Back BRB

I am back from my NYC adventure. Give me some time to rest and then I'll give a complete reporting. :P

Visiting NYC

On this day, 29 June 2011, I am visiting NYC for 24hrs so I can ghost the RWA Nationals in the Marriott Marquis. I will be attending the NRCA award ceremony as well as peeking in on the Samhain breakfast. What happens after that is anyone's guess.

I'm more inclined to stay in one spot and hope I don't get lost just doing that. This is the BIGGEST flippin' hotel I have ever seen in my entire life. No hotel should be this convoluted and confusing. I'm just glad that everything is labeled.

Please note, unlike most of the people of the world, I have never had any inclination to visit NY, let alone NYC. This the farthest north, on the east coast, that I have ever been and will probably ever go. And I'm only doing this once for the special occasion of Nationals and the NRCA award ceremony.

For those wondering what I mean by "ghost" Nationals, I mean that I'm not registered. I'm just hanging around the hotel and mingling before I go home. I did the same thing in DC last year. I hope to actually attend Nationals in CA like a normal registrant, but we shall see how Hawaii is treating me when that time rolls around.

Movie Review: Green Lantern

Green Lantern


Basic Premise
An ancient evil has escaped his prison and now threatens Earth. Hal Jordan, a reckless test pilot has been chosen to take up the fight as the newest member of the Green Lantern Corps.


End of Credits
There is something partially into the credits that sets up the next movie. There's nothing at the very end except a promotion slide for the comics, animated movies, and video games.

Winner 23 June TRS Release Party

Congrats go out to Barrie MacLauchlin, who has won a PDF copy of Caveat Emptor 1: Charmed Lover, by entering the contest from the 23 June The Romance Studio Release Party.

30-Days of Questions

I have an event on this blog coming up in July and I would love some reader input. Do you have a question about any of my published titles? How about a question for the characters from any of my published titles?

Send them to me at dreneebagby(AT)gmail(DOT)com, subject line "30-Day Questions." I'll answer one question each day of July. Possibly more than one question depending on how many people respond to this request.

Please only questions about published titles. The answer to the question "when is [insert book title] coming out?" is "I'm working on it, and I'll let everyone know once I have a release date."

Newsletter Contest Winners #4 (Jun) + RTC Winners

It's time to announce the winners of my monthly newsletter roll call. This month I gave away two boxes.

Remember, you have to be subscribed to my newsletter in order to play (hint hint).

June 2011 Newsletter

Box-o-Books #1 Contest Winner

Beth Dareus (FL)

Box-o-Books #2 Contest Winner

Yadira Alonzo (WA)

And, because I have joined the authors of Romance Trading Cards, I am also giving away the first set of my RTC cards in my monthly newsletter contests.

RTC Contest Winners

Rachel Robertson (MS)

Crystal Broyles (KY)

Danielle Lyons (WY)

Lisa Avila (TX)

Carol Luciano (NJ)

Stephanie Thames (CA)

Suzy Roy (IL)

Sarah Ulfers (MN)

Linda Bass (IL)

Patricia Kasner (FL)

Brenda Cannatella (FL)

CONGRATS!

Join me next month on my newsletter for another box of books, another round of RTC cards giveaway, and more winners.

Now at ARe: Charmed Lover

Caveat Emptor 1: Charmed Lover is now at All Romance eBooks.

The price is reduced for a limited time only to mark the occasion.

Price reduction only available at ARe site.

2011 Golden Roses Winners

Announcing the Love Romances & More 2011 Golden Rose Award winners.

Paranormal (including sci fi): Eris by D. Renee Bagby

Historical: The Guise of a Gentleman by Donna Hatch

Erotic: The Best Man by L.A. Witt

Suspense: Written in Blood by Elaina Lee

Contemporary: P’tit Cadeau by Anel Viz

Congrats to the Winners

Congrats to the winners of my guest blog appearances:

@Wordshaping -- Darcy
* prize - e-copy of Caveat Emptor 1: Charmed Lover

@Cyber Launch Party -- Two Winners
* Sherry - e-copy of Cafe Midnight: Chamomile Nights
* Shadow - e-copy of Caveat Emptor 2: Trapped Lover


CONGRATS!

