So -- as folks have probably heard me burbling about -- I'm going to be the Filk Guest of Honor at next year's Duckon (2009). This is ginormously exciting to me. I mean, I don't get many opportunities to hit that part of the country, and Red Roses and Dead Things will be finished by then, and there's even a chance I'll have put my hands on Rosemary and Rue, and and and and. Squeal! Pardon me while I sit and vibrate.

Also enormously exciting: Jim Butcher is going to be the Literary Guest of Honor. Jim Butcher! Y'know, that dude who writes in my genre and who I keep getting compared to? Him. I've never actually met him before, so this is going to be super-fun. I've never been to a Duckon before, and I'm really looking forward to it. Everybody should come and join the party. (I'll burble about it more as we get closer to the convention, just like I'm going to spend a lot of time burbling about Conflikt as we get closer to the convention. I am a simple soul who loves cons and gets hugely jazzed about being a guest.)

SQUEE.

So I'm back from BayCon! And to celebrate, I've managed to come down with the most boring case of con-crud ever experienced. Seriously, I feel like hell, I haven't got the energy to pry the cat out of my dresser drawer (which is really for the best, since when she's shedding on my clean tank tops, she's not interfering with my attempts to process edits), and although I really need to go to the post office, I'd really rather sit here and hope someone will put me out of my misery.

But the con was awesome.

I've been a regular on the 'Sex Lies and Publishing' panel for years, discussing what it takes to get published and what people are willing to do if it seems likely to get them published. Last year, when I was BayCon's Toastmistress, I turned to the moderator and asked if a book contract came in my gift basket. And this year, I got to be on the panel from the other side of things! Very surreal, and very cool.

I got the chance to chat with several other authors working with DAW, including two who share my editor. So that was simply fabulous, both from a business standpoint and from the 'oh, wow, this still isn't a dream' side of things. So much fun!

My concert went fabulously, as always, thanks to the hard work of my many, many musical co-conspirators. I'll doubtless talk about this more later, but for right now, big thanks to Paul Kwinn, Tony Fabris, Michelle Dockrey, Maya Bohnhoff, Beckett Gladney, Kristoph Klover, and Jeff Bohnhoff (who wasn't in the show, but helped a lot with some of the arrangements). It's been pointed out to me again that no matter how in love I am with new material, I should really include some of the stuff on my CDs in my live shows. My protests that people can buy the songs on the CDs continue to fall on deaf ears. Si-igh.

It was a great weekend, my lovely viral infestation notwithstanding. Welcome to all the new folks who have swung by here in the past week, and while I'd promise to ramble less when not sick, I'd be lying.

BayCon 2008 is just around the corner! Are you wondering where I'm going to be? Well, wonder no more, because I've got what can only be termed 'the inside scoop'. Which is really a good thing, since otherwise, I'd be wandering merrily into a major convention with no living clue what I was supposed to be doing.

Saturday at 11:30 AM, you can catch me on the Sex, Lies and Publishing panel. I'm not one hundred percent certain what we're going to be talking about, although I expect it to include a) sex, b) lies, and c) publishing. I just sold a trilogy, I've had sex, and I once told my mother that the frog was put in our bathtub by magical angels from the moon, so hey, I've got something to say about all three elements of the panel! Failing that, there's always zombies. Show up to show your support on my first real 'post selling those Toby books to DAW' panel as a genuine to-be-published genre author.

Also Saturday, at 1:00 PM, I'll be appearing on the Iron Poet I panel, with Kevin Andrew Murphy (and other people, but that's who I can say for sure is always there). I won't be writing poetry, but will, instead, be discussing it, and helping other people write it. For the win! It's a really fun, interactive panel event, and the poetry that our participants write on Saturday will be presented and judged on Sunday at 2:30 PM, when we reconvene for Iron Poet II. This panel has a low chance of zombies, but a high chance of recitations of 'The Tragedy of Lillian Kane, Princess of Neptune'.

Saturday at 4:00 PM it's time for the annual excitement of Evolution of Dr. Who, where we all get together to talk about what everybody's favorite Time Lord has been doing with himself. Past debates have included 'true love or puppy love?', 'Romana or the Rani?', and -- my personal favorite -- 'is Paul McGann canon or not?' (since answered absolutely by 'Family of Blood'). Since we're in the middle of a series, we're about to go into Tennant's year off, and we've just changed executive producers, there's going to be a lot to talk about. And, if all else fails, there's always insulting the special effects to get a good brawl going. Be there!

Of course, for a lot of folks, it's all about the music. That's why you should join me Sunday at 10:00 PM for my BayCon 2009 concert! With Paul Kwinn and Tony Fabris trading off guitar duty, Michelle Dockrey and Maya Bohnhoff on backing vocals, and Beckett Gladney on harmonica, this is promising to be one of the most awesome concerts to date. I'm not willing to post the full set list, but I will tell you that you could hear some of the songs from the upcoming album, as well as at least one pendant-prompt song, one Firefly song, and several songs made of so much pure awesome that they make my heart hurt. Join us! You won't be sorry.

Eric Gerds will have copies of both Pretty Little Dead Girl and Stars Fall Home available throughout the weekend; they will also be available directly from me, if he runs out or the dealer's room is closed. Remember, they make great gifts! Thirteen, by Vixy and Tony, will also be available either from Eric or direct from the source; the album is fabulously well-worth it (and I don't just say that because I got to perform on the title track).

See you this weekend!