treasure maps, fallen trees, operator, please

Finally, some good news - my dad had another procedure today and it went really well, so hopefully that means he'll get out of the hospital tomorrow. That means I might get to see him for ~24hrs before flying back to Colorado, so that's pretty exciting!

I took today off, and I'm taking tomorrow off as well - it was perhaps not strictly necessary, but also my brain is completely fried and I can't keep alternating between catastrophes + career without even a few minutes of break. And today I wanted to be up in Des Moines in case things did not go well, even though there was no point in going up as early as my mom did just so that I could sit outside the hospital and wait. So I got up at my usual time and did a bunch of stuff around the house before heading up to the city. When I got up there, I went to Target before I went to the hospital - I had some tings to pick up and this seemed to be as good a time as any. Just as I was checking out, my mom called and said they were taking my dad into his procedure - so I drove to the hospital and sat near my favorite parking lot tree, alternating between reading twitter and napping while waiting for news.

Luckily the news was good - if it had been bad, that would have been a) tragic and b) hard to deal with while sitting alone in a parking lot, since [censored] had to work today. So, since it was good news, I chatted with my mom briefly and then drove home. That got me here in time to do a tiny bit of day job stuff and eat a bunch of leftover pizza + do some laundry before my mom got home, and then we hung out for awhile.

And now, I should sleep - I did another 30min or so of day job stuff when I came downstairs, but hopefully I can be mostly off tomorrow so that I can do some stuff to help get things settled around here. Goodnight!

cutting lines and blurring truth

Today was a good day, if you like people getting out of hospitals and don't mind dreary weather. I slept in a bit more than planned, but that was probably wise since the aforementioned dreary weather didn't help me to feel in it to win it.

But I slogged for most of the day, with a break for one of my beloved bologna sandwiches (yay midwest). And, even better, my dad got out of the hospital today and is back in the house, where I can subject him to my citified cooking regime. Tonight was all leftovers, and the mix of ham, chicken and wild rice soup, and sausages and peppers was a bit odd, but it was all still tasty and was far easier than me or my mom whipping up anything new. And since I have meetings until 6:30 tomorrow night, I think I might get out of cooking tomorrow altogether...but we shall see.

sssanyway, it's great that Dad is on the mend, even if his boot isn't exactly my style (but then, high heeled suede probably wouldn't be the right choice for his current needs, so I guess I'll allow it). I hung out with my parents from the end of my last meeting around 5:30 until almost nine, discussing lost cities and phosphorus and the psi at which natural gas moves through pipes and rural music venues in the 1970s (among other topics). And then I came downstairs and slogged for the last ninety minutes, which officially, *finally* mostly cleared my inbox after letting it suffer these last few weeks.

And now I'm going to read some more about lost cities and go to bed - goodnight!

i want your body, need your body

I'm exhausted and I just stayed up approximately two hours later than I planned, but that's the danger of starting a book (which is why I don't read enough). I had to get up at six this morning to prep for my fridge delivery, which was scheduled between seven and one - unfortunately they showed up at noon, which meant the early morning wakeup was pretty unnecessary. But I did get my food safely packed up out of my fridge, and I pulled out the old fridge and tested the water supply / flushed the line that hadn't been used in years (if ever), and I also mopped where the fridge had been, so that felt v. productive.

I also spent some quality time this morning washing my sheets, doing more laundry, and finally setting up the extra monitor and computer that work sent me to help me be more productive (what are they trying to tell me?). And when the fridge came, I had quite a bit of work to do to get it ready - I had to remove all sorts of plastic and clingwrap, and clean the interior, and flush a couple of gallons through the water dispenser. I think I'm going to love it - it's already so much quieter than my previous fridge, and it has an *icemaker*, which brings me firmly into this new decade. And it fits perfectly - so perfectly that it made me nervous going in, but it looks great.

