It’s all about the party! Samhain Publishing is thrilled to announce our plans to host an informal meet & greet at the RWA National Conference in Washington D.C. Attendees from all walks of the industry are invited to join us to mingle with favorite Samhain authors, chat with our editors, learn more about digital publishing and opportunities at Samhain, or just to drink really great wine. The event will be held Friday, July 17 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at the conference hotel in Angela James’ suite. To receive the suite location, please enter your info into the widget below and it will be sent to you via text message Wednesday July 15th. Please note this is the same suite the Rogue Digital seminar will be held in so you only need to sign up for alerts on one event. (if you are reading this other than on Angela’s blog and cannot see widget, please visit there to enter your info into widget: http://nicemommy-evileditor.com/blog/?p=2506)

Please help us spread the word and reach out to RWA attendees this year in Washington D.C. See you all there!

All questions can be directed to the comments section of this post (http://nicemommy-evileditor.com/blog/?p=2506)

Group text messaging by Tatango.

Last night I decided to pop open the submissions folder on my Sony (the main reason I love the Sony over the Kindle, because I can HAVE a submissions folder) and realized that I hadn’t loaded recent submissions on there, so most of them I could delete most of them. One I couldn’t remember if I’d read so I gave it a glance. After the prologue, I realized that I had already looked at it, and though the premise was interesting, the writing was unpolished, there were too many technical errors for me to consider taking it on (because while I’m willing to correct some in edits, I can’t afford to take the time to edit a book that’s flush with them), the dialogue was awkward, and there were some things that didn’t quite make sense within the story.

But I liked the premise, enough that I decided to keep reading just for the heck of it, and see where it led. About halfway into the book, I decided that, instead of rejecting, I’d offer the author a revise and resubmit letter. Which, if you know anything about me, you know I’m not totally keen on because I so very rarely see those books returned (and I do mean rarely). But I thought the author might have promise, could clearly craft a unique premise, and I’d do my part to help her along.

This morning, when I opened my spreadsheet, I found that I’d marked this book to receive a rejection letter but hadn’t sent it yet. When I read it the first time, the obvious errors and all the issues I noted above meant that I was going to reject it. Being in a more generous frame of mind last night, I decided to give the author a chance with a revise and resubmit letter. Let me tell you, that doesn’t happen very often and really, it shouldn’t have to.

Of course, every author hopes that every editor and agent will do this every single time with their book, but the fact is, it’s up to the author to make sure the book doesn’t need a second chance because it’s entirely likely it won’t get one. So yes, state of mind matters, but it’s the author’s job to make sure that the book shines through and wins despite the editor/agent’s state of mind. Because that’s the only thing the author has control over. You can’t tell the editor/agent to only read your book when they’re not overwhelmed by work, ticked off by some correspondence they’ve just read, or getting ready for vacation. Truth is, there is always something going on in the editor/agent’s life. Don’t make it easy for them to say no. Make it easy for them to say yes!

I had such good look asking you all for specific recipes before that I’m going to try it again. I would like tried and true recipes for macaroni salad as well as cold tuna pasta salad. I had a friend who used to make the most amazing macaroni salad that had cubed cheddar cheese with either miracle whip/may and I think sugar. And peas. I loved that macaroni salad but over the years I’ve lost the recipe and never been able to find one that replicates it. But outside that recipe, I’m just looking for a really great macaroni salad recipe, whatever the ingredients. And a good cold tuna pasta. Who can help?

Sometimes I put out an anthology call and I’m going to be doing one of those very soon, but in asking for ideas for my next anthology, I realized I would have liked to have gotten some holiday novellas. Historically, I have saved my December release spots for novellas, often erotic romance novellas and generally holiday-themed novellas. In the past, authors from within my “stable” of authors have provided these novellas but only one has indicated any interest this year so I’m putting out an informal call for submissions.

If you have a holiday-themed novella you’ve been working on, something that’s completed (or soon to be completed) I’d love to see it. Visit our submissions page for all submission information, including the email address to send it to. All questions about this should be directed to the submissions email, please don’t use my contact form here for questions related to this. I will also answer questions in the comments, as well.

In the query letter that accompanies your submission, please note that you’re responding to my request for holiday-themed novellas.

I’ll probably be looking to have those books contracted and scheduled no later than the end of July.

