The vacation pics are going to have to wait because the image thingey on my blog isn’t working right. I know, you’ve been waiting on the edge of your chair. Um, yeah.

So today I went shopping for some clothes for the Romance Writers of America national conference at the end of the month. If you’re not familiar with this strange phenomenon, it’s when about 2200 romance writers converge on a poor, unsuspecting hotel for a few days and network, take workshops, meet with agents and editors and catch up with writing friends we only see once a year. In other words, a very good time, and a strain on any respectable hotel’s bar.

There are several wardrobe challenges for a writer going to conference. The first is that the normal attire for days at conference is business-casual or business. If you know any writers, you understand that our usual work clothes consist of PJ bottoms and a tank in the summer, oversized sweatshirts, heavy sweats and fuzzy slippers in the winter, and on good days, we might dress up and don a pair of faded jeans.

This means, of course, a trip to the mall.

I have a decent business-casual, maybe even a little businessish, wardrobe. A few pairs of pants not made of denim, some nice finely knit sweaters, several jackets and dressier shoes. However, when one’s butt grows, one’s wardrobe doesn’t work as well. I’ve gained 8 pounds since last summer’s conference and the pants are not happy.

Also, there are parties all week. Publisher parties, reader parties, RWA chapter parties…believe it or not, romance writers like to have parties. The Harlequin party is the biggest and best party, in my humble, inexperienced opinion. It includes a DJ and free-flowing drinks, a dance floor that is always full, and tons of very cool authors. (Nora Roberts usually makes an appearance, if you were curious about the coolest. *g*)

The Harlequin party is one place to get decked out in party dresses or gowns. The other place for dressing to the nines (cliche alert…hope no editors are reading) is the Saturday night RITA ceremony, which is the romance industry’s equivalent to the Oscar.

So today, I piled the family in the car and took them with me to SHOP. (I need the hubby with me because he is my objective fashion advisor. He’s pretty good at it too.)

I bought: a dress for the Harlequin party (special note: this year’s dress is Not Black!!! A huge feat for me!), a dress for the RITA ceremony (this is black. And purdy.) Some new shoes…clearance rack find on some “sexy” shoes (next blog column will be about the fantabulous fellow customer who made my shopping trip complete) that will go with the black dress, some dressy capris for the day, a shirt to match (it’s PURPLE. I’m telling you, I’m going wild this year.) and a very unnecessary World Wildlife Fund t-shirt with pandas on it…not for the conference, mind you.

And the best part?

Major. Sale.

Not sure if I have enough that will fit over me arse yet but I’ve got a good start. WOOT!

Anyone else been clothes shopping lately? (I hadn’t. For eons.) What’d you buy? Get any bargains? And if you’re going to the conference in San Francisco, what are you wearing for RITA night and/or the Harlequin party?

Party on party people.

I’ve been back for a week but have been playing catch up in every aspect of life. Our trip to Door County, Wisconsin was wonderful and I’ll post more about it this week. First topic up, though, is vacation reading.

I read two particularly awesome books during our trip. First, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, a young adult book but one that’s generated a lot of buzz among adults and teens alike. With good reason.

The first half of the book kept me in suspense and totally intrigued waiting for the heroine to find out the hero is a vampire. You know she is from the back of the book, but the poor heroine takes a while to figure out why her high school crush in her new town is pale, cold to the touch, perfectly beautifully handsome and absent from school a lot. Also why he tells her he’s a danger to her. So she finally finds out, which was very well done and believable. (For a vampire story. Disbelief suspended. :))

The second half picks up in speed and is full of action when the heroine’s life becomes endangered. I won’t post any spoilers here but the character development, humans and vampires alike, is wonderful, including the family ties of both, as well as the usual friend relationships expected in a YA story. The end? Powerful and yet gentle. I’m sure that doesn’t make sense if you haven’t read it, so go read it!

Second AWESOME book I read is Pleasure Unbound by Larissa Ione. If you’re already tired of me gushing then read no further.

Yes, Larissa is a good friend of mine. We blog together on Writeminded and I can’t wait to hang out with her at the RWA National Conference in a couple weeks. But ignore all that, because even if I didn’t know Larissa I would rave about her book. I was blown away by the wit, the storyline, and especially the world and the characters.

The book is centered around Underworld General Hospital, which treats demons. The hero is the founder and a doctor at the hospital. The heroine is a demon slayer. See room for conflict between the two? There are some very Buffy-ish roots in some of the ideas, yet Larissa’s world is entirely her own. (I’m thinking her head is a scary place. *g*)

There’s a new twist everytime you blink, some wonderful surprises, and I should probably mention the sex. Very hot book, but not once did I think, ugh, are they going at it AGAIN? The relationship between hero and heroine is so realistic and the sex is such an integral part of the story, it was a perfect mix.

