Milestones

Today would have been Dave's 45th birthday. I've dreaded this day for a long time, because it's the first of his birthdays I'm celebrating without him.

But today has been one of the best days of my entire life. I feel blessed today, and I hope it isn't too blasphemous for me to suggest that he's up there in Heaven asking God to bless me as his birthday present...

Yeah, I know the universe, natural or otherwise, doesn't really revolve around me. But as Dave used to say, "For me it does."

Anyway, yesterday I found out that I was confirmed by the school board (no surprise there, but it's nice to know). They're drawing up the contract and will call me to make an appointment to sign it once it's ready.

Also yesterday I won a free game on the pinball machine at the roller rink.

But all that was yesterday. I want to talk about today.

This morning I actually beat my alarm by 3 minutes. I haven't gotten up when I'm supposed to since Kinko's days. I figured the reason I was able to in those days is because Dave would get up with me and we would share those precious few minutes before I had to rush off to work. But today--I got up.

When I checked my e-mail I found out that they're now offering half-scholarships for a week-long writing residency program I wanted to attend and couldn't afford. I got the scholarship. I'll be going the week before my birthday, and from there to NY to spend my birthday week with my family. When I come back it'll be time to get ready for the new school year...

Tonight I'm doing a Scrubs trivia contest on-line and then going to my writers' group.

Oh, and I did e-mail that publisher and he e-mailed me back to say that he would be getting back to me soon on my submission.

Life is good. I do wish it had been part of God's plan for Dave to be here to share these blessings with me. Dave told me once that the people who have passed on can see you and be proud of you from Heaven. I hope he was right.

Happy 45th, Dave, wherever Heaven is.

Best. Weekend. Ever

So I got off work early on Friday. I went straight to the car dealership to get my oil change and servicing done before heading to Greensboro for my first-ever writer's conference. They had told me over the phone it would take two hours but when I got there they said it would only take an hour.

Anyway, while I was waiting for my car to be done I decided to go across the street and get something to eat. There's a Japanese place, and Indian place, and a German place there. However, i twas 2:30 and both the Japanese place and Indian place were closed I was literally starving by this point--I had not gotten a lunch break because I was leaving early.

Anyway, this is the mundane and boring part (although I did get to have a bratwurst sandwich and breaded cauliflower--I've never had German food before). Let's fast forward to the real start of the week-end, shall we?

The trip took about two hours... there was no traffic and it was mainly highway driving. I was starting to get sleepy towards the end but I looked at my odometer and realized I only had about 13 miles to go so I opened the window to get some fresh air and pushed ahead.

My hotel was gorgeous. Actually, it wasn't a hotel--it was a bed and breakfast place. It had originally belonged to a family that came over from England before America was America (I think. There was a long history of the place in a guide in the room, but I was too tired to read it all the way through) The house was passed down through the generations, yada yada yada... the point is that the current owners moved next door and use it as a bed-and-breakfast place. The room I had was huge. There was a king sized bed, a TV with cable (and a DVD player! I hadn't expected that or i would have brought my Scrubs DVD's.), two huge chairs, and a gigantic hot tub. My first thought upon seeing it was if I ever do want to go on a romantic get-away with someone, this is totally the place to go...) There was a coffeemaker with about 20 different types of coffee and a big cookie jar for all the guests right outside my room. I went to get a cookie about 10:30 and got stuck showing the guy rooming across the hall how to use the coffeemaker.

Anyway, by that point it was 7:30 and I was totally beat. I turned on the TV and found I had got there just in time for Scrubs on Comedy Central. I spent the evening relaxing and flipping through the guide of things to do in Greensboro. There were a bunch of menus in the guide. One menu mentioned having appletinis, but there was no name or phone number on the menu so I couldn't figure out who or where they were. I was too tired to go out, anyway... I stayed in and had some cookies and pretzels for dinner. (So much for the 6 lbs I've lost over the last two weeks)

Saturday was the Big Event--the writer's conference at UNC Greensboro, which was about four blocks away. If I hadn't decided to dress up for the conference I probably could have walked.

The bed-and-breakfast served breakfast at 9 AM but unfortunately I had to be at the conference by 8. Not knowing how close UNCG was, nor where there was a place to eat, I did something I never do: I didn't eat anything at all. That was bad. For one thing, I think I have some type of hypoglycemia or something. I've never been diagnosed with anything, but when I haven't eaten for a while I get very lightheaded and can't concentrate on anything. This was aggravated by the fact that the cafeteria in Elliot Hall, where the conference was held (that name was easy for me to remember, for obvious reasons), didn't open until lunch time. I was fine for the first part of the morning, but at about 11 the keynote speaker gave his address. I understand it was fabulous but I was unable to focus for long enough to have any idea what he said.

Anyway, the first part of the morning was a writing workshop... actually I registered for the all-day workshop but it was broken up by the keynote address followed by lunch. I can't say I really learned anything terribly new--the lecturer talked about techniques of point of view and of dialogue, then had us do short exercises for each--but I did get inspired enough to start working on my new novel during lunch. It was funny, too, because when talking about POV she said, "For example, you probably don't want to use first-person narration if your main character is a six-year-old child." It so happens that my first novel, which I'm about to start marketing, is a first-person narration by a six-year-old child... the lecturer did say that she doesn't want to say that it could never be done because she's sure there's someone in the world who's done it well, so I'm still OK, I think. (My writing mentor suggested I should e-mail her to let her know that I've written such a novel, but we'll see... anyway I'm getting ahead of myself.)

