Patti O'Shea's Blog

I received an email letting me know that an article I wrote for Revision 14 about Eternal Nights is up! There’s also a contest going on where you can win a copy of one of my books.

To check it out, go to Revision 14

Thanks, Lindsay!

Another day, another appearance in time for lunch. Yes, I know, but I don’t wake up early at conference, not since 2000 when I was a first timer and was determined to go to a workshop every hour. The luncheon speaker today was Meg Cabot. She was funny and gave us breath spray which I actually carted home. I also packed her books to mail home because she was so entertaining. I loved her story about meeting Julie Andrews and getting totally flustered!

Jodi Thomas was at our table and was very kind and gracious. I felt like an idiot later when I found out she was a RITA nominee. Blush. I would have congratulated her if I’d known. BTW, Ms Thomas won her third RITA in the same category on Saturday night and became a member of RWA’s Hall of Fame. Congratulations!

After lunch, I made a run through the goody room to see if my bookmarks needed replenishing–I know, but last year all the Crimson Veil bookmarks disappeared. There were plenty of bookmarks left–probably because some very rude person put a big basket of her giveaways in front of mine. Um, excuse me? I would never do that to someone else and I found it very inconsiderate that this person did it to me. Karma, baby. What goes around, comes around. Never forget that the universe keeps track.

So I dig my watch out of my purse, look at the time and it’s only a few minutes until 1pm. Wow, I think, that lunch really was short. I don’t remember a speaker ever getting us out that quick. With plenty of time before I was supposed to meet one of my friends at 2pm, I strolled up to the room. It’s as I’m trying to decide what to do with the next hour that I see the alarm clock in the room. It’s 2pm! Yikes! Yes, I forgot to move my watch onto Eastern Time. Luckily, I was only a few minutes late.

Of course, my friend and I talked for way too long and then I ran into another Dorchester author and talked to her. I was supposed to be at the Editor of the Year reception from PASIC at 5pm and I’d heard they were going to do the awarding of the title early in the reception because people had to go elsewhere. Once again, I spent another frantic 15 or 20 minutes racing around the room to get ready.

I made it on time, ran into one of my editors, Leah, and my agent. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say they spotted me because I was standing inside the door, looking the other direction. Of course, one of the first things I told them was about Crimson Veil’s win in the Booksellers’ Best Awards. Ask anyone I ran into last week and they’ll tell you that was something I mentioned early and often. What can I say? I was excited. I just pray I didn’t have anyone thinking I was a hopeless braggert.

Anyway, it was really funny. I ended up with my agent and two of my editors vying to buy me a drink. Chris won. (Or lost as the case may be since he had to give up a drink ticket.) Isn’t it cool that they all wanted to celebrate with me that much? I thought it was really nice and it’s great to work with such wonderful people!

After the reception, my roommate and I went to dinner and then it was on to the Daphne Awards. I think my editor and I are not going to be allowed to sit next to each other at one of these things ever again–even if we did have fun. Until I realized not only did I have to go up on stage to accept my certificate, but that if you come in first or second, you’re expected to give a speech. I figured I wouldn’t finish first, that my run of luck had ended the night before, and sure enough, I was right. I got an honorable mention. At least I didn’t have to talk. Unfortunately, I did have to get a picture taken. Sigh. I loathe pictures and I don’t understand why people insist on taking shots of me.

My roommate ducked out on me and I felt bad about that. She didn’t know anyone there and I think I spent too much time talking to everyone. I ended up going to the bar with a group from Dorchester, but it was like 150 degrees up there and when sweat started running down my back and my arms (I was wearing a blazer), I called it a night. Did I mention it was HOT in Atlanta?

I didn’t make it to my room, though. I ran into one of the RBLs and went into the other bar with her. That’s where I met Dianna Love Snell, although in the noise of the bar, I didn’t catch her name and discovered who she was when she won a RITA Saturday night. She was so nice and gracious, telling me about a book tour she went on with Sherri Kenyon. Unfortunately, I didn’t run into Sherri during the conference and I’m sorry about that. She’s one of the nicest women of all time and I absolutely adore her.

I didn’t last too long in this bar either. It was only about 130 degrees here, but it was still bad enough to make sweat run down my body. I was fanning myself with my Daphne Honorable Mention certificate and trying not to let sweat run into my eyes.

That was the end of my night. I headed back up to the room, drank about a gallon of ice water because I was so hot, and wiped all the makeup off my face. What was left of it anyway since most of it must have melted off by then. And then I struggled with another night of insomnia. I didn’t sleep more than a couple of hours any night at the conference and that was so not fun.

