Preparations for RT Part 1

Holy wow, you guys! In less than a month, I'll be going to the RT Booklover's Convention in New Orleans, Louisiana! I am beyond excited because not only have I always wanted to attend this exciting convention that all of my favorite authors and book people tweet about every year, but I've wanted to visit NOLA since reading my first Anne Rice novel.

 

I am beyond excited to finally meet all the authors I've gotten to know in print and online. I'm excited to meet my editors and publisher. I'm excited and overawed at the prospect of meeting readers who can't wait to meet me. I'm excited to see New Orleans and eat Cajun and Creole food explore the city.

 

I'm also scared shitless.

 

For one thing, I've never traveled. Hell, I've never flown in my adult life.

For another, I have an anxiety disorder that is triggered by crowds and loud noises. I take medication for it, so I should be okay.

 

And as the date of my trip races forward, I'm counting off the things I need to get and do to prepare. The fabulous Shana Galen shared this awesome link with me to a guide for RT Virgins. I'm definitely going to follow some of the advice and make myself a "guideline" agenda and bring sharpies.

 

However this link didn't cover the other things I'm going to need.

 

Things like...

 

A purse. Seriously, you guys, I'm a 31 year old woman and I don't own a damn purse. WTF is wrong with me? I'm going to get myself a giant monstrosity to fit all my books n' stuff.

 

Make up. I've been fairly socially isolated for awhile. I think all my makeup is expired.

 

A big luggage thingie. Thankfully, a friend is going to loan me one.

 

A reasonable mix of formal and casual clothes.

 

Pens. I cannot remind myself enough. We're talking about someone who forgot to bring a pen to her own book signing.

 

Medication and toiletries.

 

My laptop. I'm going to have to be able to write and tweet too. :)

 

A few copies of my books, business cards, and bookmarks. I'm not officially participating in any author events this year, but that doesn't mean I won't have goodies for a few readers. :)

 

Whew!

 

I know there's probably a bunch of stuff I'm missing so if any of you have suggestions, please feel free to chime in!

 

Next week I'll be focusing on my tentative plan/ schedule for things I'll do and attend at the conference. 

Praise To Cover Artists.

So I'm beginning to put together the cover for IRONIC SACRIFICE (Brides of Prophecy, Book 2) and I remembered something I'd wanted to speak out on during my work on the cover for WRENCHING FATE.

I want to give a huge shout-out to cover artists. I now have an inkling of all the insane and intensive work it takes to produce a quality book cover. Here's a few things that I've learned that they suffer through.

1.) Finding the right stock images.

Holy crap, one has to browse through literally THOUSANDS of pictures to find the right background and models to represent the characters. And if that wasn't tedious enough, one also has to make sure that the lighting in the picture of the couple is similar to that of the background. Also, as attractive as a picture might look, it might not work. I wanted to use this pic until is was pointed out that the cover would probably have to be cut in a way that one wouldn't be able to figure out that those were the model's legs.

Also, I was told that the heroine looked too bitchy.

Photoshop can only do so much... which brings me to my next point.

2.) Photoshop can only do so much.

And it is freakin' HARD. I was an artist before I was a writer, but I was only a pencils and paintbrushes kind. Digital art is a whole 'nother animal. Granted, I had a graphic artist and a designer to help me with the layout of my last book, but I got to work on it too. I spent at least 8 hours working on the guy's hair and God knows how many erasing stray pixels around everything.

The dude originally had short hair full of so much product it looked like a hedgehog died on his head.

3.) Fonts... good Lord, the FONTS!!

With my 2+ years in design and commercial art I figured those would be a breeze. But, no, getting the damn fonts to cooperate and center properly and be highlighted in the right places to not obscure the artwork and still be legible was  a labor in itself. And the variety. I was stumped on picking the right one to fit the book. Again, my eternal thanks go out to Danae Ayusso for presenting the PERFECT fonts like nobody's business.

I could rant further but you get the point.

What I mean is this: COVER ARTISTS: I bow down to your expertise.

And that's why the pros will always be better than anything I can pull of as seen with the cover work on ONE BITE PER NIGHT.

Emerging From the Editing Cave and Sharing News

What happened...

So I got a lot done in the last couple weeks. First off, I finished the monster-expansion project on HIS ROADIE, my first heavy metal romance romance novel.

So please, cross your fingers for me and join me in hoping that the interested publisher picks it up!

Second, I also finished polishing up IRONIC SACRIFICE, book 2 in my urban fantasy romance series, "Brides of Prophecy." I really think this is my best work, but we'll wait for my next batch of beta readers to knock me down a peg and make it even better.

Third, WRENCHING FATE just got its first review up on Amazon and Goodreads and not only was it a raving, five star review, it was from someone I don't know, so they were definitely serious!!! This made my day.

Here's the link!

I also purchased the Domain for my editing service, GRAMMAR SMITH EDITING. The Website is under construction, but if you want to know my rates, send me an email.

What's going to happen...

ARCs will be arriving in a couple weeks for my 2nd historical paranormal romance, ONE BITE PER NIGHT!!! I can't Freakin' wait!!!

I'll be putting up my website for my editing service.

I'll be revising Book 3, BITE AT FIRST SIGHT before passing it on to madam editor.

I was invited to submit a short story to an anthology with a heavy metal theme. Well, it just so happens that I have one! A few years back I wrote a short story about a teenage metal band in a haunted church and it took first place in the Idaho Writer's League's annual contest. So I'm gonna polish it up and make it more metal and see how that goes. The deadline's not until November, so I have lots of room to play.

I'll be starting Book 3 in my Brides of Prophecy series. So far, I don't have a title for that.

So as you can see, Spring is kicking off hella busy! 

Recap of my Radio Appearance

So I survived my first time being on the radio. I stuttered and sounded muffled often, but Bennet was very nice and we had fun discussing horror films, cooking, and of course, vampires. He wants to have me back in August after ONE BITE PER NIGHT releases. And from last night's experience, I learned something that I have to work on: I REALLY suck at talking about my books.

However, we also have a plan to do a horror movie chat near Halloween and the main problem with that will be getting me to shut up. :)

If you want to hear my utter and complete dork-ishness, you can listen to the show Here.

Holy Wow! My first radio show!

 

Despite the fact that I think I sound like a chipmunk on meth, I've agreed to make my first radio appearance on Bennet Pomerantz's show, ANYTHING GOES. I will be on at 11pm Eastern Time, which is 8pm Pacific, 9pm. Mountain, and 10pm Central. Damn, timezones are a pain in the ass. Anyway I have no idea what we'll be talking about and I am nervous as hell, so please feel free t provide moral support by listening in.

Here's the Link!

 

This is gonna be exciting!

Off in my Writerly Cave so here's some metal

I'm taking a brief hiatus from blogging to focus on revising my heavy metal romance, HIS ROADIE.

I hope to check back in with everyone soon. For now, here's one of my favorite metal songs of all time,

"Holy Wars" by Megadeth

Wanna Win A $10 Amazon Gift Card?

Come check out my post at Bonnie R. Paulson's blog on the cars featured in WRENCHING FATE. Two of them are based on real cars.

So stop over there and say hi!