Thirteen Things for my Groupies 1. I’ve added a new download to the Free Downloads page of my website. 2. The new one is called Meeting Trevor. 3. You might have read it here, in a slightly different version. From the size of the comment trail, it looks like a lot of you have missed it. 4. I took some time and cleaned it up and edited it before letting it be a download. 5. That’s because what goes on the blog is usually a first draft, or close enough to it to be called a first draft. 6. Part of the idea here is that the downloads will be easier to find, even though you can click on any character on their page at the website and find a list of blog posts that involves them. 7. Another bonus of the outtakes is that they will be in chronological order, which is something that currently doesn’t exist anywhere. Some of you have asked for this. I’m happy to provide. 8. We’ll try to remember to put a little “NEW” icon by the newest outtake when we post them. 9. For now, they’ll all be set in the years before my novel, Trevor’s Song, takes place. You’ll get a unique look at the backstory that creates the book. 10. If Trevor’s Song isn’t published by the time I go through all my outtakes, I’ll figure something out. Self-publish or write more outtakes are the two most obvious solutions! 11. A bonus to doing this is that if there’s enough demand, I can collect the downloads into an actual book that you can buy and put on your shelves and give to friends. That’s going to be entirely dependent on demand, however. 12. One thing that jazzes me is that when people ask if they can buy my book, I can say no, but they can read for free on my website. 13. Tell all your friends. Let’s make them fall as deeply in love with Trevor and company as you are. If you don’t have a Groupie banner but want one, let me know!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

Thirteen snappy comebacks (read on) Leah Braemel had this story to tell, and it’s so perfect, I had to share it. In case you’re too lazy to click the link (shame on you!), in a nutshell, the story goes like this: two guys shopping early morning in a guitar store. No one’s around except this long-haired heathen, playing a guitar hooked up to a monstrous amp. An amp that’s been turned to 11, at least. Maybe 14. In a guitar shop, not a concert hall. For about half an hour, the shoppers do their best to shop, but Mr. Heathen-on-Guitar won’t let up. He’s got a full-on jam going. But then, when he stops, one of Leah’s guys yells, “Hey! Shut the fuck up!” Oops. Turns out that Mr. Heathen-on-Guitar is a Mega Big Rock Star. You Ozzy fans might have heard of him and no, I’m not talking about Randy Rhoads. Think more current. Think who’s playing with him currently. Now, we have no way of knowing what the real Mr. Heathen-on-Guitar said or did, or if this is a story he even retells — if he’s cool, he does, complete with a chuckle at the chowderheads who didn’t recognize him and a second chuckle at himself for not convincing the guys to buy the new guitar he was there to promote. And since I’ve already taken great liberties with the retelling of this story, I think I’ll take a few more. What if Mr. Heathen-on-Guitar (isn’t that a fine British name, sort of like Stratford-on-Avon?) had been ShapeShifter’s Mitchell Voss? Or ShapeShifter’s lead guitarist, Eric Wallace? Or even our favorite bad boy, Trevor Wolff (who’d never do this sort of thing because it involves playing in public without Mitchell covering his sorry musicianship, but he’d open his mouth and defend his best friend — in typical Trevor style.), and don’t forget our drummer, Daniel Sydor, too. Here’s what they might have said: 1. Eric: Hey, come check out my new guitar. I’ll let you play it. 2. Eric: Oops. Sorry I’m so loud. Here, have some guitar picks. 3. Eric: Got anything you want me to autograph? 4. Mitchell: No. 5. Trevor: If you don’t like the sound of a guitar, go home. 6. Trevor: Who the fuck died and made you the music police? 7. Mitchell: Why? 8. Daniel: Hey, I’m just the drummer. Don’t look at me. 9. Trevor: I can tell them to make it louder. 10. Mitchell: Next you’ll ask me to play fucking Freebird. 11. Trevor: Are you some Bettina Beverly* fan? 12. Mitchell: What? I can’t hear you! 13. Trevor: We were here first. First come, first served doesn’t only apply to me and my girls, you know. * Bettina Beverly? Think Celine Dion, only Riverview style. And now that you’ve had fun with me and the band, go thank Leah for inspiring me so nicely this week, okay? I know she’d appreciate meeting you.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will try to link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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By now, the devoted groupies of you should have caught on to the fun I’ve been having with certain writing prompts. Like this week’s Sunday Scribblings.

