It might be bheerfan‘s birthday, but I got a pressie today, too – Black Powder War, the third in naominovik‘s fabulous trilogy.

I’m so tempted to RUN home and read, but I must work tonight on revisions to Matters and some notes I jotted down over the weekend for Book 2, now titled Unnecessary Evil. Getting back into the swing of writing all the time will be tough, but I tend to work better when I have deadlines looming.

I should be getting the contract this week, and then will return back to them shortly thereafter.

There’s something energizing about attending a convention, whether mystery, SF/F or just fannish. Conventions and gatherings of like-minded peeps tend to make me want to dig right in and be creative, making words dance. I regret not having brought my laptop to Mayhem, but maybe it worked out for the best. I don’t know. Editing a printed ms (e.g., Matters) is not something I’ve done for a while and it required me to really concentrate. I’m so used to reading/editing on screen, that I was a bit taken aback by the slow process. I do think this allowed me to see things that I wanted to tweak – maybe more easily than reviewing on screen? I don’t really know.

My query to an agent fell flat – got a very quick rejection note. Oh well, once I’d re-read my query, I realized that I hadn’t mentioned that the upcoming contract would be for the Matters reprint, and the next 3 books. Eep – my bad. I’m not sure if it makes sense to send a reply (this was all via e-mail), and explain. Or if I should query the next agent on my list.

Sigh. I hate this part.

In any case, life goes on. The writing goes on. The contract will arrive and then things will happen.

One of the next things I need to do is to look up 2007 SF/F cons, especially any within driving distance. Since I hadn’t yet made any concrete plans for mystery cons, this is a good time to figure out which SF/F cons I need to attend. Definitely think that Balticon will be on that list, since it’s right nearby. I don’t know if I mentioned it, but my work will be marketed as paranormal romance, so I need to set my sights on venues that will have fans of this genre. Probably need to look at Romantic Times, too and possibly Romance Writers’ annual convention, too. I’m a member of RWA, but haven’t been one for long. Over the past 7 years, I’ve been so tied into the mystery community, it’s time to get myself back out to non-mystery events.

If any of you have any suggestions as to good genre type cons that have author guests/speakers/participants, please let me know.

A very happy birthday to bheerfan, partner in work and fandom.

A virtual toast to a fabulous day!

My trip to Omaha and Mayhem in the Midlands was highly successful and quite enjoyable.

Spent 4 days hanging with fellow authors, fans and friends, talking about writing – how much better can it get?

Where else can you hang out in a bar with the likes of Laura Lippman, Denise Hamilton, Kent Krueger, Pari Noskin Taichert and many more?

I moderated one panel (Kick Ass Females or She Who Must Be Obeyed) and participated on two others, spent a LOT of time in the book room and perusing auction items, especially one particular one. There was an Advanced Reader Copy of Kent Krueger’s upcoming release, Copper River. I made up my mind, it was mine. I’m not going to say how much I paid, but it was worth it. Of course, I can’t hold a candle to starrcat, who was bound and determined to buy a character name in an upcoming Krueger book and got in a bidding war with another woman. Both of them got their wish as Kent graciously acceded to naming two characters. (Of course, we won’t mention the fact that I bought a character name a couple of years ago, which will appear in Kent’s 2007 release, Thunder Bay. Evidently, my character, Maria, will be having teh hawt sex. ::g::)

Saturday night was our traditional friends’ dinner at the Flatiron, a nearby and most excellent restaurant.

Sunday was a quiet day, with only the final activity, the closing brunch and roast/toast of our wonderful Guest of Honor, Laura Lippman. Denise Hamilton, toastmaster, did a great investigative job on Laura’s background, providing a witty and thoughtful introduction and excellent questions.

Too soon thereafter, most of the gang vanished as they left for flights homeward. Since I didn’t leave until the asscrack of dawn on Monday, I rested for the afternoon, and then journeyed to Fleming’s, another fabulous local restaurant. I’d considered going out with Donna Andrews and some other friends to visit the Dark Angel, a memorial statue that is local legend, but was overly tired. Donna did, however, bring me back a ton of photos, as I intend to transplant said Angel and use it in my next book. Yay for digital cameras!

