All of them have survived NYC I'm pleased to say!
Julia Hoover brought choccies and Vermont maple syrup and I intend to keep them ALL FOR ME! I know sharing is good. Someone might have mentioned that back to me in pre-school but I thought it was a crock then, and nothing in the ensuing years has shown me any different (see why I am not allowed to be around young impressionable minds?)
MINE ALL MINE!
And Christina Seine brought two amazing shark pens! Fine point! Gel cap!
MINE! All MINE!
I'm hoping they will pry themselves out of their exhausted NYC coma long enough to report on how the conference went for them.
For me, it was an exercise in humility: I managed to misspell a word in the handouts that were projected on 800 screens around the world. And not a word that trips everyone up like accessory, necessary, or whisky. No. Different. I managed to misspell different. Differnt.
I might never recover.
As to the week in review: I'm chained to my desk with incoming client manuscripts today and I'm just not going to get to it. I'm really sorry. I love the WIR and I miss having the couple spare hours to do it, but I'm still catching up from the work postponed by attending MidWest Writers last weekend.
At some point, I will try to go back and vacuum up some of the questions that got asked in the comment columns of the last two weeks and answer them on the blog.
In the meantime, it's 90 degrees in the city today. Hell yes I'm in the office! Where are you?
55 comments:
Also playing catch up; just got back from a weekend camping with my Scouts.
I just came inside from hanging up laundry. Back when my new son-in-law was still single and trying to impress my daughter, he custom made a wonderful clothesline for me. There's nothing like climbing into bed between sweet smelling sheets :) And now it's out to the porch, with my cat Baby, to read Martha Grimes' "Belle Ruin."
Well. I rode my bike today. And it's HOT here too. Or, as Temple Grandin (played by Claire Danes) put it while stepping off a plane, "It's hawt! It's hawt!"
I love Temple Grandin.
I would do just like you over those goodies. MINE, ALL MINE!
Janet, is there maple cream in that goodie box?
I'm still catching up from last weekend, too. Although I'm mostly catching up on sleep. I didn't get home until Tuesday morning.
I had a very good, very educational time at Cascade Writers Workshop last weekend. I learned a lot, met some terrific people, and had a blast. I also got some very good feedback on a chapter I'd submitted, so I'll be working on that when I wake up.
I'd been going to give a whole bunch of travel tips I learned on this trip here, but there's really only one that's important. Edmonton, Alberta, airport has stress relief dogs. They wear vests that say Pet Me and go from gate to gate to let guests get some loving and wet faces.
Trying to decide now if I need another coffee or should just go back to bed.
It's my last day of vacation, 85 degrees, sunny and I'm siding the barn--glorious!
Life is good when you can still climb a ladder, swing a hammer and not swear at a throbbing thumb.
And listen to god old rock and roll while doing it.
Shark pens and maple syrup! I guess people know you well.
We have a Canadian friend who's introduced us to the marvels of Spruce Beer. Which of course we can't get here (in Central New York. Maybe it's available other places in the states?) Of course, I've also found out that my favorite rum, Kraken (if I could be said to have a favorite thing that I drink three times a year or so) makes their own ginger beer, which I also can't get here. Sigh. Goya will have to do (though apparently Gosling is specifically for rum 'n' ginger's [I guess it's a "Perfect Storm" or a "Dark and Stormy", but both of those include optional lime and I do not want lime. Scurvy is not a concern of mine.])
It's hot here too. Due to headache, I've only just gotten up and my outside time has been standing barefoot on the back "porch" encouraging Elka to do her business, but it's pretty toasty here as well. Which is just the way I like it, actually. I'm from the beach, and would much rather be too hot (which is a rarity anyway) than too cold (which happens all too often).
But, riding the couch with the dog, snacking on some pickles (yes, she really wants some too, but I reminded her of her manners ["excuse me" is her no rewards marker] so she's giving me sad puppy eyes from a safe remove) and just opened up the WIP I started in July (at 60,680 words. I validated for camp at 58k and change). Just writing 'til the end, and then I can go back and adjust all the driving around everybody seems to be doing.
