Carrie Lofty, LJ, Chelsea Cain, Passion & Prose, and SFA RWA

Repeat after me: I will find a blogging rhythm, I will find a blogging rhythm, I will find a blogging rhythm....

Oh who am I kidding?

Let's take this post for example.  I finally went trolling through my back-log of starred posts in Google Reader and discovered a number of things I meant to blog about - but uh, it just didn't happen. You know what that means right?  Yep, time for a glorious post of linky goodness!  You lucky Bat Cave denizens you....

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From the Wendy Just Might Be Carrie Lofty's Unpaid Press Secretary Files, I was asked to contribute to two romance related articles right around Valentine's Day.

First, from the OC Register, a slideshow of recommended "love stories."  So yeah, you're going to see stuff there that ain't romance novels.  Except of course, from me.  I contributed three titles to the slide show, two of which are most definitely "romance novels."  Also, I'm apparently the only person who didn't think to mention a Jane Austen title.  For easy browsing, I contributed Flawless by Carrie Lofty, Maid to Match by Deeanne Gist and The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt by Caroline Preston.

The other article was for Library Journal, for their regularly featured "Reader's Shelf" column.  The columnist asked the last 6 RWA Librarian of Year award winners to write a whopping 150 words on one of our favorite romance heroes.  The only requirement?  The book had to be in-print.  Hence, Wendy goes with Flawless by Carrie Lofty again.  And can I just say, 150 words "selling a book?"  OMG, my brain almost started bleeding.

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Romance readers and authors are used to taking a fair amount of crap from people who don't read, or know anything better, about our reading poison of choice - which is probably why I loved this blog post by suspense writer Chelsea Cain so much.  Thriller Characters: A Handy Field Guide points out some of the more common character templates that exist in that genre.  I about wet pants when she included People Who Live On Boats.  I also loved that she didn't dodge her own template of choice: People With Massive Chemical Dependency Issues.

In other Chelsea Cain news, the next book in her Beauty Killer series, Kill You Twice, is due out in August.  And wouldn't you know it?  Criminal Element has posted an excerpt.  An excerpt I am refusing to read because damn, August is a long way away.  Why torture myself?

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I blogged about the Passion & Prose event a couple of weeks back.  Well the event is this Saturday (February 25th) and not only are there spots still available, but registration is now only $65. (ETA: Just saw on Twitter that registration closes in 2 days!)

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And finally, I've been invited to speak at the San Francisco Area Romance Writers of America meeting in March!  The plan is that I will be paired up with a local area bookseller, and we'll discuss how each of us works with local writers, and the genre in general.  I'm still formulating my remarks somewhat, but the plan is to discuss "what librarians can do for you, and what you can do for librarians."  Which should be a neat trick since the governor has killed all state funding for public libraries.

I'm not sure how to give this presentation without curling into the fetal position or sobbing uncontrollable into my water glass.....

SFA members?  Do y'all serve alcohol at your meetings?  Just curious.

Anywho, I'm sure I'll figure it out.  At any rate, I'm looking forward to making the trip and meeting as many of our Bay Area sisters (and brothers!) as possible.