ROMANTICON! WOOT!

And yes, it needed the all caps!

OMG I can't believe it's time for Romanticon. By the time this post goes live it will be two days into one of the most awesome conferences I've been too and I'll be doing the Clockbuster's workshop and then getting ready for the old Hollywood party. I'm in love with my dress for that.

Okay, so I've only been to one other one and that was RWA in 2008.

Still, Romanticon rocks. My first time there was in 2011. I was painfully shy, it was the first time away from my youngest and I was NERVOUS.

Though I got over my nerves fast. A few times when I was missing my baby Rodney made me laugh, because he found out I was just over the border from where he lived, so we shared border crossing stories, or rather he acted out a few which made me almost pee my pants and Angelo (RIP), well he caught me teary eyed on the elevator and cheered me up immensely and we talked about our children. I'm going to miss Angelo.

Besides the bit of homesickness, I met so many amazing people that I'm looking forward to seeing again.

I'm also going to meeting the Cabal of Hotness face-to-face. Yes, I haven't met any member of the Cabal except Anya Richards (Who's my neighbor and CP) and Cristal Ryder (who is my RWA Chapter mate and CP). I didn't go to Romanticon in 2012 when the Cabal was formed. Cristal Ryder invited me and it sounded crazy. So I emailed Lea Barrymire and she was like "Oh course! More the merrier."

I don't think Lea knew what she was getting in to! ;)

This year it's going to be crazier. I know it.

No hiding in a corner for me. There may be some home sickness, but not that much. I've been on deadlines all this year, fighting some illnesses I won't get into here, so I'm looking forward to letting loose and having a blast!

Oh, and a Happy Anniversary to my DH who is home alone with three kids. Yep, today is also my 11th anniversary. Almost forgot about that! ;)

Taking YOU on a Road Trip!

I'd go anywhere my car could take me. I love road trips. LOVE THEM. I'm like a dog that way, sticking my head out of the window, ears flapping and tongue hanging out. WOOT!

There are so many more places I want to drive to, but really I would repeat the road trip me and the family took last year. We drove through the US from SW Ontario to Alberta and Canada on the way back ...after doing a lot of traveling in Alberta.

The trip also made me fall head over heels in love with South Dakota, Wyoming & Montana.

Here are some highlights of my trip. First stop, Chicago, Illinois (I'm sorry Indiana, all the shots of you were at a rest station, but you were pretty). I always wanted to go to Chicago and DUDES how cool that your El Train runs down the middle of the highway!!! I didn't know this and we were muay excited. However, traffic sucked. Even on a Saturday before Noon.

Next up crossing the Mississippi at the border of Minnesota and Wisconsin. At first, you're tricked and you see this tiny estuary thing and then BOOM around the corner is this massive river. Okay, I'm impressed.

Ma and Pa Ingall's homestead De Smet, South Dakota. Life long dream and a very, very emotional moment. Also, fell in love with South Dakota.

South Dakota again. Rapid City & Keystone to be precise and Mount Rushmore. As a Canadian I did feel "odd" because these guys aren't my forefathers, but it was really impressive. I didn't realize what a windy hill you have to drive up to get to it. The people there are super friendly, even to foreigners like us and you pay $11.00 to get in and it's good for a year. SWEET! There is so much to do around here. Next time we go we're going to Deadwood and Custer.

Everyone should ride the Highway 212 from Rapid City into Montana. Gorgeous stretch of highway and hardly anyone around. This is Wyoming. I love it's vastness. How open it was. Just gorgeous.

Montana changes. This is Broadus, Montana in Powder River Country. We're still on Highway 212 and just fresh out of Wyoming, but when you head North from Billings towards Great Falls, the temp dropped and we were in a totally different world. Right around Broadus and Billings is where Custer met his last stand at Little Big Horn.

Just north of Great Falls and heading North to Alberta. See what I mean, now lush and green.

