DO NOT click on cut if you don’t want to be spoiled.

OMGSPOILERS

Home now. Still polyped, but now missing some tissue – can you say “biopsy”?

The medical scoopage, probably TMI

…or how I spent my weekend.

Friday:
* met up with Donna Andrews and Dana Cameron for dinner at Lebanese Taverna (mmm, schwarma!)
* hit up Barnes & Noble in Reston so D&D could sign stock; I found volumes 6 & 7 of Yami No Matseui (!!)

Saturday:
7:00 a.m. – Dana and I sneaked out for coffee fix before hitting the road to Richmond.
10:30 a.m. – Drive by at Fountain Books – they didn’t carry either of our books, but we left promo materials.
11:30 a.m. – Lunch at Tobacco Road, a converted warehouse – lovely lovely food and giganto hot fudge sundaes
1:00 p.m. – meet up with friend of Dana’s
2:00 p.m. – signing at Creatures ‘n Crooks, much book pimping, including my pimping Ghosts of Albion: Accursed
4:00 p.m. – quick coffee break with more friends o’Dana (archaeologists)
4:45 p.m. – on the road to Silver Spring and chez beledibabe
8:30 p.m. – arrive at beledibabe‘s after getting extremely lost in PG County because I’m a idjit and I was v.tired
8:30 – late – dinner with the gang, including Donna A, Eileen Dreyer, Dana, me and C’s hubby and son – had a blast!

Of note: I snagged 3 volumes of Sandman graphic novels, most of Christopher Moore’s books and a couple of non-fiction items at CnC books.

Sunday:
7:00 a.m. – staggered out of bed, thank goodness I showered night before. Dana is most definitely a morning person!
7:30 a.m. – on the road to Baltimore for brekkie
8:15 a.m. – arrive at Spoons, a bit early, after encounter with surprise street festival which made us detour
9:00 a.m. – brekkie with Laura Lippman and Marcia Talley
10:15 a.m. – we all 4 walk to Laura’s place, where we got to see the new fab closet, plus caught a glimpse of Emmy swag (an iPod shuffle from The Wire and HBO); alas David was out, so we didn’t get to say hello.
11:00 a.m. – off to the book festival and our panel
12:00 p.m. – we follow Art Buchwald – okay, this is different! Still, a nice crowd and we all sold books.
1:30 p.m. – hanging out at Mystery Loves Company booth; got a new fan
2:00 p.m. – late lunch with Donna at Donna’s – the restaurant, not D.A.’s house
4:30 p.m. – v.late lunch b/c service was atrocious
4:45 p.m. off to Literary Salon tent again to see Donna’s panel
6:00 p.m. – our work is done, we’re off to the Renaissance Haborplace. Hotel is gorgeous and right on Inner Harbor.
7:30 p.m. – dinner in the hotel. My legs/ankles are swollen beyond belief. I can barely walk. This is so not normal. In Monterey, I walked a couple of miles, no problem. Sigh.
9:15 p.m. – rush back to my room so the D’s can check e-mail and we watch Rome. Too bad I missed last week’s episode, b/c I’m lost. I’ll have to catch up with my recorded eps sometime this week.
12:00 a.m. – sleep, please.

* Scored some free comics at the ComicZone booth at the festival. A copy of Rex Libris (Vol 1, issue 1) and some others. Also bought The Dark Knight Returns. Yippee!!

Mionday:
8:00 a.m. – plan is to have breakfast and then go to Baltimore Aquarium, followed by early trip to Annapolis so we can tour the town before our event. I wake up in agony. Both ankles still swollen. Now entire body is retaining water. Again, can barely walk.
9:00 a.m. – Make it down to breakfast, but after discussing with D&D, decide to go home instead of to Aquarium. Will decide later if I need to skip the event.
11:15 a.m. – Home. So very tired and achy. Call CRM at Barnes & Noble in Annapolis. Leave a message.
3:00 p.m. – Donna calls, she’ll make my excuses if I can’t make it.
4:15 p.m. – Laura Durham calls offering me a ride. After chatting for awhile, I realize that there’s no way I can muster the energy. Fall back to sleep.
6:30 p.m. – wake up long enough to grab a snack and watch SGA: Lost Boys and BSG: Pegasus – can I just say I hate hiatus time?
9:30 p.m. – back asleep. Tour is officially over.

Those of us who’ve published professionally know the real score: writing for a living isn’t the most lucrative of professions. Many of us, nay, most of us need either a day job or a spouse/partner with steady income and health insurance.

I write for a small press, which means the money comes later, but it isn’t necessarily any less. Think I’m kidding? Check this out. Even I was appalled when I saw these numbers. Sigh.

Writing professionally most definitely isn’t for the faint of heart.

My goal isn’t necessarily to become rich and famous as a writer. I think I’d just rather get paid well for writing well.

On another note, if you’re looking for some excellent reading, I highly recommend Christopher Golden. Besides writing media tie-ins, Chris writes fabulous standalone horror/fantasy. His newest endeavor are the Ghost of Albion novels, co-written by Amber Benson (yes, that Amber Benson). The first novel, from Del Rey books, is Ghosts of Albion: Accursed.

Chris just started a blog and you can find out more about all his works at his Web site.

I’ve been busy all this past week with the day job and prepping for the More Bitter than Blood tour which officially starts today as my cohort in crime and evildoings, Dana Cameron winds her way around the NovA area with fellow local author, Donna Andrews, doing some drive-by signings. Dana and I are off in the a.m. to Richmond and Creatures ‘n Crooks, where I intend to sign books and try to not spend as much as I usually do when I shop the shelves. ::g::

Will have Blanche with me, so I hope to be able to check in and see what’s up, but will probably be AFK for long periods of time.

Wishing a wonderful weekend to all and safety to those of you in Rita’s path.

Some of you know that when I took Big Red in to have the special Saturn Guard protection put on, the service department managed to lose my keycard for work, plus my Darwin fish.

I recently filled out the Saturn Customer Service survey and mailed it back.

Just a few minutes ago, Debbie at Saturn called me back. They offered me a dinner out or a gift certificate to Wal-Mart or Target. I chose Target.

Dudes, it’s for $50.

The keycard only cost me $10 to replace.

This is customer service. I love it.

In other news – I’m feeling better today than I have in a long time. Not sure why, but I’m not complaining. ::g::

Note to self:

Do not watch House, followed by Battlestar Galactica right before an afternoon nap.

“Disturbing” doesn’t even begin to describe the dreams.

That is all.

Like the proverbial parrot, I’m really not dead yet. Only napping – a lot.

Work is in freak mode – fall out from Katrina as our clients (mostly trade organizations and other non-profits) scrambled to set up Web donation sites, clearinghouse sites, etc. for their members. Happy to help, just v. tired.

Medical scoopage – don’t read if girl stuff squicks you

bheerfan made me a pretty!!!

GAH

To fellow Virgo and ultimate Pros fan, justacat!!

Hope the day was fab. Hope, like me, you are continuing to celebrate.

A very happy natal day to my dear cousin Jeffy, husband to the best cousin ever, a.k.a. allaboutm_e.

Jeff celebrates his 50th. w00t!!!

May your day be filled with wondrous things.

For those of you who don’t automatically recognize the name, Jeff Mariotte is the author of many Buffy/Angelverse tie-ins, a wonderful YA series (Witch Season), a fabulous standalone, Slab City, and much much more….

I’d say this even if we weren’t family. ::g::

Instead of my standard Paul b-day icon, I celebrate Jeff’s birthday with Cap’n Mal.