Vacation Wrap Up by Kristin Wallace

If you read my last post on July 8 (Summer of Vacations) you might remember that this was the summer of travel. (Since I’m no longer tied down to the day job, I can roam at will…YAY!) I promised to give a wrap-up of the July vacations this month.

First Stop…New York City

Selfie from Top of the Rock

New York was the location of Romance Writers of America's (RWA) National Conference. Our hotel was located right off Times Square, which is about as close as any human might ever get to living in an ant colony with 1 million other noisy, pushy, ants who speak a thousand different languages. It is loud and crazy and bright, with flashing billboards as tall as a building. Oh, the humanity…it is there. There are a thousand hustlers trying to get you to hop on a tour bus. There are fake Disney characters wandering around, and you can take a picture with them (for a price). They are creepy & weird because since they are fake, their faces are not quite right. And when the people inside the costumes get hot, they just push the cartoon head off and walk around. That is SO WRONG. You’re not supposed to show your face, fake Disney characters!

Creepy Characters

You already look like the serial killer version of Olaf...don’t make it worse by wandering around sans head!

Anyway, INSIDE the hotel was the writer’s conference where 2,000 (mostly women) gathered for workshops, editor/agent appointments, speakers (which included Julia Quinn, Barbara Freethy & Nalini Singh), and lots of industry news. (On a side note: I think my favorite thing about conference is the reaction of MEN whenever they get on one of the elevators with 15 women. The look on their faces is priceless. They are TERRIFIED!)  I also got to meet some of my fellow Sweet Romance Reads authors in person, which was great.

Second Stop…Atlanta

Covington Falls Stand-in

I flew home from New York and took off the next morning for Atlanta where I visited with my aunt/uncle & cousins. Uncle David is my mom’s only brother, and I think he was born in the wrong century, because he would have made a great pioneer man. My Aunt Donna is a master quilter. If she wanted, she could probably make a killing selling her works of art. This trip included a visit to a Botanical Garden, and while searching for a place to eat, I found a stand-in for the location of my inspirational romance series, Covington Falls Chronicles! That was so exciting. The fictional town is in Georgia so it makes sense I guess. We also went downtown and visited Margaret Mitchell House where she wrote Gone With The Wind. It’s actually an apartment in the basement of a large house. Aside from writing what might be the most famous novel of all time, Margaret was also a reporter so she was truly a woman ahead of her time. I learned that she wrote GWTW

Where she wrote GWTW

while recuperating from a ankle injury. She would put each chapter in a separate envelope, and when she was through, the pile was as tall as she was!! When the book was published it was sold for the exorbitant amount of $3 (which was a lot of money back then, especially as they were in the Depression era.) It was a fascinating tour.

So, now I'm back home and trying to settle into a writing routine again. Oh…and I’m sleeping…a lot!

What adventures have you had this summer?

Kristin Wallace is the USA Today Best Selling Author of inspirational and contemporary romance, and women’s fiction filled with “Love, Laughter and a Leap of Faith”. She just released her fifth, full-length novel, the first in a new series, Shellwater Key Tales. Visit her at Kristin Wallace Author 

The Summer of Vacations by Kristin Wallace

Sunset cruise

More accurately, this is the summer of packing & repacking for me. First, there was a family vacation in the Florida Keys that included my parents, brother & sister-in-law, and my niece. The Keys is all about the water. The beaches are okay, but the real draw is water sports: snorkeling, diving, fishing, jet skis, paddle boards, etc. We managed to do most of those things. I even got up close and personal with some dolphins. We got in the water and were able to touch them and see how they’re trained.

Made a few new friends

This week I head to Orlando for a few days of R&R as well as a Type I Diabetes Conference. In two weeks it’s northward bound for the Romance Writers of America (RWA) national conference. This year, the conference is in New York, which I love. Such an exciting city and it’s a chance to catch up with people I only see once a year. Plus, there is always the chance I could wind up in an elevator with Nora Roberts or Susan Elizabeth Phillips. Oh yes….and fabulous writing workshops, networking and so much more.

I fly home from the conference and take off the next day to Atlanta with my mom to visit my aunt, uncle & cousins. Literally, the next day! For someone who is a homebody, that’s a lot of traveling. Most of it I probably wouldn’t be able to do except that I am now SELF-EMPLOYED!!! That’s right, it’s been about a month and a half since I left my ad agency job and I am SO HAPPY!!! Since I no longer have the day job I can take off whenever I want…and if I have to get in some work I can do that too with this nifty device called a laptop.

I’ll be sure to post from pics from the upcoming trips in my next post on August 8. I think I might be done with the traveling by then!

Kristin Wallace is the USA Today Best Selling Author of inspirational and contemporary romance, and women’s fiction filled with “Love, Laughter and a Leap of Faith”. She just released her fifth full-length novel, the first in a Women’s Fiction/Romance series set in Florida. Visit her at Kristin Wallace Author