotional aspects of my books. Yes, I may feel I’ve written myself into a corner, but then I need to be strong and figure a way out for my characters while still keeping the needs of the story in mind.
So thank you to BSG for four fantastic years! Very few shows make me cry…that ending was one of them.
I’ve been editing. A lot. After a few kind souls took a look at my current manuscript, the light bulb finally came on. Things were in the wrong spots. Reveals were happening too slow, sex in the wrong spot (who knew!!), and inconsistent characters…equal not a great book. So I’ve dug out my machete and have been hacking away.
The end result? Much better. I’m only about halfway through the story, but I can already tell the flow is much stronger. The characters are more sympathetic, and generally a better book. I was hoping to get through the rest of the edits this weekend, but we’ll have to see because…
Hubby and I are planning on having a BSG weekend! Yes, we are going to sit our butts down and watch the last ten episodes. We like to watch shows in chunks like that, OD on the plot and characters. I’m a bit impatient. We’ve done this with a few shows, and its been the best way to feed my addictions, like…
Supernatural! OMG did anyone see last night’s episode! I adore how they can get me laughing my head off in one scene (Dean: Don’t they know we’re brothers? Sam: I don’t think they care.) , and sitting bolt up in bed with tension in the next. If you love paranormal at all and you’re not watching this show, you really need to treat yourself and go get the DVDs. Like now…shoo!
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