by Christine | Writing
Yesterday got off to a great start. I went to a “get the most out of RT” hour, and they had all the pubbed authors stand up, give their name and the name of their book, and it was really nifty!
The best part of that hour though was finally meeting in person Kristen Lamb, the guru of Social Media for authors. She is just as nice and funny and intense in person as she is on twitter – and that’s saying something. We hung out, made plans for some future blog stuff, and ended up sitting together at the Welcome to RT mixer along with Roz Lee, Jennifer Haymore, and Sarah (who got 2 requests – one from an agent, one from an editor!!!).
In the afternoon I went to the Crescent Moon Press spotlight, the Ravenous Romance spotlight (both of which were very enlightening), then went to listen to Elaine Spencer and Deidre Knight from the Knight agency, along with Shannon Butcher and Kristen Painter, two Knight Agency clients. They were talking about plotting your career – and the best advice they had was to stay flexible, keep writing, and if you can, get an agent to help you through the turmoil that is going on in the publishing world. What is true today may not be true ninety days from now. There really aren’t any more 5 year plans for an author’s career – everything moves faster now.
After the talk I was able to talk to Deidre (and kid her about not showing up at the gym yesterday morning, like she’d said she would. But she didn’t arrive until late morning, so that was a great excuse!). It was nice getting to talk to her like a real person! I handed her a bookmark and she was appropriately pleased for me – everyone when they find out I’m a debut author has been very warm. She didn’t show up at the gym this morning, either, but that’s okay -it was packed again. (She’s lost a ton of weight btw and looks great!)
Going from one workshop to another, I ran into Angela James. She is the tiniest, nicest, prettiest woman I’ve seen in a long time. She’d make a great heroine in a novel, I’m just saying. Anyway, I shook her hand, introduced myself, told her she’d sent me a very nice rejection letter but I might have something else for her to look at – and she was appropriately receptive, and very very nice. I’d love to work for her and so will keep that in mind.
A panel on social media was great – Kristen Lamb was there, Nicole Peeler, Andrew Shaeffer, and Terry Kate of Romance in the Backseat. FABULOUS! I’ve got a date with Terry Kate in May, I think, so it’s all peachy.
Got to rush now so I’ll just say during yesterday evening’s Sexy Sirens Through History gathering, I got to talk to the press person from the Los Angeles times. He not only took my bookmark, he asked me questions about my book, my publisher, RT, my writer’s journey, and asked for my phone number. His name was Alan, and you can be sure I’ll be talking to him whenever I see him the rest of the week. And he said the feature should run in the Saturday edition of the L.A. Times.
So that’s my Wednesday Wrap-up. All in all, I consider it a great personal success!
by Christine | Writing
So, today is the first full day of the Romantic Times Booklovers’ Convention here at the Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. But I’m going to back up to yesterday.
I attended a BookCamp event that went from 1:30pm to 8pm, so I got to the hotel early in the hopes I wouldn’t be dragging my luggage, my pens, bookmarks, ballgown, faery wings, and venetian mask around.
Luckily, I got in with no problems and by 12:30 was anxiously waiting for my luggage to appear in my room. Which it did about 20 minutes later. GORGEOUS ROOM. Must remember to sneak hubby in at least a couple of nights. Ahem.
So, BookCamp. First off, the people – Angela James was there, as was Miss Smart Bitches herself (but I didn’t get a chance to talk to her – what a hoot! I love her!), and Patrick, the man behind Good Reads – plus lots of readers and authors. The purpose behind it is kind of a non-structured convention – we all came up with ideas to break into small sessions for, and we came up with 16 different topics – everything from “what about libraries?” to contracts, to audio books, to reading groups…we had three 40 minute blocks of time, spread across four different classrooms – and we shared information. No one person stood at the front to talk – we sat in a circle and talked. Shared ideas. And no matter what topic we talked about, everyone was gracious and respectful of each other. Polite discourse. Fascinating!
