I’m working on stuff for my rodeo continuity story for Harlequin American today, so here’s a bit of fun to keep you occupied for a couple of minutes. Just plug your birth date into this site, and it’ll generate all kinds of interesting information.

I’ve been up to my eyeballs in revisions lately, for my second YA novel, Ice and Desire. I like how they’re coming, and I’m beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully, I can send them to my editor by the end of the week. Since I’m headed to California a week from today, I’ve got a lot to get done between now and then:

1. Finish the Ice and Desire revisions
2. Finish judging entries in the RITA contest — 5 books left!
3. Read my agenda packet for the RWA board meeting
4. Do a freelance article for my contract job
5. Misc. paperwork
6. Print out what I’ve written of Flirting with Forever, the Harlequin American book that is due April 1, so I can work on it on the train to Cali.

While I’m working on all that, I thought I’d share a fun fan video I found recently, for one of the shows I enjoy, Legend of the Seeker. The video is about Kahlen and Richard’s relationship, and it includes a verra nice kiss. Plus, I like the Hinder song it’s set to.

Author Jo Leigh lost her husband to cancer some time back, and since they didn’t have health insurance she’s been left with lots of medical bills. A benefit auction has just gotten under way offering some great items for writers and readers just in time for the holidays. I’ve donated a critique in one listing, and our Romance Bandits blog has a bit basket of goodies in the lineup.

Check out all the offerings here.

I’m blogging at the Harlequin American blog about seeing Wicked last week. There are even videos of two of my favorite songs from the play.

I’m on the road, so today you get a funny video of a cat. Click here to be highly amused.

more animals
I am a total sucker for baby animals of all kinds — okay, so not amphibians. I “aww” when I see puppies or kittens, always feel a tug toward any sign that says “free puppies” like I saw while driving through Texas last week, and I could spend a lot of time on Cute Overload if I let myself.

Today, in my freelance journalist persona, I went to a dairy farm in East Tennessee where they make their own cheese. They have 800 cows that get milked three times a day. While taking the walking tour, we passed the sheds where the newborn cows are kept. They were so cute! I wanted to pet one, but understandably we weren’t allowed to. There’s a two-fold reason — if they got petted by all the tourists who come through on the tours, they’d become pets instead of dairy cows. Also, that contact would pose germ-transfer risks. Still, it was fun to stand outside the pens and look into those big brown eyes.

Just a quickie post tonight to let you all know about a couple of site updates I’ve done this week. I added some new pages, one detailing what I’m currently reading (because I liked that feature whenever I was blogging on Blogger) and links to the two versions of an essay I wrote in hopes one would be included in an anthology about the show Supernatural, which I believe I’ve mentioned here before. Unfortunately, neither version made the final cut, but I thought Supernatural fans might enjoy reading them anyway.

The What I’m Reading has its own page link on the left. The Supernatural essays are accessible through the Fun Stuff page.

This has got to be the best wedding-related video ever. It starts out pretty traditional, but keep watching.

Revisions still ongoing. And I’m heading out to Atlanta tomorrow for a conference. If any of you are in the Atlanta area, the book signing with several authors, including moi, is open to the public on Saturday from 4:00-5:30 p.m. at the Hilton Atlanta Northeast in Norcross.

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.

No, I’m not talking about the weather. First coolness of today, pal and fabulous Aussie author Anna Campbell has mentioned me and my first release on her lastest Web site update. Check it out and all the other fun stuff Anna mentions.

And the second coolness of the day — I’m headed to Dragon*Con! Will come back with lots of photos and fun tales, I promise.