It's a Writing Thing

I'll post about the final couple of days later, but in the meantime, go visit my Picasa album for the pics.

A small preview:

From Vancouver 2008

From Vancouver 2008

From Vancouver 2008

From Vancouver 2008

From Vancouver 2008

Long day siteseeing + shopping + 16 yr old Lagavulin + bangers & mash = sleeeeepy Chickwriter.

/drive by post

Bouchercon has published the panel schedule. All the panels are titled after songs.

I'll be on a great panel on Thursday, October 9, 2008 (as moderator):

WEASELS RIPPED MY FLESH (Frank Zappa) Mixing mystery and horror.
Maria Lima(M),
Mario Acevedo
Heather Graham
Kat Richardson
F. Paul Wilson

Pretty darned good line up!

On a side note, my wonderful team at work gave me a pirate birthday card today and there was pie. :)

Okay, that's it, I'm off home, then finish the last wee bit of packing, then to bed early so I can get up at 3:15 a.m. (YIKES!)

Home again. May I just say, I LOVE traveling on the train. So simple. Business class is comfy and quiet.

What I did on my holiday weekend:

-- ate at Sonny & Tony's - a mom & pop Italian place near starrcat's house. Great food and great ambience. And at 3:30 in the afternoon, it's empty. ::g::
-- watched episodes of The Closer, season 3
-- visited with J and F all day Saturday
-- discovered Rita's Water Ice (2 visits for frozen custard)
-- watched some Season 3 Buffy: When She Was Bad and School Hard
-- managed to snag the Doctor Who finale thanks to starrcat's broadband and save to my flash drive...but alas, no wifi
-- stayed up too late watching said finale (yes, there were tears)
-- breakfast Sunday a.m. at The Original Pancake House. My omelet was as big as my head. Too bad I couldn't bring the leftovers home, but I did get a lovely bowl of fresh strawberries with cream as a starter.
-- Caught the earlier train, upgraded to business class on the return trip and had a lovely quiet trip back
-- finished Small Favor by Jim Butcher (wow!)

Got home around 3:45 p.m., called my folks and spent the rest of the afternoon just lazing about, surfing the Intarwebs and just relaxing.

How is it 8:30?

From the Vancouver Island travel blog

Travel plans coming along. Thank goodness for a librarian sister! Looks like the best bet is for me to fly to Dallas, the parents to fly to Dallas and then all of us fly to Seattle. Then we'll rent a car and drive to Victoria/Vancouver.

Thanks to those of you that gave me ideas about traveling to BC. Still soliciting suggestions, so feel free to chime in.

TGIF!

Just got in.

Miami International Airport is one gigantic cluster fuck. We (my sis, BIL and I) had similar flights (theirs @ 7 a.m.; mine @ 8) - so we get to the airport by about 5:45 a.m. - this is including having returned the rental van.

There were hundreds of people at American Airlines checking in - took us more than 1/2 hour to get our bags up there. My sis & BIL were shunted to another security checkpoint as the one for our concourse had a 40 minute wait time.

I've never seen anything like this. How can that many people be traveling before 7 a.m.?

In any case, they got to their flight (barely). I got to mine with a little time to spare and am finally home.

Cold, drizzly here but a welcome relief from the horrific humidity that was Miami.

A good time was had by all the Lima clan. Pictures later (since my sis and my stepdad took way many more than I did).

I'm off to nap a bit since I didn't sleep well last night and have been up since 5:00.

So, World Fantasy Convention = totally cool. I spent 5 days in the presence of the great, near-great and utterly fabulous people and got to meet some of my favorite authors. Couldn't get any better than this.

I'm going to post photos as soon as I get my iPhone photos uploaded, but in the meantime some con highlights:

( behind the cut )

San Francisco in the fall: Fleet Week, sailors, gardens, tea, hills, traffic, crazy streets, fabulous food and so much more.

( In which chickwriter sees the Blue Angels, sailors, the Golden Gate Bridge, has tea in a Russian-named tea house, eats ramen noodles in Japantown, and looks for Barbary Lane--not necessarily in that order. )

I'm off shortly for the airport and then winging my way to Omaha for Mayhem in the Midlands.

I'm taking Nameless, my new MacBook, and reportedly, the hotel has WiFi, so I may be online more than I think.

Tomorrow morning, I interview Nancy Pickard, a task that I treasure most highly. Then in the afternoon, I do my panel with Dean James and Lee Killough.

I'm looking forward to seeing old friends and getting to hang out with some of the best in the biz.

Please cross your fingers, pray, or whatever that the travel gods are kind this weekend. :)

Later!

Arrived about 4:00 p.m. after an uneventful flight.

Got to the Westin, checked in and located my clients at the Hynes convention center. They'd already pretty much packed up for the day, so JP and I cruised some of the mall shops. Stopped in at Teavana and got a lovely tall cup of lapsang souchong.

Ogled the big gorgeous Bravias at the SonyStyle store.

I was pooped, so never made it to Pandemonium and Chris G's signing. Instead, I went to dinner at Ginza (great sushi!) with JP and KD (her Boston-based friend). Then saw K's new townhouse. K drove us around a bit - went through Brookline - waved in the general direction of the town in honor of BLG. Crossed the Charles twice, b/c K forgot we were having dinner first instead of going to his place. Can't remember where he said his place was. In any case, it's about 15-20 mins from the Westin.

Back at the hotel now and trying to figure out just where they figure people should plug in their laptops.

There's one outlet at the little desk - but both those are take - one by the coffeepot, one by the oh-so-necessary lamp. I unplugged the lamp and plugged in my Airport, so I can sit on the luxurious king bed whilst surfing. (no WIFI here - WTF?)

Blanche is at 56% power, so I'm going to have to juice her up during the day tomorrow while I'm on the trade show floor.

Tomorrow is the first day of the trade show - goes until 5, then we're invited to a special dinner. Not sure where it's being held, but I bet it's somewhere fancy.

I bought more clothes the other day. The Avenue was having a massive sale. Got a lovely dark green/gray suit (maybe moss?); a long black blazer and a dark brick red blazer. Also, a pair of black slacks, 4 Henleys and a handful of other things. I ended up saving nearly $100 after all the discounts were taken. I now have a very nice set of grown-up business clothes that are also comfy. (they are pants, not skirts).

I wish that this event wasn't this weekend, b/c I could be at the fangrrl weekend with the rest of the gang. Alas, 'twas not to be.

Watched BSG last night - no brain left to comment, but enjoyed seeing CKR's Leoben. He's just the right mix of creepy and teh hawt.

Shay, Regina - hope your b'day bash is going well! Been thinking of you all today. :)


ETA: oh SQUEEE - my publisher's updated the Web site. Scroll down to March 2007 - my book is listed.