Contest: Cyber Launch Party for Two

Join me over at Cyber Launch Party for the launch of Cafe Midnight: Chamomile Nights and Caveat Emptor 1: Charmed Lover.

Two commentors will each win ONE PDF copy of one of the launch books. Read the post for full details. Good Luck.

Direct Link: http://cyberlaunchparty.blogspot.com/2011/06/celebrating-two-new-releases-for.html

Contest at Wordshaping

Why do I write fantasy?

I answer that question at Wordshaping today. Stop by and leave a comment for a chance to win a PDF copy of Caveat Emptor 1: Charmed Lover by Zenobia Renquist.

Direct Link: http://amberpolo.blogspot.com/2011/06/why-i-write-fantasy-zenobia-renquist.html

Movie Review: Green Lantern Emerald Knights

Green Lantern: Emerald Knights


Basic Premise
A rookie Green Lantern gets a crash course in Green Lantern Corp history while preparing the for the greatest and most deadly battle she will probably ever face.

Movie Review: X-Men First Class

X-Men: First Class


Basic Premise
Erik Lehnsherr is a survivor of the holocaust. Charles Xavier is a boy born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Both men are unlikely but share a similar secret. They are both mutants -- humans gifted from birth with incredible powers. Now they must use those powers to stop a made man from sinking the world into a nuclear war.


End of Credits
Nothing there. Feel free to leave when the credits start to roll.

Out Now: Caveat Emptor 2: Trapped Lover

Trapped Lover
Caveat Emptor, Book 2
by Zenobia Renquist

Changeling Press

Genre: Paranormal, Vampire, Interracial, Erotic Romance
eBook ISBN: 978-1-60521-638-6

Has Ryver fled one danger only to be embraced by another?

With the threat of mages capturing and imprisoning her, Ryver can never go home again. That's fine by her, since she's with Theron, the vampire she loves. Now living in vampire territory, she's learning more and more about Theron. Not all of it is good. The more she sees, the more she's convinced that the man she fell in love with, the man who can make her body sing with a single touch, might not be the man she thought he was.

What's worse, there's no way to get away from him if he's as bad as she suspects. Caveat Emptor -- Let the Buyer Beware.

Buy Now: http://www.changelingpress.com/product.php?&upt=book&ubid=1615

LF Get Together 7 Recap

Now it's time for the recap of the 7th Annual Lori Foster's Reader-Author Get Together.

As usual, this convention was a lot of fun. This year I supplied the badge holders. Each badge holder had a packet of business cards I collected from various authors. Some of said business cards were highlighted by Circle of Seven Productions on YouTube:


Direct Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRPSVjvCyvw

I got favorite business card. I'm all happy about that. :D

I'll also be supplying the badge holders for next year (got confirmation this morning).

Flash, Joy (of Joyfully Reviewed) and I headed out in my car early Thursday morning headed for Akron. No the convention is not in Akron. Camille Anthony is. She attended LF Con as well, but needed Flash to drive her minivan since she had recently gotten out of the hospital and couldn't do much long-distance driving.

Joy and I used the time at Camille's house to finish preparing our promo. I was stuffing the badge holders with my packets of business cards while Joy stuffed little bunny bags full of Romance Trading Cards. I got to snag one of each for my personal collection. Teehee.

Friday morning, we were out of the house by 8:30am and on the road to West Chester, which is roughly 3hrs driving from Akron. The plan was to be at the hotel in time for the registration bag stuffing at 1pm. Unfortunately, bag stuffing got started early due to all of the promo that was received. This year LF Con hit a record high of 400 attendees. That was the cap for the con, since that's what the hotel could accommodate.

Registration started promptly at 4pm. I stood at the doors to the convention hall and handed out the badge holders. That allowed me to greet everyone personally. Yes, I planned it that way and I'll do it again next year. :P

After registration was the pizza party. I got swamped by people asking for my autograph for the Author Island contest. This is nothing new. I was expecting it. Plus, I had told everyone to find me after registration closed since I couldn't sign papers and hand out badges at the same time.

Friday ended with me in the room with Flash as we poured through the swag we had received. Some nice stuff. Of course, I was target-locked on the Romance Trading cards more than anything else.