Some of you may have noticed that I was having some pretty major problems with the blog over the weekend. The problems coincided not just with my WP 2.8 upgrade, but also a server crash on my host site. So I originally thought it was a server issue. But when it didn’t resolve after a few days I realized there was an issue with the blog, something preventing me from making new posts.

After some discussion with the ever-helpful Bree (half of Moira Rogers–they have a new release from Samhain this week, Sanctuary Lost. I’ve read it! They and their editor did a great job. Check it out). Ahem, anyway, with her help and after some discussion, I went ahead and deactivated all of my plugins. Sure enough, that solved the problem.

So I reactivated the plugins one by one. The one plugin that caused issues? Tweet This. When I reactivated Tweet This, the bad lag/posting problems appeared again. And in a twist of irony, when I tried to visit the Tweet This plugin site, their website wouldn’t even come up.

So if you’ve upgraded to Wordpress 2.8 or are thinking of it, and are running Tweet This, try deactivating that plugin to see if it solves your issues. Hopefully they can upgrade the plugin to be compatible with Wordpress 2.8 because it’s a nifty little plugin that I’d like to be able to use again.

**apologies that this is showing up in your RSS feed again. I deleted the original post, thinking it might have somehow been causing the blog’s lagging problems. Now that I know it was a plugin, I’m reposting the post for those who hadn’t yet seen it the first time.

Sorry for the delay in posting the rest of the videos. I was having problems with uploading to Vimeo. Turns out it was AdAware blocking the upload. In case you ever have that problem.

Video one is a quick video of readers/authors talking digital devices. Video two talking digital books, and video three is just a quick glimpse of some of the activities at the Lori Foster event. (and someday I’ll figure out why all videos of me start with my eyes closed. Gah)

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I left my Twitter friends hanging last night. If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know that my travel luck has been…poor…lately. Ever since February, when Delta lost my bags twice in two weeks, things have gone crazy when I try to travel. This past trip, on my way to Cincinnati, my flight was canceled, they were going to keep me in the airport for ten hours before the next flight (after generously giving me a FIVE DOLLAR meal voucher) so I opted for rerouting to Dayton. But not before running into my ex-husband in an airport in a city in which neither of us live. Travel karma, I haz it.

So on the way back, I was bemoaning that I was once again facing bad travel mojo, as my flight was delayed an hour and a half (and once again US Airways wouldn’t let me on an earlier flight due to checked luggage. I HATE that policy), putting me home at midnight. I was grateful the flight wasn’t canceled (since it was the last flight out of the day) and thought that once I boarded, my travel woes were done. Not so.

The flight from Philadelphia to my town is not a long one, maybe 40 minutes. It was late at night, I was tired and a little irritable and so I didn’t appreciate it when the flight attendant spent the entire flight standing in the aisle talking to the woman in front of me. In fact, she spent so long talking to her that she did none of the final landing announcements (turn off portable electronics, put your seat backs and tray tables up, make sure your seatbelts are fastened) and didn’t take her seat until we were almost touching down. Ergh. So I was mildly irritated by that, but having her stand there did put m in the unique position of seeing the absolute panic on her face when a large thump sounded on our side of the plane. And then hear her say “what was that?” before she hurried to the front to call the pilots. I know, reassuring, right?

Turns out we hit a bird. Thankfully, it didn’t get into one of the engines, but it still scared the hell out of the flight attendant and a few of the passengers.

So as I’m sitting on the plane, I’m just thankful my bad travel mojo hasn’t resulted in death for anything but the poor bird. And as we land, I’m glad for the end of my travel adventures. Ahahahaha…how wrong I was.

Since we landed so late (not quite midnight) I called a taxi to come and get me rather than having Josh drag Brianna out of bed. I called from the plane to expedite the process, and only had to wait a few minutes after I got my luggage for the taxi to arrive. Well, it turns out another man had also called a taxi, so the driver decided to take both of us. Fine with me. Of course, as we’re leaving the airport, we see another taxi–from another company–coming our way. Um, yeah, turns out that guy had gotten into my taxi. He’d called a different company. No big deal, the town isn’t that big, we’ll deliver him to his hotel, The Country Inn and Suites, and I’ll get home within minutes. Riiiight. The taxi driver starts telling us a story of one of the drivers being mugged just minutes earlier, and then was telling me another was shot at several nights before. We talk about the crime in town for about 15 minutes while driving to…The Comfort Inn. When we pull up, I mention that the gentleman is staying at the Country Inn and Suites and off we go again, the taxi driver saying “oh okay, of course, I know where that is…” as he takes us ten minutes later…to the Marriott Residence Inn. At this point, I’m pulling out my iPhone to get the address (because I really don’t remember ever seeing the Country Inn and Suites so I can’t recall where it’s at) and the driver calls the hotel. Turns out the hotel is actually pretty close to where we started at the airport. So our third stop is, thank God, the actual Country Inn and Suites. We took that poor man on a tour of the area that he didn’t need to see–and he had to be up for meetings in five hours.