The prompt this week, for those of you who didn’t go visit it, is called “My nights.” My nights anymore are boring. The Tour Manager puts the kids to bed and I dive for this here computer and begin trying to catch up on everything I didn’t accomplish during the day: blogs, outtakes, and the current novel-length Work in Progress.

Yeah. Like I said, boring.

But, you lucky people you, I write about people who come alive at night. No, not vampires (although some would call KISS such).

I write about a rock band (well, two of them now that I’ve got Deadly Metal Hatchet) and the people who orbit them. That gives me lots of opportunities to write about the night.

I mean, when you’re as big a band as ShapeShifter, you play at night. Even when you’re participating in those day-long (or multi-day-long) concerts. You get to close the show. Like ShapeShifter did that one New Year’s Eve. Or this night.

A good way to spend a night off is to go check out a new band.

The night doesn’t end when a band leaves the stage. Oh, no. First, the band’s gotta have a post-show meal. Or a party.

Sometimes, when a band is in its early days, roadies are hard to afford. That means the band has to do their own load-out after the show. This isn’t always such a bad thing. After all, they might meet interesting people. Or field interesting propositions.

Nights are also good for dreams and serenades. Interesting things bubble out of your subconscious at night. And it’s easy to be romantic at night.

Yeah, I’d rather spend my nights writing about the fictional rock band ShapeShifter and the people who orbit them. The possibilities of what can happen are endless, and I have yet to get tired of exploring, creating, and dreaming. Not to mention writing it all down and sharing it with you here.

Have fun exploring all these links to old posts. If you’re not already a proud West of Mars groupie, hopefully I’ll turn you into one. If you are already a groupie, stay tuned. New stuff is on the way.

The most excellent Alice Audrey awarded me the I Love You This Much award — for Roadie Poet! He’s got a groupie! (and yes, Trevor’s jealous. After all, RP is crew. Trevor’s band. We all know how much cooler it is to be band.)

I’m touched and flattered. And encouraged; I’ve been in a funk lately. I’m expecting a discussion about the Trevor man and it’s been two months and I’m still waiting and going nuts as I wait. I hate to wait, but the reality is that sometimes, the best things in life are the ones that are the hardest to get. And I’m putting the time to best advantage — I hope — by working on another full-length work that I know you guys will dig, and then some.

At the same time, I’m MONTHS overdue in acknowledging this one:
… E is for Excellent!

Gwen, She Writes Poetry, and Marcia all think I’m pretty excellent.

I think you guys are, too.

SO. Ready for Thirteen things?

