Here are some highlights from the DC trip

When last we chatted I was on my way to Washington, DC for the RWA National Conference. I didn't blog that week - even though I had my computer with me. It was just too busy, I guess. So here are some of the pics I took while in DC.

To the left is the DC metro. My roommate, Kelly Maher and I rode it to head for the Library of Congress and the "heart of power" in DC. I was really impressed with the metro station, but dang you'd better move fast when you're in there. Locals have someplace to go and they want to get there...fast.

Our first stop was the Library of Congress. Naturally. I mean, I AM a librarian. LOL

The library was as impressive as I expected it to be. The staff who led the tour were very nice and extremely knowledgeable. All the buildings in DC are beautiful, but I looked around the library and tried to imagine working in such a beautiful location. I'd never get anything done.

See what I mean? This hallway to the left is on the second floor and the entire place is like that. Beautiful paintings. Amazing mosaics. Marble. Woodwork. Just really stunning.

I was incredibly impressed by a mosaic of Minerva. All of the images in the library are dedicated to learning, wisdom and how the two together make democracy run better. But the mosaic work on this piece made my eyes pop out. I had to climb up after the tour so I could get a good look (and a close up pic) of it.

Yes, the image is as shiny as it looks to the right. The gold is...I think...real gold. It sure looked like it to me. This art piece is astonishingly beautiful and it's huge.

If you ever get the chance to visit Washington, D.C. do NOT miss a chance to visit the Library of Congress. It's fascinating and beautiful.

From there, Kelly and I split up. She had an appointment elsewhere on Tuesday so I decided to wander across the street (yes, across the STREET) to the Capitol building. It's even more impressive than I thought it would be. The place is freaking huge.

And yes, for political junkies like me the picture on the left was pretty cool. Why? You may well ask. I think...only think mind you...that the dude in the suit with the grey hair is Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts. I didn't go wandering too close because there were a bunch of cars there and guys who looked like bodyguards surveying the crowds. Still I'm pretty sure I'm right. Notice the lady in the white shirt and grey shorts? She appears to be holding up a camera to take a picture. Or at least shading her eyes to get a better look. It was quite neat to be there where the business of government happens but since I was alone, I was too chicken to go inside. When I go back to DC - and I am going to go back - I will try to figure out where to go inside to "meet my congressmen" though I'm not entirely sure they will want to meet me if they don't manage to pass a health care reform bill with a public option in it.

And to prove I was REALLY there...here's a pic of me with the Capitol building in the background. No, it is not a backdrop. There are more pictures of DC but I'll post them another day. This blog is already long enough.

Suffice it to say, it was an extraordinary experience that I want to experience again. Preferably, when I am not attending a conference at the same time. To really see the city and all the amazing sites therein, I would have to spend an entire week there doing nothing but visiting the sites and I STILL might not see everything. Just...wow.

~ Protect and Defend ~ book video

In my preparations for Romanticon, I wanted to get a book video completed for Protect and Defend. I wasn't sure how to complete one myself so the kind and talented Fran Lee created a wonderful one for me.

She did a wonderful job with it. I hope you like it.

Protect and Defend is in PRINT!

I just went to the Jasmine Jade site to see what books were available on sale...MINE IS!!! Protect and Defend is out in trade paper and on sale for $15. OMG. I can't believe it. Like wow!

Protect and Defend in trade paper at Jasmine Jade Enterprises.

Holy smokes!

RWA Conference fast approaches.

Greetings all,
The RWA National Conference is quickly approaching and I'm nervous and feeling out of sorts. I haven't really gotten myself together and I leave on Sunday. Robin Rotham is going to pick me up as she passes through Iowa and by the end of the trip we will either adore or loathe one another. :-) I'm voting for the former. I think Robin is a pretty cool chick AND an excellent writer.

Still, when I attended RWA two years ago I was so much more organized than I am this year. I feel like a chicken with my head cut off...flopping around mindlessly while people wait for me to wind down before they throw me in the pot for supper. Yeah - it's a rather grim kind of metaphor but it fits.

I'm looking forward to touring Washington D.C. though. I've never been in the nation's capitol before so I'm planning to hit all the sites. Or as many as I can get to between conference sessions and parties. I'm planning to visit the Library of Congress and the Holocaust Museum. I want to see all the monuments. Washington, Lincoln, VietNam, WWII, etc. If I can manage it, I want to visit the National zoo too. Not sure about that one though. I'm going to take a ton of pics - that much is certain.

Happy 4th of July!

Nope - not traveling this year. I'm home and relaxing. I woke up this morning hearing all kinds of sirens and realized the parade had started down town. It was nice sleeping in.

So to all fellow U.S. Citizens - Happy Independence Day!

To everyone else - hey, have a great day!

