Houseguests, anime, liquor, and…oh yeah. That writing thing I do.

One of my best friends is driving up on Monday and will be staying with me for two or three weeks, at which point I will be driving down with them to Florida and staying for roughly the same amount of time. Somewhere in there I’ll also be taking a side trip to Atlanta for Dragon*Con, where I fully intend to stalk Michael Biehn, who has the best death scenes ever. I assume the non-Dragon*Con days/nights (hell, probably a good percentage of those, too) will be filled with anime and liquor, because this is our way. We call it Drunken Anime Night, but it often spans a lot more than one night.

In the middle of this debauchery (hmm, is that the appropriate word? Yeah, let’s go with that), I’ll be receiving, working on, and returning the revisions for One Shot. It should be interesting since I’ve managed to bust up my wrist a bit, and I’m supposed to be going easy on the typing. You can see how well that’s working out. :)

At Dragon*Con, I’ll be breaking out the “Where’s Rowan?” hat, and it’ll be game on for hide-and-seek. Official rules will be posted later, but they’re similar to the previous set, which you can read here. One addition to the game is that I think I’ll be able to let everyone know my location in real time via my twitter account, so that should be fun.

Basically, the next six weeks or so will be the busiest I’ve had all year as I balance fun, work, and writing (which is a beautiful combination of both). Hopefully the Fates will be kind and gift me with more fun than work since I’d had it in my head to take a vacation in my last rambling. So Wish me luck! And caffeine!

Let’s get ready to ramble.

Yeah, that New Year’s resolution I made to come up with better blog titles? Not happening.

Last week I participated in an M/M writing workshop at Romance Divas for the Not Going to Conference Conference. I have to admit, I was nervous. I’m still at that stage where I believe 80% of writing is magic, so I was unsure whether I had anything constructive to offer. But as we settled into a groove, I found I had tips to share on characterization, point of view, and even writing sex scenes. Working with the other authors was a lot of fun, and even though I was one of the writers giving the workshop, I also learned a lot.

I also popped in on other workshops. Sasha White’s “Coping With Burnout” thread turned out to be a godsend for me because I was rocketing in that direction. Truth is, I’ve been feeling off my game lately and spending a week talking about writing really helped. Now I’m going to try and take things a little easier for a while, as well as write some stories for fun. And not feel like a slacker when I watch other writers do their thing. Very important.

In keeping with my whole relaxation theme, I finally got to read volumes five and six of Totally Captivated! LOVE it. Recommend and was sad to see it end:

The second quarter stats are in for Lone, and it turns out I made the top ten list at Amber Allure:

1) Allergies by T. A. Chase (Gay/Werewolf)
2) Lone by Rowan McBride (Gay/Werewolf)
3) Satisfaction by M. L. Rhodes (Gay/Contemporary)
4) Bottom's Up: Kinky Orgasm by Amanda Young (Gay/Contemporary)
5) Most Likely To Succeed by Shawn Lane (Gay/Contemporary)
6) David's Dilemma by Lynn Lorenz (Gay/Contemporary)
7) Bring The Heat by M. L. Rhodes (Gay/Contemporary)
8) Car Wash by Shawn Lane (Gay/Contemporary)
9) Carey'd Away by J. M. Snyder (Gay/Contemporary)
10) Betrayed by Cassie Stevens (Gay/Contemporary)

How cool is it that the top two slots are filled with werewolf stories?

Jumping to another subject (this is a ramble, after all), if you’re like me and enjoy bishies and muscle, please check out Yayoi Neko’s art at http://thundertori.deviantart.com/. I love the way she combines power and beauty in her work.

In totally random fun, Katrina Strauss has posted a vid from a Japanese game show on her blog: Bloggin' it with Katrina Strauss. As a result, I’m currently trying to find a way to work the term “acrylic kiss” into a story. Lol.

I feel like an amazing amount of stuff has happened over the past two weeks. Of course, when I start to write it all down, it starts to get fuzzy. Hopefully, if I remember more, and it’s interesting enough to write about, I’ll think of a better blog title. :)

Workshops and new chapters.

It's currently 3am and I do believe the first day of the Romance Divas NGTCC "ENOUGH TO MAKE A GROWN MAN CRY. Characterization, Motivation, and POV in M/M fiction" workshop went very well. Josh Lanyon really kicked things off with a discussion on Point of View, I got to share some thoughts on storyboarding, Shayla Kersten shared excellent insights on GMC (Goal, Motivation, Conflict), and Jet Mykles gave great advice on how to flesh out a character.

Lots to build on for the coming week, and I'm excited to see where it goes. If you'd like check it out, it's all online and free at http://forums.romancedivas.com//index.php?showtopic=53543. If you haven't registered already, please see the previous blog post on how to go about getting access to the steamy section.

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Been tinkering with my website. Trying to make the Serials section more reader friendly, so I've posted Kismeta parts 1 & 2 directly on the site (no more having to click over/register at Evolution Forum to read it) and am considering doing something similar with my other online floaters. For now, the other serials have been labeled to clearly mark where they're posted *before* you click, and I switched the links of Jonah's Giant over to Coiled Fist because CF doesn't require registration to read stories.

I've also posted chapter 7 of Michael Finally Grows Up. As always, you can catch that one directly on my site. :)

Workshop Reminder!

"ENOUGH TO MAKE A GROWN MAN CRY. Characterization, Motivation, and POV in M/M fiction." (A Romance Divas NGTCC online workshop)

July 14th to July 18th

Josh Lanyon kicks things off the 14th with Rowan McBride, Jet Mykles, and Shayla Kersten.

Location: http://forums.romancedivas.com/.

Registration and Workshops are free.

Workshop will be located in the "Steamy Section" of the forum, so once you register, contact admin and let them know you're 18 or over (or go to http://forums.romancedivas.com//index.php?showtopic=1237)

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