Hiddennode

Oh I have a busy weekend coming up. There’s going to be family, friends, and social gatherings to attend to that all fall between Saturday and Sunday. Creative projects are coming to a head. Plus I get to spend more time connecting to my community. Busy but it’s going to be fun.

First, we’re gathering for early Christmas setup and not doing gifts this year in our normal fashion. Instead, we’re having a baking party. From the email my wife sent to the attendees, I’ve been listed as an official tester, a role I intend to shine in. It will be good fun seeing my sister-in-law and some of her children and their children and significant others. Besides… Raven is going out of her way to make my favorite peanut butter cookies.

Second, myself, Dakota, and Andrew will be recording episode one of Trans-Dimensional Cafe. We’ve already recorded two other “non-public” episodes to get into the swing. Some hiccups with recording the last two episodes, but we’re staying on track with getting episode one created. I’ll be posting whenever a new one comes up, until folks get tired of it.

What is Trans-Dimensional Cafe? Well, to sum it up in a sentence: It’s a casual conversation about gaming, writing, TV, movies, and other entertaining and constructive projects. Why the name? I don’t know, but it sounds cool. Are we going to make some sort of theme around it? Maybe, but not so much at first. Being entertaining on our own merit is more important in the long run.

The final spark of the weekend is on Sunday, when I have my book club meeting. It’s our second meeting, so I’m excited to see how it goes. I’m still working on reading Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, but for a genre I don’t normally read I’m really enjoying the book. I’ll give a review after this Sunday I think. Again, I’m looking forward to meeting my neighbors more at these meetings. The last batch of three really were fun to chat with. Between the four of us, we’ve had a pretty diverse set of backgrounds and experiences. I have a feeling I’m going to gain a lot from them in the coming months.

My weekend is pretty full from these events. That said I still have a few smaller things I need to take care of. I’ve got some Second Life work to manage, I need to find a new theme for this blog, I need to craft an entry for the jsamueldiehl.com site, and a few more minor details I’ll take care of in the second half of the week.

So, this post’s question: Continuing the holiday theme, what are your plans for getting ready for the end of the month? Are you buying or have you bought already? Did you plan out a nice trip for family or friends? Are you treating celebrating Christmas the American holiday or are you celebrating Christmas the spiritual holiday? Always happy to hear from you.

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Okay, I knew I wasn’t the only writer in the area, but it is finally nice to actually sit down with a few of them. Last Saturday, the 2^nd of May, I had the pleasure of attending Wesley Chapel’s 2^nd Florida Writers Association meeting. They meet monthly on the first Saturday of the month and have various speakers come to guide and instruct the writers that show up.

Oh and the writer’s that showed up!

None of us wrote quite the same thing. Some wrote fiction, some erotica, some about collecting hat boxes. One woman was there to find a way to publish her late son’s books. Another in her 80′s had just celebrated the publication of her first novel. It was amazing the variety of people that had arrived. The speaker was pretty good too. Julie Ann Howel,  publisher for a self-publication company, Peppertree Press. She had some great insight and offered a valuable service to many of the people there. It’s not the route I want to take for my publication, but hey, each of us has our own path to forge and her company offers a very good path to those who would need it. For all that she said, it sounds like if you want someone who is a very reliable and talented guide for self-publication, Peppertree can handle it for you. Don’t worry if you’re not in Florida, they have customers from across the world.

The best part, however, was the luncheon afterwards. It was only 5 of us from the meeting (including the guest speaker), and one guest spouse, and the conversation we had over lunch was just great. We talked about new media, authors, writing styles, novel specifics and sizes. I kept talking about the greatness of JC Hutchins (and I’ve recommended that we should attempt to bring him in as a speaker. So JC, if some folks in Tampa ask you to come speak, that’s cause of me) when speaking of pimping out your novel and really taking it far with advertising in new and old media.

I’m so looking forward to next month’s meeting.

Now excuse me while I hop over to the Florida Writer’s Association website and pay a year’s dues to become a full fledged member.

jdiehl