Category: Uncategorized

Okay, I have to say, and I mean this not in the way rock stars say it on stage at a concert or something like that, but Texas fans are the best fans. You guys were wonderful and made me feel so special and loved. This was probably my favorite book signing ever.

Now, allow me to be a completely freaky fan for a second. So far, on this wonderful, strange journey that is RT, I’ve collected tons of amazing autographs from authors who just should not ever talk to me because I’m way, way not worthy. I’ve picked up signed books from Rachel Caine, Vicki Petterson (who wrote that she’ll be in touch! Squee!), Keri Arthur (who gave me candy that makes me want to move to Australia), PC Cast, Gerry Bartlett, Lori G. Armstrong, Virginia OMG I CAN’T BELIEVE I MET HER Henley, Raven Hart, Mary Janice Davidson, Jim Butcher and OMG I CAN’T BELIEVE I MET HER AND ACTED LIKE A TOTAL GOOB Charlaine Harris.

I’ll have pictures from the conference to post on the website after I return home that proves at least some of these wild claims.

I have to say, I tried to be cool. I tried. But I’ve been meeting and talking with so many people that are just amazing in my genre and in others, and I feel like Cinderella. You know, if Cinderella was chubby and constantly begging for candy from strangers.

Having seen the awesome power of drunken writers and fans in large groups, I have to say this: People who go to this conference should be costumers for the movies. I’ve seen so many amazing costumes here, things I wouldn’t have even thought of for the themes. Granted, my imagination isn’t the broadest when it comes to things like “What would I wear to a medieval faery ball?” but just when I think I’m way, way too dressed up and should go back to the room and change, someone proves me very, very wrong. The Faery Ball costumes were amazing, the food was amazing, the program was a little hard to hear/see/experience with the over the excited voices, tinkling bells, and the veritable sea of wings, but it was an enjoyable evening over all.

This morning I have the daunting task of speaking on a panel with some of the best Urban Fantasy writers in the genre, and I am, naturally, very afraid that when it comes to my turn at the mic, I’ll say something that equates to “I like toast.” Because it has happened before, and I’ve found that personal history is likely to repeat. Over and over again.

…because I cleaned my office. It’s a miracle.

I tend to find that while I’m writing a book, my office is a nightmare of filth. I just finished writing book four and suddenly I was no longer blind to the seriously unsanitary conditions and precariously stacked empty diet coke cans teetering unsafely in the stagnant breeze.

Because I do not want to get Tetnus and also because I had nothing better to do, I cleaned up my office. It’s a banner day that comes about once a year, I think, so I’m going to celebrate with this post, which I will call:

Jenny’s Office: By The Numbers
(Distances are approximate. Void where prohibited.)

400 books of various genres and subjects
200 feet to Jenny’s doctor’s office from her office.
50 Disney trading pins
16 ugly unicorn statues, suncatchers, pictures and general bric-a-brac
14 decks of tarot cards
11 folios of sheet music
8 Bertrice Small novels
7 Earth, Wind and Fire albums
5 Musical instruments (trombone, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, Yamaha keyboard, bodhran)
4 quartz crystals
3 Little Apple Dolls
2 pictures of Herman Melville
1 crystal ball

Other assorted clutter includes various wigs and hats, a framed steak knife and a cross stitched sampler of my favorite phrase “Nevermind, I’ll do it myself” translated into Scots Gaelic.

How does this enviroment, when free from dirty dishes, empty cheetos bags and discarded black jelly beans, help me focus my scattered creative energy and funnel my ideas into one, cohesive fictional vision?

I have no idea.

In fact, I’m sure that if I was mauled by bears at a camp out and dragged off into the night, the family member assigned to sorting through my things and putting my affairs to order will probably give up half way through the job, shaking their head and saying, “It’s a good thing she died, because she was clearly insane.”

There was a point to this. Probably some Virgina Wolf-esque, room-of-one’s-own type thing.

My office is clean! Wheee!

I’m also bad at keeping up a blog. But that’s because I’m on a deadline, dangit.

I’m bad at technology. I cannot install Flash player on my computer for some reason. Oh, it says it is installed. It lies. Like a rug.