Thirteen Awards we all dream of winning. C’mon. Admit it. You do. 1. The Stanley Cup. Okay, so it’s on my mind. Go figure. Sue me. Whatever; just help root the Penguins on to an improbable victory. And no, their winning isn’t the same as MY winning. *I* want to win it and hold it and hoist it over my head… Did you know I am a certified coach and that I used to play ice hockey? It was the last Stanley Cup craze in Pittsburgh that encouraged me to learn all that. 2. An Oscar. What can I say? Maybe I’m shallow, but I’d love to walk the red carpet and watch my band win. Yes, for a movie version of Trevor. Or something else I’ve created. I’m not terribly picky. 3. An Emmy. ShapeShifter hits your TV. Could be fun. 4. A Grammy. For writing the music behind ShapeShifter. Nevermind that I’m about as musical as a door, I’ve got a really good ear for what’s hot and what’ll be popular. Or so I learned during my years as a college radio DJ. 5. A Tony Award. Yep, for writing a musical. 6. The Nobel Prize. Not because I want to write heavy literature that changes the world (quite the contrary; I want to entertain the world), but because it’s awarded for an entire body of work, and to win it, you have to get an entire body of work published. No small feat in today’s day and age. 7. Best new writer. From anyone. From everyone. ‘Cause, you know, it’ll mean there’s a book in your hands. 8. Community service awards. I have plans in mind. My good friend Bridget and I will be working on them over the summer. Stay tuned. 9. Induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Hey, why not? If there are songwriters in there (Lieber and Stoller come immediately to mind), there can be novelists, too. (What? You don’t know who Lieber and Stoller are? Google them as you sing “Hound Dog,” okay?) 10. How about an MTV Music Award? Or an American Music Award? Yeah, so what if they don’t mean what they meant back in the late eighties, I still dreamed of winning them for something I’d written. Like that makes sense, I know. Music awards for writing. But this is me. I like breaking rules. 11. Maybe I’ll start a new award. The Trevor Award. I’ll be the first person to get it, and I’ll give it to people who are rebels like me and Trev… hmmm…. that’s not a bad idea… 12. Every blog award that’s out there. Not because I’m greedy so much as because it’s how I know you guys love what I do. 13. A published novel that you can buy in any bookstore and that gets reviewed in all sorts of great places. To nothing but praise, of course. What other reward could there be in life beyond the gratification of sharing your vision with the world? All that comes before in this list pales next to that.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will try to link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
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Well, come ON. I’ve been a Penguin season ticket holder since before I had kids (and sat through a multiple overtime game while six months pregnant, too — although we didn’t stay until the end). How can I NOT gush about my Penguins this morning? I need to give props to the Red Wings, too. It wouldn’t have been the amazing game it was if they hadn’t played so bloody well.

Oops. Sorry. I know, that was Ryan Malone playing with bloody cotton sticking out of his freshly (in the second period) re-broken nose. His nose will look like Trevor’s before too long if he keeps this up…

While we’re talking hockey, my thoughts turn to Nova Scotia, where Sidney Crosby’s from. And so is the winner of my excerpt collection. Yes, Julia, you pulled it out, too. I’ll contact you for your address and get these out to you. I know you’ll like them.

I’m going to leave you with that for now. I’m beat after last night, which makes me wonder how the players feel this morning…

Thirteen Things ShapeShifter does on tour One more week of school in the West of Mars school district. My thoughts have turned to summer (even though it’s so cold I’m wearing a warm-up jacket. Hello? May? Where are you?). Last year around this time, I took a look at what the band does while on tour. This year, they’re taking a break from the extensive tour and appreciating the season. You can probably figure out who does what by now, but if not, it’s still a good list. I’ll be doing some of these, myself. 1. Playing or hanging at day-long music festivals. 2. Hanging in the hammock out back and playing guitar. 3. Sleeping late. 4. Back porches after sundown with a cold beer. And a cigarette. 5. Hanging at Daniel’s pool. Yes, Mabel the Fifteenth tried to go swimming. Why do you ask? 6. Fighting over who gets to do the honors in front of the grill. 7. Going to Big Buck’s and sitting outside on the patio, where it’s cooler and there’s always a breeze off the river. 8. Girls in scanty clothing. Or, better yet, bikinis. 9. Wearing nothing but cut-off shorts, yourself. 10. Laying in that hammock without a guitar and dreaming. 11. The steamy heat of a club, whether you’re playing or hanging. 12. Blasting your own music out your car windows as you tool around town, feeling cooler than you probably are. 13. Val’s lemonade. Nothing better on a hot day.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will try to link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
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“Well, that blows.”

Yes, friends, that’s what I said to the Tour Manager at the conclusion of last night’s season finale.

Ideas who was in that exploding black truck? I’d love to discuss it in the comments, so comment away and let’s speculate ourselves silly!

