I LOVE this book

Last night I started reading "He Loves Lucy" by Susan Donovan and I just finished it at lunch. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVED IT! It's one of those books that I connected with at this time of my life.

The heroine, Lucy, is overweight (what she weighed in the beginning of the book is about what I weight right now - hence why I connected with it). She snagged a health club as a client for the marketing firm she works for. She had an idea to find an overweight person and give them a year to lose weight, chronicling it all the way. It turned out that she was the person to do it. She falls for her hunky trainer, Theo, who is way more than a pretty face and tight ass.

Here's what I loved about it:

• The character development - Lucy getting over the Taco Bowl incident and learning to trust the opposite sex and love herself (you gotta read it to find out what the Taco Bowl incident is); and Theo allowing himself to open up and give his heart to someone else after he'd been hurt before
• Everything about the weight loss - it really inspired me, even more, to get out there and do it. I wonder if I could lose 100 pounds in a year. I probably could if I worked my ass off. And this book really helped me want to do it. I realize it's fiction, but the way Lucy changed as she lost weight would give anyone hope.
• The menus - each chapter shows a day log of what Lucy ate, I may try eating that. I work better losing weight if I follow a strict plan, like written menus instead of figuring it out myself. So I'm going to try the Theo and Lucy diet.
• The fat chick scored the hunk. Who wouldn't love that?

I wholeheartedly recommend this book. I'm going to read it everytime I get down in the dumps about weight loss.

I end with these final words: You Rock Donovan! (you gotta read the book to get it)

2005 was a good year

UPDATE: I found the Web site for the Italian hearthrob brothers of the 2005 calendar - their names, are you ready? are Mirco/Marco (depends on English or Italian) and Mauro (he's mine) Bergamasco. Don't you just love it?

And my lovely coworker who speaks French translated the title of the book/calendar for me - Gods of the Stadium. Daaaaaaamn right.

This morning, while perusing the Romance Divas board per my morning ritual, I came across a post directing me to Heaven. (Thank you Kristen!)

How had I missed this phenomenon? The French rugby team poses nude? Do other rugby teams do this? Where do I sign up? I'm sure they need an extra make-up person.

I have found inspiration for my next book - I was thinking of doing a Greek mythological paranormal. And BAM. Okay, they're Italian, but don't these guys look like they were the models for ancient Greek and Roman statues? Fan me, please!

I don't know their names, if someone could help me out in that department, I'd be very appreciative. They deserve a thorough Google image search.

With no further ado (I call dibs on the dark-haired brother - had to get that out of the way),

13 days! Really?

I can't believe it's been 13 days since I last blogged. This alarms me because it feels like it was just two days ago. So I began reflecting on what has happened in the past 13 days to make it feel like it was flying by.

A wedding.

My brother in law got married last Saturday. I was a bridesmaid and I had planned the bachelorette party for the weekend before. Oh how I had fun with that. Penis shaped ice cubes, cookies, jello shots and blow ups. Not to mention a male blow-up doll I made the bride carry around with her. But some asshole at the bar we went to was jealous of him and bit the top of his head, so he deflated. It was a shame, we were the life of the bar with our blow-up doll. I took a flowered Hawaiian triangle top and rearranged it as underwear for the doll. You should have seen it, priceless I tell you.

You know the worst part? I was the only one who threw up out of all the girls and boys for both parties, as far as I know. I didn't drink at the male review (I won't go into details about that...) or the bar. But before we had gone out I drank some champagne, which I never drink. And we rode in a small bus - the driver drove like he was dodging bullets. Or at least that's how it felt to me. So by the time we met up with the bachelor party at Shari's after the bars closed, I was incredibly queesy. I was convinced to throw up, against my will. I have a big phobia of that, it was only the second time I had committed the act in about 10 years. But I just couldn't stand how awful I felt, so I did it. And it hurt like a motherfucker. I hadn't eaten for hours and hours, so just a little liquid. Too much detail? Sorry.

That's the tale of the sober girl puking at the bachelorette party. L-A-M-E.

Now to the wedding - that was my first time being a bridesmaid. It was fun. There were eight bridesmaids and eight groomsmen. Big wedding. The reception was fun, I drank about a dozen daquiris (with vodka, just how I like'em), several glasses of champagne, multiple swigs of wine from a bottle we passed around and a couple pulls of Southern Comfort and Kentucky whiskey from groomsmen flasks.

