Things Fall Apart But I Party On

As you may know or have guessed, I am a wee bit busy these days. In fact, I don't think I've ever been busier in my entire life. So it's to be expected that something would eventually slip.

What slipped was our rain gutter. Yes, half of the front gutter broke and fell off the house. I heard a sound like ice sliding off the roof and then a creak and then a crash. I looked out the window and saw the gutter stretching diagonally from the roof, across the front door, all the way down to the ground. We're talking a good twenty feet of gutter. We had to duck to get out the front door.

My husband has since bent the gutter back 180 degrees so at least you no longer have to duck to enter or exit. It looks very classy. Only thing that would make it classier is if there were Christmas lights attached to the gutter.

My solution to the problem was to jump on the train to my favorite bar in Manhattan to hang out with fellow YA/MG authors.

Last night I met several authors that I hadn't met before, including Daniel Ehrenhaft and Melissa Kantor. I also got to chat with Maureen Johnson, Justine Larbalestier, E. Lockhart, Leslie Margolis, Lauren McLaughlin, Nico Medina, Adrienne Vrettos, Robin Wasserman, and Scott Westerfeld. Also briefly said hello to Coe Booth, Thu-Huong Ha, Jenny Han, Mary Hogan, David Levithan, Bennett Madison, Natalie Standiford, and others.

Afterwards, I had dinner with Scott, Justine, Maureen, and Lauren at one of those chic Manhattan restaurants that is so ultra-cool that it doesn't even have a sign outside. We ate macaroni and cheese (don't laugh) and discussed everything from high fashion to Donald Duck impersonations (OK, you can laugh). It was really, really fun. So fun that I very nearly missed the last train home.

The house was still standing when I returned. Mostly.

Tomorrow I'll return to your regularly scheduled Lunacon trip report...