For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working on revising Coven, my paranormal YA. Today was dedicated to beginning work on synopses on books 2 and 3 of what I hope will be a trilogy. World building is fun but tiring. It’s off being read by the wonderful, fabulous, incredible Mary now.

Remember when summer was a wasteland as far as TV went? Granted, I’m TiVoing fewer shows in the summer, but there are still some. Foremost is Deadliest Catch, which is sadly gripping this season because the episodes are leading up to the death of Captain Phil Harris of the Cornelia Marie. Last week’s episode showed when he had his stroke, and the next few episodes cover the couple of weeks between that and when he passed away. Still doesn’t seem real even though it happened in February.

I’m also watching the latest season of Burn Notice (love Michael, Fiona and Sam, and new guy Jesse) and a new show called The Gates. Anyone watching this one? It’s like Desperate Housewives meets Eureka meets True Blood.

Like millions of other people, I watched the series finale of LOST last night. I came away with mixed feelings. I cried, especially when some of the couples met up again — Charlie and Claire, Sun and Jin, Sawyer and Juliet. I still didn’t buy the Sayid and Shannon pairing, especially since they spent so much time building up the deep love he had for Nadia. Or are we supposed to interpret it that the reason he kept losing Nadia was she wasn’t who he was supposed to be with? Sorry, still don’t buy the Shannon thing.

I know lots of people are upset that we didn’t get definitive answers, but that’s been the nature of LOST from the beginning. Lots of things have been open to interpretation, and that’s how it went out. Would I have loved to have concrete answers to all my many questions? Sure. And maybe we’ll get some of them at some point in the future. I’ve heard show creators Damon Lindlelof and Carlton Cuse may expound on things at some point in the future, and I’m sure there are going to be books written on the subject.

I am still confused about the Sideways stories we’ve gotten this season. What were they? Did they really happen? We were told by Christian Shepard at the end that everything on the island really happened, but what about the Sideways stories? I can’t figure that one out. And I can’t believe I didn’t realize the potential implications of Jack’s dad’s name — Christian Shepard. And I wonder if everything that happened on the island was just some sort of test — either for Jack or for all of them — and that it ultimately didn’t matter.

What was your impression if you watched LOST? Did you like the finale? Hate it? Somewhere in between? What questions do you still have that you most want answered?

And like many other people, I’m eagerly awaiting the LOST series finale. I can’t wait to see what all the show’s writers answer and what is left open to interpretation (aka drive me crazy).

Next Tuesday is the finale for The Biggest Loser. I’ve really enjoyed this season, liked the contestants. And it’s always so dramatic to see what everyone looks like now.

Any predictions for LOST? What season finales have you enjoyed? Looking forward to?

When I was 13 or so, the original TV version of V came out and I remember really liking it. So when I heard they were doing a remake, I was intrigued. With the advancements in technology, graphics, special effects, etc., since then, it should be visually much better and hopefully less cheesy. Of course, when I’m 60 I might look back on this new incarnation as cheesy. That’s the way technological advancements work.

I wasn’t able to watch last night’s premiere until this morning because our local affiliate ran it delayed after midnight. It is visually impressive, and Morena Baccarin portrays Anna, the leader of the Visitors with a classy cool that is peace and love on the outside but with hints of something sinister beneath. It’s odd seeing Morena play one of the bad guys since I so loved her portrayal of Inara on Firefly. I am excited, however, that more people will hopefully get to see her performances now.

In fact, it must have been “let’s make Firefly alums bad guys” night. When I first saw Alan Tudyk (Wash on Firefly), I let go a little squee. He was cast as the FBI partner of LOST alum Elizabeth Mitchell’s character, Erica. I was so excited that I’d get a weekly dose of two of my faves. Alas, Alan is playing a bad alien. Still, I think he’ll show up some more based on the “rest of the season” previews they did at the end of the episode. Still, it’d be nice to see him back in a good-guy role where he can show his funny sense of humor.

I thought it was interesting, and a good tie-in with current, real-world fears, that there had been Visitors on Earth for awhile working as an alien sleeper cell. Thus, Erica’s FBI world and the larger world issue of the Visitors crashed into each other.

I’ve already manually set my TiVo to capture next week’s delayed broadcast. So, what did you all think of the debut? Were you a fan of the original?

The ghosts and goblins have put away their costumes for another year, and November has arrived with the end to Daylight Saving Time. I always hate that because it makes the nights seem sooooo long. But, hey, good news, I think there’s only 4 or 5 pieces of leftover candy still hanging around to taught me. We only had two trick-or-treaters. I don’t kids go house to house much anymore. Rather, they go to parties or trunk-or-treat events at churches. I think next year I won’t buy any candy and just keep the porch light off. I just end up eating the candy I don’t need anyway.

So, tomorrow night is the long-awaited premiere of the V remake. Alas, I won’t get to see it until Wednesday because our local ABC affiliate is running it delayed at midnight because the normal time is filled with the Titans show with Coach Jeff Fisher. While I was online today trying to figure out when it would be running so I could manually set my TiVo to record it (man, I hope it works or I’m going to be so irritated), I came across several forums where viewers were NOT happy about the scheduling change. But this is football country, so it’s not really a surprise when I think about it. Still, seems odd when ABC has been promoting this show for months. I remember loving the original when I was a kid, even though when I caught a snippet of it on SyFy this week it looked pretty cheesy. But I like science fiction and am a fan of Morena Baccarin (from Firefly) who plays the head alien this time around.

Anyone else planning to watch?

I mentioned yesterday that I’d be blogging a bit about the new TV season, and I’m going to start out by directing you over to the Nobody Writers it Better blog where I’m blogging today about Stargate Universe (SGU). It’s part of what is giving me my sci-fi fix each week, and it’s filling the hole left by the end of Battlestar Galactica and Stargate Atlantis. Even if you not a big sci-fi geek like me, come on over and read about SGU. It’s a very character-driven show, so you might like it despite all the space stuff.

So, what have I been up to since I last blogged here in mid September? Well, I spoke at the Moonlight & Magnolias Conference

Went to my 20-year high school reunion

Spoke at the member retreat for River City Romance Writers in Memphis

Have been enjoying the new TV season (I’ll do a separate post about this sometime this week, but I have to give a squeeful shoutout to the beginning of Castle last night when Nathan Fillion’s character, Richard Castle, dressed up for Halloween as Captain Mal, aka Captain Tightpants, from his Firefly days!)

Been working on some new story ideas

Been doing a lot of yard work and general prep for winter (like the duct-cleaning guys are here now)

Keeping up with my Healthy Writer blog (come by and check us out!) and continuing with my regular blog days at the Romance Bandits, Supernatural Sisters, Wet Noodle Posse, Harlequin American Authors and Nobody Writes is Better blogs

Got new author photos taken

And generally just keeping up with all of the everyday demands.

So, what is everyone else working on/doing this fall?

Has anyone been watching this season?

Well, autumn is here. I’m seeing signs — a few leaves turning color or dropping, cooler temps, football on TV on the weekends. It makes getting out and walking or working in the yard much more pleasant.

Writing-wise, I’m brainstorming some new ideas while I catch up on some other things that didn’t get much or any attention while I was on deadline. I’m prepping for a couple of workshops I’m doing in Atlanta in a couple of weeks, planning to attend my 20th high school reunion, and prepping for workshops I’m doing for another RWA chapter later in October. I have something scheduled for every weekend in October.

Anyone else have a busy fall on tap?

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.