Conferencing and Scrabbling

I headed up to Phoenix (something I seem to be doing a lot lately) for SCBWI Arizona’s annual Welcome to Our House conference this weekend. Which, thanks in part to RA Michelle Parker-Roc setting the tone, had very much the feel of a gathering of the tribe/village, something that was as much fun as the conference itself. I’m used to that gathering of the tribe feeling at adult SF/fantasy cons, but it’s really nice to realize it’s taking hold in the kids’/YA side of my life, too.

But even without any of that, I would have fun because I got to drive up the night before with writing buddies C.S. (Carole) Adler and Jennifer J. Stewart (jennifer_j_s):

We hung out by the pool, talked and talked and talked, laughed lots, and played many games of Scrabble:

Honest, the tiles just fell that way!

Well, no they didn’t, because no way would Carole and Jennifer make such poor use of all those “S” tiles, let alone allow so low-scoring a play on a triple word space. They are mean Scrabble players. In every sense of the word. 🙂 Needless to say, between them they won every game.

Speaking of which:

– Fane: 1. a temple. 2. Archaic. a church.
– Azo: 1. Containing a nitrogen group, especially N=N.

Who knew?