I’m exhausted. All of this traipsing around Maryland, talking about and listening to other people talking about books is draining. I want to get the day’s events down before I forget them all, though. Hopefully I’ll do better tonight than last night–I kept mixing up which Mini Moe was which, and they both took offense. I did let Mini Moe #2 edit the post herself, which mollified her somewhat. But I’ve been put on notice for today, so I have to be more careful.
Mini Moe #2 served as photographer today as well. I tried to take a picture by myself just once and was severely chastised.
We started out today at my new home-away-from-home, the Maryland Romance Writer’s Stage, for their Blogging About Books event.
Six fantastic book bloggers were there: Andye Eppes from ReadingTeen.net, Jen Fisher from Jenuine Cupcakes and Young Adult Book Central, Hannah McBride from The Irish Banana Review Blog, Stephanie Sinclair from Cuddlebuggery Blog, Jillian Stein from Read-Love-Blog, and Joy Harris from Joyfully Reviewed Blog. They all shared a ton of information about blogging for readers, bloggers and reviewers, and authors–and they brought extras to share! The Minis each picked up a book to read on the way home–I wish I knew who to thank for them, but the panel ended late and all the books were set on the back table together–and I got a bag full of books and swag from Joy Harris, who brought SIX of them. (Thanks, Joy!) I’ve already bookmarked all of their blogs, and will definitely be spending some quality time with them all later.
After that, we had to rush over to the Children’s tent to see cartoonist and illustrator Nathan Hale talk about his latest book in the Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales series, The Donner Dinner Party. Sheer awesomeness. I read about a third of the book while waiting in line to get it (and the other two in the series, One Dead Spy and Big Bad Ironclad!) and am loving it so far. His talk was great, filled with interesting facts and Sharpie illustrations of the story done while we watched.
Next up, it was back to the MRW tent for Writing Military Romance. We were just in time to catch the very end of the Scottish Highlander Romance panel, and MM#2 felt it was her duty to take a picture of the men in kilts who were there.
Writing Military Romance was a great panel, and I bought books by everyone on it–except Robin Covington, because I already have all of hers.
We decided to get back on time to actually eat dinner with my brother and sister-in-law and the Mini Macs today, so we only stayed for one last panel, Craft: Plotting vs. Pantsing. With NaNoWriMo just around the corner, we’re getting into panic time and I need all the help I can get.
I tend to be more of a pantser (as in, fly by the seat of my pants while writing–minimal if any plotting and planning ahead of time), but strongly suspect I could really use being more of a plotter, if only to save my sanity. Both groups had some really solid suggestions and their discussion was lively and entertaining.
Note to self: pick up Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat! already. Only about a million authors have suggested it by now.
…and then we went home. Obviously, the day was draining to all of us.
Or maybe she’s just getting caught up on her beauty sleep before round two of Meg Cabot tomorrow?
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