Samhain Publishing Ltd Weblog

Pittsburgh here I come!

I’ve only been to one Romantic Times before, last year, at Houston, when the awesome Linnea Sinclair shepherded me around, for which I’ll be eternally grateful.
This year I’m on my own.

Or rather, not. This year is my first as a published Samhain author (and what a ride that’s been!) I have three books out, more to come and lots to talk about!

I love flying to the US. Or rather, I love getting there. The flights are what we Brits call bum-numbing. Houston last year was 14 hours via Heathrow. This year it’s a mere 7 or 8, via Newark. I fly from Manchester, which is one of the saner airports in the UK, although that’s not saying a huge amount. With the current chaos surrounding Terminal 5 at Heathrow, I’d sell my firstborn not to get there that way.

Actually, I have a very good firstborn if anybody’s interested. Just give her back to me once she’s out of her teens.

So I can hit the ground running, I tweak my sleep pattern over here. I’m a night owl anyway, so I go to bed at 3 am or thereabouts and sleep until around 10. Take 5 hours off that for US time, and I’m not too bad.

Although I’m not a normally sociable person, at RT it’s so much easier. Lots of people who don’t think I’m completely insane when I suddenly stop talking and stare into the distance (idea time!) or when I start talking about people who don’t actually exist – except in my head. The brainstorming sessions last year were a blast. Get a SF writer, a historical romance writer and a romantic suspense writer together, mix and serve!

I’m trying to generate a few new story ideas, so the flight should be good for that, but the change of scene and the stimulation of meeting new people does tend to kick-start whatever part of the brain is concerned with making stuff up. I’ve always been good at that.

But useless at lying. Go, as you charmingly say in the US, figure.