Last Friday I attended my first writing conference in years. Oddly enough, the very first seminar I attended suggested that the novel I’m writing may very well be a paranormal romance novel.
(A paranormal romance novel is, apparently, any romance novel that uses elements of fantasy or scifi. Someone at the conference said any novel with aliens falls into the scifi genre, but I just read a book titled Heart Mate that takes place on an Earthlike planet where magical ability determines status, and it certainly read like a romance novel.)
I haven’t yet accepted that classification of my novel; if I never can, I’ll do what’s necessary to shift the novel over to the science fiction side. Right now, the genre of the thing doesn’t matter to me: I really want to finish a draft because I spent so long plotting the damn thing.
It’s my second appearance at this conference, the Colorado Gold Conference put on by Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. This time, I didn’t pitch my novel because I’ve written only 50 pages of it, but the first time I did, and the ebook publisher told me that earlier novel fit into the paranormal category. I don’t know what’s going on here: I got my master’s degree in English/creative writing at a school that focused on experimental writing, and apparently I’ve progressed to paranormal.
Somebody tell me what that means.
I attended four great talks at this conference, by Robin D. Owens, Connie Willis, Carol Berg, and Jaxine Daniels. But much as I love listening to learn (and Connie Willis’s knowledge of books and movies was breathtaking), such things don’t count as true adventure for this woman. No, it’s the social activities that challenge me.
So I’d like to thank Sex Scenes at Starbucks for taking good care of me at the dinners and parties. (I may skip the Saturday night dinner next time, but that’s not her fault; the program is loooooong.) She always has the time and energy to meet new people at the conference and show old friends around. At the hospitality suite Saturday night, we met another woman from Kansas City who traveled 600 miles because she heard RMFW’s conference was that good.
If you write genre fiction, check it out next year. It’s always in September.






I don’t know how their buyers do it with few economies of scale, but VC’s prices are always lower than those at Whole Foods and often lower than prices at King Soopers for similar products. VC has better organic produce than King Soopers (which has the most pathetic organic lettuce I’ve ever seen—I always want to do an intervention for the poor things) and a really great selection of nuts and seeds.


I think I’ve snuck in a picture of every member of the band now.
Cinco de Mayo in downtown Denver was the third festival I attended last Saturday, after International Migratory Bird Day in Boulder and the Colorado Chocolate Festival at the Merchandise Mart on 58th. True to my intentions, I had several donuts in Boulder, multiple samples of ganache at the Chocolate Festival, and two tacos midafternoon.
The second thing I noticed was the large number of families. At times, the crowd came to a complete stop, strollers paused, and there seemed to be nowhere to go but straight up. Then the dam burst and we all pushed on through.
looked promising and stepped up to order two tacos for $3, which is pretty cheap for festival food. I got to use some of my limited Spanish while asking for 1 barbacoa and 1 adobaba. The green chile and pico de gallo weren’t as hot as I’d feared—in fact, a great deal less—and the tacos lasted me until dinner time.
and several hundred knock-off Coach bags and a girl playing tennis in between booths and mobiles and Mexican flags
and more food booths
and an entire section of nonprofits until I found this woman with the sombrero traipsing along in front of the Capitol. It was quite a feat to keep up with her; she navigated the crowd as if she were water and it was a streambed.



and I thought, That sounds like something I should read for Restoration Nation.
I wasn’t enjoying it as much as I’d expected. All the information and products presented at the festival seemed like a bunch of loose threads, and what I really wanted was to gather them together somehow into Restoration Nation.

Polish Heroes: Those Who Rescued Jews
As we gazed up into the Capitol rotunda, the volunteer 

You can’t tell from the picture, but “Bones” is painted above the door in tiny type, and in larger type to the left of the door. It’s a small place, about the size of
The batter was more delicate than your typical tempura from a Japanese restaurant, and on the first bite, my mouth filled with a light fish flavor. The jalapeño added the right amount of heat.
had been crispier on the outside (and I also wish I had focused a little more carefully).
but I had to take a break for a while because I was so full. The duck was lovely, but the oyster broth didn’t really register with me.
which I first saw last spring on a tour of the Alamo Placito neighborhood with
I ran into
It came as no surprise to me that Alex had to close her retail store that she’d opened a year ago on South Broadway. Before she moved here, she did a lot of research and concluded that Denver could support a gourmet food store like
only his frustration. Gray pants hung slack below his right knee: the lower part of that leg was gone. A veteran. Perhaps a diabetic. Perhaps a worker injured on the job.
Gallery 1261







She even knew the name of the mysterious red building with construction fencing all around it: the Evans School, named for the same family that lived in the Byers-Evans House. (When she and her husband opened the Native American Trading Company, two sisters were still living in that house. One of them had helped established the Denver Artists’ Club in the 1890s, which eventually became the Denver Art Museum.)
(I was asked not to take pictures of items for sale in the store.) After Kevin left, Robin showed me into the locked section of the store where they keep the most precious items: rugs, photographs by Edward Curtis (two were of Hollywood starlets, the others from his series “The North American Indian”), large pots, a cape (she said it was Apache, I believe), and many other lovely old things.
Bixa
2028 East Colfax,
Denver
303-333-1943
bags and its 
African and American Trading Company
2217 East 21st Avenue
Uptown/City Park West, Denver
303-377-3770 (not a direct line to the store, but you can call to get hours)
so that they can make a living when they’re grown up. The baskets are made by hand from Ilala palm and bark and grasses and natural dyes. Some baskets are woven so tightly they can hold beer. Women do most of the weaving in the Zulu Kingdom, as far as I could tell, but men now weave baskets from telephone wire; the one I saw in the store was bright orange and blue.
Urban Pantry
Urban Pantry has an extensive party menu; please allow twenty-four hours notice for catering. The staff can create a basket for you combining food from Urban Pantry and wine from
équipement de vin
