Day Four: Go for the Burn…by LynneC
We’re all getting stir crazy here. Some great sessions and some not so great today. This morning a very useful and informative session on Series Romance after a wholly enjoyable Ellora’s Cave private brunch. We got a star of our very own and a really cool bag with lots of pockets. I love me some pockets.
We opted to go out for lunch and completely forgot we weren’t in the presence of romance authors, ending up discussing the difficulties of writing a menage scene when you have no Barbie dolls handy (sometimes Barbie dolls are an erotic romance author’s best friend!) and then the different things you can do in a love swing and how it was completely essential to fix the thing into the strongest beams in the house. It did go a little silent around us. They were either listening or making plans.
Back to a great session on plagiarism, run by Jennifer Blake, Roberta Gellis and Bertice Small. Very informative, with legal definitions, ethical definitions and not one mention of ferrets. I took notes. Interesting that the US was one of the last countries to sign the Berne Convention, where countries promised to respect each others’ copyright laws. Next, China, then we’ll be set.
If you ask for tea here, it comes tasting of coffee. I’m not sure they know the difference, or they boil the water in tea containers. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m fond of coffee, but it’s not the necessity that tea is.
The editor panel was crazy. A room full of sighing fangirls, and I do mean full. Packed. I shared a seat with a kind colleague, but I didn’t stay long. From what I heard later I didn’t miss a huge amount. What they want, what they don’t want and when will the publishers want books about a one-fanged vampwolf in outer space. Like Jennifer Crusie said a few years ago, they want a good book. Me? I just keep writing and keep going. I’m happy where I am for now, and it’s nice to be able to sit back and watch for a bit. But that room was far too hot for the people in it, and the airlessness got to me early. Editors, if you need a one-fanged vampwolf, I’m definitely not your woman.
The tea tasting like coffee is a fairly common problem in U.S. hotels. I feel your pain. I adore the smell of coffee, but can’t stand the taste of it, and dang – I need my morning tea fix or I’m good for nuthin’.
I think most places boil water using the coffee makers. I think it’ll be really interesting to see how the JR Rowling case will turn out. IP’s (Intellectual Property law) very tricky.