Rainbow Con 2015 Schedule

Rainbow Con will be really hectic. I'm sitting on nine panels (master *cough*cough* moderator of three) as well as participating in the Author Signing and Author Reading. 

Oh! I also volunteered to sit at the Queer Sci-Fi table at different times.

And, I have a table in the dealer's room. That's were I'll be when I'm not otherwise engaged. If you catch me at my table ask me what I have for special swag because I have stuff to give away (limited quantity). So don't be shy.

Oh! And I also give out hugs if you're a hugger. :)

This Rainbow Con is super special for me because my baby sister, Tessa, is coming with me. YAY!! This is her first conference and she's a bit nervous. *hugs*

For the full Rainbow Con schedule [click here]. There is a ton of stuff to participate in.

Here's my schedule for anyone who's interested.

Thursday, July 16th, 1:00 p.m.

(Queen Palm) Fiction: How Much Sex is Too Much Sex? - Can any erotic story have too much sex? Is there any magic percentage of sex a book should have? Should every sex scene serve a purpose? Join us and find out! [18+ only]

Moderator: Brenda Cothern - Panelists: Cassandra Carr, Grace R. Duncan, Kassa, Lexi Ander

Thursday, July 16th, 2:00 p.m.

(Section I) Hard vs Soft Sci-Fi - Our panelists discuss the similarities, differences, challenges, and benefits of writing both hard science fiction (which adheres very closely to scientific theories as understood at the time of writing) and soft science fiction (which spends less time on the details of the advanced technologies presented).

Moderator: Princess S.O. - Panelists: Bear, J. Scott Coatsworth, Kassa, Lexi Ander

Thursday, July 16th, 3:00 p.m.

You can find me at my table in the dealer's room.

Thursday, July 16th, 4:00 p.m.

Queer Sci-Fi Table - Will also be signing any of the Sumeria's Sons books there as well.

Thursday, July 16th, 5:00 p.m.

You can find me at my table in the dealer's room. The Dealer's room closes at 6:00 p.m.

Friday, July 17th, 10:00 a.m.

(Section IV) Why Won't You Die: Vampires and Zombies - Not Another Zomb-pire movie/book/tv-show! People say they're sick of vampires and zombies so often their protests have become a mantra, but vampires and zombies still dominate the entertainment industry. What is the allure of the zombie or vampire, and why can't we seen to quit them?

Moderator: Lexi Ander - Panelists: Arshad Ahsanuddin, Ashlyn Daube, JC Wallace, JT Cheyanne

Friday, July 17th, 11:00 a.m.

(Section II) My God, It's Full of Gays! - Science fiction tends to be on the forefront of acceptance and tolerance, stretching back long before the controversially multicultural crew of the original Star Trek, and the appearance of LGBTQ characters and themes are merely the next wave. Our panelists will discuss queer elements in science fiction and why this genre in particular seems to be the vanguard of equality.

Moderator: Angel Martinez - Panelists: Arshad Ahsanuddin, J. Scott Coatsworth, Lexi Ander, Melissa Kleen

Friday, July 17th, 1:00 p.m.

You can find me at my table in the dealer's room.

Friday, July 17th, 2:00 p.m.

(Section IV) Warning: Too Many Warnings - Warnings for kink. Warnings for abuse. Warnings for a Mary Sue. Warnings for rape. Warnings for character death. Warnings, warnings, warnings! Sit down with our panelists to discuss the prevalence of warnings in fandom and how that reader expectation is spreading into the professional arena.

Moderator: Lexi Ander - Panelists: Ashlyn Daube, Sara York, Sloan Johnson

Friday, July 17th, 3:00 p.m.

Queer Sci-Fi Table - Will also be signing any of the Valespian Pact books there as well.

Friday, July 17th, 4:00-6:00 p.m.

You can find me at my table in the dealer's room.

Saturday, July 18th, 10:00 a.m.

You can find me at my table in the dealer's room.

Saturday, July 18th, 11:00 a.m.

