A few members of the “Southern California book-blogging sorority” met up this past weekend in Irvine, where we were joined by special out-of-town guests – Jen from Devourer of Books, visiting from Chicago, and baby Daniel! Jules of A Book in Hand was there too, and it was all organized by My Friend Amy. We spent a couple of pleasant hours talking about books and blogging; Jen has more details about it in her Sunday Salon post this week.
Irvine was a long drive for me, and we’re considering someplace a bit more central – that is, comparatively inconvenient for everyone – for our next meet-up; we have our eyes on Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena as a possible location. Meanwhile, here are a couple of photos from this weekend (and yes, we did meet up at a bookstore, why do you ask?)
Now I’m off to visit another member of the sorority – one who wasn’t able to join us on Sunday – and I hope you’ll come along with me to read my guest post at her place!
When Wendy, better known as Literary Feline, of Musings of a Bookish Kitty asked for guest bloggers to fill in this month while she attends to some other things, I e-mailed her quickly to offer – and I’m very happy that she accepted!
Wendy is one of my oldest blogging friends – roughly two years now, I think – and one of the people who has most influenced what I do here, particularly with book reviews. She is a generous and frequent commenter, and she’s one of the people who showed me early on the importance of replying back to every comment here (I didn’t realize at first that I should be doing that, but it really adds so much to the community feeling that I’m glad I picked up on it!). As I mentioned, she’s from the same region as I am, and I was very pleased to meet her in person at the L.A. Times Festival of Books this past spring.
Wendy and I don’t always gravitate toward the same books – she’s more into on mystery and crime fiction than I am – but her thorough and thoughtful reviews have broadened my reading horizons. I always enjoy reading what she has to say, and I’m honored that she’s welcoming my guest post – about the constant struggle between reading, writing, and time – on Musings of a Bookish Kitty today. Please visit me over there!
Thanks for sharing the pictures of your "sorority" meeting. I love getting together with other bloggers.
Thanks for sharing, Florinda! I love reading posts like this! 🙂 It's always great to meet other bookbloggers!!
Sounds like a great time. 🙂
Beautiful. I love real life like this.
Sorry that I missed you guys! I went to an engagement party the night before and had way too much food/drink. So, my stomach was in a bad place on Sunday! I stayed under the covers!
Sheri
Kathy (Bermudaonion) – I do too! Hopefully we can do something again somewhere between BBAW and the holidays.
Melody – It was fun, and I'm looking forward to the next time :-).
Serena – It was, definitely!
Beth K – We talked about you in the course of the conversation – all very good things, of course! Amy was bugging me because I haven't read Nothing But Ghosts yet :-).
Sheri – We missed you, and wondered what had happened to you! Hope you're recovered now, and that you'll be at our next meet-up – wherever and whenever that is.
San Luis Obispo would be equally inconvenient for all of you…I think you should meet there next time! 😀
How fun! Thanks for posting the pictures (nice to see all of you, but I can never get enough of the baby pics!)
How long did you get to spend together?
Jill (Softdrink) – True, but I don't think it's exactly the kind of "inconvenient" we have in mind. 🙂 I still want to take a drive up that way myself, but I'll warn you first!
Dawn – He's a very nice baby :-).
Time flew, actually – at least two hours went by before we even noticed! By the time everyone trickled away, I'd been there nearly four hours all together (which made the 3-hour-plus round trip drive worth it!).