July 29, 2008

Well somewhere on the West Coast thousands of romance writers are descending upon a hotel in San Francisco. Anyone else feeling left out? Instead of talking about the great workshops, support, and all around fun we're missing let's focus on what we're not missing:

No traveling across the country means no lost luggage, poor customer service, delayed or cancelled flights and all the headaches that come from traveling by plane.

You would have drove? I guess you haven't seen gas prices. EEK!

There isn't a hotel around that can hold that many women (yes I know there are some men but the majority are women) and keep them all happy. I'm all for not being a part of that crowd this year.

Let's talk about all those books! Yes getting the free books is great until you have to get them home. If you're traveling by air, its going to cost you a fortune. With airlines charging over $25 for extra luggage and overweight luggage, your free books just became pretty pricey. Shipping them won't cost much less unfortuantely.

Its great to be in all these cities like San Francisco, but honestly, the last two RWA conferences I attended could have been anywhere in the world. I never got to leave the hotel - not for one hour, not at all. Yes some of my friends went a day or two early to sightsee but who has money for another night at the hotel.

Why do all these conferences take place at hotels that cost so much? Yes I know they need to do it right and have it somewhere that can hold us, but I"m all for beer and pop and a $50 a night room.

Your critique partners are gone? Your writing buddies aren't on AIM this week? Good, maybe you can actually do something different like, you know, WRITE!

Not going to conference means you didn't have to make any decisions about which workshops to attend and which ones you could skip. No sitting through a boring one knowing the one you didn't choose was probably amazig.

No coming home after an exhausting week away (which your husband insists was a vacation) and having to do all the household chores that "somehow" never got done last week when you were on "vacation".

But my biggest reason for being glad I didn't go to Nationals this year is that I can save my money to go to next year's.

Anyone else?

Rhonda