In the Swamp

So I spent most of this past week in Gainesville, Florida, at the Anhinga Writers' Conference. I have returned completely exhausted with too many thoughts running around in my head. I opted for the mystery writer's track but after a while decided to just hop around and take classes based more on the topic and the feedback I got from other attendees as to dynamic, helpful speakers. Here are some of my notes for the week:

1. I am not a 3:30 a.m. kind of gal. Due to a fluke my departing flight to Florida got moved to much, much earlier than I would like. On the other hand, I was amazed at how busy the airport was at 4:30 a.m. - the lines were so long I barely made it on the plane.

2. The human brain (or mine, anyway) can only take in so much information. After sitting through panels and classes from 8 a.m. to sometimes 9:30 p.m. I hit overload. I couldn't do it all.

3. I got to meet Charlaine Harris, creator of the Sookie Stackhouse mysteries that HBO's True Blood series is based on. I'm not a huge fan of that series, but I do like her Aurora Teagarden series. She was very encouraging. In a line with perhaps a 100 people behind me waiting for her to sign books, she took the time to ask me what I was working on and told me not to give up. She also attended several of the classes I was in. It was a great lesson to see that even when you are at the top of your game you need to be open to learning something.

4. Apparently if you wanted to get cereal in the morning you had to do so by covert stealth that involved charming a specific waiter. Otherwise, you were left with the tiny muffins (which I was allergic to).

5. It rained every day I was there. Big, dripping, downpours. And then the sun would pop out like clockwork. As a side note, Spanish moss just gives a place some kind of atmosphere, doesn't it?

6. As I don't have anything beyond basic cable, I was excited about the chance to enjoy a vast plethora of channels in my hotel room. Of course, I was never in the room, but when I did have the rare occasion I discovered ... Pierce Brosnan singing in Momma Mia. It seemed to be on every time I turned on the TV. I came back to Nashville with Waterloo stuck in my head.

7. I never really crossed paths with those on the Poet track. They seemed to stick to themselves and had an artistic air about them I really couldn't quite put my finger on. 

8. At the session and signing that Charlaine did, I got a tiny taste of just how fiercesome vampire fans can be. Some were obviously quite passionate about what was happening to the story line. There was one woman there who kept carrying around a very strange, somewhat creepy doll - it was a little man who perched on her arm. I was irrationally fascinated by it.

9. I had quite the cab ride going to the airport - I think the driver had hair that was bigger than mine - and that is saying something in that swampy humidity. The first sign I saw in the cab was the sticker that said, "Each Puke $100." He never left the cab to help my with my bag, just popped the trunk and told me to shove it in among the spare tire and some other junk back there. 

10. Apparently Hamish missed me quite a bit while I was gone. I'm shocked. I didn't think he would even notice I was away (in this respect he is very much like a cat; mostly, he acts like a puppy). But right now he is conked out on the end of my bed, dreamily twitching. 

11. I sat through an interesting law enforcement panel that included a police detective, a CSI, an FBI agent, and an attorney general. When I asked them if there were any misconceptions that they run across as to why people commit murder (in reference to books and TV getting it wrong), they just kind of laughed and then the detective leaned forward and said, "Sex and money." That was it. Another woman asked what they thought of amateur sleuths. The reply was, "Keep it in fiction." I'm not quite sure I gleaned a lot of technical knowledge from the panel, but I did come away with a healthy respect for law enforcement. They go through a lot.

12. I really enjoyed meeting the delightful Rhys Bowen and attending her classes. I like her Evan Evans and Her Royal Spyness series. She gave some good, concrete aids regarding structure and her exercises helped me spot some problem areas I've wrestled with. And it was nice to hear an accent from across the Pond again. 

Overall, it was an intensive few days, and I met some lovely people. But now ... I could really use a vacation.