According to my calendar, I should be flying to Nashville today. But I’m not. Because the RWA National Conference there was cancelled due to the flooding of the Opryland Hotel, where the conference was being held. Once I learned the conference was cancelled and then the venue later changed to Orlando, I decided not to go to Florida. Orlando is about as far away from B.C. as I can travel within North America. Because I live in a town small enough that it doesn’t have an airport, it takes at least three plane changes to reach Orlando. I know, because I’ve done it (DisneyWorld with the fam).

I should be mourning Nashville, and I am, because I really wanted to go. More for personal reasons than conference, I realized when the venue changed because of the flooding. I might have mentioned before that my parents’ love story revolves around Nashville, even though neither of them are American. Basically, my mother and her older sister were sent to Seventh Day Adventist Academy (private high school) in an area of Nashville known as Madison when my grandmother moved to Ontario for a nursing job with the younger children. My father, who’s a few years older than my mother, drove down to Nashville and enrolled in college to be near her. She snuck out at night often to see him, eventually she was caught, and, for lack of a better way to put it, she was kicked out. They drove back to Canada, got married, practiced making my older sister, and then had me. They’ve been married for 53 years now.

The school my mother attended is still in Madison. There’s no mistaking the laundry. She worked in the laundry there in the 1950s. Had I gone to Nashville, I would have tried working in a trip to the school. My mother’s stories of the night the headmistress asked her to choose between my father and the school are now family legend.

Yes, those are my parents in the photo. Aren’t they cute?

Seeing as I’m not going to Nashville, I’m going to do my darnedest to attend the RWA Conference in New York City next June. Meanwhile, while RWA members are enjoying Orlando without me, I’m embroiled in a never-ending battle to finish several outside painting jobs before September (the weather has not been conducive to painting this year—it’s either raining or it’s boiling hot) and finishing revisions on a single title. Whenever I start to mourn not attending National, I consider that if I were going the last two weeks would have been consumed with conference preparations while the first half of August would have been consumed with post-conference recovery. Considering I’m approaching a milestone anniversary in early August, yeah, it’s better that I decided not to go. I would have been exhausted during my own romantic celebration.

How about you? Are you not going to conference and wishing you were? Are you going, but haven’t left yet? Are you there and for some reason are so bored you’re reading my blog instead of networking? (Are you nuts?).

I’m sure several writers are blogging or Facebooking or Twittering about National. I’ll get my fix that way. Guaranteed.

The Romantic Times Booklovers Convention starts tomorrow in Columbus, Ohio. I won’t be there. I’ve never attended an RT convention. Have you? Are you attending this year? If so, shouldn’t you be traveling and not reading this blog?

I can’t decide if I ever do want to attend RT, should the schedule and location ever work for me. Yes, I kinda want to find out what all the fuss is about. You can take agent and editor appointments at RT like you can at RWA National. At least one of my publishers has a presence at RT. RT is more focused on readers—right? RWA is focused on writers.

I find the locations of the RT conventions difficult to budget for. Coming from Canada ups the cost and travel time. RWA conferences are in my relative neck of the woods every few years. I can’t remember RT ever being on the West coast. If an RT conference were scheduled for the West coast, then, yes, I might attend.

The end of April is another bugaboo. I just returned Saturday evening from a whirlwind trip of picking up Eldest Son at university, so I was already worn out. My mom’s birthday was Sunday. This Friday is my father-in-law’s birthday, and this year it’s a major milestone. Two weeks later is E.S.’s birthday. Oh, and Mother’s Day. Oh, and I’m expecting my fourth great-niece or nephew to pop out any time now.

For me, end of April – middle of May is always insanely busy. Dismissing the family birthdays situation, it’s when I slap back on my Mom-Academic University Counsellor hat. The mere idea of traveling to a conference in the midst of all that wears me out.

So, tell me, despite all the apparent obstacles in my way, should I make it my goal to attend RT some year? If you haven’t attended yet, would you like to? What’s holding you back? If you have attended before, would you attend again? Which conference provides the most bang for your buck as an author—RT or RWA?

