It's Vegas, Baby!

Yesterday, my friend and fellow author, Janet Quinn, and I drove to Lake Las Vegas for EPICon2009. It's about a 4-5 hour drive. I've got a laptop with me and hope to drop in here from time to time.

We had a good drive yesterday, with very little traffic until we arrived in Henderson, and that wasn't bad. It was raining in Orange County, but we soon drove out of it and by the time we got to the high desert, the skies were clear and sunny, though it was windy.

The conference is at the lovely Montelago Village Resort at Lake Las Vegas. The resort includes two hotels, a casino, a marina and a small Tuscan-style village of shops and restaurants. As you can see from the picture below, the Montelago is quite lovely. Our first room lacked a working internet connection, so the staff kindly offered to move us to another room, and in the process we were upgraded from a one-bedroom suite to a two bedroom. We each have out own bathroom, not to mention a working internet connection.



Today Janet and I have free time until EPICon Registration opens at 4PM, so we're going to sightsee Las Vegas with my brother and his lady friend. I'm hoping to visit some of the newer hotels (which for me is most of them) and get some photos.

More to come!

Linda

The Book Review Club (The Reincarnationist)

The Reincarnationist
by M. J. Rose

I've always been fascinated by the idea of reincarnation, so when I discovered this book, I had to read it. This is the first in a series of, so far, two books, and I hope there will be more.

After being injured in a suicide bombing in Rome, photographer Josh Ryder starts having flashbacks to two previous lives: one in 19th c. New York, the other in Rome c. 390 AD. The earlier life is more compelling, both to him and the reader, as he was a pagan priest in love with a Vestal Virgin at the time when all pagans were being persecuted by the now-powerful Christians.

Problem is, he doesn't believe in reincarnation, so he goes to the Phoenix Foundation, which only treats children troubled by past life memories. Josh is given access to the foundation's library in exchange for photographing their work. When the tomb of a Vestal Virgin is uncovered outside Rome, the archeologists discover the perfectly preserved skeleton of a woman Josh knows was named Sabina, and a box containing six precious gems that may be the fabled Memory Stones that can reveal past lives. But someone will kill to possess the Memory Stones. As past and present collide, Josh and archeologist Gabriella Chase embark on a life and death quest to decipher the stones.

The plot is very complex but the story moves along nicely. I liked the reincarnation theme and I loved the book right up to the ending, which I found abrupt and shocking. (What can I say, I'm a romance reader. I'm used to the HEA.)

I liked the quotes from famous people interspersed throughout the book, like this one from Rudyard Kipling:

They will come back, come back again,
As long as the red earth rolls.
He never wasted a leaf or a tree.
Do you think he would squander souls?

The Reincarnationist is an excellent thriller, just don't expect a romantic happily-ever-after ending. Still, I liked it enough to read the sequel, The Memorist, which I loved and will review next month.

Linda

The Book Review Club is the brain child of Tween/Teen Author Barrie Summy. Click on the Book Club graphic to read her review and for links other club members.

My Town Monday: The Sin Express?

I hadn't heard of the "Sin Express", i.e. the proposed high-speed train from Disneyland to Las Vegas, until it was mentioned by Governor Bobby Jindal in his response to President Obama's address to Congress last Tuesday. Since we live about a mile from Disneyland, I was naturally intrigued and decided to check it out.

At first, my husband and I thought it might be part of the California High-Speed Rail system approved by the voters last November. When completed the system will link the Bay Area and Sacramento to Los Angeles and San Diego, but there's no planned route to Las Vegas. I voted against it since it was a fairly hefty bond issue, and given the already large budget deficit, I didn't think it was a good time for California to take on more bonded indebtedness. I'm also of the opinion that this state doesn't have long distance transportation problems so much as short distance transportation problems. The high speed rail duplicates some existing corridors, including AMTRAK service and Metrolink trains. There's a cool map route at the website.

So I did some Googling and found a good analysis of the mass transit construction provisions in the stimulus plan at CBS News website. Apparently funds have been set aside for rail service, but nothing was specified in the bill. I doubt the "Sin Express" will be included, not only because of the bad publicity generated by Jindal's reference, but primarily because it's nowhere near shovel ready, though supporters say it could be by the deadline specified in the bill. Supporters of the bill include Harry Reid, the Democratic Senator from Nevada, and Anaheim's Mayor Curt Pringle, a Republican, so I guess that makes it a bipartisan issue, after all.

Last June, the Las Vegas Sun reported that President Bush signed legislation authorizing $45 million to study the environmental impact of the first section of the proposed rail system from Las Vegas to Primm Boulevard, near the California border. The plan was first proposed twenty years ago and is estimated to cost over $12 billion dollars. You can read the article here.

I don't know about you, but several thoughts come to my mind. One, there is no longer any AMTRAK service along this corridor, so that's a plus. On the other hand, a link between "Sin City" and the family-oriented Disneyland seems a bit odd. Yes, they're both tourist destinations, but do they attract the same customers? Not necessarily, though Vegas is more kid-friendly than it used to be. Lastly, I'm not sure this is something we need to be spending tax dollars on right now. There's no guarantee it will draw enough passengers to pay for the cost of construction. Being of a practical mind, I'd rather see money go to upgrades, maintenance and expansion of existing rail systems, esp. those of use to commuters. Anything that reduces the congestion on our highways and conserves fuel sounds much better to me than a Sin Express.

I'll be driving to Las Vegas on Wednesday to attend the annual EPICon Conference and I may have changed my mind by the time I get home. I took AMTRAK to Vegas once years ago and really enjoyed the trip. Too bad that route was dropped.

What do you think?

Linda

My Town Monday is the brilliant brain child of writer/blogger Travis Erwin. Thanks, Travis! Go to his blog to read his latest post and find links to the other participants.

Note: Photo of Matterhorn was taken by yours truly and the picture of New York, New York is from a collection of Art Explosion stock photos I purchased.