My to-do list coming out of this conference is overwhelming and exhilarating and frightening and awesome, and today just added to it - so of course I spent the evening eating and drinking and laughing with friends rather than tackling any of it. But today was great, even though it started too early and lasted too long.
The eight a.m. session was about Facebook ads (which just reminds me how little I'm doing on Facebook and how much I should be doing (ugh)). Then I had a couple of 1:1 meetings, followed by a workshop on using Instagram influencers (turns out you're supposed to use hashtags in a targeted and meaningful way, rather than using them to add a dose of snarkiness to your post - but I'm going to assume that snarky is my 'brand' and keep going with it). And then we had lunch - the food was good, and the talk was decent, so that was all delightful.
But I was hitting my introvert wall pretty hard today, so I left the end of lunch and took a twenty-minute power nap before going back downstairs to go to a panel on Hollywood/movies/tv adaptations of books (not all that useful for my historical romances, but potentially very useful for SPINSTER HONEYMOON). Then I had another marketing workshop, and then two more 1:1s to end the day - and those (with people who actually sell my books) were super helpful and v. engaging (and I think I may have convinced the girl from Kobo to be my friend and hang out with me on the beach on Saturday when everyone else is gone, but we shall see).
So that was all really promising, or at least better than being punched in the throat, so I'll take it. Then I came up to my room and collapsed on my balcony for awhile - I had intended to get some work done, but I mostly sat and stared at the ocean. I was interrupted by Grace, since we hadn't actually caught up 1:1 on this entire trip (when we go to Tahoe, we often ride together just the two of us, and we didn't get that this time, which I really missed). So we sat in my room for an hour and had a much-needed catch-up on life stuff rather than writing stuff, which made me happy.
Then we met up with others from the group and had dinner at a restaurant in the hotel - if it wasn't quite as tasty/atmospheric as last night's dinner, it was made up for by the fact that it took two minutes to walk there. Several of us discussed a variety of important topics, like rape in 1980s romance novels and the fact that we all loved those books even though we wouldn't read them or write them now, and how young adult fiction has possibly replaced/eliminated historical romance as the gateway drug for teen readers (Katie and I spent endless hours reading historicals, which was pretty much all we read (except for my sci-fi excursions with martian flat cats), but I bet if we were growing up together now, we'd be reading YA).
sssanyway. After dinner, I was going to make my escape, but I was lured back to Christie and Barbara's suite, where we ended up discussing the magical power of bitmoji (and more depressing thoughts on whether historical is dead, mostly led by Monica, who is quite successful in Scottish historical romances, which makes me a little nervous if she's feeling like all our readers are dying and no one is replacing them). I happen to disagree somewhat, but since I also plan to write more than historical romance, I perhaps don't care all that much.
But I was really at the introvert wall at that point, and I was basically trolling everyone (Anne seemed to appreciate my sarcasm, at least), so I decided to remove myself from the fray before I accidentally, actually offended someone. So I came back to my room, and I have to go to bed right now if I have any hope of making it onto the 8am bus tour to Pearl Harbor tomorrow. I should probably be working tomorrow and starting to organize my to-do list, but I've always wanted to see Pearl Harbor, so I'm going to put off everything I need to do for another day. Goodnight!
The eight a.m. session was about Facebook ads (which just reminds me how little I'm doing on Facebook and how much I should be doing (ugh)). Then I had a couple of 1:1 meetings, followed by a workshop on using Instagram influencers (turns out you're supposed to use hashtags in a targeted and meaningful way, rather than using them to add a dose of snarkiness to your post - but I'm going to assume that snarky is my 'brand' and keep going with it). And then we had lunch - the food was good, and the talk was decent, so that was all delightful.
But I was hitting my introvert wall pretty hard today, so I left the end of lunch and took a twenty-minute power nap before going back downstairs to go to a panel on Hollywood/movies/tv adaptations of books (not all that useful for my historical romances, but potentially very useful for SPINSTER HONEYMOON). Then I had another marketing workshop, and then two more 1:1s to end the day - and those (with people who actually sell my books) were super helpful and v. engaging (and I think I may have convinced the girl from Kobo to be my friend and hang out with me on the beach on Saturday when everyone else is gone, but we shall see).
So that was all really promising, or at least better than being punched in the throat, so I'll take it. Then I came up to my room and collapsed on my balcony for awhile - I had intended to get some work done, but I mostly sat and stared at the ocean. I was interrupted by Grace, since we hadn't actually caught up 1:1 on this entire trip (when we go to Tahoe, we often ride together just the two of us, and we didn't get that this time, which I really missed). So we sat in my room for an hour and had a much-needed catch-up on life stuff rather than writing stuff, which made me happy.
Then we met up with others from the group and had dinner at a restaurant in the hotel - if it wasn't quite as tasty/atmospheric as last night's dinner, it was made up for by the fact that it took two minutes to walk there. Several of us discussed a variety of important topics, like rape in 1980s romance novels and the fact that we all loved those books even though we wouldn't read them or write them now, and how young adult fiction has possibly replaced/eliminated historical romance as the gateway drug for teen readers (Katie and I spent endless hours reading historicals, which was pretty much all we read (except for my sci-fi excursions with martian flat cats), but I bet if we were growing up together now, we'd be reading YA).
sssanyway. After dinner, I was going to make my escape, but I was lured back to Christie and Barbara's suite, where we ended up discussing the magical power of bitmoji (and more depressing thoughts on whether historical is dead, mostly led by Monica, who is quite successful in Scottish historical romances, which makes me a little nervous if she's feeling like all our readers are dying and no one is replacing them). I happen to disagree somewhat, but since I also plan to write more than historical romance, I perhaps don't care all that much.
But I was really at the introvert wall at that point, and I was basically trolling everyone (Anne seemed to appreciate my sarcasm, at least), so I decided to remove myself from the fray before I accidentally, actually offended someone. So I came back to my room, and I have to go to bed right now if I have any hope of making it onto the 8am bus tour to Pearl Harbor tomorrow. I should probably be working tomorrow and starting to organize my to-do list, but I've always wanted to see Pearl Harbor, so I'm going to put off everything I need to do for another day. Goodnight!
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