Wow, real life has gotten in the way for the past two days, but was able to snatch a few minutes to work on my writing.
When we bought the car I’m driving now, there was the option to buy one of those nifty navigational systems. Option being the operative word – we opted out. After the road trip, I’m not so sure it was the wisest decision. I did make one discovery on this road trip…I have actually found someone who has a worse sense of direction than I do – Gena Showalter.
I’ve been to Gena’s house before, but since I was coming from the south instead of the usual north (see, being married 11 years to my Eagle Scout husband has taught me that) I got a bit turned around. I call her up, and tell her I’m on Dogwood. She has no idea what street that is or where it is. I discover later that Dogwood is literally 2 streets over. Have I mentioned she has lived in this neighborhood her entire life? But after a few moments, I find her and we head out.
We’re stopping off first to give a talk to a writing group called the Word Warriors. A fun group of which only one is interested in writing romance. But we improvise and really had a great time with these writers – they even bought our books, which is always a plus. I love to convert new people to the romance genre.
However, halfway to Word Warriors, I realize I’ve forgotten my postcards. This is the one promotional tool I’ve bought – postcards with my book cover on the front, then a quick blurb and web address on the back. Thank goodness for the cell phone. DH offers to bring them up, even though the kids are at a party and he essentially has three hours free to himself. So after a few attempts at trying to give him directions using east and west rather than past the McDonald’s (which really is a LOT easier) – my postcards made their way to me before we left on our next leg of the trip.
So here’s the part where I talk about Tulsa traffic. It is unbelievable. Okay, okay, I know people like Booksquare who live in the LA area are probably thinking I haven’t seen traffic, and I’ll grant you you’re probably right, but I can only go by experience…I haven’t driven in LA or NYC so Tulsa, Oklahoma traffic is unbelievable (and people don’t signal).
Here’s a little Oklahoma factoid. Oklahoma City is the second largest city in the US in land area, so it can take me an hour to get from point A to point B, but traffic really has nothing to do with it.
As a driving technique, I am comfortable with U-turns. I do a lot of them because I usually discover the place I’m after as I’m passing it. This is what happens as we find the bookstore for the signing…and Gena and I head in.