Ever have that? Ever long piece of mine has at least one "wow, they do this a lot". In my first werewolf novel, it's meals. They're stopping to eat a lot. Which people do, really, but doesn't make for exciting copy every chapter. In current novel, it's "well, we have to go to X now" and they get in the car and drive the twenty minutes, etc. etc.
This is our twenty something consecutive day of rain. That means over twenty two inches of rain at my house. Sorry to all of you who are watching the west go up in smoke. The weather guys say we only have a couple of more days but they lie more than writers do.
I think my brain got waterlogged too. Rescuing Frost became a whole re-write as the rain began to fall. Over a hundred pages into it though so maybe I can get it queried by the end of the monsoon season.
Yesterday was my #3 son's 18th birthday. My husband took him and #2 to Soak City. Meanwhile, my youngest never had a party for her 16th birthday last May, so I chaperoned fifteen 16yo girls at a pool party.
The pool party was at the clubhouse of my daughter's friend's condo complex. Next to the condo complex is a cemetery, and a family was holding a celebration-of-life at the cemetery, complete with balloons. Some of my daughter's friends initially showed up at the cemetery, wondering why my daughter would have her party there.
LOL
My daughter told me today - “This means I'm an only CHILD.” I guess technically she's correct.
We Skype with #1 Navy son this afternoon. He laughs at me when I complain about our 92 degree hot and humid weather. He's stationed in Mississippi LOL.
So far as I can figure, my city has met its drought water-conservation goal of 36%. I think most of the state has also met its goal. The unintended-but-not-surprising result of this [despite last weekend's torrential downpour and bridge washouts] is the current fire map:
http://www.fire.ca.gov/general/firemaps.php
21 active and 4 contained fires.
And fire season goes thru November.
I wish I'd been able to attend the WD conference. It sounds like it was wonderful. I can do without the NYC hot-humid weather tho. I am sooooo DONE with summer.
Kitty – your kitty is gorgeous. Looks comfy too.
Hope everyone is having a cool and relaxing Sunday.
Kitty— your cat is adorable.
Dena—fifteen teenage girls at a pool party? Thank goodness you survived!
Kregger- don't fall off the ladder!
I just got back from a conference—work conference, not a writer's conference—and am currently hiding in my closed-shuttered-air-conditioned home. I have to. 116 degrees and sunny=lobsterfication.
In any case, hope everyone has a nice Sunday. :)
Writing, planting the baby watermelon plants in my garden, taking a bubble bath and reading.
Um.
I came back with Christina and Bree last night not feeling great and dropped into bed - at around 2, because that's what you do when you're not feeling great.
And I slept through my alarm.
And I slept through my backup alarm.
And I woke up at 1.
Having missed - EVERYTHING. And you possibly have some idea of how p/o this makes me, but possibly not. I am VERY p/o, not least because I didn't get to say goodbye to Christina and Bree, though that might still be possible. But mostly because this has been such an incredible educational opportunity, and I flubbed it up.
Anyway, once more (everybody, now) - does 'Thank you' ever get old?
Thank you.
Encore...
Thank you.
More later, I missed checkout and now I have 35 min to stuff everything away.
Hi, Sharkbite Carkoonians! It was good to see you this weekend, Colin! (We saw Colin at Bubba Gump, didn't we, Christina?)
Later,
Julie
I didn't get to go to the WD conference, but I did go to ArmadilloCon last weekend, including the writers' workshop. After the workshop, I was hanging out with Steven Brust in the lobby bar when Wesley Chu came up to say hi to Steven, who introduced me to Wesley Chu as if I were his dear friend.
That was only one Amazing Moment in a weekend full of Amazing Moments. Everyone there was awesome, and I love the SFF community.
Oh, my point being, look for conferences/conventions and go when you can. It'll help you feel part of your writing community, and that's so invaluable.
