Dragon was taken over by their competitor and the program that I loved went downhill fast, imho. I didn’t buy the upgrade when I upgraded to XP. Until yesterday, as a matter of fact, I didn’t even know that my new Vista machine had something very similar already installed!

So while the thunderstorms kept me offline (I had to shut down the cable modem and wireless router, but managed to sneak on the desktop between raindrops), I managed to set up and “train” my new voice recognition software and it’s just as good as my old Dragon program, if not better! In fact, there are some fun new functions that help you correct mistakes - which the program inevitably makes.

It’s a little scary to actually write using this, but I did soemthing to my wrist the other day when I was lifting something and I don’t have the luxury of time to let it heal. I’ve promised to send something to an editor by the end of next week and it’s going to be ready by then come hell, high water (we had that yesterday with the storms), or sprained wrists!

So any of you with Vista and a microphone headset, check out the voice recognition software built into the OS. It’s pretty freaking COOL!!!

In other news, I started plotting out the next book in my Resonance Mates series. Grady’s Awakening will be the long-awaited story of Grady Prime and his journey to feeling. Some interesting characters have already shown up and demanded to be put in his book, so I’m anticipating this will be a wild ride!

I’ve started Twittering and while I don’t have that much of interest to talk about right at the moment, I think Twitter will become a useful tool during conferences and such when I can do blast reports from various events. I’m new to the concept, but I think it’ll be fun. You can follow me at: http://twitter.com/biancadarc.

But the bigger news is that I’ll be doing a mini workshop here on the blog this Thursday, all about research. Some of you may know that I was a reference librarian in a former career (I have a lot of those), so research is something near and dear to my little nerdy heart.

The workshop will cover where to find the best information and strategies for how to use it. I’ll be answering questions posted in the comments, so we’ll be able to interact and I’ll also be giving away a free ebook to those who actually get up the gumption to comment.

We’ll be having Wallpaper Wednesday, as scheduled, then Thursday is the workshop post, so stay tuned!

Vampire fans may be interested to know that I’ve just sent in the new contract for One & Only to Samhain Publishing! It will most likely be releasing toward the end of this year, which I think will make more than a few people happy.

For those of you who don’t know, One & Only was the very first vampire story I ever wrote. It’s first incarnation was as a very short 3,500 word short story, but it spawned a whole series of increasingly longer novellas and novels. It first came out in 2006 and was quickly followed by Rare Vintage and Phantom Desires, both from the same, now-defunct publisher. The series moved over to Samhain in 2007 with Forever Valentine and then Sweeter Than Wine (which will be out in print this October).

One & Only is the story of Lissa and Atticus, both of whom make cameo appearances in subsequent stories. This book has been expanded from that original very short story to a full-fledged novella, coming in at over 23,000 words as it stands now, before edits. (We’re going to be expanding another scene, so it’s not finished growing yet!) As you can tell from the numbers, the story is vastly improved, over six times its original size. I hope all of those who’ve been asking me where it’s been for the past year or so will enjoy it!

Stay tuned for more news as it comes in, such as the anticipated release date and more news on the other currently out-of-print vampire stories.

The good news is, I’ll be spending July 4th at home. *whew!* That gives me a few days to get back on track and get some serious work done. I hope.

Of late, the muse has been rather silent — probably because I’ve been exhausted from all the traveling and seriously out of my “comfort zone.” But all the driving has given me a great deal of time to think. I don’t know about other writers, but I do some of my best plotting in the car. As the miles roll by, my mind works out all the little details of where I want to go with my books. It’s a fun way to pass the time, but it’s impossible to make notes.

So I’ll try to be a better blogger this month. Heck, it’s July 1st already? Where did June go??? Ack! I’d better get to work.

So yesterday, I planned to take an hour out of my writing schedule to clean up the hard drive and defrag it - you know, spruce up the place to hopefully let it limp along a little longer until I have time to buy a new computer and spend the WEEKS I’d need to get it up and running with all my software, peripherals and connectivity just the way I like it.

