Still In England

Hiya! I'm still in Northern England and will be for another couple of days. I'm having loads of fun with the relatives and seeing some sites as well. The weather has started this week to be more like what we expect of England- cloudy, drizzly and a bit cool. Tomorrow I'm heading up to Edinburgh for the day with some friends. Should be fun! Saturday we head back to London and Sunday I fly straight to DC for RWA Nationals! Busy, busy! I'm not still reading the same book. I just can't change it. I'm on my 4th book on the trip. This one is Dianne Emley's The First Cut. I've been slacking on my writing lately, but I've been focusing more on getting ready for Nationals, where I will meet with an agent and an editor. Well, I'm off to have...you guessed it, a pint! Talk to you later!

North of England

Hi there! I had an AWESOME time in and around London and can't wait to share the details with you later. I went to Hampton Court Palace, the London Eye, Shakespeare's Globe, the British Museum, and along the Thames on a river cruise.

Now I'm in Northern England visiting the relatives. I'm here for 2 weeks and we rented a flat by the water. The weather's cooler, but still great. I'm eating too much, drinking too much and having a great time all around! I'll share more details when I can. Oh and the writing is coming along too! While I'm away, remember to stay out of trouble...or at least remember enough details to share with me later!!!

Hi From London!

Week in Berlin was FABULOUS! Lots of food, lots of walking, lots of drinks! It was hard to leave the cousin and her husband that live there, but it was wonderful to be with them.

Reading and writing is going well too!

Arrived in London yesterday and checked my e-mails. First time I've been able to get online. Weather is wonderful, visiting family is great and tomorrow I'll be visiting some of London's great places.

Gotta go! Only a bit more time on the internet on my £1! Hope you're doing well without me. Catch you when I can!

A Dream Comes True...No, Not THAT One Yet

When I began graduate school in 1998, my goals were to work with people (kids or adults or both) learning English for my day job and to spend my summers in Europe working on my books. In the past when I've gone to the UK, I've taken notebooks to write if and when the ideas came at me, but I was first and foremost a tourist.

This time, I feel like my dream is coming true. Despite the fact that I'm not yet getting paid to write books, I still consider myself a professional and I treat my writing as my 2nd job. As I've been preparing for this trip, I've realized I'm getting a chance to do just what I wanted when I started "teacher training." No, it may not be EXACTLY as I'd planned eleven years ago, but this summer I am living my dream! I have this laptop and I have two manuscripts to revise. I've thought about sitting in a cafe, a pub, or the flat and working, and the idea of doing that makes me giddy. Of course I won't work every single day, but the idea that I can take a day off from playing tourist and pretend to be a local with a job is something that makes my heart sing. And that, boys and girls, is the greatest gift I could ever receive!

Take care while I'm gone. Remember to check on me every once in a while because I'll post when I can. Those of you going to Nationals, look for me in DC!

And So It Goes...

Still packin'. Finishing up laundry. Found my passport. Running a thousand errands today (including getting the plugs to use the laptop in Europe) because I'm the world's WORST procrastinator! Oh yeah, and I only slept for 1 hour last night. I was too excited! I'll check in with you later.

I've Started Packing

Has anyone seen my passport?????

Hurray For Friends!!!

I am SOOOOO lucky! Thank you to those of you who left comments here and to those who e-mailed me. I had a lot of good suggestions for my digital age dilemma.

In the end, I have a good friend (Hi, Monika!) who happens to have an extra laptop so she's loaning that to me for 2 months. I'll buy the converter so I can plug it in across the pond, but that's all I'll have to shell out. That's good since I'm not comfortable buying something without adequate time to research. This way too I can see if I like it and if a laptop is something I want to invest in. So thanks to Monika I won't lose my momentum on my revisions and I won't have to retype pages and pages of handwritten material. Oooh, I can already see this is going to be AWESOME!