As the countdown to the RWA National Conference in Washington, D.C. begins, I find myself surprisingly glad that I’m not going. Okay, maybe I’ve just talked myself into it, but after two years in a row of attending National, I’m ready for a break. Typing this, I realize I’ve never attended National three years in a row. I suppose I will some day. This year, given the cost of flying across the continent, the fact that neither I nor Penny sold a project in ’08, and because I’ve attended National in D.C. once before, I don’t think I’ll miss it. I’ll miss seeing my Looney Bin and Scrabble buddies, Tina Ferraro and Diana Duncan, attending the RITA ceremonies as nominees, however. Wouldn’t it be cool if they both won their categories?

As for myself, I’m looking forward to continuing to write instead of going crazy prepping for conference. The money I would have spent on new conference clothes can go toward the new stove instead. Last week, I began a new story for Penny, her first “short.” Wrote 3800 words on Thursday, I think it was. Aside from the year I participated in NaNaWriMo, that’s a record for me. Am revising them now before proceeding with writing new stuff. Target market requires 5000-15,000 words, so I have a lot of leeway.

Meanwhile, my cindpk ST is sitting and gathering inspiration. Depending on how Penny’s short story goes this week, I might dig into revisions on the cindypk in another week. Two at the outside. I don’t want to leave it sitting too long.

I signed up for Carbonite last week, an on-line document backup system. I really like it, it’s easy to use, but my desktop is 4.5 years old, and, alas, I fear Delbert is too slow for Carbonite. I’ll have to allow my trial to expire and return to using flashdrives.

With the weather so nice lately, for the first time in my writing life I’m really feeling the absence of a laptop. Especially now that the household budget has recovered from buying each of the kids a laptop for high school graduation. And, also, the cost of those new netbooks is rather tempting. If I sell something this year, I might indulge in a netbook or a small laptop. I prefer my ergonomic desktop keyboard, but the portability of a netbook/laptop is carroting in front of my eyes.

A heads-up, I’m blogging at Nobody Writes It Better on Wednesday, July 1st, which is Canada Day for those not in the know. I’m giving away a paperback copy of my Canadian-set novel, HEAD OVER HEELS (by the way, if you visit that link, the upgrade to Internet Explorer 8 seems to have affected some spacing issues on my Books pages. I’ll have to fix that one of these days).

I’ll post a reminder about the book give-away Wednesday. How is your week shaping up?

Better late than never?

I really enjoyed National this year. Aside from getting sick, that is. I couldn’t find anything about the hotel to complain about. Excellent location, the elevators didn’t get clogged up, and I had an excellent roomie. The only thing I found weird about the hotel itself was how some workshops were held on the fifth floor, was it? I wasn’t paying that much attention due to the illness, but I seem to remember a hall of hotel rooms as well as the meeting rooms. I couldn’t help feeling like I was infringing on the guests of those rooms. Or did I get that wrong? Were there guest rooms on level 5?

I’m used to seeing a lot of signage at National. Bulletin boards with announcements, placards pointing the way. We didn’t get that this year. I kind of liked not having the placards and bulletin boards, but it did make the first day or so of conference a bit confusing.

My favorite workshop? That’s a tough one, because I attended very few workshops this year. I didn’t attend any on Thursday because of meetings and other functions, and then Friday I had editor/agent appointments, plus by then my sickness had invaded full force. I’m not even sure I attended a workshop on Friday! Crazy, huh? Well, not so much. The more conferences I attend, the more the conference becomes, for me, a networking and business meeting environment. I can only attend so many workshops on similar themes. I understand the Eric Maisel Creativity workshop and the Save the Cat workshop were divine. However, both were two hours, and I didn’t have the energy to sit there that long. (Yes, I’m pathetic.) I must seriously consider ordering the podcasts for these two workshops, however. 

Attended a lot of Spotlights, including the Sourcebooks Spotlight. I also had an opportunity to meet the Sourcebooks editor one-on-one Thursday before lunch. I just love putting a face to a name.

