Fun, but a good way to loose track of time!

Ack.. see what visiting other blogs can make you do?

RWA National Day 2.25 (10:45 am) News Flash

B-Berry post, no spell check. :)

In line for 30 minutes for the Blaze signing. It is most annoying there people joining friends ahead of me and the line just doesn't move beause of it. GRUMBLE!!

And there is are group behind me having a very loud conversation, but we've made it to the corner and the door is 20 feet away.

On a high note, Stephanie Bond was chatting up the line 10 minutes ago, and not only remembered what I write from out conversation at the Lit Signing last night, but remembered I am not finished. Squeeeeee!

The HQ rep just came thru and asked folks to help speed things up bu taing just two books. I can do that, if I knew who was here.

RWA Conference Day 0.5

Wow... Just Wow. This is Day 0.5 because the day's only 1/2 done and I have much to report.

I took some time for myself this morning, had Blueberry Pancakes for breakfast then hit the Bart for a quick trip to the Conference Hotel.

Registration was the first order of business, and digging into the material has been a blast. There were books, of course, many of them with a Paranormal feel, though to be honest I have not read the backs just yet. The program has many loads of information, the workshop schedule and all important map of the hotel. I'd be lost without it.

Grabbed a hug from Cherry Adair on the way back from Registration, gave Judy Weibe directions on the way out and passed Heather Davis on the escalator on the way to the Goody Room, she said she thought it was on the 5th floor. One of the San Francisco Chapter members, I'm so bad - didn't remember her name - said she thought it was down the hall from her room, and we walked there together. In case you have not located it yet, the Goody Room is on the 5th floor.

There are OOdles of book marks, buttons, pens and other artful things in the Goody Room, and I've been told there are new things in there all the time. I picked up some really fun stuff, some for me, some for the ECWC Goody Bag crew. My bag is already overflowing. I also ran into our very own Julia Hunter while I was in the Goody Room.

On the way out of the Goody Room, I ran into Christina and Ashley from Benefit at Bloomy's. YEAH!! Benefit At Bloomingdales in SFO - Awesome friendly service!! They're going to raffle off a basket of Benefit products for authors who stop by for a complementary facial. The girls are sweet, please, stop by!!

We rode down in the elevator with Chaoscat from RomanceJunkies.com and then while I was sitting here bootin' up the PC she came over and introduced herself and asked for clarification on what the Benefit Girls were babbling about. Seems she was waiting for the Ibuprofen to kick in and wasn't really understanding what they were saying. Chaoscat was sitting with two authors (I asked their names then forgot, jeepers do you see a trend?) but I took a quick picture and will post it up later when I can find out the names. I'm also supposed to say something about someone being a bitch, but that was too long ago - almost an hour - and I know everyone has the same problem, or I will hope they do have the same problem.

I chatted with Pat White for a little bit and then was joined by Trish Silver and Mary Beth Bass.
I'm signing off for now... to eat my lunch.

RWA National Conference Day -1

The RWA National Conference begins tomorrow. The Marriott conference hotel in San Francisco is the place to be for Romance Authors this week. This is my first national conference after joining the RWA in July of last year. I'm not pitching (officially) this week because my manuscript is not finished, but I'm planning to talk with folks about the books while I'm here.

My flight this morning was delayed (a little) because of fog at SFO. When the visibility is bad, the close down one of the runways and delay flights at their point origin to help keep the traffic flowing smoothly. The delay gave me a chance to catch up with other GSRWA members Carolynn Estes, Kelli Estes, Jane Porter and Julie Revell-Benjamin also on the delayed flight. Friendly and familiar faces was a wonderful way to start the trip.

