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Home from Yaoi-Con

Friday, November 5th, 2010

And still recovering, so a longer recap (with pics, hopefully) will be coming later. For now, though, I wanted to list the highlights:

Met a bunch of friends, old and new.

Gave away all my Where’s Rowan prizes.

Got Yamane Ayano’s autograph.

Won Best Action at the AMV contest.

Won a bishie at an auction.

Went to Alcatraz.

Bought a busload of stuff.

Watched “Ghost Adventures” for the first time. lol.

There was a lot more, I know, but I need a little time to organize my thoughts and sift through the stuff that cannot be told. 😉

Posted in Conventions, Hide-and-Seek | 3 Comments »

Game On!

Friday, October 29th, 2010

Where’s Rowan? Find me at Yaoi-Con wearing this hat:

And follow these rules to win fab prizes. From October 29-31. That’s now!

Posted in Conventions, Hide-and-Seek | 1 Comment »

Where’s Rowan? (Yaoi-Con 2010 edition)

Wednesday, October 20th, 2010

Katrina Strauss was way generous and sent me a bunch of stuff to give away along with mine, so I figured now was as good a time as any to post the rules of this year’s “Where’s Rowan” game. But first, the glorious hat that is the key to victory and–dare I say it–seventh level happiness. I speak, of course, of the Urahara/chibi-Gaara impossible to match with anything baseball cap:

Oh yes, it’s spiffy. It even has quite the extensive backstory in that it was made during a phase where for some reason people were sending me plushies left and right, chibi-Gaara got the traditional bucket hat, drama ensued, and eventually there was even a photo taken with Gaara wearing THIS hat. It’s convoluted and only really makes sense in my mind, but the bottom line is that this hat possesses magical powers and can win you prizes. These prizes, in fact:

Where's

I tried to make sure I put one of each in there, but I’ve got a *lot* of prints in varying sizes. You may have noticed some sparkling Blue Ruin and Sleight of Hand love mixed in there– those are what Katrina sent. 😀

The CDs I’m giving out are “first chapter” CDs, in they contain the first chapter of all my currently published works, plus a copy of my short story “A Picture’s Worth.” I’m also giving away one trade paperback copy each of Lone, Warm Rush: Chasing Winter, and Want Me.

Nice, yeah?

Rules:

Finding the hat is pretty much it. Look for it at Yaoi-Con 2010 either on my head or attached to my messenger bag.

Once you find the hat, walk up to the person with it and ask politely “Are you Rowan McBride?” If they say no, keep walkin’ because it means my idea wasn’t as original as I thought and someone else painted their own Urahara baseball cap. If it *is* me, then I’ll probably flash a big goofy grin and you’ll win one of the fabulous prizes listed above.

I’ll be posting many of my locations in real time via twitter, so keep an eye on that page for an advantage.

Contest begins when I yell “Game On!” on this blog, my website, twitter, and on my newsletter Friday, October 29th 2010 and ends Halloween day.

Have fun!

Posted in Conventions, Hide-and-Seek | 5 Comments »

Yaoi-Con musings

Tuesday, October 12th, 2010

This Halloween weekend I’ll be in San Francisco for Yaoi-Con. Gotta say, looking forward to it. Fate has set it up so that I get to meet up with an old friend I haven’t seen since college. I also have plans to meet a lot of new friends face-to-face for the first time. Plus there’s an impressive list of people I plan to outright stalk. Conventions rock.

And, yes, I do plan to play Where’s Rowan? while I’m there. The rules will be similar to last year when we played at DragonCon. Yaoi-Con’s a lot smaller so I won’t be posting every move I make on twitter, but I’ll tweet the highlights because I have a lot of prizes to give away and this is the…what?…third or fourth year we’ve played and no one’s ever found Rowan. I have high hopes that the streak will be broken this year. With my luck it will be while I’m letting someone else try on the hat.

What prizes have I got this time around? I’ll list the details in a later post, but good ones. Plus author and friend Katrina Strauss is sending me some swag and how cool is that?

So, any of you guys going to the con? What events are you looking forward to?

Posted in Conventions, Hide-and-Seek | 10 Comments »

Yaoi-Con

Monday, June 21st, 2010

Yeah, it looks like I’m going. XD

I’m even thinking of picking a day and playing Where’s Rowan, so if you’re going to be in San Francisco on Halloween weekend, maybe we’ll have some fun.

You can learn more about the convention at http://yaoicon.com/.

Posted in Conventions, Fun, Hide-and-Seek, yaoi | 6 Comments »

Dragon*Con summary

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

I’m way late with this, but it turns out I took well over three hundred pictures at D*Con and it took a lot longer than expected to sort and resize them. 🙂

The convention was a blast. Met a lot of interesting people, attended some wicked events (Rave? Me? Nooo), and saw a lot of truly amazing cosplayers. The high points for me were The Mad Scientists’ Ball, the AMV showing, and the Exploring the Final Taboo writing panel. At the panel I got to meet a lot of authors I respect for the first time in real life, including Kayelle Allen, Kiernan Kelly, and Ally Blue. I also got to meet new-to-me authors Fiona Zedde and Sascha Illyvich.

I’d never had the opportunity to attend a writing panel before, so I was sitting in the audience, avidly taking notes as well as txting Katrina Strauss (who couldn’t attend this year) bits and pieces of the subjects covered. I was surprised as hell when Kayelle Allen spotted me and announced me to the room as “the best M/M writer in the world.” I’m sure the expression on my face was very deer caught in the headlights as I walked to the front of the room and told the audience a little bit about my stuff. A friend of mine told me I sounded calm and collected, but that’s what friends do so I’m unsure.

My favorite moment of the entire convention happened at that panel. When I stood up, Kiernan Kelly pointed to me and yelled “I’ve been looking for that damned hat all weekend!”

