HaMEMA

Part 2 of the GRL experience. More to come.

First of all, I somehow forgot to put this photo into Day 3, so here it is now:

Ellis Carrington, Damon Suede, Kate McMurray, and Ethan Stone

Don’t ask me how we spent so much time with Damon and only came away with one picture. I think it was because he never holds still.

And now, Day 4. Honestly, the last day was sort of a whirlwind of waking up late, rushing off to breakfast, packing, and saying goodbye, so there isn’t much to say.

JP Barnaby and William Cooper

OMG. Can't believe I can't remember. Nikyta and Heather and ... umm.... god, I have the worst memory. Sorry, ladies! Remind me of your names!

Heidi, Eden Winters, and Amy (can't believe I only have one photo of Amy!)

Rowan Speedwell and Marie

Tam, giving me the evil eye.

Marie, Belinda McBride, Clare London, Heidi with her phone, Marguerite Labbe, ZA Maxfield

Amber Kell, Devon Rhodes, Marie

Kris, Tracy, Kassa, Janna, Tam, Leontine (Love you, ladies!)

Not sure where Chris was. And somehow I did not get a picture of Elisa at all.

And that’s it, ladies and gents. GayRomLit 2011. It was an absolute blast. Too much fun for one weekend, that’s for sure. Next week’s GayRomLit will be in Albuquerque, so we hope to see you all there.

And what’s next for HaMEMA? We have RT in April, where we’ll be doing a panel with ZAM (and I think maybe Heidi roped Damon Suede into it as well). We hope to do RomCon, or maybe even RWA. Possibly Pride in either Denver or Des Moines. Who knows?

Until then, you know where you can find us: http://cupoporn.wordpress.com

Take care!

Heidi and I wrapped up Friday night with a few drinks. We returned to the hotel only to discover that Heidi had lost her cell phone along the way, so back out we went. Luckily, we found it at the bar we’d just left. The problem was, we had to be up at 6 am the next morning. We were scheduled to have breakfast, and then have our author social immediately afterward. Let me just say, Saturday morning was ROUGH (for me, at least). We had a really fantastic breakfast, and I’m so sad that we didn’t think to take any pictures of it. We did manage to get a few of the rest of the day.

Our table full of swag!!

Barely managing to stay vertical.

Lissa Kasey

Lissa's pretty dolls.

Lissa's pretty swag

Xara X. Xanakas was there, too, and I don’t know how I managed to not take her picture! It was not intentional! I really thought I had one, but apparently not.

Later that night, it was the hurricane party. And dinner. And I’m not sure what all else. I do know that I took it easy, since I was still suffering a bit from the night before. And I know that Ethan Stone was drunker than I’ve ever seen him. He’s a very happy, agreeable drunk. Here are some pictures.

Kate McMurray, Leontine, Janna, and Clare London (all FABULOUS!)

Marie (looking a bit stunned) and Ethan (looking a bit buzzed).

Blake Deveraux, who was such a gentleman and did not (as far as I know) take advantage of a very drunk and very willing Ethan Stone

Devon Rhodes and Marie

Lara Brukz and Ethan Stone

Lara Brukz, Ethan Stone, and Kate McMurray

Ellis Carrington and Heidi

At this point, everybody else went out to the bars, and I went to bed, so I’m afraid that’s the last of my pictures from my rather painful hangover day.

Stay tuned for the final day of GayRomLit!

Previous disclaimers apply:

1. If I post your picture and you don’t want it posted, just email me and I will gladly take it down. Or if you want me to simply remove your name from the picture, I’ll do that, too.

2. There are some people whose names I don’t remember. It sucks, because in several cases, they’re people I talked to multiple times and even sat next to. I sincerely apologize to you if I’ve forgotten your name AGAIN. Please don’t take it personally. I just have a HORRIBLE memory when it comes to names. Also, I have an insane head cold and am loaded up on various meds right now, so I feel like my brain is mush. I’m going to put a “?” where I draw blanks. If you know the person’s name, please shoot me an email or leave a comment so I can fix it.

Day 2 of GayRomLit was supposed to start out with a cemetery tour (for me, at least). Unfortunately, it was not to be. Although a few of us gathered at the trolley station, there was no trolley. Eventually, we gave up and wandered back.

Dear fucking god, the captioning feature on WordPress sucks ass!!! It screws up the formatting of the rest of the post. Damn you WordPress!!!!!

Okay. Now that I’ve had my fit, I’ll continue, and just put the info after the pictures.

Amber Kell with her DH, and Ellis Carrington, hanging out with a cast iron butcher.

Me, stroking some hard meat. (Bad joke. I know.)

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I know I said I’d do this when I was back home, but we do have several hours sitting here in the Chicago train station, so I decided to get something posted. Now, let me start out with a couple of disclaimers:

1. If I post your picture and you don’t want it posted, just email me and I will gladly take it down. Or if you want me to simply remove your name from the picture, I’ll do that, too.

2. There are some people whose names I don’t remember. It sucks, because in several cases, they’re people I talked to multiple times and even sat next to. I sincerely apologize to you if I’ve forgotten your name AGAIN. Please don’t take it personally. I just have a HORRIBLE memory when it comes to names. Also, I have an insane head cold and am loaded up on various meds right now, so I feel like my brain is mush. I’m going to put a “?” where I draw blanks. If you know the person’s name, please shoot me an email or leave a comment so I can fix it.