I took the Super Shuttle with Julie, Leanne Shawler and a couple other ladies to the Conference Hotel, saw Shannon McKeldon and Christina Arbini in the lobby and later ran into Ciara Stewart. Julie and I found a Sports Bar on the corner to refuel before making the journey to Bloomingdale's for a little bling shopping. We even stopped at the cosmetics counter, talked up the conference and gave Christina and Ashley at Benefit a chance to convince us to make a purchase. They were sweet and offered free glam every morning before the conference if we wanted to stop buy. Tempting, but I'm thinking I'll be running late like always, and will not have time.

I'm not staying at the conference hotel, and I wish I was, but then, glad I'm not. I know, confusing - right? Staying away from the conference will allow some down time, and I think it will be less tempting to stay out all night if I know I have more than an elevator ride to bed. The draw back here is I don't have a quick ride to a hiding place if I need to 'get away' for a bit. The Conference hotel has a nice lobby conversation area, so I'm thinking I'll hang out there - or the Starbucks. I don't know how much time it will take to walk to the conference hotel, I'll find that out tomorrow.

Speaking of time, I haven't even looked at the workshop information (yet) but I'm excited to check out all the options for learning. I'm going now, to put together a schedule for tomorrow.

More reporting (and more excitement) tomorrow.

The Wizard Whedon

Streaming thru today, and then hopefully you'll be able to purchase the maddness on a DVD soon.

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Emerald City Writers' Conference

Join us at the 2008 Emerald City Writers' Conference, October 10-12, 2008.

World Record for the next generation!

Firefox is trying to set a record for the largest number of downloads in one 24 hour period. Check it out, and be a part of history. Not to mention it's a good browser and worth the effort.

My kind of message pad...

I rec'd this image in a message my mom sent. Where were these message pads when I was working as an Admin Assistant? It would have been perfect.

Problem is, I'd need a line after the brains entry because so many of the folks that called fit the description that it could have been confusing to know which of the mush brains to tie the stinky message with.

There are a couple others that I'll share later, this one just made me laugh.

Could you find this pad useful? Comments?

Google Supports Earth Hour - will you?

I popped over to Google this morning, well ok it's my home page - but whatever. So when the screen loaded, it was dark.. at first I was confused. It was after 11 am on a Saturday morning, but still - there was confusion.

After reading the little tag line, about the lights I remembered that this is the day for Earth Hour.

From what I understand, from 8-9 pm local time tonight, folks will be turning off the lights, staying home and using as little resources as possible. I think is a wonderful idea. I'm not sure how fab Dub and Neeper will think it is, but we're going to do it anyway.

I'd almost consider going down to my office in Seattle to see from the 44th floor how many folks are participating. Almost!

Support your local Planet.

Participate!

My Marine

I chatted with my Marine in the sandbox this morning via IM. He sent some pix I thought I'd share. There is an 11 hour difference, so when it's 9am here it's 8pm over there. This means most of our chats happen when I'm at work.


I usually here from him where they can use the Internet for 'free', but this location doesn't allow use pf outside media (no USB or CDs) to upload pictures. AND they have a 30 minute limit. It's not a bad thing, the PCs do have IM so we can have a quick chat now and again. I'm sure you're thinking the pic on the right could be anybody, but I actually can see it's my Marine by his hands. This was a chilling reminder that he's 'really there' ~ so far away.

Today when we chatted he was at the 'Internet cafe' on base where he is able to use his laptop for a cost of $5 per hour. Not too costly, but I guess it's located on the OTHER side of nowhere from his quarters and it's a mighty walk.

He wanted me to send pictures so I sent what I had at work, but I'm thinking I'll send more via email later from home.

Anyone interested in sending packages can check back next week. I'll post the address and 'requested items' after I have a chance to wrangle the list from my Mom. She was going to 'type it up' but I still haven't seen it. One thing they can always use is batteries. "AA" and "AAA" are always in demand.

Boy, just looking at this shot makes me tired.

Has this ever happened to you?

Today on the way to catch the bus home, I lost my cell phone. I know, you're asking your self how is this possible? I asked myself the same damn thing when I couldn't find it to check the time.

