I just returned from a great weekend in Columbus, Ohio, where I not only got to meet five Write-Brainiacs IRL (who I’d never met IRL before) but I also got to meet and hang with a few other really cool folks who were attending World Fantasy Con—some of whom I “knew” from Twitter and some of whom I didn’t. Plus, there were a ton of agents and authors I’ve interviewed and/or stalked researched, so it pretty much awesome.
Me with Laura Atchison and Brittany Roshelle
Simon C. Larter, Sara McClung, and Carol Valdez Miller
Gina Penney and me
Carol and me with Karen Hooper
An exhausting, but all-around faboo, weekend. I’m always so sad when these writerly functions come to an end and it’s back to the real world!
PAYING IT FORWARD
I’d like to show a little love for WB member and woman-of-awesome Candace Ganger, who is running another contest—I Heart Joy like BR80—over on her blog, The Misadventures in Candyland.
IN OTHER NEWS
On the way up to the buckeye state, my husband and I were entertained by the “Scare Me in 1,000 Words or Less” entries, and we have the winners:
First prize—a book + DVD combo of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein . . . and Kenneth Branagh’s mutant of a movie adaptation of the same name—goes to . . .
E. Cluff Elliott
for
“Death Wheels”
Shoot me an e-mail with your snail mail addy, Cluffer, and I’ll send out your swag this week!
Second prize—a 10-page critique from me—goes to . . .
Andi Newton
for
“What Doesn’t Make Us Stronger”
E-mail me and we can chat about it, Andi.
Congrats, guys! All the entries were good—so hard to choose!—but in the end, I went with the most classically suspenseful and classically scary.
OKAY . . .
Well, since I am making a big push to complete my second manuscript this month for NaNoWraMo (National Novel Wrap-up Month), I’m off in search of a couple thousand words!
Good luck to NaNoWriMo and WraMo folks galore!
Ricki Cardenas 
Great post, Ricki! Did you have to put my pic up? ugh. Also, congrats to Cluff and Andi, my fellow Dark Ones!
Dude. Yes, I did. Stop being a Negative Nancy!!!
I am no Negative Nancy. I am Realistic Rita.
Thanks, Gina!
You’re such a sweetheart. Miss you loads, my dear! Good luck with your Nano action! Wishing you a productive month!!
Miss you too!! And thanks for the good thoughts! Day one was successful – yay!
Yes!!!! I scored the critique!
Yeah, I tried to come up with something more gracious than that, but I failed. Too excited about getting some feedback! 🙂
Andi, I won the critique last month and Ricki is a Fantastic (with a capital “F”) editor. Total score!
Thanks, G! And congrats again, Andi! 🙂
Thanks, guys. I had a lot of fun scaring Ricki…can’t wait to start reading 😀 Great timing too though…i recently checked the 79th Writing Digest contest and didnt find my name on the list so it makes me happy to see i still got it 😉 You guys are the greatest support EVER!!! and the WB ROCKS!!!
😀
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How cute are all those pics? I had a blast with everyone at WFC. The pictorial reminders are just the icing on the cake.
Also, despite your apparent issues with your bangs, I thought you were pretty awesome. 😉
Cheers!
Yeah, we’re pretty much ador! 🙂
Thanks, Simon – back atcha!
YAY CLUFF! Way to go cuz.