Well, here I am. Back in New York attending the Backspace Writer's Conference for the second year in a row! It has been a long, crazy month building to this moment, and through it all I have looked forward to lying here in my hotel bed, my new manuscript ready to face the world beside me, and knowing that for the next three days everything else stops and all I have to worry about is my fiction. It's so awesome.
May has really been a rough month for me. Not bad, really, but just really busy and long. At the beginning of the month I was out in San Francisco for work. The weekend after that we spent Saturday in Maine for my brother-in-law's graduation (hey, Kevin!) and Sunday in Newport, RI for mother's day. Then, the rest of the month centered around Erin's birthday party where we arranged a "live on stage" concert in the backyard. We built a stage, designed banners, learned songs...it was fun, but exhausting.
And, of course, in all of this, I spent nearly every free second--including the bulk of the seconds between 5:00AM and 7:30AM--getting my new book ready for the conference. It was exhausting (and sometimes scary) work, but I got it done with a week to spare! And then spent that week struggling to prepare for this conference, including a query letter writing session that went until 2:00AM this morning.
None of these things were bad. But I think I've seen more activity this month that I have in the last six combined. I enjoyed every minute of it--which is what makes me smile thinking of all I've done this month to get here. Even the work trip was fun and exciting...I still find it strange to like my job after seven years toiling at the old place.
It didn't help matters that I spent today in Woburn, conducting a full day of meetings on three hours sleep before making the five hour trip into the city. I am grateful Kim talked me into taking the train from Kingston instead of driving all the way...I nearly fell asleep twice before getting past Providence.
But all that aside, I am here. On the top floor of a pretty nice hotel with the empire state building looming overhead. And it feels real.
More to the point, I feel like I have earned the trip here this year. My new book is ready; far and away the best writing I have ever done. I feel confident, excited, and worthy of being here.
The next three days are going to be an adventure. Stay tuned as I struggled to get it all down...
(Note: Please excuse the horrid amount of typos I fear are in this post...as in years past, I am switching to live blogging mode this weekend. And more than that, I've had about three hours sleep in the last forty hours. Mhh...hulk sleep now. Smash later.)
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