Well, howdy there internet MRR peeps
It's Troy again.
Back from the shenanigans in Florida for almost a week now. Knocking on all sorts of wood that I avoided anything virus related. I masked on the flights and in airports. But early on, attendance was light, so my convention friends and I got out of the habit. We were all vaxed, and drifting from the resort to various restaurants. This is day 7 since the first of two really large attendance days (200-ish all in the same room). I didn't mask, but tried to sit toward the edges of the large ballrooms, away from others.
No reports forthcoming from others. And Delta starts showing its ugly face at about the 5 day mark. One more week of waiting to see if and what might have broken through the vax amongst attendees.
Got another author convention coming in early Nov out in Vegas. It will be 6 times the attendance, but spread across all of Bally's convention center. I'm treating last week's event as the trial run for what is feasible from a personal safety stand.
The good news is that I'm almost a quarter done with the next book. These conferences provide great motivation. Especially when four of us are debating which drink to get at the bar, looking at the drink menu, wondering what a BerriCuda is ...
Then someone says "Maybe it's named after the bartender's dad, Barry."
Another of us says, "Hmmm... Barry Cuda? We should all write a character into our next books named Barry Cuda."
And thus it was decided: Regular Cozy Mystery, SciFi Space Opera, Witchy/Paranormal Cozy Mystery, and Space Alien Romance will all have someone named Berri/Barry Cuda in our next books.
Here's a shot of my Mai Tai from that night.
And, yes. I've got an internationally renowned art thief named Barry Cuda in the current project.