Sunday, March 26, 2017

The Company We Keep

Field of marigolds in India
Enjoyed giving a presentation to the Suguaro Romance Writers in Tucson yesterday. True to my standards, I made a dramatic entrance.

Enjoyed meeting with the board Friday night, and over a spectacular mexican dinner, I began to pass out. One minute I twas speaking, and the next, I was looking down at someone kneeling and asking me if I was okay. I don't even remember them separating the tables, customers from that side of the restaurant looking on. Light-headed and unable to finish my food, and a little sick to my stomach, I was confused and unable to move.

Well, next I heard they'd called paramedics. "I'm fine!" I said, to which they all laughed. I was helped outside and was treated by six (count them) handsome paramedics. We're all romance writers. We write about firemen and paramedics all the time. I'm telling you, if I'd felt better, I might have laughed it off better, but the ladies were having fun. Every single one of our paramedic crew knew we wrote romance. I heard about it all the way to the hospital.
This could be Sonoma County, but it's India. 

I waved good night to my group of board members who were having me speak, from the back of the ambulance, and was transported to the Emergency Room.

Okay, so I did admit to passing out a few bookmarks, and one of the nurses who attended me was a big military romance reader and had heard of me. I got an Uber driver for $5.67 who took me from the hospital back to my hotel at 2 AM, after I'd been checked out, hydrated with an IV and discharged. We talked romance in his RAM truck. I think his girlfriend will be getting one of my books.

And at 9 AM, I was feeling great. After my grand dramatic entrance, I was on.

A grand railway adventure to the caves in Goa?
I talked about my journey, and literally had some laughs about stories I'd heard about other writers and their perserverance, which was a theme in my talk, about not giving up, not ringing the bell. We talked about exposure, getting follows, getting a dedicated fanbase of readers. Taking what we got and just expanding on that, large or small, grand or simple. The pros and cons of different types of marketing and Newsletters, assistants, review teams and reader groups. It was all out there.

Of course I talked about my thoughts about watching my son get his Trident. What he had to go through, and showed what things did or didn't make their way into my books and why.
Life is color, and meant to celebrate.

It was inspiring for me to get up and talk for a couple of hours, to laugh, and to demonstrate the sisterhood (and brotherhood) of writers we are. Great group, and was one of my better days. Hospital scare and all.

I come back refreshed, recalibrated. Sometimes I think I get so wound up with my own goals and focus, I forget that being an inspiration is part of what I love about being a writer. If I didn't feel I gave anything back, it honestly wouldn't be worth it.

Indian monuments of love. My kind of trail. I'm going.
On the plane home, I found something new for my bucket list. I have a story brewing about India, about a time travel romance spanning a hundred and fifty years crossing three continents. Now I have a new mission. This picture is pasted on my wall by my computer screen to remember.

Visiting the great monuments of love? What's not right for a romance writer? I have to get there, somehow.

https://www.facebook.com/incredibleindia/photos/a.305148219500600.97654.144113158937441/1633320600016682/?type=3&theater

8 comments:

  1. Eep! Glad you're all right! I expect to see a variation of the adventure in a future book. :-) You are an inspiration.

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    1. LOL. Unsinkable, is what Molly Brown was...I'm fine. I guess I'm a finely tuned machine, right? Delicate like a flower, but runs like a steam engine...LOL.

      Off to more SEAL Heroes for the day.

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  2. OMG! You scared me! But it sounds like you are okay. Maybe you guys were having some strong Margarita's. So glad to hear that you came back refreshed. Of course you are always an inspiration to everyone whom you come in contact with, especially me! Stay well my princess. How wonderful life is while you're in this world.

    xoxoxoxoxox, YP

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    1. No worries. Always drama!! You are the same to me, dear friend! I love that line too, from my favorite song someone said was written for me. I wish...

      Take care, my prince!!

      OXOXOXOX
      YA

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  3. So glad to hear your better. I'm so glad you had some hunky fellas to look at. I'm pleased you have been inspired. It's always nice when inspiration strikes and you feel a new project coming on. All the best, take care

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    1. JULIE, you would have been proud of me!! I love new projects, and I love to finish projects too now. I had to make the grand entrance, and so wove it into my talk. Life is so fun. Maybe this trip was all to get that brochure about the trip to India. Now I'm dreaming of Sir Richard Burton and his trips there, and about the railway car he falls in love with his modern-day lover he's calling to through time. Love that scene...Now I need about 6 months without interruption to write it.

      Not likely to be this year...

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  4. Amy went on a walking trip for charity, which she self funded last October with her friend and 22 others it was the hardest thing she'd ever done walking near the Himalayas and camping out. She went on an overnight sleeper twice. Visited where the Dali lama lives which she said was amazing and ended up at the Taj Mahal which she said it was spectacular but, underwhelming. She sat on the famous bench for a photo. New Delhi was insane, busy and so many people.

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    1. Sounds wonderful. A huge culture shock for me, for sure. But I'm game. Better do it while I'm healthy...

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