My First Book Signing! A Recap of TNEE 2016

This past weekend I spent in Atlanta at The Novel Experience Event, along with about three hundred or so of my closest new friends!

I have to say, this was an entirely new con experience for me. While I've done DragonCON here in Atlanta many times, this was a reader convention. Approximately 40 writers of various romance genre (from YA to hard core BDSM and everything in between!) and some of the most enthusiastic and wonderful people I have had to chance to meet gathered for a week of fun and relationships.

I have to throw a big thanks out to Stella Price for organizing an amazing time. There were outings with authors, panels, parties, readings, a Fantasy ball and that's just the things I went to. We had coffee breaks and chocolate parties, there was a formal tea and a Jazz-era speakeasy. But the best part was the time spent one on one with the people who matter most - the readers.

Authors are a skittish bunch, and when approached too quickly, tend to run in the opposite direction. But this was an incredible experience and I cannot wait to see some of these people again. I consider their ideas creative and inventive and the stories some of the others had written were awe inspiring.

I had such a good time, I've decide to join them again for Authors After Dark 2016 in Savannah Ga the first part of August. Then I'm debating about joining a panel for DragonCON in the writer's track.

Oh, yes - there was also a book signing last Saturday and I sold books, talked plots, and made new readers (I hope!).

Please, please, please - disregard the expression on my face. God alone knows what I was talking about. But notice the green composition book in front of me?  That little books holds my outlines for Book 3 in the Guardian Stories, working title "A Trial of Fire"; as well as the outline for Book 2 in my new Devlyn Family series, working title "A Family Matter".

Soon I will have a cover reveal for Book 1 in the Devlyn Family, "Welcome to the Family", to be released this summer from The Wild Rose Press. Be on the look out for all the new doings here inside my world!

'N' is for Needless Violence

I was all set to write about something witty and shallow when I heard about the bombings in Boston. So I redirected my thoughts and today is devoted to those who were there, those who were injured, those who lost their lives needlessly.

Fear, in my opinion, is the worst of all emotions. It drives us far from reason. But those who inflict fear through acts of terrorism do more than just incite fear. They take from us the one thing we all value - the illusion of civility.

It's all well and good to hear about bombings in the Middle East and Europe. We've made ourselves immune to the unstable environment in those locations. Americans are the original NIMBYs. (Not In My Back Yard.) Wars are fought elsewhere, riots happen elsewhere. Until 9/11 we considered ourselves an impenetrable fortress, a continent unto ourselves. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Was this an act of terrorism? Absolutely. The more important question is: was this foreign or domestic terrorism?

Americans have gradually gotten used to the idea that people around the world hate us for no other reason than we are Americans. That we can handle. But to think someone within our own borders would cause such senseless violence is terrifying. We are all one, aren't we?

The role call of violence in America since the 1990s is shocking: Waco, Oklahoma City, Atlanta Olympic Park,  Columbine, Virginia Tech, Newtown. But wait, you say, some of these were shootings, not bombings. That doesn't matter. An act of terror is designed to create fear and damage. All of these accomplished that mission.

As a nation we must be ever vigilant to keep those who seek to destroy us, whether from without or within, from seeing the true legacy of their actions. Are we content to let ourselves become the doormat of the planet, or will we rise up stronger and more resolved? Only "We, the People" can make that determination.

Rise Up America and take back our Happiness. Remember those who have given their lives to these senseless acts and never let their sacrifice go uncelebrated. They are the ones in whose name we carry on. Let's make them proud.