Fashion Girls

Remember Me?

Well, it's been far too long since I've posted - I'll blame that on yet another stint of crazy travel.  This time, it was a three-part trip:

New York:  Working at the day-job, for a quick, one-day trip.  I got an incredible amount done, but ended up staying past the 8:00 closing time at the front desk, which necessitated some creativity to escape the clutches of the McGraw Hill building....  I succeeded, though, so that I could catch my flight to...

Dallas:  (After sitting next to agent, Kim Whalen, on the plane)  I worked at the day-job for the first day, helping some folks settle into our newest office.  Then, I shed my librarian disguise and attended Romance Writers of America's annual meeting.  Highlights included:

  • Rooming with the incredible Maria V. Snyder (check out her "Study" books - POISON STUDY and MAGIC STUDY) and Nancy Yeager
  • A great session presented by three people, including one very cute guy from Amazon, on using Amazon to promote one's books
  • Another great session by Julie Kenner on writing to high concept
  • The Harlequin party - especially watching the flow of estrogen around the very cute guy from Amazon
  • A wonderful career-planning session with my agent
  • Some great book-directed conversations with my editor

Then, I headed on to...

New Orleans:  I attended the American Association of Law Libraries Annual Meeting, including making a presentation to a couple of hundred people about library budgeting.  New Orleans was hot, humid, and still very much in the throes of recovering from Katrina.  Non-library highlights included:

  • Spending three (three!) uninterrupted hours at Mother's Restaurant, eating great Cajun food and talking with my Library staff
  • Fantastic additional meals at Mulate's (including blackened, grilled alligator!), Muriel's, and Palace Cafe
  • Beignets and cafe au lait at Cafe du Monde on three different occasions
  • Lying in bed, listening to torrential rain falling outside my hotel window
  • Talking to the staff at Kinko's, while I waited for copies of my presentation handout to be made, and hearing about how Kinko's let all of their Katrina-relocated employees work at stores in their relocation cities, until they were ready to return to New Orleans
  • Listening to my cab driver speak very excited Creole into his cell phone and realize that I could recognize about half of what he was saying (but was utterly mystified by the other half!)
Enough!  I'm back (but heading out on the road again on Tuesday.)  I hope to do a better time with updates...

Mindy (whose LJ reading will be sparse until she has finished HP7, which she won't be able to start until she's finished rereading HP 5 and 6!)

Comments

Whoa. You've gone and made me homesick for N'awlins. I grew up there, dontchyaknow. :) Anyway...Mother's, Mulate's, Cafe du Monde. I miss 'em. I also miss the po'boy places on Franklin Ave, just about 5 minutes east of the University of New Orleans....those places tourists don't know about, but should.

Heck, I don't know if those two places are still open, really.

Hmmm... I thought that you were from Houston!
I lived in Houston for 5 years before moving to Calgary, but I grew up in New Orleans. :)
Oh, lucky you! I *heart* Marion V. Snyder.
You'd like her more, if you met her in person! And if you ever attend an SF convention, where she's doing one of her "poison tastings" - GO! She's a riot (and the "poison" includes chocolate...)
Quite a trip! Sorry we couldn't get together when you were in NY.

Hope you're getting some writing done soon. And I can't wait for your book to come out in Oct.

Devon
Ink in My Coffee
http://devonellington.wordpress.com
There will be more trips to New York. (There will *always* be more trips to New York.... :-) )
Oh my god, I absolutely adored Poison Study!!! It was a fantastic book!!
I haven't had a chance to read MAGIC STUDY yet, but Maria is planning two more in that direct series, and then a new series, spinning off a minor character. Busy writer-woman, she is!

(Anonymous)

Wow! That sounds like a fantastic trip. I loved Snyder's "Poison" books too. I can't wait for "Fire Study."

Good luck with HP7. I've got several books ahead of it as well. But now that both kids have asked for it, I'll have to scare up a copy.

I hope you're still finding time to write. I need a Jane fix.

Adrianne
Finding the time to write, but barely... Not helped along by my laptop's backlight failing... Sigh....