After all that + putting away my food, I was pretty wrecked, but I forced myself to keep going with household chores and tidying things up. Then I took a shower a little before six because I hadn't showered all day and wanted to be clean for my clean sheets. And then I picked up a pizza from Blue Pan, popped a bottle of (finally chilled) champagne, and did a bit of celebrating. Tonight felt pretty historic, and I'm hoping better days are ahead for all of us, but we shall see.

That turned into taking a break from screens to read a book - I finally started A DEADLY EDUCATION by Naomi Novik, which has been out a few months and which I've been saving for the right moment. It's totally different from her last couple of fantasies, but I'm really enjoying it. I'm probably 60-70% in and if I weren't so ridiculously tired I would just power through - but I want to enjoy the ending, and I can feel myself fading, so I really need to sleep. Goodnight!

smoke on the water

If I write this really quickly and go to bed immediately, I can get eight hours of sleep tonight, so that's going to be the priority. My book came out today - too soon to tell how it's doing, especially since I'm 6-9 hours ahead of the US and have scheduled my newsletter to go out shortly, but so far so good. If you're interested, you can find more at sararamsey.com/taking-the-earl. Prego!

So today was good, but I was way too tired to be #inittowinit. I got some good stuff out of the writing exercises this morning (all about talismans and dying worlds), but I wasn't feeling super psyched about staying awake. Then I had lunch with Veronica and Rachael, and then Rachael went off to do her duty to the group (since she's the leader/teacher) and Veronica and I played hooky. We were going to work/write at a cafe, but instead we ate more food and drank half a bottle of wine and talked about writing for two hours. This was probably more important than me actually working since she had some good advice (she writes young adult), but it still felt like I was getting away with something...

Then I came back, took a nap, and did promo stuff for a couple of hours. That's been frustrating only because the wifi here is quite slow and uploading images is like pulling teeth. But I took a break to have a solo dinner - I hit my introvert wall awhile ago, so I wandered to a place I hadn't been before, found a cute, quiet restaurant, and indulged my need for some journaling and some reading. I also tested out the gluten situation by having both spaghetti bolognese (outstanding) and tiramisu (I realized I don't really remember tiramisu anymore - I remember loving it, but it's not something that can easily be made gluten free). I'd heard that some people have less of an issue with the wheat in Italy, so we'll see. I currently have a headache, but that could be the extreme lack of sleep and ongoing slight dehydration...we'll see.

Anyway, the food was great and walking back over the bridges and along the canals at night was magical. Then I did another ninety minutes of work, and now I need to sleep.

Finally, happy birthday Aunt B! Goodnight!

drive out of the city, away from the crowds

Happy release day to me! But I think I hit the wall this afternoon - I finished and uploaded the book a little over a week ago, and then I flew to Iowa, and I've split the last week alternating between family stuff and prepping promo stuff, and today I suddenly ran out of energy. I managed to get my newsletter sent out, which was the key task for today (fan newsletter, not friends and family newsletter - that's going to have to wait for tomorrow), but by the time I hit send on it, it was 12:30pm and I hadn't eaten anything at all, and had been working since 9am with only a cup of coffee to sustain me. Oops.

But I got some more stuff done in the afternoon, and then at four p.m. I stopped working and opened a bottle of rosé and sat on the back patio with my mom and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon. And I'm happy with how the release has done so far - it's in the top 200 overall on both B&N and iBooks, and it's cracked the top fifty historicals on Amazon, which is all pretty good. I need to keep pushing it, but this is off to a great start.

So I spent the rest of the afternoon drinking and staring at the fields and talking to my parents, and I ate supper (steak and baked potato, yum), and then I was basically falling asleep in my chair by 7:30. I've tried to stay awake until now, but I think I need to go to bed and try to get eight hours before the sun wakes me up, and then another two or three of dozing before actually getting up and getting stuff done.

