I just returned from a vacation which included a seven night cruise in the Caribbean with Lynn Flewelling!  I can’t tell you how exciting it was for me, meeting Lynn.  For those who don’t know, you can read here about how she’s partially to blame for the naughty things I write. I think (hope) I managed to not stammer like an idiot upon meeting her.  She is one of the most genuine, down-to-Earth people I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.  We had a great group of people there.  The entire experience was absolutely amazing.  Here are a couple of pictures:

Playing Black-tie Midnight Drunken Shuffleboard. Which I suck at, by the way.

Writing on the Waves with Lynn Flewelling

Starting at the top: Keenan, Gia, Kim, Thea, Michael, Daniel, Nico, Stephanie, Sharon, Betty Blue, Leslie, Rowan, Janel, Laura, Justine, me, Carter, Joanna, Lynn and Doug Flewelling.

So now, here we are: back home in Colorado.  I’m trying to remember what my life is like without the swimming pools and ever-open all-you-can-eat buffets and free childcare.

And without quite so much rum.

Our house is on the market, so we’re trying to keep it in pristine condition at all times (not something that comes naturally to us, by any means).  This forced us to unpack right away, rather than having half-full suitcases in the middle of the living room floor for the next eight weeks (which is what we usually do after a vacation).  But our lives aren’t quite back to normal yet.  Next Sunday is my daughter’s sixth birthday, and I’ll have family in town for that.  And then the Friday after that, I’ll be heading to Des Moines to host DSP’s table with Heidi Cullinan at the Des Moines PrideFest.  If you’re in the area, make sure you stop by and say hello!

What’s next on the writing front?  I know you all just adore Matt and Jared, and Zach and Angelo to some extent.  And a few of you (no names, but you know who you are) are completely obsessed with Cole (and his book hasn’t even been published yet!).  But the truth is, I think I’m ready to take a break from my Coda boys.  Never fear!  I’m sure I’ll be back to Coda at some point.  Angelo would never let me abandon him, and Cole still has a story on the back burner as well.  But for the moment, I’m just dying to do something new.  The question is, what?

The day before leaving for our trip, I finished the first draft of a short story which I shamelessly stole from Ethan Stone. It’s called One More Soldier.  I’ll have to finish that up at some point.  And Lynn’s workshop helped me see where I went astray with Cockaigne.  I’m pondering what needs to change there to help me regain my momentum.  The world has so much potential.  The problem is, “world” is not my thing.  Character is.  So I have to quit thinking about the planet, and start really focusing on Cricket.  Cross your fingers for me that I’ll be able to make it work!

And now, I’m off to the grocery store, because after being gone for ten days, we have absolutely no food in the house.  And no free buffet.  And nobody offering to bring me a pina colada.

I’m already counting the days to next year’s cruise.