First up on the CD is the band that Stephenie Meyer loves, Muse. Appropriate band name for a writer to like. Their “Supermassive Black Hole” makes me want to get up and dance, as do quite a few of the songs on this soundtrack. The second song is “Decode” by Paramore, which I just discovered is from my neck of the woods. Maybe I’ll be able to catch a show if they’re playing in town. Paramore is a punk-pop quintet, and they have a second song on the soundtrack, “I Caught Myself.”

Other acts who contributed are The Black Ghosts from the UK, Blue Foundation from Denmark (two more European bands to add to my list), Mute Math, Iron & Wine, and Perry Farrell, frontman of Jane’s Addiction. Rob Pattinson, who plays Edward in the movie, even sings a ballad called “Never Think.” The CD ends with an instrumental track called “Bella’s Lullaby” by Carter Burwell.

I’m glad I got the soundtrack prior to seeing the movie so I can be familiar with the songs already when I hear them in the movie. Only 11 more days until the movie hits the big screen!

I’m blogging a couple of other places today. The first is at my very good friend Colleen Gleason’s blog. She’s the author of the fabulous Gardella Vampire Chronicles (Go, Max!), and I’m blogging about the power of music and how I incorporate music into my books.

It’s also my day at Title Magic, the blog of last year’s American Title finalists. I’m talking about how I approach large revisions.

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.

You know how you get those meme things in e-mail and are tagged by other bloggers all the time. You know the ones that ask things like — tell us six random things about you? Well, I’ve decided to start my own and see how long it takes the world of the Internet to send it back to me. So, here goes:

Famous People Meme — Which famous person in each of the following categories would you like to meet?

Author — J.K. Rowling

Movie Actor — Orlando Bloom

TV Actor — Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles, also Sarah Michelle Gellar

Musician/Singer — Bon Jovi

Historical Figure — Queen Elizabeth I and Sacajawea

Fictional Book Character — J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood brothers

Fictional Movie or TV Character — Buffy Sommers

Okay, if you have a blog, go forth and blog. Everyone, including the bloggers, share your answers in the comments section. I’m verrry curious.

Up for grabs this week:

Whitney, My Love by Judith McNaught
Guarding Jane Doe by Harper Allen
Undertow by Dixie Browning

And now for the music. This is the song I’m currently playing a lot, “Breath” by Breaking Benjamin.

In other TV news, the last two weeks of Survivor have been wild. Last week’s blindside of Ozzy was a brilliant strategic move. Ozzy was one of my favorite players from his original season. While I still liked him, at least the editing made him seem cockier and full of himself this time around. Then last night, another blindside of someone sitting with the immunity idol but not playing it. Poor Jason was just lied to and lied to. I never understood why everyone disliked him so much, and I was pulling for him. Alas, the bitchy patrol got together and ousted him. Those girls have got to realize that everyone on the jury is totally ticked at them. Of the people left, I’m rooting for Erik first, then Amanda, then Cirie, then James. I’d love them to be the final four, would love to see the other three girls voting out one after another over the next three weeks.

So, yesterday could have been called Adventures in Mowing for me. Hubby normally mows the lawn, but he’s been traveling a lot for work. I’ve only mowed one before in my life, and that was just the front yard. Yesterday, I decided to be ambitious and mowed both the front and the back, all while wearing an oh-so-stylish surgical mask because of my allergies. I seriously hope I sweated off about ten pounds because I was pooped when I was done. I’m doing this with a push mower, people. I came away with sore hands and two blisters on the insides of my thumbs, but I felt oddly good to have tackled the lawn and won. But I think I’ll leave the weedeating for hubby.

And finally, in writing news, I finished up my second round of revisions on Heartbreak River. All I have to do after posting this blog post is to do a spell check and then e-mail it to my editor. Wahoo!

I really like how rock songs are worked into the show because of Dean’s love of rock, especially classic rock. Two are still playing in my head for different reasons — “Carry On My Wayward Son” by Kansas because the Winchester boys are from Kansas, and “Silent” Lucidity” by Queensryche because it played over the very emotional end to the episode “Heart” and because that song was a hit during my college years and was a favorite of mine.

The big news of the day though was the birth of our newest nephew. Can’t wait to see him in a few days. I hear he looks just like his older brother did when he was born, only with a lot more hair.

Anyone watch Heroes tonight? Did anything surprise you?

More music for your little ears:

The topic of age came up in the conversation too. We were both teenagers in the ’80s, and that doesn’t seem so long ago. To think that it’s been 18 years since I graduated high school is just weird. Part of me still feels like I’m in my early to mid 20s, and I admit to occasionally wanting to do something on pure impulse. I’m normally a big planner, and doing something like up and driving several hours just to see a concert doesn’t seem like the responsible adult thing to do. But do we get so tied up in what’s expected of us as “responsible adults” that we cut out the fun of impulsive trips?

I think a lot of aging is how old you feel. And I don’t feel old — well, until I go to a concert and see how much younger a lot of the other people are. Thankfully, though, there are still quite a few people in their mid 30s there. But will there be when I’m 40, 50, 60? Because I don’t think my taste in music is going to change.

So, do you feel your age? Have you ever done something like take a road trip on pure impulse, on the spur of the moment? How did it work out?

And here for your viewing pleasure is a cool video from HIM.

When bands remake songs, the result is often not as good as the original though that’s not always the case. One of my all-time favorite songs is Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game”, so I didn’t know how I’d like a remake by HIM, a Finnish band I just discovered. Turns out I really like it, even though Chris Isaak’s is still the classic. What do you think? Also, I recognize the actress wearing white in the video (can’t tell if she’s the same one as in the black outfit), but for the life of me I can’t figure out what her name is.