GRL - Saturday

I meant to get this up yesterday, but I was pretty wasted. See, I did the insane on Sunday. I drove the whole way home from GRL instead of breaking it up over two days. That means a 17-hour drive in 15 hours. I got in at 2am. Yesterday is kind of a blur.

Saturday started out with the french toast breakfast where we got to eat with our wonderful reader friends we'd been hanging out with. I then headed to the Amber Allure spotlight, where I sat on the panel with writer friends and told everybody how great AQP is. They really are, you know. The one thing that was driven home by being around the other AQP writers is just how much freedom we have to write the stories we want, that stories that might not see a home at other houses can find one at AQP. Like Lynn Lorenz's story about 70 y/o gay gentlemen. It's a wonderful story, but because they're not young and pretty, they would be a hard sell anyplace else. AQP trusts us to tell good stories.

After that, I stuck around to support Carolyn as she did the Loose Id spotlight. I had to sneak away at the end to start getting ready for the signing, and skipped lunch for the most part to do that. I was pretty panicked about the whole thing, I'll admit. I get overwhelmed by so many people and having to speak to strangers on the spot, but in the end, it worked out great. Everybody who stopped at my table was so gracious and wonderful. I had a blast getting to talk to so many different people.

Carolyn, Elyan, and I skipped out of the hotel for dinner, but got back in time for the final cocktail party. Though it was crowded, we got to decompress some by hanging out with our four new friends, one of which won one of the giveaways!

I'll admit, though, I was done after that. I just kind of wanted to decompress and relax. That was one reason why I drove straight through on Sunday. I missed my family and my life. GRL was fantastic, but I had so many creative juices flowing that not getting to write as much as I wanted was really bugging me.

Next year it's in Atlanta. Carolyn and Elyan are talking about finding a way to go again. I might, too. It's hard not to get excited about it when we had so much fun.