(Section III) Author Signings
Andrew Q. Gordon, Bear, EM Lynley, J.T. Cheyanne, Jamie Lynn Miller, JC Wallace, Lexi Ander, Racheline Maltese, Skylar M. Cates, Taylor Law, Vicktor Alexander

Saturday, July 18th, 1:00 p.m.

(Section V) Anthro Sex - We'll discuss the finer points of writing sex with anthropomorphic creatures, where to draw the line between realistic and sexy, and why the very idea of half-man, half-animal romance is such a turn-on. [18+ only]

Moderator: K. Piet - Panelists: Lexi Ander, Sui Lynn

Saturday, July 18th, 2:00-4:00 p.m.

You can find me at my table in the dealer's room.

Saturday, July 18th, 4:00 p.m.

(Section V) Shifter Sex - Erotic fiction starring sexy shifters skirts the edges of bestiality. It turns us on, gets past the publishers, and misses the censoring arm of the bookstore. What is it about shifter sex that appeals to us? How much is too much? And what recommendations for awesome reads do you have for our panelists and attendees? [18+ only]

Moderator: Lexi Ander - Panelists: HL Holston, K. Piet, Shannon West, Sui Lynn

Saturday, July 18th, 5:00 p.m.

(Section V) Beyond the Wolf: Non-Canine Shifters - The mostly commonly used shapeshifter is the werewolf, but there's are so many more options to choose from. Come chat about your favorite leopard, snake, bear, or unicorn shifters!

Moderator: K-lee Klein - Panelists: Eli Easton, Jenna Hale, Lexi Ander

Sunday, July 19th, 10:00 a.m.

You can find me at my table in the dealer's room.

Sunday, July 19th, 11:00 a.m.

(Section I) Fifty Shades of Fantasy - With so many supernatural beings in various media today, it's a whirlwind of different types of fantasy! This panel will take a look at the differences and strengths of Urban Fantasy, High Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Science Fantasy, and Dark Fantasy.

Moderator: Angel Martinez - Panelists: Lexi Ander, Lloyd A. Meeker, Stephen del Mar

Sunday, July 19th, 12:00 p.m.

(Section III) Author Readings - Jordan L. Hawk, Lexi Ander, Rin Sparrow

Sunday, July 19th, 2:00 p.m.

Queer Sci-Fi Table - Helping out.

Rainbow Con Goodies Have Arrived

I almost forgot to order stuff for Rainbow Con. K-Lee Klein gave me a poke about the grab-bag swag and I had a moment where I thought I was sitting pretty--only to crash.

Scrambling, I went to my favorite place to purchase my favorite pens and that was a bust. The company updated their website and when I went to check out they tried to charge me 5x the amount. I did everything the IT dudes would tell you. Clear your cart. Log out and back in. Reboot. Clear your cookies. After several attempts I did the chatbox thing with their customer service.

They said they could take the order for me. We had the chat about when the pens would get to me because I'm leaving town and wouldn't be here to receive the package if it arrived after a certain date. I also had to divvy up the pens and send them to the Rainbow Con coordinators. If it took them the max time to print and then for the postal service to deliver, then I would have a little window to work with. My order didn't qualify to be expedited, but I told them to go ahead because these were great pens. Everybody loved them. People who didn't read my books remembered who I was because they had one of my pens. They all said the same thing, "I loved the pen."

Anyways, I tell them to go ahead and place the order. Then they come back and say that there's a problem. The cost is 5x what it should be. They wanted me to clear the cart then log in and out. I already did that and told them so.

They exited the chat.

I'm so not kidding. They basically hung up on me. I had been trying to place an order for three days and they hung up on me. And here's the thing. Even though I was frustrated, I was nice to them. I always am to the CS people because they aren't the one who caused the problem. They are the ones who help you out. So I'm nice. Nice got me nowhere that day.

So shrugged off my disappointment and I took my business elsewhere. The alternative pens arrived earlier in the week. They write well but the pen itself isn't something to write home about.

<--- Then Vistaprint had a sale going on so I purchase some special swag. A few hats and T-shirts, in a limited quantity to give away. I wish their pens were more affordable. Although, they are the only place I found that does a good job putting my book cover on pen barrels. I also have some mouse pads and a couple of spiral notebooks and a canvas tote.

