Sunday dawned even earlier than Saturday. Spirits at the
continental breakfast were subdued, as if by then all attendees felt "rode
hard and put away wet," as the Southern saying goes. Nicki Salcedo 'fessed
up that she'd gone to bed around 2:30 or 3:00 a.m. I did see her partying on
that dance floor, celebrating her service award. Can't say I blame her.

While most people hustled off to the cold reads for
unpublished authors, I headed for the Koffee Klatch for booksellers,
librarians, and published authors organized by Berta Platas.
Unfortunately, not many booksellers showed up, and there were no librarians.
(The gas shortage might have had something to do with it.) Several nice folks
from Borders bookstores came to the event. I met PJ Audenmore, who works at
Booksmith, an independent bookstore in Seneca, South Carolina. I also
spoke with Andrea Williamson and will be posting a guest essay about
women's roles in the Revolutionary War on their blog 20 November.

 Other than that, I chatted more
with the authors and tried to unload more of my chocolate on them, but I think
everyone was maxed out on chocolate by then, ready to head off home. Here's a
picture of Haywood Smith and me at the Koffee Klatch. I'd read a little of Some
Like It Wicked the night before and discovered that Teresa Medeiros had
some evil redcoats in her book. I told her that I had to switch gears to read
it, coming from a background where I reenact on the Crown forces side. (After I
returned from the conference, I read more into her book and found out that
she'd woefully underused her redcoats, so I emailed her the suggestion that the
next time she deployed America's primordial demons, she make them sexy as well
as evil. I haven't heard back from her. I'm sure she thinks I'm crazy.)

Had an uneventful trip home to Raleigh. But I really was
glad to be home. Sunday, when I'd left Atlanta at 11:30 a.m., the highway was
already congested with traffic. Be it ever so humble, folks…

Grasshopper thanks the entire M&M committee for the
opportunity to be part of a well-executed event.