Wednesday, June 06, 2012

Wahoo! Wednesday - combined with the Armchair BEA post of the day

For anyone new to my blog, Wahoo! Wednesday is just a day to count my blessings and talk about things that make me happy or good things that are happening in my life. It's a feature I came up with years ago, dropped for a while and have recently revived.

Let's start with the A-BEA business, though.

Today, we're supposed to talk about networking. When I read that, I went totally blank. And, then I read Alyce's post and realized I have, in fact, done some networking in a matter of speaking. Let's start with my interview of Simon Van Booy. I was writing for Estella's Revenge ezine when I read the Turtle Point Press version of Simon's wonderful book of short stories, The Secret Lives of People in Love. I was so blown away that I asked to interview him. And, then one thing led to another and I ended up meeting up with Simon in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Here's a reprint of my interview of Simon Van Booy in 2007.

While I was in town, I also met up with the fabulous Colleen Gleason, the author of a number of romance series books. At the time, I was really into her Victoria Gardella Vampire series. I can't seem to find my interview post, but here's a link to the photos I took of Colleen and Simon.

I don't do many interviews because I don't consider myself all that hot at coming up with insightful questions, but I've also chatted with and interviewed Patricia Wood, the author of the fabulous, Orange short-listed Lottery. I could have met up with Pat when I was in Hawaii but I neglected to tell her I was coming. Darn.

Last year, I finally met up with my first blogging buddy, the very awesome and totally perky Carrie of Care's Online Book Club. That's Carrie in Charleston, South Carolina, at right. She and a writer friend from my online writing group years stayed at a Bed & Breakfast and spent our days touring the town, riding boats, eating good food and chat-chat-chatting. It was absolutely wonderful -- actually, my first buddy trip, apart from writers' conferences.

In the fall, Carrie mentioned that Simon Van Booy was going to be speaking at the Boston Public Library and that led to another trip to hang out with Carrie, this time in Massachusetts. We drove in to Boston on a rainy day, had coffee with Simon and then attended his reading. That's Simon with Carrie, at left.

More recently, I managed to meet Alex George, author of A Good American. I already linked to my photo of the delightful Alex George at Lemuria Books, but here 'tis, in case you missed it.

Whew! Much more hanging out with bloggers and authors than I realized. I need to do more of that, definitely. Maybe a book festival in the future?

In other wahoo news:

We have placed an offer on a house! I am terrified but excited that we finally found something we're interested in. We won't hear back from the seller till tonight.

Book wahoos!

I'm reading slowly because we've been back and forth a lot (the house we're interested in is 30 miles away from our current home) but enjoying my reading. Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada is an amazing WWII novel. Hans Fallada is the pen name of a German who died in 1947 and the story is about the resistance in Germany. It's going to take me quite a while to finish it, since I'm not finding much reading time and it's over 600 pages long but it's definitely a fantastic read, which is a huge wahoo! I've had trouble finding books that really grab me, lately.

Wahooey read #2 just arrived in the mail: Forbidden by Syrie James & Ryan M. James. It's a nice, light paranormal YA that I won from Alyce. Loving it, so far!

The other books in my sidebar are languishing but they're both excellent and I hope to get back to them soon. I need more hours in my day!

Crazy cat wahoos:

When I saw Isabel squeezing herself under the dresser, I grabbed my camera. I had no idea what drew her there, but I always try to capture the cat antics. So, I got a shot of her working her way into this 3" high opening. She has feather bones and is quite thin. There's no way Fiona could possibly do this.

It turned out Isabel had located a jingle ball. She batted it around beneath the dresser for a time and then grabbed it in her teeth and brought it out to play with. So cute!!

What wahooey things are happening in your world?

©2012 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Emailbookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

14 comments:

  1. Good luck on the house!

    And it's awesome that you've arrange to interview authors in person.

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    1. Thanks, Liviania!

      It was truly exciting interviewing Colleen and Simon in person! I forgot to mention that Colleen was the first author to contact me about reviewing one of her books. It was fortunate that she just happens to live in the area (we were in Michigan so Kiddo could attend a swim camp) and Simon also just happened to be driving through, going from Detroit to somewhere in Ohio on his book tour.

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  2. Good Luck on the House! That really is super exciting : I would Whoo Hooo :)

    I am going to have to come back for those interviews. Colleen is awesome :)

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    1. Thanks, Felicia! We find out if there will be a counter-offer in about 90 minutes. Tick, tick, tick. This is seriously making my stomach do flip-flops!!!!

      I can't find that interview with Colleen, although the link to my reviews with Simon and Pat are there. Colleen is a sweetheart. I've got one of her books to read, here, so maybe I should re-interview her, sometime soon.

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  3. meeting authors in person is always fantastic fun! And libraries are awesome for doing that!
    Also, really cute cat!
    Chelle

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    1. My library is not so hot but the indie store about 50 miles from us is terrific. And, if we do move, we'll be 20 miles closer to that, so I should be able to make it to author events more often (fingers crossed).

      Thanks! My kitties are nuts. I'm crazy about them. :)

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    2. As usual, I love your crazy cat wahoos -- Isabel is fun to watch, even from this distance. Buying a house is big, and I hope all goes well. If you are ever anywhere near Chattanooga, let me know and maybe we can get together. Do you still go to Nashville?

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    3. We went to Nashville for Christmas and were hoping to go sometime this summer. I think that'll partly depend on whether or not we do buy the house, though. Yeah, it's huge. We've paid off our mortgage on this house and it was very hard signing those papers to commit to our offer. I hate debt!!!!

      Thanks, Izzy is a hoot! You'd love her. :) I haven't been to Chattanooga in over 20 years, but I do want to go back, someday. I'll let you know if/when we do.

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  4. Anonymous4:20 PM

    Fingers crossed for upcoming house wahoos!

    And also wahoo for girls' weekends that are totally claimable as networking.

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    1. Thank you for the crossed fingers, Jill!

      LOL It's a slight stretch but I do believe we can claim those girls' weekends are "networking". Wahoo!

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  5. Sounds like you have had some pretty awesome booky experiences. I think it is super awesome that you have gotten to meet all those cool people including your blog buddy :)

    Good luck on your house! Such a great thing to accomplish :)

    Leila | The Fiction Pixie

    PS. Cute cat!

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    1. I have, indeed, had some wonderful experiences! And, I've actually met three blogger friends, now. I completely forgot to mention Tammy of Under a Blood Red Sky (in Nashville) and Nat of In Spring it is the Dawn (in Japan - ask me how I could possibly forget that I went to visit someone in Japan . . . just a stressful day). So cool! I also met an online book group buddy in Colorado. I've had such fun!

      Thanks! It is so hard for me to think about parting with money but I think this house will be good for us in many ways (if we get it - about to counter the counter offer, I think). :)

      Isabel and I thank you. She is a total doll and so funny. You'd love her. Promise.

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  6. You have done so much networking! I'm jealous of you meeting Simon Van Booy. Of course if I met him it would be more like, "Ummmmmm..." Love the kitty pics!

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    1. I've been very lucky, Christina! Getting to meet Tammy in Nashville and Nat in Japan have also been amazing.

      Simon is very down-to-earth. I felt comfortable with him immediately. I'm sure you'd have a great time meeting him. :)

      Thanks!!

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