I spent much of the weekend at events, first as the keynote speaker at the annual Irving Club Tea in Lockhart, and then as the keynote speaker at the Tarrant County College’s Writing’s A Snap Conference.

Both were great fun, and I couldn’t have felt more welcome (as in, people were incredibly nice, laughed at my talk–at appropriate moments–and bought books.  Can’t beat that!).

Between the two events, I listened to some classes on CD from screenwriter William Martell, and folks, let me tell you, if you haven’t heard of Bill and his ScriptSecrets website, you’re missing out (and, yes, I’m talking to you novelists, too!).  I listened to Guerrilla Marketing (great ideas even if you’re not writing screenplays), Writing Indies, Writing Thrillers Part 1 and 2 (fabulous discussion and very thought provoking) and Ideas and Creativity (wonderful, and inspirational, and damn Martell, I came up with several new ideas that I have No Time to write!).  You can learn more at the Script Secrets website or check in over at my J.K. Beck blog, where I’m talking about writing and inspiration and Bill’s books and CD classes.

So, Friday started with me dumping my children on my good friend Aaron (is that not one of the coolest sights?) so that my girls could play with his little girl until my husband got off from work and gathered the kids up. (A million thank yous to Aaron from me!). After that, I got on 183 and headed off to the charming little town of Lockhart.

The Irving Club, I learned, is the oldest women’s club in Texas and has been permanently housed at the Eugene Clark library since the library was built.

The ladies were awesome, and the building was fabulous!

Check out these pics of the event, the room, and the incredible food!

I felt royally spoiled!

In talking to the ladies, I also learned about a great opportunity for all you writers out there.

A ghost story contest with a (drumroll!) $1000 prize! The proceeds go to the upkeep of the library building, and considering the beauty of the building that’s a worthwhile cause.

The contest is the Scare the Dickens Out of Us contest, and the deadline is still a long way off. So be sure to check it out!

We wrapped up with a booksigning and general chatting and it was so much fun! The ladies also gave me an awesome gift basket (thanks!) that I forgot to take a picture off (bummer!). I have, ahem, already finished off the candy. The wine will be opened in an hour or so (of when I’m typing this…no, I’m not indulging in the morning!).

After that, I got back on 183 and headed to the relatively new tollroad that skirts Austin’s horrific stretch of Interstate 35. Then it was about 3 hours of heading down one road. It’s a boring drive, but I had the afore-mentioned Martell CDs to keep me company, so I was happy and the trip zoomed by.

I found my hotel (thanks to the conf for putting me up!), adjusted my Sleep Number bed (how fun is that?) and pulled out my laptop. I didn’t get nearly as much work as you’d expect done. Having trained myself to write between interruptions by the kids, it’s now hard to write knowing there will be no interruptions. Sigh.

But I did indulge in some of that chocolate!

The next morning I headed off to the conference and met Liz Lounsbury for the first time in person (she’s another Harlequin author and was coordinating the conference. She’s awesome!).

I also met Marianna Jameson, an online friend who I finally met in real life. Yay! And a bunch of other people participating in the con, including O.K. Carter, a columnist for the Ft. Worth Star Telegram and Alan Birkelbach, the 2005 Texas Poet Laureate (how cool is that?).

I thought I took more pics, but apparently not. Here’s Liz giving an introduction, and a shot of some of the participants and faculty/instructors/panelists.

We started with a Q&A panel (well, my part started. The conference was an all-morning affair, and I rolled in about 11) and then we had lunch (fajitas!) and then I gave a keynote speech, which went great. I think. The downside of reading glasses is that I can no longer see audience faces. But I got laughs and questions after and lots of people stopping to comment and have me sign their books, so I’m calling it a big success. Most of all, I had a great time.

So thanks to the folks in Lockhart and Tarrant County for a great weekend!

Before the DragonCon report …

New chapters of Good Ghouls Do! are up at the podcast! Click the link, or visit Kenner-cast to learn more!

I’ve also included a video tutorial so that anyone who’s been avoiding listening to the podcasts because you’re just not sure how to do that can have a quick lesson in accessing Kenner-cast (and it works for any podcast, too!). Check it out.

And now, the Saturday Dragon Con Report:

Saturday was a full day, all the more so since I woke up late!

