La Jolla Writers Conference 2009

Four and a half years into this gig, I've begun to develop that sense of blase. Whereas my first Romantic Times was frenetic and exciting, I now can look through the schedule with a whatever, maybe I'll sleep in attitude. I still get excited to see friends and attend parties, but the glamor is gone. EPICon is certainly fun, and the people and locations make it more so, but it has also transitioned to where the things around the conference are what I look forward to rather than the conference itself. And the average booksigning engagement is just that: average.

This is not to say I dislike or am bored with those things. That is most certainly not true. Yes, there are annoyances, such as RT's continuing attempts to marginalize the epublishing world. But overall I would instantly and repeatedly recommend attending those events. And of course my book-signings would cease to be average if attended by more people who had actually read my books instead of the sign in front of the store that day.

Yet there is one conference that continues to make me step back and say "Wow!" It is the smallest one I attend, deliberately so, and also the most valuable. The La Jolla Writers Conference.

A small event that is tightly focused on the emerging writer, Antoinette and Jared Kuritz continue to take that hanging curve and knock it out of the park. Every year, I meet a new inspiration or two, make a valuable connection or new friend and receive a major surprise.

I have the LJWC to thank for the wonderful friendship of Robyn Carr, just as an example. It was there that we first met her, as we also first met Lisa Jackson, Steve Berry, Ken Kuhlken, Warren Lewis and Eldon Thompson, among others. It's hard to stop the name-dropping thing, because there are so many fine authors and people we have met at this event. (Note to Warren: Get a website, dude. You rock too hard to be that far off track.)

I can't recommend this conference highly enough. This year was as stellar as any. We met Jane Green, who may forever remember me as the only man to show up for her eight a.m. Chick-Lit class...Lisa Gardner, who spun tales about wandering deserted mental institutions in the dark and the smells of the body farm...and our surprise for this year, the incredible Steven Boyett, for whom I had zero expectations. I must now consider myself a huge fan. The man's passion and energy, as well as his vision and acumen, are simply amazing.

We also renewed our associations with Warren and Eldon as well as author Mark Clements and agent Taryn Fagerness.

We saw some old friends (*waves to Walter*) and also met some new ones, including Marty and fellow Browncoat Dawn Maria. One of the wonderful things about gatherings of writers is that no one looks at you oddly when you scrawl an idea on a napkin or act like you've met a soulmate because you can both identify the nature of the special hell (hint: for people who talk at the theater) or quote a half-dozen opening lines ranging from Austen to Zelazny.


If you are a writer or a poet or a screenwriter...you need to look into this conference. It's not Comic-Con, or RT, or BEA...this is about business and craft and emerging from the small circle of buildings at Paradise Point inspired and aware. And it is the best conference/convention money I spend each year.

Shame On Maine

"This country, which has given to the world the example of physical liberty, owes to it that of moral emancipation also. For as yet, it is but nominal with us. The inquisition of public opinion overwhelms in practice the freedom asserted by the laws in theory." --Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1821.

I am not one to cry for the elder, better days. I believe in that depths of my soul that we, as a nation, a planet and a species, have continually made strides in the direction of maturity. There is no doubt, despite those who oppose anything which violates their own interest, that we have made great strides towards the ideals which Jefferson and Adams discussed at great length in their letters as they evaluated the results of their labors.

Yet this morning all I can think of is how well the quoted statement applies to the news from Maine.

"The inquisition of public opinion overwhelms in practice the freedom asserted by the laws in theory."

This very concept that the rights of a minority are subject to the whim of public opinion is diametrically opposed to the intent, words and public statements of the men who this country so reveres as the Founding Fathers.

Men who fought a war with arguably the most powerful military entity on the planet in order to avoid the tyranny of the majority would not in any way approve of what has happened in Maine, or what happened in California.

After all, do you think that the Stamp Act was unpopular with the great majority of the British Empire? Of course not. To them, it was right that the colonies should bear the expense of the recent war with France that, in the MAJORITY opinion, was fought on behalf of those colonies.

The fathers of this country risked death not to establish majority rule, but to oppose it. They put the checks and balances in our constitution to prevent exactly the kind of thing that is now happening. It has ever been the role of the courts to protect the rights of the minority. To have the efforts of those courts subject to the "whim of public opinion" is both shameful and harmful to the very cause of Freedom.

