Good morning! Or whatever time it is when you read this.
Currently, all of the Riskies except Elena are in Orlando, FL, at the Romance Writers of America's annual conference. And last night, two of us--Carolyn and me--had a Donut Party in our room, which wound up sometime around 2:00am.
Needless to say, I am a wee bit tired.
But here is what I know after a few days at Conference:
--Carolyn Jewel has an excellent eye for judging what accessories I should wear with my conference outfits.
--there is a man who lives in New York with the Largest Appendage who cannot find a woman to love him (his name is Jonah Falcon; google him, if you must. NSFW).
--it costs a lot of money to take a taxi in Florida.
--Air conditioning is usually too cold for me, unless I am sharing a room with people who want it warm. In which case I am suddenly too warm. Apparently I am a contrary jerk.
--I think I need more than five hours' sleep.
--There are many, many supportive people who belong to RWA, and I am honored to count some of them as my friends.
--Amanda McCabe, aka Laurel McKee, has the Cutest Gowns Ever. She is taking me as her date to the RITA Awards (she is nominated) and her RITA gown is just gloriously delicious.
--I am still a) opposed to strapless pantsuits and b) the most gullible person ever.
--And I am really stoked to write when I return to Brooklyn. Yay! Just for that, RWA is a worthwhile endeavor.
Hope your summer is going well, see you next week!
Megan
Report from RWA 2010
Greetings from the Enchanted Kingdom of the Mighty Mouse where this Risky is battling technology with a new camera and the internet of our grandfathers. Suffice it to say that we endured the worst shuttle service ever from airport to hotel as Carolyn so eloquently reported yesterday, and we had a real fun time at the Beau Monde Conference yesterday.
Here are pics of Riskies at the Literacy Signing last night. For some reason I found Carolyn extremely difficult to photograph--I think she's a vampire--I kept missing the top of her head.And note the blue banners denoting that both Carolyn and Amanda are RITA nominees--more to report on that later. The awards ceremony is Saturday night.
After a day of stimulating workshops--I don't believe anyone slept through mine, and I was awake and on my feet which is always good for a presenter--we changed into Regency finery for an evening of incompetent dancing, gambling away our estates, and gossip.
If you're attending the Conference, please join us for breakfast tomorrow morning!
Wednesday Report
I am blogging to you from Orlando Florida where all the Riskies are attending the RWA National Conference. I have already declared that IT'S TOO HOT OUTSIDE and am determined to stay inside.
Also, I am going to reimagine my journey from Oakland California to the Dolphin Resort Hotel and it will be up to you to pick out the lies from the truths, if any there are of either sort.
I ran into a charming friend from the Beau Monde at the airport and thus I was accompanied in the flying post-chaise that was to bear me to my destination. I was worried about the unseemliness of traveling alone since my maid took desperately ill the night before and passed over, leaving me quite on my own. My companion was delightful and relieved the tedium of the long journey through the skies. I had, naturally, my own correspondence to work on, I owe a lengthy missive to an associate in New York and took this opportunity to add to my opus.
We arrived in Orlando Florida only a few minutes late whereupon my companion and I discovered there were several other persons whose destination matched ours. We engaged to travel from the flying carriage hostel to the inn where we were all to stay. But can you imagine? There was no carriage or horse to be had, despite our paying for it, for nearly two hours! Tempers flared and I do confess one of our party (not I) was ready to do bodily harm. She was restrained, but barely.
Oh the tedium of waiting whilst the conveyancers dealt with the masses of people who had reserved their trip to our hotel in advance. It seems it did not occur to anyone in their employ to count the number of reservations and compare that to the number of available conveyances... I can speak of this no more as I can feel the tears of frustration arise even now. Hire a private carriage if you can.
I sat next to a charming young lady (very young!) who had just flown in from London, but her baggage was damaged and the flying-carriage employees four times misdirected her as to where she might put in a claim. They were, alas, quite rude and uncouth and I confess I heard such tales from more than one person. My charming new friend had been on this large post-chaise for an hour with no explanation for why they weren't traveling anywhere but in circles around the hotel. She was tearfully considering returning home to London as she had by then been at the flying carriage hostel for four hours. I gave her my cell phone number and my email and told her if she had any further problems or needed help at anytime during her stay to please get in touch, as she will be here for a year.
Three hours after alighting from our flying coach, we arrived at our inn. The poor staff appeared overwhelmed as there were fifty travelers awaiting assignment to a room and but two servants to make the arrangements.
We were, all of us, tired, hungry and, well, peeved, but being ladies nearly all of us, we maintained our cheer as best we could under such circumstances.
