Diary of an adult runaway

Let's all sing along now: I left my braaaaaaaaaaaain....

...in Saaaaaaan Fraaaaaaaaanciscoooooooooooooo.

Seriously, that's how it feels. I'm only now assimilating all I took away from RWA National because, despite the fact that I attended a record low of workshops, they were the awesomest. And then there was all the out-of-workshop stuff. And all the people and the books and can we just give a huge holla to the Marriott for the best beds in the known universe? Seriously. Much appreciated.

Suffice to say, National is not for the faint of heart--2000+ women talking writing never is--and probably even more when you've spent the past 4 years in an environment where strangers don't talk to you. Well, not in English anyway. And not at conference speed, which is just a few degrees south of Mach 1, what with all the information you're getting and all the people you're catching up with or meeting for the first time. National is, quite simply, the few days of the year that you get to be with your tribe, and not one instant can be wasted.

Let's get some photos out of the way. The view from our room:

Aforementioned wonderful bed (not my shot; snatched from the Marriott website). Note the comforter that kept me toasty warm, perfect for nights sleeping with windows open and watching the morning fog wrap around the Bay Bridge:

The concierge lounge, a marvelous, fabulous retreat filled with goodies and the occasional oddbod:

  

Wednesday: The conference kicked off with the annual booksigning. I'll repeat the stats: 500 authors signing, over $50,000 raised for local literacy programs. Tamara came over from the East Bay for some gloriously unabashed fangrrl moments. I wasn't buying many books, seeing as I'd not long shipped home 2 massive boxes, but I was thrilled to get a copy of The Raven's Revenge, Gina Black's debut novel. I was even more thrilled to meet Gina herself. We've been online friends for something like 13 years and had tried to hook up in L.A. but couldn't get the timing right. Much squealing and hugging went on, which kinda set the tone for the whole event, as I caught up with Bron Jameson, Linda Style, Ann Roth, Mel Scott, Elizabeth Kerri Mahon, Trish Morey, Paula Roe, and met Nalini Singh for the first time (strange, considering I've been her webmistress for nigh on 6 years now!) ..and...and...I'm sure there were more, I was already on overload. Because! This will sound weird, but I'd forgotten how nice people can be. Isn't that sad? I mean, I work with a helluva lotta nice people, but when you live in a building with Crazy Marcelle and in a town where people can be so suspicious and grumpy, you tend to forget. Anyway, I picked up some books (note to Bron: Van. YUM!) then I had my own fangrrl moment. It's still official: Susan Elizabeth Phillips is the classiest writer I know:

After the signing, Tamara, Bron and I went to Mel's Drive-In, then I was supposed to go to some online chapter events but Paula Roe hauled me up to the bar on the 39th floor for margaritas (yeah, that was a real hardship) and next thing I know? Australians, Irish, English--drinking!! Who knew that could happen? Funny bastards, the lot of them. So sweet to be back with the clan.

Thursday: I was headed down for the conference opening session when I saw Gina and her way-too-cool/switched-on daughter Sara, and they informed me there was singing going on. Singing! Now, I'm usually always up for a good kumbaya, but not that day (I hear the session was really good; looking forward to the CDs). We changed course for the goodies room, where I picked up a few more things, then reported for my volunteering duty at the Registration desk. Interesting experience. Some really cool people, and I got to surreptitiously check out some industry folk. After that, it was off to lunch, with Victoria Alexander's excellent keynote speech. Sat with  strangers and had some great chats. That's one of the joys of National: you can always find something to talk about.

Lunch over, it was time for the PRO retreat--and to meet the people I'd been working with on the PRO Communications Team. Most noticeably, Nikki Duncan, who's a real powerhouse and has been busily interviewing agents and editors, so if you're a PRO member, look for them coming up in PROspects. Sherry Davis had lined up 5 agents to kick things off, and here's a (very) light recap of what they had to say:

Jennifer Schober of Spencerhill Associates:  loves to build relationships, communicates with her authors frequently, looks for professionalism and authors totally committed to writing their books, wants the magic to be spun from the query letter onward.

Barbara Poelle from Irene Goodman Agency: accepts e-mail queries, wants a 3-para query letter that explains "why this book, why me, why now", then paste the first 10 pages into the text of the email.

Laura Bradford: is hands-on; likes stuff that doesn't fit inside the box; will help in times of self-doubt; is looking for someone serious about their career, who will self-promote and is prepared to put in the hard work required; prefers hard-copy submission of QL, synopsis and the first 30 pages.

Laurie McLean from Larsen-Pomada: prefers e-mail submissions (no attachments; wants a synopsis that reads like a 1-2 page movie trailer, then paste in the first 10 pages), likes elevator pitches, wants queries to show they've researched her, gave kudos to Sourcebooks for being the first to go electronic with their fall catalogue, recommends you check out her blog. Oh, and she's funny. Anyone who witnessed her deadpan "Skip the petty" knows that.

