My Soapbox & Recent Activities

I’ve been a bad girl. Too much work, not enough posting on my blog. For those who are following these posts, I’ve been involved in a lot of stuff lately. Two weekends ago, I attended the Baltimore Book Festival. Met a lot of new people, gave away tons of bookmarks and nearly 100 CDs with PDF samples of Latchkeys the Series, did a couple of panels and a reading of my Latchkeys tale “Slipping Through the Cracks.” I received an amazing response to my reading. People really enjoyed it, which made me happy.

Last Saturday, I was involved with JaxDug’s Jacksonville Code Camp, a free event for developers much like SQL Saturdays. I didn’t get to stay the whole day because I was on call for the workplace (and had a ton of things to do). But my event, SQL Server Database Basics, was almost a packed house. It surprised me how many people showed up. And how much fun they seemed to be having. I got a few laughs in my presentation, and a lot of good questions. I did run over, for which I owe the followup presentor an apology. My slideshow and T-SQL demos from this event will be posted soon.

You want to know the most interesting thing about my presentation? A few minutes before it started, I told everyone that this was a prime opportunity to network, get to know the people they might be working with in the future, and that they should introduce themselves to each other and get to know people they’ve never met before. Boy, did that set off a firestorm of conversation. It was great! Andy Warren is right. All people need is permission to network. So here it is, everyone. You have permission to chat with people you don’t know and network with them at these events. Don’t wait. Just start chatting.

And last night, I saw an interesting show on PBS that I believe is titled “Call Me a Midwife.” If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out. The period sets and costumes are quite magnificent. I’m not sure if I’m a fan or not yet, but I’m definitely willing to see more.

Writing wise, I’ve been editing some Shadowrun work recently and putting together the November issue of Penumbra. I need to figure out how to enter Feast of the Torn in the Bram Stoker Awards. I really would love for that one to win something. I’m also trying to learn everything I can about the magazine market (readers, advertisers, etc.). The information found by Google addresses everything I already know in detail, then leaves everything I really need to know about selling magazines in vague, unhelpful terms. I’m beginning to think no one knows how to do this and everyone just W.A.G.s their marketing information.

Regarding my soapbox. You may have noticed that I like to pontificate. I’m a performer (theatre major) and story teller at heart. So when I get a bit between my teeth, I like to run with it. This blog is my soapbox where I tell everyone about my view of the world and certain subjects. In otherwords, my soapbox is my opinion that may occassionally have a few facts in it. The reason I bring this up is because one of my posts this week is going to drift off my usual SQL Server / Writing topics. And, well, because yesterday’s Dilbert cartoon strikes a note with me. Wally, apparently has “opinions” too.

Check this out: http://www.dilbert.com/fast/2012-10-07/. I got a good chuckle out of this. It definitely fits this blog.

FYI: Musa’s anniversary bloghop is over. Contest winners will be announced at various blogs today and tomorrow. Good luck to those of you who entered!