I still smile when I think about it.

Aside from that moment, no one spotted the Where’s Rowan hat. I did get to give away most of the prizes, though, so that was a lot of fun.

The entire weekend still feels like one long day, and as such is a bit blurry. The sweet-tea peach vodka I tried for the first time had nothing to do with that at all, I’m sure—oh my god I LOVE Georgia!—but luckily I took tons of pictures. Sharing a few below:

Kratos

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Dr. Manhattan

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A bishounen in leather

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The Question

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Mmm, Spartans

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Doctor Who

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Hatta

Cool, yeah? Those were just some of my favorites. If you’d like to view the public gallery I’ve created for more of them, click over to my flickr account. There, a lot of the images have captions. It’s currently 5am and I *just* finished that project, so it’ll be interesting to see if I’m as clever as I thought I was after I’ve gotten some sleep. lol.

Posted in Conventions, Fun, Hide-and-Seek | 3 Comments »

Where’s Rowan? (Dragon*Con ’09 Edition)

Sunday, August 30th, 2009

It’s the return of the hat! Yeah!

Like it? Made it m’self—It’s based on Urahara’s bucket hat, and the first place I ever wore it for this game was an anime convention called Katsucon.

Been a very, very long time since we’ve played Where’s Rowan. I think I was somewhat disheartened by the fact that no one ever found me, but really that’s no reason to stop playing, right? So at this year’s Dragon*Con (http://www.dragoncon.org/), it’s going to be be game on once again.

The rules are pretty much the same as that time. If you’ll be in the Atlanta area (specifically Dragon*Con, since it’s highly unlikely that I’ll be leaving the convention) over Labor Day weekend (September 4th – 7th, 2009), and you see someone wearing this hat—

—Then walk up to that person and ask, “Are you Rowan McBride?”

If it is me, I’ll flash you a big goofy grin and give you a prize. Now, the prizes are a little different this time around, so listing them below:

8×10 print of my Boy Meets Bishie logo, designed by the fab Anne Cain.
Autographed copy of Want Me.
Your choice of any one of my ebooks that are currently available (to be delivered via email after I get home from the convention).
An update to the serial of your choice. (Apparently waiting for new installments is torture for some people. Who knew?) A list of most of the serials can be found here. However, if you want, you can also request Michael Finally Grows Up.

Last we played, that hat was on my head the ENTIRE TIME. This round, it’ll either be on my head, or hooked to the back of my laptop bag, so you’ll really need to keep an eye out. I know, the game actually sounds harder, but there is one big advantage.

I’ll be tweeting my locations in real time. My page is located at http://twitter.com/RowanMcBride. Follow me (easiest) or check in frequently at the page (effective, if you’re dedicated).

Got all that? Sounds like fun, yeah? I would really, really like to be found this year, so let’s the flash that hat one more time:

If you know people who dig my stories, tell them it’s game on. Let’s play!

Posted in Fun, Hide-and-Seek | 6 Comments »

Houseguests, anime, liquor, and…oh yeah. That writing thing I do.

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

One of my best friends is driving up on Monday and will be staying with me for two or three weeks, at which point I will be driving down with them to Florida and staying for roughly the same amount of time. Somewhere in there I’ll also be taking a side trip to Atlanta for Dragon*Con, where I fully intend to stalk Michael Biehn, who has the best death scenes ever. I assume the non-Dragon*Con days/nights (hell, probably a good percentage of those, too) will be filled with anime and liquor, because this is our way. We call it Drunken Anime Night, but it often spans a lot more than one night.

In the middle of this debauchery (hmm, is that the appropriate word? Yeah, let’s go with that), I’ll be receiving, working on, and returning the revisions for One Shot. It should be interesting since I’ve managed to bust up my wrist a bit, and I’m supposed to be going easy on the typing. You can see how well that’s working out. 🙂

At Dragon*Con, I’ll be breaking out the “Where’s Rowan?” hat, and it’ll be game on for hide-and-seek. Official rules will be posted later, but they’re similar to the previous set, which you can read here. One addition to the game is that I think I’ll be able to let everyone know my location in real time via my twitter account, so that should be fun.

Basically, the next six weeks or so will be the busiest I’ve had all year as I balance fun, work, and writing (which is a beautiful combination of both). Hopefully the Fates will be kind and gift me with more fun than work since I’d had it in my head to take a vacation in my last rambling. So Wish me luck! And caffeine!

Posted in Anime/Cartoons, Fun, Hide-and-Seek, life, One Shot, Random, Writing | No Comments »

Where’s Rowan?

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

Note: This blog was originally published on my MySpace blog, February 9, 2008.

From February 12th to 26th, I’ll be in Washington, DC and during some of that time, I will be wearing this hat:

Like it? Made it m’self—first time I ever tried painting fabric, so it’s a bit of a mess, but I’m uber proud of it. It’s based on Urahara’s bucket hat, and one of the places I plan to wear it is at an anime convention called Katsucon.

I had much fun making the cap, and I thought it might also be fun to play a little Hide-and-Seek. If you’ll be in the DC area during the two weeks mentioned above, and you see someone wearing this hat—

—Then walk up to that person and ask, “Are you Rowan McBride?”

If it is me, I’ll flash you a big goofy grin and give you a prize ranging from an autographed 8×10 featuring one of my book covers to a brand spanking new copy of Want Me. It’s been forever since I’ve played Hide-and-Seek, and it would be amazingly cool if someone found me. So, just to be sure, let’s the flash that hat one more time:

If you know people that dig my stories, tell them it’s game on. Let’s play!

Posted in Anime/Cartoons, Fun, Hide-and-Seek, myspace, Random | No Comments »

Rowan's Ramblings