Sometimes reviews can make me cry

"Singling out individual stories in this collection is hard because each of them is effective in its own way. However, one especially memorable story for me is the one lesbian story in this collection: “Devouring Heart” by Andrea Dale. In this heartbreaking tale, the good intentions of both vampire and mortal can’t make up for the communication gap between them. This relationship makes a valid-enough metaphor for real-life relationships in an incestuous lesbian community, and the story seems true to its literary roots."

The story is in The Sweetest Kiss: Ravishing Vampire Erotica.

The full review of the anthology can be found here. (At the same place is a review of Playing With Fire: Taboo Erotica, which doesn't specifically mention my story but is nonetheless lovely and positive.)

Now, where can I find reviewer Jean Roberta so I can kiss her on the mouth?

The Trouble With Heroes

It's out! It's out! Squee!

Dear Journal, how badly I have forsaken you! I have been so seduced by the immediacy of Twitter, the faux friendliness of Facebook, by the ease at which I can update those things from my iPhone. You have languished here, neglected—but never truly unloved, dear Journal. I can never quit you.

For those of you who haven’t been following the 140-character soundbytes…

I can’t thank my sister enough for flying out to NY just after I left; if she hadn’t, I was either going to stay, or my mother was going to forcibly toss me onto my plane home, in which case I still would have come to Florida, but I wouldn’t have enjoyed myself. My sister being there to help out meant I could turn off my brain for a few days and, in the words of a wise musician, just be.

Styx concerts are, in fact, one of the few times when I really can shut off my brain and just be, just experience, just exist in the moment and the music. When they stop touring, I’ll be in the market for a good therapist…

Anyway. In the past five days, this is what I’ve been up to:

• Flew to Florida to spend time with the incredible Helen and her beau Dave.
• Finished my CES story and turned it in.
• Sold a story.
• Went to Styx/REO Speedwagon/Nightranger concert #1. (Actually, that’s reverse order of how the bands went on!) JY had two backstage passes for Helen and Dave, but since Styx’s tour manager knows us (and it wasn’t a busy night, I suppose), he let us tag along. Got to chat with JY, Lawrence, and Todd. All three said they hadn’t really planned to dress up for Halloween, but Helen and I did tell Lawrence that if we were going to, he had to, too.
• Sold another story.
• Went to concert #2 dressed as a Ren Faire wench with my boobs up under my chin. Received appreciative looks from pretty much every member of every band. Lawrence threw me his water bottle. Dave Amato of REO tossed a pick into my cleavage when I wasn’t looking. (Great shot, but it bounced off and I had to fish it out from under the woven metal floor of the barrier. Being a tool user, I chewed a piece of gum and pulled it out that way. Meanwhile, Helen was giving him a thumbs-up.) For her part, Helen threw on a Hawaiian print dress and lei, and at a party store I found her a flashing flamingo pin and flamingo deely boppers. The deely boppers were also a huge hit with the bands. Ken went the Jedi route.
• Made some edits on the CES story and sent it back.
• Started a new story.
• Realized I couldn’t bring the water bottle home intact and was forced to drink said water. Last time I did that, I got the worst cold of my life. Here’s hoping that won’t happen again. Plus I do have several other pristine bottles from Lawrence for cloning purposes.
• Laughed so hard with Helen we couldn’t breathe.
• Was reminded time and again how incredible (and patient, and adorable, and smart) my husband is.

Now, after a long day of travel (and still discombobulated from this damnable time change), I’m home safe and sleepy, so I’m going to get a little more work done, watch something silly on TV, and pass out early. I’ve got a busy week of writing (not to mention a hair appt, a Shire meeting, and Coronation/Queen’s Champion) ahead of me!

Peep Show trailer

Here's a trailer for the recently released Peep Show: Tales of Voyeurs and Exhibitionists, which contains my story "Now You See Her" (a companion story to "Come to My Window," which is in Where the Girls Are: Urban Lesbian Erotica, although "Now You See Her" is het). Both stories are set in Montréal.

The video probably isn't safe for work unless you have a really understanding boss. Still, there's no direct nudity, and the excerpts aren't graphic. Enjoy!

Heading home

I fly home from upstate NY this evening, arriving after midnight in CA. I haven’t had a full night’s sleep in at least a week and a half, so by the gods, I’m sleeping in tomorrow. (Just try and wake me!)

My father is better, although his cancer isn’t curable. He’s getting stronger every day—everyone's amazed at how much he's able to do already. (He had a partial hip replacement the day after I got here, because the day I flew out they finally figured out he had a broken hip. That he'd been walking on for possibly up to a week. Which says a lot about my dad's right there.) He's also never lost his sense of humor. I’ve been writing down all his funny quips. More than once my mom and I laughed so hard we couldn’t breathe.

I can’t thank everyone individually, so I’ll have to do what little I can here:

Thank you. Thank you all for the notes and texts and voice messages, and for the thoughts and candles and prayers and energy. I felt them, and they helped more than you can imagine. I have the most amazing friends in the world!

I’m not going to discuss specifics/details here, but if anyone would like more info about what’s been going on, I’ll send a private e-mail.

(I would also like to credit the ZooBorns and Daily Kitten blogs for giving me warm fuzzy breaks the few times I’ve been able to snag some Internet access.)