So after the first section of the writing course, and the keynote speaker, it was finally lunch time. The cafeteria had a choice of Quizno's Subs, Pizza Hut, a Japanese place that was closed, or Burger King. I was considering BK but they didn't have any veggie burgers already made, which is what i always eat at Burger King, so I grabbed a pan pizza from Pizza Hut instead. Everyone else tended to sit with people they didn't know and do some networking--I should have too but I needed to recharge and I had some ideas going through my head that I wanted to write down, so I didn't.

After I finished lunch I had plenty of time to walk around. I was going to go to the bathroom and stop by the publishers' tables, then go back to my table to do some writing, but the second I got up three women descended on the table and said, "Oh sorry to take your table" but didn't move when they saw I had left my bottle of water there. I was more concerned with, uh, other things right then so I didn't pursue the matter.

Most of the publishers' tables were disappointing because they were irrelevant to the type of literature I write. They only published African Diaspora stories or some such thing. But the very last table was the one I most wanted to check out. It was a small publisher that publishes about 8 literary fiction novels per year. I waited around for a bit to talk to the senior editor. I told him a little bit about my first novel. He said he was interested!!! He usually only reads new manuscripts from March to April, but he said to send him an e-mail reminding him of our conversation and if he can, he'll make time to look at it earlier. He also told me that because they're a small press, they often don't have enough funding to publish things they would love to publish, but if all else is equal he'll take a submission that includes the author's plan to promote the work over one that does not every time. A lot of first time authors don't realise that once the book is published they have to work hard at promoting it so that it will sell, rather than going right to work on their next project, and he doesn't want to spend money producing a novel that no-one is going to buy because they don't know about it. I told him a little about my website and he was impressed with that as well.

I looked at his website and it said to send a query letter by e-mail with the first three chapters. I asked on the snopes forum, since there are some professional writers there, and one of them told me what to put in my letter and suggested I read up on methods of promotion first so that I'll sound professional. Obviously I want to do this ASAP so the guy doesn't forget me, but I also think that's sound advice.

Anyway, that conversation made my day. I feel like my chances of actually being published are good. Between that and my teaching job, my life is falling into place.

I've always said that if I have to choose between writing and teaching, I'll choose writing every time. I just may have to do that, because if this company does pick up my novel I think it would be a good idea for me to do a book tour. I find myself feeling sad about possibly having to give up my teaching job a couple of years down the road, though. I'm just not worrying about it yet because I haven't been published and even if I do land the contract it'll take a year or two for the book to be produced.

Back to the story. I was flying pretty high after my conversation with the publisher. I bought a copy of the book the workshop leader had written so that she could sign it--I figured later on, when I've read it, I could write her about it, which would be a way to cultivate her as a contact. I liked what she had to say even if I wasn't really learning anything new, and she's been published by the same company I talked to (plus she writes the same kind of stories), so she'd be a good contact to have. I had a little time to work on my own writing before the afternoon session began.

The afternoon session was a bit better than the morning. We concentrated on scenes and setting. The exercises she gave us seemed to go along with the new novel I'm trying to start, so I used those characters when writing them. I got to read one of them aloud and she liked it.

After the workshop was over, the faculty members all read aloud from their own work. I almost ducked out and went back to my hotel, since I was tired, but I thought I might as well stay for the whole thing. It was only an hour anyway, and most of the readings were good, although this one poet kept telling us to be patient because she couldn't find a couple of the poems she was reading next.

After the conference I was hungry. Someone at the bed-and-breakfast told me about a really nice restaurant/bar where they brewed the beer right there, but since it wasn't in walking distance and as usual I had no-one to drive me, I decided not to go there. Instead, since I was dressed up for the conference, I went to an "upscale" restaurant across the street from there. And it was upscale--the lowest price was $17, the waiters wore suits, and there were about 3 people there. Again I felt like I should have had a boyfriend to go with--it was a nice place for a date if you have money. I decided to eat there anyway because I wanted to celebrate having attended my first conference and made a publishing contact.

That was about it for Saturday... I went back to my room, watched TV, and went to bed. This morning I had breakfast at the bed and breakfast. They made a huge breakfast that I'm sure sent my previously normal cholesterol level through the roof: a Scotch egg, a side of cheese grits, and homemade pumpernickel bread. The guy sitting next to me was very happy because he saw someone eating Scotch eggs on the British version of The Office and has wanted to try them ever since. After breakfast I called my writing mentor. He wrote me a reference letter to go with my submission of my novel, although I don't think I need it for this particular publishing house. I will use it if I submit to other houses, though.

After that I left and... here I am!

This is the world's longest blog so kudos to anyone who made it all the way through In case you got tired and skipped to the end, here's the summary version:

* Friday night - watched Scrubs and ate cookies

* Saturday - went to an awesome writing conference and made a contact in the publishing industry.

* Today - talked to my writing mentor and went home.