It was a 'warmish' day in Seattle today, and I stuffed my sweater coat into the rolly computer bag plopped my purse on top and headed off to find my ride home. I work two blocks, a mere two blocks, from the bus stop. Somewhere along the bumpy ride over the curbs and uneven roadway the phone must have bounced out of the pocked in my purse.

When I realized it was missing, I scurried back the way I'd come, to track down my wayward technology. Sadly, it was not to be found on the street so I went back to the bus stop to wait for my coach. Then I pulled out my blackberry, and send an email to Dub, and "I'm thinking.. he never checks his mail.. now what?"

Thankfully my B-berry allows Yahoo! Messenger.. I figured there had to be someone I knew online just after 5pm to contact Dub and let him know I was on the bus, sans phone. I contacted one of the ladies in my writing chapter and she was kind enough to phone Dub and pass along the message.

I was also able to contact my carrier and let them know the phone was MIA. The customer support dude de-activated the phone, so that it could not be used to download things I didn't want to pay for.. and tomorrow AM I'll have it activated again and try to contact whomever has my missing communicator.

To Be Continued.....

Save the Cat! Falls In Love

The GSRWA had a wonderful workshop last Friday, provided by Blake Snyder, author of Save the Cat: the Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need.

Reviewing the 15 Beats from his book helped many in our group see how these movie milestones could be applied to the world of romance writing. I'm excited to see what Beats I already have in my WIP and where the missing ones will come from.

Thanks Blake, for opening a whole new box of tools for me (us) and HUGE thanks to the fabulous Pat White for coordinating it all.

Resolution - Recycled...

Resolved not to Resolve – does that mean I did??

I’m not sure why it is that friends and family expect you’ll make a resolution at the beginning of each year. What is the purpose?

Folks often resolve loose weight, for instance, at the beginning of the year. They make an attempt at it for the first couple days, heck even a month, and then they forget or become to busy and *poof* gone is their resolve.

It’s that way with many things that people think they should do, but don’t want to, or don’t have the strength or will power to follow thru with. Over the years I’ve seen many a friend make a resolution only to watch it go down the toilet. As I’m writing I think hard to find ONE, my own from the past or even one belonging to someone else, I’m aware of that actually was seen through to the end. Not the frivolous mind you – but a heart felt resolution that was completed. Sad to say, I’m at a loss for an example.

Among the many resolutions tossed into the ring each year (see if you recognize any of these) are:

Loose – Weight, baggage (boy or girl friend), clutter, chocolate craving, drinking habit, smoking habit and all other bad habits
Find or Make more time – or family, to read, to write, lost friends, the garage (the inside – of course) and journals
Do’s - finish projects, exercise, correspond, organize, limit TV time to 4 hours per week, cook at home, begin Christmas shopping in July, find a new job, and clean house every week
Do No More – drink (so much), smoke, over eat, stalk the ex-boyfriend, eat out every week (night), spend all free time playing video games, charge all gifts to the credit cards next year, complain about the job and attend gatherings as the wall flower.

My biggest questions or complaints – call them what you will – with the concept of resolutions are:

• Why wait until the first of the year to resolve to do something you may have known about for the last 6 or 9 or even 12 months and should have been resolved to do all along?
• What is so damn special about the first of the year that makes folks want to ‘be a better person’? Shouldn’t we want to be that better person when we realize there is a problem, instead of waiting until the beginning of a new year.
• Do the many cocktails ingested during the celebration on the even of the new year make it that much easier to face the unpleasant task, therefore making it easier to resolve?

So this year (as I have done in the past) I resolved not to make any resolutions.. but again I have to ask, in doing so.. have I then made a resolution?

And would it be better stated, that I resolve not to make a “New Years Resolution” but resolve to make the changes during the year, as needed, instead of waiting 364 days to do something about it?

Food for thought? Happy New Year!!

This post (or most of it) was recycled from a now lost blog post in 2005.