Friday I drove up to Cincinnati and stayed with the fabulous and cool Liz Bemis, who is the program director for Ohio Valley RWA and a double Golden Heart finalist this year.  That night, we drove through the pouring rain that had been chasing me to Ohio to meet up with the equally fabulous and cool Jenn Stark for a yummy Mexican dinner.

Yesterday, I spoke to the OVRWA chapter on perseverance, a subject near and dear to my heart since it took me 11 years to sell. I know there were people in the audience sitting in the same boat I was such a short time ago — Liz and Jenn among them — where they’ve got tremendous talent and have found success on the contest circuit but haven’t quite made that first sale yet.

Liz Bemis, me, and Jenn Stark

Since it was the day before Easter, I rewarded audience participation with Carmello bunnies, Cadbury’s Creme Eggs, Peeps and a couple of free books. Hey, I’m not above some sugar-filled bribery.   The ladies were wonderful, and I was thankful for such a nice turnout the day before Easter. I even got to meet Becke Martin (aka Treethyme), who hangs out with us a lot over at the Romance Bandits blog.

With Becke Martin

After the meeting, some of us were about to chew our arms off we were so hungry. So before I hit the road home, I went to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory with Liz, Jenn, and two other great and interesting ladies named Amy and Libby (man, I hope I got that right or I’m going to be really embarrassed). Then it was time to hit the road home. I plugged in the iPod and passed the hours listening to PotterCast and an the Supernatural podcast.

Two funny signs seen along the way:

On a fence surrounding a field: For Sale, Used Cows

On the ladies restroom door inside a gas station/Subway combo: Now hiring servers. Apply within.

Two other notes:

Liz has a fun blog series going on at her site counting down the 100 days until the Golden Heart ceremony. Be sure to check it out.

And Jenn isn’t just a writer. She’s a whiz at author branding. Check out her branding site at www.knowyourbrand.com.

Someone on the children’s/YA writers’ loop I’m on posted this link. I think it will give all you Jane Austen fans a good chuckle.

Been a busy weekend. I went to Jackson, Tennessee yesterday for a group book signing. I only sold two books, but I had a nice time hanging out with my writing buddies and got to catch up on the ride to and from with my good pals Beth Pattillo and Annie Solomon. We brainstormed ideas for our chapter’s retreat in February.

Today, hubby and I met my oldest friend — as in I’ve been friends with her longer than anyone, not that she’s literally older than all my friends — and her family for lunch. They were in town doing lots of fun things for the weekend.

I got all of my books reshelved and organized late Friday night. More on that later. I’ve been working on lots of paperwork this afternoon and evening. Seriously, I think paper is like rabbits. When you turn around for five minutes, it’s produced a pile more.

During the past month, I’ve not only been working feverishly on the revisions to the second YA book, but I was traveling to some extent every week for the past five weeks to promo my first book, A Firefighter in the Family. I’m going to work my way backwards, sharing photos when I can. (Unfortunately, I left my camera in Texas last week, and I’m waiting for it to be mailed back to me.)

I left for Texas on Oct. 10. After picking up the rental car and plugging in the iPod to listen to several episodes of PotterCast, I hit the road. As usual drove to Texarkana and stayed in the hotel I always stay in there. It’s clean, safe, has comfy beds and good Internet access — all musts in my book. I was able to sleep in a bit the next morning then drive the rest of the way to Richardson, a suburb of Dallas, where I was taking part in the Buns & Roses Reader Tea. First up, however, was a group book signing at Borders where fellow Nashvillian Sherrilyn Kenyon was the main attraction. The girl has humongous lines of adoring fans, and after all she’s gone through to achieve that success, I say more power to her. (I say the same about J.K. Rowling.)

On Sunday was the reader tea, where I met several nice ladies who sat at my table and some authors I’d not met before — including the lovely Sharie Kohler, my tablemate at the book signing that afternoon for tea attendees, and Kim Lenox, who sent me this wonderful picture of Sharie and me.

Toward the end of the event, I heard from two attendees who’d driven up from San Antonio that I-35 from Dallas to Waco was closed. Eek! That’s how I would normally go to San Antonio, where I was headed next. So when I reached my car, I pulled out the atlas and plotted a new, circuitous route which added a good chunk of time to my trip that night. I didn’t reach my friend Mary’s house until midnight. Needless to say, she, her husband, her son, and I all slept in the next morning.

That afternoon, we drove to the lovely little historic town of Gruene (pronounced Green) on the Guadalupe River. We ate at The Gristmill, a restaurant in a big, old gristmill overlooking the river. (I’d been hearing the praises of The Gristmill ever since my friend Michelle lived in Austin several years ago.) Then we poked around the cute shops to find a gift for the customer service manager at the Barnes & Noble that was hosting a book signing for Mary and myself the next night. That night, we watched The Happening, an odd movie though it had an interesting concept.

