I've not intentionally not blogged.
It's on my list to do, but, alas, I must do my priorities first. Plus when I have had time, I've just been blank at what to ramble about. Me with nothing to talk about? How weird.
Anyhoo, last Friday I drove up to Washington DC to visit a writer-gal I've met through one of my online writing groups (ACFW-His Writers). Well, I'm confident enough in my insecurities to say that I'm petrified of meeting people who I sorta know but don't really know. Okay, not petrified. If that were the case, then I'd have never made it out of bed that morning.
First, let me say Laurie Alice Eakes has one of the sweetest voices I've ever heard on the phone. I tend to sound all sqeeky toad-ish.
Second, let me say Laurie Alice Eakes is an amazing lady. She let me choose the restaurant where we ate lunch (Chevy's in the mall near where she lives). Later as we sipped our Starbucks chai tea latte, we chatted books, writers, editors, agents, writing life, brainstorming novels, etc. I'd say 80% of our conversation that day was writing stuff. Oh, the writer's dream chat. Granted, she blasted several story ideas I had. But I have to say I much more admire someone who has the guts to tell me the truth instead of telling me what I want to hear.
Third, let me say I've never spent much time hanging around someone who is blind. Not that I have, I can say that I'm appalled at how offensive people are to blind folks. Excluding our time in the restaurant, we lounged near Starbucks and Macy's for about five hours before we roamed the mall until we finally settled down in the lower food court to enjoy our Chick-fil-A lemonades.
During all that time, I'd guess about 30 people commented on Laurie Alice's seeing eye dog, Nick. Yes, he's a beautiful Golden Retriever. In fact, I'd say he could be a runway model for Golden Retreivers because he's that perfect looking. Yet with all those folks commenting on how beautiful he is, I don't remember any of them saying so to Laurie Alice. No, they looked at me and say, "He's a beautiful dog."
Hello, yes I have glasses on, but I'm not blind. Don't tell me Nick is beautiful as if I'm the lucky owner of the seeing eye dog. Plus it's not as if he wasn't wearing a holder that clearly said "seeing eye dog."
Not only that, but as we walked through the mall, Laurie Alice held on to my arm. Would you believe the number of people who did NOT move out of our way as we were approaching? And teenagers weren't the worst. They usually moved, although they also were the more open about staring. Weird.
Great visit. But also a troubling visit.
My prayer is that I'll be more considerate of folks around me, those with and without disabilities.
Recently Laurie Alice interviewed Barabara Scott of Abingdon Press for the ACFW Afictionado magazine. As Laurie Alice herself says...
"This [article] shows a lot about [Barbara's] character and a bit of what she’s looking for as an editor, as I interviewed people she’s worked with, and not just her."
http://www.acfw.com/ezine/cgi-bin/feb09.pl?record=10