I’d planned to meet Aaron and Blythe and Scott at a quarter to ten to go see the parade. I was running late (not too late, but I had a coffee/Tom Felton dilemma!) I guess he (Draco — see yesterday’s post!) was staying in the Hilton well, because he was up on the Concierge Floor when I was up there administering coffee intravenously. Or trying to. They ran out of coffee, so I was there hovering (and talking to a guy who walked up to me and said, “you’ll have to be careful with that coffee today.” Um, huh? Turns out he was sitting near me on the plane to Atlanta! Poor guy wasn’t even a Dragon Conner … must be interesting to be a civilian in the midst of the craziness!)

Anyway, while I was waiting for my caffeine fix, I saw Tom on the other side with someone who was most likely a manager. Looked like a biz meeting. Obviously I’m not going to interrupt, but I figure a photo’s fair on the floor. So I’m trying desperately to find the zoom app on my iPhone, but before I do, he’s gone.

Sigh.

Getting a picture of Draco Malfoy became my mission Alas, though, hadn’t seen him since!

Anyway, after that, I made my way over the skybridge to the Hyatt lobby to meet Aaron and Scott and Blythe, and we headed out to see the parade. I promised Isabella Star Wars photos (which I got, but they’re not very good. I love my iPhone, and I love the macro lens for inserting receipts into Evernote, but other that that the camera is basically my old Instamatic (dang, I’m dating myself!). The zoom app is great, except that the focus isn’t very good. And the built in camera doesn’t have a zoom. Which it really, really needs. A flash would be nice, too). Here’s a couple:

But it was still fun. And the absolute funnest (yes, if Steve Jobs can use “funnest” then so can I) was an incident with a totally nice fan. We were standing waiting for the parade to start, and she saw the yellow ribbon on my name tag, and said, “Oh, you’re a guest! Who are you?” And when I told her, she said that she’d read and loved my books! How much fun is that? (Answer: Oodles of fun!). So after the parade, Aaron took our picture together for her. Very cool!

The parade itself was a trip. I’m not crazy about crowds (I’ve managed to put that aside at DragonCon. It was either that or hide under tables), and the parade is WAY crowded. But such fun to see all the truly awesome costumes and the 501st and the whole shebang.

After the parade, we submitted to the push of the crowd and headed back into the hotel. It’s all kind of a blur, actually, and I’m trying to remember what I did next! Oh! Yes! I began the important process of fulfilling my duty as a mom: I went to the dealer rooms to scope out Star Wars stuff for Thing Two. At first, I found none, and there was much sadness in the land (never fear; turns out I was just in the wrong place; there was tons!). I didn’t get to search too much, though, as my editor at Ace, Ginjer Buchanan, called and said that she’d misread her schedule, and if I was free than we could meet earlier than we’d planned.

Worked for me, so I hightailed it over and met her and we talked a little business and then also just about the con and trends (in case you hadn’t noticed, vampires are hot ), and True Blood, and the difference between ComicCon and DragonCon, and just lots of stuff. All in all a nice breakfast/lunch.

After that, my plan was to go see The Guild and hear Felicia Day, but it’s a dangerous thing walking through a con with a goal of being somewhere. I bumped into people I know (including Liz Maverick and my Dorchester editor, Chris Keeslar), as well as a ton of other folks. I also made a mandatory and (trust me) truly necessary stop at Starbucks. And I ended up on the phone with my critique partner Kathleen O’Reilly and then somehow ended back up in the Green Room. The moral: never plan to be anywhere

Must go attend to my kiddoes! Saturday P.M. Report coming later today!

For the record, I’m irritated with the BlogPress iPhone App! I had a loooooong post drafted, and then saved it, and when I went back into the app, it was gone! poof! Gone!!!! So if this post isn’t as funny or as informative as you’d like, well, the first one was. Truly.

(other iPhone griping, although I seem to consistently have all 5 bars of service, 80% of the time, the signal is E – emerg calls only, though texts and emails work…usually — hello? It’s ATLANTA. I can SEE the freaking AT&T building. Shouldn’t there be more bandwidth here just by default? Though I think every other person has an iphone so I suppose we’re all sucking it down).

But enough about my issues of staying in touch.

Here’s my report so far. I shoulda been keeping notes (actually, I was. See the opening sentence. Ahem).

Friday:

Got up at the crack of dawn to finish packing and load up the kids in the car. Went to my mom’s in Austin so that she could drive me to the airport (save on parking fees) and keep my kids for the day while Don’s at work. Mom overslept. Sigh.

So I didn’t save the parking fees, but I did pawn off the children on her. Then I hightailed it to the airport where I was thrilled to discover that, yes!, I could upgrade to first class for not-too-much-moola, which is a huge bonus in my book as, hey, they give you food and more room to sit. (fingers crossed for the flight home!).