Thirteen Good Intentions Gone Bad What’s the saying? The Road to Hell is paved with good intentions? 1. The time the video director pitched an idea that had the ShapeShifter boys dancing. DANCING. 2. The time Kerri went to pick up a package at the post office, only to find it had come $3.50 postage due because it had been wrapped wrong and she only had $2 on her. She refused the package, which had been one of those nice gestures on the part of someone else — but not for $3.50. 3. The time the band found a key lime pie in their dressing room. It wasn’t on their contracted tour rider; the promoter had thought it was a nice touch and got whiny when the band asked him to remove it. It didn’t touch him nearly so nicely when Mitchell made him wear it. 4. The sound engineer in the recording studio who forgot to push PLAY. 5. From time to time, Kerri meets someone who expected Kerry Voss, male artist, and not Kerri Voss, female. 6. The time Eric was offered an endorsement deal for a new guitar — but only if he’d never play his current ones again. 7. The new employee of the record label who had heard that Mitchell would be mean to her, so instead of asking him for lyrics for the new disc’s booklet, she did her best to interpret what she heard. 8. The time Kerri was asked to create the art for an event whose cancellation no one told her about. 9. The time the band opened a box of new t-shirts, only to find that the silver ink was red, the shirt itself was orange, and the whole thing looked like bloody puke. 10. Let’s not forget the newspaper reporter who tried to write a flattering article but confused ShapeShifter with … well, they’re still trying to figure that one out. But according to this person, who may or may not have ever heard the band, ShapeShifter is Satanic. Glad someone forgot to inform the band of that… 11. A local crew member, coming up to Trevor from behind, thought he was a woman. In that person’s defense, his hair was waist-length at the time and, from the back, he could be confused with a woman hippie… who wears biker boots and a chain connecting the wallet in his back pocket to a belt loop. And… well, you get the idea. 12. Someone filling in for Mitchell’s tech once strung Mabel upside-down. It may have been a joke, but the joke was on him when Mitchell broke Mabel over the guy’s back. 13. Often, at a backstage appearance, a guy will pull a CD (in the old days, a cassette tape — remember those?) out of a pocket and ask Daniel to listen to his demo. Daniel’s always willing — but once, the guy had given him a ShapeShifter disc, and no contact information so Daniel could make the swap. Hey, groupies! Other than #2, which just happened to me in real life today, would you like to see any of these turned into outtakes? Given time and interest, I just might do it for you. ’cause I love you guys and all.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will try to link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Thirteen Things about the new blog

1. With Breeni, Cheesy, PussReboots, and Ann, I’ve launched a new blog. 2. It’s called Win a Book. 3. I think you can figure out its purpose. But if not, the idea is that we’ll collect news of book giveaways around the Net. You can come to us and we’ll tell you who’s being buzzed about. 4. The ultimate idea here is to help spread the word about debut and mid-list authors. 5. I have to confess that Julia‘s book reviews made me feel guilty and like I wasn’t doing enough to help out people I really care about. 6. You can visit the blog at Win a Book. 7. There’s also an e-mail set up so you can contact me with news of your contest. 8. A lot of contest sites out there won’t post your contest unless you submit in a particular format. We’re not like that. We’re easy. 9. I know some blog authors don’t want publicity for their contests, because of the people who only stop by for in the hopes of winning things. I don’t blame them. 10. On the flip side, I’ve stopped by a lot of blogs because of a contest and wound up adding them to my reader. So you never know. 11. Hopefully, this is only the tip of the iceberg in the things I’ll be doing in the future for my fellow writers. I’ll be doing more posts like this one. 12. If Trevor read, I’d let him write a post or two. But this is what happened the last time he read something. Scary. 13. Win a Book. Really. Let’s start here for the time being. Come join us.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will try to link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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This week’s Sunday Scribblings prompt was one of those where I was immediately jazzed and then just as quickly, confusion set in. The theme is family, and it’s one I play with quite a bit in my fiction.

The problem, as is becoming a bit too common, is that I’ve got a ton of outtakes and other material on the blog already about this theme.

There’s the Brotherly Love Thursday Thirteen I did back in July of 2007.