Did I mention I can hold my alcohol? I wasn't drunk, just tipsy enough to have fun dancing. There must not have been much vodka in those daquiris.

Now that the wedding has passed, I can dive back into my book. It's going well. I keep running into things I need to figure out like my hero's motivation, what's preventing the relationship through the book from his point of view, etc.

My RWA chapter gave me some great ideas to rework the opening and I've been incorporating those. I still plan to hit my target of finishing a first draft by October 6.

In other news, I'm determined to shed my abundance of fat. I ordered Winsor Pilates and wrote down my work out plan at the gym. And I have a treadmill in my garage. So there's no escaping it, I've gotta finish losing the weight. I've lost about 40 or so in the past year and a half, but I'd like to lose a lot more.

By the end of the year I'll be a whole new woman - a finished book and many pounds thinner.

Too early for Halloween costume shopping?

Today I got invited to a Halloween party. Let me state that it was more casual, of "sorry I missed your last party, when's the next one. Oh, Halloween, great!" The reason I'm excited is I've never been to a COSTUME Halloween party. All the ones I've been to have been regular clothes, or most people just chicken out of wearing costumes.

I love costumes. I love to wear costumes at Halloween. But I haven't been able to for years, so I'm very, very, very excited this year. That gives me two months to figure out what I want to be.

The reason I'm particularly excited for this Halloween party, is this group of friends started throwing a party every few months this year with a theme. And EVERYONE dresses up. First it was 70s, then 80s, then 90s, and the last one was a toga party (which I missed because I was at RWA Nationals). It would have been my first ever toga party because no one would wear togas to my 21st birthday party (asshats). But I digress.

I already did some searching online and here are some preliminary costumes I like.

A Regal princes (I love dresses like this)



Medusa (I love Greek mythology)



Athena (Why? Let's say it together "because Lisa loves Greek mythology", good class)


Pink fairy (duh, because it's pink!)


50s starlet (I think it would make my boobs look bigger, priorities people)


A socket - but I'd need to find a plug (Where's Gerard Butler when you need him?)

Oh the memories

Today during my lunch break I drove near the city park near where I work. I had a flashback, if you will, to last summer when I was reading the first three Dark Ones books by Katie MacAlister - my very first romance novels.

I was 100% enthralled. The stories, the men, the sex, the love, the vampireness. It was perfect, what I always wanted to read but didn't know existed. I would park at work then go in a few minutes late just so I could read a couple more pages.

During lunch I would sit in my car at the park with the windows down, reading as fast as my eyes would go. I would sneak my book out of my desk once or twice during the day just to read a couple of pages to finish a scene.

It's fun being that into a book. Especially in the summertime. Random post, I know. It just kind of stuck with me today and I wished I could go back and reexperience the introduction to a whole new world of books.

Stumbling upon those books has been one of the best things to ever happen to me. Because of those books, I began to read romance. I realized that my struggles in novel writing were because general fiction/horror wasn't working. Romance was what I was missing.

I dove head first into the world, trying to learn as much as fast as I could. I've read amazing books, learned of incredible authors and made lifetime friends.

What a year it's been. I hope to always feel that joy I've felt since last year of becoming a part of a new world with new characters that grip me and force me to read at stoplights. Me love books - ugh *chest pounding*

Great reads

Since nationals I've read several great books that I wanted to share.

1) English as a Second Language by Megan Crane
Reading this book came at a funny time for me because I've been looking into master's programs in the U.K. a bit, tossing the idea around of jumping across the pond. Then I read this, where the heroine does exactly that. It made me want to go even more! I really enjoyed the characters, especially Cristina. She was a hoot and gave it straight. Megan put her characters in really funny situations and the drunken dialogue was hilarious!

The story seems realistic to me - what I imagine life would be like if I were to move to England and study literature. And the characters are believable. I love Alex's relationships in the story, I like the non-personal snarky conversations with the guys, and the uber-personal conversations with the girls. The ending was satisfying too. I'm looking forward to reading Megan's second book.

Off to find a master's program in Edinburgh so I can have fun like that too... ;-)

2) Conversations with the Fat Girl by Liza Palmer
As a curvy girl, this book totally hit home for me. Some of the "fat habits" in the book that the heroine does, I do too so it was very realistic. The motivations for everything Maggie did were believable and the evolution of the relationship between Maggie and her best friend Olivia, who got gastric bypass, was fascinating. I also loved the humor.

