This weekend I am at Farpoint, a science fiction convention near Baltimore---which means it's right near me. This is the fourth con I've attended with either or both of my fellow authors Mary Fan and Stephen Kozeniewski. Basically what happens is that we set up (and pay for) a table in the dealer's room, and we try to sell our books to the passersby. It's a lot of fun, and we meet some interesting people and hopefully work toward building an audience. We also get excited about the cool jewelry the other vendors sell. There was one vendor selling these elaborate key necklaces, and I've loved jewelry with keys ever since I read The Golden Key by Melanie Rawn, Jennifer Roberson, and Kate Elliott. The vendor also has forehead bands. Mary bought one, and I have to resist the urge to do so. Another vendor has a great steampunk angel wing necklace, and one has zombie playing cards. Really, I should not spend 3 days surrounded by people with things I want to buy!
You will be glad to know that I finally read a book I liked enough to blog about! People have been raving about Cinder by Marissa Meyer since it came out two years ago. You have no doubt seen the American cover with the red shoe, but I decided to include the Spanish cover, cuz it's awesome. Except for the bit where it's a girl's body and not her head, and we all know how I feel about that. But look at her dress. Anyway, I confess I felt kind of "Eh" about Cinder. Cyborgs as oppressed second-class citizens didn't sound all that appealing to me, even if it was a Cinderella retelling. I actually became interested in it when I heard the premise for the third novel---Rapunzel alone on a satellite orbiting the moon. So I picked up Cinder, and I'm so glad I did. I read the whole thing in one night, even though I was supposed to be a.) sleeping and b.) buddy reading it with someone in a Goodreads group. Now, I love fairy tale retellings, but Cinder wasn't just a fairy tale retelling. As part of a series, it added an entire dystopic world where the prince has bigger issues to deal with than just finding a wife---like a plague and an evil alien race. And instead of being a housekeeper, Cinder(ella) is the most skilled mechanic in New Beijing. And there's this whole big uber-plot that I'm excited about, especially since, as I understand it, the subsequent books add new characters, but also keep being about the old characters. I've started Scarlet but haven't had time to get very far, cuz con.
As promised I made brownie bombs last weekend. Just what is a brownie bomb? you may ask. And that is totally fair. Well, they come in a variety of flavors, but the original is eggless chocolate chip cookie dough wrapped in a brownie dipped in chocolate. They are a little on the labor-intensive side, but, boy, are they worth it. This was actually my first time working with Candiquik, which was an interesting experience that I may repeat. Probably when I try another kind of brownie bomb---my coworker specifically requested peanut butter. The inventor of the brownie bombs suggested using the leftover cookie dough to make stuffed Oreos, and I decided to take her up on that, a you can see in the picture to the right. They, also, are very enjoyable. 
In other baking news, my sister made some oatmeal caramelitas---oatmeal cookie bars with caramel and chocolate in the middle---and they were a-maz-ing. So I made some, and I think mine were inferior. But they're still pretty delicious. I planned to bring a bunch to the con until I dumped half of them onto my apartment hallway floor (and only cleaned up some of the crumbs like a sociopath). I did bring the rest the next day, but, overall, the loss was very disappointing.