Again, no spell check. Sigh.

I’m not an early riser when I’m at conference, so I managed to make it out of my room at the crack of noon. I thought that was pretty good. I met a few women from my local chapter and we went across the skyway to the mall. We were supposed to have lunch, but most of us weren’t hungry. Instead, I went to the convenience store and bought two large bottles of water. Did I mention it was HOT in Atlanta?

One of the ladies had a really cool mini-computer. Not a laptop, but not a PDA or an Alphasmart either. This actually looked like something I’d use and it was cheaper than the Dana that sits untouched. It also had WIFI access so internet availability! Yea! And while the device was small, the keyboard wasn’t much smaller than one of my laptops. I didn’t get the name of this mini gadget, but my chapter mate promised to email info when she got home.

After we finished talking, I went back to my room and met my roommate. We’ve been online friends for years, but we’d never met in person before. We ended up talking for a couple of hours, then I had a phone call from another friend and talked with her for a while. It was then that I realized I hadn’t eaten all day and the literacy signing started at 5:30. Gah!

The three of us went to the sports bar/restaurant. As we talked and waited for our food, I’m growing antsier and antsier. I had to put in my contact lenses, put on some makeup and change clothes before the book signing and the authors were supposed to be there at 5pm. Double Gah!

The food ended up coming five minutes before I had to leave and go up to the room. I scarfed down half my tuna sandwhich, gave my roommate some money and raced back to the room.

Frazzled, frantic, running late, I raced around getting ready, grabbed my stuff and ran down to the literacy signing. As I was getting ready to enter, I hear my name and look around. It was the ReBeLs! Yea! They’d flown in from around the country to meet their favorite authors. I was so focused, though, it took me a minute to recognize them. I felt bad that they had to say they were from RBL, but I did figure it out a split second before they said it. When I’m intent on something, it takes a few seconds for my brain to change tracks.

BTW, a certain fairly big name romance writer who shall remain nameless was very snotty to a number of the RBL ladies. This would be bad enough if they were aspiring writers, but these are pure readers and dedicated ones at that. They have to be to fly in for the literacy signing. I honestly don’t understand how anyone can be snotty like that to their fans. I don’t care how big your name, you should be nice. And just in case you think this is isolated, I had a different author at two different conferences who literally blew me off while I was telling her how much I liked her books and she wasn’t a big name. Guess who I’ll never buy again? I heard my reader friends had the same reaction to Ms Big Shot.

The signing itself, though, went really well for me! I had copies of ETERNAL NIGHTS there. This was its debut since it’s not supposed to be in stores until tomorrow. I sold out of the book and even had several women who all wanted the last copy. That was really a thrill!

It was also exciting that I had so many people come up and tell me how much they enjoy my books. Readers, bookstore owners, other writers. Wow! This means so much to me! It’s one of the main reasons I write, so that others can enjoy my stories, but positive feedback seems so few and far between. This was like the best thing for me. It helped give me energy and excite me about writing again!

After the signing, I went to the Booksellers’ Best Awards. THROUGH A CRIMSON VEIL was up for Best Paranormal Romance. I didn’t expect to win. It seems like I final in contest after contest, but I’m always a bridesmaid, never a bride. Well guess what? CRIMSON VEIL WON!!! Whoo hooo!!!

When they called my name, it took me a second or two to react because I didn’t expect it. I got a really cool pin, a certificate and a copy of the poster with all the winners’ book covers on it. That gets sent out to a ton of bookstores so this is great publicity. For the rest of the conference, I kept showing people my pin. What can I say? I was so excited that I’d won and a huge, important award too!

More about the conference later. I have to get my oil changed today and I need to try and finish a proposal for my agent.

PS: Blogger spell check is down. Please forgive my typos.

I forgot to mention this on my Tuesday post!

I unpacked a few things before I went down to register for the conference, and as I look around the room, I realize there’s no hair dryer in the bathroom. I checked the closet, all the drawers, everywhere they could hide a dryer. Nothing.

I’m like OMG, the website said they had hair dryers! I mean this is like the most critical amenity ever–even beyond the in-room coffee pot! I’m panicking, thinking I’m going to have to go to the mall and buy a dryer.

I exit the room and there’s a maid coming out of the room next door so I asked her if the rooms are supposed to have dryers, but she didn’t understand what I was saying, and since I never took Spanish in high school, I couldn’t explain. So I stopped at the concierge desk and asked and he said the room should have a dryer. I was instantly relieved. He suggested I look in the closet, so I named all the places I’d looked. He said he’d have one delivered and do you know what? That dryer was in the room before I got back there. That’s one of the reasons why I loved the Marriott so much.