There is one image that I will laugh over until the day I die. Maggie is talking about a "tightener", i.e. girdle, and it's effects. She likens wearing a tightener to a slug in a straw. Holy shit I swear I was seconds from pissing in my panties. That is the best image I've gotten from a novel, ever. Come on, how funny is that?

I know it wasn't a romance, so I can't complain. But I would have enjoyed a bit more at the end with Dominic and Maggie. But hey, they got together and that's the important part. A very satisfying ending, emotionally all wrapped up.

3) A Hunger Like no Other by Kresley Cole
Two words: Hot Damn! Even though there's no actual "intercourse" until near the end of the book, the sexual tension is not left wanting. Kresley did a superb job in the hot and steamy department, from the very beginning. And she made the sexual progression very believable.

I loved the world building too, ass-kicking faeries - what more could a reader ask for? The character arcs in the hero and heroine worked well and very believable. Paranormal lovers gotta pick this up. You won't regret it. Also, if you've never read much in the way of paranormal but like the hot and steamy, you should grab it too. It's a good segway into paranormal. s

Right now I'm reading The Devil in the Junior League by Linda Francis Lee. So far, so good.

Sweet inspiration

Oh sweet Rufus. A sweaty, smirking Rufus. Why is he sweating? Hmm...I'll incorporate those ideas into my book. Could I find better inspiration for my new manuscript? No.

Who's your inspiration for what you're working on?

Writing goals

I know I've tried this before, but some things in life threw a detour at me. So with this new book, newly titled "She's All In," (SAI from now on) I'm going to give goals another try. And what better way than to be held accountable than announcing them publicly on your blog?

I'm setting a goal of nine weeks to write the book. That's not including 100% of the revisions. That's a full first draft and solid progress on revisions. Why nine weeks? Two reasons: the Emerald City Writers Conference begins nine weeks from today and NaNoWriMo is in November. I hope to be able to start another book in November by either letting SAI sit for the month, or have sent out queries on it.

Nine weeks sounds insane to me. But then I tell myself that it's mostly plotted (which saves a lot of time staring at the computer screen wondering what should happen next), I don't have kids, I've got a steady 8-5 job so I have all evening to write, and I have a wonderful support system to keep me going.

I hope to write 2,000 words a day so that I can spend the weekends revising and catching up. There are many writers who take a year to write a book, many who take two weeks (including revisions). I hope that I can write speedy because I'd like to be prolific. Here's a great test for that, eh?

Here's my secret motivation: I hope that I'm so busy writing I forget to eat and lose a bunch of weight! Muhahahahahaha!

So folks, leave me your most harassing blog comments. Poke and prod me until I bleed words. I'm ready (imagine you hear the Rocky theme in the background).

Trying hard now
it's so hard now
trying hard now

Getting strong now
won't be long now
getting strong now

Gonna fly now
flying high now
gonna fly, fly, fly...

It starts today.

Atlanta pics

My sacrifice to the Blogger Gods has been answered. They are allowing me to post my pictures from Atlanta.













Fellow Rose City Romance Writers member Shirley Karr and myself at the literacy book fair. Don't you love her ode to Captain Jack Sparrow? I know, the coloring is whack. I had the camera on the wrong setting.














I hunted down the lovely Michelle Rowen. I was very happy to meet her in person after stalking her blog for months and months. Why is my mouth so wide open and you could stick a triple stack cheeseburger in it? Sheesh. Can you tell I'm hungry right now?














Some of the wonderful women at Romance Divas. It was great to meet them after chatting on the message boards for so long.













White I was hammin' it up at the FF&P Gathering getting my groove on with the chocolate fountain, my two lushes for roommates went out with the Wet Noodle Posse to a karaoke bar. Oh the things I miss when I'm eating chocolate and drinking screwdrivers.













Again, what's with my mouth?













I'm petrified of heights, so on the last night I finally felt brave enough to lean over from the 26th floor.














Don't you love Elisabeth's shoes?













Elisabeth and I. We're drunk on chocolate covered fruit. Did I mention that I love all the chocolate at RWA? And they had pineapple trees of fruit! Those women know how to throw a party...I mean conference.










