Seattle

So, leaving for Seattle at asscrack a.m..  If anybody wonders why I leave so early, it's so Mate can get back to the house in time to take the kids to school.

Poor Mate!

So I know I've said some things about this on social media but I'm not sure if I said it on the blog--but I'm going to the Emerald City Writer's Conference this year.

Excited?  Hell yes!

Karen Rose, Asa Maria Bradley, Darynda Jones and Cherry Adair are going to be there--just to name a few, and WHEEE!!!!

I'm also going to be presenting there--a class about archetypes and a class about setting, and am I nervous?

OH my God, I'm nervous.

The one thing that might keep me from jumping out of my skin is that I ran the setting presentation by ZoomBoy and the archetype presentation by Squish this weekend while I was updating my slides and adding stuff.

They both had some awesome stuff to contribute-- ZoomBoy did one of my setting assignments and I added his input to a slide, and Squish?  Well, Squish did the most amazing thing.

See, I originally put the presentation together for the Dreamspinner Press workshop--almost entirely m/m authors, and while I had some remarks ready about female heroes versus male heroes, I didn't have anything in the slide show, because... well. Because it's all about the guys in m/m. That's, uh, why it's m/m. But I did have some stuff to say about the girls, and it was pretty important, especially considering I like to write female characters as equals.

So I was giving Squish the presentation with every intention of visiting female archetypes at the end, when she interrupted.

"Epic heroes? Mom, where's the girl epic heroes?"

And she had such a classic Squishy expression on her face--I had to use it.

So I made it a running gag through the presentation. Every now and then, in the places where I'm most tempted to get long winded, I've got a picture of Squish, with her "bullshit line" firmly established between her eyes, reminding me "Mom--female heroes! Get to the point and represent!"

I hope the audience enjoys her as much as I did.

So if I disappear for a bit, that's where I'll be (although I almost always manage one or two posts while I'm gone!)

And if you're in the Seattle area--remember, the reader event which is FREE at the Bellevue Westin. I"ll be there along with some other AMAZING authors, and we're going to have a fun time!