ACFW Part 4 Stalker Part 2

Friday night I met up with a bunch of fellow writers agented by Chip MacGregor. So what do you call us anyway? Gina Holmes, Danica Favorite and Jenny Jones were among the ones I knew fairly well and after an hour’s wait at Fridays we ended up at the same table. We had a fun time, with moments of lag time and staring off into space, but that’s when I turned to the right and ease-dropped on the conversation at Chip’s table! It was a fun, relaxed dinner, though I had to bail early for my late night chat I was teaching and I didn’t get to see Randy Ingermanson and Meredith Efken deliver a “birthday” desert to Chip. No, it wasn’t his birthday.

But the late night chat went well. A little over half a dozen people showed up and we were off on a roll when Cara, who had the mic, started a coughing fit and threw the microphone at me. Well, she didn’t exactly throw it, but I looked at it with the expression…”what do you want me to do with this?” After all, she was in the middle of a sentence and I was thinking about my part and what I would say AFTER she spoke, so I hemmed and hawed and finally she took the mic from me and made a joke about it, and all I kept thinking was GREAT, this thing is being recorded. The rest of the talk went well, in fact, and five minutes until the end, things looked like it was smooth sailing (Yeah, I know this post is filled with cliches, but it’s late, give me a break!) That’s when I saw HIM! You got it, leather dude aka my stalker. I saw him walk by the room, do a double take at me, then slip in and grab a pen and pad on the table, sit in the back row and start taking notes.

I’m thinking, that was strange, but then again, I’m the first person who met him at the conference and I did say hi to him early. It’s only natural to gravitate to those you’re familiar with, right?

I thought so too, until I was hanging in the lounge with my new friend Danica, and Camy Tang and then Steve Laube sits in the chair to the left of me and Camy leaves and over Steve’s shoulder I see leather guy sitting alone, writing. Of course, I made light of it and joked to Danica that I had a stalker, but my heart really went out to this guy because I remembered how it was to be on the outside looking in and feeling self conscious and not knowing where you fit in and here I was, finally on the inside looking out and all I could think about was the lone guy (then another one across the way) and I really wanted to reach out, but they were guys and well, that wouldn’t be such a smart idea. The second lone guy, who seemed more to fit in, was joined by fellow ACFWers, so he was taken care of, but the first one, leather, stalker dude, still sat alone…WWJD?

I couldn’t stop thinking about him and wanting to find some guy to talk to him, (we let Steve off the hook because agents are always accosted by writers…) but then some more people showed up at our table (no guys) and Danica went to find someone to say hello leather guy. By then the lone dude was gone, though I had a feeling we might run into each other another time…

And we did, the next morning. But you guessed it, I’ll save that story for tomorrow.