Yaoi Con for me was actually a two part thing. One, I was attending as a useless slug of an author and two, it was a gathering of friends. Well, some of the other authors I knew were friends but there were actual close-life-knowing friends there.

We’d planned for months to have my friend Hoshi fly in from Texas to surprise my little sister, Ren. By we, I meant our darling sweetheart Bi and myself. Ren did not know Hoshi was coming in and we’d not seen Hoshi for quite some time. It was going to be a long weekend of laughter, food and lack of sleep.

All of that was accomplished. We were able to spend the Friday afternoon with Swallowtt, the maker of the amigurumi, with the intention of surprising Ren back at the hotel after she got off work. All of these things were accomplished. Along spending a lot of time in Little Tokyo, eating at a Japanese buffet, having pastries and strong coffee and boba while cheering on a little blond girl as she climbed rocks and ate ice cream.

Yaoi Con was more of the same. Met up with friends, cheered on pretty boys, cheered on the girls as they dressed up as Sam, Dean and Castiel…I need the pictures… I will post the pictures. Well, and I ogled the pretty blond bishi hired to play Jo Chen’s cop. Life’s rough. Very rough.

The hotel bar served Starbucks and I lived there for the whole weekend. I swear. One of the hotel’s bellhops…by the name of Robert… was very nice and asked intelligent questions about Yaoi and how it fit into the whole cosplaying thing. We talked and I encouraged him to go to Anime Expo. He has costumes and wasn’t sure how it would be received. Told him to go for it.

The valets were darling and took care of Tengu and we even got into Piggie Korean BBQ and ate way too much. Then stumbled back to the hotel at about 3ish. 330ish. Someplace around there.

Did I mention lack of sleep is key in this weekend?

I have to catch up on sleep in the next couple of days. Finish up writing some chapters, wash clothes, pack and do this all over again in ABQ. I’m going to be dead by the time November hits.

Oh… and then there’s Sinner’s Gin. *grins* But more on that later.

Things I’ve Learned While At Yaoi-Con…

1. I should sleep more, drink less coffee and have NO sugar. Even the wee little bit of sugar I had was too much. When I’ve ingested too much sugar, my brain goes places no one should really go.

That being said, Amy Lane will be writing a book about gay students filming a horror serial killer film…. Or a porn parodying a serial killer. With ducks. Or duck face.

2. There should only be one book written about a gay were-walrus and his zombie unicorn lover. This union produces narwhals. This rule applies to other combos too. Use caution when approaching the vehicle.

3. My brain needs a shut off valve or at least a channel to disconnect my mouth from my brain when I’ve had no sleep and a wee bit of sugar.

4. I need to learn to go to sleep while time is still in double digits and perhaps let the hour hand sweep at LEAST to across the clock face before waking up. Not doing so leads to number 3.

5. Alex Woolfson fucking rocks and I got to tell him so. Read his stuff. He is fricking fantastic. ARTIFICE

6. Certain things are not the new black despite what Amy Lane thinks. Mary Calmes and I both agree on that point.

7. I am useless for most things but I can:

• Massage my fellow authors, including adjusting their backs
• Tetris pack a box of swag so more fits into it
• Bring minions along who got me more coffee… thus leading to number 3 but I needed it very badly
• If you have a hot young man who is portraying a character from Jo Chen’s Guilty Pleasures around, I can and am willing to assist him in arranging his hair then go back to massaging Amy’s sore back spot with hairspray and hot boy love still on my hands.
• I can show someone… say like Shira Anthony… how to fluff their boobies so they rise nicely in a bodice.

8. My books sold out at Yaoi Con. No thanks to me and full fricking credit to the lovely ladies who hawked my shit like it was a one legged hooker during a Maypole Dancer convention.

9. Reno, the very pretty bishie from last year, went for over 800 dollars and shouted down from the escalator at me in joy. I congratulated him and cheered him on.

10. I have very adorable minions. Seriously, Hoshi, Bi and Ren are simply adorable.

11. Nessa L. Warin, Shira Anthony, Lori Hawkins, EM Lynley and Venona Keyes probably all agree that I should probably have more sleep and less coffee. You all were very patient with me and thank you. Amy and Mary, you contributed to my ongoing crazy and well, reap what is sown. *grins*

12. I should not be let out in public.

13. Amy needs to learn how far eight blocks is. Especially when sending TheAngryRat out to grab food. *grins*

That being said, I leave for GRL on Thursday. Gotta figure out how to get the swag to the hotel but I think I’m going to Ninja it. I’ll probably write up a more coherent post later.

Said Hot Young Man who let us ogle him. He also was very generous will displaying his butt for us, even returning to give Shira a zealous pick me up. And now, I’m going to bed before I break that double digits rule.

But seriously, this fricking rocks. OSU’s tribute to Video Games at a halftime show. Watch all the way. Best thing I’ve ever seen.

I had to pause so I could breathe through my laughter.

Hello my darling followers,

As the sun sets on another day… actually it set a long time ago, I just couldn’t get my shit together to type something out until now… I want to say thank you for your support with Dirty Secret.

Sophomore books are the curse. They are. I’m still looking askance at life thinking… okay, where the reviews gonna hit the bloggy places and what will they think about it. Everyone’s got an opinion on the murder. Some wanted lots of death and a serial killer where I wanted something a bit more… cop-ish. But with guns. And shootings. Heh. What? Guns are easy to get. Do you have any idea how hard it is to kill a lot of people in Los Angeles with a pen knife?

Or a scythe. Wouldn’t that be cool?

I’m eating Reese’s peanut butter minis. I rarely eat these. And usually I’m good after one. I’ve had three. Mostly to get the smell of fish out of my nose.

Tam Update: He’s sort of doing well. His levels are still high and he’s a dick about getting poked for blood but really, can you blame him? He will only eat fish and maybe some canned chicken. I have a high protein dry cat food and he’s nibbled at that but the rest of the time, it’s all Charlie and his friends Sammy Salmon, Sal the Sardine and Mike the Mackerel. Seriously, it smells like a fricking walrus den in here.

But the cat’s eating. And he’s gained weight.

The cairn terrorist is currently under my computer table, skewing it with his lard butt. To be fair, he’s a compact muscled tank so his ass isn’t really all that lard.

I’m kind of tanked out on promos. Because let’s face it, there’s only so much you can do before you start sounding like a three ring circus hawker. And not in a good way.

Supernatural was on. Fuck Jensen Ackles is pretty. Yes that has NOTHING to do with my writing but damn… I thought I’d share.

Dirty Laundry is doing well. I was going to have an ending but then thought I might be gutted like one of Tam’s fish. So I’ll have to figure out if that’s really what I want to do. Stop it. I have to beat them up. It’s fiction. No one reads fiction or mysteries to see people walking in the park through the daisies for 250 pages. That’s just silly.

Oh and if you’ve skimmed the comments on another post, YES…there will probably be a Bobby book. But later.

So on that note, Neko is telling me it’s time for bed and the dog has mysteriously gassed the lower regions of the carpet. The living room will not be habitable for quite some time.

Thanks again all! Seriously. You Rock.

Happy Chuseok Day! Mid-Autumn Festival. Mooncake Day.

I like the ones with pineapple or coconut. Lotus paste is nice. I’m not too fond of the egg ones but I’ll choke those down if I’m forced to by one of my aunts.

Since I can’t give you a real mooncake, I’ll give you a virtual one instead.

Oh, you probably want a real one. Okay…fine.

I’m just going to leave this here. I need to do more research on this.