Scary, Deb. My brother is allergic to bees like that. It was so frightening when he was little.

Allyson, this mini-con will be in California, L.A.? God, I wish I could come -- I love Suzanne Brockmann. She gave the luncheon keynote address at a conference a few years ago, and she's a fantastic speaker.

dcp, I thought the drabble was fine the first time around, but the revision is good, too.

It's either Orlando or Atlanta. We're just waiting for the proposals to come back from hotels. It'll be MLK weekend.

ETA: Oh, thanks Betsy. The last one we did was a bed and breakfasty type place in Texas, IIRC. We're planning for 100-125 attendees at this one.

It's either Orlando or Atlanta

East Coast venues! Hmmm. This may be a possibility.

That's cool, Allyson. Let me know if you need anything in Atlanta.

Allyson, ought to be a hell of a con. Once it's set, can I pass this on to Jenn (my agent)? She has a nice stable of romance writers she reps.

Deb, there's a nice review of The Real Minerva, your friend Mary Sharrat's book, in the new BookPage (which is usually free at local libraries). It sounds like a lovely book.

And I know this should probably go in Lit, but Deb doesn't hang out in there anymore.

Amy, I'll pass that on. Mary's doing a thing at Lafayette Books, and our friend Susan Ito is hosting a book party for Mary at her place in the East Bay on 4 October.

Oh, and I have the Bay Area booklaunch party at M is for Mystery all arranged, and will post in, what, press? Beep Me? one of 'em, anyway, as we get closer.

I want to do something back east, damn it.

And right now, I also want to work on vampire book, and can't until Nic takes me for a drive in the LA hills this weekend; I can't write them until I have the setting. And it's driving me fruit.

If it's a case of needing many things to make it worth your while, Deb, I'd arrange a book signing or a library gathering or an anything you want, pretty much, here in Cleveland. It's not quite east, but it's close.

(thread hijack, for lack of any other place to put it)

Deena, that's the crux of it: having people in a given area bug the bookstore and/or library, and make the request. I'm doing a phone thing with a reading group at the Shrewsbury library, from here, if we can arrange it, but I just don't have the jam to ring up a bazillion bookstores around the USA and say hey, want to do an event?

So absolutely, if the Cleveland or local library wants an event? I'll go to Cleveland, you bet.

(edit: returns thread to garage without a scratch on it)

Cool, Deb. Got open dates I can arrange for?

Taking it to e-mail.