I just got back from the Surrey International Writers Conference, about which I cannot say enough good things. I highly, highly recommend this conference if you are a writer. I’m planning on going back next year, schedule permitting, whether or not I’m a presenter. It left me energized and charged to write. That’s a beautiful thing.
Aside from a slight delay at the border crossing as one passenger was detained, the bus trip from Surrey was uneventful. We got into Seattle about half an hour late due to that, but I still had plenty of time to go to Zeitgeist Coffee and meet up with Andrew and Scott James.
Allow me to pause here and put in a plug for Zeitgeist. They noticed me tweeting to invite folks to meet me there and tweeted a welcome back. I mentioned to someone else that I really like their lavender shortbread — lovely! — and when I arrived, the barrista recognized me and gave me a piece of lavender shortbread. If I hadn’t already liked the coffeeshop, that would have cemented it. Plus, they make a darn fine cup of coffee. Thanks, guys!
The train ride from Seattle was smooth and almost all things delightful. The infant in my car was mostly delightful and I went to the dining car when the child became less than delightful. You can’t do that on an airplane.
I’m home for the next 35 hours and then I fly down to San Diego for World Fantasy. If you are in the area, come by Mysterious Galaxy on Wednesday evening for the meet-and-greet with me and a metric ton of other authors.
Meanwhile, whew, it’s nice to be home.