SEVEN HOURS later I finally went out - after an embarrassing meltdown witnessed by my family - and bought a new computer. I fired it up and tried to decipher that newfangled Vista thing. It’s going to take some getting used to.

I now have to clean my office (ACK!) and find a place to hook it up alongside the old system while I search for and locate my various software disks/downloads and load everything onto the new computer. I also have to hook up peripherals (I have a lot of those) and locate drivers/software (which is ALL over the place - I’m not very organized) for that. So if you hear screams and curses coming from the NY metro area, you know it’s me, trying to sort out this new computer.

And did I mention? I’m on a deadline.

Jaci was left hanging in the middle of her story while I finished edits on Perfect (my May ebook release from Tease), and FireDrake (my May ebook release from Samhain and the next of my Dragon Knights books) and then went to RT. Now I can devote time to Jaci and the story is really moving along again. I’ll be working on her book for the next two weeks or so, until I finish it. It’s getting to that really interesting part — at least for me! LOL. The part where I have to tie up all the little plot points I’ve been toying with throughout the story.

And there’s a new character in this book who is really blossoming into a larger-than-life personality. I’d planned to write only five books in this series, but I may just have to figure out a way to give him his own story in there somewhere. I can probably do it within the context of the planned books, but I’m toying with the idea of giving him a separate book of his own. We’ll see how it goes. Either way, you’ll be hearing more about “Wild Bill.”

I drove through a whole lot of rain to get to my half-way point - a family member’s home, where I am now. It’s nice to be in familiar surroundings and able to decompress a bit. The week was long and adventurous, but very good. I met some incredible people and learned a lot. I also got to sign a lot of books, posters, bags, T-shirts and other things. The two signings - the ebook fair on Wednesday and the book fair on Saturday were great successes!

Getting back on track here will be somewhat difficult, but once I catch up on sleep, things should look a bit easier. For now, I’m planning on going to sleep early!

When I finally got my books all checked in and legitimized, I returned to my table and found a gorgeous display - much better than I could have done on my own! I also found two small statuettes waiting for me from All Romance eBooks (ARe), commemorating the two awards I won a few weeks back from them - a Best Book of 2007 for Hara’s Legacy and a Best Author of 2007. I hadn’t known there would be statuettes involved, so it was a very pleasant surprise. They’re really pretty - with a sort of flame-y cut in the acrylic that makes it look very ARe-ish, since their logo always has those eye-catching orangey flames.

Club RT opened today and I had another hour or so chatting with folks and signing things. It was great fun! I also heckled some of my friends from Samhain at our Publisher Spotlight, then manned the publisher table in Club RT, giving away lots of goodie bags and chatting. Then we had the Fairy Ball tonight and the costumes were incredible. Actually, I was really impressed with the way the entire room was set up. The sparkly drapey things hanging from the ceiling were great, as was the lighting and the meal was very good indeed.

Tomorrow I’ll be giving a talk in the morning after starting off the day at Jacki Frank’s Muffin Mixer. Then it’s off to attend panels and do another appearance in Club RT. It’ll be nice to get the workshop out of the way so I can: #1 clear some of the MANY boxes out of my room & #2 relax! LOL.

I’ll try to check in again and let you know how it all goes, but for now, it’s time to get some shut-eye. Happy Friday!

In other news - I’ve been asked to escort Charlaine Harris around the sci fi con I’m attending next weekend (April 4-6). Pretty cool, huh? See, I’m local to the con and have gone to it for several years. Ms. Harris is a guest of honor and they like to make sure those folks have someone nearby to guide them to the right building/room - the con is held on the campus of Stony Brook, a very large SUNY (State University of New York) campus. You seriously need a map to figure out where you are. So I’m the talking map for the weekend. Plus, I get to be on a few panels with Ms. Harris and my friend, Michele Lang, as well as some very notable sci fi authors. It should be great fun! If you’re going to I-Con, look me up.

Happy Friday - hope you all have a great weekend!