But now I am in my rooms with my delightful companion and fellow Risky, Mrs. Megan Frampton and I have showed her my new tattoo. She was in transports! It's quite fetching. Tomorrow, of course, I will meet the duke of Orlando and we shall see if he suits me.
Yours ever so,
Carolyn
Lies? Truths? Opine in the comments.
Also, I am going to reimagine my journey from Oakland California to the Dolphin Resort Hotel and it will be up to you to pick out the lies from the truths, if any there are of either sort.
I ran into a charming friend from the Beau Monde at the airport and thus I was accompanied in the flying post-chaise that was to bear me to my destination. I was worried about the unseemliness of traveling alone since my maid took desperately ill the night before and passed over, leaving me quite on my own. My companion was delightful and relieved the tedium of the long journey through the skies. I had, naturally, my own correspondence to work on, I owe a lengthy missive to an associate in New York and took this opportunity to add to my opus.
We arrived in Orlando Florida only a few minutes late whereupon my companion and I discovered there were several other persons whose destination matched ours. We engaged to travel from the flying carriage hostel to the inn where we were all to stay. But can you imagine? There was no carriage or horse to be had, despite our paying for it, for nearly two hours! Tempers flared and I do confess one of our party (not I) was ready to do bodily harm. She was restrained, but barely.
Oh the tedium of waiting whilst the conveyancers dealt with the masses of people who had reserved their trip to our hotel in advance. It seems it did not occur to anyone in their employ to count the number of reservations and compare that to the number of available conveyances... I can speak of this no more as I can feel the tears of frustration arise even now. Hire a private carriage if you can.
I sat next to a charming young lady (very young!) who had just flown in from London, but her baggage was damaged and the flying-carriage employees four times misdirected her as to where she might put in a claim. They were, alas, quite rude and uncouth and I confess I heard such tales from more than one person. My charming new friend had been on this large post-chaise for an hour with no explanation for why they weren't traveling anywhere but in circles around the hotel. She was tearfully considering returning home to London as she had by then been at the flying carriage hostel for four hours. I gave her my cell phone number and my email and told her if she had any further problems or needed help at anytime during her stay to please get in touch, as she will be here for a year.
Three hours after alighting from our flying coach, we arrived at our inn. The poor staff appeared overwhelmed as there were fifty travelers awaiting assignment to a room and but two servants to make the arrangements.
We were, all of us, tired, hungry and, well, peeved, but being ladies nearly all of us, we maintained our cheer as best we could under such circumstances.
But now I am in my rooms with my delightful companion and fellow Risky, Mrs. Megan Frampton and I have showed her my new tattoo. She was in transports! It's quite fetching. Tomorrow, of course, I will meet the duke of Orlando and we shall see if he suits me.
Yours ever so,
Carolyn
Lies? Truths? Opine in the comments.
At Conference!
Like many of you (and most of the Riskies!) I am off at RWA this week doing writerly, business-y things (or more likely wandering around Disneyworld in my light-up Cinderella shoes--yes, I do have a pair, don't ask...) . Back to regularly scheduled blogs and lots of conference wrap-up info next week!
If you are at RWA, come and say hi to me at one of these places (or in the bar, where I can usually be found):
Literacy signing, Wednesday 5:30
Grand Central Publishing signing, as Laurel McKee, Saturday 3:00 (Southern Hemisphere Salon One)
NAL signing (as Amanda McCabe), also Saturday, 12:00, Salon Two
Risky breakfast meet-up, Friday at the conference continental breakfast
See you all there!
If you are at RWA, come and say hi to me at one of these places (or in the bar, where I can usually be found):
Literacy signing, Wednesday 5:30
Grand Central Publishing signing, as Laurel McKee, Saturday 3:00 (Southern Hemisphere Salon One)
NAL signing (as Amanda McCabe), also Saturday, 12:00, Salon Two
Risky breakfast meet-up, Friday at the conference continental breakfast
See you all there!
The Romance of the Road
Oh, for the romantic days of coach travel!
Today I am on the road with my friend Julie. We're driving to Orlando for the Romance Writers of America Annual Conference and it will take us two days. Should be fun, especially since we'll spend our overnight at our friend, Maggie Toussaint's house.
But what if this were Regency England and we were traveling by carriage?
For one thing, we'd be hard-pressed to find a journey from one end of the UK to the other that would as long. Mapquest says our journey will be 852 miles; from Plymouth, England to Kirkwall, Scotland is only 798 miles.
If we were taking such a journey in Regency times, we would undoubtedly be traveling by coach, and at our middle class income levels, we would probably be passengers on a stage coach, like these.
