Dinner at Elizabeth's

On Saturday night, we loaded the kids into the car and drove north westerly from SEATAC to the lovely abode of talented historical author, Elizabeth Boyle. She's got such an awe-inspiring view of the Puget Sound. Sorry, but I haven't gotten around to downloading the pics yet! I got a tour of her house, saw the various rooms where she's had her office and got to see an original Pino, the actual full-size artwork for one of her covers!

We sat out on her deck drinking wine and chatting while the kids (her two and my three) played and our hubbies got to know each other. The two ended up comparing notes about what it was like to be married to a romance author. The consensus-they hate deadline time!

Elizabeth's hubby grilled hamburgers and hot dogs. The kids piled their plates with veggies, fruit and chips, too. I couldn't convince mine to try the potato salad, but that just left more for me!

It was a great time! We hated to leave, but bedtime was approaching and after such a busy day my three kidlets were so tired. Little Rose was about to fall asleep. She actually slept on the drive back to the hotel!

Nathalie posted this in the comment section last week:

I always wonder... it must great to have writers as friends, do you become friends when you are writers or do you usually know them from before.

It is great to have writers as friends because they understand exactly what I'm going through. Elizabeth and I met at the RWA convention in Denver so we were both already published writers then. I was pregnant with Rose at the time, not feeling that great and wishing I could be anywhere else but there. Elizabeth came up to me and said she knew exactly what I was going through since she'd been pregnant at a previous conference. She was so nice. I liked her right away.

After Rose was born, I went to the Emerald City Conference with baby in tow and saw Elizabeth again. We would bump into each other at events like the RCRW Romance Writers luncheon and RWA conference. Over the years, we realized how much we have in common, things that go beyond the writing. I always look forward to seeing her.

A couple pieces of Elizabeth Boyle info you might not know:

• You know The Plan I use to keep track of my writing and have blogged about? Elizabeth and her husband Terry are the ones who created the spreadsheet and they'll be giving a workshop on it at the RWA conference in San Francisco this summer!

• Her next book, Tempted by the Night, will be released on my birthday, August 26th!

Have you read any of Elizabeth's books? If not, you should!

The Feis

Two of the kidlets competed in the Pacific Northwest Championships held in Seattle this past weekend. The weather was absolutely gorgeous even though we spent Friday afternoon driving north and were inside most of Saturday. We had an impromptu picnic out in the courtyard of the Hilton to take advantage of the blue sky and sunshine. We've had way too much rain and wanted to enjoy a little bit of the turn in the weather.

Finn was dancing first on Saturday. Hubby managed to get on the first flight out of Dallas and show up minutes before Finn's competition was to take the stage. It truly made Finn's day. He was upset thinking his dad would miss it. Finn danced two dances, the light jig and the single jig. He finally learned a hard shoe dance, but wasn't ready to compete. He won a third place with his light jig. He was the only boy in his competitions. Again.

Though there were more boys competing at this feis. Talented ones. It was great for Finn to see them dance. One, Owen Barrington who is 23, won the World Champions this spring. He is incredible to watch. As hubby says, the guy is the total package.

On Sunday, I talked to Owen about boys and Irish dancing since I really would like to keep my son interested in it. He answered my questions and was so nice. I'm totally impressed by Owen's dancing, but his graciousness blew me away. Such a great guy! I found this clip from last year about Owen.



As a funny romance aside, Owen competed against his girlfriend, who is also a World Champion dancer, on Saturday. She won! He came in second.

Later on Saturday, my daughter took the stage. Mackenna danced beautifully. Of course, I'm totally biased. Two age groups were combined for her competitions, but even though she was in the younger group, she placed in three dances, winning one of them. A step closer to her making the Preliminary Champion level! She also won two trophies.

The hardest part came during a hardshoe dance called the Treble Jig. She was dancing great, but the judge looked at her and nerves took over. She forgot her steps and stopped dancing. She tried to get going but couldn't. She bowed and went back to the line. The tears started to fall. It was heartbreaking to watch because there was nothing I could do. Once the dancers were excused, she ran over to me with tears streaming down her face. She still had two more dances left. I hugged her and wiped her tears with my shirt since I didn't have any tissue with me. I asked if she wanted to dance. She nodded with tears continuing to fall and returned to the stage.

The person checking the dancers in for the next dance asked if she wanted to go last. Mackenna said yes. She struggled to pull herself together. She placed fourth in that dance, the Hornpipe, and first in the next one, the Traditional Set. It was hard to see her fall apart like that, but a learning experience nonetheless.

More on the rest of our trip tomorrow!