Alberta does it too. Has so many different eco systems and changes. This the badlands in Canada. Drumheller, Alberta which has an amazing Dinosaur museum. These are natural wonders known as Hoo Doos. You can hike up all in and around them. Super cool.

This is just outside of Edmonton and is far, far north of where I live in SW Ontario. So far north that this picture was taken at 10 p.m. on Canada Day (July 1). This is my BIL's farm. Very prairie around here. And those little schmucks are my kids. Their clocks were very out of whack at this point.

Drive 4 hrs west from Edmonton and you hit this. Jasper National Park and the Rockies.

After driving across the Canadian Prairies and visiting my cousin in Winnipeg we came back to Ontario. Northern Ontario and the Great Lake which feeds down into all the others. Lake Superior at Thunder Bay. That's Sleeping Giant.

I'd show you my last picture of the trip, but it was at the Science North Museum in Sudbury, Ontario and it was a picture of a fart machine. (I said Dart gun not a fart gun)

I kid you not. I ended the pictures of our trip with a fart button. *head smack*

I hope you enjoyed the road trip. I would do it again in a heartbeat. Three weeks on the road was worth it!

You can find more about Amy at her website. Or follow her on Twitter.

Her newest release PRIVATE RELEASE was set in Winnipeg, Manitoba which she got to see first hand on her epic road trip.

If I wasn't a writer...

Then my little old brains would be exploding everywhere.

When I was a chillin' I played with Barbies and an assortment, of what I called, Little People. Which was a mish-mash of Fisher Price characters, Calico Critters, Charmkins, She-Ra ...whatever wasn't Barbie sized.

This is a picture of me and my cousin. I'm the one in the orange plaid dress. Aren't I cute? I was just happy to play Barbies and Little People by myself. Screw playing outside with friends.

Weekends, when we weren't in Toronto visiting my grandparents, was heaven to me. AND I loved rainy days. Rainy days I could be in my own little world all day long.

I had a Ken doll from the 1970's that wasn't a Barbie brand. He had a huge plastic head with hair molded into his skull and fingers that were separate and long.

He was a hand me down from my older cousin. He was creepy and ALWAYS the villain who was trying to "smooch" and kidnap the heroine.

Anyways, when my mother deemed I was too old to play with Barbies (though honestly sometimes I would sit in my big closet with a flash light and play with them) I had to have an outlet for the voices.

Writing was what came naturally.

Just ask any of my high school friends. I wrote stories on my spares, at lunch, whenever I was bored.

I'd have my big spanning books (which were kept private and are under my bed never to see the light of day. Talk about melodramatic), but other times I would write stories about friends. Goofy stories and parodies, that I would illustrate. There was a long running digest of my friends. We were superheroes and we were fight "Frigging Tall Man" or FTM as we called him. He was a boy at school, who we were friends with.

I'd also include latest crushes of Hollywood in there. Like Keanu, David Duchovny, Pete Sampras, Richard Ian Cox aka RIC (who was my one friend's crush because she was a horse fiend and watched the Black Stallion relentlessly) and Jacques Villenuve. What can I say, it was was the 90s.

It was weird, but everyone enjoyed getting the latest edition of FTM's latest antics. I also incorporated people who'd bully me and make them absolutely ridiculous. It was a way to deal with that.

Yeah, we writers will kill off dinks. You are warned.

So, what would I be doing if I wasn't writing? Most likely going bonkers.

I can't picture a day-to-day without the mini movies in my head. My imagination has always been there.

My mind is constantly going. CONSTANTLY. It's not quiet in there at all.

It's full of lots of things.

Lots and lots.

It's a wonderful, but SCARY place sometimes. :)

You can find out more about me, my latest news and my antics:

Website: http://www.amyruttan.com
Twitter: @ruttanamy

Glacial Hotness, but please don't call me frigid

Because I'm not frigid, not in the least. ;-)

I just like oxymorons.

I earned the name Glacial because, I'm always cold. At least in the winter. Although my DH complains I sleep with a comforter in the summer, but then again he'd prefer that I sleep nude 24-7.