Thanks to all of you who messaged me today - I appreciate it! Goodnight!

always on the run from captain hook

I have a million things to do, but I'm going to go to bed and start cracking on them in the morning. Rafe and Octavia's book finally releases tomorrow, but people who preordered it have started receiving the content tonight, so it's fully out in the wild and ready to be read by all and sundry. This is exciting, even though it's my sixth release and so I should, at some point, get used to it. But I'd rather stay enthused and excited and happy for release days, rather than getting jaded - so I intend to work tomorrow, but I also intend to drink rosé on the patio and enjoy the sunshine.

Today, however, was not a rosé kind of day. I spent the morning talking to my mom and doing some work, and the end result was that I left half an hour later than I should have for my afternoon activities (which were entirely sibling related). My first stop was my sister's house - I only had an hour, and we didn't really talk much because her mother-in-law and friend were there for the first forty minutes I was, and then I felt bad when I had to disappear shortly after they left. However, the friend told a story about breaking both bones in her leg and then having to get over a five foot fence to go to the hospital (she broke it by going over the fence in the first place), which was gruesome and worth the price of admission.

But I had to leave because my second errand was one I couldn't be too late for - I went up to see [censored], and he wanted to introduce me to [censored] before [censored]. After we accomplished that, we checked out [censored], which makes me incredibly bitter that he only [censored] for [censored], which isn't even a decent [censored] in San Francisco. But it was a great move for him and well worth the [censored], especially since he can [censored] himself over the next few months.

Then we had [censored], where I ate my weight in [censored]. And then, after seeing [censored], he dropped me off at my car, and I drove home (an hour and twenty minutes, but I grabbed an iced coffee from the Starbucks in the Hy-Vee grocery store in [censored]'s town, so I survived), and then I did some work (mostly stalking my sales pages) while trying not to watch "Zoo" on CBS.

And now, I need to sleep so that I can promote the hell out of this book tomorrow - you can get me off to a head start by buying a copy if you feel so inclined (ebook is available everywhere; paperbacks should be available by early next week). Goodnight!

we were caught up and lost in all our vices

I haven't been getting nearly enough sleep, and I hope to rectify some of that tomorrow - and tonight, by going to bed 1-2hrs earlier than I have been. But today was worth getting out of bed for. I got up around 8:30 (too early), showered, and then spent an hour or so doing promo-type stuff before putting the laptop away so that the fun times could begin.

Today was loaded with a full day of Wampler family fun. Mark, Kathy, and Andrew (you may know him as Drewbaby) got here around 10:30, just as I was taking my coffee outside to sit on the patio. So, we hung out out there, and I heard all about Uncle Mark's recent trip to visit ancestral haunts in Highland County, VA, which sounds like my kind of place (remote, strange, with history + an urban edge thanks to tourists). At some point, Aunt Becky and Uncle Brian also showed up, and my dad retrieved my grandmother from town, and so we had a full quorum for lunch.

Lunch consisted of bratwurst and potato salad and baked beans and coleslaw, all of which were perfect. We then proceeded to hang out the rest of the afternoon; Becky and Brian eventually went back to Des Moines, and my dad took Gram back to town, and I had a few quiet moments on the back patio before Andrew, and then later most everybody else, came out and took over (which was still v. lovely, just not quite as quiet and perhaps more focused on politics than my internal monologue would have been).

We had supper (grilled chicken, etc.) and hung out some more before Mark/Kathy/Andrew left, so that was all good. And then I did a couple of hours of work/social media/procrastination, and now I need to call it a night.

But one other good non-family happened - I got my first review on Rafe and Octavia (from a reviewer whom I sent a copy to yesterday), and it was fabulous, so apparently at least one person thinks this book is worth reading. That is obviously a relief, since I spent so long hating this book (although I ended up happy with it, but that only happened in the last couple of weeks). You can read the review here - and now it's time for bed. Goodnight!

with my eyes closed i see the door open wide

I am in some sort of post-book-finishing stupor, where it hasn't really sunk in yet that I'm actually done. I woke up this morning at six a.m. and knew I wasn't going to fall back asleep easily, so I messed around the apartment, got dressed, and was at Philz by eight a.m., where I worked on admin/promo stuff for three hours. I want to make this book launch a success, which means I can't just drop the mic and walk away now that the manuscript is done - I have to do all sorts of other auxiliary business-type stuff over the next few weeks. Happily, I kind of like that stuff, so it could be worse.

