Unusual Historicals and Cocktails with SEP

Two completely unrelated topics, of course. I’m over at Unusual Historicals discussing the movie adaptation of John Woo’s Red Cliff in light of the historical events of the Three Kingdoms Period.

Unusual Historicals: Movie Adaptations – Red Cliff

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On a more exciting note, I actually went out yesterday! I got dressed in something besides my workout clothes. I even wore heels. There were cocktails and those little hors d’oeuvres on little platters.

Oh, and I got to meet Susan Elizabeth Phillips and a roomful of her wonderful SEPPIES. Here’s me and Amanda Berry mugging it up with SEP and her new book Call Me Irresistable (of which I have an autographed copy!!)

Group pic where of course I decided to make a weird face. Keep your day job Jeannie. Keep your day job.

Turns out we had a full on dinner and not just cocktails. I learned that apparently it’s tacky to post food pics. Wha..wha…what?!? Those are my favorite pics on the Internet!

Of course, I learned this from Susan as we both pulled our cameras to take a picture of the dessert:

Ten minutes later, this dessert no longer existed in this world. It was “fight-off-the-wait-staff-so-I-could-scrape-the-plate” good. “How’s the diet going this week?” my trainer asked this morning. “Oh, awful,” I said proudly, as my thoughts strayed to this lovely little plate.

Here’s my tip: If you’re ever going to a Susan Elizabeth Phillips signing or event, bring the cute shoes because there’s a traditional “Shoe Shot”. My little gray Anne Kleins are nice, but didn’t photograph very well. I should have busted out the candy red Jessica Simpson Ruby Slippers, eh? (It is absolutely fair game to whip out the shoe just for the shoe shot.)

A really lovely night with a wonderful author and warm, friendly people. I laughed a lot, talked all sorts of books, and ate everything in sight.

Sorry for the news leak!

So, I noticed several people following links for “The Midnight Chamber” to my page. I was testing out my a new book listing and apparently somehow posted something to all the RSS feeds. So sorry for the bait and switch!

For the few that were wondering, I’m trying to work on my webpage in the background. I also have some book news that I was hoping to post officially when titles get firmed up. But here’s the skinny for now:

September 2011 – Dream of the Midnight Chamber (Title TBD) from Harlequin Historical Undone

October 2011 – The Dragon and the Pearl from Harlequin Historical

The Midnight Chamber (title TBD) is a short story which is linked to The Dragon and the Pearl. Just as with The Taming of Mei Lin and Butterfly Swords, you can read them both independently. But I hope reading both enhances the experience.

There is also one more Tang Dynasty short scheduled tentatively for release this summer in case you can’t wait to revisit 8th century China. More info as the details firm up and please excuse my tinkering around with the page.

You’ll notice the dates also parallel the release of Butterfly and Mei Lin. In the words of Yogi Berra, “It’s deja vu all over again.”