Today I went to my RWA chapter meeting, the first time since March. The two times I happened to be traveling this spring were on meeting weekends. I presented part of the program on judge training for our contest/critiquing. Super critiquer Annie Solomon was the other presenter. It was nice to see everyone and to go out to lunch with the girls. Afterward, I dragged my friend Monica to Barnes & Noble so she could get J.R. Ward’s Dark Lover so she can get hooked on the series like me. She ended up getting the first two, Jessica Andersen’s new book, the first in her The Final Prophecy series, and a Katie MacAlister book. I was sad to see, however, that yet another B&N has removed the series romance (Harlequin/Silhouette) books from their shelves. Sigh.

I meant to put up these pictures a few weeks ago when my rose bushes were blooming. Still, they’re too pretty not to share.

I saw an article online today listing the TV series that have been canceled for next year. I have an abysmal record of liking shows that end up getting canceled, so it wasn’t a surprise that I watched nine shows on the list:

Moonlight (the one I’m mourning the most)
Men in Trees (I’m just going to firmly believe that Patrick and Annie would have gotten back together.)
Jericho
Back to You (I thought Kelsey Grammar and Patricia Heaton were funny, but I guess not enough other people did.)
K-Ville  (no more Cole Hauser, sniff)
New Amsterdam
Life is Wild
Bionic Woman (Poor Will Yun Lee keeps getting cast in shows I like but which are canceled; he was in Witchblade too.)
Journeyman

This list didn’t even include Blood Ties (which I’m also mourning; come on, leave me ONE vampire show), which had been previously canceled.

I wonder which new shows in the fall I’ll like and thus be the kiss of death for.

As this year’s shows wind down with finales, my TiVo’s to-do list was getting pretty short. (I think the only things still on it are LOST, Battlestar Galactica, Deadliest Catch and The Alaska Experiment.) So I went through today and scheduled some movies I hadn’t seen. Maybe I’ll have time to watch them after I meet my YA outline deadline the first week of June. I still haven’t gone to see Prince Caspian either. Maybe I’ll do that on my birthday or as a treat after I meet my deadline.

Luckily my choice in friends is more successful than my choice in shows, including the fabulous Beth Pattillo. She’s guesting over at the Romance Bandits today in celebration of the release of her new book, The Sweetgum Knit Lit Society, this week. Swing by and say, “Hi.” She’s giving away a copy of the book to one lucky person.

Sorry I fell off the blog radar for a few days. The Internet connection was poo in my room at the RT conference hotel, and I spent yesterday driving home from Pittsburgh. But without further adieu, here’s a look at my week in pictures and a bit of commentary.

My hotel room overlooked the site of historic Fort Pitt (you can see the outlines of the original fort on the grass), and where the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers come together to form the Ohio River. It was cool to see the spot where the Ohio River begins since I grew up near the opposite end of the river. To the far right of the photo below, you can see a bit of Heinz Field, more commonly known as Three Rivers Stadium to Pittsburgh Steelers fans.

Since some of my Bandita pals were there, and I was an American Title finalist like one of them (KJ Howe) and several other writers in attendance. We had a group Bandita/AT dinner at a restaurant across the street from the hotel. Others took those pictures, so I don’t have those yet.

I’ve decided that at any future RT conferences I attend, I’m going to go the costume route at the evening parties. Lots of people went all out, including my pal Lindsey Brookes, and it was great to watch. Because these parties included dancing, I didn’t want to keep up with my camera. But if anyone sends me photos, I’ll be sure to post them.

On Friday was the awards luncheon where numerous authors were honored, and Helen Scott Taylor was announced as the winner of the American Title contest. I came in first runner-up. Huge congrats to Helen! That’s her below sitting between her beautiful daughter, Katherine, right, and the first AT winner, Janice Lynn.

Here are some more ATers: Holli Bertram, Evonne Wareham, former finalist Judi Fennel, last year’s winner, Jenny Gardiner, and (standing) Liz French, managing editor of Romantic Times BOOKreviews Magazine and our fabulous RT contact throughout the contest.

On Saturday was the big group book signing. I knew lots of the authors signing. Here are just a handful of them.

Colleen Gleason

Anna DeStefano

Jessica Andersen

Natale Stenzel

Here I am being a total fangirl with J.R. Ward, who is not only talented but gracious, friendly and hysterical too.

Oh, and here my fabu agent, Michelle Grajkowski, and I decided to have a picture taken together to see how much our printed shirts would mess with people’s eyeballs.

