Being a writer, ALAcon, and my goal and stuff.

Found out that I'm a writer after all.  Well, whatdya know?

My last day of internship at The Sea Coast Echo was Friday. While speaking with the editor, I thanked him for his assistance and for allowing me to write so much for the paper last week. I think I had 6 or 7 articles published. He said that I did an "excellent" job and that "it helped that you were already a writer." I was floored. That was THE first and ONLY time anyone had ever referred to me or called me a writer.

Honestly, I thought I aspired to be a writer. I wanted to write but never thought that what I produced was worthy of the author being referred to as a "writer."  So now, I will refer to myself as a writer.  But only because I was referred by one who knows writers as a writer. So there.

Now, I am just an aspiring author.  And since I have not written anything on my book in weeks, it is likely that I will remain an aspiring author.  I also have not heard from the publisher about my children's book either and the 30th of June looms.  Funny how "loom" rhymes with "doom."

Anyway, I jaunted down to New Orleans over the weekend and visited the American Library Association's annual convention.  It was just an orgy of books, publishers, writers, libraries, and all things deliciously bookish.  If you didn't care one way or the other about authors and books, it would have been insanely boring for sure but for me, a bibliophile, it was decadent.  It was the rock concert of librarianship.  And just about every Book God/Goddess I could think of was there. I didn't get any autographs but it was just something still to even walk by Kate DiCamillo and Mo Willems as they signed their tomes.  I really was upset that I did not get to hear Orson Scott Card speak.  Missed that by an hour and didn't realize it.

Overheard that someone stole the 300 galley proofs of part two of Ally Condie's Matched which is entitled Crossed.  Bummer.  They were giving away 300 of those and it looked like there were 500 in line so I didn't stand in that line either.  I preferred to peruse, overhear, and shuffle from exhibit to exhibit.

Even the Ayn Rand Institute representatives were there.  I mean, what? She like my frickin' hero.  Well, ideologically, not so much in the writing.  Overall,  ALAcon was just so impressive.  Google ALA 2011 to see a list of authors.  So awesome.  See, don't I sound like a teenager that just came from her favorite rock concert?  Got lots of cool swag, too.  I was lucky that this was the 2nd time I was able to go.  It probably won't be back in New Orleans for years and years.  If you ever get the chance to go, do. 

So, 5 weeks left of summer break.  Time to seriously buckle down and get some writing done.  My original goal was to be finished by the end of June.  However, life happens.  So, I'm setting the more than reasonable goal of 4 weeks from today.  Let's see where I'll be then!