writing

Chicago Spring Fling Conference! :) (Long & Lots of Pictures)

[X-posted at bananagirl19]

Hello! I am back from an amazing, exhausting, completely fun weekend in Chicago! The Chicago-North RWA chapter is incredible, and so are the people I met there.

FRIDAY

Mandy (mandywriter) picked me up from the airport and it was like we’d been friends forever, which we pretty much have. We started talking and joking right away. She took me to the hotel and chilled out while I unpacked in my VERY NICE hotel room. Let me tell you about this room. It was more like a suite. 25 inch TV, desk, easy chair, couch with a foldaway, king sized bed. Beautiful. I’d ordered strawberries and champagne, but I didn’t open it right away, and I’m glad I waited. More on that later. ๐Ÿ™‚

Mandy and I registered for the conference (we were the first two!), then went out to lunch at a place called RAM. I’d never heard of it, but it was pretty nice. Of course, I got the messiest meal ever, but it was really yummy. By the time we got back to the hotel, Sara (sbennettwealer) was there! We went up to their room and hung out for a while, then headed down to the conference. I spotted Dia (agentobscura) right away, so we went to say Hi. She gave us all a group hug and seriously, we all hit it off right away. I felt like I’d been hanging out with these women my whole life.

The first thing we did was attend a “panel” of sorts. Four authors, open dialogue. It was interesting. Alesia Holliday, Mary Alice Monroe, Jennifer Crusie, and Bob Mayer spoke and it was funny and really nice. Afterwards, I went to Alesia to introduce myself and she recognized my name from the Yahoo! teenchicklit loop. She was awesome, and here I am with her:

We had a HUGE break, so Sara, Mandy, Gail and I went to an Italian restaurant. It was yummy. I got a half order which turned out to be a good decision, because it was the perfect amount of food. When we went back, there was class. Sara and I went to “Get Out of Deadwood” where we met Stephanie Hale (stephhale) and a really cool girl named Carmen. We went and had chocolate at the Chocolate Reception (um, check out this damn sign:)


DESERT????????

More pictures….

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Spring Fling Plans

The Chicago Spring Fling is next Friday!!!! Oh my gosh!! How excited am I??

The schedule has been posted, so these are the classes I plan to take:

Friday:
Getting out of Deadwood

Saturday:
Be the Best Applicant for the (Writing) Job
Making Your Characters Real
Charms for the Writing Life /Gris-Gris for Writers
Inside an Editorโ€™s Mind
The Care and Feeding of Agents

While I am there, I get to meet cool people, do cool things, and hopefully get insanely inspired to finish my current WIP (which is now titled!). I’ve never been steeped in writing like that before, so I’m definitely looking forward to learning what I can, networking, and just being there. Good times!

(Originally published at Anywhere Is…)

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Word Counts! :D

April Goal:

Zokutou word meter
40,661 / 40,000
(101.7%)

Overall:

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
40,661 / 50,000
(81.3%)

If I use the 250 words per page counting method:

Zokutou word meter
53,750 / 50,000
(107.5%)

YEE-HAW!!!!!!!!

(Originally published at Anywhere Is…)

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“THAT’S Why They Call It ‘Good’ Friday!” (Pictures)

Hi hi! Long time, no update, huh? Believe it or not, I’ve been at my computer everyday, but kind of in hiding because I’ve been busy writing or gobbling up new books or just taking small breaks from the social online world.

I’m feeling pretty happy despite the fact that there is a thunderstorm going on. However, the storm is moving away, so yes, I guess that will make me happy. ๐Ÿ™‚ No news on the ONLY YOURS front, but I’ve been writing my butt off on my new project. My goal for April is 40,000 words, and I am already above 38,000. On April 28, I am going to a writer’s conference and I am so excited. Being steeped in the writing world…it’s going to be amazing.

So today was a good day. One of those unexpected good ones. I got to work, chatted a bit with some folks, did a little bit, then headed to the eye doctor. I was disappointed to learn that my eyes have worsened. I’m at a -2.50 instead of a -2.00. I am trying out Acuvue Advance lenses. If I like them, I will go ahead and order loads of boxes of them. Maybe someday I’ll get the guts to actually do the laser eye surgery.

When I got back to work, it was lunchtime. I had a salad which was very yummy. I felt proud of myself for having eaten so healthily. Well, relatively, anyway. But when I went back upstairs, there was ICE CREAM! Graeter’s Ice Cream to be specific. I ate about one bowl. We were also let out of work early due to the holiday. So I gained two hours that I wasn’t expecting. I came home and read and took a nap.

Chris called and regaled some happy news. He got a new job! This means no more late Monday nights with Aidan, and normal hours, so he can make dinner for us and stuff. Yay. He’s very excited. We went out and had dinner at a new seafood restaurant, where the host initially said “Okay, we have a four and a half hour wait…just kidding.” Hahaha. The food was very good, as was the service.

I’ve been fairly relaxed the past couple of weeks. Friday, we went to On The Border to celebrate Christy’s birthday. Afterwards, I hung out with Libby so long that I ended up sleeping over. That was awesome! ๐Ÿ™‚ Then Saturday, we took Aidan to my mom’s for the week, and came back for Christy’s birthday party. (The Jackson birthdays are like Hanakah. They just keep going and going and going…). Sunday was [the grove], the last one for a while. Monday, I went to Gentle Wind for another massage. I ended up buying the most heavenly incense. Mmmm.

I’ve been downloading music like WHOA. Writing. Spending time with friends. Reading a lot. I just finished Just Listen by Sarah Dessen (writergrl) and Charmed Thirds by Megan McCafferty. I keep spending way too much money in Barnes & Noble. I “took over” the prayer request duties (which means I was given a super cute notebook!) for our life group. I lost the five pounds that I’d gained, but I am still not a solid 110 yet. I keep fluctuating. I have a minor crush on Trent Ford, the guy who plays Macon in How to Deal. He’s also been in a few other things–some episodes of Law & Order, stuff like that. He’s a model, was born in Ohio but grew up in Britian, and is illegally handsome. Google his name. You won’t be sorry. Regardless of what Ben says.

So, it’s time for PICTURES! ๐Ÿ˜€

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Cutting Some Stuff

I think know I need to cut some stuff out of my WIP. The problem is–if I do, it will slash my word count by at least 2,000 words. The question is: since this is my first draft, do I leave the stuff in (just to keep that word count) and remove it in revisions, or cut it now, thus causing me to make up those words?

Decisions, decisions.

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Edited April 4, about 7:30pm
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I did the cuts and they weren’t nearly as tragic as I thought. I only lost about 700 words, not the 2,000 I’d anticipated. YAY. :)

(Originally published at Anywhere Is…)

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