Thursday, July 23, 2015

lights is blinding, girls need blinders

My career is ascending and my liver is descending, and I can only hope that they don't cross paths before the conference is over (or, if they do cross paths, that my career ascends so rapidly that the cirrhosis is worth it). Today was a v. v. long, v. v. social day, but it was all fantastic. I actually made it to the keynote speech at 8:30am, which was a miracle, but my friend Barbara was the keynote speaker and I felt honor-bound to support her. She did a great job, and I caught up with some of the other writers we went to Tahoe with in April, so breakfast was worth it despite the early hour and the total lack of sleep.

Post-breakfast, I had a meeting with someone from Wattpad, which was great; as mentioned yesterday, I kind of want to stalk her until she becomes my friend, but even if that doesn't happen, it was great. Then I grabbed some free books before attending a workshop Sherry Thomas was giving on subtext. Sherry is awesome, as I said yesterday, and the workshop gave me some good food for thought with Rafe and Octavia, so that was all lovely.

Then, I had just enough time to dump everything in my room before going out for lunch with one of my freelance editors. I adore her - she always tells it to me straight, and she has really great ideas, so we spent most of lunch (and one glass of wine each, which the first of many mistakes I made today) discussing the plot for this book and how to fix my issues. This was probably exactly what I needed right now (minus the glass of wine), so yay for that!

After lunch, I really just wanted to write, but instead I forced myself to continue the social death march. I went to an open house for Nook, where I likely made myself far too memorable by telling a story about the conference I went to in Denver that had a giant pump-dispenser sized container of lube for a game they played (Katie would remember, if she didn't have so much PTSD that she forgot it all). Then I went across the street with my other friend Barbara (no relation to Barbara #1, although she's part of the Tahoe group), and we had a drink while catching up in the relative quiet of a Times Square restaurant instead of the cacophonous hotel lobby. I absolutely adore her and she's one of the best people I've met in the last couple of years, so I'm glad we got some alone time together.

After that, the fun continued with another drink (sense a pattern?) with a blogger who has reviewed my stuff before with great feedback. Then I left the hotel and went to Rum House (pattern continues) and had two daiquiris with Parisa (my other editor, who happens to be Kathia's sister). She was in fine form, and it was great to catch up with her about things other than my writing and my fears, so I'm glad it happened.

Then, I was v. v. close to ending the night early - I needed some downtime, so I met Terry in her neighborhood and had a steak and some fries and half a glass of wine (I didn't finish the glass, which is a sign that I'm reaching my limit) while we talked about our days as casually as if we were still living together. Then I came home, made a cursory sweep through the bar, decided I could go back to my room and put on my nightgown with a clean conscience...

...and just as I crawled into bed with my laptop, Kathia texted me and asked where I was. So I went back downstairs and had a fancy soda, followed by a glass of champagne (I'm so weak) with Kathia and one of the iBooks guys. That was super super fun, bur perhaps ill-advised...but I'm not going to second-guess it. Instead, since I'm falling asleep while writing this, I'm going to sleep, perchance to dream of even better meetings tomorrow - goodnight!

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