The reason I didn’t love the Marriott so much all has to do with the maid service. I reached for a towel to dry my hands and the thing was covered in hair. Someone else’s hair. Ewww!

But wait, it gets better. Wednesday morning, I climb in the shower, pull the curtain shut and someone else’s dirty wash cloth was on the rod. The maid didn’t find it or something. Another huge EWWWW moment!

And the room cleaning remained at this level for the entire conference. I can’t even tell you about the hair balls developing on the bathroom floor after 4 days of blow drying. I’ve never been in a hotel where the maids didn’t use that sticky thing and catch all the loose hair on the floor.

So for the rest of the hotel staff — A+
for the housekeeping crew — D-

I’m back from National and ready to start reporting! I didn’t get on the internet at all while I was in Atlanta, but then I didn’t have the time this conference like I did last year. When I had the broken foot, I had to sit down and prop it up for a while. This year, I was just going.

I arrived on Tuesday. If I thought it had been hot and humid in Minnesota, that was nothing compared to what it was like in Atlanta. I got lost in the airport–those who know me are thinking, “yeah, huge surprise.” I found the shuttle and two women from my chapter were already on board so I talked to them all the way to the hotel.

The Marriott Marquis is a very friendly hotel. The staff there was outstanding and it began at check in. Not only was the woman extremely nice, but they give their guests a peach as a welcome. It was such a surprise and such a wonderful gesture, that I got all distracted and knocked my cane to the floor and sent it sailing into the woman’s luggage next to me. Oops! (BTW, I brought the cane along with me just in case my foot started giving me problems. I know it’s been a year, but I still get pain from time to time and I wasn’t sure how it would hold up to the rigors of a conference. As it turned out, the foot did fine. Good thing.)

I checked in, drank about a gallon of water (did I mention how HOT it was?) and then went down to register. This didn’t start out real promising since they couldn’t find me. I thought I was going to have to run back to the room and get my confirmation slip–I always print those kinds of things out and bring them with me–but we got it all figured out and I was officially there.

Next, I picked up my tote bag and this thing was jammed with books. The woman passing them out said there were 18 in there! Wow! I hit the goody room, but there wasn’t much in there yet. I went back to my room, got my bookmarks and display easel and set them up on a table, then I headed back to my room to check out my haul of books.

It was a quiet evening since my roommate wasn’t getting in till the next day, but I was tired so the chance to relax without having to run anywhere was a good thing. I watched the History Channel and muttered about how ridiculous it was that I was in Atlanta and there still were no Braves games on television!

I’ll post about what I did Wednesday and the literacy signing next. Stay Tuned.

Barnes & Noble.com has Ravyn’s Flight available now! For the last couple of weeks, I linked to my publisher because that was the only place where new copies of the book were for sale, but I had people asking me when BN.com or Amazon would have it available. What could I say? I had no idea. But now, at long last, you can order a copy of RF from BN.com.

Yesterday was a long day. I needed a display easel made up for Eternal Nights to put in the goody room at National. I figured as gorgeous as that cover model is, that his face will encourage people to take a bookmark. At least I hope that’s how it goes. I just had a small easel made up, but it should be big enough.

Kinko’s needed three hours to get the thing ready, so I ran over to the mall to check out the bookstore. No copies of EN yet and I thought they might have them since they’re shipping at BN.com. I dropped off a stack of bookmarks, and somehow, agreed to do a book signing. =8-O I know, I shouldn’t be so reticent about this kind of thing, but autographings are tough. I live in terror of spelling someone’s name wrong or really sticking my foot in my mouth.

Since there was no way I could kill three hours at the bookstore, I went home and started getting things together that I wanted to take with me to Atlanta. I loathe packing. Absolutely, positively hate it. So many things to remember to take. Sigh. It used to be easier. Do you know that once upon a time, I used to attend National with nothing more than a roll-aboard suitcase? The kind that fit in the overhead compartment? Now, of course, I take the largest suitcase allowed by the airline.

It was very hot and humid here yesterday and the sky finally opened up. We had a pretty intense thunderstorm roll through and the humidity wasn’t much better when it was finished. You’re thinking, oh, no! She’s talking about the weather again. This time, though, there is a point. I didn’t want to drive to Kinko’s in the downpour to pick up my easel, so I waited until it eased up.

