Inspiration

So, I'm probably one of the only people left in the country ... no, scratch that ... the world, who has never read any of the Harry Potter books. I've seen all the movies, which I totally love, but just haven't gotten around to reading the series just yet. But I will. Oh, that I promise. With all my friends telling me how amazing the series is and their popularity across all countries and ages, I want to read the books. I want to learn how she did it. How she captured the imagination of the world. As one reviewer said, we'll never see a phenomena like this in our lifetime again. To me, the Harry Potter books are the Star Wars of this generation. And to think, a woman who has become a billionaire from a story about a boy wizard almost didn't get published. Twelve different publishers rejected her. It took a year for her story to finally get picked up by a small press for, according to once source, a 15oo pound advance and told to keep her day job because she would never make a lot of money in children's books. And the only reason the publisher even bought it was because the owner's daughter liked the story. The initial print run was only 1,000. And if any of you have the original British copies, many of which were distributed to libraries, then about $20–30K is resting on your bookshelf. Pretty cool for an idea that started during a train delay and ended with an amazing book 5 years later.

Truly inspirational. So don't throw away any of those ideas you feel passionate about. You never know what may happen.

Back to Life, Back to Reality

Work, work, and more work. Been running ragged since I got back from the conference on Sunday. Total whirlwind. This afternoon I've been catching up on work related stuff some more and realizing how totally behind I am in so many things. Ugh! I need my Calgon moment.

Cool things are happening though. The editor who requested a partial wanted me to give a brief description of the others books planned for the series I pitched. I was a little nervous at first, but fortunately I found some notes about possible storylines for the other characters which I had written months ago. Phew! Big sigh of relief. So that will be heading out tomorrow morning. A good friend's husband is in CA filming a gameshow. And considering that he was the National Spelling Bee champ when he was like 14 and is one of the smartest guys I know (he's an engineer, need I say more?) then I'm hoping that they come home with the big bucks. I couldn't think of a family who deserves it more. Wonderful people. So I'll keep you posted when that'll be on.

I saw Harry Potter on Monday night and loved it! People make fun of me because I never read any of the books. But my plan is to watch all the movies then go back and read them. Because, trust me, if you saw my office especially after the conference, I need to get through what I have here first. Ack! The movie was much darker and it's so crazy to see how mature-looking the boys in particular have become. But the cool thing is that I saw a trailer for a Get Smart movie staring Steve Carell. I LOVED Get Smart when I was kid. I watched it everyday at 5 pm in reruns. Those kind of shows are what inspire me to write outrageous villians and outlandish set-ups and gadgets. I totally hope they don't screw it up. When I was kid I thought Agent 99 was the coolest and always wanted my hair cut like hers. But, alas, I have curly hair which just wouldn't work. Bah!

I forgot to mention that I spoke to Kresley Cole at the literary signing during RWA. She writes historicals as well as my some of my favorite paranormals Hunger Like No Other (amazing) and No Rest for the Wicked (what I'm reading now which is also amazing). Being a movie buff and TV junkie, I kept reading phrases and saying in her books and thinking that I heard them somewhere. Particularly a few lines sounded like they were from South Park. And sure enough, I was right. She said that she loves quoting Cartman and has also put lines in there from the Alien Trilogy movies, which I know way too well since one of my good friends always quotes those movies. I was so excited that she was a total TV geek like me. Now it's even more fun to read her books and try to guess where some of the quotes come from!

RWA Conference—Giddyup!

Just got back from the RWA conference in Dallas and it was so much fun. I keep thinking back to three years ago when I first went to the conference in Reno where I didn't know anyone. Nada. Not a soul. I met two people (Karmela and Maya) in particular that first year (and Sydney the second year) who have been wonderful in helping me further my writing and expand my network of writing friends. I am so happy to be a part of this organization which has really pushed me further in my writing career and offers much support for struggling to be published writers. Here's some highlights to steal the setup from fabulous Karmela's blog:

1. Maya Rodale, my room mate and wonderful critique partner, had the first signing for her debut book The Heir and the Spare at the conference. I was so proud of her. She is an excellent writer, so check out her book!!! She was out of books within 30 minutes. It was absolutely amazing. I was her "assistant" during the book signing and got there early to help her set up and I took pictures during the signing. Also, I got to see Nora Roberts and get a book signed by her before they let everyone into the room (Maya and Nora are both published by Berkley who was sponsoring the free book signing). When I told Nora that I was helping out a friend, who was signing her first book, Nora asked for a copy because she wanted something to read on the plane. So Maya's first book was signed to Nora Roberts. How cool is that????
2. Got to hang out with the absolutely fabulous (and totally crazy—but in a good way) author and CP Karmela Johnson, who was kind enough to introduce me to some wonderful women like Michelle Rowen (really love her fun vampire romances and I was able to snag her latest Fanged and Fabulous), Elisabeth Naughton (who was up for the Golden Heart for Romantic Suspense and is so hilarious and good at coming up with t-shirt slogans), and Marcia Colette (who should be a stand-up comic and has two very cool, unique ideas for paranormal/urban fantasy stories that I know we'll see in print very soon).
   
3. I was able to catch up with another CP and wonderful author Sydney Sterling (who got many request for her manuscripts from editors at the conference—yeah!) and have a delicious dinner overlooking Dallas at the tower restaurant, which rotated. How cool is that! (though I was a little motion sick at first) We met up with a cool chick named Dawn Garza who was at her first conference.
   
