GRL Part Deux: Stagefright, Skulls, Singing and Ships Passing in the Night

When we last met, I was cleaning up before bed after the first official night of GRL, reluctantly washing Damon's sweat away. The next time I saw him, he was acting as cruise director on the bus to Albuquerque for away-from-the-Hard-Rock events.

 

Before that, I had my Author Q&A panel with Carol Lynne, TA Chase and Kate McMurray, moderated by Kris Jacen. When the group below took front and center, I think I broke a sweat. Or maybe it was when they set us up each with our own microphones. Yikes! Public speaking=not my forte. 

It went surprisingly well, though, and something potentially good came of it. When we were asked what book we'd wanted to write, but didn't feel we could, my answer was the sequel to Making His List, where Bailey's custody is settled for good. I have just never felt as though I could do that story justice, either the emotional handling of Bailey's mother's treatment of her, or the knowledge base needed for child custody cases. That got me a great brainstorming session and offer of help from Kris. Thanks and kisses!

After the TEB spotlight, we rushed to get ready for our trip to the outside world. First stop was the Wool Warehouse for Torquere's luncheon (and more green chiles). I shared a table with, among others, the awesomeness that is Kris/Jet/Jade. Jared was there with his man-purse bag and helped me not lose my head and other important belongings.

 Then we headed to Old Town for some shopping and sightseeing. Geoff Knight and his adorable mum found some fabulous skulls as gifts and keepsakes, and I'm hoping those got home safely! Claire and Nicki from TEB were extreme shopping and had a knack for finding some lovely buys, but I have no idea how they got everything back to the UK.

 

For some reason, I have no pics from the Old Town trip until the MLR Day of the Dead event. Upon entry, there was a lovely memorial to Bill Neale and Patric Michael (a good, real-life friend of mine, as we lived very close to one another). We enjoyed sangria in the wonderful weather out on the patio. Before the bus back to the hotel, I accepted their kind offer of sugar skulls "to go" for my girls, who LOVED them.

 

On my way to karaoke, I finally ran into my friend Jason! We put the following quick pic of us up on FB...and who should notice it but my new friend Jared? More on that later.

Then it was karaoke time! I just HAD to snap the following pic during All That Jazz, a crowd favorite in our corner of the room!

I didn't get up and sing, though I did plenty on the sidelines (I'd already had plenty of mic time at the Q&A, thank you very much, and honestly, by this point my voice was going, lol). And here are Nanette de Precoure and JR Boyd, who I finally got to know that night!

I've reposted the video I took of Ethan singing here for you non-FBers (adjust your volume!). It was a total hit. Amazing voice! Who knew?

After karaoke, I changed and headed down to Fusion for some dancing and catching-up time with Jason. Jared was heading out about 5 minutes before Jase got there to meet me (found out later Jared had gone to Center Bar, but we just couldn't find him that night).

Jason, as usual, went through the photos on my phone, saw Jared's, and was thrilled that I knew him (he'd already spotted him, too). After some FB page stalking, lol, we went looking for him in the casino, but no dice... (haha, couldn't resist)


Will Jared ever meet Jason? Will I ever get my voice back? And how many green chiles can one person eat and survive? Stay tuned. The answers to all these questions and more on my next blog post....