For now, I’m only going to focus on the positive that occurred in Louisville.  Later on, I’ll vent about the negative.

For starters, The Galt House is a pretty nice place.  Because I had the boys and my niece with me, I got a suite with two queen beds.  Collin and Finn had never seen a suite before, and as we entered the room, both of them lit up like torches with excitement.  All weekend, they referred to the room as our apartment.  Their reactions to the room was worth the trip up there, and they had a great time playing in the pool and hanging out with Bri.

I also got to see many old friends and catch up with them.  I don’t want to name anyone specifically for fear of leaving out a few, but if you and I spent some time hanging out and chatting last weekend, please know I enjoyed talking to you.  I met several authors, as well, a handful of them fairly big names in the business, and enjoyed the opportunity to learn from them on panels and listen to their perspectives on the craft.  A huge round of applause needs to go to Stephen Zimmer for organizing such a robust and diverse literary track.  The quality of the track was top-notch.

Other than spending time with the boys and watching Collin pull his own loose tooth, the highlight of the weekend for me was getting to see John Rhys-Davies again and give him the new version of my series.  I had met him back in 2005 when Brotherhood was in its infancy and I was a fledgling self-published author.  He was kind enough back then to allow me to snap a few publicity photos, so I wanted to give him the new version as a way of saying thanks.  Once again, he was kind and gracious, showing genuine interest in my successes as a writer and thanking me for the gift.  We only got to speak for a couple of minutes, but I was grateful for the chance to thank him for what he did back in 2005.

Like I said, I’ll vent later.  For now, I’ll relish the positive and take solace in the fact that my sons enjoyed the weekend.