Bonbons Dipped in Chocolate Fondue

This is so freaking cool--- you know who the Dabel Brothers are right? They're the ones who adapted Laurell Hamilton's Guilty Pleasures into a comic book series (now owned by Marvel, but I've collected them all from day one). Well they've announced they've cut a deal with Patricia Briggs to create a comic series PREQUEL to her Mercy Thompson series! Read about it at Newsarama. Those damn Dabel Brothers are going to turn me into a full-out comic geek before too long.

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Zipped down to Border's the other night because they FINALLY called and said my Karen Marie Moning's Kiss of the Highlander audio book was in. Weird, because usually when I preorder through Border's Beta site it's waiting for me on release day. Well, at least I got it in time to get me through the next couple of weeks-- end of month crunch AND end of fiscal year. BLECH! Somehow I don't think it's going to last me until Dark Highlander releases in March.

Oh, and I'm such a fangirl that Sybil took pity on me and let me do a spotlight post for "Kiss" over on TGTBTU. Next time you are over there, check the Coming Attractions on the front page, it WAS the first one listed but Syb decided that the TGTBTU's exclusive on the first 4 chapters of Meljean Brook's upcoming new book, Demon Night, was more important and refused to make "Kiss" a permanent front page feature. *sniffle*

While I was at Borders, I picked up the January print releases and at least one February release (see sidebars). I also picked up the trade re-issue of Bertrice Small's Skye O'Malley. My old paperback copy literally has pages that flutter out of it.

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I finally got around to making my hotel reservations for the RT Con in Pittsburgh. I still haven't decided if I'm actually going, but I figure I can always cancel the reservation since, unlike the Con registration fee, it won't cost me anything if I change my mind. Besides, making my own reservation means that I can get into the Executive Tower where I'll have access to the Executive lounge-- the one place where I'm virtually guaranteed to find food. That may seem like a weird statement, but trust me when I tell you that going hungry is par for the course at the Con. Particularly since this one doesn't have the daily breakfast and lunch mixers that they had in Daytona in 2006-- not that what the Daytona Hilton served was exactly edible, you understand, but when you're starving, it just doesn't matter. Plus, Pittsburgh's April weather isn't going to be anywhere NEAR as pleasant for walking excursions as the Daytona beach walk was, so heading out to forage for food at nearby restaurants will not be fun. Piece of advice for RT Con noobs--- bottled water, fruit, crackers, etc. in your room will become the most important part of your Con stay.

I already convinced my husband that it would make more sense for him to just drop me off at the Hilton instead of driving myself and paying the ridiculous parking fees. It'll only take him about 15 minutes longer than dropping me off at the airport would be. At least that's the reason I gave him. In reality, it saves me trying to navigate downtown Pittsburgh by myself. Downtown Pittsburgh is confusing as hell-- one way streets, which aren't unusual for cities, but stop at a traffic light and then realize that you can't go forward because the one way street you're on is now a one way street coming from THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION! ACK!

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Speaking of Rt Con...

I have to say that ONE of the big reasons I'm not anywhere near as excited about this one as I was with Daytona is because of the high cheese factor. There's going to be a cover model reunion, complete with a $100 per head "Dinner with the Cover Models". There's even a "Pose Down" in Club RT on Thursday. UGH! Now, I likes me some eye candy as much as the next pervy old broad, but it doesn't get any cheesier than Fabio and John DeSalvo. I swear, if I were to run into one of them, I don't think I would be able to stop myself from laughing. They are such caricatures-- walking cartoons. And they probably douse themselves in cologne so I'd be sneezing and coughing while laughing and probably end up peeing my pants. Do I really want to expose myself to that kind of humiliation?

Another reason I'm not sure if I'm going is because there just aren't as many interesting things going on as there was in Daytona. It's really kind of a bland schedule. What's up with that? And the few that sound interesting are, of course, scheduled at the same time. Figures. Or maybe it's just seems ho-hum because Daytona was a first for me and it had the added draw that Laurell Hamilton was on several panels.

I suppose I should decide soon if I'm going. At least I don't have to worry about costumes for the balls-- I'll just wear my vampire and faery costumes from Daytona. Assuming my fat ol' self can still fit into them. Well shit, if I decide to go, that means resuming daily visits to the gym to work off all those Peanut M&Ms.

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I've said before that I read very few non-paranormal, straight contemporary romances. Once a story is set in the real world, I expect it to follow real world rules and most contemps just aren't realistic enough for me, but they aren't fantasy enough to serve as escapist fun either. Yes, of course there are exceptions. However, I've found that the relationship dynamics in contemporary gay romance stories usually end up being closer to the friendship based relationships that are often a part of real life STRAIGHT relationships. But thanks to Teddy Pig, one of my favorite gay romance themes-- "I didn't know I was gay!"-- may forever be lost as a source of enjoyment to me. *sniffle*

As you may remember, Teddypig and I teamed up to review Claire Thompson's The Perfect Cover over on TGTBTU. Well, Teddy's now expanded on his thoughts about "I didn't know I was gay" storylines over on his own blog. So now, because of Teddy's insight, I just KNOW I'm going to start being overly critical of gay contemps and will be expecting them to follow real world rules, too. *sigh* Yeah, yeah, I know-- I've now gained new insight and understanding of a group of my fellow human beings. But, DAMN... I lurved me the "I didn't know I was gay!" storylines!

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Last week over on the Bradford Bunch, Marissa Scott posted "six reasons why you should think before you speak". If you are in need of a good screaming laugh, head over and read it.