Read In Bed!

First off, please tell everyone your name and a little bit about yourself.

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…I was a ROCKSTAR.

Today I’m cleaning up cat poop.

M

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Check it out at Romance B(u)y The Blog…

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Ok. So I’m at the RT Convention, right? And I’m wandering around the EC Hollywood Glamour Party, right? Wearing a tuxedo and a top hat, which apparently lots of people liked. Anyway, I spot this guy with a SUPERMAN belt buckle, and I’m all “WHEEEE I LOVE YOUR BELT BUCKLE!” and I flip out my phone.

Because YOU KNOW I love Superman.

So then I kept bumping into this guy the whole convention, but he wasn’t wearing a name tag. He was cute and all — but you know, RT is teeeeeeming with cute guys and so every time I saw him I checked for the buckle but he never wore it again, and then I was all “so, hey, what’s going on? Are you having fun? What are you doing here, just hanging out?” Because I knew he wasn’t a Caveman and he wasn’t a Mr. RT contestant, so…I didn’t know. He could’ve been someone’s son or something. I met one of them schlepping boxes in an elevator and another one in a cowboy hat, so, you know, they’re around. So he was like “RT asked me to come and hang out.”

Okay. Well, whatever, I was thinking hey, if RT wants to have cute guys come and hang out, more the merrier, right?

So I kept seeing him and I’d say something about the buckle and he’d smile and whatever. But I never did find out who he was.

Until I got home and someone posted pictures of themselves and FORMER MR. ROMANCE WINNER ANDREI CLAUDE!!!!

Yep. Superman beltbuckle boy.

Well, I felt like a total dunce. So I messaged him via Myspace and told him I was a dunce but that it was so nice to meet him, and you know what? He messaged me back! WHAT A NICE GUY!

I think I might have to be an Andrei Claude fangirl now. So I thought hey, I’ll friend him on Myspace, right?

MORE.FAIL.

We were already Myspace friends!!!!! Sweet Baby James. Not only did I not know him from Mr. Romance fame, but we were FRIENDS on MYSPACE and I didn’t KNOW IT.

FAILLLLLL!!!!!!

I am clearly a moron.

So…if you want to learn more about Mr. Andrei Claude, who in addition to having superior taste in belt buckles, is a super nice guy, go check him out at Myspace.

I hope nobody revokes my RT privileges for this, that would totally suck. And I promise in Orlando I will know who you are. And we can be all, you know. Talking about Superman, or whatever.

*sigh*

M

PS — SUPER.NICE.GUY.

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Well, I’m finally recovering from RT 2008. By this I mean I’ve unpacked my suitcase, paid some bills and organized (though not cleaned off my desk,) and started to get back into the swing of family life. You know. Yelling at the kids, doing laundry, generally being the domestic diva I am.

I didn’t feel well at the convention, unfortunately, and I wasn’t alone. But even so, I came back energized, writing-wise. No, I didn’t come up with a brand-new, shiny, full-fledged idea the way I did last year when Lauren and I brainstormed Taking Care of Business while standing in line. (Though we did talk about a followup to that book!) But I did come home with inspiration and ideas for layering some themes into the edits for my current WIP, Switch.

I finished SWITCH before I left for RT and had planned to let it sit for awhile while I worked on some other things, but while there my mind kept turning back to it. Switch hasn’t been an easy book for me for many reasons. For one, it took me a lot longer to write than usual, partly because I stopped a few times to work on other things and partly because I struggled with the writing of it. I was really glad to have finished the first draft because it meant I could take a break from it, so to discover when I got back from RT that I really wanted to dive back in was…suprising.

Here’s the thing: I take a lot of my work from my life — not things that have happened to me, necessarily, but feelings and emotions and situations that make me THINK about “what if.” I don’t live everything I write about (my goodness, who has time?) but I do…FEEL it. I do feel what I write. Sometimes I feel it first and hold onto that and use it. Sometimes during the writing I start to feel the work, instead, which is also interesting.