Finally home after a 2-week vacation. I flew in and out of Seattle, which I think is where Janet said she fell in love with libraries. I didn't see anything of Seattle that couldn't be glimpsed from the highway, though we crawled along at such a snail's pace that I had the opportunity to look at lots of buildings for a long time. The rest of the time was spent in Bellingham, a very lovely place.
Now I have to return to the work frame of mind. I have a book review due tomorrow. I'd also started the first paragraph of a new WIP just before vacation, and am curious if it's changed any since I've been gone.
I hope someone posts something about the WD conference. It sounded interesting.
90 in the sun and 85 in the shade on my back deck, so I'm inside eating a sandwich made with our families homemade sausage. Every few months we make a 100 lbs. or so, for the whole family.
Just got back from seeing my youngest daughter's first house, (if all goes through), and I think it will. Both of my daughters are flying pretty high and steady paths right now and have made it to the big-world as awesome young women. I must have done something right. There is comfort in believing that.
Janet, about the WIR, there is no penalty for claiming time for yourself away from work/blog/conference tasks. You are no "differnt" than the rest of us yahoos. We all need downtime. Go home, it's Sunday.
Oh, and the Lake Michigan shore has finally heated up for the first time all summer. Shorts, sandals, and air conditioning today. It's what I live for.
Packing for Bismarck North Dakota so I can finish my book in my daughter's basement apt. while she works during the day. I am holding myself hostage until I rework this one damn chapter that holds me back from completing the damn thing. I must be getting close because I am annoyed with it and it with me and whoever survives the week in Bismarck wins.
Im bringing Tequila, a 12 pack of Leinie's Summer Shandy and the most possible comfy clothes I own...
Highly energized here in MN. Sweated yesterday in the church's native flower garden with several people to get rid of those thistles and solo-pastored today, as co-pastor is on vacation, with 7 first-time guests! Yes, that's a lot for our small church. (sorry if this is tmi).
Now trying to mellow out, greedily gobbling up the info you all share here about writer's conferences you've attended. And now that my housing problem is solved (yay), I can get back into regular writing mode again.
Kitty: adorable pic of your baby. I hope to be the proud herder-of-cats either this fall or next spring with 2 kitties/cats of our own.
Hey! So, Bri and I also slept through our alarms this morning! We woke up at 11 am and went OH NO!!! That's what you get from partying hard in New York City, I guess. We made it downstairs just in time to hear the closing keynote address, which was awesome, and then we ran into Julie! Perfect timing. =)
I have to say that meeting Janet was worth travelling all the way to NYC all by itself. She is a funny and smarty and gracious and kind as I always suspected she was. Her workshop was outstanding - of course. ♥ Not much DIFFERNT than I'd expected. (And no, we are not going to let this go away just because you beat us to it on Twitter, lol!)
Like Julie said, we all went to Bubba Gump Shrimp last night and had amazing delicious food. Wow, Colin, you sure can eat. We were impressed! And then when we passed a group of kids breakdancing, Colin jumped right in and danced with them. He's got mad skillz for an English dude! It's gotta be the lima beans.
Interestingly, we were joking about how people don't really do elevator pitches at conferences. Here, that's because the elevators are ridiculously slow - you could grow old and die waiting for them. You could read your whole book to an agent trapped inside. But just after the conference ended, we were standing around by the elevator bank - waiting, of curse for the elevators, when lo and behold some agents were waiting with us. Not wanting to be obnoxious, figuring they were JUST SO DONE, we made small talk. But then they asked abut our books! And suddenly I realized, O MY GOD I AM ELEVATOR PITCHING! Well near-elevator anyway. And because it wasn't pre-planned, we were relaxed. And the agents asked to see more!
So it all goes to show that you should never take the stairs. =D
OK so all of those typos were in tention al. Janet started a fad.
I should also point out that Julie was not feeling under the weather BECAUSE of our wild partying last night. We're actually a pretty tame group. Well, for writers anyway.
Mostly.