Save the School of Gallantry

I want to welcome my guest today, Delilah Marvelle. She's the author of Mistress of Pleasure and the soon to be released, Lord of Pleasure.

***

When I was in high school, I had a dream. I was going to be the next Stephen King. Heh. Yeah. Stay with me. Please. I knew my ideas were fabulous and I knew all it would take is for an editor to look at it and they would offer me up the moon and the stars and best of all, a contract. I had my girlfriends read everything I wrote. And they kept telling me, “This is fabulous! It's SO funny! Hilarious!” Seeing it really wasn't supposed to BE funny, I immediately changed course realizing I actually had a better handle on being funny than scary. I also figured adding a romance into it would even make it better since that is what I loved to read.

I then entered college as an English major. I was going to be teacher and write during the summers. Even then I was a smart girl who knew I wasn't going to make jack and that I needed a job to support the “creative” one. Throughout all of college I wrote historical romances. One right after another. And kept submitting. And submitting. And submitting. And kept getting rejected and rejected and rejected. In the meantime, I got married. I had two kids. I joined RWA. I got critique partners. I did honed and honed and honed the crap out of my writing. And kept writing and getting rejected. I eventually racked up over 200 rejections and had written over 40 books in those 11 years of trying to get published.

When I finally sold my first historical romance, MISTRESS OF PLEASURE, and my second book, LORD OF PLEASURE, I was beside myself. It didn't feel real. To FINALLY arrive at a destination I had been traveling toward for 11 long years seemed like a mirage. Which fortunately, I quickly snapped out of. Because after all, most of my friends are all published and unpublished writers and the stories they all have told me throughout the years made me realize I had to fight with fists up for myself every step of the way. I knew publishers did little to no promotion for their authors, so I spearheaded my own promo, ready to be more than just an author. And even though I was budgeting very well and spending countless hours networking and promoting on websites and blogs, doing tons for free, I still ended up spending $7,000 on my first book. Which was way more than my advance. But hey, every business starts in the red. Right?

Then the reviews started coming in about my series set in 1830 London England about a school that educates men on the topic of love and seduction. People loved it! Wow. It got nominated for awards. Wow. Readers are e-mailing me raving. Wow. Readers from France, Austria, Poland, South Africa and from all over the U.S and the world.. Wow. It just kept getting better and better. I was beginning to feel as if every penny I spent was all worth it (even though my family and I weren't going on any vacations and were eating out of cans). Because all that mattered was that my publisher loved me and my readers loved my series.

Come contract time, I'm ready for whatever they wanna throw at me. Or so I thought. Mistress of Pleasure, though completely sold out and unavailable anywhere (unless it's a used copy, some going for a ridiculous amount of $40.00), hadn't done as well as my publisher had hoped. So without waiting for the second book to come out to see if the series was even worth saving, I get a rejection from my own editor citing lack of sales.

I have to say this rejection felt more personal than any of the other two hundred and some rejections I'd received. Because it was no longer “Your book isn't good enough” it became “Your sales aren't good enough.” Since when is an author supposed to be a market guru AND a fabulous writer? Eck.

I love this series. The men in it make me laugh and it broke my heart to think that my readers will never get a chance to read about Lord Brayton, my glorious male virgin. The only alpha virgin I've ever written about. Then I realized something, why I am letting a publisher decide what is worth holding on to? Shouldn't that be a reader's job?

Ah. Herein lies the purpose of my post. I am challenging everyone, be they readers or writers to help me do something that's never been done before. Save a series from a death sentence given by a publisher. Can it be done? Who knows. But I eat challenges for breakfast and I hope you do to. Please join me in saving my series. Come August 4th, tell everyone you know (yes, even your 72 year old grandfather) to buy the book, Lord of Pleasure. In doing so, you'll have a chance to win one of three $50 Visa Gift Cards. How? Check out my website for details at http://www.delilahmarvelle.com/

That said, thank you for all the support and love everyone has already shown me by allowing me to blog about this. Feel free to post and repost this to everyone under the moon and the stars. To all you readers out there, thank you for supporting us writers. To all you writers out there, don't ever give up on your writing. The moment you do, you give up on yourself. Which is why I'm not giving up on my series.

Cheers and much love,
Delilah Marvelle

Blogging at Seduced by History today

Visit Seduced By History where I'm blogging today about The Book of Hours in the Middle Ages. Back in grad school I took a fab class called the "Transition from Manuscript to Print." It was about the history of the book in the Middle Ages. I loved the class and learned a lot. One of the perks of this class was the opportunity to see manuscript and incunabula - early some of the first printed books. For this class I did a comparison between a manuscript Book of Hours and early printed one. I took a ton of pictures to illustrate my paper. It was great fun.