A Semi-Productive Day

I am having a semi-productive day, which is more than I can say about the majority of this vacation. I am already exchanged emails with my agent and my editor - one was checking my sanity and the other sent me a peek at my book cover. (Insert a little screaming and a happy dance) The cover is awesome, just awesome. I promise to post a copy of it when it is finalized and I get approval from my editor, but it will probably be a little while. Nightwalker doesn't come out until August.

Last night, I was able to have dinner at Picasso with Vicki Pettersson. She is simply wonderful. She is tall, beautiful, and brilliant, with just a little dash of evil -- I knew we would hit it off. We talked shop most of the night -- suffering through edits, plotting techniques, and just trying to stay sane through your first book. Dinner was wonderful. Picasso is at Bellagio and it has real Picasso paintings all around the restaurant. We sat out on the patio so we could watch the famous Bellagio fountains while we ate. It was a perfect evening.

I promised some pictures, didn't I? Well, I am staying as Caesars Palace, which is pretty much in the middle of the Strip. The hotel is swathed in beautiful marble and enormous Roman statues. I've spotted Botticelli's Birth of Venus painting a couple of places. There's a replica of the Nike statue is in the front and I think I have also seen a replica of Hebe, but my knowledge of classical art doesn't run that deep.

I am planning to spend a little time down by the pool today. The air is so dry here that I can feel it leeching the moisture from my skin. I though I would swim and break in my new bathing suit. I doubt that it will actually help with the dry skin issue, but it is great excuse to just lay around and people watch. If I am a good girl, I will take a notebook with me and get some writing done. We'll see how that goes....

Elsewhere around Vegas, I did have the chance to wander through the Venetian. Very cool place. The front has a canal where you can take gondola rides and the front of the building looks exactly like the Doge Palace on San Marco Piazza. The interior is rich and beautiful with a section painted to look like the buildings that line the Venice Canals and the ceiling is painting to look like the sky. Exquisite.

I promise to wander a bit today and get a few more pictures for posting.