It’s been quite awhile since I blogged, but I thought I’d put up some photos as I prepare for my annual geekfest at Dragon*Con. I’m dressing up one day this year as Kahlen Amnell from Legend of the Seeker. Let’s just say that Bridget Regan looks better than I do and I now really remember why I don’t have long hair anymore. This is one time I’ll be glad the hotels are cold since the wig is hot. Still, it’s a great costume, and a shout out to W. A. for making it for me.

Here’s Bridget as Kahlen.

Here’s me, first with the hood up.

And down, with the “daggers” up and ready. I didn’t get real daggers but am making do with some $2.50 fake ninja knives from a costume store where I got the wig. LOL. And, yes, Kahlen mysteriously needed vision correction. Hey, I want to be able to see where I’m going.

I’m super excited because four stars from my all-time favorite show, Firefly, will be in attendance this year — Summer Glau (River), Sean Maher (Simon), Jewel Staite (Kaylee) and Morena Baccarin (Inara). Even though Adam Baldwin (Jayne) won’t be there, I did have a Jayne hat made. Here’s me in said hat. (And, hey, closeup of the new glasses.) Dude, why am I always managing to put blog photos up of myself with no makeup on?

The gal who makes the hats goes the extra mile for authenticity by sending it in a box with stamps that look like postal stamps from some of the places from the show. There’s Eavesdown Docks on Persephone…

Canton, setting of the hilarious episode “Jaynestown”…

Capital City Osiris and New Duinsmur Beaumond.

She also included a replica of the letter Jayne’s mother sends to him with the hat in the episode “The Message” and a Blue Sun sticker.

I’m going to be a picture-taking maniac at Dragon*Con, so I’ll be posting more photos of awesome costumes and famous people sightings.

I’m excited to show my first book trailer, for next month’s release, Winter Longing. Hope you all enjoy it. Feel free to share.

My first-ever online read at eHarlequin.com begins today. You can go here to read the first chapter.

The six authors who are taking part in the continuity series The Codys: The First Family of Rodeo are hosting a contest. Here are the details:

June kicks off the debut of Harlequin American Romance’s first-ever six-book continuity The Codys: First Family of Rodeo. In honor of this exciting occasion we’re running 6 one-day-a-month Social Media Blitz Contests at www.harauthors.blogspot.com

Contest Scoop
Beginning next month in June, an author in the continuity will post a blog at www.harauthors.blogspot.com and discuss her contribution to the The Codys: First Family of Rodeo series. After reading the author’s blog, post the link www.harauthors.blogspot.com, the title of the book and the author’s name to your Facebook, MySpace and or Twitter pages as well as your favorite blogs. The more places you link to and mention the author and her book, the more chances you have to win.

You can earn additional chances to win if you refer a friend and they in turn post a link to their favorite social media websites and blogs. Be sure to return to www.harauthors.blogspot.com and tell us where you’re spreading the word by posting the information in the comment section of the blog–that way we can keep a tally of your activity. Remember, it’s One Day Only Each Month June-November 2010!

Authors will be giving away prizes to several lucky winners. Your name will be entered into a drawing for each social media site you promote The Codys: First Family of Rodeo and for each friend you contact who in turn spreads the word through their favorite networks. You have twenty-four hours to link to us and win! The author will post the winners in the comment section of her blog the next day–be sure to return to see if you’re one of the lucky winners.

On June 5th Senior Editor for American Romance, Kathleen Scheibling will introduce The Codys: First Family of Rodeo to readers and the following day on June 6th Rebecca Winters kicks off the Social Media Blitz Contest with the first book in the series– Walker: The Rodeo Legend!

With the help of our faithful readers we’re hoping that on June 6th the web is buzzing with chatter about The Codys: First Family of Rodeo!

I’m back from Dragon*Con, and I’ve actually downloaded all of my photos. I had a fabulous time embracing my inner sci-fi geek, and I have the photos to prove it. Last Thursday, I drove to my friend Tanya Michna’s house in Georgia. We drove into Atlanta to pick up our guest badges and packets since we were both speakers. Let’s just say it was a bit surreal and we both felt kind of like posers when we looked over and saw Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers in the 25th Century) and Richard Hatch (Battlestar Galactica) in line with us.

Friday morning, we made our way to our hotel for the weekend and had a remarkably easy time finding a good parking spot and getting checked in quickly. Then we zipped over to the Buffy/Angel panel. Here’s one-half of the panel — Kristy Swanson (Buffy in the original movie) and Felicia Day (Vi in the series).

And the other half of the panel was Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia) and Julie Benz (Darla).

After the panel, I was off to have the first of the photos I’d booked taken. First up was some of the Battlestar Galactica cast. I’d originally scheduled a photo with Edward James Olmos (Admiral Adama) and Mary McDonnell (President Laura Roslin), but Olmos had to cancel his appearance. I still had the photo with Mary, but I added Kandyse McClure (Dualla) and Michael Trucco (Sam Anders). I wish I’d splurged and gotten the photo with all the cast members there, but I was already making my credit card scream. You can kind of see that I’d dressed as a Merlotte’s Diner waitress from True Blood — the same idea at least 20 other people I saw had.