Thursday afternoon revolved around meetings with Penny’s Red Sage editor and publisher, then the Red Sage Coffee Mixer, which was packed!

Friday, more appointments. Met with two agents, one outside of the official RWA appointments. Both meetings went well, however, I was quite dizzy during the official appointment, and I’m not sure how I came across. Like a ditzy brunette? I warned the agent that I wasn’t feeling well and for that same reason I decided not to shake her hand. We hit it off on a personal level (well, I did—maybe she thought I was nuts!), but, as they say, it’s in the writing.

My second agent appointment went swimmingly, if you don’t count that I had a hard time figuring out the message she left on my cell phone about where to meet her, both because there were voices in the background and because my ears were blocked. I scampered up two or three escalators while re-playing the message until I figured out that she was waiting for me at the top of the escalator for the Terrace Something restaurant. Again explained about the illness.

With all these explanations about the illness, I’m now realizing I didn’t actually pitch to any of the agents. We talked about my and Penny’s careers and what single titles I had going for both personas, but only in general terms (ie., erotic romance single title and contemporary romance with a mystery sub-plot). The editor, however, did ask me to read the pitch for the contemporary romance. And read it I had to do. I’d had it memorized, but no way was I relying on my memory with my brain so befuddled by the cold, so I read from my index card, lifting my head every few seconds to make eye contact. The result was the editor asked me to re-send the full of the erotic, which she saw last fall pre-revisions when it was a very hot contemporary, and she asked me to send as much as I have polished of the contemporary with mystery subplot. That’s about half the book. I need to finish a chapter, and then I’ll send her both books in the same package.

Fulfilling the editor and agent requests is my goal for this week. All in all, I received a request for one full and one extended partial from an editor, and requests for 5 partials from 3 agents (two wanted partials of both the erotic and non-erotic story while one agent wanted a partial only from the finished book, which is the erotic). Looking back, I can’t complain.

How about you? Any gripes or raves about conference? How did your editor/agent appointments go? I had grandiose plans to haunt the appointment desk Friday and Saturday and snatch up any skipped or cancelled appointments, however I felt bad enough putting the scheduled agent and editor through my disastrous “pitches” without exposing more industry professionals to my germ-laden self.

Oooh, I think I’ve mentioned before that I love eights. I know my blog defaults the date to August 8, 2008, so I had to bring attention to the triple eights in the blog title. Note that I also set the blog to post at 8:08 a.m.! Yes, I’m obsessive, but only in a nice way, I assure you.

Today, as promised, I’m posting pictures of Conference. First up, the ChickLit party, held Wednesday night at Annabelle’s Bar and Bistro in the Mosser Hotel across the street from the Marriott (the conference hotel).

Left to Right, Heather Roth, Kelli Estes, and Christina Arbini.

I first met Heather at the ChickLit party in Dallas last year. However, she was Heather Dodge then. Now she’s wearing a bunch of sparkly on her finger that has transmorphed her into Roth. Why is Heather so memorable, you ask? Because she convinced myself and Lexi Connor, among others, to imbibe in Lemon Drops at the bar in Dallas last year until the ungodly hours of the morning. I stayed up way too late and had to wake up at 6 the next morning for a group breakfast. Heather did not get me in her clutches this year, although I was tempted. The tiredness from this damn summer cold was already creeping in.

Kelli is a new ChickLit chapter member and Christina is a member of the Dancing Divas, from way back in Reno (you had to be there).

Thursday Pictures:

Moi and Kathleen Irene Paterka

Kathleen was nice enough to buy a copy of Penny’s first book at the Literacy Autographing for a friend. Kathleen and I have known each other in email for years—how nice to put a face to a name.

 With my Red Sage editor, Theresa Stevens, at the Red Sage Coffee Mixer.

Fellow Red Sage authors, Leigh Court and Mia Varano.

Mia Varano with publisher Alexandria Kendall at the Red Sage author dinner held at Roy’s. Yum!

