Sorry, Deb. I've been a little busy with blog tours, signings, conferences, revisions, proposals, demanding husbands, sick dogs, and a few hours of sleep here and there. But I'll try to give you your vicarious thrills since I'm here now:
CONvergenceMark and I went to Minneapolis and had a fabulous time. Greg at Dreamhaven Books was a doll and supplied copies of BL for my signing and I, in turn, signed the remaining stock for him. Dreamhaven is the only store in the Minneapolis area with signed stock....if Greg hasn't sold all of them yet!
I met the lovely L. A. Banks while we were there. She's so sweet and has a great since of humor. I sat on a panel with her and I think I made her blush when we were talking about bad boy characters that we really like and I said her character, Carlos Rivera from the Vampire Huntress series, was one I really liked. (And no, I wasn't sucking up!!) She signed a book for me and we talked a little bit about BL. She said she was going to pick up a copy but I don't know if she ever did. I didn't get to see her again after her signing.
Next year's theme for CONvergence is steampunk so I don't know if I'll go or not, but I probably will simply because I have too much fun while I'm there.
Oh, and Voltaire in person is pure awesome goodness. He's funny, nice, and tall. No, I wasn't able to get pictures or his autograph. (He's a slippery little sucker.) The concert was great though. I can't wait for his next album, which is going to be a country album so that should be fun. He sang a couple of songs from it and my fave was "All Women Are Crazy." Hysterical!
ThrillerFestThrillerFest was awesome! I saw Graham and yes, I got a hug out of him. Two actually. Muwahahahaha! He's still looking to recruit Minions and was jealous that I had one with me. Thanks, Michelle!!
The Debut Author breakfast was a lot of fun. Brad Parks serenaded the keynote speaker, Brad Meltzer. Too freakin' funny! Everyone said I did really well and seemed to be one of the calmest of the debuters when presenting BL, but inside, I was a nervous wreck. But I did make Sandra Brown laugh at one of my jokes so that was a bonus.
A couple events of note:
1. Jonathan Maberry read and liked BL and wants to read BLOOD SECRETS as soon as it's ready.
2. I was invited to do a call-in radio interview. Dates and times and details are still in the works. I'll keep you posted on that.
3. A professor from a university in Florida is writing a research thesis paper on the resurgence in popularity of vampires and zombies. She bought a copy of BL after the Debut breakfast and was "intrigued" by my spin on vampires. She may include it in her paper.
4. Barbara Vey with the
Beyond Her Book blog (which is attached to Publishers Weekly...remember those guys and their sucky review of BL) wants all the Debut Authors to send her copies of our books for possible review on her blog.
5. I met with Ms. Agent and had a lovely time. She's eagerly awaiting my proposal for the UF trilogy set in Denver so I have to get that wrapped up and sent to her.
6. I met Ms. Editor and her assistant. Loved 'em both! That was a lot of fun. Turns out Ms. Editor is a fan of True Blood and Buffy so I think we'll get along just fine.
(She also sent me a preliminary edit email for BLOOD SECRETS. Overall, it's positive but I do have some work to do...which I figured I would and the areas she pointed out were all areas I thought would come back to bite my ass.)
7. Saw Deborah LeBlanc for a few seconds. She congratulated me on BL's release and is looking forward to the next one. Yay!
8. A reviewer with (he says) 500,000+ readers via several newspapers on the west coast requested I send him a copy of BL. No guarantees that he'll pick the book for review because he only selects 3 or 4 out of the hundreds he gets but he was at least intrigued enough to ask that I send him one.
9.
Suspense Magazine is going to have a glowing review of BL in their August edition along with an interview. So check it out.
I think that covers ThrillerFest. Michelle, is there anything else you can think of that I missed?
Bienville Book signingI had my first local signing at Bienville Books in downtown Mobile yesterday. For a noon signing, we had an okay turn out. We sold all but two of the copies Russ (the owner) had in stock. He's expecting more in this week and wants me to come by and sign them.
Another issue locally, Books-a-Million is sold out in both stores. They're saying it may be two weeks before they get more copies in but they're sold out at the moment. People are still calling or going to the stores and asking if they have it in so that's a good thing. Whenever someone asks me where to get it, I'm sending them to Bienville (since he's an indie) or Page & Palette in Fairhope (another indie).
I haven't heard official numbers but as far as I know, the book is selling well. Reviews are mostly positive. Several mystery writers have contacted me to say they loved it and they don't normally read vampire books, which I think is cool.
Okay, I think I've covered everything. Time to walk the Hell Hound and then find a quick lunch. I have two email interviews to answer and a couple more guest blog requests to do before I go to Houston.
We were expecting to hear a blow-by-blow description of the events as they happen at each event. Yu iz srsly fallin' down on teh job...rlly, yu iz! 
(She also sent me a preliminary edit email for BLOOD SECRETS. Overall, it's positive but I do have some work to do...which I figured I would and the areas she pointed out were all areas I thought would come back to bite my ass.)