If paranormal’s your thing, definitely pick up Pleasure Unbound. My husband, who mostly reads science fiction and fantasy, grabbed it from me the minute I finished it and devoured it in a day. He loved it too.

Now I’m reading Jim Butcher’s first book in the Harry Dresden series. Liking it so far. And yes, I’m in a bit of a paranormal binge, which is uncharacteristic for me.

What about you? What have you read lately that you have to rave about?

We’re leaving on our family vacation at long last. Woohoo! What I want to do most is curl up with a good book (or four) and lose myself in an alternate reality. For hours. Or days. Whatever.

I’m currently reading Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. Very good so far, and a fast read…if only I could string together more than about 5 minutes of reading time at once. That will change this week.

I also had to crack open Larissa’s Pleasure Unbound because it was sitting there staring at me. Ten pages in and I’m totally hooked! (I don’t usually read two books at once, so I’m feeling a little schizophrenic at the moment.) I’m also taking a Jim Butcher book, one of Stephanie Tyler’s Blazes, Kelly Parra’s debut YA and a couple others I can’t remember right now. I won’t get them all read over the week but I like to have choices when I finish one book.

I’ll also be trying to finish two proposals while I’m gone. Wish me luck and unstuckness, please!

Hope you’re in the middle of a good book…or a vacation…or both! Happy reading!

I’m a character writer. I come up with characters first, not necessarily by choice, and then I try to build my plot around them. The characters change throughout the process as the plot might dictate, and by the end of the first draft (or third) they might not even resemble the same people I started out with. But that’s how my stories usually go.

I’m working on a proposal now, reworking it, actually, because there were elements my editor didn’t like. After discussing some changes with her last week, I’m really excited about the story (and she is too. Yay!)

I’ve rewritten the synopsis and now I’m working on the three chapters that will make up the rest of the proposal. Normally I fly through the chapters and then struggle with the synopsis for days. This time, the chapters are giving me FITS.

I’ve been trying to figure what’s wrong all week, because something IS off. I’ve rewritten one of the scenes twice and still don’t like it, and I think I finally figured it out. I don’t know my characters. I know a lot of generalities about them, the changes and growth they have to go through over the course of the story, but I don’t know details. Maya likes to make fun of me for trying to figure out so much at the proposal stage (no, I actually never have figured out what kind of toothpaste my people use, though she accuses me of it regularly.) But my writing just clunks along if I don’t know the characters well enough.

*clunk clunk*

Yeah. So tonight I tried to figure out my hero a bit more. I learned a lot about him (he’s not telling about toothpaste yet) so I started the problematic scene again. Yes, I used a character chart (something many writers cringe at), although I skipped around on it, ignoring things like his favorite book and his parents’ names and focusing on the parts about his personality and his self-perception.

I’ve restarted the scene and I think it’s a little better. Not there yet, but progress is good. Baby steps. Or something. I can’t help but wonder, though, what the world’s coming to when I know more about my plot than my characters. *insert frightened smiley here*

We’ve lived in our house for 2 years now and we only knew the neighbors on either side of us. I knew some of the others by face, but no names, nothing beyond, hi, how are you, at the mailbox.

But this past weekend, our neighborhood had a good old-fashioned block party! When we got the flyer, our reaction was, hey, cool! Then as the day got closer, we got less excited, because neither the hubby nor I are minglers. So we were nervous.

So we stepped out of our comfort zone and went. And met some really cool people! We found out one of our older son’s classmates just moved to our street. Met a boy who is 7 (ours are 6 and 8 ) and his mother, who happens to be an avid reader. Reacquainted ourselves with another of the 8yo’s classmates who we hardly ever see because we’re all, well, busy with life. Talked to our next door neighbors more about their newborn baby and life with three kids. (Oh, and I fell totally off the healthy food bandwagon and ate some cookies. My favorites. Scotcheroos, I think they’re called. Someone conspired to make me do that. *g* OMG They were heaven!)

So now when we see people outside…imagine this…we know them! What a great concept.

It made me think about how different things were when I was growing up. We knew all the neighbors. Had cookouts with at least 2 other families regularly. Asked favors (like a cup of milk) from several. And we didn’t even have the communal mailbox at which to randomly meet up.

What about you…do you know your neighbors? Know what they do for a living? What their kids names are? (That they have a kid who’s the same age as yours??? lol)