It’s officially official!

I’m officially booked in for stunt driving school at the end of this month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m also still in shock.

I mean, when I was a little girl I said, “Some day, I wanna go to stunt driving school.” But I never thought I’d ever get to go.

And here I am, less than three weeks away and I’m still not sure if I really am going. I mean, it was a dream…something to give me hope, a goal to work toward. It wasn’t supposed to actually happen!

Now I just hope that the reality is even better than the dream!

(I’m bettin’ it will be. I love cars. I love driving and drifting. This is gonna be so friggin’ awesome!!!!!)

I guess I’ll let you know in early October…a few weeks before Otherness: Rift is released from Samhain Publishing.

busy girl

After cancan-ing my little heart out at WorldCon last month and then enjoying a visit from my parental units this past week, I’m pretty darn exhausted, but pleased.

Otherness: Rift comes out in less than two months and I’m beside myself with glee!

‘Course there’s also tons of work to be done in preparation for that big day, but one step at a time is all I can handle right now.

As I’ve blogged before, I’m currently producing a wine review video podcast website at www.wineass.com and good golly has that kept me busy in such an awesome way. I love to learn and much learning I have done. Perhaps there’s a novel or two in the experience as well.

And I’ve been sewing… Not just my Leeloo {from 5th Element}-Does-Cancan costume (still awaiting pictures ’cause we had a camera meltdown at WorldCon). I’m trying to shovel out my beautiful craft room and in order to do that, these projects new and old need to either be finished or tossed.

I’m votin’ for finished.

First up: A pair of jungle green satin pants with a royal blue lace overlay–complete with appliques. Sounds kinda bizarre, huh? It probably will be. I’m not far enough along to know for sure!

Pardon my little chuckle here, but I’m multi-tasking… I’m exporting a freshly edited video while blogging and while waiting for my iron to heat up. I feel like some odd combination of techno/textile geekage has come over me.

And I LOVE it!

LaLaCon 2006

This past weekend was a blast! My hubby, Jason Stoddard, was the Writer Guest of Honor at LalaCon 2006 and I got to sit in on a couple of panels with him.

This con is a very relaxed, fun one that I’ve done for two years in a row now and absolutely love it. Of my favorite moments, one of the best was discussing the future of writing with Jason, John DeChancie, George Van Wagner and Larry Niven. Had this been more of a writing conference, that would’ve made for a fantastic panel discussion with all of us having different ideas. Very fascinating stuff.

Here’s a shot of the panel I did with Jason. Special thanks to fellow Fictionado George Van Wagner for snapping this pic!

We’re seated at the head of the hall where all LASFS (Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society) meetings are held. Jason was probably talking about his short stories or the novel he just finished. Me, however, I’m listening intently, trying to think up another question to ask, but failing miserably. This con is so relaxing, it relaxed all the good questions out of my brain!

Okay, I can’t resist… I need to point out and explain a few things in the shot. Starting with the buttons on my shoulders. One’s the con nametag. The other is my geeky scrolling LED badge that I tried out for the first time this weekend. Definitely a worthwhile purchase. It’ll get loads of use at the Romantic Times Booklover Convention in a few weeks.

Also of odd note, the way I’m sitting… I had no idea that yoga has permeated into my regular habits. Also, of note are my shoes. Outside the panel, I was engaged in a conversation about them. They are real Victorian shoes and are super duper narrow and pointy. They might not be quite 1800s, but darn close to it. They aren’t copies, they’re the real deal. I can’t believe they’re in such great shape for their age, either. I love them to pieces, but can only wear them once or twice a year for fear of damaging them.

I’ll be getting to my bits of England soon. There are so many pics, I might just have to choose random shots from all of my trips there.

In other news not quite suitable to announce on my website because it isn’t really worth shouting about just yet, my new novel, _Otherness:Rift_, has a cover even though it won’t be coming out until this Fall. I’m so excited! I’ll share the artwork as soon as it’s officially finished.

Big news!

There’s no picture to go with this one. At least not yet.

About two hours before leaving for my trip to England, I got some fantastic news…

MY FIRST NOVEL IS UNDER CONTRACT!

It’s an urban fantasy entitled Otherness: Rift. It’s the first in my Otherness series and I’m absolutely thrilled to see that it will be published by Samhain Publishing in Fall of this year.

I still need to refine the ‘what it’s about’ blurb, but here’s the gist of the book:

Liz Spencer only wants to dump her boyfriend, not change her entire life. But a freak earthquake strikes her town, revealing that California’s rock solid history goes back much further than the Gold Rush–centuries earlier, in fact. And cursed magic still thrives today within Liz’s best friend, Tayna. She’d always been odd, but magic? Well…yes. And when Kyre, a powerful warlock, lures away Liz’s new roommate, Andrea, for his own sordid purposes, Liz and Tayna use magical spells with the help of a few ancient, forgotten curses to thwart him. A millennia-old family rivalry is ended by taming Kyre and rescuing Andrea. But magic is only a small part of the real dangers lurking in a future of dark otherness.

There’s a lot going on in this book and it’s really hard to sum up, but suffice it to say, I truly love this book. I’ve done a lot of research, even been to a few of the historical places where a lot of my ideas originated. This series is one of the main reasons I keep going back to England. The history is so rich and when night falls, the magic in the air is practically tangible.

As I get more news about Rift, I’ll share it here, of course. In the mean time, I’m going to enjoy a good cup of tea to celebrate.