On Being The Red Queen

I feel like the Red Queen from Through the Looking Glass. I'm running as fast as I can just to keep up with where I was.

I'm always off my pace when I get back from Saints and Sinners, but this
year I have so much else going on that I'm worse off than usual. Or better off. Love Runes came out, so I'm working on promoting it. I will be hosting Torquere's Live Journal on the 21st, so drop by if you can. I'll probably give away a copy of Love Runes, so drop on by. (Now I have to figure out a contest...) Haunted Hearth andSapphic Shades was just released by Lethe Press this week. I'm planning on going to James Buchanan's reading at A Different Light this Thursday, and all Saturday, I'm working theManLove Romance booth at BookExpo America in the LA Convention Center. (which means being perky for hours. oy.)

All of that hasn't left me much time to blog about my Saints and Sinners experience, which is a shame. Aside from meeting Becky Cochran and Timothy Lambert, who were high on my "to meet" list (they were wonderful. buy their books!) I got to spend some time with friend Trebor Healey, and Greg Herren (how should I describe our relationship? Friendly acquaintances, maybe. Greg and I don't use the word friend lightly.)

Trebor and Amie Evans co-edited an anthology called Queer and Catholic. I went to the reading at the Faubourg Marginy Bookstore. It was packed. The owner, Otis, kindly hosts a reading every year. Afterwards, we went across the street to the Praline Connection for dinner with some very interesting people. I wish I could remember the name of the Bed and Breakfast two of the gentlemen down at my end of the table ran. I'll have to ask Trebor if he knows, because I'd like to give them a plug. They were great dinner companions, and I had a feeling from the way they talked about how special their guests were that they're great hosts. Another highlight of that evening was meeting one of the founding mothers (?) of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Sister So Am I (That's the short version of his name). It's like meeting your past and realizing it's still vital and moving and happening all around you. Very cool moment.

I've been hemming and hawing about writing a mystery novel for years. Now I have the characters and the caper, and my publisher is interested in seeing the novel, so I sat down poolside with GregHerren (author of many detective novels set in New Orleans. Wonderful books. When you're buying Timothy James Beck books, pick up a GregHerren novel too.) and talked about writing mysteries. Since mine is going to be a light romantic comedy with a mystery, Greg is pretty sure I can seat-of-the pants it. That's good, because I am not an outline kind of writer. Greg is kind of a sarcastic cheerleader, but somehow that works for me. I fret about handling a mystery, he rolls his eyes, takes a puff of his cigarette, exhales slowly, gives me 'that' look, and says, "Darlin'." That's really all the pep talk I need.