There’s all the sibling torment that Mitchell and Amy heap on each other. Like the scene when Mitchell is showing Amy his new house. The torture of being a teenager and having a brother… or sister. The time Trevor set Amy up to torture both her and Mitchell…

Really. Sonya Voss puts up with a lot of hijinks in her home. She’s a saint.

And that’s part of it, I think. I don’t come from a terrible family, not by a longshot. And yet I still wish my family was more like the Vosses, who opened their home and took Trevor into it when the alternative was to let the kid hang. These people are close, they have a warm relationship with each other, they like being around each other. And they have fun together.

Now, that’s Mitchell’s family, the one Trevor takes over. (And you groupies who know Trevor even a little bit understand that fully.)

But there is another kind of family in my fictional world, too. The band.

Think about it for a second or two. You have a group of people — in the case of ShapeShifter, we have four guys — who come together. They share creativity, they share hours of practice and if they’re lucky, they get crappy dressing rooms, an overstuffed car with a trailer on the back of it for all their gear, and adventures out the wazoo. I figure this can either tear a group apart, like it recently did to real-life group Divine Heresy, or it can bring them together.

I have a dark side. It’s the part of me that makes my musical tastes run toward metal. But I like to dwell in a happy world (probably because that dark side’s power scares me), and so when it comes to families, I create happy ones.

Well, sort of. Trevor’s not the only one with an unhappy family roaming around my head. But you’ll have to stay tuned to learn more about them. And, frankly, I need the time to develop them more fully for you.

More from me later…

Every now and then, Trevor and I play by the rules. This week’s Thursday Thirteen asked us to Choose a letter of the alphabet and write thirteen words that describe you that begin with that letter. Be creative and have fun! Trevor trembled at the thought.

T is for Trevor. Trevor Fucking Wolff, thankyouverymuch. T is for Holy Terror. T is for terrible. T is for Touring. T is for Tremendous. T is for tortured. T is for Ten inches. T is for trouble. T is for tenacious. T is for Tight. T is for tragic T is for Trail Blazer T is for Total Package. More Ts… teetotaller, terrible, terminal, thread, thirty, three, twenty-some, trusting, travel, thorn, trustworthy, thrash metal, thunder, thing, thundering, threesome, tired, tumultuous, thoughtful, trait, thoughtless, tasteless, timely, talkative, turtle, tundra, the, tissue, than, trouble, tithe, Thursday, thirteen, three, Tuesday, tape, why, the, fuck, are, you, still, reading, go, leave, a, comment, already!

This week’s Writer’s Island prompt was outrageous, which I thought a pretty good prompt for old Trevor.

Trevor’s not the most outrageous person you’ll ever meet. I’ll grant you that. Instead, Trevor’s Outrageousness comes in the form of a lack of caring and inhibition. In a sense, he’s my wild side, the part of me that longs to be let out. I’ve gotten better over the years since I created Trevor, but I’ve still got nothing on the master — probably because I care more than he does.

At the same time that I’ve been mulling over this prompt, Julia tagged me with the Seven Things Meme. She said it was for me or ShapeShifter to do. And so with no further ado…

How Trevor equals outrageous. In his own words and voice, so don’t yell at me.

1. Read this post. It’ll tell you a fucking lot.

2. I got conned by the groupies around this joint to write a poem. I think I said a lot of shit they were wishing they had the balls to say.

3. Is it really sick if I say that piercing Mitchell’s ear was one of the highlights of my life? It wouldn’t have been if he’d taken it like a man. Shit, one little hole, right? Count on the big idiot to fuck that one up. Royally.

4. I’ve conned Rusty into all sorts of great shit. Most of it hasn’t been on the blog ’cause it’s in the book. Which means you got yet another reason to wait for the book. Can’t wait? Want it sooner? Make a bigger noise about this here blog. Bring your friends over. Leave comments like mad. Things are looking good, so get off your asses and help make ’em look better.

