news and news and news and news

Or perhaps just a little news.

This last weekend I attended Orycon, which was a lot of fun. My panels mostly went well and I enjoyed them. I got to talk about torture and the woman in the fridge, about urban fantasy and crime and noir and so on. I didn’t have a many people at my reading, which was too bad. I did get to hang with a number of friends and had a great time. Got to know some new folks, and that was terrific. Got a little bit of writing done and signed books at Powells on the last day. I laughed a lot. Unfortunately, I can’t remember many of the things overheard at cons sorts of phrases that I should have. Sorry. Bought some books and then came home and fell into a coma.

Wow, reading this, I suck at con reports. The upshot is I had a great time. Oh, and the green room had real food. Nutritious food. Wonderful. Next year the con moves to a different hotel across the river, and closer to the Brazil meat restaurant that Amy Thompson and I were drooling over, but didn’t get to. Sadness.

Went swimming today at a local aqua center. They had a lazy river pool and a water slide and several other things, but the kids and I had a good time floating and sliding and giggling. That is until I went down the slide and managed to mash my head into the water in such a way that I got a nasty headache. Bleh.

On the really cool good news side of things, Trace of Magic has been nominated for best urban fantasy novel in the indie/self-pub category by Romantic times. The other nominees are awesome. I’m in great company. A whole bunch of other great books have been nominated in other categories, too.  Congrats to all nominees! I’ve never been to RT, but I’d really like to go. It costs a lot to go, though, so not sure if I can manage.

We also talked to contractor about doing some work in our back yard. We have a drainage issue, and we want to expand our patio and maybe put in a retaining wall to help with the drainage. Waiting to hear how much that might cost.

Wish I could have spent more time with some people at Orycon. Joyce Reynolds-Ward, for one. We only got a few quick moments here and there. Same with John Pitts. Not enough time.