Janet, you're hilarious. And because you asked, I was in Normandie:
Number of air kisses (involving me) per day: 128 +
Number of family members involved: 17
Number of hours spent at the table eating together per day: 10 +
Number of bottles of wine consumed per day: You wouldn't believe me if I told you!
Good food, good wine, good music with family: Priceless
Advice for today: If your significant other tells you, "It's gorgeous out, let's ride our bikes." Think twice. My idea of a relaxing afternoon is sipping wine at a sidewalk café. His is riding bikes up a bunch of hills. Twice I had to stop him, "Wait, wait, is this suppose to be fun, or are you trying to kill me?"
Him: "Yeah, com' on."
I don't know which question he answered, but I did have fun biking back down those hills. I didn't have to pedal once.
PS: Nice to see Christina.
PPS: You're the QOTKU, you can decree that from now on different is spelled differnt.
I've been following along on #WDC15 and it looked great. I notice Shiner Bock is now available in New York without having to be boot legged in, so I may have to rethink visiting NYC.
My friend who lives on Long Island wasn't aware WDC was going on, so she missed it. More's the pity, but she went to Italy and is going to Surrey, so perhaps she's not terribly bad off. Still, it looked like a great conference right in her back yard.
How awesome Julie H and Christina made it and brought gifts! Where's the smoked salmon, though?
I have apparently lost my mind and ordered ten books today. Most started with "Recollections of..." or were diaries or collections of letters from the Civil War because apparently one entire six-shelf bookcase of Civil War books is not enough.
And insane asylums. Knowing about insane asylums should be required reading for writers.
In Napa about to watch the Raider's training camp. Boys hitting each other? Why yes, thank you!
Then food and wine. It's a hard life.
Still on cloud nine from the PNWA. I wish I could attend a conference every month to soak in the good vibes. I shouldn't push my luck.
Happy Sunday!
Julie: It's knowing about insane asylums that make us writers fun at parties!
Me…?
Well, writing, of course.
And scads of laundry.
I leave on Tuesday for Wyoming (my first time there) on a combined work/holiday schedule.
Eighties during the days, and thirties to forties during the nights.
Packing will be key.
Do you remember where you were when you first felt infinity?
I was on top of a mountain, and thus mountains remain for me a place of refuge and restoration.
So I may not be heard from for a couple of weeks.
You see, I'm going home.
90 degrees here at 1:30, but real feel is 102. Thank God for inside, air conditioner, and lazy Sundays with views of our pecan trees under clear-and-oh-so-blue-Texas skies!
At my desk, trying not to pretend I'm under deadline and need to write, not one, but two, legal guides today.
Utterly awesome presents. Just. Utterly. Awesome.
Gearing up for a Shark sighting at WPA in 21 days.
#ticktock
Terri
Okay, I REALLY WANT shark pens now.
Goat mountain, Montana 1966.
Now I'm really envious of you guys who got to go to Writers Digest! Maybe I'll try to put in an appearance next year and try to lump it in with a vacation to the city. I grew up in a very rural area, so it's surprising to me how much I've grown to love New York. For all those of you who don't think you can cut it, I would urge you to try it at least once. You'll be surprised. Just plan in advance, follow the QOTKU's tips, and you'll be fine.
I am sitting in my universe, preparing for another week of work. I'm sipping a cocktail while waiting for my baked ziti to finish cooking, after spending a good portion of the day outlining my next WIP. Life is good.
I'm jealous of all the conference-goers, but I'm glad you all had so much fun. Someday...
That said, I can't complain about my Sunday (which is over, thank you very much - I have get my kids off to school in twenty minutes). We explored some caves and rock pools along the beach, then went for a snorkel. On our way back in, my husband and I spotted a massive sea turtle grazing in a canyon below us. We floated there for ten minutes, just watching as he munched along. Magical.
I'm having one of those days when my mind wanders. And here you are, inviting digression.