So I did three hours of work there, and then I came home, showered, and drove to San Mateo. I was all jittery and hyped up on caffeine, and I haven't slept enough recently, and I probably should have just stayed home and napped. But I went down to meet Anne and Barbara (and Deb, who they've replaced me with), and we had lunch and talked for quite awhile, and then I was going to do promo stuff there, but the wifi was way too slow for what I needed to work on. So I said my goodbyes to them earlier than usual, but I'm glad I went down - I won't see Anne for up to a month since I'm in Iowa for two weeks and then turn around almost immediately to go to a conference, so I'm glad I was able to make the time.

Then I came home, did some more work, took a v. brief nap, and then packed. It's unclear whether I packed the right stuff, but I can do laundry there and no one particularly cares what I look like, so whatever.

Then, I got social again - I walked down to Hayes Valley and had dinner with Lauren (aka Subz) at Jardiniere. It's possible that this was more fancy than is strictly necessary for a Tuesday night, but I loved it - we split some broccoli rabe with anchovies to start (that was way better than it may sound to some of you), and we had some cheese, and then I had the shortrib, which was delish. We ended with some sorbet, which was just the right palate cleanser. And we had a wonderful, long, meandering conversation - about books and writing, and about passions and callings, and about relationships and romance and houses and motherhood.

That was just what I needed before leaving the bay for a couple of weeks - oddly, I had dinner with her the night before I flew to Iowa last time, so maybe she's the vaccine I take to inoculate myself against the desire to move away and never come back that I always seem to have when I go to Iowa. But speaking of Iowa, I need to get up in six hours so I can shower and go to the airport and grab something to eat, and that seems way way too soon - so bed is imperative. Goodnight!

i had a one-way ticket to a place where all the demons go

So I'm kind of mostly done with this book, but it hasn't really sunk in yet (and there are a million tasks I need to complete before it launches, which probably plays into it). But I got up this morning, showered (unlike the last couple of mornings...), and then worked pretty much nonstop until three p.m. That involved a final proof of the final chapters, cleaning up some random stuff that I realized needed cleaning up, and speed-teaching myself a new epub formatting software (which made a v. beautiful epub with a pretty clean stylesheet, from what I saw when I peaked into it using my old hacker-ish software, and it built perfectly the first time when I used some other tools to validate it).

I uploaded it to Apple at 3:15pm, and then went straight to my 3:30 mani/pedi appointment. I went for Apple first because they require uploading ten business days before the preorder date, which I had already missed, but I had guessed that this was longer than was actually necessary (and I have a contact there). As it turns out, any concern about uploading too late was for naught - by the time I got home from getting my nails done, it was already processed and approved. So now I need to spend tomorrow morning making the files for the other retailers (each retailer needs their own file with their own specific formatting tweaks + back-of-book links to other books I've written, which is a moderate annoyance and major time suck) and uploading, but I'm in a good place for next week....

But since I basically worked in a nonstop haze today (I ate leftover pizza standing up, which was #winning), and then went straight to get my nails done, and then came home and changed and dashed down to the mission/castro, I really didn't have any time to think about my accomplishment. I'll do that later, I guess. Tonight was lovely, though - I went to Blackbird (one of my favorite bars in the neighborhood where I used to live with Adit) for a drink with Jen Lui. My 'give me free alcohol' face somehow worked there, but it was accidental, I think. Then we went to Mission Beach Cafe for dinner - she had the rabbit pot pie, which made me exceedingly jealous since it was my favorite thing on their menu before I stopped eating gluten. We also caught up on many work and life events, and we spent the last ten minutes trying to figure out how to use snapchat, but we're clearly too old.