So I get there and the parking lot is empty. I think, Great! I can run in and back out again in no time. Of course I couldn’t. I stood by the sign department for easily twenty minutes and could not get anyone to even acknowledge my presence. Two guys working, a third one running in and out and I was invisible. They were far enough back from the counter that I would have had to holler for them to hear me too and I couldn’t do that. No matter how irritated I was getting. Finally, a girl working on the other counter asked if I needed help and then I rang out in a couple of minutes. No gold star for Kinko’s.

The one thing that truly amazes me about packing is how much crap gets piled on my dressers as I clean out my bags. Take my toiletries bag for example. I have hair spray and shampoo that I’m not taking because I have newer (and smaller) hair care products, a couple of things of makeup that I don’t need, some brushes that I kept carrying around and never use to apply said makeup and other things that I don’t need. Then there’s all the stuff in my hard plastic folder that I drag with me to each conference. Where does all this paper come from?

Anyway, I finished packing around 11pm last night and I think I have everything. I hope. The suitcase is only filled up about 3/4 of the way and last year, I’m sure it was filled to the top. That must mean I’m forgetting something, right?

Like I mentioned here yesterday, I’m not taking the laptop with me, so I’ll be blogging from National when I can, otherwise I’ll share the highlights when I get home.

I leave for Atlanta tomorrow. I’ve decided not to bring the laptop with me because it’s a pain to lug that thing, but that means I’ll only be online while I’m gone if the hotel has that Web TV available like they claim. That means no daily blogs.

There’s a ton of things to do before I board the plane, including pack. I hate packing. I also have to get a display easel made up for the goody room to display my bookmarks. My cover is so fab, I need to use it (and the gorgeous man on it) as a selling feature. Yeah, I think I mentioned doing that this weekend. I didn’t. Instead I did laundry. I’ve got the disk in my bag and I plan to stop by Kinko’s on my way home from work, but we’ll see. I have a lot of other stuff to do today.

One thing that I think is pretty funny is that my return flight on Sunday morning isn’t full. I expected it to be packed to the rafters (or since it’s an airplane, I should say “stringers”) even though it’s an 8 something in the morning departure. I know the gala is the night before and that this makes for a short night, but by leaving earlier, there are fewer chances of delays–especially weather related–and I get home early enough to collapse. I mean, unpack.

The other thing I did yesterday was work some on another story. This is one I’ve been tinkering with for years, but haven’t had a chance to finish revising because every time I pick it up, I get revisions or galleys or something for another book. I’m happy with the prologue, chapter 1 and the first scene in chapter 2. The second scene needs to be the start of chapter 3 because 2 ends with too big a bang not to be the end of a chapter. The original chapter 3 needs a ton of work. I’m debating scrapping it and starting over completely because it’s that bad. Revision might not be enough.

Of course, the fact that I worked on this story again undoubtedly means that I’ll be getting revisions before I can finish fixing the proposal. The universe is funny that way. I just hope I don’t see anything until after I get home from National.

I was watching that CBS Sunday morning show, whatever it’s called (Watch the name of it will be CBS Sunday Morning and then I’ll be red-faced), and they had some woman on there talking about cubicle decor. How to spruce up your cube. One guy’s cube had been redone to look like a golf course. There was green turf-like material on the walls and on one desktop, there was a little green hill made–complete with sand trap. His pens were jammed into the sand.

Next cube had the walls lined with bamboo and there was a rug put down over the industrial carpet (under this enormous filing cabinet). They also showed quick pictures of some other cubes, including one that had the felt from a craps table up on the cube wall and shiny strands of stuff hanging from the desktop down to the floor. There was even something that looked like a slot machine taking up a huge amount of space on the desktop.

I looked at all this and thought to myself, what planet does this woman come from? I’d love to see my company’s reaction to decking my cube out like a Las Vegas casino. My God! The CBS interviewer person finally asked something about what the boss would think about a cube being decked out like this and the designer said something about how it would boost productivity so they should love it.

Hello? Has this woman ever worked in corporate America? As far as I can see, uniformity is the goal, not individuality. I think we even had a memo go around a number of years ago about appropriate and inappropriate items for cube walls. (I ignored it so that’s why I’m so vague) My cube is festooned with cartoons, many of them Dilbert since so many of them apply to my job. I also have the covers up for my last three books and postcards up from most of the different places I’ve been. I ran out of room or I’d have more up.

Anyway, I found this story about cubicle decor very amusing. A Las Vegas casino. Yeah, right.

