A Trip to the Chinese Garden

I can't believe I missed almost a week in my blogging. I'm late on a deadline, and updating the blog just didn't seem as important. However, I did finally get my pictures from Portland's Chinese Garden uploaded to my photo gallery at Piccassa.

The garden is lovely, an oasis of serenity in the midst of a modern city. Even though it was quite chilly that morning, my friends and I lingered, exploring every nook and cranny. A few plants were in bloom, including the camellias, but I'm sure it will be even prettier in a month or so.

The early March cold made my left hand, the one with tendonitis, cramp up, so I'm surprised I was able to take as many photos as I did. It would have helped if I'd been dressed more warmly and if I hadn't managed to temporarily misplace my thumb stabilizer. That didn't keep me from thoroughly enjoying the gardens though.

I'm adding a little slideshow here for your enjoyment.



What's your favorite garden? I always enjoy the one at the Huntington Library.

Lyndi

Slideshow Experiment

I uploaded some of my Portland photos to a Picassa Web Album and I'm experimenting to see if I can set up a slideshow here.



Yippee, it works! Click on the title to go to the photo album where you can see a larger version of the photos.

Linda / Lyndi

Catching Up

Sunday morning I flew home from EPICon in Portland, after a fun, but exhausting, conference. I've spent the last couple of days trying to recover, get some sleep, and catch up on my life.

My alter ego, Lyndi Lamont, had a new release out this weekend, Alliance: Clandestine Desire, so I had website updates and promo notices to do.



I've started looking through the approximately 125 photos I took in Portland. Some are of the cityscape as seen from the Doubletree Hotel. I took a lot at the Chinese Garden, too, but not many of the conference. I'm going to upload the pictures first chance I get, but here are a few of my favorites.

Our room faced west, so I was able to capture some sunset pics one night, but my favorite is the rainy night.

Linda / Lyndi

Hi from Portland

Just a quick note from Portland while I wait for lunch to start. We've been having a great time here at EPICon.

Thursday we did some sightseeing including the Chinese Garden which is a lovely oasis of calm in the midst of downtown Portland. I'll be posting some pictures next week. Afterwards we had lunch in a "haunted pizzeria" in a building that was built as a hotel in 1885. It's tied into the underground tunnels in Portland, and it's supposedly haunted by a former "working girl".

The video presentation this morning went very well. Tonight is the EPPIE awards banquet, so my nerves aren't calm yet. I have to present one award and I'm up for another. Wish me luck! Hope I don't fall over my feet on the way to the podium.

More to come next week.

Lyndi / Linda

Book Trailers

Today has been hectic as I get ready to leave tomorrow for EPICon2008 in Portland, Oregon. This is one of my favorite conferences, so I'm looking forward to it. On Saturday, I'll be presenting a workshop with Adrianna Dane called Author as Producer: How To Create Your Own Video Book Trailers on a Budget.

Aside from the seven video trailers I've created, my main claim to fame in speaking on this topic is the fact that my video for Marooned has been viewed over 174,000 times at YouTube. If only that would translate into more book sales. Ah, well.

My latest creation is a trailer for my Regency romance, Lady Elinor's Escape. I've embedded it below for your enjoyment. I hope to keep up my Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday blogging schedule this week, but it will be harder than usual since I'll be away from home. I'm taking the laptop with me, though, so we'll see. I'll try to take lots of pictures in Portland. I understand the flowers are starting to bloom there.

Feel free to comment on my trailer or on book trailers in general. Do you watch them? Have you ever bought a book after viewing one? Or is it just free entertainment? (Nothing wrong with that.) I'd really like to know.

Linda