Tuesday was an interesting day.  First there was the news that my story had bombed out on the wotf front.  That took several large gulps to get down, but has since been digested and accepted.

In searching for a submission backdoor I chatted with James Maxey and found that he and authors David Drake, Mark L. Van Name and Lisa Shearin were doing a panel and book signing that night in Cary at the B&N.  Accordingly I went by after my swordfighting class.  Here’s the evening in summary:

• James’s new cover of Dragonseed is awesome–check out the detailing on the shotgun.  Very nice.
• I have my own signed copy of Dragonseed, and yes, I feel special. 🙂
• Lisa Shearin fences, and she liked my dagger earrings.  The lady is in!
• David Drake continues to astound with the range of stuff that can come out of his mouth.  He’s wise on the writing front, I’ll grant him that, but I think he’s overly fond of making women blush.  I’m happy to say I didn’t give him that satisfaction.
• I was late and so missed most of what Mark had to say.  I’m still curious as to what the ‘L’ in his name stands for.
• I found it interesting to watch the authors interact with their fans.  My takeaway pointers were to let the reader/fan drive the direction of the conversation and its duration, so long as the line was still moving.

As a followup on the evening I went to James’s website and found he’s running a contest to support breast cancer research.  Go check it out and get your own copy of Dragonseed!

I read Magic Lost, Trouble Found a couple years ago and enjoyed it.  I always meant to pick up the next one…so Tuesday I got the second book, Armed and Magical, and got it signed by Lisa.  I heard her recommend it as a great beach read, but I can testify that it’s also a great recovering-from-the-dental-variety-of-torture read!  I was very thankful for my new books as I moaned my way through the remainder of my Wednesday and nursed my three new fillings and one new crown prep.

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