A New Attitude

I'm off to Portland tomorrow for the annual mystery convention known as Left Coast Crime. I'll be on a panel, co-hosting a lunch with a couple fans (with Tina Whittle), and co-hosting the Tiara Table at the banquet (with Rochelle Staab). Along the way, I'll be meeting, seeing, and catching up with dozens of writers and readers (many of whom are good friends).

I have a promise for you all this year: I'll be in a better mood!

Now that I have no day job, I'm recharging. Detoxing. Getting enough alone time so that I'm finally to the point of wanting to socialize again. Turns out—and I hadn't realized how much this was true until the pressure was off—I wasn't getting enough time to recharge my introvert's batteries. And that made me tired, sad, and anti-social. Even when I wanted to see and meet people.

But I'm more rested this time around. I've felt stirrings of interest in initiating social activities (for perspective, that hasn't happened in years). So I'm looking forward to seeing how much more I'm engaged at this upcoming convention.

Let's get real for a minute, however. Don't expect me to be the life of the party! Still an introvert over here.... (By the way, here's the best article/chart about introverts I've ever seen. As that shows, it's not about enjoying people, it's about where we get our energy.)

But I will promise to be more welcoming and friendly. So if you're at Left Coast Crime, find me, talk about pink hair (I have it), pick up some Team Kate earplugs (I'm sure you've got a use for them), and let's talk about good mysteries!

See you in Portland!

Limbo

I've written about it before, but this is a weird time of year for me.

My day job does a big annual conference in mid-January, and it starts Tuesday. So while the rest of the world is doing "start the new year!" kinds of things, I'm still biting my nails and trying to finish out the tasks I spent the last three months preparing for.

Which means that next weekend will really feel like the new year, and this weekend feels a bit like the weekend we had between Christmas and January 1. That weekend where one big event was over, but it wasn't quite time to plunge into the new.

So I'm not pushing myself for much this weekend. For one thing, I'm storing up my energy reserves (since I'm an introvert, that takes some quiet time), because the next week will find me interacting with 2,000+ people for four full days.

Yes, I'll be replenishing my reserves next weekend also!

But when I do get to my delayed new year, I'm looking forward to some new practices: yoga, meditation, photos, and general fun.

I want 2015 to be, as this image a friend sent me describes, entirely F*%K YEAH.

And I'll really focus on that in a week's time....

The Joy of Community (and of Being Alone)

I've been prepping for the coming week for a couple years now. I'm on the organizing committee for the annual, four-day, international mystery convention called Bouchercon, and the big week is finally here.

I'm very excited about it—in large part because I will get to spend four days with my "tribe": fellow mystery fans and writers. It's going to be a fabulous long weekend of talking about how to plot mysteries, how to improve my writing process, and how to kill people. I'll get to see friends I only see once or twice a year, and I can't wait. (Note: this is exactly how I feel when I'm getting ready to attend a big race weekend.)

But I'm also gearing up for just how exhausting it will all be. That's the downside of being an introvert. I'm not shy, and I don't dislike talking with people. But it drains me. 

By a stroke of luck, however, I'm giving myself the perfect prep for four days of 2,000 crazy mystery people. I'm spending three days almost totally alone, in a quiet, hillside retreat. I didn't actually plan this (it was a last-minute thing), but I'm soaking up the peace by sitting on a porch and counting the cars that go past (I'm up to 10 for the day).

Yes, I'm doing a little writing, blogging, emailing, and helping with last-minute Bouchercon tasks. But mostly I'm sitting, reading, and enjoying the silence. And looking at the occasional rainbow.

See you at Bouchercon!