Things to Do While You're Stuck at Home

Chances are if you're reading this, you're at home and not at Romance Times this weekend. Judging by my tiny little slice of the Twitterverse, it looks like we're missing one HELL of a good time, too. I hope everyone comes back with lots and lots of brilliant reports and even better stories of their shenanigans so I can properly go about living vicariously through them. If you ARE at RT and you're reading this... why are you on the Internet? There are BOOK THINGS to be had and seen and done! Go and do them and report back next week. I command thee. We, your sad and lonely friends, will make a party all our own. All we need is a blender, some glowsticks, and a couple of Daft Punk CDs.

What? Like you've never wanted to try it...



But in the meantime, here we are. And here I am, with a regularly scheduled blog spot to play with from the comfort of my living room couch (aka, my office). Whatever shall I write about?

Things to Do While Everyone Else is at RT

• Clean the house. Oh, you always mean to do it, but there are blog posts to read and tweets to respond to, Facebook statuses to comment on... so many little things that you have to do when you're not writing but can still technically call working (although a lot of the unenlightened might call it "farting around on the Internet"). This weekend, though? Things are a lot quieter on the US front. Now is the perfect time to oust that budding civilization you've got forming behind the toilet.
• Play the RT11 Drinking Game (Twitter Edition). Non-alcoholic editions are of course welcome. If anyone asks why you're sitting in front of Twitter all night, just tell them that you're looking for industry updates and networking at the same time. When they scoff, tell them they can't have any of your tasty beverage.
• Spend time with people. You know, face-to-face. ...or not. Because if you're like me, you spend all week running yourself ragged, so maybe a quiet weekend with a little less demand than usual is just what you need. Put your feet up, grab a book, and just relax for a change. That way, when the RT crowd drags their hungover behinds home, you'll be fresh and chipper and just perky enough that your life might be in danger. Almost as much fun as the morning after being a DD, only with a drastically reduced chance of finding someone's puke in your backseat.
• Do a full website overhaul. You want to keep your website content fresh and relevant. If you're not going to do an overhaul, maybe a survey of the contents would be in order. Check your links, make sure you don't have dead spots, and get your newest book up on your front page so people will want to buy it once they see that your site is spit-shined with care.
• Open a CafePress store and then continually futz with it. It's easier than you'd think to do this. I opened mine and had several designs up within the evening. Of course, now I'm thinking of all the other designs I want to put up there, and wondering how much sweet talk it will take to get my graphic artist Spouse to do them for me so I don't spend my entire weekend in Photoshop. I mean, I've got other things to do. Look at this list! Also, shameless plug: Liz's Shiny Silver.
• When all else fails, you can always write something. Because, really, isn't that the point? I mean, just because we're not at the big industry conference this weekend doesn't mean that we're not part of said industry. All kidding aside, I'm actually going to be spending a goodly amount of this weekend kicking at my various WIPs like a good, productive part of the industry. But I'll also be taking breaks by combing over my site and prepping for the overhaul I'm doing in a couple of months, finishing a couple of books that I owe reviews on, and spending my evenings playing the drinking game, just 'cause. You know, a typical weekend for me.

What about you? What are you doing this weekend?

See you next month, when the RT crowd will have hopefully recovered enough to join us.

Love,

Elizabeth
http://UrbanSilver.net
http://DirtyBirdAuthors.blogspot.com (April is BDSM month)

Steamcon II

This weekend I'm at Steamcon II in Seattle. I had the privilege of attending Steamcon I last year and had a great time so I'm happy to be back this year. I'm also happy to report that the con has improved and is even more fun. It's a steampunk convention. For those who don't know what "steampunk" is, I highly suggest you look it up and take a gander at some of the many and varied images available across the net. It's great fun. Kind of sci-fi, kind of fantasy, kind of historical but not really any of them. As long as you adhere to a few basic principles, steampunk can be almost anything.

In fact, I have a steampunk story myself. When Sursein Judgment came out in '09, I was afraid to give it the full label of steampunk so I called it "steampunk-ish". Since then, I've learned more and I'm pretty sure the label is apt. The one thing that's off is that it doesn't take in our world. But it is a Victorian/Wild West type of setting complete with steam trains, revolvers and gas lighting.

Thanks to this weekend, I've started to develop some real ideas for a sequel to Sursein Judgment. I won't be able to work on it until the end of next year at the earliest, but it's cool that some ideas are finally solidifying.

If you ever get a chance to check out Steamcon, I highly recommend. If nothing else, you can spend a few lovely hours watching the terrific costumes.