Last but certainly not least. All three of us never got a group picture taken. And by the time Elisabeth and I had found Alice after the RITA's, she had already changed into her PJs in the room. So I photoshopped the photo of her before the Harlequin party on Friday into the group shot. You probably couldn't tell until I mentioned it, could ya? Haha!

There are several other, worse, photos of me that will never see the light of day.

My books arrived

After more than a week of waiting, uncertainty and then panic, my books from Atlanta arrived! I gathered more than 100 books during the conference (I only paid for about 15 of them). About 25 made it in my suitcase, but the rest had to be shipped for weight reasons. I lugged the entire 15-volume set of Secrets books (a perk for volunteering at the book room) and some choice reading material while I awaited my shipment for a week, back home to Salem, Oregon.

I was fretting over how much this shipping would cost because they didn't tell me when I dropped the boxes off for UPS ground, nor did it appear on my room bill. I just checked my credit card statement and they charged me after the fact $46.17. That's not too bad for four boxes totaling 17 pounds. It equals buying about seven paperbacks. I got my money's worth, that's for damn sure.

I eagerly watched the reach 5 p.m. yesterday so I could run home and put my books away. Part of the excitement is that I moved recently and spent a lot of time with my dad building a wonderful bookcase. A bookcase that looked empty waiting for those books from Atlanta.

Empty no more! I took a picture of it because I'm so excited.


I don't have my writing books on there because they're on my desk and I'm missing a few recent reads because I haven't put them back. The bookcase doesn't look that great in the picture, but in person it's glorious. We primed and painted the shelfs a dark brown color and my dad secured them to the wall so it wouldn't topple over.

The top two shelfs (minus about 10 books on the right of the tippy top) are all "to be read" romance, romantic elements, chick-lit, erotica, etc. Most of those are from Atlanta.

The themes for the left cubby on the third row is castles, Scotland, Greece, Greek mythology and random funky non-fiction books such as urban legends, ghost stories, forensics for dummies, etc. Random reference tools that I may call upon for writing.

The right cubby on that shelf is Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series, most in multi-volume books. Then a couple other vamp fiction books before moving on to vampire non-fiction. Don't laugh, they really are non-fiction.

The left cubby on the fourth shelf is a few random paperbacks that didn't fit anywhere else then Anne Rice's vampire books. The right cubby is full of wonderful romances. On shelves five and six, the left cubbies are both true crime. The vertical books on the right cubby on shelf five are commercial fiction. The horizontally stacked books on the right of shelves five and six are what I call "book club oopsies." You know, those mailings that you forgot to say no to then forgot to send back so you end up buying them? The good part is I actually wanted one of those books. The bad part is, I don't want the rest. But they're unused hardbacks so I feel I should sell them.

The bottoms shelves are the least read or cared-about, they are random non-fiction books like Carlton Sheets' making money off real estate, Matthew Lesko's free money stuff (I did PR for him for about a week) then other stuff.

You may be asking why I dedicated an entire blog post to this. I don't have an answer my friend. It may be because I'm crazy. Or I'm too excited about finishing my bookcase. Or maybe it's that I don't have a life. I'll let you decide.

Afterthought: One year ago I would have never thought I'd read a romance. Now they take up three shelves of my bookcase. Go figure? What a difference a year makes.

I get to keep my Diet Coke

That's right, I hit my goal baby. I've got the SNI (I really need to think of a name) plotted, or as much as I wanted to do ahead of time. I've got 34 scenes that will be used as mile markers, or my Mapquest directions if you will. They tell me where to turn and how far to go, but I don't know how many gas stations there will be on the way.

So, what's next? What? I actually have to write it now? Oh shit.

Weekend 'o plotting going well

I'm pretty confident I'll get the book plotted by the end of the day. I haven't done all 50-60 scenes because I want to leave some pansting leeway. I've got the big stuff and about half the scenes so I'll let myself figure out the rest as I write. But at least I have lots and lots of check points to write toward.

Right now I'm trying to figure out if my SNI is a contemporary with paranormal elements or a paranormal contemporary. I know the basic difference is if the paranormal elements can be pulled and there's still a good story, then it's just paranormal elements. But, I'm still on the line. I guess I have to write it and see how it ends up.

There's been lots of vamp movies on all weekend, too much distraction. I also finished Secret Society Girl, it was great! I was all for Amy + Malcom until I read the Revelation. I'm still trying to decide between George and Brandon. I think I lean toward George because it seems Brandon is the easy choice. If she really wanted Brandon it wouldn't be a tough decision for her. I can't wait until the next one!

