Mary's World

I'm finally at the Doubletree Hilton Hotel in Minneapolis, Minnesota for the 8th Annual Golden Crown Literary Society Literary Conference after a day of flying SNAFU's. I left New Orleans at 8am and arrived in Nashville only to learn that the connecting plane was having mechanical problems and hadn't even left the ground in Florida. After finally scrubbing that flight, Southwest put me on a plane to Orlando where I was to get on a flight to Denver that continued on to Minneapolis. Unfortunately, due to a huge thunderstorm, the connecting flight was diverted to another airport to delay us over two hours. Instead of arriving around 1pm, I finally landed at 1:30am. All in all, one long damn day!

For those who don't know, the Golden Crown Literary Society (GCLS) is a literary and educational organization for the enjoyment, discussion, and enhancement of lesbian literature. Their goals are to support and strengthen quality lesbian literature by providing places for readers and writers to interact, to encourage and assist new writers and established authors, and to recognize and promote lesbian work.The Golden Crown Literary Society (GCLS) is a growing organization that brings people together who are interested in the enjoyment, discussion, and enhancement of lesbian literature.

I've been to all but one of the conferences and am very excited to be back here again. Not only do I have a lot of friends and authors I admire here but my novel, Unbroken Circle, is a finalist for two Goldie Awards - Debut Author and the Ann Bannon Popular Choice Award. The awards ceremony will be held on Saturday. 

Before that, I am running a strategic planning session for the Board of the GCLS and I will be participating in a panel entitled "So I had this idea..." The basic premise is to give us a chance to talk about how we conceived our first novel, what our work style is like, what it was like finishing it, and then what path we chose to publish it. The goal is to give writers in the audience the example that there's no one "right" way to create and the readers in the audience the chance to get to know us better and a feel for why they might find our book to their liking. 

I'm also super excited that I get to introduce the keynote speaker. This year we have Jewelle Gomez and I'm really looking forward to what she has to say. There will also be a tribute to Barbara Grier, who died recently, as had a major impact on lesbian publisher as a publisher with Naiad and in all the ways she nurtured lesbian writing.