Thursday Roundup

Happy Thursday!

Well, as my Hook Me Up! subscribers already know, my big news is that I didn't have to go to Jury Duty yesterday. Yes, truly, I was all prepared -- heavy pen, iPod, hairspray, bad attitude -- but I was released from bondage the night before, and so got to spend the day doing crazy things like writing. I know! What was the courts system thinking?

But enough of my dashed dreams of stopping a forming superbeing or getting to explain the real reasons no one wants me on their jury to a bunch of lawyers and a judge, let's get onto the newsy stuff.

Examiner.com Tucson has an interview up with yours truly regarding the Tucson Festival of Books. If you're planning to attend the 4th largest festival in the country, be sure to let me know you're coming, catch my panel, and find me at the Mysterious Galaxy booth! More details as we get closer to the date.

In review news, Night Owl Reviews has a new review of "Alien Tango", and Errant Dreams Reviews has a great review up of "Boondocks Fantasy" (where I have a short story included under my Anita Ensal pen name).

BookMom has now added photographic proof to show that her purse really is like Kitty's. And My 5 Monkeys is chatting about what books various bloggers are buzzing about. And, because I cannot help but share this, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith has a Q&A article about American Idol and, what interests me more, Aersomith up at AZCentral.com. There's a new Aersomith album coming, which makes me the happiest author around! (Though it's like the worst pic of him they could possibly find...what's up with THAT newspeople?)

Coming up, on Jan. 20th I'll be guest blogging at Book Lovers Inc. for their blogoversary. On Jan. 24th & 25th it's my first EVER live chats over at Tigris Eden's Forbidden Fruits & Carnal Pleasures -- remember you need to register for the chat -- that's also loaded with awesome giveaways. And on Jan. 28th the Dueling Authors interview with me and Joshua Palmatier will go live at the DAW Books Community.

The website is getting a much-needed updating. New things are up at Free Stuff, the Alien Collective Depot, Cool Links, Sightings in the Wild, and the Blog Roll (see the sidebar...the now very, very LONG sidebar :-D). More updates to come. (Yes, we're keeping Team Gini busy!)

Speaking of busy, my galley edits for "Alien in the Family" should be arriving shortly. So while you may not hear a ton from me next week (um, 'cause I have a week to do said edits on the longest book by far in the series), know that I'll be thinking of all of you. And only spending some of that time wishing you could help me with the editing.

In case I don't yap at you all before then, everyone have a wonderful Martin Luther King, Jr. day and remember to be good to one another!

Love,
Gini

The Train Kept A'Rollin'...

...all night long!

And for those of you too uncool to instantly recognize those lyrics, they're vintage Aerosmith. Who I saw Monday night. Along with ZZ Top. From good seats, I have to add.

*we pause while all readers go green, purple and red with envy*

Sadly, they weren't the best seats. Then again, that's why I'm not in jail for trying to get up onto the stage and have my way with Steven Tyler and Joe Perry. The hubs never thinks that's cute, for some reason...

But the concert was, as all Aerosmith concerts are, awesome. ZZ Top was, as is their wont, excellent. It was, as is the case here in Hell's Orientation Area in the middle of summer, hotter than Hades and the venue was our fab outdoors one.

You couldn't tell how hot it was by the bands. They rocked like they were in great air conditioning. You could tell by the water bottles -- it was the kind of hot where beer and daiquiris didn't seem refreshing enough and the majority of the crowd was on water by the middle of ZZ Top's set.

Not that I cared. No, I cared that, for some reason, Aerosmith did not play for 6 hours straight. Of course, even if they had, they still wouldn't have hit every song I wanted to hear.

On a sad note, Joe Perry did NOT take his shirt off. I know! What's up with THAT? It was certainly hot enough to have warranted it, even if he didn't have the best pecs and abs in all of rock. He did, however, have his hair all 'Rogued Out' (white skunk stripes just in the front, for those of you who somehow have missed the X-Men in the course of your sad, non-comic-book-aware lives), which looked cool. Joe and Steven both, as always, were totally hot.

Even the hubs admitted it was a great show, though on the way out, he said, "I don't think Steven Tyler's all that great. He seems over the top and I don't get why you think he's sexy."

To which I replied, "Because you're a straight male, um, DUH." I then proceeded to spend the ride home explaining just why lead singers should be over the top, why Steven is hot, why Joe is also hot, how unfair it was that I could only see part of Joe's chest all night, and so forth.