"The Gothic idea that we were to look backwards instead of forwards for the improvement of the human mind, and to recur to the annals of our ancestors for what is most perfect in government, in religion and in learning, is worthy of those bigots in religion and government by whom it has been recommended, and whose purposes it would answer. But it is not an idea which this country will endure." --Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Priestley, 1800.

Unfortunately, it does endure. It is the burden of those who have embraced reason over fear and superstition to persist in trying to achieve those ideals set down by our founders more than 200 years ago.

The cause of Marriage Equality has suffered another setback. Yet the odds for the eventual triumph of Freedom in this cause are still better than those faced by the handful of brave souls who sacrificed in pursuit of the establishment of an independent nation on these shores.

We must continue to fight, and we must continue to answer fear with reason, hatred with love, and superstition and loathing with common sense and forgiveness.

I hang my head at the results from Maine and wish they had been otherwise. Our citizens have proven that they yet have growth to achieve if they wish to truly reach the heights this nation once aspired to.

Yet, we must continue.

"[Let us] go on in doing with [the] pen what in other times was done with the sword, [and] show that reformation is more practicable by operating on the mind than on the body of man." --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Paine, 1792

Why Are We Still Talking About This? Blog Action Day 2009

Yes,I am one of those annoying people that likes to quote their favorite movies and TV shows. And one of those favorites is Firefly, the short-lived but extremely well written space-opera with a western overtone. In one of the episodes, Capt. Mal Reynolds brings his ship and crew into danger to rescue a brother and sister that have caused him nothing but trouble.

After the rescue, the brother (Simon) attempts to figure out why Mal would risk everyone else, his ship and his own life to come back for them. When Mal replies that he has a responsibility to protect his crew, Simon pushes the issue, giving all the reasons Mal should NOT have taken the risk.

Mal's response is full of loyalty and incredulity that the explanation he has already given is not so obvious as to defy all further discussion.

"You're on my crew. Why are we still talking about this?"

This last statement is how I feel about the validity of climate change. Why are we still talking about this?

Yes, there are scientists, especially in the United States, who argue against the existence of climate change and even more who argue against it being human-influenced. However, there are also scientists to be found who still argue about the validity of evolution, or the nature of gravity, or the curvature of the earth. Who say the moon landings were faked. That whites are genetically superior to other races. A Phd does not make one intelligent or ethical... only educated.

In the nineteen-fifties, there where hundreds of doctors who argued that smoking was not only not addictive and harmless, but actually said it was good for you. Why? Because they were PAID to do so. Take a look at the money-trail around some of these so-called Climate Change Deniers. How many of them can trace major funding back to people looking for precisely these kind of findings?

And no, I am not gonna do that research for you. Because when 99 out of a 100 say a thing and it is not going to benefit them personally and in fact cause hardship or at least a reduction of ease in their lifestyle, I tend to believe the 99. Especially when the 1% in question is screaming at the top of their lungs and the 99% are looking at him querulously and saying "Why are we still talking about this?"

Scientists love to get to the bottom of things. It is part of the reason they became scientists. A scientist deciding something is not worth the argument is like Glenn Beck deciding a Tea Party protest is not worth Fox News coverage. Both rare and puzzling.

So quit arguing about whether it is happening. Look around. Doctors had to quit taking the tobacco blood money when the lung cancer cases became so obvious there was no legitimate way to disguise their bias. Look at the fires this decade in Southern California. Look at Polar Bears drowning because there is not enough ice. Look at the shrinking glaciers. Look at the long term trend in temperatures.

It's obvious. It's happening. And if we are not wholly to blame, we are at least accelerating the process.

It's time to quit talking about whether or not the soup is burning and turn down the heat on the stove.

Why are we still talking about this?

Dragon*Con Post-Mortem

Well, I'm back...

Alessia and I attended Dragon*Con 2009 in Atlanta this weekend and had a real blast. She has already posted her reactions and since we did all the same things, I'm gonna try to avoid repeating her thoughts... with one major exception.

