Well, The Book Splash Cruise has come and gone. I had a fabulous time aboard the Emerald Princess and being part of Princess's continued 50th Anniversary Celebration. Being a lifelong Love Boat fan it was exciting for me to finally be aboard princess. For the 50th Anniversary the cruise line debuted a new drink (I had three), tested passengers Love Boat knowledge with a trivia game (I won a bottle of champange), and gave us a disco-themed Love Boat dance party.
We were even able to have our picture taken in the "iconic" life ring:
Okay, now that I have all the Love Boat stuff out of the way it's time for the Book Splash side of things. As an admin of the Facebook group I had an insider's view to how hard Felicia Lynn and Harper Sloan worked to pull this off. We were treated like royalty with barrels of swag and special events. Author signings, "cocktail" parties, and more giveaways than I could ever imagine. They've already starting planning the 2017 event and they're already close to being sold out. So, if anyone is on the fence about going I defintely suggest giving Felicia a call.
A lot of the people in the group knew each other already before going but I went in alone and blind. I only knew Felicia from our multitude of telephone and Facebook conversations. I was welcomed by the group and came out not only with new contacts but also new friends. I was lucky enough to receive a copy of Wildfire Lake by Victoria Wyngate (which I have already read and definitely recommend). Victoria and Aimee LeMercie were my dining companions and we had many stimulating dinner conversations. We also learned a lot from each other about this crazy business of ours. And, I know that I have a friend for life in Rosie. We're just two peas in a cracked pod.
I also had some great conversations with Carlos Savournin and Dave Demaske (usually at the bar or in Skywalker's Night Club). I met so many great people that there isn't enough blog space to list them all. Check out the Book Splash gang for yourself.
Sadly, into every life a little rain must fall. And it's of the literal sense this time around. The cruise was departing Fort Lauderdale on Saturday, February 6 and I had planned to fly down from New Jersey early on the 5th. I had a 9:41am flight that didn't leave Newark until after 11am due to snow. I had planned on going to the Flamingo Gardens but my flight landed too late. This is actually the third time I've tried to go. Someday. However, we did have a great dinner at Cheesecake Factory before going on a ghost tour.
The next morning Fort Lauderdale was dreary and our first sea day was rocky and dreary (thank goodness for my QueasyBeads. On Monday the waves were so high in Grand Cayman we had to go to a different part of the island to be able to tender over. Ocho Rios was more of the same and it rained on our last sea day. While the weather didn't want to cooperate it was still better than what New Jersey was dealing with at the same time. I'll take an overcast day in the Caribbean over a snowy day in NJ.
Now, it's back to normal. I had arrived at the airport in Fort Lauderdale just in time to take part in #pitmatch. This newest pitch contest netted me two agent requests. One has already turned into a rejection but that's just another part of the game. Onward and upward.
Annnnd...my birthday is in less than two weeks and some of you may remember what that means. GIVEAWAY! I have a few awesome items ready for you guys on March 3 so don't forget to come back for that!
Gah! Has
it really been more than two months since I’ve written a post? That ought to be my New Year’s Resolution – to
be better about getting stuff out there.
There hasn’t been too much to report lately though. I’ve skipped a lot of the contests and pitch
events due to my missing files. After I
got the files back I thought everything was going to be okay but it wasn’t. My computer savvy coworker put Windows 10 on
my laptop and it was rejected like a bad heart.
When he took it off several programs disappeared – including my word processing
program. What’s the point of having my
files back if I didn’t have a wat to open them?
But, with a little help from my friends (ahem...Felicia Lynn) I was able to get back on track and can get working again.
I also need to get back to twitter. My tweeting has really gone down since the
falling laptop incident and QueryKombat.
I need to get back out there and reestablish my connections and start
making new ones. The writing community
is tight knit and we all need to turn to each other from time to time.
With all of that drama in the rearview it's time to start looking onward. It's hard to believe that the Book Splash Cruise is on only a few weeks! I'm flying down to Fort Lauderdale on February 5 and we're sailing on February 6 on The Emerald Princess. As a big Love Boat fan sailing Princess is exciting to me.
As an admin in the Book Splash group I was tasked with organizing the Ghost Tour, providing information to the first time travelers/cruisers, and handling the giveaways. The giveaways became a pretty large part of my duties and we had MANY as our sailing date grew closer and closer.
I wanted to take a moment to thank and highlight everyone who participated in these giveaways. And, to give you guys the chance the check them out. I want to share them and I hope they get lots of attention and sales thanks to working with me.
Before I get started on Vegas I wanted to share an update on my last blog. My computer problems are not as behind me as I thought. Turns out that I got my laptop back with NO WORD PROCESSING PROGRAM! AHH!! I have no idea how it got deleted but Microsoft Works is GONE. Sad. But, Felicia Lynn may be coming to my rescue on that one. Phew.
But now . . . on to Vegas! I don't know about you, but I love vacations! Especially when you're going from somewhere cool to a warmer locale. And, that's just what I did last week when I went from New Jersey to Las Vegas.
