RWA Conference Photo Journal

Okay, this took a couple months for me to get around to posting, but I will now attempt to make up for my tardiness by being brilliant and witty as I narrate the pictorial proof that I was really there.

Tuesday... Sightseeing:
Photo #1: Even though I used to live in DC, I tag along on a sightseeing blitz of the National Monuments guided by the fabulous Ms. Amanda Brice, 2008 & 2009 Golden Heart Finalist in the YA category (she's the one on the far right... at least, I think it's right. Do you know your right from your left? Am I the only one who flunked that part of kindergarten?). Along with Shelli Stevens, Crystal Jordan, Loribelle Hunt, and Robin L. Rotham, we take on the National Mall and emerge victorious (and exhausted).

Photo #2: Washington just isn't Washington without a giant phallic symbol.

Photo #3: Amanda and I ham it up with The Ruby Slippers, as members of the Sisterhood should.

Photo #4: George Washington was a stud without his shirt. Who knew?

Photo #5: Following our Capitol tour, Amanda & Robin rejoice in finding the dastardly nail scissors which would have been a threat to our national security if we had taken them inside the building.


Golden Heart Dinner:
Photo #6: Later Tuesday Night. I meet up with the other Golden Heart finalists for the first time. Tamara Hogan, Jenn Bray-Weber, Amy Talley and Cate Rowan keep me laughing all night long.

I forgot my camera on Wednesday & Thursday during the day. On Tuesday night, I went to a midnight showing of Harry Potter with some old non-writing chums from DC. Got to bed after four. Then it was time for the Golden Network Retreat on Wednesday afternoon, where the editor & agent panel reviewed some query letters for us - so illuminating! Afterwards Kelly Fitzpatrick and I breezed through the Literacy Signing, but decided it was too overwhelming to wade through and we needed sustenance! We chatted with the lovely Elise Chidley (Rita nominee) well into the evening.

Thursday was conference, conference, conference! Opening session with Janet Evanovich, RWA Annual General Meeting (which lead me to muse that if you want to change the rules, it is important to actually know the rules and the legal procedures for changing them), Keynote luncheon with Linda Howard (cows and crazies!), workshops... it's a busy day. That night, I get gussied up for the Finally a Bride award presentation. Kelly goes along as my date when they give me my weaponry... er, engraved cake knife and server. Then it's off to the Golden Network Desert Reception.

Photo #7: Ain't we cute? Kelly Fitzpatrick and I in our Thursday Best.

Photo #8: The Ruby-Slippered Sisterhood pose pretty, showing off those red shoes at the Golden Network reception.
We then retreat back to the bar (Mecca at a romance conference) where we chat up the marvelous Ms. Sara Ramsey and her cohort, Terry. We also run into Jess Granger and Angie Fox... the latter of whom inspires a fangirl moment where my brain evaporates and I turn into a blithering idiot. Sadly, I do not think Angie Fox was impressed by my inability to form a coherent sentence in her presence. We later hit the Moonlight Madness Bazaar briefly before calling it a night and admitting defeat...

Operating under the We Don't Need No Stickin' Sleep Theory, I am up early again on Friday. Breakfast, PAN Retreat, Workshops, Luncheon with speaker Eloisa James, pitch with Chris Keeslar, Golden Heart Reception thingy where they give me my certificate of Golden Heartiness (there was a dude taking pictures... where are those pictures? Your guess is as good as mine.), then on to the Samhain Wine Reception:

Photo #9: Shelli Stevens and a mystery guest (my memory for faces just sucks) at the Samhain Wine Reception.

Photo #10: Yes, I forced Kelly to come with me. Isn't she nice? She didn't kick or scream much at all!

Photo #11: Here I am chatting with Cate Rowan. Notice how I look like I've been run over by a cement mixer? I'm so tired by this point I can barely form a coherent sentence... or rather I can't form a coherent sentence, which meant bad things during my pitch earlier that day.

A Note on the Importance of Sleep: Sleep is necessary. Really really necessary. If you do not get sleep, your brain will start to shut off non-crucial portions. Luckily, this means it will keep you breathing and ambulatory. Unluckily, this means it will no longer allow you access to the part that comes up with pithy, clever answers when people ask you in depth questions about your books... say, at a pitch session. Or perhaps it will shut off the facial recognition function. And you'll forget who people are... say, editors you've met before. So yeah. GET SOME SLEEP.

After a late workshop Friday night, I give up on being social, go home and SLEEP. I sleep in late Saturday morning, making it to my second pitch with not a second to spare. I am brilliant (sorta). Afterwards, I head off to more workshops but then...

Photo #12: FIRE! It's an epidemic. This is the second conference I've been to where a workshop has been halted due to a sudden threat of incineration. We are just too hot to handle, baby.

Okay, I'm gonna have to break this into multiple posts. More photos from the RWA National Conference and specifically the Golden Heart Awards Ceremony tomorrow.

Whether Tis Nobler in the Mind to e-Pub...

So I was reading this blog today called "Holding Out: Why the Golden Heart is One Factor in My Decision Not to E-Publish" and I had a whole host of reactions to it. First off: NO FLAME WAR. We like L.A. Mitchell. We (using the royal 'we' here) think she made some rational points, presented in a thoughtful manner which was not overly condemnatory toward the e-pub option. Yay!