5. Ever been shopping for your properly healthy, and probably perfectly organic, fruits and green shit and seen someone do this? It sucked that Rusty was so cool about it. I fucking love it when she turns as red as her fake hair color.

6. This is where I’m supposed to talk about me and Rusty, but forget it. Read the book. Go back up to #4 if you’re all frustrated there’s no book to read yet. Trevor Wolff doesn’t repeat himself. Ever.

7. Now, I don’t think any of this makes me outrageous. This is who I am, and fuck you if you don’t like it even though you know you do or you wouldn’t be hanging out here so fucking much. But I’ll tell you one thing that is outrageous. That’s that I’m this rock star and I don’t drink. Not such a long story why, but … you gotta wait for the book.

I know, I know. I suck. But trust Trevor; the book doesn’t. Go on back up to #4 and follow those instructions once more. If you’ve done it right, this’ll be the third time now and that means you’re good at it and you got it down.

What’s that? I can’t hear you. The buzz about this here blog’s not loud enough yet.

Go fix it, will ya?

According to the rules of the meme, I’m supposed to tag someone, but while you groupies are all awesome, I don’t know how you can follow Trevor with the proper amount of style. Thus, if you do it, please give me a link back! You know… it’ll help make that buzz a little bit louder.

Look! Winter did! So did Ann! And Bethanie! Go check out their own outrageous comments, why don’t you?

One of the things that is frequently talked about in the marketing of your book to publishers and agents is this idea of high concept. Problem is, no one really can define it.

Author Karin Gillespie gave a talk at the RT Convention about it. And suddenly, it all made sense.

One thing I’m always struggling with when it comes to Trevor and the band is the very fact that Trevor’s the bass player of ShapeShifter. How often did I say, “I write about rock bands and the people who orbit them” to the people I met? To agents, editors, readers, writers?

Yet I’m told time and again that books about rock stars don’t sell. And besides, Trevor’s Song isn’t about a rock star. It’s a book about a man with two large problems.

Enter Karin and her seminar. First off, let me tell you that Karin is the greatest. Simply put, she’s amazing. She could give JA Konrath a run for his money when it comes to marketing, and JA is the king. (Not to discount MJ Rose in all this, either.)

All this brings me to the inspiration that struck yesterday. Constructive comments are encouraged, but anything abusive or mean won’t be allowed through moderation.

Ready?

Trevor’s Song as high concept:

Trevor Wolff’s best friend has gone and done the unthinkable by committing an act of monogamy, and now Trevor himself learns he’s got an even bigger secret to conquer. Will this conspire to bring him down, or will everybody’s favorite bad boy Trevor Effing Wolff triumph yet again?

(Yes, the actual piece of paper I wrote this on spells out that bigger secret. I’m holding back on you guys!)

I’ll tell you, this is one wind of change I hadn’t seen on the horizon. As soon as I’m more caught up on my sleep, I’ll share more with you. (hint: get to know my sidebar real good!)

I ducked out of the Romantic Times Convention yesterday around 3 and got home a little bit before 4. Those of you who know me or who I freshly met (and I have seen many Google searches for West of Mars already. Whee!) know that I’m a local chick and by the time yesterday afternoon came, when I’d checked out of my hotel SUITE (remind me to tell that story), I was glad. I was itchy to get home.

Anyway, here are some more impressions and things I learned. I want to promise that there will be more of these in the days ahead, but there probably won’t be. The only thing I can promise is that there are yet more winds of change afoot…

1. I’m a proud Pittsburgher, but I was amazed and horrified at the condition of the Pittsburgh Hilton. Others can tell you more about it, but let’s just say that many, many of us were glad we’d been evicted and sent to the Omni William Penn, even if it was a bit of an inconvenience.

This was my third bad experience in a row at a Hilton hotel. I’m done with you, Hilton Hotels. My money now goes elsewhere, even if I wind up spending more. From what I’ve seen (including the promised refund that I’m still waiting on, two years later), the problems exist across the board.