4. Met and hung out and had great time with the very sweet Ann Bleakley who is a friend of Maya's and has a very cool idea for a historical romance series. I know an editor is going to totally snag it up.
   
5. Met Rayna Vause who is on the chair of the New Jersey chapter who writes alternative erotica and has a book out which is called Only in Her Dreams. She told me all about the huge conference New Jersey puts on every year which is second in size to the national conference. Should definitely check it out next year!
6. Had an interesting conversation with Maureen Peyron, who is a movie producer and has worked on such films as A Beautiful Mind and has worked with Ron Howard for the past 12 years. (Yes, I'm such a dweeb. I admit that I was a little blinded by the celebrity aspect of it and was wondering ... hmmm ... do you need any extras for any films coming out soon??) She was at the conference to meet with authors about her project called Lasting Romance which she has been developing for the past 2 years. She wants to make movies from romance novels. She plans to have it go straight to DVD because in her research she has found that most women who read romance are married with children, which unfortunately doesn't leave them much time to go to the movies since most have to pay for babysitters and it can get expensive. If Maureen will have a good budget to make these films and try to really capture the essence of the story, then I think this could be interesting.
7. I met and had breakfast with two very classy and sweet ladies: Diana Cosby and Jeanmarie Hamilton. Jeanmarie was a finalist in the RT Magazine American Title contest. She just sold her first book Seduction which will be out in the first Quarter of 2008. Yeah! Diana has her book coming out in November called His Captive which looks really hot. Of course, I had a few FIMs (foot in mouth moments) when I called her job as a meteorologist "odd" and referred to her spilling coffee on her pants as having a "wardrobe malfunction." But at least she was cool enough to laugh about it!
8. Sherrilyn Kenyon gave a powerful speech at the PRO Retreat which inspired all of us. Truthfully, I would've been a total wreck if I had half the things happen to her as she struggled to become published. But she is one of the nicest people I've ever met. She took my hands during the book signing and looked into my eyes and told me never to give up. She is just so sweet. And Gena Showalter is another great person. I've been picking up her books every year at the conference and she has always been so sweet to speak with. She asked how my writing was coming along and offered very supportive and encouraging words about believing in myself. Thanks Sherrilyn and Gena!
9. Got a request for a partial from an editor for the Dark Earth story. Yeah! Still waiting to hear back from 2 other editors, so we'll see what happens. (fingers crossed)
10. Didn't go to as many workshops this year. Was so caught up in meeting new people (and catching up with old friends) and getting tons of free books. I did attend the Hauge workshops on writing which were phenomenal. I got a great idea for my latest story for which I've been totally blocked. I also attended a good workshop on Alpha males and heroines and realized that my husband fits the profile of an alpha. Funny!

Well, that's all folks. It was a fun and engaging experience.

For some reason I can't upload photos to my blog. Maybe it's because I'm on a Mac. Ugh! If I can figure it out, maybe I'll just post them to my site.

Tour de Force

Had a pretty jam-packed week between work and visiting friends and taking tours of cool places.

First, we took a tour of the Smithsonian Support Center. That's where they keep all the displays from the Smithsonian museums from wet/dry animals to various anthropological artifacts. We got to see how they store rows and rows and more rows of fish specimens in these high metal bookshelves. And we saw the giant squid which used to be on display at the National History Museum in DC. One of the coolest parts was seeing up close and personal (though no touching!) the various artifacts from around the world: Eskimo parkas made from animal intestines, Samurai suits, ivory carved spheres and chess pieces from Japan, ceremonial masks from various South American tribes, just to name a few ... We even got to see the frozen animal carcasses which they use to study (many animals weren't killed for study but were found washed ashore or already dead). There was a creepy room replete with giant hooks hanging from the ceiling above a metal table with a hole at the end for washing the guts and blood away to the drain on the floor. Lots of ideas for a horror story. And we got to see the demisted beetles in action, as they ate away the dead flesh from various rodents and a Pygmy hippo. Kinda gross, but cool. Best of all, we got a tour of the whale bones and stood next to the jaw of a Blue Whale. It's amazing the size of the animals. The artifacts and animal remains are used for study as well as museum displays. Students, researchers, and scientists from all over the world will come to the support center to take samples of bones or tissues for different studies (such as determining what might be killing off a certain species of while) or study the stitching on a dress from Peru.

Next we had a tour of the White House. Our friend works for the National Security Council and just had a meeting with George Bush last week. I know ... friends in high places. :P (And here I thought I was cool when my friends used to work at McDonalds and sneak me free food.) We got to the see the Oval Office which was brilliant, literally, it looked brilliant with all the gold and yellow adorning it. Each president redecorates the Oval Office and Bush used lots of yellow and gold coloring. I have to admit that it looked snazzy and I expected a multitude of angelic voices to be hitting a high "ahhhhhh" when we saw it. We were able to view the Roosevelt room where most meetings take place and the Cabinet room with gold tags on the back of the chairs to indicate where the members sit. We only got to see the West Wing and the executive offices. And I have to admit that the West Wing looked so small, especially with the cramped hallways, for a place where so many important decisions are made. The residence is no longer open for tours but we were able to take a photo outside.

Definitely a great weekend. And I'll have lots of information to pull from for my next stories.