Okay, here’s what you all have been waiting for — cover models! Not only were this year’s contestants in the Mr. Romance contest there, but since it was the 25th anniversary of RT, there were also famous cover models in the building. Yes, Fabio was in the house. In fact, I nearly plowed into him when I was exiting the ladies room. I also spied special guest Adrian Paul of Highlander fame looking verra nice in a purple suit. Sorry, didn’t have my camera with me. Next time, I think I’ll just have my camera attached to my hand at all times. If you’ve been reading romance novels for awhile, you’ll also recognize the name John DeSalvo. And guess what! Yes, I do have a photo of him.

The Mr. Romance competition brought out the flashing cameras. Here’s a peek at the reason why.

And here’s me with the very nice and charming James Gaskin, who was the second runner-up. One night, he talked to Michelle and me for several minutes after one of the parties. We chatted a bit about him studying physics in college and how my hubby was a physics major for a couple of years before changing to economics.

And the winner was…Chris Winters. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, he’s the one showing off his pecs in the photo above. Hey, if you’ve got it, flaunt it.

I didn’t meet Chris, but from all accounts he’s a nice guy too. I don’t know what I was expecting, but the guys I met and heard about were all very nice and down to earth, several of them college students. Other than James, I only talked to Chris Howell and a bit with Luke Walsh. I think I felt kind of funny just striking up conversations with them because it seemed like they were constantly being pulled one way or another. I figured they had to be totally exhausted by the end of the week.

So, have I convinced any of you to attend RT next year in Orlando?

First off, my pal Mary’s book Hot Shot is out from Samhain Publishing today! In celebration, she’s guesting with us over at the Romance Bandits blog. Swing by if you have the chance.

In my writing news, I’m working on my AAs (author alterations) on my first book, A Firefighter in the Family. This is the last time I’ll get to look at it before it goes to press (squee!) and thankfully I’m not finding many edits. I think that’ll make my editor happy. And I like to keep my editor happy. I’m also working on ideas for my option book (what will hopefully be the first book of the next contract). I want to get that partial written before I head off to the Romantic Times conference later in the month.

For some reason, our Internet service has been intermittently wonky lately. I REALLY don’t want to change service providers because I’ve got screaming-fast cable Internet, so I hope the wonkiness doesn’t continue. For when it goes on the wonk, I’m glad there’s a Panera Bread with WiFi nearby. I spent 3 hours there yesterday! And since the hubby was out of town, I grabbed my dinner from there on the way out. According to him and his brother, Panera is “chick food.” 

The big upheaval of the last week, however, has been a surprise room re-do. We have a large-ish house, especially for two people, so in the winter we close off the back part so we don’t go broke with heating bills. Natural gas = not cheap. So we don’t go back there much in the winter and keep the temperature at about 55 so the pipes don’t bust. But the other day when hubby came home from a business trip, he zipped in the back door to use the back bathroom. This bathroom happens to be where the hot water heater resides. You see where this is going, don’t you?

Imagine the hubby’s surprise when he opens the door to find the room soaking wet and, I kid you not, mold growing up the walls. He says, “What happened back here?” I, clueless, wander back to see what he’s talking about. My mouth falls open. The water heater evidently had a leak but not so much that we didn’t still have hot water. The room was dripping from the ceiling, the border was peeling off, the mirror had come loose from the water, fallen and broken all over the sink and floor. The sink cabinet was ruined. In a word, it was DIS-GUST-ING!

The next day, I called contractors and got bids. Thankfully, one was able to start work last Friday. Since the room had to be gutted anyway, we decided to convert it to a laundry room. Looks like it’ll be done today, so tomorrow I’ll post some before and after shots for your viewing pleasure.

My fellow Romance Bandit Cindy (aka Loucinda McGary) compiled a Books By Romance Bandits Listmania list over on Amazon. Check it out and if you want to order the books, you can do so by clicking on any of the book covers in the posts on our blog. We’re an Amazon Affiliate, so we get some spare change each time a purchase through an Amazon click-through from our blog. And that’s not just purchases of our books; it’s for anything and everything you buy through Amazon. We use that spare change to keep all the Bandita fun up and running for our loyal blog readers.

Since I’m on the Romance Writers of America national board of directors, I was able to make calls that made some people very happy on Tuesday. It was call day for the Golden Heart and RITA contests, and I was able to inform the finalists in the Young Adult category in both contests. It’s always fun to hear the reactions — ranging from shock to nearly passing out.