If you want to see a photo of me in the bar on Saturday, check out Pari’s entry on Murderati – Scroll down to the bottom of the post.

I’m sure Donna will be posting photos at some point, when she does, I’ll link to them. I’m such a failure at the picture taking.

My flight back was as uneventful as my flight there – except for the dozens of young teens, many on their first plane ride. The noise factor was truly incredible.

Home by 10:00 a.m. on Monday and I spent the day napping and reading email. Today was work (an all day client meeting) and tomorrow, I get back into the swing.

I love cons. I love being able to hang out with writers and fans, but damn, it sure is nice to be home.

ETA: Oh yeah, I wasn’t planning on buying anything – wanting to keep down the clutter. Yeah, right. I spent $160 on the auction and nearly half that in the book room. Keel me now. I chalk it up to having had a lovely conversation with my new editor. Matters will be re-released in January ’07, and Unnecessary Evil in October of ’07 – assuming I finish! EEEee!

Off in the a.m. to Omaha, NE for Mayhem in the Midlands.

Am I ready? Not so much.

Not quite packed. Not quite mentally ready.

Spent all of today in a work-related meeting, then went into my office to read email, etc. only to find that my work laptop had gone kerblooey. (That’s a technical term. ::g::) Basically, won’t boot up anymore. Rich, one of the network admins happened to walk by (on his way home) and I snagged him to take a look.

He’s pretty sure it’s the boot sector, so he’s going to try to backup my email and rebuild the ‘puter while I’m out of town. I guess if it had to happen, this is the best timing ever.

In any case, I’ll be offline for several days. Not taking Blanche with me, because I probably won’t get much writing done while I’m gone. Am taking the 400+ page printout with me to edit so I can work later.

Ta for now.

I was dead dog tired on Saturday night, and decided to take my time getting in to the convention center in the a.m. on Sunday.

Stopped off and got coffee and a bagel and some cash, then drove to my lovely corner lot from the day before only to find it chained shut.

Had to drive around, but I found another one, nearly as convenient.

Fewer attendees walking around on Sunday, as many folks were leaving for home early, but still extremely successful.

Got to meet Chuck Zito, a new author with a truly funny new series set in the theatre. First book: A Habit For Death. (No, this isn’t the actor that played on Oz ::g::)

More serendipty, author Clyde Ford and our booth boy S discovered they went to high school together in NY, class of ’67. A big HS in NY, so they never met. And I thought I was the queen of serendipity!

Beledibabe and I did another pass through the show, gathering more freebies. Ended up at Diamond Distributing again at my publisher’s booth, when all of a sudden I heard my name. It was Patrick Heffernan, the incomparable store manager from Mysterious Galaxy. It was great running into him – got a gigantic hug and a chance to chat without thousands of people around.

Back at the MWA booth, I had a chance to visit a bit with my old pal, Steve Brewer, who’d run out of books at his publisher signing the previous day, so we had nothing for him to sign. I hadn’t seen him in a while, as Steve now lives in CA, and I’m here on the East Coast.

Margery and S packed up all their myriad of goodies, including a Smallville 2nd Season Companion book that S somehow scored. This dude is AWESOME when trolling for goodies. People just GAVE him things, especially on Sunday, as publisher reps packed up and realized they didn’t want to take stuff back with. Unfortunately, the Smallville book was a display copy that they were discarding, so there was only one. Oh well, I did taunt S with the SV magazine with Lois on the cover. ::g::

We wrapped up the day in a haze, trying to figure out just how to get all the stuff back out. At least I had a car, but poor beledibabe had to pack mule everything on the Metro. At the last minute, Brooke B from Dorchester, home of naominovik‘s hubby Charles’ Hard Case Crimes, came over with bottles of wine and a book for each of us. We’d steered folks over there yesterday during the Jason Starr signing and wine party so she wanted to thank us. No hardship there. I love the books and think Charles and the gang are doing a fabulous job with the imprint. But, hey, free wine!

