Samhain Publishing Ltd. Weblog

I cringe in the face of technology

Seriously, technology freaks me out! Okay, with some things. Microsoft Vista? Just saying those two words make me tremble and not in a good way. I’m not EVEN going there until I have to!

I Need Florida

A few weeks ago, when I was standing in the guidance counselor’s office, in the middle of my panicked rant about how my juniors were not going to be ready for their upcoming high-stakes graduation testing because we were almost to spring break and I wasn’t at the same point as last year in the curriculum and they weren’t taking anything seriously and… (you get the picture), our graduation coach glanced over at the guidance counselor and said, “Linda needs spring break.”

Why the Regency?

With all the time periods throughout history to choose from, why is the Regency apparently the most popular period for romance books? I want your opinions.

How about Victorians? Medieval times? The Rennaisance? Vikings? Westerns? There are followings for each of these, but overall it feels like the Regency wins out and I’m curious about what draws readers to it. Is it because of writers like Jane Austen and, much later, Georgette Heyer who laid out the template for what a Regency story should contain? Is it because many of us grew up reading that formula and so are very comfortable with it? We know the language of “rakes” and “the ton” and eloping to Gretna Green.

Maybe it’s the pretty, flowing clothing that’s the draw. The simple, clean lines of an Empire waist dress are certainly more romantic than a huge hoop skirt.

Segregation?

It was a toss up as to what I was going to blog about today. There’s the ever popular promotion blog … or there was the discussion of the pros and cons of the ebook signing at the RT conference this year. You may have heard about it. This year in Pittsburgh, RT decided to hold a book signing for the e-pubbed authors on Wednesday and the usual signing for the print authors on Saturday.

Obituary for Oswald

Tonight Oswald, my beloved laptop, died. Maybe it shouldn’t have been a shock, but it was. I’d replaced the hard drive back in December after the original hard drive had a meltdown, but Oswald gave me no clue that he was in his death throes. I thought we’d have at least another year or two together. And now he’s gone :-(

Birthday Rituals

I bake and decorate doll cakes. My mom made doll cakes. Between her three daughters, we once figured she had made 62 angel food cakes with the perky little blond doll perched on top.

Margo Lukas

History has been made!

Did you hear the news? A woman, Danica Patrick, has won an Indycar race! WON, as in first place! In a major auto racing event!

That’s such great news…why?

A Virgin

I came as a Romantic Times Virgin, this is my first convention. I leave nowhere near experienced, but have a better understanding about what goes on. I’ve put faces with names of people I talk to all the time and I’ve met so many new people! I can’t believe how many readers I’ve connected with or how many now want to connect to me.

I’d say the workshops are wonderful, except I can only vouch for a few. I was so busy talking, I missed most of them. No regrets, though. Who wants to go to school when the playground is open. I met several of the Mr. Romance contestants, but when I got hugged and kissed by one every time he saw me, he sort of won my vote. Strange thing is, he was my favorite to begin with so it’s nice to find he has that winning personality to melt a girl’s heart.

Check out Chris Winters, he’s made it to my desktop as inspiration in a pirate novel I’m writing.

The guy oozes charm and he’s always smiling. Okay, so maybe I’m still reeling from that kiss he planted on me. Need proof, I have a picture in the photos section on my chat group. Over the next couple weeks, I hope to get more photos uploaded so drop by.

Brenda Williamson

Who needs sleep?

If you’ve never been to a Romantic Times conference before, the one thing you might not know that everyone packs is bags under their eyes. RT is a frantic pace of morning until late (late) night activities, dancing, drinking, and talking with friends. In the morning and into the afternoon there are mixers, Club RT, workshops and more to attend.

In the evening it’s parties, sitting in the bar with friends, and hanging out in your room with your roommate until the early hours of the morning catching up on life and gossip.

One thing there’s not much of is sleep. Most of us have good intentions. I repeat to myself every day, “I’m going to go to bed no later than midnight. I’m going to lay down in the afternoon. I will not run my body on only five hours of sleep a night.”

Ask me how that’s working out for me.

Today I’m setting this post up early. I’ve been up since 7:30, after going to bed around 2am. I have a full schedule—Samhain Publisher’s spotlight in the morning, lunch with an author, a stint at the ARe Club RT table, an Interracial Panel and then dinner with the other Samhain admin tonight.

Not much time for napping in there. But everyone who’s ever attended RT knows one thing—there are simply too many people to see, too much to talk about and too much to do to waste time on sleep. We have 51 other weeks out of the year to catch up on sleep. This week is for catching up on other things!

The good news (for me) is that I’m going home tomorrow. For most convention-goers, the craziness is only starting and lasts until Sunday when, by the time most of them board the airplane, they’ll be lucky if the airline doesn’t charge them for the extra weight of the baggage under their eyes.

Conventions!

These events are a big deal for whoever is involved. Sometimes they are seen as a jolly and other times it’s all work. No matter which end of the spectrum it falls on, even if you go to the same convention year after year, there is one thing you can count on – it will be a unique experience.