It started when my son refused to play WWFs with me, the "human dictionary" (yeah, right), and that led to many thoughts about alphabetization and Cyrillic script and Chinese characters and hieroglyphics and binary code and translation and interpretation and archaeological discoveries and the tendency to assign religious meaning to mysterious things from the past and . . . hang on, it gets relevant here . . .
I wondered what anthropologists or explorers will make of our language and customs one day in the far distant future when language has changed yet again. Will they discover our flash fiction entries and ascribe them to religion? Will they try to decipher the meaning of the favoured words, repeated over and over, and see them as an offering to appease a powerful demi-god? Will they dismiss the idea of word-play as being too advanced a concept for our inferior and under-developed species?
Then I debated whether to comment about it here (way too long) or write a post on my blog. Maybe both, there's not exactly overlap in readership. Or maybe not, as I recalled that line in the Frost poem that has always made me think he was easily distracted as well:
"Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back."
And then the cat yakked up a hairball.
So, a typical Sunday.
Wishing all of you a fantastic and productive week ahead!
My 5:20 reply was to Scott.
On my phone his comment had a reply option. Who knew.
Your alleged "differnt" typo reminded me of an assignment I had a few years back and it gave me a thought.
I was working on an assignment putting together a series of brochures for Monsanto. (Don't boo me, I had to pay the mortgage that month and some kids were getting hungry.) During the research, I came across something I had never known before. Weeds, I learned from a scientist, are only weeds if you don't want them. Therefore, he added, a rose can qualify as a weed if it pops up where you don't want it.
Turning it around, I asked if someone enjoyed dandelions in their lawn, if that meant said dandelion would NOT be a weed. He didn't even hesitate. "Absolutely not a weed then," he said, clearly having answered the question before.
So if you intended different to be spelled differnt because, you know, you wanted to show that differnt can be different or some such scenario, then it's not really a typo.
And if a tree falls in a forest while no one is there, it allegedly doesn't make a sound.
Just tryin' to do my part. 95 here, and I'm feeling all of it.
Next.
I'm going to assume I can talk about the Con until someone tells me enough (and nips me) or I'm done.
So I'm in a livery car otw to JFK and these are my off-the-bat top 10 things from this w/e in no particular order:
1. Janet. She is all I really came to see, and she was completely worth every cent, even if nothing else at all happened. I told every single firstie her name and Purpose (from my own lens, anyway).
2. Christina & Bri: MEETING Blog members is awesome and fulfilling and nurturing and we think a) we need a conference of our own and b) we need to start our own offshoot blog in which we can post our writing ideas and help each other out. Call it Dr. Shark's Nursery or Carkoonian Sharkbites or something and maybe the Queen will drop in now and then.
3. Jonathan Maberry. Awesome speaker with incredible ideas about moving forward as a beginning author. More on that later.
4. Jacqueline Woodward. Keynote speaker. Esp her point that there comes a point in every book when the M/S falls apart and you stop coasting and have to really think about it and it gets really hard. And you cry or you drink or whatever, but that's what defines those who get published from those who don't - because if you can't push through that fear and figure out how to write your own book, you can't succeed.
5. The feeling after pitching to the Agents. Once again, Janet saved me. And now, I want you to read and consider this, especially you lurkers out there (I was one until a year ago): READ THIS PART!: When has following Janet's advice ever hirt you?
Maybe it hasn't directly helped you.
But have you ever followed her advice and had something go wrong?
So. I didn't actually "Pitch," per se, to ANYONE. Because she was right. The stakes are too high, and I can't memorize, deliver accurately, and not be nervous, without being absurdly and over-the-top nervous.
So I apporoached it as several short, professional interviews about me and my writing.
I went in wanting to see five particular agents, but interested in many. I write in two genres, so I was esp interested in those who could eventually take on both. And I wanted to get to them. So I went by line length and saw 7.
I'll explain what I did later, almost to airport, but ALL of those 5 asked for partials, and I lay THAT squarely at Janet's door.
More later.
