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Things are looking up
Apr. 7th, 2007 09:59 pmNorth Carolina was fun, with only a few episodes of back pain flareup to mark it. Asheville is a nice college town with lots of bookstores and restaurants and nonstop local art. But the thing that really stood out for us is that there are virtually no chain restaurants or stores in the downtown area. I can't remember the last cool small city I've been in that was free of the scourge of fast food and Starbucks. Instead, there are lots of cafes serving locally produced (often organic) yummy food - sort of Slow Food Paradise. Add to that the emphasis on using local artwork for everything and how pretty it is and it was almost enough to make a confirmed Yankee think about moving South.
We also got to hang out with our pal Jan, talented writer and recent N.C. transplant from WI. And I got a new story done and submitted. All good.
The rest of the week was kind of blur of general sickly blah until we got to Friday.
I had a really promising interview over lunch so I'm feeling more optimistic about my prospects than I have for awhile. More when I know for sure.
Then Friday night, I headed down to the Minicon hotel to meet folks for dinner. Speculative fiction poets make some of the best dining companions, I must say. :-)) Post dinner, we sat around a friend's hotel room eating peeps (it's Easter, after all) and drinking various things. Which turned into tarot card readings and energy work and a discussion about dreams. I can't remember most of mine (probably due to the whole 'I'll sleep when I'm dead' philosophy that I embrace) so it was kind of amazing to hear that two of my friends have almost the same recurring nightmare. Glad I don't have that one - it sounds unpleasant.
Today I went to the best birthday party for a one year old I've ever attended. Our neighbor's little one just had her birthday so I went over expecting a giant shrieking kid fest. All the kids were perfectly pleasant as were their parents so my fears were groundless. But the best part was that I got to meet Raymond Luczak (www.raymondluczak.com). Raymond is a deaf writer and editor and the man behind "Eyes of Desire: A GLBT Deaf Reader" and "Eyes of Desire 2." We had a great conversation about writing and selling and living as queer writers in the Midwest (we're both NYC transplants) and the whole shebang. I'm really looking forward to going to his Fringe show in August (as well as mr_bad_example's, I should add) and reading his new books.
We also got to hang out with our pal Jan, talented writer and recent N.C. transplant from WI. And I got a new story done and submitted. All good.
The rest of the week was kind of blur of general sickly blah until we got to Friday.
I had a really promising interview over lunch so I'm feeling more optimistic about my prospects than I have for awhile. More when I know for sure.
Then Friday night, I headed down to the Minicon hotel to meet folks for dinner. Speculative fiction poets make some of the best dining companions, I must say. :-)) Post dinner, we sat around a friend's hotel room eating peeps (it's Easter, after all) and drinking various things. Which turned into tarot card readings and energy work and a discussion about dreams. I can't remember most of mine (probably due to the whole 'I'll sleep when I'm dead' philosophy that I embrace) so it was kind of amazing to hear that two of my friends have almost the same recurring nightmare. Glad I don't have that one - it sounds unpleasant.
Today I went to the best birthday party for a one year old I've ever attended. Our neighbor's little one just had her birthday so I went over expecting a giant shrieking kid fest. All the kids were perfectly pleasant as were their parents so my fears were groundless. But the best part was that I got to meet Raymond Luczak (www.raymondluczak.com). Raymond is a deaf writer and editor and the man behind "Eyes of Desire: A GLBT Deaf Reader" and "Eyes of Desire 2." We had a great conversation about writing and selling and living as queer writers in the Midwest (we're both NYC transplants) and the whole shebang. I'm really looking forward to going to his Fringe show in August (as well as mr_bad_example's, I should add) and reading his new books.