Can anyone point me to…

So I wrote a post that I think is very funny, but may get me in trouble with the powers that be, so I’m going to hold on to it for a little bit, and instead cover some other issues.

Can anyone point to the page number or section in On Writing (or wherever else he says it) in which Stephen King advises writers not to kill the animals?

In planning for promo, can I just point out how shocked I am by how expensive every little thing is? I don’t know how I’m going to get out of even the minimals without dropping thousands upon thousands of dollars. Who knew bookplates were so monumentally expensive? I am seeing the RWA goody room in a whole new light, let me tell you.

Speaking of RWA, I got my packet for the conference. A lot of workshops on paranormal, a lot of workshops on erotica, and a lot, a lot, a lot of workshops on thrillers and action adventures. Even a few on chick lit. A couple on websites. A COUPLE! The career workshops mystify me. We have several on working with an agent, several MORE (at least three) on “getting a book ready for publication” and at least two on “being an almost published author.” Do we need two of those? And yes, I’m still bitter that my workshop with my CP and my agent on networking was not approved. Considering the hundreds of emails that the two of us got asking us how we gout our out-of-nowhere book deals (networking, networking, and more networking) I’m surprised that the committee didn’t recognize the enormous amount of interest this topic engenders, and what good info we had to share. Overall, though I’ve heard some negative reactions, the list looks pretty good to me. Stephanie Bond is doing her branding thing again, which is a great workshop, and Brenda Hiatt is rolling out “Show Me The Money” once more (I really like the idea of this, but I know for a fact that her statistcs are Waaaaaaaaaay off and outdated — she’s still dealing with Berkley “line” books, which they haven’t published in about four years), and I can find at least ten I’m interested in attending, which is a HUGE step up from last year.

That is, if I go. Which is still up in the air.

The stuff you can find on the internet these days is truly, truly astounding. I can’t tell you what I spent all of yesterday researching (or then I’d have to kill you) but I am frankly amazed that this kind of stuff would be on the internet, or that the people interested in this kind of stuff would even know HOW to use the internet. When I was a slip of a girl, in school, you usually only got your hands on it if you were willing ot put on a mask and a pair of latex gloves, submit your body to a full scan, and enter static free, climate-controlled, inert gas-filled rare book reading room. Astonishing. You go, Al Gore.

Okay, well, I’m off to write ten pages today. Wish me luck!