Saturday morning, Flash and I did our traditional pajama walk. This is where we head to breakfast dressed in our pjs. Everyone was jealous. We may start a trend next year. We were telling everyone, since this is such a laid back convention, Flash and I usually do Saturday morning in our pjs -- roll out of bed, brush our teeth, wash our faces, and go to get some grub. After we ate, we went back to the room and changed.

I had a speed chat session at 10am. My co-speed chatter was Nalini Singh. While the spirit of the chat was for us to talk one-on-one with a reader for fifteen minutes before switching to the next person (like speed dating), it turned into a large discussion. It was very fun and enlightening.

The book signing started at 2pm. Flash took up her spot, which took us forever to find. If we had walked right first instead of left, we would have found it immediately. Ain't it always the way? :P

I wandered and got autographs from Kate Douglas, Monica Burns, Donna Grant, Nalini Singh, Dakota Cassidy, Missy Martine, and Dana Marie Bell. I didn't have anything in the bookstore (hosted by B&N), so I didn't set up to sign. One attendee brought her copy of Serenity for me to sign, so that was a happy. :D

That night was the Author Island Sock Hop, which was very well attended. Tons of prizes were given out -- Flash won three things so she can't say she never wins anymore. I got a copy of Jade Lee's Dragonbound, which I had her sign.

DeNita, owner of Author Island, put on a great party that entertained everyone. I look forward to what she thinks up next year.

The majority of the convention was spent catching up with writing friends and readers as well as educating aspiring authors. It was very fun. As I tell everyone, this is a staple convention for me. I will even fly in from Hawaii to attend. That's saying a lot since I hate to fly. There will have to be some dire circumstances going on to make me miss this convention.

I'm looking forward to 2012 already.

Balticon 45 Recap

This is waaaaay late, but I finally have time to gather my thoughts and do a quick recap of my adventures while at Balticon 45 in Hunt Valley, MD 27-30 May.

You can check out my panels schedule in an earlier post. You can also check out the pocket program on Balticon's site.

So here goes:

DAY ONE - FRIDAY

Flash and I rolled out around 1pm, I want to say. Can't really remember. Traffic on 695 was backed up for miles so we got off the highway and decided to take York Rd to the convention hotel. BIG MISTAKE.

We got stuck about a mile away from the hotel by a state trooper funeral procession. It went on for about an hour, possibly an hour and a half. I have never seen so many cop cars at once in my life. Marked, unmarked, big, small -- you name it, they were there. At first, we thought there was something up with the traffic light and then we saw all the cops and figured out the deal.

Flash hopped out of the car (after turning it off, of course) and went to the gas station we stopped in front of to get drinks. I sat on the car door and watched the whole thing go by.

Thankfully, my first panel didn't start until 5pm. We arrived with plenty of time to pick up our badges, yap with a few friends, and peruse the dealers' room.

My first panel was Paranormal/Vampires TV Shows. None of us (including the moderator) really knew what the panel should be about so we basically touched on why paranormal TV shows are on the rise and which ones interested us. Very fun panel.

7pm was the Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading. That's when several ladies from the Broad Universe group (of which I am part) get together and do a quick 5-minute reading of some of their works. I did ERIS -- the part featuring Stephanie Burke. Everyone got a good laugh out of that, including Flash.

10pm was the 'Why We Love Anime' panel which had a great turn out and was a ton of fun. I'm a HUGE anime fan so I was really happy to get this panel. I even learned some stuff about the distribution of anime and how it's changing thanks to the issues with the economy and the prevalence of online fan-subbers.

Around midnight, Flash and I headed for the room where I was to have a second reading. Before me was Jhada Rogue Addams, who read a spicy excerpt from her book (sorry, I can't remember the name though I do remember some chick being done against the side of a pick-up truck). While I was supposed to do my reading immediately following hers, the group of us started discussing sex and talked straight through my half hour. That was something I didn't mind since I didn't feel like doing another reading.

Jhada cut out around 1am and was replaced with the next author doing a reading - J-P Bibeau. He's such a cutie. We sat around jawing through his session too since we figured (and were correct) that no one would show up for a reading at 1am.

After that, Flash and I took our tired butts home to get some rest.

DAY TWO - SATURDAY

This was my lazy day. I had no panels so I followed Flash around to hers. Flash's niece Connie came with us as well. For the most part, I caught up on some emails and visited with the people around me. I even got a little writing done.

