Trip Report -- New Orleans

EPICon Conference, March, 2010

The lobby of the New Orleans Sheraton on Canal Street

Thursday, March 4, 2010:  After weeks and week of anticipating, it's time to go to New Orleans!  A few months ago I got word that my book, Preacher Man, published last January by Wild Rose Press, was a finalist in the EPPIE contest!  This is a national writing contest honoring electronically published books of all genres.  Preacher Man finaled in a category called Metaphysical and Spiritual Romance.  There's only one other finalist in my category, so I have a 50/50 chance of winning!  It didn't take much to make me decide to attend the awards ceremony -- I mean, this is an exciting moment in my writing career!  I may never be a finalist again in a major contest that has an awards ceremony in such a fun town!

The cold and flu season has been exceptionally intense this year, and I've done a great job of resisting and keeping myself healthy.  Until ... a few nights ago.  I developed a sinus infection and got on a strong antibiotic.  For two days my head felt stuffy and ready to explode.  I blew my nose constantly and I could barely lift my head off the pillow.  No energy whatsoever.  I was starting to sweat it out but fortunately, I woke up today feeling much improved.  I think I was determined to feel better, and I did.  I had a wonderful day of air travel -- no delays, no cancellations, no lost luggage.  It couldn't have been better.  I took a cab to the beautiful Sheraton hotel on Canal Street.

When I went to the conference registration table I met some other writers.  After chatting for awhile with a friendly woman named Sara, we decided to meet shortly to go out to dinner together.  This is one of the best things about writers' conferences -- writers are some of the most open and supportive people I know.  Sara is a fellow Wild Rose Press author, and she is a workshop instructor at this conference.  She had arrived in New Orleans yesterday and was pretty familiar with the streets, so she was a perfect tour guide.  We walked through the French Quarter and had dinner at the Desire Oyster Bar on Bourbon Street.  I selected the Shrimp Jumbalaya and boy was it yummy!  Here's a look at it:

And here's my wonderful French Quarter tour guide and dinner companion, Sara Thacker.

After our delicious dinner, we walked back to the hotel and went to the EPICon Social Hour.  They had a nice-looking hors deouvres buffet for us, but of course Sara and I skipped it since we were stuffed.  I did splurge on a $9 glass of white zinfandel.  I have to admit I didn't realize they were charging that much for a tiny little glass -- the price of two whole bottles of the stuff ... but what the heck -- I'm on vacation!  We sat down at a table with several conference attendees, including one of our keynote speakers, the delightful Holly Jacobs.  I'm really looking forward to this conference!

Friday, March 5:  I had a good night's sleep, as I often do when I stay in hotels, but despite my best intentions to sleep in and wake up at a luxurious hour, I was up early.  It was quite an effort to stay in bed till 7 AM.  Once I was presentable, I hit the streets in search of an authentic New Orleans "beignet."  It's a gorgeous day -- sunny and mild.  I turned right on Canal Street, not knowing where I was going and I ran smack dab into ... Holly Jacobs, our Keynote speaker!  I told her I wanted to go find a beignet and a cup of coffee and she offered to take me to the best place in town for beignets and cafe au lait.    So we took a stroll down Canal, left on Decatur Street and along the Mississippi River to the famous Cafe Du Monde.  Okay, everything here in New Orleans is French, and I don't have a clue how to pronounce anything, so let me just spell those things phonetically:  I had "ben-yays" and "cafe o-lay."  Cafe au lait is a really strong, bitter coffee that is about 50% coffee and 50% milk.  Beignets are a yummy fried pastry covered with tons of powdered sugar.  They reminded me of the funnel cakes you get at the county fair.    They were such a mess to eat, I was glad Holly was there to point out escaped powdered sugar all over my chest!  Here's a pic of me and Holly at Cafe Du Monde: 

You may notice the man right behind me outside the restaurant -- he started singing this one long note for about thirty seconds before launching into song, which he continued for the rest of our meal.  As we were getting up to leave, there were a bunch of Irish men in kilts gathered outside the restaurant.  Later on down the street, a lone man sat on the sidewalk with a PA system, speaking in his amplified voice, encouraging people to accept Jesus in their lives before it's too late.  Very interesting environment down here.

Another quintessentially New Orleans oddity:  the streets all have two names.  Decatur Street, further west, is Magazine Street. Camp Street becomes Chartres.  It's like Canal Street, running north and south is the marker that changes the street names.  Makes it a little difficult for tourists trying to find their way around!

I attended an early morning workshop led by Pauline Jones about taking care of the business side of your writing career.  I enjoyed it.  Then, I headed out to walk down Royal Street, which is stock full of antique shops and art galleries.  I was amazed by the historic treasures contained within these modest little antique shops.  One shop called French Antique Shop, Inc. was filled with immense pieces of French furniture -- 8 1/2 feet tall, 10 feet wide --  huge monsters of furniture originally intended to furnish French chateaus back in the 1700s, 1800s.  The next shop over had pieces of armor worn in battle in the 1500s!  These items were very pricey -- most cost $10,000 or more.  Occasionally I ran into antiques priced over $75,000!  I scanned through several art galleries too, enjoying the paintings and sculptures.  Gorgeous.