The next morning, it was off to Guenther House for breakfast, a MUST every time I go to San Antonio. They have the best biscuits and gravy I’ve ever put in my mouth. Yum! Then I was a good girl and worked on my revisions while Mary (who writes as M.J. Fredrick) worked on her own writing. That afternoon, I made from-scratch pizza before we all went off to Barnes & Noble for the book signing. We had a wonderful turnout of people who know Mary — co-workers past and present, fellow writers, etc. Here’s a picture Mary’s husband took of us before the signing started.

On Wednesday, Mary had to go back to work, so I made good use of the time to knock out some more revisions. That night, I spoke about setting at her local RWA chapter (San Antonio Romance Authors) meeting. I met lots of lovely ladies at the meeting, and it was nice to put faces with names I’ve heard for a long time. On the way back to the house, we stopped for frozen custard then booked it back to watch the presidential debate.

I was up before dawn the next morning to say goodbye to Mary before she went to work, and I headed out when it was barely daylight. Deciding I wanted to avoid the tons of construction all up and down I-35, I decided to drive through the Hill Country, a lovely part of Texas. Along the way, I stopped at the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park. I’d visited before, but that was prior to me purchasing my National Parks Passport in which I stamp every park I’ve visited. So I stamped my passport and hit the road again. From the Hill Country, I scooted across some northern counties that border Oklahoma until I got back to my familiar hotel in Texarkana for a night of rest before covering Arkansas and half of Tennessee the next day to get home.

This here is David Callis. In his non-Wal-Mart-shopping hours, he works at the office where I used to work full time and still do some contract work. He’s the government relations guy, techie on call (as in you buzz his office and say, “Yo, David, my computer isn’t working. Come make it work.”), and resident smartypants.

So when I went over to the office today to do some copy editing on a book the magazine is producing, David came by my desk with these four copies of my book — one for his lovely wife, one for his secretary, one for the office’s executive secretary, and one for a friend. He wiped out his local Wal-Mart. Gee, what a swell guy. (Don’t let it go to head, Callis!)

I just got back from my first Dragon*Con tonight, and I’m already planning to go back next year. Not only did I get some writerly exposure to people who might never have heard of me otherwise, but my fangirl self had a fantastic time. What follows is a rundown along with lots of fun pictures. Be sure to go through the whole post — it’s worth it.

So, Thursday I drove down to pal Tanya Michna’s (aka Tanya Michaels’ house) so we could get the jump on arriving the next day. In preparation, we watched Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, a Joss Whedon project that was an Internet hit this summer and which Tanya’s seen many times and I had yet to see due to my crazy schedule. Anyway, as with all things Joss, I loved it. Neil Patrick Harris (Dr. Horrible) and Nathan Fillion (Captain Hammer) were hysterical. My two favorite new sayings, quotes from Dr. Horrible, are “What a crazy random happenstance” and a Captain Hammer quote I can’t say on the blog.

On Friday, we arrived at our hotel, unloaded our stuff in our room and headed down to the Hyatt to register and get on with Day 1. Tanya had obligations on the writer track that day, but I went to see Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk (from Firefly and Serenity) speak. Had to wait in line for an hour and a half, but it was worth it. When my spot in line ended up so far back that I was on the outside of the hotel, I figured I wouldn’t get in, but I was miraculously on the sixth row. Nathan and Alan were really funny as they answered audience members’ questions. Later in the afternoon, I had a signing but since I currently don’t have any sci-fi/fantasy/paranormal books out, I only signed things for two people — one book cover and one DragonCon program. Oh, well.

That night, Tanya and I attended first the Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog live performance, which was several people in costume lip-syncing the show while the show played to the side on a big screen. Very funny, and the guy who played Dr. Horrible was really good. Afterward, we hopped over to another hotel to hear part of the performance of the Brobdingnagian Bards. After that was the Buffy Sing Along, which was the same format used in the Dr. Horrible Sing Along but with the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “Once More with Feeling.” I’d wanted to attend this for a long time, so I was glad to finally get to see it and sing along with a room full of people who loved Buffy too.

We started off Saturday with a program by Matthew Lewis, who plays Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter movies. I’ve heard him interviewed before on the Pottercast podcast, but it was fun to see him in person. Here’s Matt, looking a lot different than he did when Neville first came on screen.

