Yep. I Still Want To Believe...

So I was itching.

I had to test myself.

This weekend I went to see X-Files: I Want To Believe

And the fact remains that yes,




















I'm still in love with Mulder.

The Interwebs return, More parties and readings with cool people...

So after a ridiculous charade with both Verizon and Optimum, and lots of service people clomping around our apartment, I finally have internet again.

But life has been going on, online or no.

Last night I tagged along to the Dallas BBQ (it's okay, they have sides for us vegetarians, and the largest glasses of cocktail in the world) for a lively evening with the lovely and extremely talented Ann Aguirre. Ann has the best cover art and titles ever.

Fa-bu-lous.

Great photos of our little shindig can now be found all over the glorious interwebs at:

SmartBitches (plus the always hysterical SB Sarah narrative)

RomanceNovel.tv - Had a great time meeting the tour-de-force Maria and Marisa!

Ramblings on Romance - I'm so glad to have a new blog to check out regularly! Thanks ladies!


And tonight I just got back from an incredible reading of selections from the Shirley Jackson canon. It was a benefit for the Shirley Jackson Awards for "outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic."

Remember "The Lottery" ?! Like, one of the most fabulously creepy short stories ever that leaves an indellible, scalded imprint on your brain? I forgot how GOOD her work is, and so influential!





It was an awesome evening with a ton of awesome people, authors, readers, industry professionals, not to mention meeting Peter Straub. ! and Jack Ketchum.




I love what we do. And I love the really cool people who do it.

I got to tell my Hero he's an inspiration...

So last night a dynamic and stylish quartet (Marianne, Jacob, Marcos and I) set off towards "Salvation." It was the one year anniversary of the club night.

And who did they bring in to guest DJ but Ronan Harris, of my most favorite band:
VNV Nation (Victory Not Vengeance).


VNV Nation creates gorgeous, sweeping, intoxicating music with epic, poetic lyrics.













(photo by Dirk Eusterbrook for the FuturePerfect album)


Even though I was totally stage-struck, I had to walk up to Mr. Harris and tell him that he's an inspiration. Because he is, and I don't ever miss an opportunity to tell someone that their art moves me.

The beautiful song "Beloved" has been a key inspiration in the Victorian fantasy novel my agent and I are trying to sell. As soon as I get a contract, I hope to obtain permission to quote a paragraph of the lyrics on the front page to give full credit and props to beauty.

So I told him that his song inspired a book. While I simply know it to be true, I guess that's a pretty good compliment. He was so gracious. He said that it was about the best compliment ever and that he was speechless. Full of earnest smiles and wonderful energy, isn't it just thrilling when one of your heroes turns out to be the nice, gracious, approachable and kind human being that you hoped they would be? In addition to being so talented? Wow. Definately one of life's highlights.

Moving, Radio Silence and Wonderful People...

Hello. I'm Leanna. And I'm a little frazzled. Moving into a new apartment in NYC is like preparing for world travel. Only there are no sightseeing pleasantries, only the hassle part of making arrangements and lots of heavy lifting. Particularly when it's a five floor walk up.

But we're in. We're living out of boxes and messy closets. Persebunny the fluffy white Bunny is adjusting slowly but surely and we're creatively hiding electrical cords from her unstoppable and hazardously curious teeth.

*danger danger*

We unpacked the microwave, installed the AC and put some curtains up. That's about it.

Oh, and did I mention there's no email access yet? Hence the radio silence. I feel like those who remain connected to the goings on of the 'interwebs' are light years ahead of me. I've been told I need to do Twitter. Okay, okay. *sigh* I need to keep up. But when you don't have a computer at your day job, keeping up is really, really hard. (Hence this internet cafe moment).

BUT a respite in all the madness: The incomparable Barbara Vey of Publisher's Weekly, who Drive-By-Videoed me at the Lori Foster Event and who is a constant delight. In town for ThrillerFest, she made some time for us (I love this photo, thanks Marianne's Blog!):












-Marianne Mancusi, Liz Maverick and Me-






And The Babs kindly blogged about us, which makes me feel super cool. You can hear about her NYC adventures (and about inadvertently talking her way into the Obama rally, really, I think she has superpowers) HERE. You can see the Rebels of Romance turn the tables on Babs and do a video of HER at Marianne's blog HERE.

Also met the lovely Sheila Clover English of Circle of Seven Productions, who is a genius at what she does- marketing and book-trailers extraordinaire- and happens to be really nice, fun and happens to live in the same tiny town that my college roommate was from, small world. Then the awesome Douglass Clegg showed up. COOL!

And now I must be off to Barnes & Noble and pick up some copies of DARK NEST that I ordered in for friends. I felt a little silly ordering my own book, but hey.

I may find myself back lurking at ThrillerFest again this weekend, I'm going to have to attend the whole conference next year since it seems so cool.