Then I walked her halfway to the bart station and abandoned her on a corner, hoping that she wouldn't get stabbed on the way to the station but also having no desire to walk that much farther. Then I went back up to Market and met Katrina for a drink at Aatxe, which is not a word (although a Google search reveals that Aatxe is a "spirit in the folklore of the Basque people", which is of course something a bar in SF would be named after). I was trying to squeeze in social activities before two weeks in the wilderness of ye olde Iowa, so we had a drink and talked about weddings and books and generally had a lovely time.

Then I came home, and I fell asleep on my couch because I couldn't handle the thought of blogging. And now I need to sleep - I have a million things to do tomorrow, and several people to see, and a suitcase to pack before my trip to Iowa on Wednesday. Goodnight!

i'm not turned on to love until it's cheap

[editor's note: wrote this last night, but it somehow didn't post, probably because I was drunk. Also the paragraph about Noir Lounge makes no sense because Adit didn't talk about turkeys, to my knowledge, but I'm leaving it for posterity. Also, the dance recital turned into a bit of a Loro reunion, which was hysterical. But I should say that Adit, Ritu, Claude and I ended up splitting a bottle of rosé, had three rounds of cocktails, and then split a bottle of port with some other people at the table....and port nights are always epically fun disasters. Then we went to Yamasho with Chandlord and another friend of hers; Adit bailed, but the rest of us drank an ill-advised bottle of champagne. and then I came home, wrote this, failed to post it, and fell asleep. Now you're all caught up - go out and seize the day, friends!]


Tonight turned into a port night, which is v. v. rare because, despite what you might have guessed, I actually value my liver. I know, I'm shocked too.

I'm not even sure that I can type for long enough to recount the day I had, but I'm going to try. I spent the morning alternating between writing and dealing with shipments for an event I'm going to at the end of the month, so that was all good (although my editor seems to indicate that I need to rewrite everything - I'll consider that problem tomorrow). Then I had lunch at Mission Beach Cafe with another writer - she was delightful, but I have to admit that the real highlight may have been their take on chilequiles, with tortilla strips, poached eggs, and pulled pork.

After that, I really wanted to write, but instead I dealt with sangria shenanigans with Ritu before Chadlord's dance recital. We had a great time, and I saw a whole bunch of people whom I hadn't seen in forever (particularly Tom and Julie, although there were some other ridiculous moments0. Chandlord's dance recital sold out, and so it raised a lot of money for a v. good cause, which is all great.

After, we adjourned to Noir Lounge, which we eventually closed down (apparently they don't like making money, nor do they like Adit - but that's probably fair, since the story he told a couple of years later was how my dad murdered turkeys on my swingset, which might be objectionable until you learn how dumb and aggressive and useless they are.

sssanyway. Then some of us went to Yamasho, where we did karaoke until 2am. And now I have to sleep or I shall persish - goodnight!

should've never said the word love, threw a toaster in the bathtub

I have checked into another hotel for three nights, after spending only four nights at home - but I feel like I'm a pro at this. And it's a good thing that I'm a pro - I woke up at 7:25 after seven hours of fitful slumber (the rain was so loud at times on the skylights above my bed that I finally put in earplugs), and I had to shower and pack and eat breakfast and caffeinate so that I could get out of SF as soon as possible. 7:25 was later than I had previously intended to get up (see: last night's impromptu drinks wrecking my good behavior), and I was cutting it close - so close that 'lunch' consisted of fritos from the gas station I stopped at along the way, and when I checked into my hotel, I didn't even take my bag to my room - I just called an uber to take me immediately to the wedding venue to meet up for the afternoon's fun activities.