The special prize is the two USB jump drives I bought that will have all my books loaded onto it. ^_^ Very cool.

So if you're going to Rainbow Con, make sure you look me up for some goodies. I don't know how long they will last!

Here is my schedule. When I'm not there, I will probably be at my table or at the Queer Sci-Fi table filling in. ^_^


Thu 1pm - Fiction: How Much Sex is Too Much Sex? 
Thu 2pm - Hard vs Soft Sci-Fi 
Fri 10am - Why Won't You Die: Vampires and Zombies 
Fri 11am - My God, It's Full of Gays! 
Fri 2pm - Warning: Too Many Warnings 
Sat 11am - Author Signing 
Sat 1pm - Anthro Sex Sat 
4pm - Shifter Sex 
Sat 5pm - Beyond the Wolf: Non-Canine Shifters 
Sun 11am - Fifty Shades of Fantasy 
Sun 12pm - Author Reading

Thank you for stopping by and reading!!!

Busting Some Knee Caps

This has been a hellova week. Last Friday and Saturday I made a some huge head way on Releasing Chaos and was pretty pleased with myself. Earlier last week, I had sent Fate And Destiny to an editor and after some discussion on a couple of things I needed to change, I hopped in to make the fixes. In and out and I'd be finished. I get about half way through and the prose fell apart. O.O It looked as if I hadn't edited my manuscript at all. I was horrified and then so embarrassed I wanted to crawl under the desk. I remembered I finished editing the story last year but the changes that I recalled making weren't there. What happened?

Unfortunately, after trying to fix it quickly and reviewing all my saved copies in the five different areas and reading my notes, I ran across where I was reminding myself of the information that was lost when my system crashed... I had remembered some specific changes which I wrote down but at the time I had a couple of other projects that had come in to I had to edit. Then it all came back like a bad memory. I had planned on going back and refinishing, but I had put it off because returning to that medieval head space was hard. 

Then I forgot all about it. 

Later, I remembered I needed to do some self editing and I'd always start at the beginning, get to certain point and then other projects took my attention away. After a year had gone by, all I recalled off the top of my head was that I needed to look it over before I sent it off to the editor. Earlier this year I contacted one and said, hey no hurry whenever you're ready. I'll look it over in the meantime. I started from the beginning and got to a certain point and then other things took precedent. What I looked at was fine... and assumed the rest was on the same page. The editor said, "Send it my way." And I did.

The laugh was on me. I thought I would die of embarrassment. I had this anxiety attack last Sunday, wondering what in the hell had I done.

Now again, Fate And Destiny has been put off because I received the edits for Salvaging Toby's Heart. Then a couple of days later I received the edits for Ruby Red Booty Shorts And A Louisville Slugger. I think the galley for Starting Fires will be coming any day as well.

Oh, oh, oh! Let's not forget, I'm prepping for the blog tour for Surrounded by Crimson--it looks like I have about 15 posts to write. Before all of this happened, I picked up a reopened DRitC story over at GR which is due July 13th. I still have to complete Releasing Chaos. Which leads me back to Ruby Red.

I started on the edits for Ruby Red yesterday. I pulled up what I remembered of the play list for the story, the Brian Setze's Malaguena (the video at the top) was one that I had looped while Diego was busting some knee caps. It reminded me of the fun I had writing the story. I finished the majority of the edits today I had left a couple of comments to go back and address because I needed to clarify some things. Then I get to the editors final comment on her suggestion for the story, and I'm nodding my head in agreement to them all. She had pointed out several places were there were issues and I had planned to go back and see how I could fix them but there was much more which she addressed at the end.

So if you're one of the few who has read Ruby Red before, then expect some changes. Possibly some big changes. The sequence of events is going to be rearranged and the story lengthened to fix the gaping plot holes, scrub out the telling when it comes to Diego's background and his abuela, insert some romance between him and Beck--well, insert a relationship period. There is a good chance that it will be a completely different story. The gist will still be the same, the plot arc for the big bad won't change but there are holes that needed to be filled in.