J
Julie: I'm actually working on something that requires researching a local 'mental hospital' that was built in 1913. The trial I'm researching (and hoping to write about) occurred in 1916. I can only imagine what older asylums must have been like. Supposedly, this hospital was all 'new methods'... although they didn't have a great grasp of insanity beyond 'dementia precox (aka schizophrenia)'. Which is why I have this tale to tell...
I'm sorry you weren't feeling well, JulieH, but I'm glad you, Christina and Bree had a great time. And Colin, by the sounds of it...
Hey John Frain, here's one for ya.
I have a sign hanging over my back door. It's a little "differnt".
IF A MAN IS ALONE IN THE WOODS AND HE SPEAKS, AND THERE IS NO WIFE TO HEAR HIM, IS HE STILL WRONG?
bjmuntain, if you haven't already, watch the movie The Snake Pit. (Came out in 1948)It's based on Many Jane Ward's semi-autographical book about her experiences in a mental hospital in the late 30's. I know it's beyond your era but it's a riveting film.
Sounds good, Carolynn. I'll see if I can find it. (On VHS or DVD - yes, I'm old school). Thanks!
-6 to 9'C here today (just did a conversion, that's 21 to 48'F for those non-metric speaking here) and blowing a freezing gale. A few hours drive north and they are battling some terrible bushfires so I can't whinge about the cold.
I read in someone's comments there are still fires in the US. I hope everyone is safe and they get them under control soon. Bushfires are scary.
So I'm staying inside to keep warm today =)
I just read this wonderful essay by Shirley Jackson titled Memory and Delusion, printed in The New Yorker (from an upcoming collection, which I believe I will buy), and had to share the link over here. Really, if you're a writer (or know a writer) you must read this. Just delightful.
http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/memory-and-delusion
I now feel so . . . validated, in my delusions. :)
AJ, it's as if half of California is burning. So many fires, so much drought out west.
OK. At the terminal. Really quick.
6) Jacqueline Woodward's "Reality Check" - "Okay, so here I am, and I've won literally every award known to man (except the PULITZER, so for you Pulitzer people out there, I STILL HAVEN'T WON THAT ONE...), and I'm up here in a writer's conference, and 2/3 of y'all don't know me from a can of paint." (And as I remember, she went on to say something like this: 'So when you're sitting there thinking you're gonna become rich and famous and everyone's going to know you, remember this.' And she drove the point super home with a story about an amazing day meeting Jimmy Carter, talking with him for two hours, having a full page and a half newspaper article, hugging Jimmy Carter, and flying high the entire way home - and then the minute she walked in the door having her son say, "the dog just threw up upstairs, can you go clean it up?"
And that's the reality of being an author.
7. Paula Munier on plot and what sells, and this deserves its own post. So that will happen.
8. Paula's colleague Gina Panettieri, as #7. Both were amazing.
9. Getting to TALK to Paula. And, frankly, to Jonathan Maberry, and of course Janet, and as Christina and Bri will tell you, to just about anyone, and just be myself and not have to worry about word count or word order or word choice or word anything - just be me. It was incredibly liberating.
10. NYC itself. As in some books in which the setting itself is a character, so here. Again, this deserves more time, but if we picked the conference up and plunked it down somewhere else, it would have been very different. Neither better nor worse necessarily, but absolutely different. It was like #9; just casually walking by the NY public library and Times Square and down Madison Ave and 5th Ave was surreal.
And finding out that not only did I not hate the place, but I actually really like it, was also almost surreal. EVERYONE I met was friendly. It was really clean. And everyone moves with a purpose, has a purpose, knows their purpose and acts on it.
I felt as if I'd found my peeps at times. Now, I love New England. Don't want to move. But I understand NYC, and I didn't think that would happen.
At which point I must once again reference the Janet Road Map. At what point has believing her ever led me astray?
Mental blank.
So anyhow, I loved it.
Now, if anyone has stuck with me this far, it must be the few, the proud, the truly dedicated, and to those, I must ask - do you have opinions on me starting a FB page for us where we can just chat? "Like" posts, etc?
