I picked Friday partly ’cause I will be home all day–the first time in two weeks! 

Eight states, seven YA books (including Summer of the Traveling Pants, which just seemed appropriate!), three swimming pools, one lovely old abbey, and countless desserts later, I feel ready to wave the kids off to school and dive into my new project.  Seven apocalyptic seals, a group of girls marked by fate and a cursed island.  I can’t wait!

They’re going to be really cold and icy this weekend!

But I’m a writer.  I write.  Sometimes I daydream.  In an efficient and inspired moment, I designed myself some really cool new business cards.  Planning for trips and preparing practical points like what to pack isn’t high on my priority list–which is why it was this morning before I realized that the only shoes I had planned to take to New York in January with three days of snow on the schedule were these:

What can I say?  They get me by in North Carolina winters!

Guess I’m going to pull out some of my old tennies and see if they still fit.  If not, you can still look for me in NYC this weekend.  I’ll be the one with pink and blue icicle toes.

I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy next spring, and hope I can somehow get it signed, too.  Because, you know, I’ll need to have proof that sometimes Caleb claims me as his cousin.  Thank goodness it usually works out that the days he doesn’t claim me are the ones when I acknowledge him!

Thanks to Caleb for the stolen pic of his Nectar of the Gods Jam!

Congratulations to Becca on her debut!

In searching for a submission backdoor I chatted with James Maxey and found that he and authors David Drake, Mark L. Van Name and Lisa Shearin were doing a panel and book signing that night in Cary at the B&N.  Accordingly I went by after my swordfighting class.  Here’s the evening in summary:

• James’s new cover of Dragonseed is awesome–check out the detailing on the shotgun.  Very nice.
• I have my own signed copy of Dragonseed, and yes, I feel special.
• Lisa Shearin fences, and she liked my dagger earrings.  The lady is in!
• David Drake continues to astound with the range of stuff that can come out of his mouth.  He’s wise on the writing front, I’ll grant him that, but I think he’s overly fond of making women blush.  I’m happy to say I didn’t give him that satisfaction.
• I was late and so missed most of what Mark had to say.  I’m still curious as to what the ‘L’ in his name stands for.
• I found it interesting to watch the authors interact with their fans.  My takeaway pointers were to let the reader/fan drive the direction of the conversation and its duration, so long as the line was still moving.

As a followup on the evening I went to James’s website and found he’s running a contest to support breast cancer research.  Go check it out and get your own copy of Dragonseed!

I read Magic Lost, Trouble Found a couple years ago and enjoyed it.  I always meant to pick up the next one…so Tuesday I got the second book, Armed and Magical, and got it signed by Lisa.  I heard her recommend it as a great beach read, but I can testify that it’s also a great recovering-from-the-dental-variety-of-torture read!  I was very thankful for my new books as I moaned my way through the remainder of my Wednesday and nursed my three new fillings and one new crown prep.

I think this pic of me smooching a Lip Dog in the World of Coke sums up my impressions of the trip.

We’re accustomed to our trips including speed bumps the size of small mountains, so the fact that this trip went pretty smoothly was a pleasant surprise.  Then again, perhaps we paid our trip karma up front–when we locked ourselves out of the house Tuesday.  I can’t speak for my fellow travelers, but I think I prefer it this way.  I’ll have to remind myself to drop a hammer on my toe or some such idiocy just before the next trip.

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This afternoon my dh and I attended a writing event at The Regulator Book shop, here in Durham.  James Maxey and Ed Schubert discussed the art of making money as a writer, and took questions from the audience about all things in the business of writing.  Afterwards several of us went to eat at a lovely little french restaurant, Vin Rouge, where the food was fabulous and the conversation centered on writing, which everyone knows is the most fascinating of all subjects.  Thanks to James for the heads up on this and a hello to everyone who came.

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My fellow Ruins’ writers have arranged an event for all the Hadley Rille Ruins anthos in Seattle on May 1st and 2nd.  More info here, and best of luck to them all!

James Maxey‘s book, Dragonforge, has been nominated for the David Gemmell Legend Award!  Go here to vote.  If you haven’t read it yet, do so quickly, and then go vote!  You won’t be disapointed.

And now, for the snowman.

As you can see, this fellow’s quite confused.  Probably something to do with finding himself in existence when he’s quite certain we haven’t had weather cold enough for snow.

I’m adding a link to the blogroll.  Sarah Hilary is a fellw EDF anthology contributer, and one of her stories is up today.  A delightful little piece that relishes the journey.  I followed it over to her blog and liked what I saw, so in it goes.  Welcome, Sarah!

And of course, you’ll want to read my story, Storm’s Rising, while your perusing by.  My only request is that you still consider me a nice person after you read it–even if my character does have just a little more spite than is entirely healthy.

Silent as the Dust was significant to me, and stands out in my mind as one of the best shorts I’ve ever read.  It’s not just the characters, situation, etc., the strength of the story is also in how well the various elements are brought together and presented.  The package as a whole performing well the task it was intended to fulfill, if you will.

In other news I’ve added Jeff Draper’s Scriptorious Rex blog to the roll.  As both a writer and, for lack of a better term, a fighter, I particularly enjoyed his blog titled Fighters Fight.  Welcome, Jeff!