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.

An invasion of the Romance Bandits to Romance Novel TV, that is. All this week, the Banditas are guesting over at RNTV. We were given five photos, and groups of four of us each came up with separate, short vignettes. Then, visitors to RNTV have the opportunity to write the next line of one or more of the vignettes for the opportunity to win prizes. I’m one of today’s four vignette writers, and we already are having a great time reading the next lines. So come on over and play.

I’m also blogging at Title Magic today about one of the books I read recently.

And we’re starting our second full week of Winchester fun over at the Supernatural Sisters blog. Today, Natalie is giving us her take on Jensen Ackle’s (aka Dean) newest movie.

It’s been awhile since I’ve blogged about my TV watching, so I thought I’d start a few posts about what I think of the fall TV season so far. Let’s start with Monday nights since, well, it’s currently Monday.

First up, we have Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. There’s speculation that this show might not make it another season, in part because audiences are cooling toward shows where there’s a big, continuing mystery and you have to keep up with every episode, but I still enjoy it. I particularly like the addition of Brian Austin Green as Derek Reese, John Connor’s (might I say hunky) uncle. Who knew David Silver from Beverly Hills 90210 would end up looking like this?  I still like shows where girls kick butt, and both Sarah Connor and the Cameron the terminator do so, repeatedly. Plus, I’m just glad Summer Glau (Cameron) has a regular acting part because she was awesome on Firefly and Serenity. It’s kind of funny that this small, delicate dancer has played two totally kick-ass heroines. Hmm, now that I think about it, they’re both emotionally detached too, for different reasons.

Next up is Prison Break, which according to a recent issue of Entertainment Weekly is one of Stephen King’s absolute favorite shows. Here’s another one that I enjoy, but it has that continuing “What the heck is going on?” thing running through the storyline. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the last season because, seriously, how many seasons can a show called Prison Break run? I mean, it’s in season 4 now. I just want Michael and Lincoln to bring down the company, Michael to be okay and live happily ever after with Sara, and Mahone to live.

Gossip Girl is still dishing out all kinds of soapy drama set in rich teenland. I’ve gotten behind on watching this. There are five episodes on my TiVo. Will have to watch some before next week because I have it set to just record five at a time. I enjoy it when I watch it, but obviously it’s not something that’s calling my name each week. But I write for teens and try to watch as many teen-targeted shows as possible.

Finally for Monday, we have Heroes. Yet again, it’s the continuing story of the “What the…?” variety. Just when you think you know who the bad guys and the good guys are, whoops, they switch. We’ve gotten glimpses of dark Claire, and good Sylar. Dude, did my head just spin in a complete circle? It certainly keeps me guessing, though I have to say I don’t like icky, bad Mohinder. But hot Mohinder in that one episode where he injects himself, that’s okay. This is another show that has suffered a drop in ratings from its exciting beginning (I’m wondering if LOST will suffer the same fate when it returns). I just want this and all these types of shows to wrap up all the questions before they get canceled. I HATE getting caught up in a show that has lots of questions only to see it canceled. Like Invasion and The Nine

So, anyone watching these shows? What’s your take on this season so far?

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.

My Entertainment Weekly came today, and I was thrilled to see Twilight featured on the cover. There’s a nice article/interview with Twilight book author Stephenie Meyer, and another article about the movie due out Dec. 12. You can read both on the EW Web site via the links above. I can’t wait for Breaking Dawn, the final book due out in a mere three weeks, then the movie.

Any other Twilighters out there? Are you rooting for Bella to end up with Edward or Jacob?

