Horrible blizzard but wonderful evening

Yesterday, I drove up to Edmonton for a Children's Literature Round-table. I got caught in this horrible storm and on the stretch of road from Red Deer to Edmonton there were so many cars slipping and sliding and heading right off the road into snow banks. The wind whipped across the lanes, making visibility almost impossible. As I gripped my steering wheel, I kept asking myself why I was doing what I was doing. Would it be another one those events where I sold only a few books. I finally arrived at my destination and was greeted by such friendly people. Marg Stephenson organized the event and there was a great dinner ready. I was still shaking a bit but after I ate I relaxed and started to socialize. My friend Debby Waldman, who I competed against in the show Total Write-Off, was there. She is so crazy and so fun--she can talk a mile-a-minute and I love her. When dinner was over all of us authors-eight in total--got to stand up and tell about our latest books. I talked about Northern Star and Too Many Men but I mentioned every book, of course. All the authors (Lanny Boutin, Marty Chan, Jacqueline Guest, Gail Sidoine Sobat, Linda Smith, Karen Spafford-Fitz and Debby Waldman) were entertaining and inspiring and I just loved hearing the stories behind their books. The entire night was fun, fascinating and just plain old fabulous! Because it was way, way too crappy to drive home, I thought I would get a hotel for the night but as soon as I mentioned this I had offers

from Edmontonians to put me up for the night. I stayed at Debby Waldman's because she asked first and we had a great evening, sitting around, talking about writing. She gave me a toothbrush, washcloth, towel, dental floss (I was impressed with the dental floss) and she set me up in her basement bedroom with clean flannel sheets on a comfortable futon. I mean, what else could a person want who was stranded in a city because of a snowstorm. I woke up this morning to sunshine and cold but was energized from talking writing. The roads home weren't too bad but there were at least two dozen stranded cars from the blizzard. I'm so glad I wasn't one of the two dozen vehicles off the road otherwise I would have a great event and a fun sleep-over!