I hadn't seen my friend Deb in several years since we live on opposite sides of the country and we decided Vegas was the perfect place to meet for a few days of fun. We both started playing MyVegas a few months prior to the trip which earned us buy one/get one on the monorail. We're both going to keep playing so we can put the points toward a discounted room rate for next year.
This was the fifth time I'd seen Million Dollar Quartet. I'd seen it twice on Broadway, once Off-Broadway, and once on tour. Out of those five times I got to see Victoria Matlock four times and I'm always happy to see her. She's tremendously talented and artistic. She was recently part of a successful Kickstarter campaign for the movie Meet Love Hope and I can't wait to see the fruits of those labors.
Not only did I get to see Victoria but I also got to see Derek Keeling as Johnny Cash. He did the tour but had left the role before it came close to me. So, I'd heard good things about his portrayal but had never been able to see it myself. I was so happy to finally say I saw him take on that great role. And, I hope it's not the last time either.
But, back to Vegas. Deb and I stayed at the Excalibur and I don't think we spent much time there except to eat, sleep, and change. We definitely spent more time out of the hotel than we did it in. Maybe next time we'll actually check out some of the shows there.
We stopped by the Flamingo to see the flamigos, MGM Grand to experience CSI and solve the crime (which we did). MGM is the start of the monorail and the closest stop to our hotel. So, we ended up spending a lot of time there. We were even talking about staying there next time so we can be closer to the monorail. And, I don't have to go as far if I leave my ticket in the room (which I did one night *sigh*)
All in all we had a lot of fun even if we came back from our trip very tired. It was worth it to see a friend after a long time and have a lot of great, new experiences.
I've been absent for a long time - I know that. I went from blogging nearly every week to not blogging at all. I needed to step back from things for a bit for several reasons.
First off because I needed a little wound-licking time. I usually bounce back pretty quickly and stare down rejections with a Sally Brown "Oh yeah? That's what you think!". But, bouncing back after QueryKombat turned out to be harder than I thought. I guess it's because it was the first time I'd gotten past the contest slush pile and into the first round. Did I think I was going to win the whole thing? No, but I also didn't think I'd be out in the first round. I had 32 other people to keep me company though. At least I wasn't lonely.
Around the same time I had a little accident. My laptop fell off the bed. It survived but I lost my entire WIP and the edits on my manuscript that I had been making at the time. HEART ATTACK-AKC-ACK-ACK.
I brought it to my computer savvy coworker and he wasn't to find them. Panic was starting to set in. But, he knew someone who might be able to do it. It would take a long time but the hopes were high. I kept on trying to move that rubber tree plant while waiting for the news. Could they? Couldn't they? Finally, last week I got word that they could! And . . . today I got my precious files back!
My files have been returned to me and I can continue making those edits and working on that first draft. This delay gave me time to catch up on my reading and I was glad for that. We writers cannot writer unless we read as well. I feel like I spent my time wisely.
But, the wind actually returned to my sails last month. Getting the files back is just the cherry on top of that. Last month I attended the first annual WFWA Retreat and I found so much to be grateful for there. I admit that I had been a little nervous about going and I was afraid I was going to be outclassed by all these published authors. But, that wasn't the case at all. I was welcomed and people seemed to like my work. Before last night I had been climbing the rocky terrain on my own. Pulling myself up inch by inch with only bloody nubs where my nails had once been. Now, someone's standing at the top of the mountain with their hand held out to me. I'm no longer alone. I have a tribe.
We had a fun workshop with Kimberly Brock and had lots of small discussion sessions on topics that we face as published and querying authors, We had a lovely dinner on the last evening of the retreat where Darynda Jones was our keynote speaker. I was lucky enough to sit next to Darynda for both Kim's workshop and for the dinner. She's funny, very smart, and I am so grateful to have met her. I'm grateful to have met ALL of the writers who attended the retreat. We came together in such wonderful and amazing ways. At this point I'm almost ashamed of the fear and trepidation I had prior to attending. I'm so glad I went and I can't wait to see how the organization grows and how we grow with it.
I'll be jumping back into edits very soon as well as preparing for the The Book Splash Cruise in February. I've been very active in the group helping Felicia Lynn and Harper Sloan get a lot of the first time cruisers in the group prepared for what to expect. I've had a lot of fun working with them and I cannot wait for what the facebook page has in store for the group and for the cruise itself (of course).
Every year I have a scary day and it came today. The day I have to take myself to the dermatologist for my annual "mole check". I know you're thinking "C'mon, Kristin, it's just a check up" but it's so much more than that for me. Much more.
I was never a sun worshiper or one to lay out for hours in an attempt to get the "perfect tan". I've never been to a tanning salon though I wasn't always so good about wearing my sun screen when I was a kid. It wasn't anything I was remotely considered about.
Until . . .