After it was over, we moved to Borders Grill across the street from the hotel and had a cocktail party, which was part of the event. Lovely drinks and appetizers. Of course, it was very loud in there, and quite disorienting for me, so I bugged out kind of early and wandered the food court in the hotel before going up to my room. A woman in front of me was desperate for a can of coke – when I saw her name tag, I did obeisance. BJ Daniels is all over the Harlequin romance world, and I always love reading her work. So to meet her in person was a thrill! And she said she’d buy my book! Gasp! I’m so excited!
So…what I learned yesterday was go NOWHERE without my bookmarks and pass them out to EVERYONE. (Side note: this Starbucks gets the most eclectic bunch of folks in it that I’ve ever seen…and most of them are wearing some sort of intoxicating colognes or perfumes of some sort.)
ANYway – I am about to put the computer away, and go look for Promo Alley. I’d like to set my stuff up with the SAVVY and the CMP Peeps…we shall see! (Or maybe Promo Alley is in Club RT…hmmm….)
I don’t know why – but it seems easier to talk to other writers here than it does at RWA. Maybe because there are fewer of us here? I just don’t know. But I’m looking forward to today!
by Christine | Uncategorized
Every blog that gets traffic gets spam. That’s the reality. I haven’t, yet, decided to put a captcha program on my blog (where you have to input a wiggly set of letters and numbers to prove you’re human and not a bot in order to comment) and that’s okay. I use Akismet and they catch a lot.
However, I get email notifications of these spammers. And usually it’s something polite, every now and then it’s a foreigner trying to write English, and always it’s a company wanting my business.
The one post that has been generating most – nay, ALL – of the spam is one I wrote late last year titled “Rejection City”. The comments are closed for that post, btw, but that doesn’t stop the spammers from trying. And today’s spam made me laugh out loud.
Today’s spammer called me on the carpet. The message said they were disappointed that my content had nothing to say, that they didn’t learn a single thing from my blog post. As if that would make me write them back? Seriously?
I just tried to find that post in my trash, but my computer is that efficient – it’s already dumped it. But it was truly laugh-out-loud hysterical.
Universe, I know I don’t blog enough here. I know I’m not always educational, but I do try to be entertaining. And I’m really cutting down on the sad stuff. No, really. So if you don’t mind, please send me spam that’s more along the lines of “I truly love your blog you say great things about this subject everyone should think about it I will have all my relatives follow you.” Oh, and have it be from somewhere creative, like an erectile dysfunction pill manufacturer, or something. Okay?
Peace out, peeps!
by Christine | Life, Writing
Branding myself is a tiring business, but I have to remember it is a business. Writing a great book doesn’t mean squat if no one reads it, right? So, despite the fact that I don’t have an actual release date for my book, I’m forging ahead with my author brand by blogging at other sites, updating Twitter and Facebook, and if I’m lucky, adding words to book 2 in the Caine Brothers series.
It’s tiring. At times I have to remember to step away from the computer and just breathe. Whether I do yoga, or walk around the block, or meet a friend for coffee, I need the headspace away from my desk. Not to mention, my body needs to get moving in order to stay healthy. (Speaking of moving, I tried to do a couple of walk/runs. My third one, I tweaked my left knee. Sigh…and so it goes…)
Blogging gets kind of obsessive, especially when you get a lot of comments. I always feel I need to answer each one, even though I KNOW most of those commenting aren’t going back to read in case I comment! Still, seeing my words connect with other people is really cool.
Next week, on Monday I’ll be at Eva Coppersmith’s blog – you can find me there on and off all day PLUS I’ll be doing a giveaway of a copy of DEMON SOUL.
Now, I need to write. Tomorrow I have friends coming over for dinner, so will need to clean plus go to 10:30am yoga class. Oh, and cook, of course, I’ll need to do that too…oh, and the rest of the weekend?
I’ll be breathing.
by Christine | Writing
Tynga is hosting Crescent Moon Press debut authors this week! Drop by and leave a comment on my interview and you could win a free copy of DEMON SOUL!
Click here…
See you there!
P.S. The drawing ends April 6th, so there’s time!