...however...

Made up statistics piss me off. I realize that people respond well to numbers and statistics. It makes the arguments quantifiable - and therefore easier to prove. But if your numbers are made the fuck up, you and I are going to have a small problem. My inner math geek will puff up like the Incredible Hulk and attack your numbers with the vengeance of logic. Rrroowr.

Evidently, an "optimistic" look at epublishing shows exposure as 500. So all those people past the first 500 who've read my stuff? They don't know who wrote it! Oh, no! And every time you final in the GH your exposure is 15,000 people. No idea where this number comes from. Especially since the entire RWA membership numbers around 10,000. So even supposing that everyone in the RWA is avidly following this contest (which stretches probabilities quite a bit) there are still 5,000 unaccounted for "exposures" out there. Okay, so let's say only half the membership are interested, and each of them tell two other people the names of every single finalist. Fine. We'll give you fifteen thousand. Here comes the fun part. Final twice? Just double that number, baby! 30,000! You won't be exposed to the same people again. Oh, no! The entire membership will have changed and you will get 15,000 brand spanking new exposures! I hate made up math.

The argument might not seem quite as cut and dry if you leave the numbers out, but I would prefer that to using fake ones. The important arguments are not easy. Which publisher (e or otherwise) to submit to is an individual decision which each writer has to make. I just don't think presenting the information in a mathematically faulty manner helps.

(In L.A.'s defense here: she is referring to her experiences not mine. To my knowledge she has a short story in a Wild Rose anthology on which she is basing her e-pub stats and I can only assume her Golden Heart exposures are far greater than my own. It seems likely she was pounding the pavement more than I was, after the finalist announcement. And likely that she's counting repeat exposures to the same person as unique hits...)

There are good contracts and bad in both "New York" and "e" publishing. A writer needs to do her research and be savvy about the market - whichever route she chooses.

I just don't understand, when digital publishing is a growth area in the industry, why e-publishers have been lumped together and declared the whipping boy. What is with that?

Some e-presses have failed as businesses. True. But if a New York press suddenly went out of business, would we all start screaming that all New York presses were terrible and unreliable? Perhaps we would. People are weird, man.

It's a messy argument. But an interesting one.

So, um, what's the opposite of "holding out"? Is "holding out" like waiting for marriage? Wow, I'm like the super-slut of the romance community then. I just keep giving it up to Samhain, over and over and over again. Makes me feel kinda naughty. All those virtuous authors waiting for their big New York payday shake their heads and mutter, "She seemed like such a nice girl."

Banned Books

Oops! It's Banned Books Week and I almost missed it!

To celebrate "Censorship? We don't need no stinkin' censorship!" Kaye Chambers and I will be chatting it up at the Samhain Cafe today at 6pm EST. Much fun to be had... and maybe a book or two being given away. Swing on by and say hello!

UPDATE: In honor of Banned Books Week, I'm having a mini-contest. Send an email to contest@viviandrews.com by midnight tonight (EST) and tell me which of my books you think is most likely to be banned and why. I'll randomly select a winner who will receive that ban-worthy book. Good luck!

A Good Month

October is awesome. Have you noticed that everywhere you look these days there is something Halloweeny going on? Scavenger Hunts and blog parties are just the beginning, my dears. And what could make the month of spooky delights even more delightful? Why, books, of course! October is chock full of new release goodness. Check out some of this month's offerings:

Angelic Avenger

by Kaye Chambers

Samhain Publishing - October 6th (ebook)

Kaye Chambers and I met at the Moonlight & Magnolia Conference (lo, these many years ago...) on the day before she won the Maggie Award for the best paranormal unpublished manuscript. When she later let me read her Maggie manuscript, I remember telling her I was glad we were already friends because I would have been a useless fangirl if I met her after I read that book.

That story is now finding it's way into reader's hands for the first time. Angelic Avenger is a clever, unique spin on the angels and demons we think we know. Bella is a dynamic heroine who deftly navigates a world made complex by karmic retribution and a cast of supernatural rebels.

I'd like to think I'd love this book just as much if it weren't written by one of my best friends, but hey, I'm biased and I know it. So I'm just going to say, I hope you love it even half as much as I do. (And swing by this Tuesday for an interview with Kaye Chambers here on the blog!)

Bite My Fire

by Mary Hughes

Samhain Publishing - October 27th (ebook)

From the hilarious author of Biting Nixie comes this prequel to that delicious caper. Bite My Fire tells the story of Elena & Bo and had me jumping out of my chair squealing, "Yes, yes, yes!" when I saw it was going to be released this month.

Badass vampire meets even-more-badass cop chick. A murder investigation amid hilarity and snark - it's my kind of book, baby.

Come on back to Meier's Corners, or visit it for the first time. Bite My Fire is guaranteed to be a wild ride. I, for one, can't wait to read Ms. Mary Hughes' latest.