I was a senior in high school when it all changed. It was fall and a typically seventeen year old who was waiting for her college acceptance letters and gearing up to take the SATs again. So much to look forward to and I couldn't wait for any of it to come.
Until . . .
My father found a spot on his back by his shoulder. Was it something? My mom wasn't sure but suggested he get it checked out anyway. Just in case but probably nothing to worry about.
It was something.
On October 18, 1996 - the night of what would have been my final homecoming dance as well as my sister's twelfth birthday my father underwear surgery to remove the lymph nodes from underneath one arm. To clear out the cancer that had spread from the malignant melanoma.
I didn't go to the dance though my fifteen-year-old brother did. I had offered to take my sister to the movies for her birthday but my mom wanted me to stay close to the phone. Just in case.
It was a hard road after that. There were many trips to the pharmacy to pick up my father's prescriptions. Lots of wondering but the road to recovery is a long one and he was well on his well.
Until. . .
March 7, 1997 - my 18th birthday party. By this time I'd been accepted into all of the schools I had applied to but was leaning toward my first choice - Cedar Crest College. My friends had come over for a night of pizza and movies. Just a simple gathering. Everyone was on edge because my father never made an appearance the whole night and was grousing from his bedroom upstairs. No one knew what was going on.
A few weeks later we found out he had a tumor in his spine. That had been the cause of his foul mood when my friends had been over. The tremendous pain he was in and a group of rowdy teenagers. It took twenty-two straight hours of surgery to remove the tumor but the cancer was spreading faster than the doctors knew how to handle it. It became more about managing the cancer rather than eradicating it.
Spring came as did my high school graduation. My father was in the hospital at the time and was unable to go. Friday, June 13, 1997 and I was the 13th graduate (I wish I was making that part up). It poured so the ceremonies had to be held in the gym instead of the football field.
Summer was followed by fall and my heading off to college. It was an odd time for me since I never knew if I was going to be suddenly called back home. When it was going to happen and how quickly would I be able to get back.
The semester ended without that phone call coming and I headed home for Christmas break. By this point my father had tumors all over his body. He could barely see me thanks to one in his eye. A hospital bed had been brought into the house because there wasn't anything the hospital could do anymore.
I was so excited to tell him I'd me Phillies Rookie of the Year Scott Rolen at an autograph show but he was unable to see the picture with it's signature. After a few days of being home he couldn't seem to place who I was. But, he knew I had gotten "too big". He couldn't recall my mother's name but knew she was his wife. He didn't want his morphine and kept trying to tug out his oxygen tube. It wasn't long before he fell into a catatonic state.
Until. . .
On December 24, 1997 the doctors told my mother to call the family and the priest came to the house. My mother had the four of us kids go to mass on our own and I remember sitting there huddled with my brothers and sister - unsure of what we were going to come home to.
Until. . .
On December 25, 1997 he woke up. He wasn't speaking and couldn't even move much. But he was aware. He showed as much excitement as he could over our gifts My sister showed him this and that and he nodded as best he could. All was well.
Until. . .
My mother's brother and his family were coming for dinner on December 26. The kids hadn't seen my father in quite some time and they wanted to see him before he passed. But, they didn't make it in time. While they were driving up from their home in South Jersey my father lost his battle with cancer.
Everything changes when you're father dies when you're still in your teens but you push on the best you can and do the best you can.
Since then I've had two "abnormal" moles removed but both have come back benign. I take very good care of my skin and am very careful about the sun. I wear a very high SPFm have UV hats, and limit my time outside. People come up to me and ask if I'm sick or comment on how pale I am. While my father was what is known as "black Irish" - darker complexion, darker hair, and dark eyes. My complexion is full on Irish - pale, pale, pale. But, you know what? I may be pale but most everyone I meet things I'm at least ten years younger than I actually am. I'll take that.
Today's "inspection" went off without a hitch and I am pleased to report that nothing concerning was discovered. The doctor was surprised to hear I had been in Los Angeles and Las Vegas only a few weeks ago. You'd never know it by the state of my skin.
So, this is my PSA. Take care of your skin. Sun is good for you but too much can cause lots of damage. So, as we wander deeper into spring and as summer approaches make sure you've packed a good bottle of sunscreen lotion (don't buy the spray - you're just inhaling aluminum and nobody wants that). Get all your spots - top of the feet, ears, neck. And get some sunscreen chapstick - Blistex makes one that's SPF 30.
But, no matter how careful I am one of those childhood sunburns could still rear it's ugly head.
Well, folks, I have decided to go to the WFWAFirst Annual Writer's Retreat. I've already registered and booked my room. I haven't done airfare or anything yet though - a little soon for that. I'm sure more flights and fares will open up between now and the fall.
Not only have I decided to go on the retreat for this year but I'm going on The Book Splash Cruise for next year. Even though I'm still unpublished and don't have an agent (yet) but I figure it's never too early to start meeting other authors and readers. And, maybe I'll have an agent by the time February comes along. And, it's the Caribbean in February - yes please!
Just a short one for today. Hope everyone is doing well.
