I had a v. successful first day of my romance conference, thanks for asking! I got up unusually early (both for conference and for normal life) so that I could meet Veronica and attend the Day of YA event (#protip: YA = young adult books). 'Day' was a bit of a misnomer, since it was from 7:30am to 12:30pm, so it probably should've been called 'Torturously Early Morning of YA'.
I'm not a member of the YA chapter, but it was good to do the event - for one, I met a couple of Colorado writers, and for another, the speakers were mostly pretty good. The keynote speaker was Pintip Dunn, who went to Ivy League schools and practiced law before writing a bunch of books, but she did all that while suffering from intense fibromyalgia that is so bad that she can't use a keyboard. She actually wrote a book while lying flat on her back every day underneath her glass coffee table with her laptop screen showing through the glass so she could dictate her words to it (she was so sick that she couldn't sit up), and she's written her last six books on her phone since she can somehow type on the smartphone screen if she's careful. In other words, I need to suck it up and write a fucking book while I'm still in possession of a body that is capable of doing it.
sssanyway. The agent/editor panel was a bit too basic for me, but then there was a two hour plotting-type workshop that I quite enjoyed. After the Day of YA, I parted ways with Veronica, dumped stuff in my room, and met up with the delightful Maya Rodale for lunch. We went to The Kitchen (there's one in Denver in addition to Boulder), and it was a perfectly boozy afternoon - we shared a bottle of rosé, and we each had steak frites, and were so delighted with each other's company that we're planning to have dinner tomorrow (unless she sobers up and comes to her senses).
After closing out the restaurant, we grabbed coffee, then came back to the hotel, where I changed and relaxed for approximately five minutes before Katie came over after work to hang out. I was eager to introduce her to my writer friends, which goes against all my usual instincts to keep all my friend groups separate so that they can't all piece together just how weird I am. But Katie came to the hotel, and the group slowly gathered over a drink in the bar, and Maya stopped by to meet Katie too.
Then, Katie, Veronica, Grace, the Barbaras, and I went to Linger, where I'd made a dinner reservation, Poppy and Barbara's daughter Kristen met us there, and we spent a couple of hours gorging ourselves on one of the best meals I've had in awhile. The concept there is world street food, and it's pretty incredible that they can do such different dishes so flawlessly - we way overordered, but each dish was better than the last, and I wanted to eat all of it. I think I've convinced my friends that Denver is pretty cool - other than the fact that it's a million degrees, it's a good place to live, and the restaurant scene in particular is quite delightful.
Then we sadly parted ways with Katie (everyone liked each other, which was good since I didn't want to have to make any hard choices about who to cut from the program if they weren't kindred spirits), and the writers all came back to the hotel And now I need to sleep - I have a packed schedule tomorrow, so resting my eyes and continuing to ignore my email (sorry friends!) is my current best choice. Goodnight!
I'm not a member of the YA chapter, but it was good to do the event - for one, I met a couple of Colorado writers, and for another, the speakers were mostly pretty good. The keynote speaker was Pintip Dunn, who went to Ivy League schools and practiced law before writing a bunch of books, but she did all that while suffering from intense fibromyalgia that is so bad that she can't use a keyboard. She actually wrote a book while lying flat on her back every day underneath her glass coffee table with her laptop screen showing through the glass so she could dictate her words to it (she was so sick that she couldn't sit up), and she's written her last six books on her phone since she can somehow type on the smartphone screen if she's careful. In other words, I need to suck it up and write a fucking book while I'm still in possession of a body that is capable of doing it.
sssanyway. The agent/editor panel was a bit too basic for me, but then there was a two hour plotting-type workshop that I quite enjoyed. After the Day of YA, I parted ways with Veronica, dumped stuff in my room, and met up with the delightful Maya Rodale for lunch. We went to The Kitchen (there's one in Denver in addition to Boulder), and it was a perfectly boozy afternoon - we shared a bottle of rosé, and we each had steak frites, and were so delighted with each other's company that we're planning to have dinner tomorrow (unless she sobers up and comes to her senses).
After closing out the restaurant, we grabbed coffee, then came back to the hotel, where I changed and relaxed for approximately five minutes before Katie came over after work to hang out. I was eager to introduce her to my writer friends, which goes against all my usual instincts to keep all my friend groups separate so that they can't all piece together just how weird I am. But Katie came to the hotel, and the group slowly gathered over a drink in the bar, and Maya stopped by to meet Katie too.
Then, Katie, Veronica, Grace, the Barbaras, and I went to Linger, where I'd made a dinner reservation, Poppy and Barbara's daughter Kristen met us there, and we spent a couple of hours gorging ourselves on one of the best meals I've had in awhile. The concept there is world street food, and it's pretty incredible that they can do such different dishes so flawlessly - we way overordered, but each dish was better than the last, and I wanted to eat all of it. I think I've convinced my friends that Denver is pretty cool - other than the fact that it's a million degrees, it's a good place to live, and the restaurant scene in particular is quite delightful.
Then we sadly parted ways with Katie (everyone liked each other, which was good since I didn't want to have to make any hard choices about who to cut from the program if they weren't kindred spirits), and the writers all came back to the hotel And now I need to sleep - I have a packed schedule tomorrow, so resting my eyes and continuing to ignore my email (sorry friends!) is my current best choice. Goodnight!
No comments:
Post a Comment