I want to be a part of it (if my ears will stop bleeding)
First, a little random Threadless love:
lizbee, I found you a new shirt.
Also, am I the only one who thinks this design is very New Who S1-ish? If the Eccleston-era fen aren't all over it yet, they should be.
***
And now, the report I promised on my trip to New York City a couple of weekends ago.
Erm... it was good?
No, seriously, I'm glad I went, but not so much for the conference itself as the people I met while I was down there. Not that the conference wasn't very well run, well attended (1050 people, apparently) and full of useful information. It's just that a lot of the content was geared to people who are still searching for an agent and/or publisher, letting them know what agents and editors are looking for and how best to approach them -- industry-related, rather than craft-related. But I knew that before I went down, so I wasn't disappointed by it. The only person on the faculty whose books I had actually read, however, was David Wiesner, and I missed his session because I was yakking away with a couple of other F&SF geeks in the lobby. It wasn't until later that I realized who he was and mentally smacked myself for having missed the Awesome Flying Frog Guy. (So then I made up for it by buying three of his books for my kids.)
But anyway, back to the beginning -- after a long day of travel I arrived Friday night in NYC and settled into the beautiful Hilton New York hotel. After meeting my (very nice) roommate and getting settled in, the first big thrill of my weekend was meeting my own editor Catherine Onder, a.k.a. the Queen of Narnia (no, not the White Witch -- actually, with her long, wavy blonde hair she looks more like Ramandu's daughter). She seemed as delighted to see me as I was to see her, and we retired to a nearby lounge to chat about how revisions were going and what my plans were for Book Two and so on. She sounded very enthusiastic about the changes I told her I was making to Knife -- I hope she still feels that way when she sees the manuscript!
After we parted ways, my roommate Jennye and I hopped into a cab and joined uber-blogger Betsy Bird and uber-editor Cheryl Klein at the Kidlit Drinks Night, which was VERY LOUD but also gave me a chance to meet Claudia Gray, an experience which was every bit as delightful as I'd anticipated. Unfortunately I didn't know most of the other attendees (which is a shame, considering how many cool people were actually there -- I think we should all have worn our name tags!) and it was too noisy and crowded to really interact properly, so we jumped ship after an hour or so and walked back to the hotel to continue our conversation. We talked until midnight, but we could easily have gone on longer. We must do it again one of these days, claudiagray!
The next evening, my fellow author and small town girl Brenda Sturgis and I shared a taxi on our way to the Adams Literary cocktail party, which was held in the ALSO VERY LOUD but otherwise impressive Stone Rose Lounge. It was wonderful to meet Josh and Tracey in person at last, and also to meet some of the other Adams Literary clients, including the lovely and gracious veteran author and publisher Margery Cuyler, graphic designer and paper engineer Sam Ita (hey, lydaclunas, he's done a pop-up book just for you), Stacy DeKeyser, Adrienne Maria Vrettos (whose website I envy!), and others. Unfortunately because it was SO VERY LOUD, it was hard to hear what any of them were saying! But I'm told that it's pretty hard to find a quiet place to chat in NYC, especially on a Friday or Saturday night.
On the Sunday I shared a taxi back to LaGuardia with one of my fellow F&SF geeks from the previous day (say hi if you're out there, Scot!) and spent a productive day writing in the airport. Really, I think I could get whole books written just waiting for planes -- but I was still very glad to get home, even though my husband had to drive through whiteout conditions and dodge several highway closures in order to fetch me (bless him).
Oh, and did I mention that my kids were horribly ill all weekend while I was gone, and well into the week when I came back? And that now two out of the three are feverish and queasy again? I feel like I'm just barely fighting off the same virus myself (thus my rather dismal Valentine's Day post -- I spent nearly that whole day drugged up on Gravol and lying in bed). I can only hope we all get better soon.
lizbee, I found you a new shirt.
Also, am I the only one who thinks this design is very New Who S1-ish? If the Eccleston-era fen aren't all over it yet, they should be.
***
And now, the report I promised on my trip to New York City a couple of weekends ago.
Erm... it was good?
No, seriously, I'm glad I went, but not so much for the conference itself as the people I met while I was down there. Not that the conference wasn't very well run, well attended (1050 people, apparently) and full of useful information. It's just that a lot of the content was geared to people who are still searching for an agent and/or publisher, letting them know what agents and editors are looking for and how best to approach them -- industry-related, rather than craft-related. But I knew that before I went down, so I wasn't disappointed by it. The only person on the faculty whose books I had actually read, however, was David Wiesner, and I missed his session because I was yakking away with a couple of other F&SF geeks in the lobby. It wasn't until later that I realized who he was and mentally smacked myself for having missed the Awesome Flying Frog Guy. (So then I made up for it by buying three of his books for my kids.)
But anyway, back to the beginning -- after a long day of travel I arrived Friday night in NYC and settled into the beautiful Hilton New York hotel. After meeting my (very nice) roommate and getting settled in, the first big thrill of my weekend was meeting my own editor Catherine Onder, a.k.a. the Queen of Narnia (no, not the White Witch -- actually, with her long, wavy blonde hair she looks more like Ramandu's daughter). She seemed as delighted to see me as I was to see her, and we retired to a nearby lounge to chat about how revisions were going and what my plans were for Book Two and so on. She sounded very enthusiastic about the changes I told her I was making to Knife -- I hope she still feels that way when she sees the manuscript!
After we parted ways, my roommate Jennye and I hopped into a cab and joined uber-blogger Betsy Bird and uber-editor Cheryl Klein at the Kidlit Drinks Night, which was VERY LOUD but also gave me a chance to meet Claudia Gray, an experience which was every bit as delightful as I'd anticipated. Unfortunately I didn't know most of the other attendees (which is a shame, considering how many cool people were actually there -- I think we should all have worn our name tags!) and it was too noisy and crowded to really interact properly, so we jumped ship after an hour or so and walked back to the hotel to continue our conversation. We talked until midnight, but we could easily have gone on longer. We must do it again one of these days, claudiagray!
The next evening, my fellow author and small town girl Brenda Sturgis and I shared a taxi on our way to the Adams Literary cocktail party, which was held in the ALSO VERY LOUD but otherwise impressive Stone Rose Lounge. It was wonderful to meet Josh and Tracey in person at last, and also to meet some of the other Adams Literary clients, including the lovely and gracious veteran author and publisher Margery Cuyler, graphic designer and paper engineer Sam Ita (hey, lydaclunas, he's done a pop-up book just for you), Stacy DeKeyser, Adrienne Maria Vrettos (whose website I envy!), and others. Unfortunately because it was SO VERY LOUD, it was hard to hear what any of them were saying! But I'm told that it's pretty hard to find a quiet place to chat in NYC, especially on a Friday or Saturday night.
On the Sunday I shared a taxi back to LaGuardia with one of my fellow F&SF geeks from the previous day (say hi if you're out there, Scot!) and spent a productive day writing in the airport. Really, I think I could get whole books written just waiting for planes -- but I was still very glad to get home, even though my husband had to drive through whiteout conditions and dodge several highway closures in order to fetch me (bless him).
Oh, and did I mention that my kids were horribly ill all weekend while I was gone, and well into the week when I came back? And that now two out of the three are feverish and queasy again? I feel like I'm just barely fighting off the same virus myself (thus my rather dismal Valentine's Day post -- I spent nearly that whole day drugged up on Gravol and lying in bed). I can only hope we all get better soon.