Okay, totally cool news! I’ve had a trip to Dragon*Con in my plans for a few months, but it wasn’t until today that I found out that I’ve been approved as an author speaker along with good pal Tanya Michaels/Tanya Michna. We are such geek girls about certain TV shows, so in addition to our speaking and autographing duties we’ll be prowling the halls looking for cast members from Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Smallville. My goals for the weekend of Dragon*Con (Aug. 29-Sept. 1):

1. Meet lots of readers to get the word out about my books
2. Meet Tahmoh Penikett, Katie Sackhoff and Jamie Bamber (Helo, Starbuck and Apollo from BSG); Morena Baccarin, Jewel Staite and Adam Baldwin (from Serenity and Firefly); Michael Rosenbaum and Erica Durance (from Smallville); and James Marsters (from Buffy and Angel). Yes, I’m letting my sci-fi geekdom shine!

The only thing that could make this weekend better would be if the boys from Supernatural were going to be there. Then I would be absolutely beside myself. (But Mary and Natalie might hate me forever. Eek.)

Check out the Dragon*Con site for more info, including the huge list of celebrities attending. I’m not on the list yet because I just faxed in my letter of agreement tonight.

I hope everyone had a great 4th. Having done our cookout and partying last weekend, we didn’t even leave the house except to step out onto the front porch to watch the neighbors shoot off fireworks. And as you can tell from my lack of blogging the past couple of days, I’ve been in the writing cave. I’ve written 33 pages in the past two days. I’m really pushing to have a rough draft done by the time I head to San Fran so I can do editing on the train.

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.

Humor is one of those things that is vastly different between people. What one person thinks is funny another may think is the dumbest (or most crass) thing they’ve ever heard. That’s why I think it’s hard to write good humor, why I admire authors like Janet Evanovich and Bill Bryson who can literally make me laugh out loud. And it’s why I admire comedians who get up on stage and do stand-up when they know some people in the crowd are likely not going to enjoy their show. I got to thinking about this because I could hear Kathy Griffin on the TV in the other room. Kathy is one of those comedians who some people hate (usually the celebrities of whom she makes fun), but I think she’s hysterical. Admittedly, she does sometimes go a bit too far, but on the whole she usually leaves me rolling.

Who are other comedians who leave me in stitches? Carlos Mencia, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Lewis Black, Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall (okay, really that entire Blue Collar Comedy Tour lineup), Craig Ferguson and the late Mitch Hedberg. Clueless wonder that I am, about a year ago I looked up Mitch online thinking that it’d be really fun to see one of his shows in person. I was saddened to see that he died of a drug overdose in 2005. Hubby and I loved his funny one-liners and short, humorous observations. His delivery was like no one else’s. Here’s an example.

So, who are some of your favorite comedians? Who are some of your favorite authors who write humor well?

I’ve written 96 pages since last Sunday, so by the time I finish working today I’ll have written more than 100 pages this week. No wonder my brain feels abused. I wrote 16 yesterday and could have pushed myself to write more, but after writing that many pages in so few days I took the evening off to rest and just veg. I watched the Katie Holmes/Marc Blucas (Riley from Buffy) movie First Daughter, last night’s episode of Stargate Atlantis — no Ronon in sight , and The Prince and Me 2: Royal Wedding. Yes, I’m getting into that YA state of mind since I’ll have to start working on YA #2 after I finish The Willow Creek Cafe and the line edits that are their way to me on A Firefighter in the Family.

Hey, anyone out there with a MySpace page? If so and you want to link to mine, you can see it in all of its Will Turner glory here.

Don’t forget to comment on the blog here before the end of the day tomorrow to be in the running to win the bag o’ books and other goodies.

Also, voting for the American Title contest is still under way for Round 4. My manuscript, OUT OF SIGHT, is one of the four finalists and I’d appreciate any votes. To read the entries and vote, visit this page.

When asked what my thoughts were about the end of LOST last season, I’d have to say, “Lost.” What a mind twister. I have my TiVo set for next week’s return of LOST, and I can’t wait to see what happens. And, hey, my buddy Tanya Michaels is blogging about LOST today too. Tanya and I share a lot of TV and pop culture obsessions, so we ALWAYS have plenty to talk about when we see each other. Pop over to her blog and share your speculations for the new season.