Days 2-3 and beyond

After realizing that I would only have about 30 seconds to use the internet, I decided that I shouldn’t spend $12.95 per day.  So, sorry about my failure to keep you posted. 

I did have a wonderful time at Nationals.  Although I attended the first timers meeting and heard them say “pace yourself,” I ignored this comment and went full steam ahead.  This of course resulted in exhaustion, swollen ankles, and book-carrier shoulder–a new phrase I’ve coined to describe how my shoulder felt after toting all those free books from the publisher book signings, books received in our registration packets, and books we received at all the meals, etc.  My very strong husband even had to have my nephew–who is off to U.S. Army Ranger School–help him carry my suitcases into the house.  You see, I had strategically lined the bottoms with my free books since the extra tote bag I took to carry my books home in wasn’t large enough to hold all the books I’d collected.  Okay, I might have gone a little overboard at the Literacy Signing, too.  I understand now why they schedule this for the first night of the conference.  But it was for a good cause and I believe we topped a record for donations to support literacy.

I did have some thrills.  The best was meeting Heather Graham and talking to her in person.  However, participating in her workshop, being brave enough to raise my hand and go up to the podium to read the paragraph I’d written based on her lead-in sentence that ended with something like “a bloody hand slammed against the sliding glass door.”  When Heather Graham said “Very Good” after my nervously spoken prose, I was over the moon.  I floated the rest of the day and actually may still be airborn.  OMG, I think that session was taped!

1 comment July 21, 2009