Trip to Dallas was uneventful. Mostly, I read galley pages.

In Dallas, I learned the value of iPhone Apps. mid-flight, I checked “Flight Update” app and learned that my flight to Atlanta was scheduled to depart from Terminal C. We landed, and the attendant announced the Terminal C connection to Atlanta. Once we could turn our phones back on, though, I checked the App again…and saw the connecting gate change upon refresh to Terminal A (which was where we landed). SO glad I checked! Otherwise I would have been hightailing it to Skylink to take the tram to Terminal C!

Of course, that meant I had time to buy coffee, which I did, and then proceeded to spill it all over myself as I was settling into the new set on the connecting flight. Soaked the entire left side of my white shirt (sigh) and my jeans (also sigh, but not visible, so that’s something) and sat on a flight blanket for the duration. Bother, bother.

I did manage to finish galleys for Moonstruck, though, my January Blaze! YAY!

My friend Julie Moore from high school picked me up at the airport in Atlanta, and we went in search of a drink near her house, but the place we were going was closed, so we ended up at the hotel at Trader Vics. Much fun (though a Mai Tai will never be on my list of favorite drinks, but it’s their trademark, and I’m glad I tried). I did not see any werewolves, with or without perfect hair. Sorry Warren….

Before that, I checked in and forced Jules to endure a trip up to my room so I could change shirts, so after she left to go back to the real world, I was pretty much set. It was starting to get late, and I met up with Aaron de Orive, his wife Blythe, and his partner Scott, and also Aaron Alston.

Allston writes tie-in novels for Star Wars! How cool is that?

And de Orive (yes, too many Aaron’s….) and Scott have a supercool RPG game out right now called Shard that’s getting awesome reviews! Check it out!

Here’s a screenshot of the Shard webpage:

We went …. someplace, I forget the name, but it was near the Hyatt (on Peachtree, I think) and it had fabulous Sushi! So that was awesome! And Blythe got cake and a candle and a serenade, and we all talked about anything and everything. Much fun!

(Oh, at some point in all of this, I registered. The conference is in 4 hotels: The Hilton (where I am), which is connected to the Marriot by a skybridge, which is connected to the Hyatt by a skybridge, which is not connected to the Sheraton. Lots of exercise at this con! I’ve been speaking on the Dark Fantasy track, and that’s over in the Hyatt, so I’m now quite familiar with three hotels!)

After that we headed back toward the Hyatt and did some serious people-watching along the way (oh, and the guys clued me in to the FollowMe App that had all of the DragonCon events listed and if you checked it, the item was put into your own personalized schedule! I really love technology!) Anyhoo, we decided to go check out the Green Room, and I bumped into quite a few people I know, including the fabulous Jennifer St. Giles and her friend Dayna Linton, who was just a joy to talk to! Dayna is one of the owners of Between Your Sheets, and is a really fascinating lady!

In the Green Room with us was Tom Felton, who plays Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies, and although I DESPERATELY wanted a picture for the rabid Harry Potter fan who lives in my house (that would be my daughter, not me, though I’m pretty much a rabid fan, too), I couldn’t bring myself to take one in the Green Room. Pooey.

But the Internet is full of them:
Isn’t he a cutie?

Catherine would have loved to hear about Mommy meeting him, but oh well …

I sent a text to my husband telling him all of this. Or, rather, I thought I did. I accidentally texted Liz Maverick, confusing her, I’m sure, as to why I was texting moral dilemma’s about celebrity photo’ing in green rooms…. She was heading to the Time Traveller’s Ball that night, and I put that in my “maybe” pile. (We’d planned ahead of time to try to get together for a drink or coffee or something, so that was one option…)

After that, we headed down to the FunCon party in the Marriott and hung out there for a while, and I considered popping over to the TT ball and saying hi to Liz and company. But I was too wiped, and fading fast. By this time it was waaaaay late (well, for me, who’d gotten up waaaaaaaay early. In DragonCon time, the post-midnight hour was not late at all…)

Back to my hotel (the Hilton). I’d planned to go straight to bed, but the room is reallllly quiet (or it was that night), so I recorded a few pages of podcasts, scrolled through all the channels on the TV (NOTHING worth watching!) and finally crashed.

Here are a few random Seen At Dragon Con pics….

Must run off to speak on the Son of Funny as Hell panel!

Saturday Report coming soon……