Next on the reading list: English as a Second Language by Megan Crane and Conversations with the Fat Girl by Liza Palmer. On a related note, my books from nationals still haven't come via UPS. Anyone on the west coast get theirs? According to their online schedule, the boxes should have arrived Friday. If they don't come tomorrow I'll be very, very upset. If they don't come at all...well...I just won't say.

Weekend o' plotting, here I come

I'm looking forward to the weekend. My one and only goal and mission, should I choose to accept it (I did, FYI), is to plot out my SNI (for those who missed the last post or forgot, that's my Shiny New Idea).

I typed up all the exercies in the Writing the Breakout Novel workbook into Word so that I can type out answers instead of hand write. My wrist is crooked 45 degrees so longhand hurts after about a page. I'm still just as jazzed about it as before. Turns out upon further inspection that part of the exercises can be done during the plotting process and some can be done during revisions - talk about a multi-purpose book.

Per Michelle's recommendation, I have The Marshall Plan workbook on hold at Border's, which I'll purchase immediately after work today. They asked if three days on hold is enought time. Ha! I only need three hours. So I'll be plotting with that as well.

Since I'm, uh, unique, I'm going to break down my weekend to see how much time I have to plot my book. I consider my weekend beginning tonight at 7 p.m., once I'm done running errands. Let's say my weekend ends at 9 p.m. on Sunday since about then my dog will be crawling on my keyboard demanding attention and I'll have to stop working.

That leaves me with a 50 hour weekend. Minus 20 hours for sleeping (hey, I was at RWA last week, I've got some catching up to do). So 30 hours minus six hours for showering, getting ready, eating, errands, etc.

A full day for plotting. Except, I started reading Secret Society Girl by Diana Peterfreund last night, there's no way I'm not finishing that this weekend. Shave off three hours for that. Okay, 21 hours for plotting. I'll probably read another book because my TBR shelf grew exponentially since last week (gee, I wonder why) so we'll shave another three hours. Eighteen hours left for the weekend. I moved a few weeks ago and still have some boxes to empty, so if I take off four hours for that I've still got 14 left.

That's a lot of plotting time, I hope. It sounds like a lot, but I'm sure that once I dive into it I'll find ways to distract myself or I'll get Plotter's Block. I wonder if that's a real term. If not, I hereby claim it.

Does how my brain works scare you? It scares me. I don't know why I always break things down into number. I hate math!

Here's what I would like from you. If I don't finish plotting by the end of the weekend (my Monday morning post) - how should I be punished? Let's keep it clean folks, there may be children readers. No Diet Coke for a week? No chocolate for a month? No reading blogs for a day? Any other terribly ridiculous idea that will have me plotting like mad so I don't have to partake in the punishment?

Great writing tool

I, like many, am going through the post-RWA Nationals writing frenzy. I learned a lot and got some great ideas brewing in my mind. Now I want to use them and go full steam ahead on my Shiny New Idea (hereby referred to as SNI.) The truth is that I began the frenzy mid-week of the convention. My poor roommates had to put up with me waking up in the middle of the night, grabbing my pen and paper off the nightstand and writing notes. In the dark. Can you say freak? I sure can.

I decided that I'm going to think about this book by scenes rather than a list of events - to me they're different. I think that will improve the action, pacing and make it easier to plot. So last week I sat down with my $15 lunch (sandwich, soda and fruit cup) and my trusty Alphasmart. I spent an hour coming up with the first five scenes. Aren't there usually 50-60 scenes per book? That's a lot of Alphasmart time. I may actually have to change my batteries.

I realized that I needed a tool to help me plot my book, I'm new at this and just can't do it all on my own. I used some of the First Draft in 30 Days worksheets. Several of them helped get the ball rolling, but for my need at this point in time, it won't get me all the way there.

Then, I remembered that I own Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass and the corresponding workbook. I hadn't looked at it before, but I sat down with them both last night. I skimmed the book then dove into the workbook. Bypassing the explanations and character sections, I jumped to the plot exercises. Holy wedgie Batman! It's just what I'm looking for! (Bear with me, I know this is jumping between present and past tenses.)