Still, the drive was lovely and uneventful - I made it from SF to San Luis Obispo in four hours, including my stop for gas, so that seemed decent. And I pulled up to the wedding venue (a ranch with a gorgeous house) just as Ritu and Bill were arriving from an errand (they got in at 1am), and in time to help them finish making the guest gift bags before boarding the bus o' fun.

The bus o' fun was appropriately billed, as it turned out - we went to two wineries, with great tastings at both, and it gave those of us who came in early a chance to mingle and meet each other. It was mostly all family + me and Ritu and Bill, but I am really enjoying Steph and Jon's families so far....especially Steph's mom and dad, who are delightful and highly entertaining (and patient, in the case of Steph's dad, since he somehow ended up driving the wine bus).

But we got back to the ranch in time to grill dinner (with a stop at Smart and Final, which I just remembered - everything was a little hazy for a little bit after the second winery, but we acquired more buns than will be needed at any point this weekend, so I think that's a good thing?). Since I hadn't had lunch, I had two hamburgers and two hot dogs (sans buns), and I think it will help me to live another day. Then we played some ridiculous version of 'heads up' via a phone app - one person holds the phone up to their head, and everyone else tries to get them to guess the phrase showing on the phone. It was actually pretty fun, and easy for a group, so I give it a thumbs up.

But after a lot of random talk, including the possibility of starting a pyramid scheme and/or a church with Steph's mom, I really need to sleep - I'm not going to whale watching tomorrow because I want to get some writing done, which means I have to get up and actually follow through with that plan. Goodnight!

don't bite the apple eve

I'm so full that my belly is distended, which makes me feel decidedly less chic than I'd felt early while walking through the city in my silk Marc by Marc Jacobs dress...but the conference came to an utterly fabulous end tonight (even if I will likely experience karmic retribution...but more on that in a moment).

When I woke up this morning, I was not feeling it - I've been going nonstop with the people stuff for a week, which is a bizarre switch after many weeks of solitude, and I haven't gotten enough sleep, etc., etc. However, I managed to get up, shower, make myself presentable, and get some iced coffee and a yogurt to tide me over until lunch. I consumed those things while sitting in the hotel lobby, where I ran into Sarah, who invited me to dinner tonight. Etiquette dictates that I should have turned her down since I had plans already...but I had wanted to see her throughout the conference and hadn't gotten a chance to, and I'm here to network, and I was already feeling a little bad about skipping the end of the conference to have dinner with non-romance friends when this only comes once a year.

Still, it was a total asshole move in many respects, but I ditched my dinner plans and went out with her instead....and as usual, assholes are rewarded and nice guys finish last. More on that in a moment.

Before dinner could happen, I had to get through the rest of my day. That involved going to lunch at Five Napkin Burger (two blocks from the hotel) with some people with whom I was giving a workshop this afternoon so that we could plan what we were saying over lunch. Despite how last-minute that sounds, it actually went really well, and I think people were engaged. The workshop included my friend Maya, so I got to hang out and say goodbye to her, and it included some other people I like, so that was all lovely.

After the workshop, I really just wanted a nap, but I forced myself to change clothes and leave the hotel immediately to go meet up with some of the people whose dinner I was ditching. Ritu and Bill came into NYC (even though I'm going back to Boston with them tomorrow night), and they were hanging out with Steph and Jon, who came in from DC. These are some of my favorite people, and we were supposed to have dinner with Chris and Priyanka (from the German wedding; we could have discussed Greek sovereign debt like we did then, although we might not have found it quite so funny now). So I went and spent a couple of hours drinking with Ritu/Bill/Steph/Jon before they went to Brooklyn for the dinner I was skipping. It was awesome to see them, and I'm planning to get brunch with them tomorrow, so hopefully that happens.

