Star studded post with many items!

Yesterday I was listening to the radio and the song "Angie" came on, with that line, "...no money in our coats..."

I've always loved that line--the precise detail of it. The people in that song are desolate and down on their luck, and wouldn't carry wallets. They would just stick money in their pockets. But somehow, coats is way better than pockets. Coats makes more of a desolate picture. Walking outside in the cold. No money in their coats. I love a good detail like that.

Ambiguity, pits of moral decay and Murder by the Book!!
Bookseller extraordinaire John is wrangling a really fun series of author interviews over on Murder by the Book's very lively bookseller blog. Gail Carriger was there last month, and I'm over there today, discussing ambiguity, pits of moral decay and the characters I'd enjoy lunching with. Come visit!!

Three cool aspects of Romcon
I'm back from Romcon, which was SO fun. It was wonderful in several ways -

• One, to meet people in real life that I've gotten to know online, like on twitter, or from their blogs, email, facebook. Including my Romcon roomie, RRRJessica. Remember the days when it was super creepy to meet somebody online, and then go travel somewhere to meet them? Not anymore. Well, at least not in this genre. Real life meetings in this genre appear to be fully decreepified.
• Two, it was also amazingly fun to meet readers who enjoyed Mind Games!! It's impossible to put it into words, how much that means to an author.
• Three, the feeling of camaraderie. There were so many times when I would be somewhere by myself, like having coffee or whatever, and end up sitting by people I'd never met, whether readers or authors, and we'd instantly have things in common. Everybody was so welcoming to everybody else. (By contrast, this week, here at home, I attended this event where I barely knew anybody, and it was really hard to be alone there, and I felt stupid and left.) Romcon was the total opposite of that. I loved that. I hope everybody there had that experience.
• Four: being surrounded by tons of people and never once feeling weird about the picture on the cover of the book in my hands.

Double Cross
I am so excited for Double Cross to come out. There is this scene in the movie SEVEN, when Kevin Spacey is this horrible serial killer, and he is riding in the back seat of a cop car with Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman, and he knows that Brad and Morgan are about to discover something terrible he has done, and Kevin Spacey, being the deranged person he is, is so excited that he is rocking back and forth a little bit.

I always thought that was such a brilliant stroke of acting genius, the way Kevin Spacey was like a kid who can't contain himself, because he's so psyched, rocking minutely in his seat. Sometimes that's how I feel about Double Cross coming out--I feel a little like rocking back and forth in my computer chair. Except, er, not like a serial killer who is hoping Brad Pitt to flies into a murderous rage; it's more that I'm excited for the book to come out. For the excitingness of the story continuing.

Around the blogosphere:
Jeanne Stein, author of the amazing Anna Strong Chronicals, has an excellent piece with photos over in "Where Stories are Made" at Book Chick City. Really fun! And Tor.com is running a fantastic story of hers: The Ghost of Leadville!

Also...

• Win a Double Cross ARC over at Not-Really-Southern Vamp Chick's here, or a copy of Mind Games here!
• You can get secret tidbits about Mind Games characters and win a copy of MG, plus a bookmark and chocolates, at Livin' & Lovin' Life Reviews!
• Don't forget to visit Murder by the Book! Come say hi!
• Oh, my goodness, do you notice anything new over on the pull-ups progress bar?