Wit, Words, and Joie de Vivre

Do you enjoy waiting for things? What about getting lost and having sketchy cell phone reception? Who doesn't enjoy those things! Then I bet you'll be sorry you didn't go to Dragon con and Decatur book Festival with me and m_stiefvater.

Among things I waited for:

-- a flight delayed by an hour. It would have been 90 minutes except I was the second-to-last standby passenger allowed on the 10:30 flight.
-- a lunch that turned into a dinner because we waited so long.
-- a lunch that Maggie never got to eat because for some reason it took half an hour to give us a sandwich.
-- Jackson to pick me up for dinner on Friday. My hotel clock was fast so I came down to the lobby 15 minutes early. Then Jackson was almost a half-hour late stuck in traffic.
-- Jackson to pick us up for lunch on Sunday. (The lunch that turned into a dinner.) We tried to entertain ourselves by walking around Atlanta but there is nothing there except parking garages.

I won't even get into getting lost portion. Let's just say I was this close to being abandoned in Decatur while everyone thought I was out with someone else.

Despite that, I did enjoy the weekend. I got to meet an astonishing amount of authors, including David Leviathan, who sat next to me at Maggie's panel and gave me some gum. I only accepted the gum so I could tell everyone David Leviathan gave me gum. ;) Actually, I'm kidding, I had some weird Chipotle breath. And if you are going to meet impressive publishing people, it's good to meet them in a setting where everyone is sweaty. Sweat being a wonderful equalizer.

Jackson took us to a very funny improv comedy show where everyone in the cast looked sort of like a more famous comedian. I'm not kidding, I no longer remember who I had matched everyone up with, but pretty much everyone in the show resembled someone from Saturday Night Live or Mr. Show.

I had drinks with Tenners Lindsey Leavitt, Rachel Hawkins, and Irene Latham. Lindsay is pregnant and adorable; just saying. And we had the usual good conversation that occurs when writers meet.

Although the best conversation occurs when you are trying to go to sleep. Maggie and I had deep thoughts on Friday night until 2:30 AM. The next evening we were both asleep by 11 and zonked out for 9 and 10 hours. Because Dragoncon is an exhausting place. I was a little sad because 10 years ago I would have been so excited to be at Dragoncon. I felt a little old because I was in bed and not that interested. On the other hand, my life is much more exciting and full of kindred spirits then it was 10 years ago, so perhaps I no longer have such a need for the intense social atmosphere of a convention.

All in all, still a fun weekend.

More New York tales.

So this was the trip where I was basically a self-inflicted pack animal. It seemed like all I did was lug suitcases and bags of books all over the place. I am crying for a chiropractor right about now. First I had this great idea that I could walk from Penn Station to my hotel, which would have been fine, if I wasn't living on an energy bar and some potato chips for last six hours, if it wasn't 90°, and if my suitcases didn't weigh what felt like 300 pounds by the time I actually made it to the Wyndham Garden.

But I did make it. I checked into a hotel and stayed there all by myself which seemed like a real novelty. Since I can't drive and I live in suburbia I am almost never by myself out in the world. I missed talking to people sometimes, but on the other hand it was nice to spend hours and hours in the Strand and walk around at my own pace and never worry about anyone else. I could get used to that.

Not that I was really alone for long. The first night I had dinner with Angie Frasier and her family, Alex Bracken, Shana Silver, and book blogger Mitali. I have this curse where restaurants that I planned to go to are always closed. We had planned to go to a pizza place, and their ovens were being fixed or something and they were closed just that day. No one knew where else to go. We wandered something like 12 blocks looking for somewhere to eat. I can't believe how patient Angie's little girls are. I would have been getting a good whine on somewhere on block six I bet. We ended up at an Italian place where the waitress recited specials in an accent no one could understand and they overcharged us, causing us to have to whip out calculators, but they did have a quiet table for eight and that is not easy to find in Manhattan sometimes.

We talked about all the lovely things writers talk about when they get together, like covers, Twilight, gossip, what books seem like they're going to be big, etc. Alex has a lot of interesting stories being in that publishing course. I would have loved to have talked to her more. Angie was also super nice, and Shana was someone I felt like I knew but couldn't remember who she was, which is a strange side effect of the Internet community sometimes. She was very easy to talk to and her book is on submission now so I'm wishing her luck. Mitali had the blogger perspective and that was great to have there too.