Nathan Bransford of Curtis Brown: ...um...I have no notes. I don't understand this. The only thing I can put it down to is that I was laughing too much by that time. Seriously, excellent panel that played off each other beautifully, and I'm not surprised to read in Barbara's bio that she had a brief stint as a stand-up comedienne. Nathan is pretty much as he appears on his blog--i.e. savvy and speedy. Yes, he does actually read all his queries that quickly.

If you're thinking of submitting to them, they're all looking (check out their sites for what) and they all want to know one thing from the query letter: the hook, the book and the cook.

Phew! I'd planned to do this all as one post but it looks like I've been overambitious again, so more shortly.

Now THERE'S a surprise!

Snort.

You Are a Lemon Margarita

Sour, tangy, and overpowering, you tend to give people a jolt back into reality. While you don't sugar coat things, you're honest - which is actually quite refreshing.

What Flavor Margarita Are You?

Drinking game!

Ok, so maybe I'm a little late with this one. Say, oh, 4 years. But swear to God, not my fault. You see, I was hooked on Felicity from word go, maybe because Felicity and Ben reminded me a little of Sergei and Katia. Submitted for your perusal:

Sergei and Katia

 

Ben, Felicity and (hallejulah!) Noel

Channel 7 being Channel 7, they jerked us around so much that I never knew when it was going to be on (usually 2am, but hey, maybe we'll start it at 1 instead, so your video gets the last 3 minutes) plus then I was in the midst of moving, so I didn't get to see the last 2 seasons in timely fashion.

Over the past few weekends, I've taken are of that, and I now propose the Felicity Drinking Game. It's really very simple. You just have to take a slug of tequila every time one of the following happens (at least once, if not more, each episode):

* Felicity says "I am SO sorry."

* Ben says "That guy is such a dick/why are you being such a dick?"

* Noel says "Yeah no."

* Meghan says "See this? This is me not caring."

* Sean says "Okay, you're gonna love this."

* Felicity says "Well, the thing is..." or "It's just that..."

* Meghan says (usually to Sean) "You're such an idiot."

* Ben says "I think I'm gonna go. Yeah, I'm gonna go."

* Felicity/Ben/Noel says "Can I talk to you for a second?"

* Javier says "Ai-eeee!"

* Felicity whispers "Oh my God."

* To which Noel responds "I know!"

* Elena hits/kicks someone

* Meghan raises an eyebrow

* Noel surprises Felicity, who almost falls over

Mix yourself up a pitcher of margaritas anytime ANYONE says "Hello" or "Hi," or Ben and Felicity converse in anything above a whisper. Just shittin ya--never happened on that show! Ne-vah happened. But oh, how I loved love this show, how I got into it so that there were times when I could say the dialogue before the characters. I loved Keri Russell's controversial haircut, I loved how Ian Gomez physically played Javier, how Richard was such a jerk. The whole time travel thing...not so sure about that, but the rest I was right there with.

Most of all, I loved Noel. Yes, okay, Ben had his charms and for a while I was "Ben-Noel? Ben-Noel? Ben-Noel?" but in the end I'm not into healing wounded sulky men and come on--Noel was a hottie, he was emotionally available, he made mixed tapes, he liked a good laugh AND he was a Mac genius. What more could you want?

After watching all that, I was feeling some Scott Foley withdrawal, so I watched a few episodes of The Unit. Good Lord almighty, what a mistake! People who are overall well spoken suddenly dropping big, clunking "Aint's" into their conversation. That dead president from 24 out-camping Al Pacino with his version of "Hoo-ha!" A lot of women acting very Stepford-ish. Iraq/Iran/South Korea/Brasil all looking like Southern California. Only good thing really was a guest spot from Gale Harold. I kept squinting at him, thinking "Where do I know... BRIAN!!" Yes, my favorite straight-man-playing-a-gay, Queer As Folk's Brian, albeit heavily disguised with a big scruffy beard. Sigh, there's another show I miss.

I think part of the reason I'm already so jazzed up about next year's RWA conference, despite it being a year away, is that it'll be in San Francisco and I'm having a ball writing Cora's story there (plus I've always wanted to stay at "The Jukebox" and that's where the conference will be). Getting to virtually visit places I love has always been a big draw for me when writing. I've never set a book in Australia--even when I lived there, when I started writing at 13, my books were set in the US. Later, some were set in Paris but now that I live here, I don't want to write about Paris. No, instead I carry around the Muni transit map and spread that out wherever I'm writing. I love the names of all the SF neighborhoods: Tenderloin, Cow Hollow, the Marina, SoMa, Seacliff, Parnassus Heights, Anza Vista. I close my eyes and I can see Cora's street and smell the air. I can feel the cable vibrating beneath my feet when I cross Powell Street, I can hear the gripmen and conductors harassing tourists into behaving on the cable cars.

One thing I can't do: wait <g>