I wonder what the Board of Health would say about the servers who stuck their bare thumbs in the pour spout of the water pitchers when they put them on our table.

Yes, friends, I’ve called the Board of Health for things like that before. Piss me off far enough and I’ll make a point of pushing back.

2. The Mystery Chix and a Rooster are amazing, amazing people. Don’t ask me which is my favorite; I can’t pick. Check out their websites. Tell them I sent you. Read their books. Rave about them with me.

I have lots of promo bookmarks and business cards from this gang. If you’d like some, drop me an e-mail and I’ll mail them out to you.

3. Many of the authors whose blogs appear in my Google Reader are way cool. Rachel Vincent. Shiloh Walker. Megan Hart. Lauren Dane. Anya Bast. Ann Aguirre. Aline de Chevigny. Jennifer Estep. None, however, made me squeal the way I did when Colleen Gleason and I ran into each other (inches from literally) and made the connection. That’s just to say how awesome Colleen is.

I loved how excited she got when I told her I’d seen Rises the Night for sale in my local GROCERY. Yes, folks, I found a copy there and had to show it to my family, all of whom gave me blank stares. Many of the surrounding shoppers were initially curious but my strange and sudden inability to form words upon discovery of the book might have prevented a few sales I otherwise should have pimped for my bud Colleen.

4. I met Judi Fennell in the shuttle back to the Omni and hooked her up with the woman running the SOS mixer/thingie. I hope she had a great time!

5. Of all these cool people, none were cooler than Ann. Let me tell you, I’d have been lost without Ann. She’s the ultimate fan girl, in the perfect sense, because she is a librarian who is also the library’s buyer. It was a LOT of fun to walk up to editors and hear her ask for their list so she can buy their books.

Even better was meeting her cast of characters, her friends. Particularly that moment during the Faery Ball when MaryJanice Davidson came and plunked down on the couch beside me. Why? ’cause she knew Ann, who was on my other side.

Best of all was at the Vampire Ball, when I pretty much dumped Ann in favor of a new bud (who also dumped a friend in order to bond with me). Ann understood, and then some. I still feel bad about it ’cause Ann’s too cool to do that to. But once the whole story behind that comes out, you’ll agree with Ann.

So to make up for it, I played Tour Manager for HER at the huge book signing. While I’m a bit too incapacitated to carry the LOAD of books she’d brought from home to be signed, I did carry her new purchases for her, help the authors spell her name right, and generally have fun.

No, I did NOT tell a single one of those authors to please spell her name S-U-S-A-N. But there were a few times there that I was tempted.

Be sure to become one of Ann’s fan girls. She deserves it.

Thirteen things from RT Actually, I’m at home now. Whew. Home. Some thoughts about the first day of the Romantic Times Convention: 1. I heard there are 999 people other than me in attendance. Last year, there were 650. 2. Lauren Dane Rocks. 3. Megan Hart Rocks. 4. Tilly Greene is awesome and I’d better get to hang with her more. 5. Ann rocks the hardest. We’ve been hanging together, although this being on the phone and within sight of each other needs to stop. 6. Good things come out of bad parking hassles. 7. Being able to say, “Yo, Dude, I’m from West of Mars” gets you brownie points with lots of people on staff at the Hilton. Only, substitute the real name of an area near where I live for West of Mars. 8. People look at you differently, almost dismissively, when your nametag says “Aspiring Author.” The Tour Manager is fixing the nametag problem. Others are at work on the aspiring problem. (Won’t you help with that?) 9. My feet hurt, and it’s only day one. 10. JR Ward is amazing in person. Vivacious, but cool. So alive. And no, I did NOT take nostril shots of her. Puh-leeze. 11. Kim Harrison looks like my vision of Rachel Morgan. She’s got quite an air to her — please don’t take that as a negative. She’s very nice and interesting. 12. Nancy Martin breezed through. 13. Oy. My feet. Needless to say, the conference runs until Sunday. I’ll return visits once my feet have recovered. I’m skipping the gym before heading back down tomorrow…

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will try to link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
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Yep, as I’ve said before, the winds, they are a-changin’ over here. Most are good, but a few sort of suck. Read on and you can decide which is which. Maybe you can help change those sucky ones.

