Independent Bookstore Celebration

I drove all the way to Huntington to go to Empire Books and News for the independent bookstore day celebration and in the hopes of getting the Neil Gaiman coloring books for me and evil_little_dog. The event started at 3:00 which was fine by me since it's about 70 miles away. I get there and park in the garage because a) it's raining b) street parking sucks c) the garage is actually attached to the book store.

And i get there to find out they started selling the damn coloring books at opening bell. I wasn't amused. They'd been sold out for hours before the event. Sigh. However, the rest of the event was nice. I talked to a lot of people, felt guilty about taking a pen and magnet from one lady because I KNEW I wouldn't buy her book (romance) and really had one romance writer excited because I used to hang out in Deadwood (her setting).

I did get a nonfiction about a haunted dentist's office (all sales went to charity) and some SF that I was iffy on (but dammit I drove 70 miles, I was buying SOMETHING). I shocked him when I read the blurb and said Otaktay? That's Lakota for kills many (the name of my Deadwood character) and he was all excited I knew that (and loved my Steampunk TARDIS shirt).

They also had this fun thing where you get a temporary tattoo from Alice in Wonderland, take a picture and email it to 'Alice chain' and I'm waiting to see what happens next. Here's the one I picked.

The girl put it on upside down (one would assume a bookstore employee would be smarter...) and as heavy as I am I have bird arms. All i am is tendons and vessels...

From there I went to Macy's to return that shirt and they didn't even blink in spite of me having it inside out and the tag cut off. Got my 30$ back. Everything new was ugly. Ah well like I need new clothes.

Hit Michael's too because I needed some frames and only bought two things that weren't frames. for me this is a victory.

Then it was off to the Tortilla Factory again and it was just as crowded. Had to eat at the bar again too. Got some Sangria (looks like blood) and the Azteca molcajetes which was tasty but still I'd rather a 100% veggie version!

Then off to Booksamillion to do further damage to my wallet. I bought vol #18 of Attack on Titan even though I don't collect it because it had a half hour OVA of Levi meeting Erwin bundled into it so yeah, had to waste that money. Found a couple new series too (okay dozens of new series, it's getting like the early 00s with that)

Can I just say Rt 2 in WV is a strange strange tract of highway?

I bought my tickets to animazement in Raleigh. Thank god the others mentioned that today was the last day to preregister, 62$ for the entire con vs 65$/day. I won't sell enough books to even break even but the idea isn't so much to make money as to get my face/name out there and pray for internet sales.

And I have part of my Camp Nano up here and people are loving Kaleo (as in I'm getting hurry up and finish comments and beta offers). I'm glad because I love that boy too (even if he messes up in book 2 which he won't shut up about. I just want to know about book 1).

Came home to find out my phone lines are down again. sigh.

Bought more tea I don't need just to keep the spending going...


ETA - OMG. I tweeted that I was disappointed that Empire Books put the books on sale earlier in the day and sold out and Neil Gaiman tweeted back 'that sucks!' I'm so geeky about that right now....

Writerly Ways

Okay not really, just something I want help with because I'm still making exams, nearly midnight and I'm still making the first exam and grading all the things.

Anyhow what I wanted help with is the big sale Dreamspinner is having. If you ever wanted to get any of my stories and if you know anyone who'd enjoy m/m literature (or something in a yaoi vein) send them here. You get 40% but I get full price!!


Lord knows I could use the sales.

And before I forget, happy Beltane!



And I am sad tonight. fma_fic_contest is shutting down. I'm not surprised mind you, but still I'm sad. It was my last fandom thing. I don't like tumblr (does anyone? All I see is people bitch about it) and all the new stuff I'm reading isn't really giving me the fandom bug. I've never not written fandom.

You'd think that would give me time to write more original fiction but so far that's been true. I feel more and more isolated from all the things that made fandom great. The microblogs have really changed things and not really for the better.

I guess I can whip things out to AO3 and maybe see a trickle back but that's not the same.

And I didn't even remember to sign up for the FMA big bang. Ah well. So damn busy.

I wish it were 1985 again.