NEC and Easter

Have you ever gazed at an Easter card with a cute little bunny on it? And do you ever wonder what bunnies, and eggs for that matter, have to do with Jesus rising from the dead after the crucifixion? It turns out that in the ancient world Eostre/Ostara, was a fertility goddess whose reign over the earth began in spring. Ostara came in the form of a beautiful maiden with a basket of coloured eggs and her magical companion, a rabbit. Eventually the celebration for the spring goddess was co-opted by the Christian one - hence Easter with its component parts of eggs, bunnies, and all things spring like. Enjoy! This is just one of the many ways that pagan rituals have been incorporated into Christianity.

So, I'm back from NEC. I totally recommend if you have never been to a writer's conference, that you attend one of the many regional conferences instead of heading straight to National. Not only will you make friends, that you can hang with at National, but it's entirely less stressful. I wish that I had had my first pitch at a regional conference instead of plunging in at National. It was great seeing my NEC friends and hanging out with my number one dream agent.

Of course, I did attend some workshops, in particular a great talk with Lisa Gardner. It was really interesting hearing this sweet young woman talking about all the dark stuff that she writes about. I only bought one book, Donna Kauffman's Great Scot since I'm in charge of our chapter basket for our monthly raffle, and I'm doing a Scottish theme this month. The costume party was so much fun, it was great to see how many people got into the spirt of dressing up. My costume was so successful, I now know what I'm going as for Halloween this year!

Also the food was so much better at this conference than at National. Plus we had three meals plus the chocolate party. FYI to National, you're not really helping us save money on the conference fee by cutting out the lunches, since we have to go find food elsewhere. When you've schlepped half way across the country, having to run out to find a meal sucks.

The only quibble I had was with the hotel shuttle service. Apparently it's first come, first served, which makes no sense. I had a very tight schedule, which I indicated to the desk clerk. I was taking the Acela back to New York which left at 11:15, which meant that I had to take the 10:05 commuter train back to Boston. So she told me to come back at 9:30 to arrange for the shuttle van which I did only to be told that the shuttle was gone and wouldn't be back in time for me to get to the train.

Well, I let them know that wasn't acceptable, so the other desk clerk drove me to the station. First come, first served is absolutely ridiculous. It takes no time at all to keep a list of people who need to take the shuttle at a certain time.

Other than, it was a great weekend. I'm just sad that I'm so tired after working last night on Amazing Race.

Thanks for reading,

EKM