1. I’ve up and joined Facebook. Come friend me and teach me more about the joint. Be sure to join the West of Mars Groupie group, too, and show the world how into the band you are. (Not me. Just the band.)

2. I came up with this fantastic idea for the ShapeShifter logo that I can put on t-shirts and stuff. Problem is, my cats draw better than I do and when I tried to get the image out of my brain and onto the paper… well, I’m ashamed of how it looked. Not merely embarrassed. Ashamed.

3. I found a cool (free) font for the band to use. Is a free font, no matter how cool, good enough for our band?

4. So I decided that I’ll give up to three t-shirts featuring this new logo to anyone who can pull it out of my brain and improve on it. One catch: You have to sign over the rights to me so I own it. But to make up for it, I promise to give you credit on the website and here on the blog.

5. I’m headed downtown for the big Romantic Times convention tomorrow. What’s a commercial, mainstream fiction writer like myself doing at a romance convention? Learning, I hope. And hanging with the cool people I’ve met here. Hopefully both.

I smell more breezes on the horizon… stay tuned…

Whoa. I knew it was around here, but I didn’t think I’d be so crass as to miss it.

But I did.

And you know what? The world didn’t end. My blog didn’t implode. My muse is busy trying to juggle the Sunday Scribblings prompt with the Writer’s Island prompt with my own vision and the next work-in-progress… Not a bad job for a muse, really.

Have you figured it out yet?

My blog turned two yesterday. That’s two years of Trevor, Mitchell, Eric, Daniel, Kerri, Val, and Pam. Two years of Chelle and Kermit Ladd. Roadie Poet, Walter, Deadly Metal Hatchet, and Springer.

And me. That’s the amazing part. That you guys continue to be interested in me even though I’m as boring as they come. I have cats. I ride my bike and go to the gym. I’m raising two kids and trying to appreciate the Tour Manager instead of kill him. And I create fiction, which I think is way more interesting than I am.

In two years, this joint has grown. Not as much as I want it to, but that’s coming. There’s change on the horizon, gang. The winds are picking up; can you feel them?

Stay tuned. I have it on the best authority that there’s good stuff about to happen in the third year of this Meet and Greet joint. You’ll be glad you got here so early, I promise. This is the time to suck your friends in ’cause once things get rolling, there may be no looking back.

There will be links back, of course. There’s too much good stuff, stuff I’m really freaking proud of, buried here on this blog. But there’s also stuff — like this post — that’ll be lost in the rush.

One thing that won’t be lost but also won’t be expressed nearly enough is my appreciation for you guys. Every time I check my stat counter and see more than two hits, I’m thankful. Every time you leave a comment, I’m thrilled — even on days like last Thursday, when it was all I could do to keep up with them.

It just gets better from here. Thanks for riding along so far — and I hope you’re here for the long haul.

Lots of you guys have been commenting on Trevor’s absence from my Thirteens of late. Clearly, my not-so-subtle attempt to get you to come around the rest of the week isn’t working (but have fun with these links!). So… with no further ado, here’s your boy, starring in:

Thirteen places Trevor’s been lately 1. Taking a smoke break. 2. Juggling girls. 3. Annoying Mitchell. 4. Practicing. Nominally. 5. Playing shows. 6. Touring. 7. Discovering that it’s cooler to hang in a jacuzzi than it is to hang by the side of the pool. 8. Trying to out Roadie Poet. 9. Stealing bacon and doughnuts and anything else swimming in grease from the crew catering area. 10. Sitting behind Daniel or Mitchell while they give interviews, making fun of them the whole time. 11. Running from Mitchell’s swinging fists. 12. Sucking up to the band’s wardrobe manager so she’ll do his laundry for him. 13. Dreaming of seeing my book about him on the shelves.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will try to link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants