Eric Slick and Project Object - The Tour Begins! But first...breaking news...

PHAZE TITLES NOW IN BORDERS STORES!

Phaze is pleased to announce that our paperback titles are now available in Borders stores nationwide. Readers may now find Fairy Godlover by Devi Sparks, Truth or Dare by Leigh Ellwood, and Three Days in New York City by Robin Slick in the romance and erotica section of their local store! Bedtime Stories by Madeleine Oh and Hot Off the Presses by Trixie Stilletto will be arriving shortly!

So yep, it's true. If you have an immediate urge to buy Three Days in New York City by yours truly or any of the other above mentioned Phaze titles, all you have to do now is visit your local Borders. I know I blurbed it here when I first got the news a few weeks ago, but it's now on the front page of my publisher's website.

Okay, then. Let's see if I can set up a reading at our downtown Borders megastore. (Easier said than done, I'm told, but I have a plan...)

And um, I can just see me on my upcoming trip to New England.

"Err...is that a Borders? Hang on, I want to run in and see if they have my book!"

And if they do, of course I'll probably immediately do some guerilla marketing - meaning, I'll pull out some copies and put them somewhere prominent in the store.

Sigh...causing me and my books to probably forever be banned from Borders for life.

Haha - and if god forbid they do not have my book in stock at that particular Borders...well, then I will go hassle the 17 year old kid behind the information desk.

"I wish to register a complaint!"

Wait until he/she looks me up on the computer and realizes, hey, I have a real live erotica queen right here in front of me! After which I will race over to the table of literary fiction and calmly leaf through the 2005 Best American Short Story Collection and smile sweetly while he/she checks their inventory further.

Speaking of erotica, yep, I finished my "Samba" yesterday -- managed to stop myself at around 7,000 words -- and already subbed it. Of course typical me, I've been writing for Phaze for almost two years and didn't think I had to look at the formatting guidelines. So of course I complete it, go to mail it off, and realized when I checked the website for the submission address that I'd formatted it all wrong.

But explain something to me. When I highlight the entire story, hit select all, and then make the format change, why do only some sentences indent? Arghh...I must have spent two hours manually correcting things. I didn't realize that as per the guidelines at Phaze you couldn't use tabs to indent, and naturally, every single one of my paragraphs was in fact a tabbed indent. What I needed was a .03 indent with no tabs. I was so frustrated when I couldn't get it to work by hitting select all with that in mind! So I ended up having to line up every single sentence on the left with no indents or tabs, copy it to another blank new document, and then do the select all thing with the .03 left indent.

Well, valuable lesson learned. Next time I go to submit anywhere, I'll fucking memorize the guidelines before I type my first word.

Oh, and here's the best news. After reading it over like ninety times before sending it, once I did sub it I of course had to read it one final time and saw right away that I'd used the same phrase twice on one page and almost had a heart attack. I actually wrote to my publisher and alerted them. Hopefully they had a good laugh at how neurotic I am -- at least someone should get a smile out of my pain.

Grrr...since I gave up on the idea of the writing cabin, I at least need an assistant for these things! Formatting and making sure I don't use the same word seventeen times, that is.

Just kidding, just kidding.

You know what I think is interesting? People who have assistants for research when they write. I know most famous writers do, but I love research and it's one of my favorite parts about the process. I actually know of a delusional woman who not only refuses to do research for her novels, she brags about it. And then of course wonders why her books aren't published. Christ, I even do research for erotica. I don't know half the stuff that's out there in the way of sexual aids, toys, etc. and while making stuff up is the great joy of writing fiction, I don't give a shit how smart or creative you are, you still need to research certain things and if you don't, it's blatantly obvious and you're fooling no one let alone editors.

Anyway, getting back to THREE DAYS IS AVAILABLE AT BORDERS! THREE DAYS IS AVAILABLE AT BORDERS!...it's good that I'm happy about something, because while as you all know how thrilled I am that tonight begins Eric's tour with Project Object, outside of this weekend when I visit him in Vermont and Massachusetts, it will be another month before I see him again.

Eric, as I've mentioned, is the world's coolest kid and well, he'll be 19 so he's technically an adult but even before he reached that age, I've used him as a sounding board for a lot of adult issues and he's pretty wise about a lot of things. And most importantly, he's a hell of a lot calmer and easy going than anyone else in this family.

Soo...the tour. It's really hitting me now. Load in to the World Cafe for the band is at 3:00 p.m. and this will be the first time in fifteen years there won't be a drum set in my living room...everything is packed in their cases and ready to rock.

Sob...I guess I'd better get used to it though I can't imagine a house without a million musical instruments and since Eric has three sets of drums, when he does decide to move out I'm gonna make him leave a set here. Otherwise I'm going to turn into a loony middle aged interior decorator woman and put a lounge chair or some other piece o'nonsense in the empty space and we just can't have that!

And of course I'm way, way excited that Julie Slick will be performing on bass tonight with Project Object as well. When they were little, they made a pact that they'd always be in a band together, but of course they grew up and their musical interests/tastes are in different directions and while it breaks my heart because they are such wonderful musicians, especially when they are a band's rhythm section, I know I have to let go of that fantasy. But for old time sake...



Heh. I just realized I get to take a whole new slew of pics tonight of the two of them together on stage for who knows, what may be a final time. Though I keep saying that and then something magical occurs so I refuse to give up hope.

One more time, I'm posting the Project Object tour information. If you are reading this in a city where they will be and you write to me, even if I wasn't planning on attending that show, I may reconsider. If I like you, that is. Ha.



You know what's really cool? The tour t-shirts are going to look just like that, olive green with red and yellow. Think I'll buy a hundred or so? Ha! I doubt Eric's name will be on it individually, but God forbid it is...then I'll be buying a thousand of them. I'm just a little proud...

So, that's it for now. Eric slept at his girlfriend's house last night since they won't be seeing each other for a while and I'm busy doing his wash (Oh, I'll do it, Mom...cough cough) after which I want to run to the store and buy him yet more supplies I started thinking he'll be needing.

Expect lots of photos and stories tomorrow! (I have to get this all in now because when I leave for New England for three days this weekend, I will be internet free. Oh my god, can you imagine my post when I return on Tuesday? It will probably be a mini-series!)

Anyway, I'm off. Hope to see a lot of you at the show tonight!

Later,
xo