Also, I earned the name because I'm one of the three Hotties from Canada.

My name is Amy Ruttan and I've been with Ellora's Cave since 2007. I've also written for Eternal Press and under a different name I've written an Urban Fantasy for Samhain.

I grew up on the outskirts of Toronto, Ontario. So born and raised Torontonian and couldn't be prouder. Big  supporter of the Maple Leafs even if they haven't won a cup in my LIFE TIME. I also have a feeling I may be the baby of the bunch, but don't quote me on that.

I also happen to live down the street from Bootay Hotness. So I see her, regularly and during the winter months listen to her bitterly complain and whine about the ice and snow.

I'm a mother to three rug rats. A girl and two boys, who are the bane of her existence apparently. She's hitting the preteen years. God help me.

When I'm not writing you can find me playing computer games. I'm addicted to Time Management games and subscribed to Big Fish Games that I earned the coveted FISH trophy. I have an eclectic taste in books, movies and TV shows. I'm addicted to Grey's Anatomy (*sob* Mark & Lexie aka Slexie forever), as well as anything British, in particular Mr. Darcy and British Comedy. ;-) I'm crafty and I love driving ...err scratch that I love going for drives.

I also have an unholy love affair with Diet Coke, but that's neither here nor there.


This summer we drove across country for my SIL's wedding. Almost 10,000 kms in total, so one way was the same distance a monarch butterfly traveled. Anyways because of this epic trip I have fallen completely and hopelessly in love with the west. If given the chance I'd move to South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Alberta, Saskatchewan or Manitoba in a heartbeat. I never thought I'd love the prairies and the badlands, but I do. I SO do.

This is a picture from the Hoo Doos in Drumheller Alberta. One that I took. Not bad, eh.

Yes, I am quiescently Canadian and will often say "eh". Listen for it at Romanticon. Hehehe.

My story in Fondled and Gobbled: Going Back for Seconds happens to feature a mute werewolf who has to claim his unsuspecting life mate. Yes, I'm employed the device of Scooby Doo talk. "Ruh-Roh."

I may also, if the rumors are true, written another F&G spoof for another volume that involves a pregnant man, but that's all I'm going to say on the matter.

I do write about shifters who do speak though, like in Mounted Release

Gordon Thomas isn’t just an ordinary constable of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, he’s also a bit of a bear—literally. He’s been on his own for so long he’s shocked when he discovers another Mukswa in his territory, and a female at that. The woman brings out the true beast in him, one which he’s been controlling for far too long.

Sheridan Stevens is on the run. When she crashes on an isolated road, her savior is the only male of her kind within one hundred kilometres. He’s kind, gorgeous and stirs her desire to a burning crescendo.

A snowstorm causes them to seek shelter. As the mercury drops outside, the temperature inside is rising. Neither Gordon nor Sheridan can contain the primal lust singing in their blood. But even as their passion burns brighter than the northern lights, Sheridan’s predator stalks them…ready to make his kill.


I've also written amnesiatic heroes too, like in Warrior Unbound

Hattie isn’t the best medicine woman in her order, but when an ancient evil threatens to escape, she’s the only one available to perform the spell to wake the great stone warrior from his slumber. Problem is, she’s not sure if she really believes in it, especially since the key component of the spell is her soul-shattering orgasm.

When the Warrior is summoned once again he is pleasantly surprised by the medicine woman who has called him, and has no problem giving her the pleasure she needs to complete the banishment spell, but something goes wrong. He still remains in the mortal realm instead of returning to stone. To make matters worse, he remembers nothing except the taste of the medicine woman on his lips.

They have two weeks before the new moon to fulfill the prophecy and they spend every moment wrapped up in each other, lost in passion. But time is ticking and there’s a price to pay for saving the world—one that may turn her stone Warrior to dust.

I love to hear from readers and you can find me at my website www.amyruttan.com

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