Once Upon a Time…

I’m having trouble getting moving today. I have three million things to do before vacation, but I keep losing my train of … what was I saying? Oh yeah can’t stay focused.

I’m still processing what I did yesterday. What did I do yesterday? I went to my first INRWA meeting. I sat in a room with a dozen women, most of whom are published authors, and talked writing. How cool is that?

I started writing Third Watch fan fiction in 2002 as a fan in a box. I was the only person I knew who watched Third Watch (maybe why it got cancelled, but I’m not saying it’s my fault). When I started writing fan fiction, I was the only person I knew who wrote. I was a writer in a box. All my writing talk and Third Watch talk took place online (dial up even).

I tried to go to a writing get together, but I told them I wrote fan fiction and liked romance novels and they looked at me like I was something stinky stuck to the bottom of their shoes. I climbed back in my box and limited my creative life to online.

Fast forward four years - I stopped (almost all together) writing fan fiction and tried my hand at writing original fiction - romance specifically. I wrote and wrote, researched and read. I was spinning my wheels (not literally - have you priced tires? Holy Lord!). I found the Romance Writers of America site and coveted membership. It took me three more years to finally stop doing the Wayne and Garth “I’m not worthy” chant and join.

I joined IRWA a couple of days later and instead of following my usual pattern of putting things off until they’re irrelevant, I forced myself out of bed on a Saturday morning and went to a meeting. I’m out of my box. See? Cool.

I got my membership email from the Indiana Romance Writers of America (see shiny new icon and link in the sidebar) today and have been bombarded with people welcoming me to the clan. It reminds me of the good old days of the Third Watch fandom which in turn reminded me I didn’t have any content up on this site! I’m e-meeting all these new people with a bare blog! The horror! The shame!

I’m wresting with moving some of my favorite posts to this blog since the other one is about to go the way of the Do-do, but I don’t know if it would be more trouble than it’s worth. I also know I don’t want those old posts on the main page. I may break out the Sitebuilder and make an archive page with my favorites. Sounds like a project for when I’m not at work.

I’m really excited about the new opportunities IRWA will bring and meeting new people. Old friends, don’t fall off your chairs. I am capable of being social. Really. I’m not joking. Okay, okay I’m shaking in my shoes scared and my stomach is in knots reminescent of tax season.

The people who’ve reached out to me are all really nice people though so I’m sure they won’t eat me when I show up at the meeting on Saturday. Once I get to know them, I’ll post up some links to their websites if they’re agreeable.

As for those new folks from IRWA who came here wondering if I really do have a Carmine Miranda hat, no, I don’t have one. I do have several places you can get to know me better and guess my psychosis:

Twitter
Livejournal (although that’s just been a Tweet repository for a little while)
The website for this blog
My old blog
The website for that blog

Those last two are about to disappear though. That’s really making me sad. I’ve had that site since 2002 and it’s hard to let go of the nostalgia, but it’s time.

Anyway, welcome new friends. Hi-de-ho, old friends. Buy my book. See ya later. kthxbye