olsen

I spent the weekend at Wordstock....this year I debated how much to participate. They have all sorts of workshops and speakers, and some of it's free but the workshops cost a lot. Last year I regretted not doing the workshops, so I decided at least if I have regrets this year, they'll be for a different reason.

Such a rich, dazzling weekend. The workshops were great, and the speakers were all very engaging. I ended up talking to an editor at a horror press about my genre(s) and she had some book recommendations for me. I told her I'd be in touch with her this week by email...I'm hoping that she can help me identify agents I haven't found in my own research who might be a good fit for me.

My friend Martha and I went to a seminar on building a web presence....I'll be trying to get that rolling over the next few months (big projects!) so watch out!

As I was leaving Saturday, I ended up running into Isaac Marion, whom I had met months ago at a reading for his first book, <a href="http://www.powells.com/biblio/2-9781439192313-2" rel="nofollow">Warm Bodies</a>. We ended up getting drinks - he's a pretty rad person, and it's nice to be able to call him a friend. Something I never would have expected.

And then Sunday, one of my workshops was led by David Rocklin, whose new book, <a href="http://www.hawthornebooks.com/blog/2011/07/the-luminist-excerpt/" rel="nofollow">The Luminist</a> is just being released....It's not the kind of book that I would normally look for, but the more I spoke with him about it, the more I'm just drawn to it. It's historical fiction, focusing on a woman who basically breaks with social laws to become a photographer, just as photography is coming into being.

He spoke about photography as the act of arresting beauty, halting loss....something I really feel. He invited me to his book release, and we ended up having drinks with his publisher and some of their other writers. All amazingly sweet, warm people.

So the weekend is over, I've been going nonstop for days in a row, talking with strangers in the shadows of a bar. I'm pretty thrilled that Wordstock ended up being what I hoped for, and yet something so extraordinary, human, and unexpected.

I feel like I've found a keyhole.