Got home at a decent hour and basically vegged.

I had SUCH a blast, even though I was dead tired and felt battered and bruised afterwards. Where else can you spend such a fabulous weekend talking about the book biz with folks that know it from all ends of the spectrum?

Next year: NYC!

Thanks to all of you lovely people that sent me notes, commented on my entry, etc. re: my publisher news.

I’m so psyched!

Viggofest, yep, I dug out the pirate flag, and it’s definitely yours. ::g::

My apartment looks like a bookstore exploded in it – more or less. I’ve got at least 3 or 4 tote bags of books I’m taking in to work for the gang, not to mention at least 2 that are for me alone.

I’ve managed to do a lot more this morning than I’d planned:

(1) Quick trip to Borders to find missing Sherrilyn Kenyon book: check (I snagged the brand new one at BEA, but was missing Sins of the Night, 2 books back. I’m such a stickler for reading stuff in order, I had to go get this, plus Charlie Huston’s first book, Already Dead.)

(2) Staples stop to buy new laser printer: check (My very nice Lexmark printer is still in great shape, unfortunately, the toner cartridges just won’t work for me. They last up to 2500 pages and cost $90+ – since I tend to print out at least that many pages in a month when I’m writing, that’s cost prohibitive. Upgraded to a Brother HL-5140, which has high-yield toner cartridges that will do 6700 pages and cost less than the Lexmark cartridges.)

(3) CVS stop for sundries: check

(4) Set up new printer and print out copy of Matters for editing/taking to Omaha: check

(5) Read through email and post to LJ: check

Now it’s decompress, nap and reading time. I’ll pack for Omaha later.

The world never ceases to be an amazingly tiny tiny place!

BEA proved this once again. I spent a good part of Friday and Saturday running into (1) people I knew from years back and hadn’t seen since, or (2) people that live(d) in the same neighborhoods I lived in various places in Texas, Oklahoma and other parts.

I repeat: Amazing.

Many authors, much swag and lots and lots of free books encompassed Saturday. We had all day in-booth signings with wonderful authors. Thanks to us great shills booth babes, we gave away all the copies of author books. Every last freaking one. We rule at books!

I managed to make one round of part of the bottom floor of the trade show in the early afternoon. (less than a quarter of the entire thing) but snagged some cool swag. Although my fab pirate flag came from beledibabe, who is better at this than I am.

My afternoon stroll was fueled by one main goal, to make it over to Diamond Distributing to snag manga, comics and to say “hi” to my new publisher.

Did you catch that, f’list? New…Publisher

Yep, yours truly is no longer a refugee from the Quiet Storm, floating on the detritus of a publisher gone bad.

My series has been picked up by Wildside Press, a fabulous independent press that is well-known in the SF/F world. They have several imprints and specialize in reprints of classics, reprinting already published authors and have a most excellent reputation.

John Betancourt, founder of the publishing house, was at Malice Domestic a few weeks ago, came to my panels, and evidently, liked what he heard. He approached me on that Saturday and I gave him a copy of Matters of the Blood. On Sunday, he told me he wants to reprint Matters and publish the rest of the series.

All that’s left now is my making editorial tweaks to Matters and well, the official contract paperwork, which will happen after BEA.

I’ve been on cloud 9000, most especially since John is telling everyone how good my work is. I had several of the authors that stopped by yesterday tell me this. After everything that happened with Asshat(TM), it’s like being handed the moon and the stars.

Yesterday, when I went over to the Wildside booth, John introduced me to the foreign rights agent that handles their books and told her I was the next big thing – the next Laurell Hamilton. Holy crap! I am told that I blushed when he said that. I was totally blown away. (Unlike LKH, there will be no high heels, overuse of cosmetics, or ordnance in my series. I’d like her sales numbers, though…::g::)

I’m still floating on all this praise, and a bit nervous, because now I have to live up to it!