It breaks things down into scenes and subplots and threads. It asks questions like:
* What would make your novel's central conflict worse?
* What are the circumstances under which my protagonist(s) would actually fail to solve the problem?
* Assign a character to enact each complication.
* What are some other problems, not related to the central conflict, that your protagonist(s) will face? Use those as subplots.
Etc.

This may look like a nightmare to some of you. But I am a list-obsessed-control-freak-who-needs-medication-yesterday. When I looked through these questions, pieces fell together in my head. It points me in the right direction to the elements that will make a great novel. It helps weave those elements together. And it will help me reach those 50-60 scenes, easily. There are so many little tricks and tips in there. I can't wait to use it! I know what I'm going to do this weekend.

Is there a resource you've found that turned the light on for you?

Oregon druggies have manners too

My dad was on his way to work the other day, about 3:30 a.m. He stopped at Plaid Pantry to pick up coffee and a paper, as is his morning ritual. There was a man and woman acting fishy and sort of antsy in front of the store.

He went in and bought his stuff. When he came out and started his car, the low oil light, or whatever it's called, was on. He ran back in to buy some oil and when he came out he heard the woman talking on the phone saying something about how she was about to get some money. A few minutes later the guy came up to my dad.

Get this, he apologized, twice, for partaking in a drug deal in front of him. Salem, Oregon is the meth capital of the country so odds are that's what he bought. But hey, you can't say that Oregon druggies don't have manners.

Back from the ATL

I survived my first RWA national convention. It was a blast! I fully intended to blog each day while in Atlanta with a blow-by-blow of the conference. However, I wasn't willing to spend $13 a day to do that. Damn that's expensive.

So here is a week's worth of posts all in one for your reading pleasure. It's really long, I know!

Flights
I flew standby. Before you gasp and reach out to slap some sense in to me, let me explain. If I were to by a flight to Atlanta from Portland, Oregon. It would have cost about $600. A very nice person who works for an airline offered a reduced rate standby option. That cost $270. So - big price difference. Just about enough to pay for my hotel for the week.

I don't regret my decision to fly this way, but it didn't turn out as I hoped. Let me preface this by saying I only slept two hours on the Sunday night before my trip and three hours the night before that. I wanted a redeye on Monday night so I'd get in to Atlanta at 9:30 on Tuesday. I planned to go to the World of Coke and hang out with my roommates if they had arrived on Tuesday.

I didn't make the redeye. So my mom got to the airport at about 12:30 a.m. to pick me up. I was laying down to go to sleep about 1:30 a.m. Unfortunately, I had to get up at 3:30 a.m. to catch a ride with my dad on his way to work to go back to the airport and try for an early morning flight. For those of you math challenged - that's seven hours of sleep over three nights. I need eight hours a night to function properly. I don't drink coffee either, so don't even bring that up.

Luckily I got on that early morning flight to Dallas. I was told that Dallas-Atlanta is easy, it's in and out of Portland that's hard. I got the first flight out from Dallas I wanted and got in to Atlanta about 5 p.m. I lost my day of sightseeing, but oh well. At least I got there the day I wanted.

The return trip was a different story. I didn't sleep Saturday night because I had to get up at 3:30 to check out and head to the airport. My roommates and I talked until pretty late and I just couldn't sleep. I got to the airport at the buttcrack of dawn. It turns they had an opening in first class, so guess who got it? Me! Yay standby. However, when I should have been celebrating my good luck and soon-to-be-blissful-nap-in-comfortable-airplane-seats, I started panicking. I knew that it was a prepayment for a really shitty day. Don't ask me how I knew, but in my gut I knew the only reason I got first class was because the Karma Police wanted me to get some sleep before spending the rest of the day in an airport.

I landed in Dallas at 7:40 a.m. There was a 9:30 a.m. flight to Portland. I was number 14 on the standby list, needless to say I didn't get on. There was a 12:30 flight, didn't catch that one either. I was moved up to number eight on the standby list. I was starting to panic because I only had a 4:40, 5:50 and 8:10 flight left for that day. If I didn't catch any of them I'd be paying up the ass for a hotel room last minute.

At about 3 p.m. I go up to see how it looks for my chances to get on the plane. I had been bumped down to number 14 on the standby list. The guy at the desk (very unfriendly, they all were when they found out I was standby except for the guy at the gate when I left Atlanta), said he didn't see how I would get on a flight to Portland that day, let alone the next day. They were all oversold and I kept getting bumped down the list by employees of the airline. He said I should look into going to Seattle.

