This past weekend was my lovely chapter's annual retreat, aka WRW's In the Company of Writers.
1. We were in a new location, and while I can only imagine the stuff that happened behind the scenes for that, I had an excellent time.
2. My roommate and I hunted down a big box store so she could find (non-hotel priced) snacks and water and I could get tea. I normally travel with my own stash, but had not this time and quickly regretted that. Amusingly, I was seated at dinner next to a tea drinker who expressed a wish for Earl Grey, and I pulled my box out of my bag and shared.
3. The first dinner, a fellow writer teased me about my big bag and then needed a pen to fill out her raffle tickets and had forgotten the schedule for the evening. Guess who had a pen and a copy of the schedule.
4. Had great discussions with folks about knitting. Even met a new to the retreat knitter. And I may or may not know that someone is putting a knitter into one of their future books. (Can be bribed with yarn.)
5. I am of the belief that time spent listening to Dr. Pam Regis talk about writing is time well spent, but time spent listening to Pam along with Kathleen Gilles Seidel is just amazing. (The other speakers, including last minute replacement Diana Gaston who did out final go out and believe chat, but certainly not forgetting Elizabeth Boyle or Robyn Carr or, you know, everyone else there.)
6. Someday I will retain everyone's name and their face and the correct pronunciation of their name all in the same mental file. I feel sure of this. But hi, to everyone I talked to. And everyone I missed or only managed to wave to in passing. Or sent warm, fuzzy vibes when I read your book. I did get to/remember to tell quite a few people how excellent their stuff was. One author made me stop and repeat my story because she wanted to hear me say I read her book again. (I really did!)
7. Romance jeopardy remains amazing. And crazy. And not fair. Especially since it was the fourth book, not the third for that one question. Just saying. And it is possible that one team that had an excessive number of teammates pressing up against my team leading to one of our member's wrong answers being attributed to them. I would consider feeling bad about this, except they won. (And I told them. You know, after.)
My stuff fit back into my bag remarkably well, considering. It does not appear that I left anything behind. Except possibly my energy.
Rants About New (and old) Things
