World Fantasy Convention, Here I Come!

Hi, blog friends! Life continues to be a whirlwind of craziness. I keep telling myself that after my trip to WFC in San Diego, everything will settle down. But, that's a total fabrication to keep me from screaming... though I am totally excited the holidays are coming up. I've decided to forgo my usual Monday Meme to share a random list of things I've been doing lately:

1) I saw Three Musketeers on Saturday and Real Steel today. They were both pretty awesome. Three Musketeers had a pretty rad airship battle. Yep, I said airship. You know you wanna see it.

2) My son's fourth grade play is on Thursday. He's going to be a pirate. For Halloween, he's going to be a knight. So, there's been a lot of discussions of the wardrobes of both pirates and knights. And weapons, naturally.

3) I posted the first page of Countless in the Miss Snark's First Victim October Secret Agent contest. It pretty much got eviscerated. When I participate in public critiques, I like to give honest feedback, but always make sure to find something positive about someone's excerpt. Not all people have that same philosophy. The especially annoying thing is that everyone was saying I had too much of the antagonist's backstory on the first page, when the whole reason I added any backstory at all to the first page was because an agent I met at a conference critiqued it and told me I needed some backstory. So, this kind of makes me feel like poking my eyes out. Okay, venting done. Backbone thicker. Moving on.

4) My colt got castrated earlier in the week. Yeah. So, that was interesting.

5) Planning for my big trip. Weather forecast - check. Reserve shuttle from airport - check. Edit and print up pages of Countless and new novel (tentatively called Noir) - check. Buy a couple new outfits just for the heck of it - check. Bring books for Charlaine Harris and Neil Gaiman to autograph - check.

I'm going to be in California in three days! Holy cow! I'm freaking out a little. Mostly in a good way. A heads up - next Monday I will skip my meme as well since I will have just flown back from Cali late Sunday night and have a big meeting at work on Monday, plus taking my son trick-or-treating Monday night. I'll probably post links to my November issue of Raven Moon on Tuesday. I've got a cool author interview and a book review in addition to the usual fun stuff.

So, wish me luck. Did I mention I'm going to be flying all the way across the country all alone? And I won't know anyone when I get there? Okay, I'm babbling now. Talk to you guys next week!

Monday Meme and Wizarding World of Harry Potter!

So, it's Sunday night and I've had a fun but tiresome weekend at Islands of Adventure (where HP World is) and Busch Gardens in Tampa. Even though we live like three hours from Orlando, we hadn't made it down to Harry Potter World yet. Here are some pics - if you haven't been, this could be considered a spoiler, so consider yourself warned.

Don't know, not too good at following rules... :)

The sky was behaving and gave me a nice backdrop.

Yum....

You could actually send yourself real mail from here. Like an acceptance letter to Hogwarts or something.  How rad is that???

And another of Hogwarts with the cool statues. The sign was cool too, there were these sparkly silver lights that kept lighting up behind 'Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry', to make it look like magic. It was a very fun weekend. The Hogwarts ride is really cool, even for a wimp like me. I only screamed once :)

Blending into my usual Monday meme... I don't know about you, but when I'm at theme parks, I usually have the urge to pick up a few souvenirs. Like, half the stuff in the Harry Potter store, some Grinch pajamas, a few things in the Marvel gift shop. So, when I'm a famous author, I'll go on a wild theme park shopping spree that would put Kim Kardashian to shame... not that she'd shop at a theme park. And then, to make up for my materialism, I'll make a large donation to the endangered animal fund at Sea World and Busch Gardens.

So, what theme park goodies do you want to get your paws on? What's your favorite theme park?

Monday Meme: When I'm a Famous Author

Happy Monday! I haven't posted in a couple weeks because things have been insane at my day job... I kind of fell off the face of the blogging planet. Last week I was in D.C. for several days at a work conference, and have been putting in a lot of overtime for a variety of reasons I won't bore you with. And October doesn't look like it's going to slow down any... this weekend we're going to Busch Gardens and Harry Potter World, and at the end of the month I'm off to San Diego for World Fantasy Convention! It'll be a wild ride.

So, on to today's theme... when I'm a famous author. Since travel is majorly on my mind this month, we'll stick with that. First of all, when I'm a famous author, I'm flying first class, baby! Being 5'10", I'm all about the extra leg room.

Couldn't find any pics I liked of first class seats, so I settled for what I'll drink in first class. Yum. Also, when I travel, I'll always get a suite of rooms. Maybe like this:

**Photos removed since peeps have been getting sued for posting photos on blogs**

Or maybe:

 

**Ditto**

And, I'll definitely get spa services wherever I go.

**Ditto**

I feel more relaxed already... So, what about you? How will you travel in style when you're a famous author?

Stay tuned for updates on HP World and WFC 2011!