In any case, today is another day and I’m off soonish to stop by the store on the way in to The Third and Final Day of ZOMG!BOOKS!

I’ll be at the MWA booth for most of the day, with a brief (11-12) stint at Sisters in Crime (booth 830) and some swag-grabbing. WHEE!

Tomorrow, I’ll sleep.

BEfreakin”A, baybee!

OMFG, what a huge place. The trade show is in three halls on TWO levels and my feets they are SORE.

I got lost for an hour this a.m. trying to find the MWA booth, which number I’d mis-read or something.

In any case, I got great free stuff from Ellora’s Cave (condom keychains!) and met some new authors in our own booth, plus got to hand out all day with beledibabe, the lovely Ms. M and lots of cool folks.

Best of all, at the end of the day, I finally got to meet viggofest in the flesh!

Dinner at Lebanese Taverna and a long metro and bus ride home.

Tomorrow, we get to do this all over again, w00t!

Note to self: Aleve.

Often, it’s little things that make my day, make me do the happy dance.

• This morning, I read this lovely write up of Mountie and Soul, by bethbethbeth. A wonderful way to start my day and utterly rekindled my love for the goofy/brilliant/amazing wonder that is Due South.
• Traffic was nearly non-existent and it’s not raining.
• I got to work to find that I have a reserved parking space! w00t! Not that it’s all that much of a big deal, but I’d asked the previous Director of Admin for more than a year if she could check with the building folks about this. It’s a little extra each month and I’m willing to do this. Mostly because there’s a whole new crop of asshats that tend to either take up 2 spaces, or park so much on the line, that, effectively, it’s the same thing. Yeah, I could go park on Level 2, but it’s the principle of the thing. I’ve been parking in the same 1 or 2 spaces for 4 years now and get PO’d when new office tenants hog the best spaces. /rant In any case, I mentioned the reserved space thing Tuesday evening to a certain person, and by this a.m. – voila – my very own space.
• Today is my Friday as I’ll be at BEA all weekend, working the MWA booth. I get to spend quality (and quantity) time with one of my closest friends, who lives in NYC and I rarely get to see. Plus a lot of time with fellow authors, including Carla, Donna Andrews and the rest of the gang. Oddly enough, or maybe not “odd” per se, for years, I’ve wanted to attend a BEA, but because it was never close by, nor could I really afford the fees, I never went. This year, I not only get to go, but because I’m working the entire weekend, have a free exhibitor pass. Yay, me!
• I’m also truly psyched that my shows have evidently been renewed by the [stupidname] CW network: Veronica Mars, Supernatural and Smallville will be returning in the fall. I’ve not yet seen the final official announcements, but enough reputable sources have reported this. As my friend F says, “Is this the sign of the apocalypse?”. I mostly have shite for luck when it comes to good TV (can you say Firefly? Wonderfalls?, The Book of Daniel?) Maybe things are changing at the networks….Nah. That would be too much to ask.
• I’m off work Monday, post BEA weekend for decompression.
• I work only two days next week (Tues/Weds) then it’s off to Omaha, NE for Mayhem in the Midlands, my absolute favorite small mystery con. It’s held at the Sheraton in downtown Omaha, a small historic hotel. Limited to 200 people (I think the most so far has been 170) and run by the Omaha Public Library Foundation, there are always lots of fun to be had. It’s kind of a low-key con for me – plenty of time to hang out with friends, meet new fans and just relax.
• Con.txt is SOON!!!

I’ll probably be AFK for the better part of the next 10 days or so, but hope to get computer access at some point. You all be good, and if you can’t be good, be better. ::g::

ZOMG, I *knew* there was something yesterday. My poor brain just wouldn’t track, however, so I spent the day offline, reading and watching Life on Mars (the first 2 eps), Doctor Who and Breakfast on Pluto.

Not until this a.m. when perusing LJ before work do I realize that I missed Q’s birthday! eeek! ::facepalm::

So, my dear, hope that your birthday was fantabulous as you are simply the best!

Happy Birthday, qe2!!!