But then they had to go be good friends, and I had to go be an asshole, so we parted ways. My dinner was a fifteen-course tasting menu at Momofuku, which was an entirely extravagant, entirely ridiculous way to spend four hours. I wasn't expecting four hours - I wasn't expecting anything at all, beyond the fact that it was at Momofuku, since I was invited this morning (to replace someone who canceled). I shan't name-drop since we were in a cone of silence (and most of you don't know most of them anyway), but there were five other writers there, and it was all amazing. And by that I mean there was a lot of gossip while we ate really strange and delicious things. So I may get some karmic retribution for ditching my initial plans, but if I do, tonight was super fun and exactly what I came to conference for.

But now, my stomach is truly hurting (I really, really regret having nachos at the bar before going to Momofuku), and I need to sleep so I can survive tomorrow.  As awesome as this conference has been, I'm looking forward to hanging out with my non-romance friends again, and also to getting back to work and making that money so I can pay them billz. Goodnight!

it's not like we were both on tour

It's possible today was the most slothful day of vacation yet. That's not really true...I should rephrase to say it was perhaps the most hermity day yet. I stayed in bed until eleven, showered, ate some leftover soup, and spent the majority of the rest of the day working on romance business stuff, browsing the internet, talking to the family, and watching some fine CBS programming (I'm kind of liking 'Scorpion', and I have always been a fan of 'NCIS:LA').

But vacation is quickly coming to an end (not really...I'm here until Friday night, and not going back to the office until Monday), and I am in many ways eager to start 2015 even if I'm not eager to get back into the crazytown situation of managing the day job while writing a book and trying to sustain my relationships. However, I think I'm better prepared for that eventuality than I was this time last year; last January, if you'll recall, I came close to a nervous breakdown over the thought of doing all of this, and it totally threw me off my game. But I survived and wrote what I think is my best book, while feeling a bit more balanced in terms of time spent with friends (okay, maybe there's never enough #familytime) and also getting promoted at work. When I put it like that, 2014 was a really great year, even if I was somewhat bruised and exhausted by the end of it - and since I'm cutting back on travel next year, that will hopefully help me to manage my energy better.

sssanyway. Despite my not-so-humble bragging above, I have a massive to-do list that I'd like to make a dent in this week, and I'm itching to start Rafe and Octavia's story, so it's unlikely that I'll remember this lesson very well or very long. But hopefully I can see out the rest of 2014 in good spirits, and great 2015 with a bang (or at least champagne when I get back to cali). Goodnight!

she was built with a brain and some swagger

The last half of today was fucking awesome, if I'm allowed to use such vulgarity on this blog. The first half was less awesome, mostly because I was hungover and v. tired (see: five cocktails last night) and had hit a wall with socializing. So I laid around in bed far later than I should have, showered, just barely made it to the restaurant in time for breakfast, and hid in a booth and made some notes to myself while trying to get enough eggs and coffee into my belly to being my recovery.

But then I had to leave breakfast to go immediately to lunch - the now-traditional dim sum with Courtney and Jenn (Courtney is a historical author; Jenn is the photographer who shoots my covers). A couple of other people came too, although Sherry (another historical author) was unfortunately not able to make it, which is sad because she's hilarious. Luckily, I was already mostly full when I got there, so I was able to avoid all the most gluten-y things (although I did eat soy sauce, but not eating pork buns or egg custard tarts or other gluten things was a big win). But I think we had all hit our social wall at that point, and so while it was fun, it was also a rather muted affair.

Then I came back to the hotel, spent an hour and a half at the rehearsal for the awards ceremony, which I got roped into helping with, and then came to my room and took a twelve-minute nap before venturing forth again. That twelve-minute nap was critical, though - it enabled me to have a fantastic coffee meeting with my friend Steph (who used to have my agent), and Kathia joined us for the second half so that we could discuss a top-secret idea. Then I went straight to dinner with the people from the Montauk writing retreat who were at the conference, which was lovely.