That afternoon, I was on a panel about YA fiction along with several other authors, including Rachel Caine, whose Morganville Vampires series I’m really enjoying. I told her this and that I love her Weather Wardens series too. She was very nice and signed the first Morganville book for me. Next up was a reading by me. Again, because I don’t yet have huge paranormal/sci-fi/fantasy cred, no one showed up. I sat at read Rachel’s book while I waited to see if anyone showed up. When I was still alone after 15 minutes, I took off for the line that was already forming for the Firefly panel with Nathan (Captain Mal), Alan (Wash) as well as Jewel Staite (Kaylee) and Morena Baccarin (Inara). They were very entertaining, and you could tell they all loved working together. Here’s the lovely cast members, from left: Alan, Jewel, Morena and Nathan.

After dinner, we went back to our hotel to rest for a bit and drop off the promo materials we’d been lugging around during the day. But we were back down at conference central at 10 p.m. for a panel on Supernatural. We were able to announce we’re in the Supernatural anthology, In the Hunt, that’s coming out in March (which incidentally is now up on Amazon.com here). After that, we headed over to the ballroom to see dark wave band Cruxshadows play. Again, the line stretched outside and wrapped the building. We didn’t know the band’s music going in, but we really enjoyed it and ended up both buying a CD. I met almost all of the members of the band. Here’s me with JoHanna Moresco, a violin player.

Here are dancers and singers Jessica Lackey and Sarah Kilgore.

Me with violinist David Wood and keyboardist Jen Jawidzik (aka Pyromantic).

And with lead singer Rogue.

On Sunday morning, Tanya and I dragged ourselves out of bed at 7 despite having gone to sleep after 3 a.m. so we could get a good spot for the Dollhouse talk with Tahmoh Penikett (who also plays Helo on Battlestar Galactica). Dollhouse is a new Joss Whedon show starting in January. We got front-row seats! Here’s Tahmoh talking about his new character, FBI agent Paul Ballard. Lots of the info on the show online shows the name as Paul Smith, but Tahmoh revealed it’d been changed.

A lot of the rest of my Sunday consisted of getting three very exciting professional photos taken. Prepare to squee, people!

Here I am with Tahmoh Penikett. Love his Helo character on BSG; can’t wait to see Dollhouse.

And with Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk.

Okay, brace yourselves. Here I am with James Marsters (Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Milton Fine/Braniac on Smallville, and Captain John Hart on Torchwood).

They were all really nice, but because of the long lines you didn’t get more than a few words with each. Which I understand. They were probably really, really tired by the end of each day. Oh, funny moment from when I was standing in line to get my photo with Tahmoh. I had on a shirt that had “WTF — What the Frak?” on it (See above. For those of you who don’t know, that’s a saying from BSG). Michael Hogan, who plays Col. Tigh, saw it, chuckled and said, “What the frak? That’s great.” There were other BSG cast members in the room too — Edward James Olmos (Adama), Aaron Douglas (Tyrol), and James Callis (Baltar).

Jewel and Morena weren’t doing photos, so I wasn’t able to get one with them. The only other person who was that I thought about getting one with was Michael Rosenbaum, who played Lex Luthor on Smallville, but I figured I’d done enough. I did see him, however, in the Walk of Fame room. I didn’t meet anyone in there because you had to buy an autographed picture to meet them, but I just walked through to see who I could see. Among the other notables: George Takei, Walter Koenig, Lou Ferrigno, Jake Lloyd, Yancy Butler, Beau Bridges, Avery Brooks.

More than 30,000 people attend Dragon*Con, and a huge portion of those dress up in costumes. Here are some of the many I saw.

With Jedi Shaak Ti and Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Ironman

Giselle and Prince Edward from Enchanted

With Number Six from Battlestar Galactica.

With Professor Snape and Sirius Black from the Harry Potter series.

Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett

A fantastic Tia Dalma and Gibbs from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

I better stop there before I make the blog post explode. If you ever have the chance to go to Dragon*Con, I highly recommend it.

Awards night at the end of the RWA National Conference is a fabulous way to end a great week of conference. For those up for the Golden Heart and RITA awards, it’s equal parts exciting and nerve-wracking. This year, I wasn’t up for an award because I was in a gap year — couldn’t enter the Golden Heart because I was no longer eligible (this is the unpublished contest), and couldn’t enter the RITA (the published contest) because I didn’t have a book out yet. But being a past Golden Heart winner, I was invited to be a presenter. Pretty cool. I still got to sit up front in the primo viewing seats, and when it was my turn to go up on stage to present the RITA in the Young Adult category, I didn’t even trip on my dress and fall on my face.

Awards night is like our Oscar night, so we go all out getting dressed up. Here’s a look at some of the awards night finery.

Moi with Simone Elkeles, who was up for a RITA for her YA book Leaving Paradise (which I enjoyed reading while on the train to San Fran).

