Summer is coming fast, and by now most of us are trying to firm up our summer plans. I’ve opted not to go to any of the other romance conferences in the country this year and instead plan to stay home and attend RomCon. For once, everyone will be coming to the Mile High State.
Unlike the other conferences, RomCon is strictly about readers and connecting readers with writers. It's going to make for a unique conference experience, I think, and it will also be a lot of fun.
I'm going to be participating in a few events, and I have organized an event of my own, the Pamela Clare Reality Tour. Based on a tour that I took a couple of friends on a few years back, the tour will take readers who sign up to see places mentioned in the I-Team books.
Here are some of the places we may visit: Downtown Denver; Aurora, which was Julian’s stomping ground; Eldorado Canyon State Park to see a route called The Naked Edge on Redgarden Wall where Gabe was climbing when Kat fell; Boulder Mountain Parks, where we might go on a brief hike led by one of my Ranger friends; a cement plant (we won't go in); and Rocky Mountain National Park.
What, I ask you, is the point of being in Colorado if you don't get to see real mountains?
There is only room for 10 people to join me on the tour. I’ll be driving the van and narrating as we go. There will be lots of time for questions. And if people have flexible schedules, we might even get to eat out at a restaurant in Estes Park.
The PC Reality Tour is tentatively scheduled for Friday, July 9, so those who want to be a part of it will need to make sure they’re in Denver by that morning. We take off at noon and come back depending upon when people want to be back. If we get time, we’ll visit my rose garden where I putter when I need a break from writing.
So I hope some of you will be there! There is a sign-up form on the RomCon Web site.
NEW Shackling bill update 4/30: The Senate Appropriations Committee voted unanimously early this morning to strike the fiscal note from the shackling bill and then passed the bill unanimously. It looked for a moment like we were in trouble when the committee chair asked the Department of Corrections to testify. These meetings aren’t supposed to take testimony and only do so at the chair’s discretion. (Obviously, I wasn’t the only person having conversations with the senators behind the scenes this week.)
DOC tried to say the law wasn’t needed. The chair asked if anyone knew of any instance in which a woman was actually shackled during labor. Well, duh! Then one of the senators spoke up and reminded everyone that this was already discussed, that the bill covered the county and city jails as well as the state prison and so the bill is about more than DOC. Then he suggested DOC be made to come up with the money on its own and that a vote be held. And then it was done.
Hurrah!!!
So now the bill goes to the Senate floor for discussion/debate by the entire Senate. I expect it to pass there. And then we start from the beginning in the House. We have two weeks to repeat the same process and get it to the Governor. And I’m betting cash that’s where DOC turns next to kill the bill. So, I guess I need to schedule an appointment with the governor, aye?
Novel news: I’m in contract negotiations right now, and I hope to have really good news for you here in the next week or so. Stay tuned!
And sorry about burdening you with the sight of those sexy guys for so long. I’ve been running ragged and didn’t have time to update my blog till today.