As I posted on Facebook a little bit ago, the con was awesome, but the food is much better at home:
So, yes, home again–and oh so tired. It was a GREAT weekend; Cascade Writers has been growing at just the right pace over the years. It’s basically a small con now, or a large workshop, or somewhere in between, but very comfortable. I’ve been attending since it was Iron Springs, a tiny workshop-retreat out on the Olympic Peninsula, where the whole gang could gather in someone’s room to hang out in the evening. (And you kind of had to, there was nowhere else to go.) 🙂
Now we are larger–I think I heard 77 attendees?, plus organizers and staff and workshop leaders and whatnot–maybe 100 total, in a real hotel (with, alas, a real mediocre restaurant), and real programming, and real Important New York Publishing Professionals, who just happen to be awesome human beings as well.
Mark and I had SUCH a nice weekend. We were workshop leaders, and our group was amazing. Fortunately, they gave us enough to work with so that we could suggest improvements in every manuscript, but truly, the quality of writing was really stellar. Not only that, but the critique quality was high too–it’s a skill, learning to give thoughtful, useful, intelligent feedback. And our group just made it look natural.
So, yes, highly successful weekend. The downside? See above re OH SO EXHAUSTED. There was just too much to do, too many wonderful people to talk to! A friend I hadn’t seen in 6 or 7 years, from Alaska. My kickass Evil Girlfriend Media publisher (hi Katie!). Many other friends I don’t see nearly often enough–especially at the Saturday evening event, which we were trying to discreetly stay away from, though we ended up inadvertently lurking around the edges, just because that’s how it all fell out–people came from all over, and we stayed up past midnight just catching up with folks. Speaking of which: not enough sleep. Maybe 5 or 6 hours a night (damn those 8am crit sessions!!), and kind of crummy sleep at that. I am SO looking forward to my own bed tonight….Mark is already “napping”; if he opens his eyes again today, I’ll be pleasantly surprised. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be up. Just waiting for it to get dark. 🙂