Conferencing

Pretty good team. Here, at the Story Circle conference (Stories from the Heart IV) are (from left) Robin Wittig, Linda Wisniewski, and Paula Yost, fellow editors of the Story Circle Book Review website. Robin, my daughter, is pitching in as editorial assistant.

The conference was enlightening, fun, and exhausting. I led workshops on personal mapping and personal dragons and chaired a panel on blogging. When Peggy gets time, she'll post the handouts for these workshops--I'll give you the URLs and you can check them out if you like. Robin and I had lots of time to talk--she's helping me out with my Book Club Friends project and other book stuff, as well as working on the SCBR site. Lovely to find something we want to do together.

Too warm here for February--82 yesterday afternoon, and humid, 70 this morning when the dogs and I went for our walk. The daffs are up and will be blooming in a few days. The elbow bush in the woods is putting out tentative leaves, the cattails are poking up sharp green spears, and yesterday in Austin, I saw a Japanese cherry in full bloom, its discarded petals like a blanket of pink pulled up over its bare roots. I probably won't get back to writing this week: I'm giving myself one more week to catch up on all the other writing-related stuff before I refocus on the writing. And the week after that, I'll be pruning roses. Where oh where did winter go?

Reading note. The writer should never be ashamed of staring. There is nothing that does not require [her] attention.--Flannery O'Connor

Comments

[Julie]

No warm temperatures here in Southern California yet (I had to scrape ice off my car Monday morning), but the strawberry fields are full of fruit. The stand I drive by on the way to and from work started selling this week, though I haven't bought any yet.

[Jinni Turkelson]

82?? We're having freezing rain and snow here in Michigan.But when it's sweltering in Texas in August it'll just be semi sweltering here.The conference sounded so neat. Wish I could have been there. Maybe next year. Take some time for yourself, if possible.

[Paula S. Yost]

So where's our other teammate? Sorry about putting Susan behind rather than in front of the camera. We surely wouldn't be much of a team without her!

[Dani]

I can tell you exactly where winter went! My front door which wouldn't open this morning for all the snow that blew against it during the night. Eeek! But, we're in gardening mode, too. Something to do with the 319 heirloom seed packets we got from Baker Creek Seeds. Hehe. I can't in my wildest dreams imagine getting all those in the ground, snow or not.