I planned on going to New Orleans for a friendly mystery convention, Bouchercon. I would take breaks and I would write. I would advance this manuscript that continues to be my work in progress, with the progress part being slow. Not this week though; I would make the week count. We plan, and life happens.
Soon after arriving, the search for food I could eat began. I don’t eat seafood, nearly a vegetarian, and fried food isn’t my favorite, so it was a bit of a challenge. I found a Mediterranean place, and a few places at the French Market. The week before New Orleans, I started drinking green juice for breakfast. Some of them are disgusting, but the ones with pineapple added have a much better taste. The hotel and convention tested me by offering delicious snacks. A cup of fruit with mint and agave. Not too unhealthy, and definitely delicious. Some would say it’s basically green juice since they are both fresh fruit, and mint is green. Then there were the crème brûlées, but they had diced fruit on top, so that’s nutritious. I did my best with those first two, but I’m not in marketing, so I don’t know how to spin the powdered sugar covered beignets as healthy, but they were there too. And some made it onto my plate. Pure determination on their part. Who am I to stifle their success? It was hard to write when I was in the hospitality area eating treats, I mean healthy snacks.
Then there were the walks in the French Quarter, shopping for souvenirs, the riverboat dinner with jazz music, the swamp tour (I did not hold an alligator), and of course all the wonderful panels. Very little writing was accomplished.
I was able to reconnect with friends, and even tapped into my psychic abilities. I won’t go into the whole story here, but let’s just say that the employees of a certain restaurant on Decatur Street thought I should set up a table and do readings after a statement of mine that was thought to be ridiculous came to fruition before their eyes. This can be verified by Jason Powell, @uh_thousand_words on Instagram. Unfortunately, my psychic abilities did not give me the winning lottery numbers, but I did have the good fortune to end up right behind THE Lisa Jewell during the second line parade. This can be verified by my parade buddy and splendid mystery writer, @KellyeKell
I tried to play it cool when meeting Lisa Jewell, but sometimes it is difficult when you love a writer’s work so much to not be a fan girl. A friend who will remain nameless was supposed to record my brief interaction with her during a signing, but only managed to record about 5 seconds. As you may have predicted, we are no longer on speaking terms. But that has more to do with his—or her jealousy for me winning our competition at the underrepresented authors bingo night. Okay, Readlaxer, I can’t lie to you. We do still talk, but a five second video when meeting one of your favorite writers is grounds for excommunication. Like I said, I can’t tell you who it was, but if you check out my Instagram posts on Bouchercon, you may be able to deduce.
My initial plan would have been great, but reality was much more entertaining, and created so many memories. I love a great writer’s conference, and Bouchercon New Orleans did not disappoint.
Read Write Relax 