Sunday, May 18, 2008

When bloggers meet ...


We wear ourselves out.

I've mentioned briefly that I have found connections with some amazing women thanks to blogging. I've even mentioned Shannon, in particular, by name since she and I seemed to have the most in common from the early days, when we first "met."

The clear connection being that we are both full-time moms of 2-year-old twins as well as women who are constantly trying to find time to write and publish a novel.

Shannon has since become one of my best friends.

Since we started emailing several months ago, we’ve learned that we have a lot more in common. Our husbands have the same first name as do two of our children even though they are the opposite sex. And, of course, we also have names that sound similar ourselves. In fact, I was often confused as Shannon in high school.

Now, we are both trying to sell our homes in order to find more peace in our lives. We both know how to shuttle toys into dark holes like no body's business.

This past weekend, Shannon and I met. She and her family traveled to Pennsylvania so that she and I could attend our first writer's conference together.

Her lovely husband and adorable twin boys spent the weekend in town and, well, we exhausted ourselves. We being the adults -- not the four toddlers. OK, they were a wee bit tired, too.

We watched the first night as our kids learned the Art of Screaming together as they ran around the second floor of our home and hid in my closet. There is nothing more entertaining, I’m sure, than watching four 2-year-olds giggle and smile with each other.



On Saturday, out of hundreds of other writers we were both surprisingly scheduled to meet with a literary agent at the same time, in the same room – though, with different agents. Our nervous stomachs fluttered as walked the very long walk to that room. We both left with good news -- our ideas are good enough for them to want to see more.

Our husbands spent the whole day caring for our children while we soaked up the writing atmosphere in our first conference. We ate with two hands and tried to remember how to talk to other adults, in real person.

That night, the fun continued at our house with the kids going crazy together.

And, Sunday we made the lovely memory of visiting the Baltimore Aquarium together and giving our kids the gifts of seeing and experiencing sharks with big teeth, sting rays with long tails, flying puffins and fish of all sizes and colors.



In the end, when this fabulous family parted ways from ours, it didn’t feel like we had only just met but that we had been friends forever.





Thanks, Shannon, for a GREAT weekend!

Thank you for visiting today.

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11 comments:

Mary P Jones (MPJ) said...

Oh, yay Shawn! What fun! The things you have in common remind me of my relationship with my roommate from college. I'm so glad you had a fabulous time meet your blogging soulmate in real life.

(And guess what? I get to meet mine in two weeks -- although I haven't posted about that yet. Tee hee!)

Hope we can meet one day too.

Chrissy said...

Sounds like you all had a blast together. Good luck with your writing endeavors!

Sleepandhersisters said...

sounds very exciting meeting with agents and them wanting more... yay

And ever so nice meeting shannon for the first time. I meet a girl at ante natal classes and we had so much in common it was really spooky, really weird things like, she comes from England and her family support charlton athletic football team. My partner is also English and he is into football in a big way and supports the tottenham hotspurs, well years before I meet her I decided I needed to pick a team to support for life (because that is what you do when you chose a team, it is for life, a very serious decision) and out of all the teams about 40 or 50 I picked Charlton! anyway enough ramblings it was a real joy to read about your meeting and time together.

Katherine

Shannon said...

Oh, I'm going to blog about this wonderful weekend hopefully tomorrow, but I just want to mention that my boys are completely in love. :-) Well, at least they are still asking if we are going to the "girl's house".
And they have brought back that new high pitched girl-scream to scare the crap out of our dog...lol
Sooooo much fun!

bella said...

I'm so happy for you, for both of you.
It looks and sounds like a wonderful time.
And great news about the writing conference and meeting with agents. Yippe!
Those faces all together, so much joy. I can't stop smiling.

Carey said...

Sounds like a blast, I can't wait to see your future writing endeavors!

Shelli said...

Yippee!!!! I wondered if ya'll were going to meet up when I read about the writer's conference on Shannon's blog. I'm thrilled your ideas were accepted by the agents!!! Huge hurtle to pass! But best of all, you met your best friend. How wonderful.

denise said...

Wow, a lot of coincidences, and a lot of fun! :)

Leah said...

I loved this post and am so excited about your connection! It's always so powerful when women writers and mothers get together. If you or Shannon have a chance I'd love to hear about your experience at the conference -- how was it meeting with agents, etc. I did a kind of "speed dating" event talking to agents and it was very enlightening, as well as terrifying :)

BizyLizy said...

What a wonderful experience. I am always awe struck with how we make connections in life.

Thank you for stopping by my blog. I googled the book you mentioned, "The History of Love" and literally got chills. Apparently there is a character named Alma in the book.

I will be making a trip to the bookstore this weekend.

Thank you for your lovely comment. I look forward to coming back & reading more of your writing.

-BizyLizy

The Myers Family said...

HI! My name is Brenda and i am now writer on howdoyoudoit.wordpress.com. I just noticed the join us link and wanted to see some other twin mommy blogs and clicked on yours! I just wanted to say, that is so cool that you were able to meet a blogging friend in person. I have met many people through blogging and would love to meet them in person...unfortunately most of the ladies i've met and comment on my blog...live up north! We're down south! Anyway, your children are beautiful and i'm going to add you to my favorites so i can check out your kidos and life as i have time!

Have a great day!
Brenda