��� 2007-01-26, 7:17 p.m.
I'm An Author
I'm back from my inexplicable hiatus.
I attended the "Get Motivated" Atlanta area seminar yesterday. Saw a bunch of great speakers like Zig Ziglar, Colin Powell, Rudy Guiliani. I sat with a fellow Toastmaster that I knew but didn't know much about. Turns out he's recently self-published a book. We talked about writing and publishing at length. He was entertained by the fact that I write trashy romance novels. Anyway, during part of the seminar it was a church-like turn around and introduce yourself to your neighbor thing. We were instructed to inform our neighbors what we do for a living.
So Brian greets a woman in the row in front of us and says he's an author.
"Oh!" the woman says, looking interested and suprised. Then she shakes my hand and asks me what I do. When I say, "Retirement plans," first she looks confused, then kind of nods and looks off toward another neighbor.
Well, F that. The next time someone asks me what I do I'm going to say, "Novelist." or "Author." or "Trashy novel writer." Pension sucks. I may as well have told her I treat leprosy patients the way she dropped my hand like a old, used sock.
Anyway, the seminar was good but it was a damn zoo. I waited 30 minutes to pee. Waited 45 minutes for friggin Chik-Fil-A at lunch. I waited 20 minutes to get a MARTA pass to ride the train back to my car. They were still talking today on the radio about the backlog of traffic the seminar created yesterday.
One thing I heard that I remember in particular was Colin Powell talking about a meeting he once had involving Gorbechov. At one point in the meeting (this was toward the end of the Cold War) Gorbie turned to the General and says, "General, you're going to have to find a new enemy." And Powell said, "I was thinking I don't want a new enemy. I like the one I've got!" It was just interesting, like really what do you do when you've fought your whole life against something that is suddenly no longer your enemy? What do you do when you've worked your whole life for a goal that you finally achieve? I guess my answer is...do it again. And I am. I FREAKING AM DOING IT AGAIN.
News flash, for those who have stuck with me this long: I just got an offer on Wednesday on my second book. WOOOOO-HOOOOO! OMG WEEEEEEEEEEEE BLEEP! The crazy thing is that it's another NaNo novel. My 2005 NaNo novel is going to be published (presumably, I don't have a signed contract yet, but you know...) So it's been a dang good week in the Glockgirl household. No one-hit-wonders here, baby! Now it's not just a pipe dream when I answer the question what do you do with, "I'm an author."
NaNo - 2008-10-09
Too Long - 2008-07-22
It's Over 2007 - 2007-11-30
Sandbagging - 2007-11-05
Daylight Savings Time - 2007-11-03