Otherwise, it’s moving forward with researching hospitals and possibly clinical trials (if anyone has specific knowledge or info about osteosarcoma, please let me know). One of my sisters is flying here on Wednesday, and my other sister is exploring when it’s best for her to visit.

Meanwhile…

I got the first part of my latest CES assignment done here, and the customer was very happy with it. I’m a bit behind on my personal schedule for finishing the main story, but here’s hoping the person in front of me on tonight’s flight doesn’t put the seat back and I can hammer out a couple thousand words. It’s not due ‘til the end of the month, but we’re flying to Florida on Thursday, and I’d like to have it off my plate by then.

I’m feeling strangely energized about work, even in my exhaustion and stress. Part of it, I suspect, is that it’s an escape. Part, too, is the reminder that life is fleeting and fragile, and we have to grab it with both hands and fling ourselves into it. Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead. We have a limited amount of time in this plane (of existence, not a particular flight, that is), so we might as well make the most of it.

The somewhat languishing Out of the Frying Pan revisions will come next, then some short stories and probably some article pitches that I’ve been meaning to do. I’m pondering some sort of NaNoWriMo challenge of my own in November; it doesn’t make sense to start a new novel right now, and I have a lot of smaller projects to do: stories to write, article pitches to write, novel submissions (more for Waking the Witch, starting the ones for Seasoned With Danger, writing the first few chapters of one or two more novels that I have pitches for and getting those circulating), a novella submission, maybe writing some novellas. Okay, maybe “writing some novellas” will get pushed into December. And probably the new novel chapters. ::gg::

We’ll see. We fly home from Florida on November 2. We have SCA events pretty much every weekend, plus Ken’s giving a presentation on his Iron Butt ride at the local BMW dealership in Newbury Park. Plus Thanksgiving. Plus my niece is coming to visit so she can see a show in Hollywood, and my sister and my other niece might be coming with her. All of which would be totally groovy.

Okay, now I really have to get some work done before my dad wakes up!

Change of plans

My father is very ill; I'm flying to NY tomorrow to help out my mom. I'll update when I can. If you need anything urgently, you can call me, or call Ken.

Any light/healing thoughts/energy/prayers you can send would be amazingly appreciated. Thanks.

What passes for normal around here

I worked out today for the first time in…pretty close to forever. But there’s no sense dwelling on that, so let’s just say Yay! for working out. Because I get bored doing cardio, I tried to break things up a bit: 10 min warm-up on the cross-trainer (level), back and abs, 10 minutes CT (program 1), arms, 10 minutes CT (program 2). I didn’t want to overdo it right out of the gate, so I kept the weights and/or reps low.

My goal is to work out again tomorrow and Saturday, because Friday and Sunday are more heavily booked. Speaking of being booked, we’d intended to see the Eddie Izzard documentary in LA this afternoon and then go to the In the Flesh reading, but I looked at my schedule, laughed hollowly, and cancelled all those plans. I got to play the last two weekends, and now it’s time to buckle down again. Here’s what’s going on:

Writing

• Tomorrow is the deadline for one fantasy/horror anthology and two erotica anthologies. For one of the erotica anthos, I’ve already submitted a story, but the editor said it might be too light for the overall tone of the book, so I’ve started another one. I should try to get that finished tonight. The other one is lower paying and I think my brain is already letting it go. I have an idea for the fantasy/horror story, and when I told Ken, he said “Ooh!” I just need to get my character sorted and toss her into the trouble.
• I have a CES assignment due at the end of the month, but today the editor said the client wants a 1.5K prologue to the story, very soon. Groovy. That’s next on the list.
• I have one OOTFP scene to finish and another to write, and then the partial goes back to Teresa.
• Thankfully, I have no other end-of-month deadlines other than the CES story (already turned in the story for the antho that closes then), but I do have two in mid-Nov and one at the end of Nov.

Home Stuff

• Need to put everything away from the War. All the laundry’s done and most of that’s already put away, thank goodness.
• Grocery shopping. Meals are planned through the end of the week. Farmer’s Market tomorrow morning. Edited to add: Went grocery shopping tonight. Check.
• Various other small things, like financial stuff. (Whoo, excitement.)

SCA

• I’ve got to have The Oak Leaf finished before I leave for Florida on 10/29, and I need to do it in little chunks, otherwise my tendonitis flares up.
• I’ve just got a little more beading left to do on one part of an Italian sleeve, and then I can assemble them. (The dress was finished in 1998 and then modified to fit me better earlier this year.) My goal is to wear it to Coronation the second week of Nov.

Fun Stuff

• Herbal Guild tomorrow night, to make presentation and Yule gifts. I need to check my list to see whom I’ve already bought gifts for, then decide what to make.
• Friday we have tickets (w/Morgana and Brian) to Spamalot in Orange County. We’ll head down early to skip traffic, and have dinner somewhere fun.
• I’m part of a group book signing after the LARA meeting on Sunday, and after that Nanci and Lenny are having one of their amazing parties, with Paperback Hero and Forever Vinyl performing.
• At the end of the month, two Styx shows in Florida! I get to see Helen again, yay! And then a group meet-up of Helen and Dave, Rik, Rowdy, Dean, and Ken and I!