Monday Meme: When I'm a Famous Author

So, I've been working on the October issue of Raven Moon, and I'm doing a feature on Laurell K. Hamilton this month. And you know what she has for sale on her website, cuz she's such a famous author? T-shirts and coffee mugs and stuff. You can even purchase a fan club membership for the year. Like, you actually have to pay for the membership.

I'd love to have the usual pics for this post, but it's getting really late and I couldn't quite figure out how to create pics of my super awesome Alexia Chamberlynn t-shirts, mugs, keychains, henna tattoos and fuzzy throws for snuggling on the couch. Or maybe they'd say A.A. Chamberlynn, because that has a writery ring, don't you think?

What else would be in my line of merchandise??? Bookmarks, action figures, Kindle covers, coozies (is that spelled with a k?), posters, pill boxes, those stretchy bracelet things they make for everything?

How about you? What will be in your line of famous author merchandise?

Happy Monday!!

Monday Meme: When I'm a Famous Author...

Happy Monday, writer friends! One of the things I can't wait to have (and will hopefully have even before I'm a rich and famous author) is my very own library. Being a book lover, I want to have a beautiful space that sings praise to the loveliness that is books. Somewhere I can sit and drink tea, surrounded by fantastic writing while creating my own books to sit on the shelves.

So, I started Googling pics of libaries, and came across a rather addicting website called aptly http://www.beautiful-libraries.com/. I found all the pics below on this website, and if you have some time you'll want to stop by because it's super fun (celebrity libraries, libraries in movies, etc).

It was really hard to choose my fave pics, but here are a few:

**Photos removed since peeps have been getting sued for posting photos on blogs**

Classic design, big bay window, antique globes.... yes, yes and yes!

**Ditto**

On the opposite end of things; modern, fresh flowers, awesome green curtain and ladder. Love it!

**Ditto**

Okay, this pic was just too cute not to include. Rainbow colored books? Pug? For sure.

**Ditto**

And this was just too cool. Shelves over the windows... and what library is complete with a second story?

So, what would your dream library look like? Any cool must-have artifacts or special editions inside?

If I Could Be Anyone I'd Be...

Today Talli Roland's book Watching Willow Watts comes out! And to celebrate, Talli is having a super fun launch party. To carry on the theme of the book, which is about a girl who idolizes Marilyn Monroe, everyone in the launch party gets to share who they would be if they could be anyone.

I ended up having a hard time with this one... I've never really had one single person that I wanted to be. More like bits and pieces of things that I envied. So, to keep it simple I decided to stick with the movie star theme, and chose:

Kate Beckinsale!

Kate is a very talented actress, and starred in two of my very favorite movies (which are on opposite sides of the genre spectrum): Serendipity and Underworld. Serendipity is one of the best romantic comedies ever, and Underworld is about vampires and werewolves and kicks so much butt.

Of course, if I could really be anyone I wanted, I would have to have magical powers. And probably a pet dragon : >)

But back to Willow's adventures. Here's a bit more about her:

For Willow Watts, life has settled into a predictably dull routine: days behind the counter at her father's antique shop and nights watching TV, as the pension-aged residents of Britain's Ugliest Village bed down for yet another early night. But everything changes when a YouTube video of Willow's epically embarrassing Marilyn Monroe impersonation gets millions of hits after a viewer spots Marilyn's ghostly image in a frame.

Instantly, Willow's town is overrun with fans flocking to see the 'new Marilyn'. Egged on by the villagers -- whose shops and businesses are cashing in -- Willow embraces her new identity, dying her hair platinum and ramming herself full of cakes to achieve Marilyn's legendary curves.

But when a former flame returns seeking the old Willow, Willow must decide: can she risk her stardom and her village's newfound fortune on love, or is being Marilyn her ticket to happiness?

Click here to read other blogger's posts about who they would be if they could be anyone! Or click the links below to get your own copy of Watching Willow Watts.

Amazon US   Amazon UK

So, how about you? Who would you be? Or, if you're participating, let me know in the comments so I can visit!

Monday Meme: When I'm a Famous Author

Hi, writer friends! I'm going to keep today's meme short and sweet, because it's late Sunday night and I've been trying to hit the halfway point on my WIP this weekend. I'm about 750 words short, and I think sleepiness is going to conquer me... but I got a lot of pages cranked out, so I'm happy.

So.... my fantasies of fame and fortune can't be complete without a fantastic beach house. I am lucky enough to live within an hour of the beach here in Florida, and I think a part of my soul is always down there, rocking on the waves and drinking in the salty air. And while I'd be thrilled to have any beach house, I think I want a really unique one, unlike a lot of the ones around here, that all look pretty similiar. Mine would have more of a Mediterranean flare. Like this...

So, what about you? What kind of vacation home would you like to have?

Have a great start to your week, blog buddies!