On the other hand, Julie does drive a convertible, so maybe we'd be in a more sporting vehicle, and not public transportation at all.
Mapquest says our trip will take a total of 13 hours 19 minutes.
The trip from Plymouth to Kirkwall by coach, assuming there wouldn't be the problem of mountain roads and bad weather, would be a great deal longer.
When figuring travel time in the Regency, I always rely on Shannon Donnelly who is such a great horse and carriage expert! Shannon says that a coach in the Regency could travel 4 to 12 miles per hour. (For my books, I usually estimate travel time by using 9 mph), but horses have to be rested or changed every 10-11 miles. A crack group of stable workers at a coaching inn could change a team in two minutes. Most would have taken longer, I'd guess.
So using the 9 mph estimate, our Regency trip of 798 miles would take 89 hours. That's a whole lot more than Julie's and my 14 hours.
I figure Julie and I will travel about 10 or 11 hours before we stop at Maggie's house, then the next day we should only have to travel 4 or 5 hours. If our Regency selves also travel for 10 to 11 hours, we'll go a distance of 99 miles in a day. That means our trip to Kirkwall would take us about 8 days.
And I'm not even discussing the differences of spending the night in inns, getting meals and.......BATHROOM BREAKS.
Are you traveling this summer? If you are coming to Orlando for RWA, how are you getting there? If you are coming to RWA, join us for breakfast on Friday. We'll find a table at the free breakfast and try to make it easy to find us. If you are not coming to RWA, where are you traveling and how?
Julie is coordinating the Literacy Booksigning and I'll be helping her all day Weds. If you have some time to spare, come and we'll put you to work!
Thursday I'll be blogging at Diane's Blog and I hope to post some Conference photos. Next Monday Julie and I will be on the road again, but I'll try to post some photos of friends in their Beau Monde Soiree Regency finery. Or SOME photos from Orlando! Maybe we'll even get all the Riskies together for a photo!
Til then, Bon Voyage!!
Today I am on the road with my friend Julie. We're driving to Orlando for the Romance Writers of America Annual Conference and it will take us two days. Should be fun, especially since we'll spend our overnight at our friend, Maggie Toussaint's house.
But what if this were Regency England and we were traveling by carriage?
For one thing, we'd be hard-pressed to find a journey from one end of the UK to the other that would as long. Mapquest says our journey will be 852 miles; from Plymouth, England to Kirkwall, Scotland is only 798 miles.
If we were taking such a journey in Regency times, we would undoubtedly be traveling by coach, and at our middle class income levels, we would probably be passengers on a stage coach, like these.
On the other hand, Julie does drive a convertible, so maybe we'd be in a more sporting vehicle, and not public transportation at all.
Mapquest says our trip will take a total of 13 hours 19 minutes.
The trip from Plymouth to Kirkwall by coach, assuming there wouldn't be the problem of mountain roads and bad weather, would be a great deal longer.
When figuring travel time in the Regency, I always rely on Shannon Donnelly who is such a great horse and carriage expert! Shannon says that a coach in the Regency could travel 4 to 12 miles per hour. (For my books, I usually estimate travel time by using 9 mph), but horses have to be rested or changed every 10-11 miles. A crack group of stable workers at a coaching inn could change a team in two minutes. Most would have taken longer, I'd guess.
So using the 9 mph estimate, our Regency trip of 798 miles would take 89 hours. That's a whole lot more than Julie's and my 14 hours.
I figure Julie and I will travel about 10 or 11 hours before we stop at Maggie's house, then the next day we should only have to travel 4 or 5 hours. If our Regency selves also travel for 10 to 11 hours, we'll go a distance of 99 miles in a day. That means our trip to Kirkwall would take us about 8 days.
And I'm not even discussing the differences of spending the night in inns, getting meals and.......BATHROOM BREAKS.
Are you traveling this summer? If you are coming to Orlando for RWA, how are you getting there? If you are coming to RWA, join us for breakfast on Friday. We'll find a table at the free breakfast and try to make it easy to find us. If you are not coming to RWA, where are you traveling and how?
Julie is coordinating the Literacy Booksigning and I'll be helping her all day Weds. If you have some time to spare, come and we'll put you to work!
Thursday I'll be blogging at Diane's Blog and I hope to post some Conference photos. Next Monday Julie and I will be on the road again, but I'll try to post some photos of friends in their Beau Monde Soiree Regency finery. Or SOME photos from Orlando! Maybe we'll even get all the Riskies together for a photo!
Til then, Bon Voyage!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
by Amanda McCabe
