Week in New York . . . so far

Well, I'm still gonna do a Saturday digest thing, but I figured I'd also ramble a bit about the stuff that's happened so far in New York. After all, this is my writing blog and I've done a lot of writing-related stuff: Been to two awards ceremonies for my book, met up with one of my mentees from Pitch Wars, and had brunch with my agent. Might as well give a little rundown of the events up to this point even though I'll also post about it in the digest!

Yeah, nobody cares about how I organize this stuff, I don't think.

My dad and I arrived in New York on Wednesday morning. 

Dorks

He went to his hotel while I went to my friend John's place and we both took naps. (Well, attempted, in my case. There was some loudness preventing me from sleeping.) I took the train to meet up with my dad at the Harvard Club but I got super lost because I am terrible with directions. (I managed to take 20 minutes to walk in a circle! Ending up right where I started at the subway exit! What!) But my dad found me eventually and we went to the first awards event of the night which was the Next Generation Indie Book Award.

I won in my category for LGBT books.

Mostly it was just mingling and munching. I ate a spring roll and had some champagne. Not bad! There is a better "official" picture that I guess I'll get later but haven't dug up yet if it's available. And there are of course better pictures my dad took too but this is the only one I have for right now. Had a couple little discussions with other authors but nothing really noteworthy for the blog. :)

Hard to believe but they actually let a lump like me in this place.

Then we had to run over to a second awards ceremony because the universe likes trying to make me lose my mind and scheduled both ceremonies to happen overlapping each other. The second event was at Providence and it was the IPPY Awards. I won a silver medal in Sexuality/Relationships. There was a little buffet there and more drinks, and it was more crowded in a bigger place. I didn't really talk to people there either--maybe just a couple discussions about cover design and stuff. Most of the people at these events had done more of the work associated with their book themselves because they were indie events.

I didn't get any photos with my camera (my dad got a couple that I'll get later). But I took this later:

Some dork with medals

Those medals are really heavy, too!

The next day I had to get up and go to meet with Natalka. She was the person I selected as my alternate mentee in last year's Pitch Wars! I was so excited to get to meet her. We met up at Argo (a tea place) and I actually didn't get lost. (I was so hilariously lost the day before that I vowed to go everywhere an hour early so I could spend some time lost without panicking. But I didn't need to worry this time.)

Coffee with almond milk--holy crap it was so yummy!

Hanging out with Natalka was so fun! We went to Eataly (heh, Eataly) and got pizza to share. We also went for a little bit of shopping and I got a couple thank-you gifts for John for hosting me. It was a lovely little Italian market. We went across the street to a park and chilled on a bench for a while. It was all really an excuse to talk, though. We talked a lot about writing and life stuff. Well, mostly writing. I love talking to other writers. It's just really awesome to connect with people that way, and I loved her book so much--I hope it gets signed soon!

Writing nerds

That was a super great beginning to what turned out to be a super great day actually. I wandered around to do some shopping (but didn't really buy anything else except some hair decorations and some drinks). Oh, and someone in the Italian market stopped me and asked me "Is that a Crystal Gems tee shirt??" (which of course it was), and wanted to know where to get one. I am such a nerd that this was indeed exciting for me. I love when people recognize stupid stuff on my shirts.

I met my dad at the Flatiron building (also not getting lost AT ALL) and we went to meet my aunt at a cool restaurant called Mercato. Oh my goodness, we had the best food there! I ate a fettuccine with mushrooms sautéed in garlic and olive oil. Seriously one of the best pasta dishes I have ever eaten. My dad was saying the same about his lasagna. And I got to see my aunt again. Aunt Elisa is one of my favorite people!

I think you can see where in the family I got the tendency to make weird faces.

We had some time to waste before our next destination so we stopped at a little café to get coffees. I got an iced latte with almond milk.

Iced coffee--perfect for a weirdly hot day!

After that, guess what we did? Saw a show on Broadway.

We saw A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, which we all enjoyed tons! This is the show my host John got us friends and family discounts for because he was one of the producers. (It won a Tony last year for Best Musical!) It's nice being old college roomies with such a big shot. Haha.

Sadly I also tripped over a rough patch of pavement while crossing the street and I fell down and busted my knee and tweaked my ankle a little. It wasn't incredibly bad but I probably need to rest it a lot in the next couple days.

So the play was incredible and so hilarious. We kept talking about it after. We had to go meet my host John at a party so he could give me house keys, and then I got back to the place and got to shower and relax and stuff. It was great.

And finally, this morning, I had a nice early brunch with my agent, Andrea!

I was again hilariously early because I expected to have trouble finding it and I did not have any trouble finding it. So I chilled in Central Park for a while.

Lots of dogs here. One came and dropped a slobber-covered ball on my skirt.

My brunch with Andrea was super lovely. I had a garden omelet and some toast. And of course COFFEE. She had a kale salad thing. We talked a bunch about the book and the awards and some publishing stuff, and I told her about other stuff I'm doing. And of course the usual incidentals. After brunch she had to run to a meeting and I went home instead of staying out because I should probably give my ankle some time to not be walked on.

We're about the same height. (She's leaning over.) Yay little folks!

And now I am home at John's blogging. He has a pretty cute place by the way. This is of when I first arrived:

The fan was blowing. Not intended to be a model shot.

I guess there will be more nonsense later. The big event on Monday will be the Lambdas . . . especially if I end up being picked as the winner. . . .