The next couple of weeks are going to be jammed packed. Next week there is a blog tour for The Valespian Pact audiobooks. I'm taking a trip on June 4th to see a friend and then jumping over to Texas to visit with family. I'll return home June 10th or 11th. So that is a week with very little work going on. With luck, I'll have Ruby Red back to the publisher before I go or at least have it written so when I return home I can run through a self-edit one more time before turning back in to the publisher. I have to get my things together for Rainbow Con and I'm hoping that by July I'll have the DRitC story finished so that I can spend a couple of weeks going through Fate And Destiny. I may end up taking Releasing Chaos with me to Rainbow Con. And holy cow, I'm tired.

I'm going to take a page from Diego's book and start swinging away to knock out some of these projects as quick as I can. I'll be scarce on social media, so if you don't see me for a while, I'm slaying my own Bruja Blanco. Wish me luck as I bust some knee caps (metaphorically speaking)!

Thank you for stopping by and reading!!

Rainbow Con 2015 Schedule

I had seen everyone on Facebook talking about their panel placement for Rainbow Con and I was like, "I don't have mine yet, but it'll come." Well last night I noticed someone said spam and I check and there was my email, six days old. Awesome.

But I was looking at this and started laughing. I totally forgot about forgot about signing up for the Author Reading. There are a lot panels I'm on and several were about different kinds of sex which made me immediately think of Salt-n-Pepa.

Thu 1pm - Fiction: How Much Sex is Too Much Sex? 
Thu 2pm - Hard vs Soft Sci-Fi 
Fri 10am - Why Won't You Die: Vampires and Zombies 
Fri 11am - My God, It's Full of Gays! 
Fri 2pm - Warning: Too Many Warnings 
Sat 11am - Author Signing 
Sat 1pm - Anthro Sex Sat 
4pm - Shifter Sex 
Sat 5pm - Beyond the Wolf: Non-Canine Shifters 
Sun 11am - Fifty Shades of Fantasy 
Sun 12pm - Author Reading

I really like the line-up. Now I can start getting prepared. :)

Thank you for stopping by and reading!!

Rainbow Con Aftermath

I'm thrilled the stress of Rainbow Con is over. I enjoyed the event very much, even if my pocket book was in agony by the end. I adore autographed copies of books and collect them when I can. :)

I angsted more over my panels the week prior to Rainbow Con than I did once I sat down at the table. I did rush through my reading, but I did not laugh like I had done on the practices. All the author readings that I attended on my own were really good. Wade Kelly was my hero because her excerpts were on the naughty side and she was so serious through her reading. The other readings that stuck with me were L.E. Franks, Angel Martinez, Jackson Cordd, and Beau Schemery.

There was a little bit of awkwardness with the author readings being combined with the author signings. No one wants to interrupt the author reading in order to get something signed. I wish that I went with a 1.5 tier table but I didn't think I should have since I had only the one print book, Alpha Trine. I did like that those tables were kept in the dealer room where the publisher tables were set up. If I go next year, it will be something for me to consider.

For me, the best part of the Con was meeting friends, old and new, and meeting people I wouldn't have otherwise known. Spending time with the Less Than Three crew was one of the highlights. I got to gently badger Sasha Miller for another story in the Drinker Class X world, Isabella Carter and Megan Derr signed their books for me, and I sat next to and talked with Samantha.

I had the best roommate, Charlie Crochet. She's so easy going and very sweet.

What I don't miss: carrying around that monstrosity called a purse or the "coffee" or getting lost because I read the map wrong.

What did I take away? I want to write a blog post on Writing By The Seat Of My Pants. For some reason, people seem to think this is disorganized. It is possible to have a good pantster story.

The other thing I took away was information from the Characterization Panel. As a writer, the information was interested and something to think upon. As a reader, and this may change as time passes, it ruined my reading pleasure a little bit. I keep thinking about what was said when I'm listening to my work out audio book. I always choose one of my favorites so that I can zone out when I need to. Now, the series that I love listening to, (cause seriously, I'm into it for all the long hair lovely men) the Merry Gentry series by Laurel K. Hamilton, is not as pleasant to listen to because I can see what the panelist were talking about. It's hard to sink into the story now.  :/

Since coming back, my writing has gone into overdrive. My right hand aches terribly but that is what happens when I write 30k in less than a week. The first draft of Fate & Destinies is almost complete, tonight or tomorrow night at the latest. Just in time, too. Yesterday I received edits for Twin Flames. Totally stoked.