I called my dad to see if he could pick me up if I flew there. He said he could and would take a day off work. So I marched back up to the gate, feeling good about my prospects of leaving the Dallas airport that I had been sitting in for nearly EIGHT hours. With no sleep the night before. He looked on the computer and said that those flights were just as full, but there was one leaving at about 9:30 p.m. So if I didn't make the Portland flights I could try for that one, and stay in a hotel worst case scenario.

Um, sitting in the airport for another SIX hours, a total of 14 hours did not sound pleasant. Especially not knowing how much a hotel would cost, I didn't have extra clothes, and I need to work the next day.

I panicked. I called my dad and had him look on Orbitz for flights from Dallas to Portland. Keep in mind the time was about 3:15. There was one on another airline leaving at 4:30, with a layover in Las Vegas. The price wasn't terrible. The problem was getting on the tram and booking it to the other side of the airport to see about buying the ticket. When I got there, there were in fact seats available. It cost me $250 for a flight from Dallas to Portland. It was delayed a bit and had a three hour layover in Vegas. I wasn't scheduled to land in Portland until 11 p.m.

For those trying to keep track of time zone changes and travel times, let me break it down for you. I woke up to leave the hotel at 3:30 a.m. (east coast time) on Sunday. My flight from Vegas was to land in Portland at 2 a.m. (east coast time) on Monday morning. That was nearly a 24-hour day of traveling. Holy shit, I just worked that out myself and that's a lot of fucking time in airports and planes.

I made peace with the decision to buy a ticket, bringing my air costs to $520. It was still less than if I would have bought the ticket in the first place, but time equals money, ya know? I just reminded myself I had to get home for work and it was only money.

Don't worry - there's an end in sight for my tale of bitching and complaining. When I'm on my way to work Monday, I got a call from the person who hooked my up with the standby (he was really nice throughout the process, checking on flight options for me and getting up in the middle of the night to list me for flights). He told me that, *deep breath*, the 5:50 flight leaving Dallas for Portland had 10 seats that were never filled. One in first class. That means that about 20 people on the oversold flight didn't show up and the 18 people in front of me on the standby list either didn't show up, or made it on the place. I would have gotten to fly first class from Dallas to Portland and saved $250. Fuck. Ing. A. Talk about pissing in Cheerios. I don't regret the decision because how in the hell was I supposed to know that the airline Gods had chosen me to fuck with? It's only money, it's only money (yeah right).

Hotel
I had stayed in that hotel for a conference about eight years ago. I didn't remember it being so expensive! A bottle of coke, turkey sandwich and bag of chips ran me about $13. Good lawd that's a lot of money.

The hotel staff I talked to while walking through the hotel were very friendly. The staff in Grandstand and Champions were a totally different story.

On our first night the three of us went to Grandstand for some drinks. We sat at a table, merrily talking for twenty minutes or so. No service. Three seats opened up at the bar so we moved. Another half an hour or so go by before the guy took our drink orders. It was ridiculous. That was the story every time we went there. We would watch other people get two drinks before we got our first and when we'd ask for drinks he'd say "just a minute." Sheesh.

The rooms were great though, very comfortable beds. And it was easy to meet people in the centralized areas. I just hope the food is cheaper at the hotel in Dallas.

Roommates
On Tuesday, Elisabeth and I hung out in the hotel room for a while, hoping that our other roommate Alice would arrive before we went out to dinner. After a while our stomachs won and we trekked to Hard Rock in the humid heat (nothing compared to the weather we had in Oregon the weekend before - topping at 107 degrees!). I ordered my favorite Hard Rock meal, a pulled pork sandwich. I also splurged and got a Hurricane and paid for the glass. It was $11, but it equaled about three drinks at any other bar, so a good deal if you ask me. Elisabeth had a Hypnotiq Tea and holy crapola it was yummy!

When we got back to the hotel we decided to walk around and check out the pool. As we're walking on the Garden Terrace level, we hear "Elisabeth!" Low and behold it was Alice! Here is a near-accurate reenactment of the conversation:

Elisabeth: "Alice! When did you get here?"

Alice: "This afternoon. Didn't you see my bags in the room?"

Elisabeth: "No. Did you?" She turned to me. I shook my head.

Alice: "Did you get the notes I've been leaving you?"

Elisabeth: "No...have you been getting mine?"