I too wish to say how cool it was to be a part of the Thriller world record attempt. Even if they find some technicality we missed and deny us the official recognition, we all have that awesome moment when the laughter stopped and the excitement of accomplishment burst out. (Yeah, I know...all I devoted was a few hours to it while Lauren and the rest of the team worked on this for months. I hope they don't mind my leap to inclusion, but I really do feel like all 900+ participants have become a sort of team. It was that cool.) By the way, in the practice video that Alessia posted, I am the white-shirted Pirate at the very beginning.

I've been to several Comic-Cons, including back in the days before Hollywood really discovered it. Dragon*Con has that sense of camaraderie which characterized the original Comic-Con, although it is a bit more diverse in the interests and is already bigger than Comic-Con was in the early eighties.

I loved the diversity of the costumes. There are so many people walking about in costumes that they obviously made themselves. Not obvious because they look cheap...obvious because they don't. They are very individual and show signs of the love invested in them. The fact that some of the people in the costumes are attractive doesn't hurt, but I will also say that I would far rather take a picture of a person wearing something they made and love than a booth babe wearing something because she is receiving a paycheck.

We dressed up three of the four days and were quite flattered to be asked to stop and pose. After Friday, when we wore our Hammer and Anvil outfits in tribute to Dr. Horrible, we thought the remainder of the weekend we would be fairly anon. The H & A double entendre plays well with this crowd, so we expected some attention. But we actually were stopped more often on Sunday. Personally, I'm gonna lay the credit for that at the feet of my partner. She looked fantastic in her black pirate top and corset and high boots.

The fact that neither of us looked anything like Johnny Depp probably helped as well. Sometimes there is too much of a good thing.

We attended a panel about the Hobbit movie, saw Felicia Day a couple of times and saw way too much stuff that we wanted to buy. Through major exercise of willpower, we managed to keep the car only slightly stuffed.

Things I'll remember?

-Felicia's face when presented with a questioner who told her that since she had not been able to find any Bad Horse/Penny slash, she wrote some.

-Lunch with friends whom we dearly love and see far too infrequently.

-Being told to scoot in closer and for the people standing to move to the left (if you were there, you know what this means) and then Chitty Chitty Bang Bang causing a traffic jam around the piano.

-The obvious enjoyment shown by the celebrities in being reunited with their friends and the way they were so gracious with their fans.

-Kids on MARTA staring at the costumes and whispering to their parents. How they smiled back when we said hello.

-Fantastic costumes not just in the halls or panels, but being worn by people we know and love.

We are already planning to return to Atlanta next year, this time staying downtown so that we can avoid the transit time-sink, although I have to say that the trains were very easy to use. We didn't really hit any of the late night parties due to being dependent on public transportation and next year I would like to dance a bit and maybe take in the parade.

A Very Busy Sunday

Wow, and I thought Sunday was supposed to be a day of rest?

On this last Sunday in August, I have three exciting things happening. My first solo release from Phaze in over a year was made available late last night, although the official release date is tomorrow. En Garde is the story about a man who thinks he is past being surprised by life and the woman that proves him wrong. It isn't my longest work, but the price reflects that and I have to say that Kelly is one of my favorite characters ever.

Its an intriguing and erotic adventure on many levels and I am very proud that this story is kicking off the Phaze Scores line of sports-related erotica. En Garde is available now at Phaze.com for the low price of two dollars. I promise you'll will it far more than a couple of dirty, crinkled bucks in your pocket.

Today is also the day we are proud to announce the next step in the evolution of Coming Together and erotic altruism with the launch of Coming Together: Neat. This single story line will shocase works between 10K and 50K, give authors who aren't comfortable writing short stories a way to contribute and also is CT's first venture into Micro-lending, a type of program that I personally believe will help maximize the impact of Coming Together. Let's face it, $50 doesn't mean much to the Red Cross. But in Afghanistan, it is an annual income for some people. Follow the link to the Coming Together blog for more details!

And last but certainly not least, Alessia and I are headed to the car to drive a few hours so that I can watch Park View Little League, where I coached and my son plays, take on Chinese Taipei for the championship of the world. There are a lot of endeavors in this country where we call it a world title and yet all the participants are from the US. This is NOT one of them. These kids, some of whom I've known since they were five or six years old, have a chance to accomplish something truly special. I have to go, I just have to. Once in a lifetime opportunity and all that, even though most of them won't know me unless I tell them whose Dad I am. And Alessia is coming along because she thinks its cute how excited I am about this. I love that she is willing to skip an entire day of productivity so that I can scream "P-V-L-L!" for a couple hours.