On Wednesday I gave my editor my book buying haul which she had kindly offered to ship back to me, so more shopping was off limits. So on Thursday I got all intellectual and went to the Met with Sarah Cross where we can make comments like, "that wolf is awesome" or "this cabinet looks like it's for storing a dead body in". The last time I saw Sarah Cross neither of us had sold a book so it was pretty awesome to give her my galley and get her to sign Dull Boy for me (which was the only book I didn't have shipped back, so it was all I had to read at the airport and luckily it is *awesome*). While I was waiting for Sarah I went to the Morgan Library and gathered ideas on how to describe impressive old books for a scene in the mermaid book.

Okay, I just noticed I said the word awesome three times in the last paragraph. I need new words, sheesh.

Finally, with aching hamstrings and aching shoulders and possibly every muscle in my body aching, it was time for a ride home of constant turbulence and a blessedly early landing. I also should mention, being a foodie, that while for the most part this was not a great food vacation aside from the editor dinner and an evening custard stop at the Shake Shack, I had a positively amazing drink at a raw food restaurant. Young Thai coconut, masala chai, and raw agave, sweet and fragrant with the exact consistency of a milkshake.

And so my love-hate relationship with New York continues.

I'm in Savannah now. We're sitting around the table, laptops open all over the place. I still can't type much because I screwed up my arm racing to the revision finish line while trying to recover from a repetitive stress injury, BUT, I ordered voice recognition software and it should be waiting for me when I get home.

(People keep asking me if I can write by voice, and I'm 95% sure the answer is YES! because I read all my work aloud to Dade many many many times and it sounds sort of like a pretend game with myself. Which would be cool. But I guess I'll find out when I get home.)

I am not sleeping much. I have seen almost nothing of Savannah, but the house is fantastic. My brain is just buzzbuzzbuzz all the time! It won't rest!

I need to charge up the poor laptop now, so that is all! But when I get home there will be pictures.

So, in April and early May, when I hurt my wrist and elbow, I couldn't write much, and I had to do--OTHER THINGS. Things I couldn't type about because my wrist was hurt. For one thing, Melissa Marr and Jennifer Lynn Barnes were at MY Borders! And I do mean mine. It's the Borders in the town where I grew up and I worked at the mall across the street for eight years. There are a lot of Borders in this town, so I'm glad they hit that one.

Some adult UF authors were there too: Mark del Franco, Rachel Vincent and Jeaniene Frost, and I felt bad that I didn't get books for them to sign too because they were all nice. They did a pretty long panel--long enough that my ass ACHED in those lousy Borders chairs--and I was relieved to see a good turn-out. I know people DO read YA in Orlando, because a lot of the good stuff is always checked out of the library, but...I never see these elusive beings called "readers" out and about.

"I'm so glad some people in Orlando read," I said softly to Dade.
"We're from Tampa!" the woman standing next to me said. "We drove two hours to get here."

Well, so maybe they were ALL from Tampa for all I know. But they were, at least, there.

The whole gang:


Me and Melissa:


Me and Jen:


I didn't get to talk to anyone much, since there were a lot of people there, but I can say they were both very sweet and Melissa let me pick which court band I wanted. (Winter Court, if you're curious. I have such an affinity for, well, winter...)

The other thing I did was buy Dade and myself seasonal passes to Disney. I'm not sure why this never occurred to me the second I got my advance. I'm always complaining that there's nothing to do in Orlando. But there is one HUGE thing that people save for years to do, right in my backyard. Ish.

WDW is one of the places you love or hate. I happen to love it. There are, of course, childhood memories involved, and if smell is the sense of nostalgia, the smell of Disney rides hits me like a time machine. (If you've never ridden on one, they have this definite odor, sort of like brackish water, dust, and...magic.)

There is also plenty of kitsch. They're trying their best to ruin Epcot, but there's still glimpses of that fantastic early 80s vision of the future THAT WOULD BE AWESOME. Plus, over in the Magic Kingdom, It's a Small World was originally created for the '64 World's Fair, and while you do have to put up with the song, where else can you pretend you're at the '64 World's Fair? (Well...so maybe this isn't a priority for you.)

So let me know if any of you come to Disney and want to say hi at the parks. Just not from June 6th-August 13th, the week of Christmas/New Years, or whenever the heck Spring Break is. Because I am cheap and bought tickets with blackout dates, but also because I think you have to be crazy to go to Disney then...