Alice: "No...uh, what room are you in?"

Elisabeth: "2632."

Alice: "I'm in 609! (or whatever it was)"

We proceed to the front desk to reconcile the situation. It turned out that although we were all supposed to be in 2632, they made a booboo and put Alice in the wrong room. But we got it fixed.

I had a blast with my roommates. We got along great and had lots of fun teasing each other and giggling like fools. All that was missing was a pillow fight in our underwear. They even put up with my newbie energy and helped me with some brainstorming. While we were there Alice found out that her intrigue "My Sister, Myself" hit the Waldenbooks Top 10 list!!! The sequel is at stores now, called "Duplicate Daughter."

People
The literary signing on Wednesday was awesome. Elisabeth, who was interested in the romantic suspense authors, and moi, interested in paranormal authors, walked up and down the rows meeting our favorite authors and taking pictures of each other with them.

A highlight for me was meeting Michelle Rowen. I'm an addict of her blog and books and was jazzed to meet her in person. I got a super cute photo of us (will post later when Blogger stops being a bitch.) And I love the smiley face she turns into an angel when she signs her books. Clever Michelle, very clever.

I wanted to meet Stephanie Rowe as well. But, I was alphabetically challenged that evening and didn't stop to think that Stephanie would be right next to Michelle (Rowe - Rowen.) So I went back there later and met her. She's so nice!

I was also excited to meet Susan Grant. I was lucky enough to get to read "Your Planet or Mine" before it came out. It's fantastic! She's really sweet too.

The next night I went to the Mysteria booksigning at the Border's across town. It was only supposed to be a couple of blocks up from the Marta station. It was actually a few blocks up, several blocks down the hills and several blocks up again. Well worth the trek though. MaryJanice Davidson, Susan Grant, Gena Showalter and P.C. Cast were there. The four of them are fantastic! And really, really, really funny. I can't wait to read the book. I shared a cab ride back with some great ladies from a Seattle chapter. Woo woo PNW!

I also met some of the lovely ladies at Romance Divas. I didn't make it to the event but luckily I ran across several of them throughout the week. It was great to put faces to people I've been talking to for months! I'll post a pic later of some of us, again, once blogger stops being a bitch.

Everyone was very friendly throughout the conference. I'm an introverted person unless I know someone well. But I really felt like I could come out of my shell a bit at the conference. I love RWA.

Workshops
I started out the week by religiously attending the workshops. I had a couple of "a-ha!" moments, but nothing too profound. I felt my time was spent just as good by working on my new book idea. A couple of the workshops I wanted were full. Overall the workshops were okay. By the end of the week I was choosing booksignings over workshops. I still learned a ton over the week though and met lots of great people.

Food
I wanted to hurl at the first luncheon. The salad was good and the rolls, top notch bread. But when the main course arrived, yikes! I don't eat chicken on bones. I don't like cook vegetables. And I really hate mashed, cooked, cauliflower that tries to replace potatoes. At least I thought it was mashed cauliflower. I took a bite, almost barfed, then learned it was grits. Fucking gross is what they were.

I don't eat much red meat either so the steak the next day wasn't very appetizing. Especially since it was mostly fat. Thank god for potatoes though. The desserts were yummy both days.

I loved the sandwiches at Atrium Express. Even though they cost a ton, they were really good for pre-prepared sandwiches. I'm actually craving one right now. Lots of yummy, fresh turkey on a croissant. One night I ordered room service and it was really good. A turkey club. Mmm mmm mmm.

Books
My roommates lovingly call me a book whore now. I ended up with over 100 books. I only bought about 15 of them. Some are going to our chapter for our workshop next month, I'm putting together the goody bags and gift baskets. But the rest are mine, all mine. Muhahahahhahaha! I shipped four boxes home. USPS wasn't open so I couldn't do media mail...my only option was UPS ground. I still don't know how much it cost because the hotel didn't put it on my room bill by the time I checked out. They'll probably just charge me for it later. Bastards. I wonder when they'll even ship the books.

I can't wait until they arrive. I rearranged my bookcase to accommodate my needed TBR space. I'll post a photo once it's done.

Long-winded, I know. But it was an eventful week, even if I didn't crash any cool parties. My new goal is to be on the other side of the tracks by the San Francisco conference in two years - published. I've got myself a great book idea and a can-do attitude and I'm ready to roll.