TOIFD! – Four Things Freya’s Day

Happy May, and even more importantly, happy Friday!

I hope everyone survived Cinco de Mayo (i.e. the day that even Trump likes “the Hispanics”) and Star Wars Day.

I’ve been trying to blog post all week but have mostly come up with such scintillating topics as:

Editing sucks,
Writing synopses sucks,
Spreadsheeting for 8+ hours a day without food or pee breaks sucks, and my favorite:

But since none of those topics are either interesting or in need of great elaboration (except maybe the last, and I really need someone to cross-stitch that for me), I discarded each of those topics. Instead you get four potentially amusing anecdotes.

I am bad at poker. I always, always lose. Part of this is probably because I’m actually bad at it, and part of it might be my rather abysmal poker fae. (Heh. Typo, but I’m leaving it. My poker fae sucks!) I was talking about poker a while back with a friend and mentioned that the only time I’d ever won big at poker was when I was playing strip poker on a bus in England. We’d altered the rules so that the person with the best hand removed an article of clothing. I won most of the hands! By the time we arrived at our destination, I believe I was only wearing my t-shirt. As I reached the conclusion of this story, it occurred to me that maybe the other people were losing deliberately so they could keep their clothes on. Literally in 19 years, that was the first time I ever contemplated the fact that I’d really not had a legit winning streak.

Mr. Rogers says my poker playing partners were not very good neighbours.

I spend about one evening a week watching too much Criminal Minds and then reading a bit before bed. Earlier this week, I really wanted some comfort reading, so picked out some Stephen King. The next night, the serial killer in Criminal Minds was Tim Curry! My scary evening pastime came full circle.

Sewer Clown want to sing you a lullaby

I know I mentioned a Romantic Times convention summary, but you know what? That’s so last month. I will give you the highlights, though. I attended some good session, met with an editor and an agent, and got to meet some really fantastic people. On the afternoon I arrived, I met up with Elizabeth Hunter (every time I type her name, I type Hunger…do not know what that’s about) for gin o’clock. Elizabeth introduced me to Jeffe Kennedy, who introduced me to Jeni Burns and Shaila Patel. There was gin and champagne and cover models and a distinct lack of edibles (not including the cover models). So very much fun.

GIN O’CLOCK!

me and Elizabeth

Champagne with Jeni and Shaila

Speaking of RT…the last full day I was there I had the opportunity to attend a panel on writing serials. It was the best author-led session that I attended. All of the speakers were very good and had excellent things to say on the whys and hows of writing a book in serial format. In addition to Elizabeth Hunter, the speakers were the aforementioned Jeffe Kennedy, the hilarious Killian McRae, and one of my favorite fantasy writers (and almost-neighbor) Meljean Brook. I’ve been interacting with Elizabeth for quite some time, so even though it was our first face-to-face, it didn’t feel like a new meeting, so I managed to not squee in front of her when we met. However, I’ve never had any interaction with Meljean, and I regard her as highly as I do Elizabeth. When I went to introduce myself, I completely lost my head, you guys. I started to hyperventilate a little and I think my voice might have hit a register that only dogs and vampires can hear. She looked a little concerned, and I have to thank Elizabeth for stepping in to say the things I was unable to say. Things like “my name is Amy” and “I also live in the Portland area.” That was even more squee action than happened when I met James Marsters. (I’m now having to cross a few people off my “I want to meet” list, because I don’t actually want to pass out on them. Sorry, Neil, Margaret, and Madeleine…it just wasn’t meant to be. We can’t even talk about what would happen if I happened across Hiddleston, Cumberbatch, or Tennant.)