In checking out some of the blogs of my friends Will Couvillier, Kelly Green, Eric Reynolds, and Camille Alexa (sorry I can't do the links right now), everyone did a great job describing the reading event for all the Hadley Rille books in Reno on July 2nd.  So rather than go into a similar rant about how the night went and how fun it was, I'd like to give my take on the wonderful people I met.

First off, I didn't get enough time with them.  We met for dinner at the El Dorado, and had a wonderful time.  My husband was even able to jump in the conversations from time to time.  My only complaint about the whole night is that I didn't get enough time with anyone.  I would have loved to have one on one time with each person, compare writing lives and styles, what makes us tick, etc.  We were a rather eclectic bunch, I think, and yet we all got along brilliantly.  Will (the guy who set up the whole thing)  was a wonderful host.  Despite his nerves about the whole thing, he did great, and his experience had much to offer a newbie like me.  Thank you, Will!.

The impression I got from Kelly Green was that of the calm pro.  She had done this sort of thing before, and knew Will and Camille.  While listening to them talk at dinner, I desperately wished for a notepad, or a recorder, because they were throwing names around of people in the writing business or names of magazines or other writing markets that I had never heard of!  Her writing style and sense of humor were wonderful, and she is another one to learn from.

I didn't get to speak with Floyd Edwards much, but I did hear him say to my husband he was a Korean War vet.  My husband also is a vet, so they compared notes.  I loved his poem, which was a companion to his story in Desolate Places.

Camille Alexa...what to say about her.  Blue caffeine on wheels!  She was so energetic and vibrant, and shared that energy with anyone in range.  She and I did have lunch on Friday the 4th, and it was a good visit.  It was still cut short before we got a chance to get to the writing parts of the conversation (my hubby needed the car).  Although we had only met, we talked like old friends.

We also spoke with the publisher, Eric Reynolds, on the phone during the initial dinner on Wednesday.  Oh my!  I leaned over to Camille and whispered, "Oh my God, the publisher!  What do I say?"  She gave me this funny look and said, "Try 'Hello' ".  Just before his call, I had mentioned to the group about questions I wanted to ask him.  When I was on the phone with him, I got nervous and intimidated and kept the call short!  :P

The signing was great.  I think I signed more copies of Barren Worlds for my fellow authors than for audience members.  Which was fine,  except somehow I kept wanting to revert to high school days of signing annuals:  "Stay cool!  See ya next year!"

The rest of my weekend was pretty good.  The signing was Wednesday.   Thursday my family went to the Farmer's Market.  My son and I bungee jumped!  It was this huge contraption in the middle of the road, with stations for four jumpers.  We were attached to harnesses, and one guy pulled on a pulley rope, and we went flying!  My son had an excellent time, but I, though not usually prone to height issues, had to cut my jump experience a bit short.  I had a blast, don't get me wrong.  You can only scream and laugh so much before you stop breathing!  Friday I had lunch with Camille, visited with family, and saw the fireworks in Sparks.  Saturday we hung out with family, drank a goodish quantity of alcohol, and celebrated several family achievements.  We left Sunday.

Monday I found out I am pregnant. 

We got home the evening of the 6th from the big Reno trip.  I've just been catching up on my friend's blogs (please check them out), before I start one of my own.  In reading everyone else's blogs, I realized just how tired I am.  That, and the fact that it's 12:20 AM by my computer clock, so I really should hit the hay.  I will blog more about the big trip tomorrow.

Anyone wonder why I used "poop"?  'Cause this blog is "E for Everyone", folks.  Heh heh.

The local economy of my town is so strange.  I've seen glimpses of rumblings in the local paper about it, which I usually pass over for the comics.  I am not blessed with an overabundance of social consciousness.  I don't go to city council or school board meetings.  My focus is narrow enough to worry only if I can afford whatever I intend to buy, and where to get it.  I don't have my thumb on the pulse of city politics and their decisions on economic growth.

That being said, I'm about to go off on my little undeducated rant, and just wonder what the HELL our city 'leaders' are thinking?  I posted some time back about a local hotel being demolished and replaced with a drug store.  There doesn't seem to be any plans to get another hotel in town.  Stupid!  I live in a university town.  Our population swells exponentially on home football games, parents' weekends, and graduation.  We need more hotels, not less.  We also need more restaurants, as you might also remember me saying.

My town has basically only one mall, and a Wal-Mart.  So our shopping is somewhat limited, in my opinion.  We have several restaurants in town, but being a university town, we could always use more, with more variety.  Our local mall, however, doesn't see it that way.  They decided not to renew the lease of Lefty's, probably one of the last family owned businesses in the mall.  My family knows the owners, they are a great bunch.  We see them in church on Sunday.  They've worked very hard to make the restaurant successful.  But the mall managers don't want family businesses, they want big chain names.  So they are kicking this restaurant out.

It's enough to piss off the Pope.  Another tidbit is that my sister in Reno told me they are telling them to get ready for the "big one", stock up on everything a disaster survivor needs.  Then the insurance companies freeze the sale of any more earthquake insurance!  Why do insurance companies exist?  If they aren't going to fork over insurance money in times of need (like Katrina and others), why freaking bother!  See, pissed off Pontiff.

Of course, the other side of the coin in my life is that my DH got me two Hadley Rille books for my birthday:  Ruins Terra and Desolate Places.  I am SO enjoying these stories.  I enjoy checking out the authors, and finding some of them on LiveJournal.  I just want to add them all to my friends list!  At work last night, one of my co-workers saw me with one of these books and asked "Is that 'your' book?" meaning was that the book my story was in.  I informed him no, that Barren Places would be out in a few months.  But it made me smile, knowing that in a short while, my first published story will be out, and that some of my friends will be referring to it as "your book".  A slight misnomer, but still.

Happy as a pig in poop!

A fellow Hadley Rille author, Will Couvillier, has sent out the call for other Hadley Rille authors to get together for a book signing in July in Reno, Nevada. I am SO in! I would love to meet fellow HR authors and get to know them better. ( I just hope they want to get to know me, too!) I was already chomping at the bit for July, because my family desperately needs to get out of town.

If there are any other Hadley Rille authors reading this, and are interested in Will's invitation, please let him know.

On the writing front, I was finally able to get started on my "Ghost in the Machine" story. When I can crank out 1800 words in less than two hours, I think I've got something. I'm not close to being done, and already I've been warned I have a lot of rewriting to do. My story has some military aspects in it. Despite the fact I'm married to an Army vet, I am the daughter of an Army vet, and am related to Navy and Marine and Army personnel, I know very little about military stuff. Honestly, I have, on occassion, asked my DH to tell me about his Army days when I have trouble sleeping.

So naturally when I told my DH the premise for my story, you could actually see the blood pressure points begin to rise. When I tried to argue that MY military is in a situation that takes place many, many years into the future, and the little factoid that this was a fiction story, his face turned red. He then took a breath, and very calmly explained to me why certain "elements" of my story were way off base, and why.

Bless him.

He explained how the elements of my story would only be acceptable under certain conditions, which I can work in to the story line. Sometimes, I get so wrapped up in my fiction, that I occassionally forget that some realism makes the fiction much easier to swallow. Just ask Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code. That is one whopper of a fish tale, and people are still making a big deal out of it.

Well, time to go. The story calls. And the laundry, and the dirty dishes...