I do have another sketch from Striker completed and it will go up on Monday. Have a great day and enjoy your weekend!!

RainbowCon Jitters

Before I spew stuff about getting ready for my trip, tomorrow  sorry, Sunday April 13th, make sure you stop by Hearts On Fire Reviews for my RainbowCon + Stuff post. It's a fun post with a giveaway, plus Lucy asked if I would draw Dargon and the pregnant Alpha. I'm not sure I like the picture, it's sort of meh, but you be the judge and stop by Hearts On Fire Reviews and tell me what you think. The giveaway will run the weekend and most of next week.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled program...

I'm getting ready for Rainbow Con 2014. Whoohoo! In the middle of February I suddenly thought it would be an awesome idea to give away a Kindle Fire. I asked around and it was suggested that I use Rafflecopter which was brilliant because I could have people sign up right then with a couple of clicks on the iPad. I wouldn't be  responsible for destroying email addresses later or finding someone to pull a tag out a hat. 

Simple. Fair. 

I signed up and went to create the giveaway and it all flowed well until I went to change the beginning and ending time--and nothing. I have to upgrade to a monthly package of a little less than $10 a month. >.< Now, if I want to use the one they offer for free the giveaways, the start time is from 12:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. I wanted to have the giveaway conclude at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday night so I could hand the kindle over to the participant Friday night or early on Sunday morning. 

Or I can sign up for the annual membership and pay the monthly fee. The thing is, I don't have enough contests/giveaways to justify the expense. We may have to stay a bit longer than I had anticipated. And I'm okay with that because we can be flexible to a point. All else fails, I'll have to mail the Kindle to the participant.

On top of the whole Rafflecopter kerfuffle, I'm starting to become really nervous. This is my first convention as an author and I'm going a little stir crazy. I want to pack right NOW. I'm afraid I'm going to forget something, not bring enough clothes or something. What shoes do I want to bring? Ibuprofen. Tums. Band-aids. Safety pins. Should I bring sharpies for the book signing? Do I have something crafty to write when I sign a book? (Lordy, help me, no.)  Am I going to run of things to read on my e-reader? Do I want to wear jewelry? Do I remember how to put on makeup?

Oh, talking about makeup. I did a test run and the new eyeliner that I bought. Not only does it run like I have been crying, but I had an allergic reaction to it. The rim of my eyes have never hurt like that.

People, I wrote notes on 3x5 cards so if I my mind goes blank during a panel, I have a back up. Not kidding. ^_^

My Schedule:

Thursday, April 17th

2:00 p.m.

(Salon A) Roundtable Discussion: Plotters vs Pantsers - Do you plot or write by the seat of your pants? This informal discussion group discusses the bonuses, highs, and lows of both writing styles.
Cody Stanford, David Berger, Geoff Knight, Jeff Adams, Lexi Ander, HOST: S.L. Armstrong

3:00 p.m.

(Salon B) Cheers and Jeers: Best & Worst Books of 2013 - Our guest reviewers discuss their best and worst picks for 2013 while discussing what about those books made them great or forgetable.
Jackie McKenzie, Kassa, Lexi Ander, Lisa T., Scott Burkett, HOST: Susan Lee

4:45 - 5:15 p.m.

(Salons A, B, C) Author Question and Answer Sessions - Have a question you've been dying to ask your favorite author? Why'd that character act that way? What was your inspiration for this story? When's that sequel coming out, anyway? Now's your chance to find out the answers!

Salon C with:

Andrew Grey
Anel Viz
Jordan L. Hawk
Lexi Ander
Michael Rupured

Friday, April 18th

1:00 - 3:00

Author Readings & Signings - Listen to your favorite authors reading selections of their work, and then line up to get autographed copies of your favorite books!

I'll be in Salon C for book signing and my reading time is at 2:30