In wasp news, I checked out all my windows again yesterday, and when I opened one in my bedroom, the queen flew around. I shut it up again, ran and got wasp spray and when I was armed and dangerous, I opened the window again. The queen flew right into the Vee opening and I fired. I don’t know if I scored a direct hit or not, but I’m confident I hit her with at least some of the wasp spray. I’m hoping she’s dead since I haven’t seen her around since, but then I thought I’d gotten rid of her before. This thing just won’t give up!

Remember the good ol’ days? When MTV and VH1 played music videos instead of hours upon hours of hour-long shows. When CNN Headline News actually gave you the news every half hour? Now there are hours of entertainment news and hours of these “personalities” talking about whatever, including some guy with the initials GB. His logo looks a lot like Garth Brooks’ logo, and the first time I saw it, I thought they were talking about Garth Brooks.

I miss the old days. I miss being able to flip to the video stations during commericals and watching a video or two before flipping back to whichever show I was watching. I miss being able to flip over to CNN Headline News whenever it’s convenient for me and getting national and international news. Now if I flip over, particularly in the evenings, there’s anything but news.

Wasn’t there a song about this, something like 100 channels and nothing is on? No wonder I rarely watch television except for baseball.

The reason I bring this up today is my frustration with CNN Headline News. Yesterday, I inadvertantly turned it on while they were following a police chase in Houston. Normally, this wasn’t something I’d watch, but this guy was driving over golf courses and stuff and the police were having a hard time getting him. They finally put down one of those strips to deflate his tires and the pickup truck ended up in a ravine with water. There a stand off began and we could see the police getting into tactical positions. I thought this was fascinating, especially when we were getting play by play from a former police officer. This was the kind of thing that gets my writer’s brain soaking up info.

But alas, the helicopter from the Houston affliate had to go back and refuel and CNN never returned to live coverage. They were passing along updates on the standoff, though–until it was time for those shows with “personalities.” I did try to flip over a few times to see if one of those guys would give updates, but I never saw anything. This morning, I have CNN Headline News on again, hoping that they’ll update this morning.

Okay, just saw the update. The man surrendered after about an hour.

My wasp friend was back. When I opened that one window yesterday afternoon, tons more grass was up there. This time I really saturated the entire top of the window. Let’s hope that discourages her. I’m getting really tired of this.

I’m still waiting for either BN.com or Amazon to show Ravyn’s Flight is available again. It’s been over a week, I think, and still no sign that a new copy is available anywhere but at my publisher’s website. I’ve had readers asking when they can get it at one of the big two online booksellers.

Today, I really need to go get a display easel made up for RWA National. I plan to use it to attract people to my bookmarks in the goody room, but I’m feeling very unmotivated to drive to Kinko’s.

Yesterday, I did another wasp check. I’ve been running the air pretty steady since it’s been so hot here and I thought I’d take one more spot check. Sure enough, there was just a little bit more grass in the original window the queen had chosen for her home. Sigh. There wasn’t much, so maybe she gave up pretty quickly. Or maybe she just started there again. It doesn’t matter. The wasp spray came back out and the grass was removed again. When will this thing give up?

By the time my adventures with the insect kingdom were over, the local news was on. I missed the beginning of the story, but it sounds as if our governor wants a moratorium on advertising by the drug companies. The reporter also interviewed a doctor who talked about patients coming in and demanding a certain drug, even though he hadn’t diagnosed them yet and what they thought they had wasn’t what was really wrong with them. The drug companies say that 37 cents out of each dollar goes to “administrative costs and marketing.” Want to bet that most of the money goes to marketing?

I’m a little opinionated on this subject, but I always believed that it was dead wrong to allow drug companies to advertise prescription drugs to the consumer. From what I’ve heard, we’re the only industrialized country that allows this.

And if you’re wondering why I talk about advertising with some frequency on my blog, my college major was advertising copywriting. I have an interest this way, so I find news stories on the topic fascinating even when others don’t. I also tend to critique commercials when I watch TV or listen to the radio.

The towels I’d ordered from QVC arrived yesterday. I didn’t like the material of the “kitchen” towels–it almost looks like felt or something–so I probably won’t use those, but the microfiber cloths seemed to pick up dust real well and I’d like to try the other two types that came in the shipment.

Okay, I guess it’s time to end the post if I’m talking about towels. My friends are getting used to this kind of conversation. In fact, one of them has said, I just remind myself that you’re nesting. I really don’t mean to go off on boring stuff, but it’s interesting to me. That’s the problem, I guess.