A LadyLee Weekend.

I had a very busy weekend. That's nothing new, because all of my weekends are very busy. I must say that I have had only one weekend this year where I was able to sit back and truly relax and do... nothing.

I had a book club meeting this weekend, but I ditched it (much to the dismay of my book club president - hey, at least I let you know, gal!). Plus I had a heck of a time finding the book club selection of the month, and didn't get a chance to read.

Oh well.

I attended the Atla.nta Wri.ter's club meeting instead. The meeting was waaaay up in North Atlanta, in Dunwoody. I've been wanting to check it out. Now, I came across this club a couple of months ago, but ditched going because I was thinking that there would be NO black folks there, and I didn't want any problems (whatever that means.) But I met a black author at the Mar.garet Mitch.ell house when I attended Tayari Jones' talk, and she said she was a member and she loved it. She found it really helpful, and thought that I should at least check it out.

Well, that was good enough for me. On Saturday, I decided to make a trek up there and check it out. If I didn't like it, oh well. I could at least say that I checked it out and I could just keep it moving.

The meeting was good. There was an open mic session, where people read their works, and there were 2- 1hour sessions of speakers. I must've taken a good 3 pages of notes. And I mean, GOOD useful notes. There was an editor of a literary journal there and an author. They talked about what they did, and answered questions. Heck, the author taught his session as a workshop session basically. Very good concepts, very good set-up. I really enjoyed myself, and even met a few interesting folks. I want to join, but it conflicts with my book club meetings.

Oh well... I'll just have to figure something out. That meeting was much too useful to pass up.

Now, after the ATL writer's club meeting, I headed down to the "Sip and Sign" book signing of Electa Rome Parks, a local author. I'd picked up her book as the book club selection for another book club meeting I am attending next Sunday (yes, I have way too much going on.) My book club sister, who is a member of 2 book clubs invited me, plus the author, Ms. Parks, was going to be there.

And ya'll know how I like to run up on authors. I always got a question or two, you know.

Well, Ms. Parks had an event in Midtown Atlanta, sponsored by my book club president. Now, I didn't get a chance to go to my own book club meeting so, I thought it would be a good idea to drop by since it was on the way home.

Back to this book... The book was titled Ladies Night Out. Just looking at that book cover, I was thinking...

Hmm... this looks a bit racy.

Yeah. It was STRONG on the erotica. And I can't stand erotica. But I decided to read it anyway. I wanted to attend my book club sister's meeting, and I wanted to meet this author. So hey, read it and bear it.

It was a good book. The erotica was just that: erotica. Very eclectic, and creative, but you know... I just don't like erotica. But I must say, I was pleasantly suprised that I picked up on the theme of the book, which seems to be the theme that I am toying with these days. And the story was very well written.

But um, the book made me think... Who wrote this book and did she run around doing research?

Well she walked into the room, and sat near me. I peered at her curiously. And her husband was with her. I'm sitting there thinking, "Damn, they look normal. They don't look off the chain."

Don't think that I didn't ask her about it, LOL. I wanted to know if she researched out all that erotica, because it was um... let's just say, very vivid and very well written. She thought that was funny.

But I got a chance to spend a couple of minutes talking with her. I rarely write in my books, but I even circled some things in her book. Really nice author, answered all of my questions... just a great all around person. She was the first author that I actually sat down with and talked with about some things in her book that I liked and/or didn't understand.

Good book... if you like erotica, then it's for you. She has an erotica story in an upcoming anthology.

She laughed hard. "Guess you won't be reading it."
"Uh, no I won't," I responded.

Nope. But she has three previous books, that are not strong on the erotica. I will most definitely read those!!

Finally... my manuscript edit came back. All I gotta say is... Wow.

It sent my head spinning. She did a thorough job, and I must have spent a couple of hours looking at what she had to say already. She seems to have liked the story, but I just have a lot of rewriting to do... I got a lot of weak points that I have to work on, like redundancy and crutch word isshas, contradiction problems, just all kinds of stuff. I really want to work on these things because I don't want them to turn into bad habits!

But I still say... WOW. My head is spinning. Kind of like when I got the corrections of the first draft of my dissertation back from my advisor so long ago... It was marked up like crazy, but man oh man... those corrections made a WORLD of a difference. They really did.

And that's how I am looking at it. Apprehensive, but pleasantly pleased. I think the good thing is that a lot of the comments that were made are already deep down somewhere else deep in the manuscript. (She only read the first 450 pages. The manuscript is 1000 pages long.) I have to figure out how to bring a lot of stuff that is revealed later in the manuscript up into the earlier parts of the manuscript. I don't know if I am experienced enough to figure all of that out, but at least all the material I need is already written out. I'm reading a very good book on editing right now, and it is REALLY providing reinforcement and helping me understand some of the points that she made.

Let's just say that I am just thankful that I won that edit. It was a VERY GOOD thing. I know already that it is going to help me A LOT.

But I have set a goal to have SOMETHING figured out by the end of the year. I will have a plan of action by the end of the month, so I think I am moving in the right direction. I have decided to do some writing workshops this year, the first of which is a fiction workshop which starts this Thursday. It is only 2 hours a week, for 6 weeks, one day a week. I wanted to start with something small this year, so I can know what the hell I am doing and what is expected of me. I am a bit nervous, but it is that excited type of nervousness (you know what I mean). I hope to learn a few things that will help me with my manuscript, and my writing in general.

Much much more happened this weekend, like hanging out at the 'Shed with my book club sisters for SupaStar's birthday. (DANG, we dropped some serious bread up in that place. And we didn't get thrown out, either.) I didn't go to church, but I had a VERY GOOD "Women of Character" meeting with some of my book club sistas, where we are taking some pretty intense looks at the character of women throughout the bible and how it applies to our daily life. (Man, I LOVE that type of stuff!). So heck, that might as well have been church. Felt like it.

I went to the doctor yesterday, after being sickly for two weeks. I almost bust out crying after telling my doctor how I was feeling all during that time, even though I fell dandy now. She explained to me what was going on, and we talked about a few things.

The convo was funny.

"You want me to prescribe you something for that, just in case you feel like that again?"
"Yes!"
"There are two types of medication. One will make you groggy, one won't. Which do you want?"
"Yes!" I yelled.
"So I take it that you want both?"
"Yes Lawd!"

Man, I was like, whatever. Just give me something that I can throw in a drawer and take when I am feeling bad. Goodness. Next time, I think I will just take a couple of days off from work or something... Geez.

But I am better now... Ready and willing and able...

To do the darn thing.

Check it out. I have a Short story coming up sometime tomorrow, entitled "Buttermilk Biscuit Blues". We've been having a little fun with it, and I think I will post it. It is a side story involving someone from my manuscript. Be sure to come back and take a look at it, because I'd really like to know what you think:)