Deep Kiss of Winter

by Gena Showalter & Kresley Cole

October 13th (Hardcover)

Kresley Cole's Immortals After Dark series is my crack. Gena Showalter's Alien Huntress series is my smack. The combination of these drugs - two novellas, by these two goddesses, in one anthology - might be more than my system can handle, but I'm gonna go for it anyway.

Though, I must confess, I had a "Hardcover? Son of a..." moment when I saw the format this puppy was being released in. When I see a combo like this one, my joy is a living thing, but it can be bludgeoned to death by a $21.99 price tag. Why must the publishers gouge their loyal readers this way? I know hardcover is supposedly better, but I like my cozy little paperbacks. *sigh*

Still, it's Kresley Cole & Gena Showalter. You can bet I'm ponying up the cash.

Never After

by Laurell K. Hamilton, Marjorie M. Liu, Yasmine Galenorn & Sharon Shinn

October 27th (paperback)

Laurell K. Hamilton & Marjorie M. Liu are both autobuys for me, so putting them together in an anthology? Well, that just means I'll be opening my local Barnes & Noble that morning.

Add to that the fact that this anthology is all about turning faerie tales upside down... oh, mama. Princesses on dangerous quests, Sounds dark and delicious, doesn't it? Yep, I'm psyched. You psyched?

Oh... and The Ghost Exterminator: A Love Story releases in ebook October 27th, too. Not a bad month, eh?

So, tell me, what fall releases have you in reading bliss? What books are you most looking forward to?

Win Cool Stuff!

I've said it before and I'm gonna say it again: Scavenger Hunts are by far my favorite type of contest. I get such a sense of validation out of filling in those little answers. It must be a throwback to my school days and a lingering teacher's pet syndrome. Whatever the cause, I get a little shiver of excitement whenever I see a scavenger hunt and October, that month o' tricks and treats opens with a doozie: It's the Raven Halloween Hunt!

(Is that a sexy graphic or what? Doesn't it just make you feel all witchy?)

This is gonna be a big month, boys and girls. The Ghost Exterminator: A Love Story hits the shelves, along with a bunch of other hotly anticipated books. I'll be babbling more about those in days to come, but for now, Go! Hunt! Win!

And have fun.

Oh, and while you're at it... check out Nikki Duncan's October Blog Party! One lucky winner will take home an Simplicit E-Reader already loaded with a bunch of fabulous ebooks!

It's gonna be a great month, folks.

Under Pressure

So you've quit your day job to be a writer. Which means you've either negotiated with your significant author about the terms of your new unemployment, OR you've retired and are collecting social security even as you scribble madly, OR you are a single person with few expenses (no kids and no jigundus mortgage) who has saved your little pennies until you had enough savings to break away from the corporate machine (like me).

Or you've already struck it rich with the ginormous contract we all dream about. Six figures... or numbers that include "point" in the middle. Something just jaw-droppingly disgusting. If that's the case, you don't need to read this. Go back to your pool and sip your mimosa.

Not that anyone needs to read this. I just wanted to talk a little bit about one of the less often discussed side effects of quitting your job. (Or maybe it's discussed all over the place and I just haven't been paying attention.) This one has nothing to do with money (so maybe you mimosa sippers should stick around) and everything to do with state of mind.

When I quit my job in April, I was ecstatic. I was going to fly to Hawaii, visit my family, lounge on the lanai and write brilliant prose whenever I felt like it. A pretty idea, isn't it? But when I got to Hawaii, the reality was somewhat different.

I freaked out.

It was like I had dropped a two ton weight on myself. Suddenly I was under constant pressure to write. I had no more excuses. Why didn't I get five thousand words written each day? I wasn't working at my day job, so there was nothing holding me back. Nothing keeping me from writing a full novel every week, right? I needed to spend every waking hour on writing tasks! No going to the beach! No going to the movies! Drafts, edits, query letters, promo materials. There is work to be done!

I was my own boss and I'd just turned into the boss from hell. Overtime! No weekends! You will work from the second you wake until you fall asleep at your computer! Breaks? We don't need no stinkin' breaks!

I've since calmed down and remembered how to use my time well without turning myself into a basketcase... but that initial pressure to write, when I suddenly removed the Day Job Excuse, was tremendous. I just didn't see it coming. A psychological blindside. All of my inate drive to succeed came back to bite me on the ass. The more I wanted to be a writer, the more pressure I was under, and the harder it was to do.

So maybe when people tell you not to quit your dayjob, they aren't being such bastards after all. Maybe they just know that having all the time in the world to achieve your dreams isn't always as perfect as we imagine it would be.

That said, I'm still gonna avoid going back to the workforce as long as I can. Now that I've wrestled my overachiever-ism into submission, I'm loving having all the time in the world to write and I'm not going to trade it in until I'm reduced to living on ramen noodles and Spam.

In Memorium

http://www.sb-tb.com/

Ruby Bloggin'

Today I'm over at the Ruby-Slippered Sisterhood blog, serving up A Heaping Helping of Inspirational Sap--or, Why I Almost Didn't Enter the Golden Heart. One lucky commenter will win their choice of the fabulous Ruby mug, a critique by yours truly of their first 25 pages, or an ebook copy of any of my books.

Stop on by and tell me how you bounce back when life smacks you in the face.