Monthly Archives: May 2011
PW Con Saturday
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Up at six again, this time it was a bit tougher for me to crawl out of bed. This getting up in the morning is for the birds, not me. However, after Dave banged on our door I dragged myself downstairs to load up on FOOD. Getting up early in the morning makes me VERY hungry and I eat like a farmhand. I couldn’t fit more on my plate and believe me I tried.
My first session was under the Genre Know-How track. Researching the police with Kathleen George, her techniques on interviewing police and other professionals for research were very interesting.
My next session was in the Improve Your Craft track; your life is poetry with Timons Esaias. I love Tim’s sessions and always try to go to one if I can. He makes me THINK and WORK. This is not something that has come easy to me lately. Thank you for jump-starting my brain Tim, I needed it.
The Keynote lunch came next. Jonathan Maberry gave a dynamic and inspiring speech. He managed to fire up even the most jaded Pennwriters. Kudos Jonathan!
Two more sessions followed, The Geography of a Novel with Kristin Bair O’Keeffe and Acting for Writers with Kathryn Miller Haines &Kathleen George. None of the sessions disappointed.
After those sessions came plenty of fun networking and socializing at the Book signing and tea followed by the cocktail party. I wore a dress and heels, which lasted about two hours for me, and then my feet began to scream in agony. I limped to the elevators with Dave’s help, waved bye-bye, and went to my room to change. A little while later, I reappeared in jeans, new T-shirt, and my happy feet were back in flip-flops. Party time!
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Jonathan Maberry, Kathleen George, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pennwriters, Pennwriters conference, Post A Day, Post A Day 2011, Writer, Writing
PW Con Friday
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Up by six in the morning, breakfast buffet, some socializing with friends and then my roommate and I hit the hospitality suite around eight to go over the day’s schedule. So many sessions to choose from and we were like kids set loose in the candy store.
My first session of the day was Jonathan Maberry’s “Writing Fight & Action Scenes.” I had a blast and it was only nine fifteen in the morning. Thank you, Jonathan for providing me with a great wake up session.
The next session I made a mistake and throughout the entire hour, I wished I’d gone to CJ Lyon’s session instead. Hey, sometimes you hit a home run and other times you strike out.
Ramona DeFelice Long’s session on Shaping Story Arcs was quite a draw.
The last session of the day for me was Balancing Dialogue and Narrative with Terry Friedman.
Those of us not attending the keynote dinner went out and had some kickass steaks and drinks for half the cost of the dinner.
Afterwards many of us congregated in the lobby to schmooze…. Over time, the crowd thinned down to me, the night owl. I wandered up to my room.
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Jonathan Maberry, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pennwriters, Pennwriters conference, Post A Day, Post A Day 2011, Writer, Writing
PW Con 2011 Thursday’s arrival
Posted by doggonedmysteries
The drive from our area to Pittsburgh is very long. I’m sure I drove my roommate crazy with the “are we there yet” routine but it helped keep me sane. Okay, my reasonable facsimile of sane. I hadn’t slept the night before because had I gone to bed I would’ve only had one or two hours of sleep before we left anyway.
You have no idea how happy we were when we sighted the hotel. For those of us not used to ‘big city living,’ driving into Pittsburgh is literal hell. I am so glad I wasn’t the one behind the wheel.
We checked in and the bellhop unloaded our car. I think he was surprised at the amount of stuff we brought along and the ten baskets took up a lot of room. (He almost went back for a second cart.) We tip well so he had no complaints when he settled us in our room. He left smiling. We called our husbands to let them know we arrived safely.
As soon as we freshened up, we went to the lobby to watch for other arrivals. Hungry, we ordered an appetizer to tide us over until dinner. (Fair warning, do not order their nachos they were awful. However, they made up for it later at dinner by treating us to a free appetizer.)
As each member of ‘the rowdy bunch’ arrived, there was much hugging and kidding around. When everyone had checked in and freshened up, we all trooped into the restaurant for an excellent dinner.
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pennwriters, Pennwriters conference, Post A Day, Post A Day 2011, Writer, Writing
Going, going…GONE!
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I’m outta here until Monday night, folks. Take care! PW Conference here I come!
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Post A Day, Post A Day 2011, Writer, Writing
The Pennwriters Conference/my working vacation begins tomorrow!
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Today I will pack my suitcase. Everything else I’m taking with me is stacked on the kitchen table and chairs ready to load in my roommate’s car first thing tomorrow morning. If I forget anything, I’ll be surprised.
I did the wash so DH can’t complain he has nothing clean while I’m gone. The pond filters were backwashed and I added water to the pond.
Y’all have a great weekend! I’ll be back writing on my blog Monday night.
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Post A Day, Post A Day 2011, Writer, Writing
Conference preparations and odds and ends
Posted by doggonedmysteries
G dragged me (kicking and screaming) into Coldwater Creek and I bought some clothes. Yes, me, I did it. No, there wasn’t a single dress involved. I didn’t find any that I liked. However, that doesn’t mean that I won’t wear one sometime during the conference. There is that cocktail party….
Today I need to make a Target run and pick up the dog food our pet store was out of, soda for DH, ink for my printer, batteries for the camera, and chocolates! Then I need to do a couple loads of wash so DH doesn’t complain that he’s out of anything while I’m gone.
