That one time I flew an airplane ✈
Yepppppp you read that right!!! I’m - honestly — still vibrating with happiness over this experience. Our first day in Florida, I woke up early and hit the beach with my amazing friend Avery Maxwell and our morning consisted of floating in the warm, still ocean for, like, three hours and brainstorming love stories. So I was already having the best day ever, basically.
Until my #tacotwin Lucy Score (and the very handsome Mr. Lucy) picked us up for a day at the airport, where our friend Nathan Van Coops (local author of time travel adventures and local awesome pilot!!) offered to take us up in his Cessna!
Here you can see Avery and I looking like two newlyweds about to embark on their honeymoon adventures 😂😂 Not only did we get to see how gorgeous St. Pete’s Beach is from the air (all that turquoise water!!) but Nathan gave me a mini-lesson on how to fly it — and I just about screamed myself hoarse with sheer delight. I have never, ever experienced anything like that before — I’m smiling just thinking about it even a week later!
You can watch the video that Nathan took in my FB group by clicking here. And Avery made an amazing video on TikTok you can see here!
I would say I’m a natural 😉
LITERALLY LOOK AT THESE VIEWS! ❤❤❤❤
Forever the reminder that a little bit of awe and astonishment does the heart good.
^^^ an accurate depiction of my friendship with the incomparable Lucy Score — going on five years now! ❤❤❤
The NINC (Novelists, Inc.) conference was one big, happy vibe of authors from so many different genres, there to increase their knowledge of craft, storytelling and marketing. I’ll let you in on a little secret about writers — we freaking love hanging out with each other and dishing on all things storytelling. This is a strange and brilliant and beautiful and complicated job that we do, and knowing there are folks out there who get it, who have your back and understand what you’re venting about or squealing about (and why) means more than I can say.
The theme for so many writers this year is healing from a collective creative burnout, brought on by these pandemic years and the loss, grief and disruption caused by it. One year ago (almost to the week) I was at one of my lowest points, creatively, attempting to rediscover the part of my brain that lives for the reckless, thrilling joy of a damn good story.
It has not been an easy journey for most of us, but we’re getting there. Rest, laughter, reading, messing around, being bored, learning something new, doing something fun, doing something brave, drinking beers on the beach with your writer friends just because — all of it heals. All of it paves the way forward for more stories, more love, more joy.
That’s what NINC taught me. ❤
^^^ I’m sorry but LOOK AT THESE BEAUTIES!!!
And yep — that’s the lovely and talented Melanie Harlow in the middle there, who is not only brilliant, kind, hilarious and so fun to be around — but she also gave two packed presentations at NINC that were magnificent.
Besides all the learning-workshopping-brainstorming that we did, there was a fair amount of drinks-on-the-beach, tasty martinis, tacos, some tipsy Spice Girls singing, a piggy back ride from Avery when my shoes broke, an amazing attempt on my part to (tipsily) teach the Electric Slide, and so much laughter my cheeks hurt.
Not pictured here, but I was also utterly thrilled and delighted to meet authors Tia Louise, Tess Summers, Renee Rose, Vanessa Vale, K.K. Allen, Tina Gallagher, Cecilia Mecca and — of course — James Blatch and Mark Dawson from the Self-Publishing Formula!
