Friday, July 20, 2007

59 days to my next CRUISE

Gee time flies!! This year on our birthday cruise we'll be off to the Virgin Islands, Antigua, Puerto Rico, and the Bahamas. I remember the Bahamas like it was yesterday but its actually been nine years! My husband calls it a "return to the scene of the crime" since we were married there. On the beach. In our swimsuits. Not sure exactly what day - those fruity drinks were free you know.

I'm now working full time at the writing, my stint in corporate America finished for good. It's weird to finally get to do something you've wanted to do for twenty years - and fabulous. Speaking of which, I am swamped with Projects but I am also deferring more to our other writers as they are able to handle more projects. I can't even tell you how great its been to have so much good help from the writers and editors. They take a huge load off of me.

Tomorrow Liz and I will be speaking at the PPW meeting on ghostwriting and answering questions about how The Amarillo Group (TAG) works. From a conceptual standpoint its very different than most other freelance or writing associations and sooooo many people are interested!

My friend, Jodi Thomas is back from her hop across the pond and did a little promoting of our ghostwriting book at a conference in England. There seems to be just as much interest over there as here. I also had lunch today with a Brit who is interested in being our UK connection and I think the arrangement shows promise since we have so many UK clients and their needs are so specific.

On the home front, our garden is nuts this year. We're actually giving away tomatoes and it's only mid July! Everything is producing abundantly and keeping up with it is quite a chore - but worth fresh veggies.

The collegiates will be home the second week in August so that will be fun. They so rarely get to come home anymore. We decided that since all four kids were getting older, we need to take one big family vacation before the are all gone for good. Jen's already a grown up, Ryan graduates college next spring, Kaci graduates high school and Kayla will be 17. The only vacation that makes sense to us at this point of course is a cruise. The kids can run amuck on the boat all day and we can still do our thing. We also decided that we'd invite both sides of the family and if they want to join us, they are welcome to. We're calling it the Virden-Burks family cruise (like a Chevy Chase movie with sharks instead of a dead granny). We're planning a tour of the Caribbean (without Jamaica if we can avoid it) but don't know if we'll go out of Ft. Lauderdale or Tampa at this point.

That's all the news for now, must get back to the writing that actually pays!!

2 comments:

Travis Erwin said...

Sorry I couldn't make the meeting.

I'm envious that I still have to trudge off to a "real" job and you don't.

Of course writing on deadline makes the endeavor "real."

Best of luck to you.

Desperate Writer said...

Sounds like fun, Dee. :) Hope y'all have a great time.