The next photo was with Charisma Carpenter and Julie Benz. Hey, nothing like having your photo taken between two of the most beautiful women at the conference to make you recommit to your exercise plan.

After that, I went back to our room. Since this year we were staying in one of the four host hotels, I was able to watch and earlier panel with Paul McGillion (Dr. Carson Beckett on Stargate Atlantis) on Dragon*Con TV.  Later that night, Tanya and I hit the Supernatural fan panel and handed out our business cards for the Supernatural Sisters blog we do with M.J. Fredrick, Natalie Damschroder and Terri Clark.

I had to get up early the next morning for my photo op with Leonard Nimoy. Couldn’t believe I was actually going to stand next to the original Spock. Unfortunately, some lowlife thief stole the photo company’s equipment (four laptops, camera equipment, printers, photo cards, etc.) Saturday night, and my Nimoy photo was one of the 10 percent they hadn’t had the opportunity to back up. The folks at Froggy’s Photos were nice and refunded my money. The lady I talked to couldn’t believe I was being nice and understanding about it because she said she’d already had several people yell at her about their lots photos (on Sunday). Dudes, it’s not like they asked to have their equipment stolen. They had to finish out their appointments on Sunday and Monday with borrowed equipment.

I followed the Nimoy shoot with ones with Peter Facinelli (Dr. Carlisle Cullen) and Justin Chon (Eric Yorkie) of Twilight (which was why I’d chosen to dress like Alice Cullen)…

and then Joe Flanigan (John Sheppard) and Paul McGillion (doing a Zoolander face) of Stargate Atlantis. (The following day, I was able to get Paul and Joe to sign my photo and have a little more time to talk to them. Both very nice, and Paul is a total ham. His various expressions in everyone’s photos were a riot.)

After the Atlantis photo, I hurried to where Tanya was already waiting in line for the Battlestar Galactica panel. One-half of the panel was Michael Hogan (Saul Tigh), Michael Trucco (Sam Anders), Kate Vernon (Ellen Tigh), and Mary McDonnell (President Laura Roslin).

The other half was Luciana Carro (Kat), Alessandro Juliani (Felix Gaeda) and Aaron Douglas (Galen Tyrol).

This entire panel seemed to really get along well and all seemed like truly nice people and genuinely appreciative of the fans.

After some lunch, Tanya and I made for the line already forming for the Stargate panel. It was a 4 p.m. panel, and we got in line about 1:45 and still weren’t in the front. A couple of the panel members (Gary Jones and Colin Cunningham) were from Stargate SG-1. The other four panelists were from Stargate Atlantis. They were Paul McGillion, Rachel Luttrell (Teyla Emmagan), Joe Flanigan and Jason Momoa (Ronon Dex). This was another really fun and friendly group.

In fact, when Rachel wasn’t there for the beginning of the panel, Joe called her to see where she was and held his phone up to the microphone. LOL!

I was able to meet Rachel and have my photo taken with her a little later. She was really friendly. I’m inspired to get as fit as her.

We capped off the night with the Cruxshadows concert — for the second year in a row — which went from midnight until 2 a.m. Yep, the really late night of the con. And would you believe there was another event after that? People were queued up for the Rocky Horror Picture Show, which holds absolutely not interest for me.

On Sunday, I didn’t dress in costume because I was on a panel speaking about Writing for the YA Market with fellow authors such as Richelle Mead, Diana Peterfreund, Gillian Summers and Katherine Duey. But before that, I had my photo taken with Jason Momoa. He wasn’t as chatty as the other Atlantis cast members but was still nice. Ronon was always one of my favorite characters, and one of the reasons was because he wasn’t chatty.

The final professional photo I had taken was with John Schneider. I really liked him as Jonathon Kent on Smallville, but well before that I’d loved him as Bo Duke on the Dukes of Hazzard. I remember watching it faithfully every Friday night on one of the three channels we got out in the boonies. I told one of the ladies working the photo shoot that if I could have one back to tell my 12-year-old self that one day I’d meet John Schneider, I wouldn’t have believed it. Not surprisingly, he was super nice.

Dragon*Con has an area it calls the Walk of Fame. It’s here that you can meet the actors and talk to them a little more, get their autographs if you like. I had Joe, Paul and Jason autograph theirs, and I was able to talk to Kate Vernon and Michael Hogan for a few minutes. While Michael was talking to someone else, Kate and I even talked about my YA book, Heartbreak River. How cool is that!? I was able to have my photo snapped with them. You wouldn’t know they’re Cylons, would you?

One of the coolest parts of Dragon*Con is checking out all the costumes. Here are a few examples.

The best Wonder Woman I saw. She was tall and totally had the look.

Supergirl (Isn’t she adorable?)

Kara “Starbuck” Thrace (I remembered meeting this gal last year when she was dressed as Number Six from BSG.)

There are always tons of Star Wars characters. Here’s an Ewok, a Jedi and a Stormtrooper.

And for you fans of Buffy comics, here’s an awesome Fray.

Catwoman

We met Hello Kitty in the food court. I couldn’t help but think she was burning up in that costume.

