Home Brain

First of all, I can't brain-- but I am at home.

RT was, as usual, sort of a whirlwind--and I was, as usual, thrilled to be a part of it at the same time it exhausted me.

So a few observations here, and then I'm actually trying to do some work (yes, like writing and editing and such-- would you believe that's my job?) and then I'm going to bed.

*  So, I posted this on social media but it's no less true now: This hotel shower had two settings--My Toes Are Blue and My Ass is on Fire. Chicken couldn't even figure out how to turn it on--she called me in to wrestle with the spigot and when I asked her for the water temperature, she said, "I want my ass on fire."

*  The small mass market paperbacks were truly beautiful-- but the paper wasn't the hearty glossy stock of the trade paperbacks. Nope--this was good old fashioned wood pulp, and suddenly all my Sharpies were obsolete.

*  Also, Chicken teared up at the dedication of Crocus. 

*  I met and impressed author KM Jackson  by saying out loud that all small dogs are assholes. Now, I admit, you're often trying to meet and impress people at conventions, but I've never been so tickled to impress somebody by just swearing at a picture of my dog on the phone. Funny story? After I fell a little in love with her, Chicken went off to buy books at the Giant Book Fair and came back with To Me I Wed-- and a story about how awesome KM Jackson was, without ever hearing the "all small dogs are assholes" story. Yes, this writer is that fun/adorable/personable/awesome. Now you know.

* Karen Rose and I went on a yarn crawl-- I came back with a color called Phantasm and one called Love is Blind and some serious hopes about a hooded sweatshirt. We sat down to have drinks while I waited for Chicken and she waited for her husband, when Heidi Cullinan tracked me down (I had her bag in my car) and then Sonali Dev came and shared a drink and a story and generally? I had drinks with like AMAZING PEOPLE and am still coming down from the high of just being there. And Chicken arrived and went. "OMG, Sonali Dev? I LOVE YOUR BOOK!" because I brought home BollyWood Affair from RWA two years ago. *sniffle* Yup. RT. It's a good place.

*  Shea Connor, Kate McMurray, Rayna Vause, LaQuette, Elle Brownlee and I all put on a Bar Trivia event, and Keira Andrews won because--in her words--she was hyper-competitive. But Keira OWNS most of our books and is from Canada to boot, so she gave away all the books--even to a couple of girls wandering in from another event.

One of the girls--Christina-- was apparently an avid reader of mine, and she wandered in to Bar Trivia to have a stranger hand her a copy of Stand by Your Manny-- and her day was made. This made me phenomenally happy for the rest of the con.

*  For another event I was supposed to "play a Western Game".  0.0??????  I found a western card game called Round Up that was a lot like Spoons and a wonderful thing happened. Nobody wanted to play for prizes--they just wanted to sit at my table and play Spoons. I was so ticked--because I don't have a competitive bone in my body and I managed to find a winning game by thinking like my kids. Yay!

* I took Amelia, Elizabeth, Kate, Rayna, and Ariel to the same yarn store (Jimmy Beans store front) that Karen took me to, (Jimmy Beans Wool-- they also have the website at the link) and we closed the place down. Also, I taught Rayna to knit. Seriously-- you can't take me anywhere. The gold and purple is what I got from this buy. The Phantasm and Love is Blind are both oxblood colors.

*  As I was leaving right now, I realized I'd been a block away from a place called The Lucky Beaver and hadn't even known. L.A. Witt and I were both scandalized--they have a hamburger called The Lucky Beaver-- we could have eaten a beaver together.



And that's all I can think of right now-- Fish 3 is in edits and Familiar Demon needs words-- so much to do.

But gee it's good to be home!