I also can’t navigate the murkey depths of amazon.com, either. I tried to make a comment on a review there (for my own book, which was probably not the best decision I’ve ever made, but I try to live with no regrets) and I ended up continually deleting the post, over and over again. I’d get nearly done and I’d hit the wrong thing and the delete the entire post.

I don’t understand it. How on earth can I function as an otherwise normal human, yet completely screw up something as simple as navigating a website?

In other news, I vow to be better at this whole “blog updating” thing. I don’t understand how people manage it, really.

Oh, and thanks to everyone who came out to my signings last week. I know some of you drove a long, long way. Don’t tax your engines, okay? I’m not that cool.

World of Warcraft is exactly the sort of thing a motivated self-starter like myself needs to ruin her career. ^_^

Well, the good news is that book two is out. The bad news is that I must not avoid google for three to six months. Why? Because I read negative reviews and end up yelling curse words at the computer screen.

I think of all the books that I’ve read and wanted to post scathing amazon.com reviews of, and then I’m glad I didn’t. Because somewhere there would be an author screaming obscenities at me.

The winter weather has finally arrived in Michigan. So much so that I can’t see my garage from my house. And it’s not a big distance, believe me. There is simply so much snow blowing out there that it’s impossible.

Also, I have really bad eyes.

There wasn’t a lot of point to this post, so… I’ll leave it at that.

Wow, check out this GLOWING effing mention I got from likesbooks.com:

“Blood Fires: The Turning, Jennifer Armintrout (2006) – This debut by a fairly young author (she’s 26) of the first in a violent vampire fiction series isn’t a major disappointment, and it isn’t boring. It’s downright awful. My conclusion is that this is post-9/11 fiction for nihilists. Though the author created a couple of interesting characters and a difficult and intriguing tentative relationship for them, any interest I had was destroyed by one intimate scene that is the stuff of a true sadist’s dream. I’ve no problem with gore in general; indeed, an oddly favorite moment in one of Anne Rice’s vampire books features a couple of vampires literally breaking people’s bones and devouring their bodies, yet a similar moment in this book nearly brought up my lunch. This was, for me, the worst book of the year. “

Okay, wow. It’s somehow doubly harsh when someone calls your book “post-9/11 fiction for nihilists,” “downright awful,” “a true sadists dream” and “the worst book of the year,” but can’t even hate it enough to get the title right.

Okay, the good news is, book two will be out and about sometime around February. I don’t quite understand when books come out. It’s a February release (February 6th, to be technical), but it could be on shelves as early as the 29th.

Something about all that seems weird to me. Books seem to be the only entertainment things that could release earlier/later than their intended date. When they say a DVD is coming out tuesday, it doesn’t go on the shelf until tuesday. When a new video game system comes out, it doesn’t go onsale until 12:00am the day it’s supposed to be released. But with books, you could be really super excited to read one that comes out in May, run down to the bookstore May 12th, and they might not have it yet.

I wonder why that is? Of course, maybe this seems like such a huge, fascinating mystery because I’m trying to avoid getting any real work done.

Well, it’s New Year’s Eve, I’ve got a last resort party happening here at about 8pm, and my house is all effed up. Bad. I know I have to clean– unless I use my awesome brilliantness to think up a way to make washing the dishes a hip new party game– and I have to go the grocery store and make some munchies (nothin’ says lovin’ like store bought taquitos), but I can’t bring myself to get off the couch. I just want to be lazy and watch E! and VH1 because you KNOW they’re going to be rerunning those addictive countdown shows today, but alas, I must do SOMETHING so my house doesn’t smell like last night’s dinner when folk get here.

The good news is, 2006 is almost over. Yeah, it was a good year (first book dance, woot), but it’s no where near as good as next year will be, because next year I’ve TWO books coming out. That’s right, not one, but TWO. I’m excited, and I can’t wait.

I can only imagine how exciting it will be when I can afford to replace myself with a robotic version of myself and I can put out like, four books a year. You know, like what happened with Nora Roberts. Or should I say, “like what happened with Norabot 4000”?

I think that movie soundtrack cds should be tax deductible for writers. I have no clue what I would do without “The Village” and “Memoirs of a Geisha.”