Let me know.
OH, speaking of social media, I'm going to throw in one other enticing tidbit.
As a result of this weekend, my FB page blew past 4,000 likes, and I gained - well, I can't find the graph feature on Twitter - but I gained somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 Twitter followers, which is pretty cool, as I don't really use Twitter all that much. But I guess I will now.
All right.
Be well, all.
We need our own conference. Not sure how we'd get a budget, but... we need to go to Disney World, we need to pay for Janet, and we need to go.
My opinion. :)
J
My Sunday? Church, family time, and playing Zelda ("Twilight Princess") with my SecondBorn. I play, she helps and laughs at me. All good fun! :)
Sorry this is brief, but it's late. I look forward to reading all the conference gossip tomorrow. :D
Home!
BJ,
"Julie: I'm actually working on something that requires researching a local 'mental hospital' that was built in 1913. The trial I'm researching (and hoping to write about) occurred in 1916. I can only imagine what older asylums must have been like."
Yep. The MC in The Rain Crow, the Civil War novel is a pretty independent woman, but times being what they are she knows the dangers. Men can easily have women committed for being "hysterical". One of the treatments for hysteria is hysterectomies. That's what happens after one lady tells the doctor in a therapy session she believes removing men would cure a lot of insanity in women. It's fascinating research, but holy tap dancing terrapins am I glad this is a minor bit. It's depressing.
2Ns: YES, that man is wrong. Trick question, right? If he's alone in the woods then it's impossible for a wife (his or anyone else's) to be there. And if he's alone in the woods, he should do more listening than talking. So yes, he is wrong.
Julia, you could double David Letterman and do a Top 20 list and I'd still be reading your posts. Oh my dog, I'm kicking myself in the ankle for not getting to the Writer's Digest conference, I've heard nothing but glowing praise. I had an officiating conference so I missed MWW in Muncie. I have no excuse for NY.
I'm so looking forward to your "more later" posts. More, I say, more!
I had a rare step-daughter-free weekend, and actually managed to get a decent amount of writing done *and* have a Sunday lie in. I'll try not to be too smug about it though, chaos resumes this week!
Boy, even when I have to get up at 00:dark hundred to take a visiting friend to the airport shuttle, I can't get into the first 25 comments. Ms. Shark, why aren't you ever boring so that no one comments?
Never mind.
I spent Sunday working at our biannual forgery art show (Jaques Louis David "Death of Marat" anyone?) it was fun, we sold paintings, and people told us how brilliantly talented we all are. What could be better? I sold my copy of Sargent's study of Madame X, but oddly, no one wanted to live with the aforementioned "Death of Marat". Go figure.
Julia,
Thanks for your recap of the NYC WDC for those of us out in the provinces, clinging to the upper left coast (and right in the path of the coming tsunami when then entire NW coast west of I-5 slides of into the sea in the coming earthquake)! What you wrote re inspired me once again. Other than the fact I spend far too much time on fB (because PANDAS!) I think a FB group for the shark nursery would be brilliant and I would show up with cake. (CAKE!)
Ya'll are awesome with fun comments and some great advice to boot.
Huzzah!
Invite me to the group, 'kay?
Uhhh... I was in NYC this past week?? How did that happen?! I would have loved to be at the conference. Did my desire to be there create a virtual reality version of myself that isn't vegetarian and hangs out at shrimp bars? If so, I'm mad at myself for not telling me about it! Did I have a good time? :)
Great stories! Thanks for sharing. :)
Colin, you humble guy you. We all saw you. Especially when you saw that the Revlon cam in Times Square was on you and you broke into that Ferris Bueller-sequel rendition of "Shake It Up Baby Now" that had the whole street dancing!
Christina: Who is this VR me? And what did you do with him? Maybe I should send him to Bouchercon instead of the real me. Sounds like he'd be a lot more fun to be around... :)
Obviously I was still playing catch-up on Sunday, as I'm only viewing this now. Gah.
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