BACK TO THE REAL (FICTIONAL) WORLD

A few weeks ago, I was in Atlanta, with two thousand other women at RWA's National Conference. We meet with agents, editors, writer friends we see only once a year because we all live so far apart. For that week, we're each incredibly busy, each of us carrying around our color coded schedules like they're the maps to the Holy Grail.

See, writers as a rule, don't have to go anywhere. That's what we LIKE about this job. We can sit on the couch all day, in jammies, (usually not the feathery lingerie types), and lose ourselves in other worlds where WE get to say what happens. But at conference, it's up at the crack of dawn, styling hair, makeup, shoes, outfits that MATCH....it's a whole new world.

One we're not entirely prepared for. We spend the week before conference getting ready for it. The packing ritual alone can last for days. Then there's the trying on of clothes to make sure they still fit--and buying new makeup, since the last time you used the stuff was at the previous year's conference and it's pretty much dried up in the bottle. Finally, you're there. And you spend a fabulous week, reconnecting with everyone you've ever known in the business. Days bleed into each other, you lose all sense of time and space, because you never leave the hotel--hey, it's HOT out there!!

And before you know it, it's over, you're throwing everything you can find into your suitcase and racing to find a cab to take you back to the airport. For the next week, you alternately nap, weigh yourself and plan new diets as soon as the conference photos start flying through the email systems.

Conference is great. Conference is a necessity.

But it's nice to be back on my couch, living in my fictional worlds.

Maureen

posted by Maureen Child @ 9:29 AM