I returned to the hotel and attended the conference lunch and Holly's Keynote speech.  She was wonderful as I knew she would be, and the lunch was delicious -- a seafood dish, fish stuffed with crab meat with a yummy dessert.  I'm not going to go hungry here.  Ha ha.  After lunch I attended another business workshop regarding how to deduct your writer's expenses on your taxes. It was useful and timely.

When I first decided to come to New Orleans, one thing I immediately wanted to do was to go on a Haunted House tour!  I don't know why.  But since it was something that was foremost in my mind, I made plans to do it ... tonight.  Well, it turned out to be more of a ghost tour -- we walked around the streets of the French Quarter while the guide told us stories of common hauntings in the city.  There were tons of interesting stories, but one in particular was the story of a woman named Julie in 1801 who was the mistress of a married man.  She was the daughter of a white socialite and a slave woman.  The married man who kept her had no intentions of marrying her, but when his wife died, she told him if he didn't marry her she'd stand on the roof of the townhouse he'd bought for her, stark naked until he came to his senses.  It was the night of his popular Christmas Eve party so of course, it was cold out.  It was also the night of an unexpected hail storm.  He didn't take her seriously and attended to his guests on the ground floor.  Late that night he came to bed and realized Julie wasn't there.  He found her on the roof, clinging to one of the chimneys, naked and dead.  The guide told us to take pictures, because that particular location consistently showed paranormal activity.  I snapped away, and I believe I captured some orbs of the ghost, clinging to the chimney.  What do you think?

I assure you that big round light to the left of the chimney where she died was NOT there when I was actually taking the picture.  Ooooohhhh... who knows?  But it was a lot of fun.  In fact, I met two very friendly women from Texas, Christina and Danielle who realized I was alone, welcomed me to hang with them and we ended up having a great time together.  Here we are outside the St. Louis Cathedral:

New Orleans is unlike any other place I've been.  Party party party.  People walking through the streets carrying big cups of alcohol.  Near-nude women on the street as advertisements to the Hustler Club or other cabaret.  Music spilling out of open doors, all combining on the street.

Tomorrow is the final day of the conference, and of course, the awards ceremony at night time! 

Saturday, March 6, 2010:  This morning after I had a quick breakfast with the conference folks, I decided to go AWOL from the workshops and instead I took a 2-hour bus tour around the city.  I thoroughly enjoyed it -- learned a ton of details about the city's history from our tour guide who had a flair for the dramatic, and soaked in the sunshine in the process.  I returned to the conference in time for the luncheon and the Keynote Speaker, Debra Dixon, an author and a Founding Editor of Belle Books Publishing.  It was a great inspirational talk designed to make us want to keep showing up in our writing careers, keep moving forward.  I attended two workshops in the afternoon and then, my parents arrived!  They are vacationing in Gulf Shores, Alabama and drove over to New Orleans to attend the banquet and awards ceremony with me.  It was so good to see them and it really brought it home that after spending three wonderful days in New Orleans for this conference, the big night had arrived!

We all got dolled up -- me in the navy sparkly knee-length dress I borrowed from my niece Brianna (thanks Bri!) and proceeded to the banquet.  Here we are:                                                                                      We chose our seats at the banquet and enjoyed a filet mignon dinner (more delicious food -- we definitely didn't go hungry at this conference!), and then it was time for the awards ceremony.  EPIC had put together a beautiful program with all the categories and finalists -- I was on page 17.  When it was time for my category the presenter read our names and then said, "And the winner is ..."  I had told myself all day that I might win, but I might not win, and it didn't really matter -- it was a fun weekend regardless and it was an honor to be a finalist, and if I don't win, since there were two finalists, that means I came in second ... "Laurie Larsen!"  A cheer arose and I just looked around and soaked in the moment, a huge grin on my face.  You've got to be kidding ... I won!

I made my way up to the stage amidst happy applause and I gave an acceptance speech that I'd been contemplating for several weeks.  Fortunately, I'd thought it over enough times that I didn't need to write it down and read it.  For posterity, here's the acceptance speech.

It was magical!  The love and support in the room were palpable.  My mother had been telling me, "Soak in every moment of this.  This is your dream."  She was so right.  It was one of those magical nights that I'll always remember for the rest of my life.  Here I am with my trophy: 

We went to the bar and I sucked down an authentic New Orleans Hurricane in celebration.  I called several of my friends and family members who'd requested a phone call THAT NIGHT -- as soon as I knew!  It was a wonderful end to a memorable weekend!  Thanks EPIC!