Mia and I also had dinner together on Tuesday night, plus she made me walk all the way to the Coit Tower Wednesday morning, earning Moi a tiny blister on my pinky toe of right foot that required band-aids for the duration of conference. Bad, bad Mia. However, I must confess, it was my idea to visit the Coit Tower. But! It was her idea to walk.

Friday:

Amber Quill Author Dinner: Karin Story, Natalie Damschroder, and Karin’s mom!

Karin is my editor at Amber Quill. Yes, she’s responsible for the brilliance of my books! Actually, I’m responsible, but she keeps me on the straight and narrow (you didn’t think I’d let her hog all the credit, did you?). Natalie is a fellow Amber Quill author I’ve known on the loops for years. She’s also a fellow Capricorn, which naturally endears her to Moi.

Fellow Amber Quill authors Linda McLaughlin and Caitlyn Willows.

Note that I sport the same squishy-eyed grin in every photo!

I really missed catching up with my buddy, Jamie Sobrato. We were supposed to have dinner Saturday night, but she fell ill and had to cancel. Sob. I did run across her a few times during the conference, but I’m used to seeing her a lot at conference, so now I’m suffering Jamie Withdrawal. Anyone have a cure?

Thanks also to my roomie, Natale Stenzel, for putting up with me (or was that the other way around?) Heh, heh. 

In case my faithful (snark!) readers haven’t figured it out by now, “Penny” is my new nickname for my Pen Name, previously known as “Alter Ego.” Alter Ego is two words, and Penny is just one, and my fingers are tired because my brain is exhausted because I am still sick (and, apparently, the master – mistress? – of the run-on sentence), so Penny it/I shall be from now on.

Yes, Penny had her first book signing at the Literacy Autographing at RWA National in San Francisco last Wednesday. I, Cindy, have previously signed at the LA, but this year was Penny’s year to shine. Here she is, putting on a brave face while hoards of fans descend upon the much-more-popular author sitting to her left: 

Note how I unintentionally color-coordinated my blouse to my blog! Now how I also unintentionally color-coordinated my blouse color to the RWA bags, which, may I go on record as saying I did not like in the least (color aside). Every year I save my RWA bag to re-use for other purposes. Not this year. Because, while I admire RWA’s decision to use recycled material for the bag fabric, the result was not what I would term “nice.” My roommate’s bag ripped before the conference was over, so I gave her mine. Can’t remember if she took it home or was just separating stuff for packing. Really, did anyone like this bag? I don’t see the point in supplying bags constructed of recycled material if the bag itself winds up in the garbage.

However, I totally loved the conference name tag holders, so there you go. I’ll live with the bag, which isn’t too difficult seeing as it’s not in my possession any longer.

Faithful blog readers, note that I did not Photoshop out Penny’s name card. I assure you, I have the tools to do so. Most of my faithful readers already know my pen name, anyway, but, for those who don’t, consider this photo a little Easter Egg of sorts. A surprise just for you! So you can, you know, go to Amazon (or your vendor of choice) and order my book! Can’t see the title, you say? Well, I’m not about to give that out, although I will concede that “Volume 21″ and “Secrets,” perhaps even “Primal” and maybe “Heat” figure predominantly…

Why am I trolling for readers to buy Penny’s first book? Because I only had two copies available at the Literacy Autographing. My publisher had sent a full box of books to the hotel for the signing and then had (thank God!) tucked two more copies into a box of another volume. If not for those two copies, I would have been sitting at my station with a “Sold Out!” (snicker) note on Penny’s name card a heckuva lot earlier than I did. Yes, when I sold out of my measly two volumes, I decided to spin it. Technically, I had  “sold out.” And, I tell you, I could have sold more than double the amount I did, I was that popular. Maybe even triple. Yes, maybe six sales might have occurred had I all the books in my possession! At least five sales, that I know for sure.

Anyone reading this who is not an author, believe me, selling five books at a signing is respectable. Unless you’re a much bigger name, like the lovely author to my left (if you were me sitting in this photo), Roxanne St. Claire. She sold out, too, but I think she started with 30 times the copies I did.