So, you know, a good time was had by all. (That'll teach the hubs to diss Screamin' Steven Tyler to ME, now, won't it?)

Love,
Gini

If Aerosmith Needs Me...

...I'm ready.

Went to a surprise party for one of my BFFs last night. Great time, lots of food, drinks, fun folks, and games.

Okay, at first I wasn't excited about the games. I mean, we're all great big grown up boys and girls. I wasn't looking forward to a pinata, you know?

But then...they announced that the main game event would be a Rock Band competition.

Actually, I've never played. But I know a lot of people who do (and, since I know some of them very well, I had to figure if they could do it, then I could do it). And I do know there's a strategy to getting your band together.

I shoved the hubs into his own band. He's great, but he's not a rock star. He also doesn't have the competitive edge that I knew would be necessary. No, I joined up with the birthday girl's husband, and a young mom whose kids play this game constantly, both of whom clearly had the winner's killer instinct so necessary to a friendly game among pals (well, it's necessary if you want to win). He played guitar, she drummed, and I was the lead singer.

The competition was fierce. My husband's band started off slow. Then he quit the band before they became big. The two bands we all feared petered out. Others did better than expected. And on it went. Until it was just The Retarded Dogs (my husband's former band, but the name he picked for it lives on) and Mudslide (my band, named by our required groupie who insisted that our success was all due to the name she gave us, which could possibly be true).

The Retarded Dogs went with "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden for their final number. And they were good. Very good. We knew we'd have to go with something intricate in order to have a chance. As the lead singer, I got to choose our songs, and I went with "Dani California" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Well.

I don't think it's bragging to say we were AWESOME. We blew away the competition, definitively. And for the coup de grace -- I scored 100% on vocals.

There was pandemonium. Oh, sure, some of it was because everyone was drinking (everyone but me, since I was driving home and had been on Coca-Cola for the past few hours), but more was because I was being told no one had ever seen a 100% on vocals before. (Probably true for this group -- I wasn't the only person playing who had never played before.)

So, the guy who's game it was asked me to join his band for a few numbers, and I got 100% again, this time on "Don't Fear the Reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult. More pandemonium ensued. We also got the high score of the evening on that one. I'm just sayin'.

I would probably still be there, hitting the high notes and all, but the hubs demanded that we go home so he could get to bed. Hater. He's just jealous because Mudslide won and I'm now a lead singer in demand.

So, you know, should any of 'my bands' need vocal assistance -- Aerosmith in particular, but I'll be kind and offer myself up to anyone who needs me -- I'm here and currently my price is reasonable. (Steven Tyler and Joe Perry -- call me. Extra reasonable pricing for you.)

Love,
Gini

P.S. The hubs is under orders to never bring this game into our house, because I'd stop writing until I could get 100% on every song. And that could take me, what, at least a month...

My New Year's Resolutions

Seeing as it's that time of year again, when everyone makes resolutions they'll break by January 10th, I figured I'd get mine out of the way early.

This year, in no particular order, I resolve to:

1. Put off until tomorrow what I could do today
2. Possibly eat right and exercise, but resent it when I do
3. Do the things I enjoy a lot and the things I don't as little as possible; this includes cleaning the house (guess which side that one falls on)
4. Re-read all of the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett while hoping I get to meet him one day
5. Consider reading the various nonfiction books I own, and then going back and re-reading 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' by Lemony Snicket instead, who, based on his 'life story' I don't think I actually want to meet
6. Avoid the news as much as humanly possible, under the continually-proved theory that if it's really important someone will tell me about it, and if no one tells me about it, it probably doesn't matter
7. Consider catching up on my collection of Details magazines but instead merely thumb through and look at all the pictures of hot-looking men, frequently
8. Think about getting a place for everything and putting everything in its place, then move the stuff on my desk into different piles and call it good
9. Consider watching all the new DVDs we got over the holidays, but instead end up watching the same dozen I adore over and over and over again
10. Listen to lots of music from a wide variety of genres and decades as constantly as possible while purchasing new music as often as I can
11. Consider telling every blowhard in my life where to stick it then write an action scene instead
12. Consider catching up on all the literary bestsellers but then re-reading every book by P.J. O'Rourke instead while hoping I get to meet him one day
13. Worship Aerosmith while hoping I get to meet Steven Tyler and Joe Perry one day

There you go, a baker's dozen. I should be able to carry these through without a problem for all of 2009. After all, I've been doing most of them for most of my life.

Love,
Gini