All I need to do on Wednesday is pack everything, take care of the dogs, and get my haircut at 5:30.
Thursday morning my roommate arrives we load her car and off we go!
While I was dragging my feet shopping, DH was fielding one phone call after another. First, there was the call from CBS on Your Side about the electric company—DH told Jim Donovan I’d call him when I got home. Then there was the call from the nursing home, now they are claiming they want even more money than the bill that came on Saturday had on it. It’ll be a cold day in hell. They don’t know it’s not good to make the Irish-Indian mad. DH says that there’s nothing scarier than having this redhead on the warpath.
I talked to Jim Donovan, a very nice man, and he’s looking into the electric company problem. While I had him on the phone I happened to mention the problem with the nursing home…he said once we take care of the electric company we’ll start on that too. I told you we weren’t going to roll over for all this nonsense now didn’t I?
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, CBS, Coldwater Creek, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Jim Donovan, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Post A Day, Post A Day 2011, Writer, Writing
Time to get ready
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I am counting the hours until the Pennwriters Conference. I picked out sessions that I want to attend. I’ve begun packing. My snack stash is ready. Business cards are printed, as are envelopes for housekeeping tips, and manuscripts I will work on are ready to print. I have lists to go over as I load my stuff into my roommate’s car so I don’t forget anything. It’s only Monday and I KNOW the next few days will crawl by.
Isn’t it Thursday?
I pity my roommate since I know I’m going to be that child in the car who says, “Are we there yet?”
I hope no one warns her. Last time she did mention duct tape…
And again!
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I retrieved the mail from the mailbox yesterday afternoon and found a bill from the nursing home. They sent us a bill for $912.00. What?! Yes, they are attempting to double-bill us for the last six days of my MIL’s life. The life that their negligent (lack of) care ended.
I sputtered, I ranted, and I raved. Once I calmed down, I went over there. I was loaded for bear and made a lovely scene in front of patients and visitors alike. I don’t care. I don’t care how much I raise my voice, I don’t care who hears. I demanded they call their superiors and wreck their day as they had wrecked mine. Not one of those so called ‘skilled nurses’ was brave enough to do it.
That’s okay because I made my point. I will make my point again on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday…you get the idea. I hope they are ready for a picket sign, bad publicity, and any number of things I can think of that might keep other people from placing a patient there. I have all the free time in the world. Who knows, after the conference, I may just camp out in their parking lot.
I have the email address for the CEO of the parent company along with his staff’s email addresses. They will get sick of hearing from me. I also have the name of a great attorney who really loves to go after places like this.
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Healthcare, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Nursing home, Post A Day, Post A Day 2011, Writer, Writing
Screwed again!
Posted by doggonedmysteries
This time it is by the local electric company. It seems that the MIL’s meter was broken—since 2009! They just repaired it on 4/19/11. Now they want US to pay for 10,599 KWHs of electricity!!!! Blood from a stone time here folks.
I ask you, where were the meter readers? Why didn’t someone notice there was a problem way back then? Why did they leave it this long? You would think that someone in the billing department might have had a vague idea that there was a problem wouldn’t you?
According to the PUC, we will have to pay it too. OMFG! We haven’t even paid for her funeral yet, all they got from us was a $1500 down payment. The nursing home (that killed her) soaked us for over $25,000 for three months. We don’t have anything from her life insurance policies yet because John Hancock is playing hard to get. Little Johnny had better stop playing coy soon.
I’ll be the first one in the bar at Pennwriters, see ya there. Look for the redhead wearing the funny coat that buckles in the back.
Posted in Misc
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, John Hancock, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Post A Day, Post A Day 2011, Writer, Writing
Ceramics I made… way back when
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Posted in hobbies
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Post A Day, Post A Day 2011, Writer, Writing
Quick note today
Posted by doggonedmysteries
After going totally bonkers while setting up the new internet connections yesterday, I am not in the mood to do any writing here. Instead, I’m going to wish you all a good day today, go crawl away into a corner, and curl up into a fetal position.
See you all tomorrow.
Posted in Misc
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Post A Day, Post A Day 2011, Writer, Writing
OMG the conference is almost here and my hair is a mess!
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I had to beg for an appointment to get my hair cut in time for the Pennwriters conference. I meant to call and get it cut months ago. Time got away from me. I meant to make an appointment with my stylist a couple of weeks ago but things got hectic, and I forgot until the next time my hair was driving me crazy.
With the weather getting warmer, and my hair long and thick enough to make me pay in sweat, I couldn’t stand it any more. The wooly cap had to go.
This time I left sticky notes all over my computer, the bathroom mirror, and the coffee pot to remind me to call yesterday. Yes, if I hadn’t done that, I probably would’ve forgotten AGAIN. My brain hasn’t been functioning well for the last couple of months.
I called right after I had my first cup of coffee. They had no openings. ACK! My stylist is the only one I trust to make this mass of frizz look good. I begged and pleaded. I explained I needed this unruly mop cut and under control for the writers conference. Although it is true, I didn’t want to use it, I am ashamed to say that I even played the death in the family card.
The day before I leave for the conference my stylist will cut my hair. PHEW!
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pennwriters, Pennwriters conference, Post A Day, Post A Day 2011, Writer, Writing
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