Blink, blink. I’m coming out of the revision cave to do a quick post so no one thinks I’ve retired already.

Just call me the AWOL blogger. I’ve been buried in revisions and trips to promo my first book’s release. Only 11 days until my revision deadline (trying not to freak out here as I feel like the book is still in craptacular form), but after the 20th I should be able to come out and join the land of the living for awhile.  I’ll even post lots of pictures I’ve been taking but not having time to post on the blog.

I am traveling over the next week, so be sure to check out the Appearances sidebar on my Home page if you’re in Texas

Also, it’s officially time for the October releases from Harlequin American, so that largely means A Firefighter in the Family’s time on shelves is over. However, you can still get it through Amazon.com or eHarlequin. And just think, Christmas is just around the corner and books make wonderful gifts and stocking stuffers.

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.

Do you smell the smoke? That’s my brain. It’s overheating from all the revisions I’m doing. I really hope this book is fabulous when I’m done. I’d hate to have a scorched brain for nothing.

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.

Are you confused about the financial crisis that’s going on here in the U.S. right now? For those of us who aren’t accountants or economics gurus, it can be confusing. A friend sent me this link to a layman’s description of what the heck is going on. Be warned, there is some crass language in this, but it might be the best explanation I’ve seen. I now have a pretty good idea of what an amazing series of bad decisions on the parts of people who should have known better have brought us to the point of a $700 billion government bailout. And if we’re already in debt up to our eyeballs to countries like China, where in the world does $700 billion come from? Is there a money tree growing in the District of Columbia that I don’t know about?

Sigh. I think I’ll go back to my revisions. While mind-twisting at times, they are less so than this behemoth of a financial mess.

Oh, and by the way, if you live in the Knoxville, Tennessee area and can come by the Food City Food Show at the convention center tomorrow, I’ll be there signing A Firefighter in the Family from 3:30-5 p.m.

I’m still plugging away at my revisions on Arctic Heart, which I found out will be renamed at some point. I really hope I like the new title because I’ve grown attached to Arctic Heart because it fits the story so well. But it seems an upcoming release from my publisher will have a similar title, so ixnay on the itletay for my book.

I really got to cranking yesterday and got through three chapters of revisions even though I’m only shooting for two a day. Usually after two, my brain is fried. But I was able to save some material from the original version of the book in the chapters I was working on yesterday, so that helped me get farther. I’ve gone through two today, much slower going since I was writing new scenes. So far, the new version is rough, and I already know I’m going to have to go back through and add some things. But right now I need to get the new story down in its new structure before I can go back and beautify the language, pepper in ideas from the revision letter.

Diane Gaston sent me this link to Harlequin’s eBook Boutique. A Firefighter in the Family is listed as one of the top e-books in the Protectors category. So if you’d like to read my debut in e-book form, here’s your chance.

I’ve plunged into big revisions on my second YA novel, but after revising two chapters today I decided to watch the final episodes of Season 2 of the BBC’s Robin Hood so I could send the discs back to Netflix. If you haven’t seen it and think you might and don’t want to be spoiled, stop reading now.

What the heck were they thinking killing off Maid Marian!!!!???? I don’t mind the reimagining of shows — after all I like the new Battlestar Galactica much more than the original — but honestly, how can you have Robin without Marian? And now the BBC says that Robin might have a new love interest at some point in Season 3. I’m sorry, but that is just wrong. And I predict if they do this, that character will be universally hated. Remember how much everyone hated Riley in Buffy the Vampire Slayer? It wasn’t that anything was wrong with Riley. He just wasn’t Angel, the character we’d been led to believe was a destiny kind of love, a forever love for Buffy.

I know Lucy Griffiths (who played Marian) wanted to leave the show. While I’m not a fan of recastings, that would have been better than killing Marian. I’ve read some online message boards full of irate fans who vow not to watch Season 3. As one said, “You didn’t just kill Marian. You killed the show.” And with talk of Jonas Armstrong (who plays Robin) leaving after the third season, I’m thinking that will be its last. Or at least it should be. Shows just lose their power and chemistry when beloved actors and characters leave. A classic case is Northern Exposure. It wasn’t the same after Dr. Fleischmann left.

In honor of Robin and Marian, here’s a nice fan vid with a pretty song.

So, on Thursday, I made a trek to Wal-Mart to buy groceries and exciting things like deodorant and grass seed to plant in the part of the yard where we just had a tree taken out. While there, I cruised by the books section just to see if maybe my book was out on the shelf a little early. It was!!! It was surreal to see copies of A Firefighter in the Family on a store shelf for the first time. I even called my husband at work to tell him. Did I have a camera with me? No. So, I plan to trek to a bookstore this weekend with a camera and the hubby. Perhaps the one that’s next to Best Buy because hubby really wants to buy Spore, the new video game that comes out tomorrow.

Saw an article online this morning about the Top 20 TV Kisses. Among my favorites listed: Buffy and Angel (duh) from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Veronica and Logan from Veronica Mars, Ross and Rachel from Friends, and Mulder and Scully from The X-Files. See if you agree with the list. Do you think there are other great TV smooches that should have made the list?

As you can tell from my absence for a few days, I’ve been hard at work on the proposals to send to Harlequin American. I have all the synopses done now, and I finished up the chapters yesterday. I just have to go back through those chapters today to clean them up, then it’s off with the whole batch to my agent. Next up, reading a manuscript for Mary and working on workshops I’m giving in Maryland next weekend.

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.

I’m hosting a thread over on eHarlequin this week. Among other things, we’re talking about perseverance as you work toward goals and second chances, which is a big theme in my books.

I got my 15 pages for today written a bit earlier today than I have the past few days, so I’ve spent a chunk of the evening printing out workshop handouts for the RWA conference, cleaning off my desk, cleaning out files, and making daily schedules listing everything that I have to get done between now and when I leave for California. Wow, those are some scary lists! Someone send over the clone-me machine, please.

I’m a pretty organized and hard-working person, but the days leading up to the national conference are like this every year. I have to remember to make sure I get enough rest in amongst all the busyness so I’m not totally wiped before I even get to the conference or, worse yet, I let my immune system defenses down and get sick. Last year, I managed to not get sick until a few days after the conference. In fact, I was sick as a dog 10 days after the conference when I got the call that I’d sold my first book. You know, I’d rather just not get sick at all, thanks.