TWO WEEKS FROM YESTERDAY, WE PARTY LIKE ROMANCE AUTHORS

The title pretty much says it all, right? On April 6, two weeks from yesterday, I’ll fly to LA for Romantic Times Magazine’s BookLovers Convention. I’ll be meeting five of the other Naughties in person for the first time. Kate and Sydney can’t be there, unfortunately, but we’ll make them feel included by drunk dialing them at 2:00 a.m. our time.

I can’t wait to see if the Naughties’ in-person personalities match their online personalities. I expect PG to be sarcastic and to laugh a lot. Kelly will be very sweet in person. Meg will be nice, but not sweet and she won’t put up with a lot of shit. Juniper will be very laid back, low key and relaxed, as befits someone who splits their time between Alaska and Hawaii. Erin will be a lot of fun and we’ll share my-kids-are-nuts stories.

I will be...I don’t know. Me, but sweeter in person than online. I’m from Texas, where girls of my generation were taught to be Sweet Above All Else.

I don’t think all the Naughties plan to make all the parties, but I will definitely be attending Samhain’s steampunk soiree, the Venetian Masquerade Faery Ball and the Vampire Ball. I love dressing up in costumes – oddly enough I never do it for Halloween but for stuff like this, heck yeah. I have my steampunk outfit together, and my Fairey Ball – I won’t have a mask but I will have a wand and wings. I think we’re planning something special for the Vampire Ball but I’m not going to give it away (i.e., I’m not sure what I’m wearing yet).

I’ve already started pulling out clothes and making lists, because I’m obsessively organized like that. My best friend flies all over the world with her job, and one of my brothers in law flies so much for business that he has his very own British Airways customer service person. He used his frequent flyer miles to get me and Diva to London and back, and he didn’t even miss them. So they can throw clothes in a suitcase, hop on an international flight and be all ho-hum. Me, I don’t travel much, so several days away from home sends me into a tizzy of preparation.

I do look forward to meeting people I’ve talked to for a long time. Angie James, who bought and edited my first book, will be there, as will Jane from Dear Author and Sarah from Smart Bitches (I don’t know if Candy will there, since she’s still in law school, I think). I want to bump into Victoria Dahl in the bar. And I have to meet up with Vivian Arend and Amber, aka @buriedbybooks, because they’re good Twitter buddies of mine.

The Hub used to think it was weird that I felt so close to people I’ve never met—and many of them, I imagine, I never will. Then he started playing poker online and I think he’s made a few virtual friends of his own.

I’m old enough to have been an adult for a while Before The Internet – and life After The Internet is a lot better. I mean, the world is no less messed up than it was back then, but it’s no worse either, and now we have this marvelous means of instant communication that will one day, if it isn’t already, be considered as revolutionary and world-altering as the telephone and the automobile. In fact, I think I’m going to dedicate the steampunk novella I’m writing for the Carina submissions call (hoping Angie James favors me a second time) to the Internet, which has put history, geography, science, maps, historical photographs, and other peoples’ fantastic artistic imaginations available to me at a keystroke.

The Naughties will be joining the Smutketeers for a Hollywood casting-themed reading of sexy books (I think – I need to check my notes again). We’ll drink wine. And I imagine we’ll make a few writers’ sessions as well.

I think I’m most looking forward to meeting readers – people who’ve read our stuff, and people who want to. So if you’re there, come find us. We’ll be wearing boas and making a lot of noise.