Reviews!

Still settling in from Yaoi-Con. Somewhere in between me realizing I don't have enough shelf space for my new manga and me realizing I don't have enough wall space for my new art, I got a couple of sweet reviews:

Boylove Addict wrote that "This book is literally going right into my keeper shelf." They said some other great stuff, too, and you can read the full review at:

http://boylove-addict.livejournal.com/58769.html

You can also learn more about Lone (as well as read an excerpt) on my site.

Paul's Dream left Serena Yates at Queer Magazine Online "totally breathless," and I'm stoked over that. She also used words like "amazing," "engaging," and "evil." I probably shouldn't be *as* stoked over that last one, but hell, drawing up a no-holds barred villain was surprisingly difficult.

To read all of this review, go to http://www.queermagazineonline.com

And of course you can check out more Paul's Dream stuff on my site.

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I think jetting off to San Francisco did me good. Wrote 2700 words yesterday and plan to write tonight. Hoping this means I'm slipping back into a good groove.

Home from Yaoi-Con

And still recovering, so a longer recap (with pics, hopefully) will be coming later. For now, though, I wanted to list the highlights:

• Met a bunch of friends, old and new.


• Gave away all my Where's Rowan prizes.


• Got Yamane Ayano's autograph.


• Won Best Action at the AMV contest.


• Won a bishie at an auction.


• Went to Alcatraz.


• Bought a busload of stuff.


• Watched "Ghost Adventures" for the first time. lol.

There was a lot more, I know, but I need a little time to organize my thoughts and sift through the stuff that cannot be told. ;)

Game On!

Where's Rowan? Find me at Yaoi-Con wearing this hat:

And follow these rules to win fab prizes. From October 29-31. That's now!

Where's Rowan? (Yaoi-Con 2010 edition)

Katrina Strauss was way generous and sent me a bunch of stuff to give away along with mine, so I figured now was as good a time as any to post the rules of this year's "Where's Rowan" game. But first, the glorious hat that is the key to victory and--dare I say it--seventh level happiness. I speak, of course, of the Urahara/chibi-Gaara impossible to match with anything baseball cap:

Oh yes, it's spiffy. It even has quite the extensive backstory in that it was made during a phase where for some reason people were sending me plushies left and right, chibi-Gaara got the traditional bucket hat, drama ensued, and eventually there was even a photo taken with Gaara wearing THIS hat. It's convoluted and only really makes sense in my mind, but the bottom line is that this hat possesses magical powers and can win you prizes. These prizes, in fact:

I tried to make sure I put one of each in there, but I've got a *lot* of prints in varying sizes. You may have noticed some sparkling Blue Ruin and Sleight of Hand love mixed in there-- those are what Katrina sent. :D

The CDs I'm giving out are "first chapter" CDs, in they contain the first chapter of all my currently published works, plus a copy of my short story "A Picture's Worth." I'm also giving away one trade paperback copy each of Lone, Warm Rush: Chasing Winter, and Want Me.

Nice, yeah?

Rules:

1. Finding the hat is pretty much it. Look for it at Yaoi-Con 2010 either on my head or attached to my messenger bag.


2. Once you find the hat, walk up to the person with it and ask politely "Are you Rowan McBride?" If they say no, keep walkin' because it means my idea wasn't as original as I thought and someone else painted their own Urahara baseball cap. If it *is* me, then I'll probably flash a big goofy grin and you'll win one of the fabulous prizes listed above.


3. I'll be posting many of my locations in real time via twitter, so keep an eye on that page for an advantage.


4. Contest begins when I yell "Game On!" on this blog, my website, twitter, and on my newsletter Friday, October 29th 2010 and ends Halloween day.


5. Have fun!

Yaoi-Con musings

This Halloween weekend I’ll be in San Francisco for Yaoi-Con. Gotta say, looking forward to it. Fate has set it up so that I get to meet up with an old friend I haven’t seen since college. I also have plans to meet a lot of new friends face-to-face for the first time. Plus there’s an impressive list of people I plan to outright stalk. Conventions rock.

And, yes, I do plan to play Where’s Rowan? while I’m there. The rules will be similar to last year when we played at DragonCon. Yaoi-Con’s a lot smaller so I won’t be posting every move I make on twitter, but I’ll tweet the highlights because I have a lot of prizes to give away and this is the…what?...third or fourth year we’ve played and no one’s ever found Rowan. I have high hopes that the streak will be broken this year. With my luck it will be while I’m letting someone else try on the hat.

What prizes have I got this time around? I’ll list the details in a later post, but good ones. Plus author and friend Katrina Strauss is sending me some swag and how cool is that?

So, any of you guys going to the con? What events are you looking forward to?

Michael Finally Grows Up - Chapter 8

Chapter eight of Michael Finally Grows Up is done and posted. I wish I had something clever and insightful to say as to why I up and decided to write more of this story after, oh, a year and two months, but the truth is I was feeling it and so I jumped in. XD

Avery’s voice is always a lot of fun to write for me. I hope you enjoy getting reacquainted with him:

http://rowanmcbride.com/stories/mfgu/

Fun Stuff: Cosplay

Is "Fun Stuff" better than "Feed the Fun"? I dunno. Moving on.

If you read my previous post you know last month was hella hectic for me because the family had descended. Proof of how frazzled this had made me can be found in the typo I made in the title of a newsletter I sent out last month. {sigh} Embarrassing. But overall being with the extended fam was a lot of fun, things have settled in the last few days, and now I'm in recovery mode, so let's move on from that as well.

Dragon*Con starts this weekend. I don't get to go this time around so that's a bummer, but my favorite thing about any fan convention is the cosplay, so I thought I'd post a few of my favorite images from deviantArt. I hope you enjoy them too.



TZP: The Lost Woods by *Adella on deviantART

This dude's body isn't photoshopped--he spent six months with a personal trainer to look like Link. Now that's dedication to a character.

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Code Geass R2 - Mutuality - 09 by ~shiroang on deviantART

I never get tired of good Geass cosplay.

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X: if we could stay together by ~Aoinagaru on deviantART

I love X. And fanservice.

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The Doctor and The Batman by *blackjack157 on deviantART

Bizarre team-ups rock too.