2006 ACFW Conference, part 3

Captain’s Log, Stardate 10.04.2006

Blog book giveaway:
My Monday book giveaway is Dark Hour by Ginger Garrett.
You can still enter. Just post a comment on the blog post above. On Thursday, I'll post the title for another book I'm giving away.

Continued from part 2:

I saw so many of my online friends, I know I couldn’t name them all.

It was terrific to see old friends, like Angie Poole, Cynthia Hawkins, Pamela Dowd.

It was very nice to finally meet Gina Conroy, and to see Gina Holmes, Ane Mulligan, Tracy Higley, Betsy St. Amant (she is just the cutest thing, she makes me sick), and my Hawaiian buddy Malia Spencer.

I also saw the Girls Write Out chicks—Kristin Billerbeck, Colleen Coble, Diann Hunt, and Denise Hunter. I’d already met Kristin at Mount Hermon conference and proved I’m really not a stalker, and I attended the Early Bird session with Colleen and Deb Raney (Fabulous class! Terrific brainstorming!). I met Diann and Denise for the first time, and both of them are more cute women, they make me sick.

I also saw Suzan Robertson (poor woman had a sore back), Greg Williamson (he’s such a sweetie, he also coordinated the Noble Theme contest last year), Meg Moseley (who won the Books and Such award last year at the Noble Theme), and my Bermuda friend Cathy West, whom I’d LOOOOOOVE to visit someday. Also saw my conference mentee Trish Perry (I just read her debut novel, The Guy I’m Not Dating, and I posted a review here).

I also got hugs from Patti Lacy and Julie Dearyan, two of my Story Sensei clients and some of the sweetest women I know. Speaking of sweet, I met up again with Elizabeth White, another Zondervan author (she also writes for Steeple Hill) whose novel comes out with mine next year.

From our ACFW board, Peg Phifer (who got a few proposal requests—yippee!) and Rachel Hauck made a special effort to say hi, and I sat next to Pam Meyers at the awards ceremony.

Speaking of awards, I sat next to Dawn Kinzer and Christina Miller at the Early Bird session, and Christina was one of the FaithWords finalists in the Genesis contest. It was so hard not to say anything to her!

I also chatted with one of my category coordinators Ruth Logan Herne and FaithWords finalist Audra Harders. I briefly talked to other SAYSFers Myra Johnson, Janet Dean, Pam Hillman, Debby Giusti, Missy Tippens and her roommate Lindi Peterson, Carolyn Slaughter, Sandra Leesmith. Am I missing anyone? SAYSFer Glynna Sirpless wasn’t there, but she won the Contemporary Romance category of the Genesis.

I also saw Jennifer Tiszai (I don’t know why I can’t recognize the woman without her glasses, it’s just ridiculous) and finally met Mike Snyder after stalking him throughout cyberspace this past year. Jennifer and Mike are one of the characters in the Java Joint “Scenes and Beans” blog from Brandilyn’s Kanner Lake series.

I finally met Dee Stewart face to face, and spent time with the lovely Marilynn Griffith, Lisa Samson, Claudia Mair Burney, and Paula Moldenhauer. These women are transparent and beautiful.

I had a great dinner with the Books and Such agents and clients. I sat next to Staci Wilder, who’s totally sweet. I also got to meet Rene Gutteridge.

My brain is fried. If we had meaningful conversation and I forgot to mention you, please forgive me.

Next: The Awards Ceremony.

Update: Squirl took a picture of me at the Awards Ceremony, although I don’t even remember when this happened.

TMI:

Writing: I posted a review of Dark Hour by Ginger Garrett below. Also, I’m giving away a copy of Dark Hour this week—go to this blog post to enter.

I also posted another agent post at my Story Sensei blog. This is a short series, since I can’t really say I know absolutely everything about agents. However, I love mine. And in the past, I’ve experienced an unhappy agent situation—not a scammer agent, but an unhappy situation.

And for those of you who don’t know, at my Story Sensei blog and also on this blog, you can enter your e-mail address in the box on the right and get an e-mail whenever I post something new.

Diet: I’m still in excruciating pain from exercising on Monday! As of right now, it’s around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday morning and I can barely walk.

My Denise Austin episode on Monday worked the buns and thighs, but then the Power Yoga episode was forward folds—working on hamstrings.

Today, I couldn’t even bend down to pet the dog. She went without her daily brushing (coat and teeth) tonight.

I’ve been popping Advil like candy, and I did some light aerobics yesterday (Tuesday) too, which made me feel better for, oh . . . 20 minutes afterward. Then my heartrate slowed back down and the pain came back.

I know increased circulation will shunt the lactic acid away from my muscles, but my butt is too sore to even sit on the exercise bike. I’ve sat on nothing but pillowy stuff all day today.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better . . .