A Few Thoughts

I'm far too exhausted to get into much detail about the weekend. Suffice to say, it was fabulous, I learned tons, I have some good news, and I can't wait until my brain shifts down from hyperspeed so I can dwell on everything a bit more. A few thoughts and observations I picked up on:

1. I'm a lot taller and younger than I generally think of myself. Being 5'8" doesn't seem too tall when you think that the average height of women is 5'6". But then I put on boots that made me around 5'10". I didn't do this intentionally. The boots just went nicely with my outfit. And usually I would be standing in a group that contained men. Or else I would be sitting. But I'm having a nice conversation with a group of women at one point last night, and I realize that I'm towering over them. Luckily we sat down shortly after this realization. And I got the impression that there may have been no more than 20 people in their 20s at the conference. And that feels like a gross overestimate. Most of the writers there were in their late 30s at the youngest. But this is nothing new. I just felt it more stronly than usual when I was at a table where the closest person to my age was my parents' age. And the other people at the table were in their 60s or older. I kept waiting for someone to reach over and wipe some schmutz off my face with a spit-laden thumb.

2. Writers are a fascinating breed. So are agents and editors, for that matter. :) This is one pretty complicated, enthralling, tiring, uplifting, supportive, instructing, criticizing, ego-indulgent, ego-destroying hobby/craft/art/job. And I'm really hoping I can explain that sentence to myself tomorrow after a good night's sleep.

3. I'm going to get yanked into "volunteering" for something with Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers in the near future. This is what happens when you spend a good deal of time with the president of the organization, and she wants you to start going to her critique group. I sense that I will be seeing a lot more of downtown Denver in the next year than I have in the past three years.

4. Teresa Nielsen Hayden is an amazing woman, and I wish I had the money and the time to go to the week-long workshop she'll be doing this month at Martha's Vineyard - Viable Paradise. Maybe some time in the next five years, I'll get a chance. Until then, I hope RMFW can convince her to be a regular at the Colorado Gold conferences. I have much more to say on this point, but I really need to digest it some more. It seems I was often raising my hand and swearing to silence or being warned that TNH really didn't say what she just said, so I need to make sure I don't accidentally blurt anything I vowed to keep to myself. :)

5. I have not read or written nearly enough yet. There are so many names that got tossed around all over the place this weekend. Sometimes it felt like they were just coming down in a torrent of alien sound. I need to go bug my critique buddy Sherri at the public library and figure out how that system works (my only exposure to libraries as been on military bases and college campuses). And it's time to get serious about my writing. Every day, not just when I feel like my subconscious and muse have finally graced me with their coherent presence.

And there's much, much more to write about. But I am in zombie mode, and this is after a two hour nap this afternoon. I hope I have some more coherent things to say about this weekend - as well as some more coherent nuggest of wisdom that haven't escaped the sieve of my mind - tomorrow. Now more than ever do I wish my brain worked like TiVo.

**Note: I used the word "coherent" at least four times in this post. I smell irony.