So that's my day of rest. How about all y'all?


GO PARK VIEW!!!!!!

Honor Him In A Manner He Would Appreciate

Ted Kennedy has passed, brain cancer taking from us the last of a set of brothers whose impact on the history of this great nation is unarguably massive.

Senator Kennedy was a man of passion, an impressive legislator and a great American. He saw two of his beloved brothers pay the ultimate price for public service and yet never shied from that spotlight. Many lesser men would have removed themselves from public life after assassins stole the lives of their brothers. Ted never considered it. He even ran for the very office that had brought tragedy to his family.

He was a man I admired, both for his greatness and for his humanity. It is no great dishonor for me to call him the least of that triad of siblings. I might as well call Michaelangelo's Pieta a lesser work. It is, compared to the Sistine Chapel. So it was with Ted, always trying to live up to the legacy bequeathed to him in the most bloody of manners.

He was not entirely comfortable with the burden, as some of his history shows. Yet he overcame that to become a voice of leadership and change, a powerful force in the nation that murdered his kin.

He is gone, and I will miss hearing him. Miss that distinctive Kennedy accent, the tinge of voice that carried unmistakable reminders of Jack and Bobby, that made me believe in his belief in the ideas and concepts that he espoused.

Ted Kennedy should be honored in the manner most fitting, by the fulfillment of his life's work. In 1969, Ted Kennedy introduced into the national discussion the idea that a nation this powerful should care for all its children, not only those most fortunate.

Pass a national health care package. Those who have held up this process for mere money and political gamesmanship should be ashamed. They have succeeded only in delaying long enough to rob a great man of an opportunity to see his work finished before he passed. They are but a shadow of this man we have lost today.

Enough. Honor Ted in a way he would have wanted. Pass national health care.

Reviews and What They Mean

When I first became published, I hung on the possibility of reviews like a pet waiting to be fed. Not quite reaching out, but with that eagerness in the eyes and that not so patient wait.

Now, I don't even see them unless someone points them out, to the point where old reviews can be new to me. Part of this is gaining perspective, part of it is the realization that a good review is not going to mean that many sales in most cases.

I also think that a good portion of it has to do with the extreme disappointment I felt when our first "major" review was badly mishandled, as Romantic Times assigned an erotica piece with a "villain" (she is more of a foil, never villified) who is a crusading member of the Christian Right to a reviewer whose profile indicated that her favorites were Christian Inspirationals. You know, kinda like asking Ann Coulter to review The Audacity of Hope. You can imagine the response that character got from her. We were labeled "anti-morality."

But even with the results of the process having jaded me to things, I still feel a little anticipation when a new one is found by Phaze or a friend and brought to my attention.

After all, feedback was one of my favorite things about writing from the very beginning. In my time honing my chops at Literotica I was an unabashed feedback slut, checking my scores and my comments constantly. So it seems to be obvious that the opinions I receive on my professional work would also give me that anticipatory twinge.

Counterbalancing this is the idea that it can be a dangerous trap. There have been numerous instances of authors getting "caught" bitching and anguishing and even looking to retaliate over poor reviews. I almost fell into that trap over the RT review, so I understand. Now, I am glad I didn't, since the internet is forever and I just don't want to be seen that way.

So, do reviews mean something? Absolutely. Do I tear my hair out over a bad one? No. Besides, the best revenge for a bad review is a good one. That way I know it's not me protecting my "children," it is an unbiased opinion. So in that spirit, I present to you what the Romance Studio thought of Artifactual, with a reviewer that was not grinding an axe....

I found this a thoroughly delightful erotic romp, complete with adventure, plenty of sex, and a few mysteries. The unusual items for sexual pleasure were especially intriguing. Amanda and Bruce are well suited to each other, playing off each other’s strengths. They complement each other well. I found a touch of comedy in one chapter that really had me going. I laughed so hard tears streamed from eyes and it took me a few minutes to start reading again. I loved it!

My thanks to Patricia at The Romance Studio (www.theromancestudio.com)who gave me this wonderfully validating moment by writing a Five Heart review that I somehow didn't see for two and a half years.

And to all of you out there who take the time to read my books and share your opinions, good or bad ... thank you.