Superstitious? You betcha!
Okay, I admit it - I'm completely superstitious. Probably due to many things, not the least of which would be growing up with my beloved Rangers and the penultimate Cowboys. Also has a lot to do with family. Sheesh, in my house it is a serious offense to tape the Cowboys because they ALWAYS lose when that happens. I can say that I haven't missed opening day at the Rangers in 13 years (and I have the magnets to prove it!) My record is not too great though and lately I'm conviced that if I show up on OD they'll lose. I'll put that to the test next April when we start all over again. Right now I'm scrambling for a good omen to get them back on track and catch up with the AL West leaders.
But (as usual) I digress...
So conference this year was in Atlanta and it was absolutely fabulous. Not only did I get to room with one of my very favorite peeps in the whole wide world -- Susan but we got to do lots of neat stuff, see awesome things and just generally hang out in person for the first time in 2 years. Rockin' man. A couple of the things we did in Atlanta was to visit the World of Coca-Cola and The Georgia Aquarium. At the Aquarium, we were joined by the ever-entertaining, wonderful and stupendous Holly Jacobs. We had a blast! If you are ever in the city, you MUST do both of these, but if you only get to choose one go to the Aquarium. It is absolutely phenomenal. There is a room there with an aquarium viewing wall that is as tall as three school buses stacked on top of one another. I could have sat in there and just watched for hours.
For a bit of perspective this is the floor to ceiling aquarium room.
The World of Coca Cola The World of Coca Cola was also great fun (Though Susan maintains it was a giant scam - $9 to get in and watch Coke ads? See Coke memorabilia? Have your picture taken on the Giant Polar Bear?!) Well, yeah, all of that is true. HOWEVER, if you are a bona fide cola addict (such as myself) then this is the place for you. At the end of the tour, you get to go to the Taste of the States and the Taste of the World rooms. Picture it... the walls are lined with fountains featuring Coca-Cola products from all around the country and the world. Some truly wild stuff to be had in there. And you can taste as much as you want, as often as you want, as long as you want. I left with a massive tummy ache (way too much REAL German Fanta - mandarin orange, not the super sweet Orange Crush type stuff). Yum, yum, yum...
The rotating sign at the World of Coca-Cola
Getting back to this superstitious thing, right. Gotcha. At conference RWA puts on something called the Lit Signing where publishers donate books for their authors to sign for their fans. The general public is invited to attend and all the proceeds are donated to ProLiteracy Worldwide. This year we raised an astonishing $64,000, bringing the total since the program's 1990 inception to over half a million dollars. Woohoo!!
The Literacy Reception is a wonderful place to be able to talk to your favorite romance authors, to meet them and hear their personal stories. Plus, it's a nifty give-away place, which brings me to the long-in-coming point of this post - superstition.
One local (for me) author Jane Graves(did I mention multi-award-winning author?!) had a give-away at the conference that created something special for me and Susan. She was handing out mood rings. Yes, those fun little changeable rings from the 70s. Now, what makes this interesting is that once we put them on, things started to get a little odd. In a very good way. Things just started to fall in place - appointments went incredibly well, creativity was recharged, self-confidence was restored. Amazing. And we (being the superstitious girls we are) attributed this to the now-dubbed Magic Writing Ring. We didn't take them off the entire rest of conference and good luck continued to follow each of us. Returning home with a deadline of August 25th to finish a manuscript, I sat down, ring on finger, and began to reach for the other ring - this one crafted of brass. And hopefully attached to it will be a contract and those magic words "We want to buy your book." So far, so good. I'm writing up a storm (to assurances from my very capable CP that it's GOOD writing) and am convinced I will make it this time.
Rest assured, I have my Magic Writing Ring on. Now, back to the writing!
But (as usual) I digress...
So conference this year was in Atlanta and it was absolutely fabulous. Not only did I get to room with one of my very favorite peeps in the whole wide world -- Susan but we got to do lots of neat stuff, see awesome things and just generally hang out in person for the first time in 2 years. Rockin' man. A couple of the things we did in Atlanta was to visit the World of Coca-Cola and The Georgia Aquarium. At the Aquarium, we were joined by the ever-entertaining, wonderful and stupendous Holly Jacobs. We had a blast! If you are ever in the city, you MUST do both of these, but if you only get to choose one go to the Aquarium. It is absolutely phenomenal. There is a room there with an aquarium viewing wall that is as tall as three school buses stacked on top of one another. I could have sat in there and just watched for hours.
This is a Japanese Spider Crab.
For a bit of perspective this is the floor to ceiling aquarium room.The World of Coca Cola The World of Coca Cola was also great fun (Though Susan maintains it was a giant scam - $9 to get in and watch Coke ads? See Coke memorabilia? Have your picture taken on the Giant Polar Bear?!) Well, yeah, all of that is true. HOWEVER, if you are a bona fide cola addict (such as myself) then this is the place for you. At the end of the tour, you get to go to the Taste of the States and the Taste of the World rooms. Picture it... the walls are lined with fountains featuring Coca-Cola products from all around the country and the world. Some truly wild stuff to be had in there. And you can taste as much as you want, as often as you want, as long as you want. I left with a massive tummy ache (way too much REAL German Fanta - mandarin orange, not the super sweet Orange Crush type stuff). Yum, yum, yum...
The rotating sign at the World of Coca-ColaGetting back to this superstitious thing, right. Gotcha. At conference RWA puts on something called the Lit Signing where publishers donate books for their authors to sign for their fans. The general public is invited to attend and all the proceeds are donated to ProLiteracy Worldwide. This year we raised an astonishing $64,000, bringing the total since the program's 1990 inception to over half a million dollars. Woohoo!!
The Literacy Reception is a wonderful place to be able to talk to your favorite romance authors, to meet them and hear their personal stories. Plus, it's a nifty give-away place, which brings me to the long-in-coming point of this post - superstition.
One local (for me) author Jane Graves(did I mention multi-award-winning author?!) had a give-away at the conference that created something special for me and Susan. She was handing out mood rings. Yes, those fun little changeable rings from the 70s. Now, what makes this interesting is that once we put them on, things started to get a little odd. In a very good way. Things just started to fall in place - appointments went incredibly well, creativity was recharged, self-confidence was restored. Amazing. And we (being the superstitious girls we are) attributed this to the now-dubbed Magic Writing Ring. We didn't take them off the entire rest of conference and good luck continued to follow each of us. Returning home with a deadline of August 25th to finish a manuscript, I sat down, ring on finger, and began to reach for the other ring - this one crafted of brass. And hopefully attached to it will be a contract and those magic words "We want to buy your book." So far, so good. I'm writing up a storm (to assurances from my very capable CP that it's GOOD writing) and am convinced I will make it this time.
Rest assured, I have my Magic Writing Ring on. Now, back to the writing!
posted by Jennifer August @ 11:08 AM
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