It’s funny. It’s about hair metal bands. What’s not to love?

I’m having another one of those moments.

I’ve been invited to be an instructor on a writing cruise!

(That sentence really needs about a bazillion exclamation points!)

It took me about zero point two seconds to say yes. After I picked my jaw up off the ground.

So, in October 2011, I’ll be hopping on a cruise ship to Mexico and teaching writing (I’m doing a two-hour session on romance and erotica and whatever else folks want to hear me ramble about) along with Kris and Dean (the Kris & Dean Show is worth the price of admission!) and Chris and Steve York (not sure what they’ll be teaching yet) and Michael Bellomo (nonfiction).

The details I already have are below, in case you might be interested. Seriously, the cost is less than RWA (yes, it’s shorter than RWA and has fewer classes, but you’ll be on a cruise ship!)—if I weren’t teaching, I might be tempted to go just because it’s such an amazing deal!

Hmm…time to start working out so I can look hot in a bikini!

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Scribes at Sea

Cruise: Long Beach, CA, to Ensenada, Mexico

Dates: October 28–31*, 2011

Cost–Cruise: starts at $327 per person (includes port fees, tax, food, lodging, shows), based on double occupancy. At least one person per cabin must be signed up for the workshops. (So bring your spouse! Or not your spouse! Heehee.)

Cost–Workshops: $400 for four workshops

Ship: The Carnival Paradise (That’s right, Styx fans: I’m cruising on the Paradise—because that isn’t deliciously ironic, is it?!)

Cruise Booking: Contact Loreene Orgoralini, Can I Go Too? Travel, loreene@canigotoo.com. Reference “Scribes at Sea.” $100 per person deposit is due at booking; the rest isn’t due until June 2011.

Workshop Booking: Contact Dottie Papin, dpapin9421@gmail.com. $50 due at registration. Payment plans available with final payment due June 2011.

More info as I get it!

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*It is also not lost on me that the last day is Halloween. I may have to bring my pirate costume.

I hope this is the first of many of my stories to appear in Harlequin Spice anthologies!

Also, my story “How the Little Mermaid Got Her Tail Back” (as Andrea Dale) is one of the stories name-checked in the review!

Congratulations to stupendous editor Kristina Wright (and thank you again for buying my story, Kristina)!

Exclamation points for everyone!

Fast Girls: Erotica for Women, edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel, Cleis Press, July 2010

Temptation Kayla Perrin
Waxing Eloquent Donna George Storey
Five-minute Porn Star Jacqueline Applebee
Winter, Summer Tristan Taormino
Playing the Market Angela Caperton
Panther Suzanne V. Slate
Communal Saskia Walker
Fireworks Lolita Lopez
Flash! Andrea Dale
Waiting for Beethoven Susie Hara
Confessions of a Kinky Shopaholic Jen Peters
Let’s Dance D.L. King
That Girl by Cherry Bomb
Oz Isabelle Gray
Married Life Charlotte Stein
Princess by Elizabeth Coldwell
Chasing Danger by Kristina Wright
Whore Complex Rachel Kramer Bussel
Lessons, Slow and Painful Tess Danesi
Speed Bumps Tenille Brown

Jude-Marie Green, “Hula Hoop”
Robert Borski, “Invasion, 1955”
Neil Coghlan, “Storm on Fifth Avenue”
K.M. Praschak, “Rain Goddess: The Dust Bowl, 1930s”
Lyn C. A. Gardner, “The Mustache”
Bruce Boston, “beat people”
Leonard Richardson, “The Day Alan Turing Came Out”
Brian Rosenberger, “These United States of Frankenstein: Meltdown”
Jennifer Rachel Baumer, “New and Improved”
Amanda C. Davis, “Sparks between Our Teeth”
Cliff Winnig, “R101 Is Burning”
Todd Wheeler, “Dreams like Snowflakes”
Karen A. Romanko, “Zeb”
Cat Rambo, “Ticktock Girl”
Lon Prater, “All That Remains Is the Middle”
Don D’Ammassa, “Slipstream Fiction”
G. O. Clark, “Putting off the Past”
Marge Simon, “The Fix”
Nancy Ellis Taylor, “The Last Time I Was in Vienna”
C.D. Covington, “U8: Alexanderplatz (1989)”
Dayle A. Dermatis, “The Devil Went down to the Sunset Strip”
Paul Abbamondi, “Art Deco and the Infestation of New America”
Ann K. Schwader, “The Darkness Whispers”
Brenta Blevins, “Mercury 13–And Beyond”
David D. Levine, “Nucleon”

(Note: The above link is to SF Gate, the online version of The San Francisco Chronicle, so it’s safe for work in terms of no nudity, etc.. But this is still a list of fiction and nonfiction about sex.)

1. Playing With Fire: Taboo Erotica

2. Sweetest Kiss: Ravishing Vampire Erotica

4. Do Not Disturb: Hotel Sex Stories

And a big “rock on!” shout out to the fabulous editors who saw fit to buy my stories: Alison Tyler, DL King, and Rachel Kramer Bussel!

“‘Devouring Heart’ is the only lesbian tale in the book and Andrea Dale presents a heartbreaking tale of love and how far a lover will go to keep a partner. There is a good use of metaphor between the title and the relationship and this is one of the few tales that ends sadly, yet I have a tender place for this as one of my favorites for evoking that aching sense of love and love lost.”

And this about “If the Shoe Fits…” in The Trouble With Heroes:

“And Dayle A. Dermatis’s ‘If the Shoe Fits’ is a funny (and rather ingenious) semi-modern twist on Cinderella, in which we find out why that shoe was really so important to everyone.”

Thank you, kind reviewers. You’ve made my week!

My story “Santa Claus is Comin’” will be the Christmas Eve story!