I’d had an inkling about what Switch was meant to be for a few months, and it was pretty far from what I’d first anticipated the book to be. In its first incarnation it was a story about dominance and submission, a woman who finds misplaced notes in her mailbox meant for an anonymous person being given increasingly erotic commands. She discovers she likes the content of the notes — craves it, in fact. But when she discovers who the notes are really for, everything changes and she becomes the note WRITER instead of the note receiver.

The book is still “about” that — it’s what happens, anyway. But somewhere along the way a minor, throwaway character became more important, and now he’s an irreplaceable part of the story. I didn’t expect that.

And somewhere, somehow, the book became about choices. The ones we make, good or bad, right or wrong, and how sometimes no matter how much you think you want something, in the end you don’t take it because not having it is better for you. Sometimes, as Paige, the heroine says, you walk away.

So now I have to finish entering all my receipts and put some laundry away and take a shower and have some breakfast, and then I need to crank up the iTunes and get lost in this world again. But you know what?

I feel it.

M

PS — I was so happy to hang with my lurvely agent the glorious Laura Bradford (or LB as I like to call her) and Lauren Dane, Anya Bast and Ann Aguirre and Vivi Anna, and we missed Cynthia! NEXT YEAR IN ORLANDO!!!!!!!!!!!

Some of my favorite photos –

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Let’s break it down…

Friends. Parties. Fun!

This year was my second RT, but we arrived the day before the official start so we could settle in and get the party started. Though we’d intended to hit a club Tuesday night, we had little luck. We went out. We came back. Even so, it was a good time! Wednesday began with more fun, meeting friends, a Black Lace panel nobody came to give so LD and I jumped on it. Dinner with my editor and agent and friends. The EC party, yay!

But Thursday morning, I was feeling pretty lousy, and I continued feeling lousy almost the entire time. I rallied every now and then but mostly…felt like ICK. I blame the hotel — lots of people were sick. I think it was bad air.

I know RT makes some people’s lips curl. Cover models, they say, GROSS! Mr. Romance, EWWW! People in their underpants on the dance floor! HOW HORRID! Okay, I’m sort of with you there on the whole wearing your underpants on the outside thing, but you know what? Whatever.

RT isn’t RWA, okay? RT is a reader/fan convention, it’s not a professional organization’s professional conference for the purpose of learning. RT is parties and meeting readers and friends and hanging out and yes — some get a little wild. There are cute boys (and really, honestly…the whole “they’re gross, or he does nothing for me” comments…these are people, you know? They have feelings. Not everybody in the world has to melt everyone’s butter, you know?) and there is mayhem, but I have to say, I didn’t see anything that I thought was out of line. Maybe I have a higher tolerance. Maybe I’m one of the people misbehaving — but I was having fun. I didn’t go upstairs with a Chippendale, okay? I only talked to one in the bar.

Do I agree with all the behavior that allegedly went on? No way. Do I think it’s okay for ANYONE to be rude to a reader or an author who’s not wearing a name badge, or an aspiring author who’s not yet published? Erm…what’s the point? What, really, is the point of being a moron to someone who could decide to read, OR NOT, your books? To another author, editor, agent, bookseller or librarian? In fact, the bottom line is, you shouldn’t be nice to strangers because they might be someone you can use later, but because you should BE NICE.

Anyway, I’m sorry for those who didn’t have fun. I felt like death not even warmed-over, and I still had fun. Because I was there to meet friends and readers and other authors and yes, Mr. Romance contestants, because life is too darned short NOT to fill it with fabulous people, and how do you know who’s fabulous until you’ve met them?

We had a fantastically attended reader appreciation party, THE LOVE SHACK, with food, goodies and karaoke, and it was great! And I got lots of swag, and met tons of new people and saw people I’d met last year and didn’t expect to see ever again, so that was a thrill.

On another note, the decorations were amazing. I didn’t eat much food (but I LIKE CORN!) and missed most of the official lunches and dinners due to illness, but I heard it was good. RT really puts on a fantastic event.

And you can see all of it, if you wish, below…

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It’s late and I’m tired but I fear going to bed because I’m afraid my stomach will hurt again…when will it end?!

More tomorrow…updates from RT and many pictures to post, lots of stuff to share.

M

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