I'm here to say I survived my
foray into the big, bad city, and other than being REALLY tired this morning, I
am no worse for wear. I arrived in the City around 4:20 and made my way to the
street to hail a cab. The line of folks waiting to catch a cab was insane, so I
asked the security guy how long he thought it would take to get one. He said
maybe 45 minutes. I did have one of the bicycle taxis offer to take me, but I
thought my hair would turn into a big frizzy mess if I too him up on the offer.
I decided I needed to walk if I had any hope of making it by 5:00. So I pulled
up my big girl panties and hoofed it the 14 blocks and arrived, unscathed but a
bit overheated, with ten minutes to spare.
The venue for this year’s
Next Generation Indie Book Awards was the Harvard Club on 44th
Street and 6th in NYC. The place was a real throwback to bygone
years, all dark paneling and masculine colors with a distinct air or no women
allowed even though that wasn’t the case. I think I may look into the history
of the Harvard Club, because there is no way you could tell me that at one
point it was not a gentleman’s only club.
I met some really incredible people. I spent a lot
of time with one author, Meg, who was the finalist in the parenting category
and two ladies, L.D. & Fran (they were a stitch) who were finalists in the
Anthology category. There were authors I met from the area as well as ones from
Canada, California, Arizona, Chicago as well as other far flung places. It was
surprising to see how far people came to be a part of the event. There were
speeches from the six Grand Prize winners, one of who used the opportunity to
get on her soapbox. We just all rolled our eyes and chatted amongst ourselves
until she finished. What also surprised me was folks were impressed that I was
a romance writer – for some reason I thought they would snub their noses at me,
but they didn’t. When the evening was officially over, I was happy I went, but
ready to get out of my high heels and get home. It had been a long day.
This time I didn’t care how long it took, but I was
NOT walking back to Penn Station. I did catch a cab within 15 minutes, which
was fine because I got to chat with an author who was also waiting for a cab.
The cab driver was really nice. He was originally from Morocco and currently
living with his wife in Brooklyn. I gave him a $5 on a $9 fare. A little
excessive, yeah, but as far as I’m concerned, anyone who can handle driving in
the city deserves a little extra. I could never do it!
So I make it back to Penn Station and I stop and
get a smoothie to serve as my dinner (the hors d’oeuvres served left a bit to
be desired and I was starving), then I needed to figure out which train would
get me home. Yup, I needed help and a businessman was happy to assist. I had a
twenty minute wait – not terrible. I squished myself into a corner so I could
remain out of the way of the stampeding herds trying to make their respective trains.
After the dust settled the first time, a lady motioned me to a seat next to her
which had been vacated. I thanked her and we struck up a conversation.
Surprise, surprise, she’d actually heard of me and had recommended one of my
books to her daughter. Needless to say I was a little flabbergasted. Donna was
very sweet, I gave her my business card and asked her to stay in touch. I met
another nice girl on the train who dreams of becoming a writer (I wish I had
gotten her name). We both got off the train at the same station and she
introduced me to her parents who were picking her up. Her mom is a librarian
and she said she was always looking to have authors speak at the library. I
gave her my card and told her to stay in touch.
All in all, it was a great day, but enough. Let’s
get to the writing challenges.
Tuesday’s challenge was:
Oh, my…
I opened the email and my first reaction was Oh my, this cannot be true. I paused, took a breath and read it
again. Yup, there it was in black and white with a link in blue. Oh my! I still could not get my brain
around what the email was saying. It must be a joke, a scam or spam, but no,
the names are right, the logo is right, the link to the website checked out. Oh my!! My heart pounds as I read the
email for the third time. OH my!! I start grinning and my hands start shaking.
I grab the phone to call my husband to tell him the news. OH MY!!!
Yeah, I’m going to be a brat and stop it there. Hope y’all have a great
day!
Your Next Challenge is:
Write a story containing the following three words: Horse, Woods, and Snow.
You have 10 minutes (be honest). There is no right
or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count and NO ONE is
allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.
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