By this time, I’ve been traveling around with the taxi driver for almost 45 minutes, and am just giggling to myself because 1) my husband is asleep and if that driver had decided to drive me to Baltimore, I’m not sure he’d have noticed until morning and 2) I think the driver (Tony) was kind of glad for the company because he talked my ear off. and 3) at one point he’d pulled out a taser stick and demo’d it for me and the other passenger, and then told us of the gun he carried under his seat (we were talking about how dangerous it was to be a taxi driver). Is it weird that I wasn’t nervous about this adventure at all? At the end of it all, he got me home, yes he did charge me full fare for a trip from the airport (there’s no meter, it’s a flat fee) and he gave me his card so I could ask for him by name next time I needed a taxi. And you know what? I probably will. Because I’m crazy like that.

So, who wants to travel with me?

This morning I gave a two hour presentation on epublishing to standing room only. Of course, it sounds impressive, but that was maybe 30 people. At least 20 more were unable to fit into the small room, much to our mutual dismay. I had quite a few people look into the room to try and come in, and many say they walked by but it was standing room only, even in the doorway. But it’s encouraging to see so many people interested in learning about the business of epublishing–and the business model.

I took a bunch more videos, both of the conference and of individual readers/authors asking them about digital publishing. I’ll be posting those on Monday.

A couple of quotes I thought were interesting:
“Why would I spend $25 on one hardback when I could get three books instead?”

“I’m much more likely to buy books from an author I’ve met in person.”

“You’re shorter than I realized.” (I’m not THAT short).

It was a fun day, though I’m fairly sure I talked for thirteen hours straight. Talking for two hours on epublishing is always entertaining but hard on the throat. Good thing I love the topic.

There were a bunch of raffles during the conference. I was fortunate to win two of them, including an absolutely stunning crocheted afghan in shades of red/dark red made with “green” yarn (yarn made from recycled materials. It’s so soft and cuddly, I adore it. And I also wonan Ed Hardy purse filled with fun goodies (like chocolate body paints, kama sutra set, perfume and a t-shirt) from Red Sage author Liane Gentry Skye. I love, love, love Ed Hardy and have looked at the purses many times but given how many purses I own, know my husband would move me out of the house if I spent the money on. So I’m thrilled to have won it. Thank you, Liane!

Tomorrow winds down the conference, and I don’t leave for home until tomorrow night (getting home at almost midnight). Next up: RWA Nationals!

Well, kind of live. This weekend I’m at the Lori Foster Get Together in Cincinnati, which brings together just over 300 readers, authors and various industry professionals. Since I’m so stellar at blogging from conferences (ha ha) I thought I’d try something different with some short clips from various attendees showing their thoughts on digital.

I’ll be asking each person just one question each, and it might be anything from “what do you use to read your digital books” to “why don’t you read digital?” and hopefully covering some questions in between. If you have any specific questions you’d like me to ask about digital, shout them out in the comments and I’ll add them into the mix (I’m always happy for something different).

I’ll post a mix of the interviews at various times, Vimeo and my internet connection permitting (trying to upload the videos has almost defeated me). Since this is the first time I’ve used the Flip for this purpose, if you have any feedback, please share it!

(please ignore the silly still shot of me that holds the video. Ack!)

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Samhain is open to submissions.

In the most recent issue of the RWA’s Pro newsletter (Prospects) it was reported that Samhain is closed to submissions. We’re unsure where the erroneous information came from, but we are not closed to submissions and have no plans to be. We continue to accept submissions in all genres of romance, as well as science fiction/fantasy/urban fantasy all with romantic elements. Submissions guidelines can be found http://samhainpublishing.com/submissions. All questions and submissions can be directed to editor@samhainpublishing.com

We hope you’ll help us out by posting this correction on your local and specialty chapter loops.

Thank you!

Angela James, Executive Editor

**permission to forward granted**