Having said that, I shall begin:

Day 1 began (as most mornings to) with breakfast. We found this little hole-in-the-wall coffee shop, The Royal Blend. Look how bright-eyed and bushy-tailed we look! Hmm. I think I remember what it felt like to have that much energy. Anyway, here we are at the cafe:

It turns out that this Colorado girl severely misjudged the New Orleans climate. I had on jeans, and it quickly became evident that I was going to fall over dead from the heat. So Heidi and I went shopping, and I bought a couple of great little dresses which were MUCH cooler than what I had on. Here are some random photos from our wandering:

After that, it was on to lunch, where I accidentally ordered a sandwich bigger than my head (most of which ended up in my lap).

Then it was back to the hotel for the opening gala, sponsored by MLR Press. (And because WorPress’s captioning sucks ass, I’ll just make notes at the bottom.)

(Top to bottom, we have: the greatest cake ever; me and Dolorianne by the pool; “?” and Marguarite Labbe, Kate McMurray; JP Barnaby, Lara Brukz, and Ethan Stone; Damon Suede holding court; Ethan Stone.

After that, I went and had a lovely dinner with the Total E-Bound crew. I met several great people, including JP Bowie, and my TEB editor, Stacey. I spent most of the night babbling at Carol Lynne, Amber Kell, and Jaime Samms, all of whom are absolutely fabulous.

As the dinner was wrapping up, Heidi and Ethan both texted me to ask if I was coming to the Juke Joint Junket which had been arranged by several of the male authors. The Total E-Bound group was gathering, and when Heidi sent a text that said “NAKED MEN NO SHIT!!!”, we all rushed off at top speed to the bar, where we did indeed find naked men. Here’s one of them.

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We are currently on our way home from New Orleans. I know. We were supposed to keep a running update, and that was our intention. But man, were we busy! The days started at 7:00 am and lasted until 1 (or 2 or 3) in the morning. Plus, we both have colds now. I personally am a big walking ball of snot (yes, it is exactly as lovely as it sounds).

The good news is, we have TONS of pictures, so as soon as I get home, I’ll start putting together a post and sharing all of the fun things we did. Also, Heidi has some more video to post. Hopefully she’ll get to that in a few days.

Next year’s GayRomLit will be held in Albuquerque, so for those who didn’t make it this year, start planning now. We look forward to seeing you all again in October 2012!

We’re in NOLA!

Arrived around 3 yesterday afternoon and came to the hotel, which is stunning beautiful, as is everything in the French Quarter.

Narrow streets, intricately delicate architecture buildings, and everything very old. We checked in and headed across the street to ? and had some wine with Rowan. We were shortly joined by ZA Maxfield and Belinda McBride.

Eventually we went to dinner, picking up JP Barnaby.

We ate at Old Coffee Pot Gumbo, because it had something for everyone, plus a drag queen performance.

Then we went to help stuff bags.

Marie went to bed after that, and I wandered up and down Bourbon Street for a little while. Soaked up the atmosphere, bought my daughter a green sparkly hat, and met Marquis and Edgar, two brothers from Virginia down to see NOLA for the first time. We walked a bit more then sat at the hotel bar and had Stella, Dunhills, and hits of the Jameson’s in my flask before eventually Edgar pointed out, “You’re lookin’ tired,” and so I was. Went to bed and slept like a rock.

Woke to Marie peering over the menu which had been placed on our beds, lamenting there was no room service. “They have this menu, but it’s for the dining room.” I told her to look in the binder on the desk, but there was nothing there.

Then I read the menu from the card on our beds. Right at the top: IN-ROOM DINING.

The danish, yogurt and granola, fresh fruit, juice, and pot of coffee were excellent, even if they did forget the cream and had to bring it separate.

Here we are, en route to New Orleans! We are now in Mississippi, and I wish I had a recording of the train steward saying “Mississippi,” because it’s almost like music. Also, he just made me rather funky Bloody Mary. (For the record, Bloody Marys don’t go well with Snickers.)

Anyway, let me back up. Of course the last few days have been spent packing. Here is my kitty, being helpful as always.

Behind him, on my monitor, you will see the lovely young man who is inspiring Cody in my current WIP, but that’s a story for another day.

I left for Denver on Monday afternoon. Imagine my surprise when I arrived at Union Station in Denver to find it deserted! It turns out they moved they train station. Yes. You read that right. They moved the god damn train station. The funny thing was, the Amtrak people all acted as if we should have known. Because, you know, train stations move often. Anyway, I eventually found the new train station and found this, which I thought was cool. It somehow confirmed for me that we are supposed to be on this train.

So, now that we ARE on the train, what have we been up to? Mostly, just sitting here, and riding, and watching the landscape roll by. We spent a few hours yesterday in Chicago, but didn’t do much. We do have a few pictures of the train station and the surrounding area.

Rowan Speedwell joined us last night, right before I became horizontal and comatose. We had a lovely breakfast this morning, where I think we talked poor Rowan’s ear off. We also took some video which may or may not be of interest. We’ll link that up as soon as it’s ready.

Now we have showered and are refreshed and looking at least a bit more human than we did. We’ve parked ourselves in the observation car (where there are outlets) in order to bring you this breaking news.

We arrive in NOLA later this afternoon. We shall endeavor to take more pictures then.

Marie has found the way to get me to blog: post unflattering pics of me when I don’t.