Four lovely Banditas: Kirsten Scott, Christine Wells, Susan Seyfarth (who won the Golden Heart in her category for her manuscript, Money Honey, which has since sold!), and Anna Campbell.

With fellow YA author Julie Linker.

And with good friend, Mills and Boon Medicals author Janice Lynn.

I’ve been so busy the past few days that I haven’t had time to size photos for more posts. But I took my mom home and finished judging contest entries for my RWA chapter, so here are some more fun shots from conference week.

On Thursday night was the Golden Network reception. The Golden Network is a special chapter of RWA for Golden Heart finalists. Each year at the conference, they hold a dessert reception complete with a funny skit and the “boot out” ceremony for those who’ve sold their first book since the last conference. They don’t really boot you out of the chapter; it’s just a symbolic booting in which you get a certificate and a little boot pin to go on your conference badge. This year I was one of the bootees along with several friends.

Above are the Noodlers who were in attendance. Notice Noodler Charity Tahmaseb, standing next to me, also was a bootee.

Among the fun, fun, fun Writers at Play gals, Beth Andrews was a bootee.

On Friday afternoon, the finalists reception for those who’d finaled in the Golden Heart and RITA contests was held. Terry McLaughlin, middle, and I are members of the RWA board, so we got to hand out finalist certificates to fellow Noodlers. Below, from left: me, Theresa Ragan, Terry, Stephanie Rowe, and Priscilla Kissinger.

Friday night means publisher parties. I made a quick zip through the Penguin party before going out to dinner. Then it was on to the Harlequin party, where there was much dancing to be done and fun to be had. Witness it for yourself.

Kathleen Long and Beth Andrews.

My agent, Michelle Grajkowski; me; and my editor, Johanna Raisanen.

Me with Sarah from Smart Bitches. She likes to joke that I used to be her boss when I was the editor of RWA’s eNotes newsletter.

Julie Linker, with whom I did a workshop on Friday morning, and me.

Stephanie Rowe and I dance the night away. Steph was a dancing machine!

I met up with my first Wet Noodle Posse member (aka Noodler) of conference week when the fabulous Theresa Ragan (a double Golden Heart finalist this year) came to the train station to pick me up.

After a hilarious beginning in which Theresa’s car inadvertently got locked in a private lot — oops! — and we met up with a loon of a toll booth operator on the Bay Bridge, she safely dropped me off at the hotel. But I was able to spend some more time with her and the other Noodlers later in the week when we met up for breakfast.

Here we have (from front to back): Priscilla Kissinger, Debra Holland, Lee McKenzie (fellow Harlequin American author), Esri Rose and, standing, Janet Mullany.

And here we have (also front to back): Theresa Ragan, Merrillee Whren, Lorelle Marinello and Delle Jacobs.

Another day, I met up with fellow Noodlers Anne Mallory and Janice Lynn in the lobby of the hotel.

And on Thursday night, Janice won the National Readers’ Choice Award for her book The Doctor’s Pregnancy Bombshell. Yay!

Okay, just for the record, I hate summer colds. Other than running a couple of errands, I’ve been pretty useless today. I’ve basically read e-mail, watched Olympic coverage and read some more of Breaking Dawn. Please, no spoilers! I’m not done yet.

Now on to more pleasant things — more pictures from my trip! And today, we’re featuring the Romance Bandits (aka my Banditas). We had a wonderful dinner at Annabel’s across the street from the hotel on Tuesday night before all the craziness of the conference really got under way.

Here we have (from front to back) Caren Crane, Donna MacMeans, Joan Kayse, Suzanne Welsh and Jo Lewis-Robertson.

On the opposite side of the table (also front to back) were Cassondra Murray, Jeanne Adams, Christine Wells, Kirsten Scott, Susan Seyfarth, and Nancy Northcott.

Two of my tablemates, Beth Andrews and Tawny Weber. I missed a few Banditas who were up taking photos of their own.

Wednesday night was the huge Literacy Book Signing held each year. Totally fun to see the Bandita balloons flying above our six signing Banditas.

Here’s Beth Andrews…

And Jeanne Adams…

And Anna Campbell…

And Donna MacMeans, being visited by fellow Bandita Anna Sugden…

And Christine Wells and Tawny Weber, who through the miracle of alphabetical seating were sitting next to each other.

After the signing, we hosted a crazy, fun party called the Bandita Bash. Even the Golden Rooster made an appearance, probably eying the ginormous cake we hand on hand. The top of the cake said, “Have you spent the night with the Golden Rooster?”

I have more Bandita pictures, but they will come under different posts because they are related to other conference week events. So stay tuned!

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.