A Bookish Adventure, Part 2 (#12 of 30)

Posted on November 12, 2011 by Lynda

So…We left off with me still wandering around accosting authors. Let’s continue, shall we?

Julie James was a pleasure. She had just won Dabwaha, and there’s SUCH a pretty purple dress on the cover of her book, so I was weak and bought A Lot Like Love…

Mari Carr. Oh, Mari, Mari, Mari. Every time she posts one of her Snippets, I end up buying another book of hers. At some point she’ll run out of backlist, right?

Here’s Shannon K. Butcher, whose books I had JUST started to read the week before…

…Kelly Jamieson…

And the Parade of Authors concludes with Tracy Wolff whose books I didn’t know until this convention. However, Katie, Shayera and I spent a bit of time talking books with her, and we realized with very few exceptions, all four of us love the same books. In fact, Tracy and I often said things at the same time that night. LOL Tons of fun. I’ve gone back and gone through her contemporary romance for Harlequin and I really enjoyed them all…

After the authors, Shayera, her friend (whose name totally escapes me), Katie, and I all went to lunch, then Katie and I did some exploring around town.

First off… DANG that Katie is TALL!!!! Sheesh! If I didn’t love her so much, I’d hate her. And no, she’s not wearing heels. Sadly, neither was I. *sigh*

We went to the Central Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library, which was practically across the street from the hotel. It being L.A., we drove. LOL.

We also did a quick trip to the Griffith Observatory, which, conveniently, is also one of the best places to view and take pictures of the Hollywood Sign. And bonus: it’s free, and open late.

They had this INCREDIBLE display. It is this really LONG ramp hallway going from one level down to another, and at the beginning of the hallway is this cloud of stars which represents the big bang, and then there is a stream of stars waving down the hallway showing a timeline of the universe, and it ends with an arrow signifying the future. What’s remarkable about the exhibit is the entire thing is made out of jewelry. Vintage and costume and real and fake, but the entire thing is made out of necklaces, pins, earrings, charms, and every piece of it (with the exception of the arrow at the end) all have stars or moons or something celestial on it. It was just stunning and so creative.

Then it was time to take Katie back to the hotel and say goodbye. *sniffle* I tried to get her to move here, but, sadly, she’s now taken a new job and has moved even FARTHER* away!

Lynda the Guppy
aka Fish With Sticks
aka Hollywood Tour Operator

*If “farther” is wrong, I blame Cyn. She knows why.

A Bookish Adventure, Part 1 (#10 of 30)

Posted on November 11, 2011 by Lynda

Waaaaay back in March, I found out that the Romantic Times Booklover’s Convention was going to be here in Los Angeles. I wasn’t planning on going, until I found out that my good pal Katie was attending. Since she lives in Iowa (for a few more weeks at least. LOL) we try to take whatever opportunity we get to get together for a visit.

I’m SOOO glad I went. I met a bunch of authors whom I have been speaking to on Twitter, not to mention I collected yet another Librarian pal, Shayera. LOL I seem to have a lot of those. I met Katie and Shayera the day before the big signing, and we went to this “un-conference” that was fascinating, and it was followed by a cocktail party across the street, and afterword the three of us went up to Katie’s room where we proceeded to talk books for way too long before Shayera and I left. The next day, we again met up with Katie and proceeded to perform a military strike on the book signing!

So. Much. Fun. Oh, and be sure to click on the pictures. Hee!

*tap tap tap* “Pardon me. May I take a picture of your leg?” Me, to Carina Press Executive Editor Angela James.

Here I am with Bella Andre.

…And here I am with KB Alan who was nice enough to spend some time chatting with me while I was waiting for Bella…

…Did you know Jami Alden and Bella Andre are best friends? Here I am with Jami…

…Cherry Adair was a hoot! Really funny lady. Got a little too friendly, though. LOL…

…HelenKay Dimon whom I’ve been chatting with pretty regularly on Twitter. Since she’s fairly local, I may head down to meet her at a San Diego RWA event one of these days…

…Robyn Carr. I LOVE her Virgin River books. I was so pleased to be able to meet her and let her know how very much I loved the first book in the series, especially. There’s a scene between Jack and Mel which was so well done, and I cry buckets whenever I read it…

And finally (for this post, anyway) Sarah Wendell. Visiting with Katie aside, she’s one of the reasons I went. I read her site Smart Bitches, Trashy Books all the time and find her to be smart, witty, and clever. With her first book (co-written with Candy Tan) and her second, she’s done a lot to try to change the way people view romance novels. I did lie to her, though. I told her that her book was the only one I was going to buy. I lied. I ended up buying one other book. More on that in a few days…

That’s it for tonight. I’ll wrap up my Romantic Times adventures in a few days.

Lynda the Guppy
aka Fish With Sticks
aka A Bookish Fish

A Very Harlot Adventure (again) (#6 of 30)

Posted on November 6, 2011 by Lynda

Way back in 2007 the Yarn Harlot came for a visit. Years later in 2010 my knitting group The Yarnivores were sitting around talking about her and her last visit when it came out that three of us had been “Harlotted“! Robin, Wendy and I are all on there. Robin is the first of the First Sock Knitters, mine had some gauge problems, and Wendy was Hat Lady #2.

At the time, I barely knew Wendy. I had been going to “our” group for only a little while and because I kept confusing her with someone else, I couldn’t remember her name that day. Still feel guilty about that. LOL

Robin didn’t come to the Yarnivores until 2010. It cracks me up looking at Robin’s picture from back then. She had long blonde hair. It’s now in a short bob and hot pink! VERY! HOT! PINK! Looks great on her, but since I’ve never known her with long hair, so the blonde looks fake. LOL.

This year, Wendy went with us, as did Linda-With-An-I and Alyson (known as Knitting Alyson, not to be confused with Cousin Allison). Two friends from another knitting group, Barbra and Heather, met up with us and we all sat together. Thankfully we got there early! Barbra got there about 3:45 and most of the seats that were out were already taken, so she snagged what she could, and then when I got there at 4:00 they were putting more chairs out, so we grabbed a couple more. There were A LOT of people there.

This time we were “Harlotted” as a group (Alyson, Heather, Barbra, and I are in the front row with Linda and Wendy peeking out on either side of me from the second row) and Linda got singled out, as she brought her “third first sock.” Stephanie debated if she was going to get invested in the Third First Sock adventure, but Linda promised this time she’d finish. I reminded Linda that if she DIDN’T finish there would probably be some public mocking. So I’ll keep you posted.

Here are a few pictures. First up, The Sweater. The Sweater that Caught on Fire. LOL Probably the most blogged sweater in all the land…

Here a better picture. She’s reading us bits from the book. And let me just say that at one point I was laughing so hard I couldn’t hold the camera steady. Barbra and I were both in tears from laughing, and we’re TOTALLY going to steal some of her responses to Silly Muggle Questions (see the chapter titled “Personal Filters”).

Finally, here I am with Stephanie. Even blurred, it’s still a much better picture than the one from last time. LOL.

I’m wearing my Aestlight Shawl over one shoulder. I got a LOT of comments on my shawl, and there was a woman there who had knit it in a single variegated yarn, and it looked TOTALLY different. I got the idea for the two-tones from Laura’s Aestlight, so I went looking for other 2-color Aestlights and found a way to do it that made the most of the leftover yarns I was using.

After The Yarn Harlot, we all went out for some really excellent Indian food, and then stumbled home.

Lynda the Guppy
aka Fish With Sticks
aka Twice Harlotted