Well, I’ve been home over a week now and as a matter of fact I’m taking off tomorrow for New York City. But that is another story and another blog post. Anyway, the time seems right to post my photos from Nashville. Actually, the time was right about a few days ago but I started posting and things went haywire for reasons unknown to me and then I ran out of time. And it is only now that I am all packed and almost caught up on my work that I’ve had time to sit down and post.

And let me just say, I still forget that I own a camera. So sometimes it remains discreetly packed away in my purse or wherever, while I glibly forge on with life, never thinking, ah, I could take a photo of this. But here are the photos I did manage to get, starting with the single most important one of all:

Well, you are just going to have to imagine a photo of a coconut cake here. It is gorgeous and white (amazingly enough) and it is sitting on a blue and white checked tablecloth. Why aren’t you seeing a photo of it? That is a very good question. We shall have to put it down to technical difficulties because for some reason, Typepad is not allowing me to download my photos. I am not nearly techie enough to figure out why this may be.

So you’ll just have to wait a little longer for my wonderful photos of the Nashville Skyline and lots of shots of people sitting around drinking talking about writing.

Instead, I will regale you with stories of my plans for my trip to New York. I am attending the AWP conference. That would be me and 6,999 other people. Yes, that is correct–7,000 literary and writerly types are descending upon Manhattan to attend the annual conference of the Associated Writers and Writing Programs.   Take a look at the roster of speakers and readers if you head on over to the site–John Irving is the keynote on Thursday night and I’m also looking forward to hearing Sue Miller read on Friday night.  Along with many others, not to mention the multiple panels and presentations, one put on by my friend Diana. 

We are staying at the Hilton New York, which is the conference hotel and which sold out long ago.  The only reason I have a room is that I’ve strong-armed my way into sharing a room with Maryann and Linda.   Maryann, being far more organized than I, had the foresight to make the room reservation last summer.  Maryann and Linda and I are all members of the infamous Novel Goddesses.  What?  You’ve not heard of us?   We are a group of writers, all members of the first group of MFA students at Spalding, who came together in the first novel workshop that the program held.  This NYC trip is exciting because it is the first time so many goddesses have been together in one place for quite some time, since we all had a retreat in Alabama on Dauphin Island a few years ago.  Besides Linda and Maryann and I, we will also have Katy, who will be working at the Spalding booth and not quite as free as the rest of us.  We’re only missing two–Deidre and Julie, who are both in southern California.

So that’s the scoop.  Raise a glass to the goddesses on Friday night, when we are all meeting for dinner.  And check back here because through the magic of technology I’m going to have some posts up while I’m gone