Besides being disgusted by the news networks?

We had a very busy July and beginning of August. We spent two weeks back East, one in Cape Cod and Boston, and one in Manhattan. We spent what seemed like 30 years trapped in JFK and made it out on the last plane out of there. Then, after a few days home, I turned around and headed up to San Francisco for RWA’s National Convention, the largest writers’ convention in the world.

Cape Cod: excellent. We spent four days in West Yarmouth (right next door to the extremely yummy Cape Cod Creamery) and then a night on Martha’s Vineyard. Captain Parker’s! Provincetown! Hanging around not doing much of anything! If we had to do it all over again, we’d a)do the Cape Cod portion of the trip second, not first, because it was so relaxing (and Manhattan is so not) and b)stay on Nantucket for most of the time. The beaches on Martha’s Vineyard were much nicer than the one we visited at Hyannis, and pretty much the kids were all about the beach on this vacation. Or pools. If there was a pool available, they were in it.

Mystic, CT: we took a detour down here to go to the Mystic Seaport. The kids loved looking at the old ships and the models of what the seaport was like centuries ago. I also had the best lobster roll sandwich of the trip at one of the restaurants at the seaport.

Boston: It was ZOMG hot while we were in Boston. We were there for two nights at the Marriott Custom House, right next to Faneuil Hall, and we had a blast — went on a walking history tour of the downtown geared toward kids, we went to the Aquarium, we ate a lot of seafood.

We took the Acela Express from Boston to Penn Station, which was an excellent way to travel.

The week we spent in Manhattan was a lot of fun, although as I said I’d rather we had done Manhattan first. I was also somewhat disappointed because we had reserved a two-bedroom at the hotel, but they only had a one-bedroom available. We had promised the kids they would have their own beds (and their own room!) in NYC, and they had to spend a week on the couch. This visit we did the Bronx Zoo (actually, I didn’t—I was having lunch with my agent), the Top of the Rock (I will never go to the top of one of these skyscrapers again; it just makes me wanna retch), a harbor cruise, and a couple of Broadway shows.

The kids loved the Natural History museum just as much this time, and Sophia liked the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Simon got ants in his pants and went to spend the afternoon in Central Park with Grandpa. Which meant that he missed out on our visit to Payard on the Upper East Side, a wonderful French cafe and bistro that has very tasty food and even tastier apple martinis. (Hic.)

Sophia’s biggest joy was our visit to American Girl Place, the temple to the doll that’s taken over the world. She literally started dancing when she saw the sign as we were walking there. We had breakfast, we saw the show, we looked at one metric buttload of American Girl clothes and accessories. There’s a doll hair salon where you can get your doll’s coiffure redone (or done in a whole new fashion). Man, I bet Walt Disney is kicking himself for not thinking of that. And still after the hours we spent there, Sophia still loves American Girl with a scary passion.

The day spent at JFK is best not thought of. JetBlue’s current terminal is clearly unchanged since the Idlewild days; there was no food; Darin and I had one cell phone between the two of us and everything was just a nightmare.

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RWA National in SF was a kick. I decided to go a couple of months ago when a friend suggested it to me as a way of networking, meeting editors and agents, etc. This was before I got my agent, so it seemed like a good idea for that reason. Despite the fact that I don’t write romance, there was a ton of stuff there for any kind of writer—the best session we went to was about how Federal agencies operate, given by a Federal agent. There was lots of schmoozing, and it was so easy to meet and chat with anyone. I found myself making jokes with Jade Lee in the line to get Jo Beverly’s signature.

(Oh yes, and there were books. Free books. Hundreds of free books, everywhere you looked. We snapped up bags and bags of them and then went through them back in our room to see which ones we actually wanted to keep. I cracked up when I discovered I had picked up the famous Decadent (deeply NSFW), which was too awful to keep reading.)

I am definitely glad I went to RWA. I loved the people I met and the wonderful conversations I had. I have to say, though, that I am never ever going to go to any kind of conference again unless I have a book about to be published or already out. These things are hella more useful for pubbed authors than for the Great Unwashed.

(Speaking of which: no news yet. It is summer, time of unbelievable slowness in the publishing biz. Everyone works a 4 day week, and there is no checking of the emails from home, apparently. Yeah, I know: how do they get anything done? But if anything happens, everyone in the known universe will hear about it.)