Those who missed me or couldn’t find me (you know who you are and that I love you anyway), check under S next time. That’s after you check under P or K in the event I’m signing as Cindy. If I’m ever signing as Cindy, I should be with the P’s, but you never know what might happen. The one year I did sign as Cindy, I was put with the Mc’s. Go figure.

If you’re still reading (don’t I test your patience sometimes?), did you attend the LA? And did you like it? If it was your first time at the LA, what did you think? Pretty overwhelming, huh?

ChickLit party pictures tomorrow. Tally-ho!

I’m back! Unfortunately, I’m also sick. I had a great time at conference, but the tickle that began in my throat during my layover in the Vancouver airport developed into a sore throat in San Francisco. I thought it was just because I was talking too much. And I thought the “swoopy” feelings I’d get walking through the hotel were a result of some don’t-let-the-building-collapse-if-an-earthquake-hits effort. Sometime late Thursday night, after shaking hands with fellow authors, editors and agents at the Literacy Signing, the Golden Network Retreat, the ChickLit party, and various Red Sage events, I realized that something else might have been at work there. Waking up Friday morning, I accepted that I was, indeed, ill. Not so bad that I had to lie in bed all day and miss my editor/agent appointments (you all know how I feel about that), but bad enough that I doubt I made sense during any of them. Fortunately, I was clever enough to let the two agents and one editor know I wasn’t feeling well and probably wouldn’t make sense, and I do believe, between my official and unofficial appointments, and then the speed-dating surprise at the Golden Network Retreat, I came away with several requests for partials and one request for a full. I made sure to jot down the requests on the backs of the business cards I collected, and now I just have to…find the cards.

Friday night was the Amber Quill Press dinner. I was able to keep it together, but collapsed into bed immediately upon my return. Saturday I actually managed to attend some workshops, but the friend I really wanted to see for dinner Saturday cancelled because she wasn’t feeling well. I tell you, good thing the RITA/Golden Heart Awards were wonderfully short Saturday night, or I think I would have fallen asleep during them. I nearly didn’t attend the Awards, but now I’m glad I did, because I really loved the format this year. Because of the giant TV screens, no matter where you were sitting, you had a great view.

Sunday, I fell asleep on the plane before it left the ground! That never happens, doesn’t matter how tired I am. I had a great sleep last night, but now today I’m feeling worse than ever. Managed to unpack everything but the conference notes (hopefully my editor/agent business cards are in there somewhere!!). So this week I’m taking it slow—my high school reunion is this Friday and Saturday night, and I want to feel well. I’ll catch up on laundry, housework, etc., maybe even get my Windows update problem fixed. But I won’t work on the partial and full requests until probably next week.

I took a few pictures and will post them throughout the week. Just not today. Because I’m about to fall asl….

If you’re going, that is. My first flight is at 6 a.m. tomorrow and I need to get up at 4 a.m. to make the drive, so wish me luck getting to sleep early tonight.

I’m still busy doing last minute packing, getting the family prepped for my absence, etc., etc. When I return, my first priority will be contacting Microsoft to fix the dag-nabbed problem I’ve been having with my automatic updates ever since they introduced SP3 for Windows XP. Note I don’t have SP3, I have SP2, but ever since SP3 came along, I can no longer install updates for SP2 and neither will SP3 install. I’ve heard they’ve had some problems with SP3 and Dell, and, yes, I have a Dell, but I had NO problems installing the updates prior to the advent of SP3.

Most annoying.

I’m usually brain dead when I return from the conference, so spending a day on the phone is as good a task to assign as any. And, you know, I have been trying to fix the problem through support emails, but my support email person suddenly disappeared and has not answered any of my emails since she asked me to send her specific files.

Not impressed.

Of course, when I call for telephone support, I’m given a different number to call for Canada and when I call it, of course the Canadian office isn’t open on weekends, which is when I’d way rather deal with computer problems. During the weekdays, I want to be writing. Alas, I must give up a day. And it’s August 4th.

All this is to say that I might disappear for longer than the time I’m away at conference.

Cheerio!