Call day always finds me near my computer, watching as e-mails pour in about who has gotten the call that she’s a finalist. I know a good number of the finalists this year, but here’s just a sampling — from among my Wet Noodle Posse and Romance Bandits pals.

GOLDEN HEART FINALISTS

Priscilla Kissinger, Trust in Me, Contemporary Series
Theresa Ragan, Better Late Than Never, Single Title
Susan Seyfarth, Money, Honey, Single Title
Susan Seyfarth, The Princess Project, Single Title
Theresa Ragan, Finding Kate Huntley,  Romantic Suspense
Kim Howe, One Shot, Two Kills, Romantic Suspense

RITA FINALISTS

Stephanie Rowe, He Loves Me, He Loves Me Hot, Paranormal
Anna Campbell, Untouched, Regency Historical
Anna Campbell, Claiming the Courtesan, Regency Historical

Congrats to you all — and to everyone who finaled in the contests. Good luck in the final round!

My drive from San Antonio to Houston went well today — until I got to Houston. First, the ramp I was supposed to take onto a toll road was closed. But never fear, I was able to pull out my atlas and find another exit and a back way to get to the needed tollway. So I was trucking along just find, thanks, until I got to the exit my directions from Mapquest said I was supposed to take. One problem — the exit off the toll road was only for EZTag holders since it wasn’t a manned or pay toll station. I don’t live here, so I don’t have an EZTag. So I had to drive through the grass to get to another road I could take. So then I didn’t know where I was, where my hotel was — ugh! I ended up driving around the airport with nowhere to pull over to ask for directions until I finally found a Marriott on the airport property. The kind banquet server inside pointed me in the right direction. Unfortunately, I’d eaten up so much time that I didn’t have any extra to work on revisions this afternoon before RWA board stuff began. That’s why I’m working on them now at 11 p.m. when I have a meeting at 7:30 in the morning. Oh well, at least I’m here safely and without having an accident in all the traffic on unfamiliar roads.

In much better news, Golden Heart pal Elisabeth Naughton made her first book sale this week! In fact, she sold three romantic adventure stories to Dorchester. Yeah, Elisabeth

Had a fun day today. Mary and I went to the Guenther House for breakfast — home of the yummiest biscuits in the world, though I tried their pancakes this time (also yummy). Then we toured the historic Steves Homestead and walked through part of the historic King William district, which is full of gorgeous old refurbished homes. We topped off the day by an afternoon at the zoo and dinner at Pei Wei.

Tomorrow, Mary has to go back to work, and I’m going to be here trying to convince her cats to do my revisions for me.

Day 2 of my road trip is in the books and I’m happy to be visiting my friend Mary. I’m in the land of yummy Mexican food (LOVE Mexican food) and ate at a place called Taco Garage tonight. I plan to have some Taco Cabana this week too. Maybe it’ll fuel some fast and furious revision on Thursday while Mary is at work.

Sorry to be late with the announcement of last week’s books winner, but I’m happy to announce that Fedora is the big winner of the following books:

Cover of Night by Linda Howard
Behind the Mask by Metsy Hingle
Silent Warning by Kathleen Long

Fedora, if you’ll e-mail me your mailing address through the Contact page on this site, I’ll get your books out to you next week when I return home.

This week’s giveaway includes the following books:

Deborah Simmons’ Maiden Bride
Karen Whiddon’s One Eye Open
Lisa Gardner’s The Killing Hour

On Tuesday of this week, I zipped over to my local Barnes & Noble to buy my friend Colleen Gleason’s new book, The Bleeding Dusk, the latest in her Gardella Vampire Chronicles series. I bought it not just because she’s my friend or because I love the books, but I was hopeful that if she gets enough sales volume this week, the first week of the book’s release, that it’ll propel her onto the best-seller lists. Because that’s how lists like the famous New York Times Best-seller List are determined — sales volume within a short amount of time. So if you want to see an author friend or favorite writer make it to the list, make a point to buy her/his book on the release day.

Speaking of Colleen, she’ll be guesting here soon. She’s working on the answers to my questions now, and I’ll post the interview as soon as I have the info. Until then, drop by your local bookstore and get your very own copy of The Bleeding Dusk. I can’t wait to read it!

Question for you all — is there an author you love but who hasn’t made the best-seller lists yet? Someone you’d like to help propel to best-sellerdom?