The Rain Song

 So… in the past two days there has been…

* A book signing (*waves*) in which I spoke to one of my idols, but she seemed very shy so I'm gonna sort of keep that private, and a WHOLE LOT of really nice fans!

* The Fantastic Day Party (I may have a headshot from that-- stay tuned!) during which all of my DSP peeps dressed up and looked dreamy and some really tremendous authors all mingled.

* A trip to Ellen's Southern Kitchen for dinner with Rayna, Kate, J.A. Rock,  Wade Kelly, and Joyfully Jay (was yummy!)

* A bar conversation with Eloisa James. (Some of you just swooned, don't lie-- she's splendid in person!)

* A bartime conversation with Sandra Lake-- a new author with more chutzpah than you can pack in a suitcase. If you like het historical fantasy, check her out.

* Brunch with Jen, a fan, who apparently talks to strangers even more than I do!  I adored her-- ADORED her. She presented me with some Texas Bluebonnet colored Madeleine Tosh-- I was TICKLED. Honestly, Jen reminded me of why I write, why I write people that I think I'd admire, and why I don't take the easy way out sometimes. Sometimes, we need to read about the hard way out-- even adorable happy tremendous fantastic people who bring me yarn need to read that.  So Jen, remember that Cory and Quickening are coming.

* And after brunch with Jen we came back to the hotel and I said goodbye to my con buddies-- Rayna Vauss, Tere Michaels, Damon Suede and Kate MacMurray (if you don't think I'm name dropping, you need to go to amazon and see for yourself!)  Also caught Christopher Rice and got to say goodbye to him-- it's been a good con for people!  (I missed saying goodbye to Andrew Grey though-- :-/)

*  In the middle of goodbyes, Elizabeth called me and asked me if I wanted to go shopping and out to dinner with my favorite peoples--Connie, Ariel, Nicki, and Elizabeth herself.

*  We had a stunning time.  Elizabeth, Ariel, and I got lost at The Yarn Fairy, and when we found ourselves, we all had the same yarn (in different colors) for a lovely stole, simply made.  One of my memories, to be treasured always (and I regret I didn't catch it in a picture) is of Elizabeth and Ariel sitting on the floor of the yarn store, too eager to cast on to their new projects to even wait for a chair.

*  When we were done we went to the Skecher's store, where I replaced my completely worn Stretchies (which did me proud this week!) with a lovely pair of flip-flops with memory foam.  Ah, feet that breathe.

*  When we were done with that, we went to Korean BBQ… Which was awesome.  However, do you sense the exhaustion here?

Yeah…

Remember that scene at the end of The Avengers, where they're all eating Schwarma?

That.

We're all done.  Not a one of us doesn't want to be home.  Goodbye, Dallas-- it's been swell, but I want to get home and start knitting some of this.

After I hug my family, of course.  For about a week or twelve.

So I'm going to leave you with two things-- the first is this scene from Almost Famous.



And the second is this classic Led Zeppelin Riff…

Cause I think you'll get the idea.