Hello my darling readers,
Did you miss me?
I failed to send this out on Sunday because I flew in on the red-eye from a 10,000 person writing conference on the one day when the shortest red-eye flight is even shorter. Yes. Daylight savings happened while I was somewhere over the Great Lakes.
Here’s where I was before that happened:
But to be perfectly fair, I was mostly here:
It was a load of fun - books and writers and the people who love them. So much reuniting and also a lot of making new friends. Words were the medium and the subject. Waves of good feelings - loads of energy and buzz. Truly magnificent.
Sorry I was too busy to write.
In Seattle, wheels down at 3pm and I was on an Underground Tour of the city by 4:30pm. Magnificent - history and tunnels! Two very cool things if you pay attention.
The next day I did the Space Needle with my acrophobic friend. (Congratulations on surviving!) and then the Chihuly gardens and then we had glass noodles for lunch.
I met a zillion famous people and they were all very nice. None of them would have said they were famous though all of them were signing books they had written (some of those books were poetry). It was all very glamorous in that fluorescent-lit basement.
Highlight: Min Jin Lee (author of Pachinko) was the keynote and said glorious things about remembering everyone along the way (also about reading daily Bible verses to inspire her writing, and not for religious reasons, among other thought-provoking comments).
And the day after the keynote, this luminary came to the bookfair and visited the Pen Parentis booth, specifically to say hello.
Of course I was out having coffee (with Teresa Dzielglewicz, a terrific and notable poet!) and missed the visit—but what a gracious visitor! I was a fan of hers before and now I am also a passionate admirer.
It was a conference full of near-misses and exciting new connections, with plenty of great moments. See my Facebook post for photos of some of the many, many professional writers I connected with out there. (there are at least two posts full of shots of the bookfair and National Writer-Parent Meetup that Pen Parentis hosted.
And then I took the red-eye and lost another hour of sleep. Landed in NYC and ran to Central Park to see my brother and fam who were up from Texas (my nephews were playing Carnegie Hall) and that night I got to see my daughter sing some gorgeous soli with Trinity Youth Choir (the Stabat Mater, Pergolesi). So I haven’t quite caught up with sleep. But I’m happy to get back on my weekly newsletter schedule (I hope) and the usual Sunday noon issue should come out….this Sunday at noon.
WRITING NEWS:
Meanwhile, my debut short story collection is available to preorder. I hope you do!
While at the conference someone aka “Dave King” (who is a knockout writer and artist and an old Columbia MFA friend) coined the perfect phrase to describe my writing genre after I told them about my love of Kafka. “You’re Kafkafemme” he said. — but I need to decide if it is KafkaFem, KafkaFemme, or or Kafka-femme or something else. Want to vote on it? If you vote “other” and have alternate suggestions just reply back!
Also I am hosting three outstanding writers tonight (Tuesday night at 7pm Eastern) — love to have you in the audience. It’s streaming live, but there will be a playback! RSVP through penparentis.org/calendar. Click the RSVP link there! See you tonight!
Final Random Thought:
A photo at the Space Needle….