But I had to speed out of dinner, and I managed to change, put on lipstick, and get to the ceremony within fifteen minutes, which is a new record. I had to help with the ceremony (it went well, thanks for asking), so I was busy, and then I spent two hours after the ceremony hanging out and then having a drink and some guacamole with Vivi. At midnight we parted ways, and I walked through the lobby with the competing desires to rendezvous with the people I was supposed to rendezvous with or go to bed instead - and when I ran into the person I was supposed to rendezvous with, that decision was made for me.

And I'm v. glad it was - I stayed up for another two hours and had some of the most hilarious conversations that I had the entire week. My new bestie Katharine had been up for an award and didn't get it, and so she was drinking wine straight from the bottle, which obviously made me love her. And the whole group in that area of the bar was v. fun and v. clever, so I v. much enjoyed myself.

But now it's almost 2:30 and I have to get up in time to shower, pack, and have brunch with Laura and Dave before going to the airport - so sleep is crucial. Goodnight!

the party's over

I'm beyond exhausted - today was a v. long day, since I left my room at 9:30am and didn't come back until after 11pm. The first half of the day was mostly an exercise in frustration; I met a friend for coffee, but then had to do the signing from 11 to 2, and it was kind of a joke. The lines were way too long and my area of the signing didn't get a lot of foot traffic. I actually didn't mind this, since I sold a couple of books and had quite a few other people come by and say they'd read all my stuff and wanted a signed postcard or something. So that was all lovely. But the two people on either side of me bitched incessantly about the lack of traffic, which was kind of wearing on my nerves.

So at two p.m., I didn't even try to take my stuff back to my room - I went down to the lobby, checked two grocery bags full of stuff with the bell desk, and immediately left the hotel for some restorative ginger juleps with some historical romance writers. I only knew them vaguely from Twitter but I took them up on their public mention of going to get drinks, and I'm so so glad I did. My friend Grace came too, but there were a couple of ladies there whom I've chatted up a lot on Twitter and had hoped to spend quality time with at this conference. And I also met another historical writer who's basically exactly my age, with my height and haircut, and we really hit it off (even if she's into Soulcycle, which I still maintain is a cult). So I had two drinks there, then got on a streetcar with two of the ladies and rode it all the way down St. Charles and back. It was great to get out of the hotel and out of the French Quarter, and I had a really great time talking to them.

But as soon as I got back to the lobby, I immediately had to go out to dinner - I had invited three people to go with me (a reader I have befriended over several different conferences + two bloggers/writers I've also befriended), but one of the bloggers showed up with an extra six people, and it was going to be impossible to get a table for ten anywhere nearby during the weekend of Tulane's graduation. So I did a v. hard thing and told them that we were abandoning them, so the three of us who were left walked down to Jackson Square and ended up having a really awesome dinner at this place called Muriel's - the wait for the dining room was two hours, but we went into the bar and I used my mad swooping skills to score a table in the patio area within fifteen minutes. I had this really perfect pork chop, and the cocktails were great, and it was all perfectly lovely.

Then I came back to the hotel and immediately left it again to have a drink with my friend Vivi. And now I'm totally wiped out and must get up at 6:30 so that I can have [censored] with [censored], so I should sleep - goodnight!

world music

I worked from home today, which was lovely because of the lack of commute even if I felt rather slothful. I laid in bed much later than planned rather than getting up and writing, and then I wasn't a perfect paragon of productivity, but I'm trying to get better about celebrating what I have achieved rather than bemoaning what I haven't. Yes, you've heard that before, and yes, I'm going to try again even though it seems to go completely against my protestant work ethic. And at least I'm up to date on the royal visit to New Zealand, so that's a big win.

I wrapped up work for the time being around five and hung out with Terry, who was home earlier than usual. Then I abandoned her and went to Des Amis, where a steak (which was not the healthier chicken salad I'd planned to have) and some time writing in my notebook helped to restore me. Then I came home, painted my nails, and worked on day job stuff for the last hour. And now I must go to sleep and hope that Alyssa's workout tomorrow is lovely and not murderous. Goodnight!