Cuz there is no unifying theme to the post, other than that it’s about the various whatnots of Summer 2013.<\/p>\n
RWA 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n I missed RWA 2012 in Anaheim, though I was only 90 minutes away in San Diego, because it was His Hawtness’s Brokeback Summer. \u00a0This year, he is super hale, getting up at the crack of dawn three times a week to run before work, and requiring no nursemaiding at all. \u00a0So I sashayed over to Atlanta–though my sashaying probably didn’t look all that pretty, when I was dragging my suitcases from the MARTA station to the hotel–and had myself a great time.<\/p>\n The entire mood of the conference was notably buoyant. \u00a0I remember RWA 2010, there was a pervasive sense of unease, and sometimes outright fear. \u00a0 2011 was when we first started hearing about all the self-publishing successes–and the self-pubbing folks who wanted to give a workshop had to do it in the hotel lobby.<\/p>\n Since I missed last year, for me this is definitely the year self-publishing became the star. \u00a0The self-pubbing panels were held in the biggest rooms and every one I went to was well-attended. It is an exciting time to be a writer, with more avenues to success and profitability than ever.<\/p>\n But for me, the best part of the conference was RITA night, when my very dear friend Emily McKay<\/a> won the YA Romance RITA, for her book The Farm<\/a>. \u00a0I felt like the mother of the bride all night long, even though I had nothing to do with her book!<\/p>\n My second favorite part is probably McIrish–Kristan Higgins’s husband–taking to calling me “Trouble.” \u00a0Heh heh. \u00a0I am in fact a very untroublesome person, downright virtuous if we examine what I do and don’t do. \u00a0But sometimes it’s the mindset that comes across, and I am the sort to encourage my friends to take off their pants in public, in the hope of ensuing excitement. \u00a0\ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n New Website<\/strong><\/p>\n It’s beautiful. \u00a0It’s functional. \u00a0It’s designed and coded by Frauke Spanuth at Croco Designs, whom I can no longer live without.<\/p>\n The Luckiest Lady in London<\/strong><\/p>\n I have just turned in the galleys, or first pass pages, as they are sometimes called nowadays–and thoroughly enjoyed the read-through. \u00a0I even shed a tear, which came as a surprise, since I hadn’t pegged it as that sort of book. \u00a0But then again, angst is my stock-in-trade, so who am I kidding? \u00a0\ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n The Burning Sky Book Trailer<\/strong><\/p>\n I like to make book trailers, when I have time. \u00a0Not that I ever expected them to sell books, it was more like a vanity thing, to give me a my-child-has-shiny-shoes kind of swagger. \u00a0(And which I have never experienced in real life, as neither of my children have ever consented to footwear that can be shined.)<\/p>\n For the first time, someone else has made me a book trailer, one that might actually accomplish the task of book-pushing. \u00a0The text is taken from the opening page of the book, so you could say I wrote the script. \u00a0But mainly what makes it work, for me, is the music, and the dramatic beauty of Eton. \u00a0(Seriously, I Google Earth’ed the heck out of Eton and looked at every image there was, and never realized the school was that<\/em> pretty.)<\/p>\n