Loved this trio! They were Captain Malcom Reynolds, River Tam and Jayne Cobb from Firefly and Serenity.

I love the Underworld movies, and here are some Lycans fit to scare small children. What you can barely see on the right is one of the vampires in the armor we see in the beginning of Underworld: Evolution. I wish I’d noticed that the gal taking the photo didn’t get the entire group. Bummer.

The best Dr. Horrible I saw over the weekend.

And here’s me as Alice Cullen with Tanya as Tonks from the Harry Potter books.

I’m already brainstorming my costume ideas for next year.

A friend who knows how much I love Firefly and Serenity sent me a link to this fan vid on YouTube today. It’s awesome. Enjoy, my fellow Browncoats.

Well, you can probably tell my deadline is sucking up all my time because I didn’t get the second post about the conference up. But never fear! I’ve not forgotten.

On Sunday and Monday of conference week, I was pretty much in board member mode from the time I got up until the time I went to bed. I think we got out of the board meeting around 8 p.m. on Monday. Consequently, I slept in on Tuesday instead of going to play tourist. Two reasons: I was already run down and knew I’d get sick if I didn’t catch up on rest before the conference even started. And I’d broken my toe the night before my slamming it into the base of the bed. Ugh. Never had a broken anything before. I didn’t realize it was broken until the next morning when I discovered it was very sore, swollen and quite purple. Good thing I brought all open-toed shoes. So I didn’t think I wanted to go walking around museums all day.

Tuesday night, we had a party for the Romance Bandits and Bandita Jeanne’s house. Very fun — good food, good conversation, many laugh-out-loud moments. Plus, it was a hoot to hear Donna MacMeans’ GPS telling us how to get to Jeanne’s house in his proper British voice. Here for your viewing pleasure are several photos from the evening.

Donna MacMeans and Loucinda McGary

Nancy Northcott and Suzanne Welsh

Suz with Christie Kelley

The Golden Rooster eyeballing some of the yummies

Jeanne Adams, Anna Campbell and Caren Crane

Joan Kayse offering the GR one of her awesomely scrumptious chocolate chip cookies

Beth Andrews and Anna Sugden

I’m pausing in the posts from RWA today because I saw this video today. This is the absolute best start to a wedding I’ve ever seen. Original, fun, unforgettable, and full of personality.

If the video above doesn’t work, try this link.

I still owe everyone a final “road trip to Wisconsin” post, and I hope to get that posted in the next couple of days. It’s just been a crazy week of getting ready to leave for Washington, D.C., and the RWA National Conference. Hitting the road in the morning, but I wanted to share a few photos of what came via FedEx today. I had this purse made to take to the conference. It’s made from the cover and some of the insides of my first YA book, Heartbreak River. How cool is that!? Karla at Bagitude! made it. Check her work out on the Web here.

Haven’t blogged in a few days, but I’m been busy (as usual). But it’s been fun busy. I got to San Antonio on Thursday; then Mary and I headed to Kingsville (where we toured the famous King Ranch) and then to Corpus Christi (where we attended a PRCA rodeo). This portion of my trip was research for a rodeo book I’ll be working on when I get back home. It’s been awhile since I went to a rodeo, so that was fun. And the bonus? We got to spend the night out on Padre Island. Yay — seafood and sea air!

Yesterday, before heading back to San Antonio, we went out to Padre Island National Seashore to walk on the beach and so I could add another stamp in my National Parks Passport. Yes, I am a geek. Why do you ask? Then we went downtown for one of the Fiesta parades, but we had to leave before it started because Mary’s son’s car broke down.

Today, we had a birthday party for Mary with several members of her family and friends. Loads of fun — and loads of food. That, combined with the Guenther House biscuits and gravy I had this morning, have me feeling like I should flee San Antonio before I gain a few hundred pounds. Seriously, there is so much good food in this city that if I lived here I’d be enormous. Mary and I also went to several bookstores today to sign our books. Big fun!

I’m here for one more day, then it’s on to Houston for a meeting and then home.

I never did get around to sharing photos from my San Diego trip last month. So here you go, a photographic tour of my trip…

The desert of New Mexico outside my train window.

The Marriott where the RWA board meeting was held and where the conference will be in a few years. Gorgeous location with lots of restaurants nearby. I think the members will love it.

Coral trees in the park in front of the hotel. Beautiful.

With a Navy base across the bay from the hotel, I saw lots of Navy vessels go by.

Nearby was the USS Midway aircraft carrier, which is now a museum. Here I am on the flight deck. Funny that I’m in a plane since I don’t like to fly.

And here I am in the brig. Oops, I was bad.

Beside the ship was a huge statue of that sailor kissing the nurse made famous by that photo snapped in New York at the end of WWII.

After my meeting was over, my sister and her family came down and we played tourist for a few days. Here we’re at the Shamu show at Sea World. We all got sunburned because we were dorks and forgot out sunscreen.

Another day, we went to Cabrillo National Monument. Here I am with my two nieces.

This cute lighthouse was at Cabrillo. It was the original, but they eventually had to build one down by the water because this one gets socked in with fog all the time.

These tidepools were down below where the lighthouse is located.