off to whidbey island

Tomorrow morning I'm flying to Washington State to attend the Whidbey Island Writers Conference.

Writers conferences are both awesome and exhausting. I'm "invited," but it's definitely work. My fellow editors and I (along with a bunch of agents, too) will sit on panels and listen to lots and lots of pitches. And I'm doing two "fireside chats." It's very FDR.

The coolest thing, as it turns out, is that I'm staying at Hedgebrook, a retreat center for women writers. Kindred spirits!

Our own Michelle Goodman, author of The Anti 9 to 5 Guide, wrote this piece about her 16-day stay at Hedgebrook last year. I was in Seattle two summers ago when Gloria Steinem was a resident there---and word was out. I heard about it at Elliott Bay and sipping coffee on Capitol Hill and Queen Anne. I felt super excited, and I was miles and a ferry ride away from even being within shouting distance.

So today, when I heard that the guy who heads up Hedgebrook needed to speak to me urgently, before my arrival tomorrow, how could I not jump to the obvious conclusion? Yes! Someone famous is going to be there and there's important protocol to attend to! I was fantasizing about who it might be: hooks, Faludi, Ehrenreich. Alas, no. He just wanted to extend a personal invitation to attend group dinners. But hey, I'm looking forward to meeting the women at Hedgebrook. And to the writers conference at that. For all the hard work and occasional crazies, conferences also remind me what's wonderful about book publishing: the writers and their dazzling passion for their work.

---Brooke