The highlight of the day was that one woman who had attended the Broad Universe RFR got intrigued with my book and bought a copy. I was very happy about that.

Saturday was also the masquerade. That got Flash very frazzled since there were issues with the music and various costume malfunctions. All in all, we had fun and that's what matters. My favorite was the green lantern corp. That was hilarious.

After the masquerade, Flash had another panel while we waited for judging. Connie and I stood for photo ops and sat around talking until we were allowed to change back. Once judging was over, we dragged our tired bodies home for some much needed sleep.

DAY THREE - SUNDAY

This was my day. 10am was the panel I REALLY wanted to be on -- Shadow of the Torturer: Authors who abuse their characters. The moderator for this panel was FANTASTIC. He asked pertinent questions and kept the discussion flowing. All of the writers present had a great time.

3pm was the 'Did We Win?' panel to discuss whether sci-fi/fantasy has been truly accepted in the mainstream or not. The general consensus was no, it hasn't. Sure there are a lot of sci-fi/fantasy TV shows and movies out, but most of those are watered down so as not to scare off the mundanes who make up the majority of the ratings pool. I mean, even Syfy channel changed it's name to attract a broader audience. So what does that tell you?

I had a lot more fun on this panel than I thought I would. I thought for sure I would be eclipsed by my fellow panelists who were older and more well-read of the hard sci-fi genre than myself. I got my shots in where I could and brought in a younger perspective, as well as the perspective of the movie-goer. After the panel ended one audience member came up to me and said he really enjoyed the panel thanks to me. That had me all happy. :D

5pm was the round table discussion about Small Press and Small Press authors. This had the potential to be a very informative panel, however the moderator turned it into Big 6 NY Traditional Pubs versus Small Press discussion with Small Press being painted with a very black brush. It should have never been that way, and it still ticks me off that he did that. The man actually looked at me and asked me specifically why I had given up on my career by choosing small press. It's a good thing I think before I talk (most of the time) because I would have told him off otherwise.

ANYWAY... the other panelists and I were more than a little pissed at the end of this panel. Just remembering it is ticking me off while I type so I will drop this and move on before I say something I shouldn't.

The rest of the day was spent sitting around and jawing with passersby. Flash had one or two panels late in the day, so we parted ways since I had an autograph session that clashed with one of her panels. We met up again in an after-hours party in someone's room. You know, I'm still not sure whose room that was.

I got to taste Crackin' Rum. Really smooth and yummy. The hubby would like it. The party ended when one of the neighbors complained. Flash and I didn't get home until 2am.

DAY FOUR - MONDAY

Flash and Dennis went out to the last day of Balticon. I did not. I sat in a fatigued, semi-stupor trying to recuperate. I had planned to get some work done for the next convention but I couldn't do more than sit and stare at my computer.

All in all, the whole thing was fun. There were lots of complaints about the scheduling being a little stupid (okay, a lot stupid) but I was happy with what I got. I'm going to miss Balticon while I'm in Hawaii. When the hubby and I come back this way, I'll be sure to put it on my to-do list.

HISHE: Thor

How It Should Have Ended hit the nail on the head when they did their take on the way Thor should have ended:



Direct link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DTgNkkX2eU

Whipped Cream Reviews: Charmed Lover

Whipped Cream Reviews has weighed in beautifully on Charmed Lover. This is the most in-depth review about the psychology of my characters that I've ever gotten. Very interesting reading. I even got some enlightenment. :D

4 Cherries!

"An amuse-bouche to stimulate the appetite, giving you just enough to make you want much more... a fast paced and fun read, with enough intrigue to have you coming back for more."
~ Buttercup, Read Full Review

Romancing The Book Review: Eris

A new review came down the line from Romancing the Book for ERIS.

Rating: Rose That Rules All (5 out of 5)
"Just start it--trust me, you won't be able to stop... There is nothing one dimensional or wooden in this story... There are plenty of twists and turns and I was thrilled with the ending. I'm sure you will be, too. Go buy a copy, settle in, and prepare to be hooked."
~ Emma Rae

Full Review:
http://www.romancing-the-book.com/2011/05/review-eris.html