After The Conference

We’re home again, all 600 of us, recovering from lack of sleep and too much good food. I’d been warned about the food, but thought myself safe. After all, I eat very little in the dessert line. But the posters must have meant the salads and the meat. Wonderful salads, made the way I like them: interesting greens dotted with fruit and nuts, dressed to taste. And a most accommodating chef and wait staff, who made certain that none of those delicious milk products landed on my plate. Well seasoned meat, too much of it, did stare up at me and find its way into a body unused to such gluttony. Friday night’s leftovers provided a sumptuous breakfast in my room.

And then there was the dinner out: Terry Burns, my agent, and I were royally treated to prime rib and other delicacies at Morgan’s, where Peter and another Terry, delightful now-friends, made us laugh — and overeat, oh, my…though I took some back to the hotel for Sunday lunch.

It does seem as if my stomach ruled over the weekend.

And, yet, that’s not the case. How can I describe the pleasure of meeting so many already-friends?  I wish all of our client group could have attended the conference–we missed you who couldn’t be there. Terry is a hoot…and, so, of course, is Bonnie. Sherri brought me a back pillow, a little doggie who can travel easily with me on planes and to the boat. Thank you, Sherri. I ran into Roger at the airport, where we visited for quite a while, and now I’m thoroughly enjoying his humorous novel in search of a home. I found time to chat with Pam and Susan and Jennifer and Suzanne and Bill and Donn; others were busy with old friends or making new ones. What a privilege to be among so many fine writers and fine people.

Now it’s back to work on my writing and on the editing that’s come my way. I hope that in the next months, Terry’s blog will have more announcements on his Good News Page, more covers like the one adorning Donn’s book, more contract news. He may not have won Agent of the Year at the conference, but in the mind of all his clients, he deserves the title. We thank you, Terry, for being the man you are, an honorable gentleman with a sense of humor and a desire to serve. I had the privilege of seeing his kindness at work when he gently led nervous supplicants through their appointment. Lord, bless Terry Burns, please, and let the oil of Your Spirit that filters down, as it did from Aaron’s head and beard, spread to all of us who know and work with him.

Jennifer Hudson Taylor, another North Carolina girl (yea, NC!) who writes historical fiction and radiates sweetness, took this picture (she’s in the front row with the white color). If you check out her Facebook page, you can find lots of ACFW pictures.(I’m the one standing directly behind her, enjoying my hiding place.) Several of the group had scattered: Bonnie, Roger, and Sherri are obviously missing.