tings are starting to heat up

Yes, I meant to say "tings". It's an homage to my California friends, and a fond memory of how horrified Katie was at our ridiculous grammar. Ironic that I'm a writer and I willingly slip into Adit-speak, but there you have it; it can only get worse when I move in with the dude.

Anyway, I had another excellent day. You can catch up on the details of the conference on zee romance blog, but suffice it to say that I successfully made it out of my first hotel and into the conference hotel. The lines at the conference hotel were v. long, and I wasn't able to get my room right away, so I spent some quality time eating a sandwich in the hotel pub and chatting it up with some people sitting near me. Then, I went to a very interesting afternoon activity for current/former finalists, and it was a good way for me to ease into the conference. Then, I eased right back out of it by meeting up for dinner with Stephanie; she was Ritu, Renee, and Connie's drawmate, and she lived in Loro my senior year. It was great to catch up with her, since she's a journalist and I heart journalists even if my company is slowly and unintentionally destroying her livelihood.

I won't blog here for long because I really really REALLY need to go to bed, but I will say that this conference already feels light-years different than last year's conference. It really boils down to the award nomination, I think; it encourages me to chat with people, probably because I feel more legitimate than I did last year when I attended without a completed manuscript and with no real ties to anyone in the entire hotel. This year, I've interacted with many people online already, and so I run into people whom I've either chatted with online, or who are current/former finalists themselves and so willing to say hi. And, since I now have an agent and saw all the superstar novelists' talks last year, some of the pressure is off, and I can focus my workshop attendance on topics like craft and marketing rather than hitting up all the "famous" speakers just to see them in person.

So, I'm having fun, and tomorrow will be even better because Terry arrives in the afternoon! Wish me luck as I try to stay awake through the day tomorrow...