Posts from — January 2010

Planning on doing some more writing today. Looks like I will be writing tomorrow while I wait at the courthouse. Can’t take any electronics, which sucks. Luckily, I like writing in my Moleskine, right? I think the worst part is I can’t take a phone. Ugh. How will I get through the day without talking to Annmarie?

I joined the Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal RWA chapter last night. I used to belong about a year ago. Since I am writing mainly paranormal, I thought it was a good idea. I’m not renewing a few of my memberships in other chapters. I am not writing those genres at the moment, nor do I see doing so anytime soon. I’m sticking with paranormal for the time being.

The netbook is working out nicely. I am using it to write a little. I like how easy it is to boot up…very quick. And portable. Still not linking to the WiFi in my house though. Not sure why. (The Wii won’t either.) I have to use a cable to surf at the house. I went ahead and ordered a 3G USB thingie from T-Mobile so that should fix the connection problems. I do my main surfing on the laptop, but it still overheats, even with a chillpad fan. I have a tabletop fan blowing on it now too. Sad. You know, the first thing I want to get when I finally sell to NY is a  desktop with a big monitor.

My favorite George Harrison song.

The feature interview is out. I can finally announce it…

Look for an interview with me in the February 2010 issue of the RWR, the Romance Writers of America magazine. It is a big deal. I’ve never seen an epublished author featured in this column. They approached me to do the interview back in September or August. It was so exciting!

And yes, I gave plugs to buds Devyn and Anya!

I nearly died laughing…instead I called Annmarie and then took a picture with my phone. The guy was actually very cute. There was a Spiderman too. He was quite….limber.

I took the kids to a local school event and they had a lot of fun. I ended up being the packhorse, carrying all their prizes. At one point I had 3 bunnies, a bear, an angel, and a snowman. They were not tiny stuffed animals either. They were prizes in all the games the school had going on.

I did get my eyes checked today. Ordered some new glasses too. Much prettier than the ones I have. They are by Ebony, the same Ebony as the magazine. I went ahead and got transition lenses too. The glare from the sun is killer here in the summer. Anyway, I’ll get them in about a week.

Next week I have jury duty. Ugh. I have to report at 8am and it is an hour away. Not looking forward to that. Maybe I won’t get picked.

Still writing on the book. So close to done. I plan on working hard on it this weekend. I really want it out in the mail early Feb.

A literary giant has passed today at age 91.  Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/WN/jd-salinger-dies-catcher-rye-author/story?id=9688927

I took a day off from going to the gym to get a few things done. Went to Walmart for some food stuff and got myself a nice salad for lunch. Met up with Mark’s uncle while there and chatted with him for a few minutes. Why do I always meet people I know when I am without makeup and bedhead hair? Never fails.

I got my SmartBook yesterday. Works fine except it has a hard time connecting to the internet. It is a problem I have also with the Wii. It has something to do with the router, but I don’t know what. I logged in the router and I do not see why certain devices are not linking up. I have good techie sense, but this stumps me. I can connect if I Ethernet plug in, so that works.

I’m looking forward to the Silken Sands conference in March. Never been to Pensacola Beach before. I may take Sunday morning to write on the beach–if it isn’t too cold. Wait…March…isn’t that Spring Break season? Hmmm… I would think the conference folks avoided that. It is probably too late for SB. Anyway, I should be able to take Alphie (Alphie is my nickname for my AlphaSmart Neo) on the beach for a little bit and write. I remember taking a walk on the beach in early Feb last year when we did the retreat to Panama City Beach. It was cold. Pretty, but cold. A few hours later on the drive home, my ovary twisted and I wanted to die. Seriously. Never had such terrible pain like that come out of the blue. I should have let Terri take me to TMH. It continued to twist on and off for weeks until I had it removed in late March. Then a month later I was in surgery again for a hysterectomy.

I can hardly believe how much better life is post hysterectomy. Once I got over the complications (seroma) it got better. No more cramping. (I had an ablation 2 years prior so I didn’t have a period, but I still cramped.) No more painful sex either. Oh yeah, it was painful to the point I abstained to avoid it. Now, post hysterectomy…it is better than ever before. I was afraid that after a hysterectomy I wouldn’t experience orgasm. (Come on, that is a worry when you mess around the uterus!) I am here to say—yes, you can orgasm post hysterectomy. To tie in with Annmarie’s post today, multiorgasms are possible even after a hysterectomy.  *wink*

Check out the latest RWA news….

Taking into account emerging trends in publishing that may offer opportunities to writers, the task force recommended that RWA adopt methods used by other trade shows and conventions and to shift its method of evaluating publishers as a whole to evaluating publishers by divisions, imprints, or lines.

Under this revised method, RWA will extend invitations to a wide pool of publishers. Invitees may only represent their non-subsidy/non-vanity publishing programs (imprints, divisions, or lines) at RWA’s conference. Space for spotlights, workshops, and booksignings will be allocated to lines, imprints, or divisions that best meet the requirements for “Qualifying Markets.” This new process of evaluation will likely increase opportunities for small presses and e-presses that previously have been excluded.

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The Board amended the definition of subsidy/vanity to read: “Subsidy” or “Vanity” publishing means the production of books in which the author participates in the costs of production or distribution in any manner, including assessment of fees or other costs for editing and/or distribution. This definition includes publishing programs that withhold or seek full or partial payment or reimbursement of publication or distribution costs before paying royalties, including payment of paper, printing, binding, production, sales or marketing costs; publishing programs whose authors exclusively promote and/or sell their own books; and publishers whose business model and methods of publishing are primarily directed toward sales to the author, his/her relatives and associates.

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Based upon the recommendation of the task force, RWA will no longer designate publishers as “RWA Eligible.” Instead, RWA will have a conference allocation system to identify “Qualifying Markets,” which must be a non-vanity/non-subsidy publisher or a non-vanity/non-subsidy division, imprint or line of a publisher.

Since RWA will no longer have a classification for Eligible Publisher, the Board approved definitions for “Eligible Novel” and “Eligible Novella” based on the non-subsidy/non-vanity production of these works. This change will allow members to qualify for PAN, participate in Romance Sells and trade shows, report first sales in the RWR, and receive a “First Sale” ribbon at conference as long as the terms of the definition are met. Because policy prohibits the changing of contest rules while the contests are in progress, the Board will address the eligibility requirements for the RITA contest during the July Board meeting and will continue to work diligently to address the issue to reach a fair and equitable solution that will benefit our members without compromising RWA’s mission to support the professional interests of career-focused romance writers. Policy provisions regarding entry into PRO will be addressed at the March Board meeting.

I pretty much saw this coming. Many, many members saw this coming. RWA couldn’t ignore the powerhouse in romance publishing because they want to open a vanity press branch of the company. Too many authors were affected. All those books, all those dues paying members, all those ineligible books for the RITAs….major financial impact on the National organization if they DIDN’T make some sort of adjustment. So, this is no surprise.

They are talking about it on Dear Author too. Just FYI. It will be all over in a matter of hours.

I signed up to go to the Silken Sands Conference in Pensacola Beach, Florida, and will take part in the book signing on March 20th at the Hampton Inn. A book signing at the beach. What could be better?