July - what a month! Last year, drinks with a heavy metal band. This year, author encounters far and near.

I traveled to Paris for a Kiwanis convention but stayed a few extra days to tour the town. In addition to finding Shakespeare & Company, a delightful bookstore between Notre Dame and the Latin Quarter, I wound up randomly assigned to room with another writer from Miami. Our genres and writing tactics proved very different, but we talked for hours and found so much more in common.

A week after I returned to Texas, I ventured to an unfamiliar club meeting in San Marcos. A Kiwanian randomly waved me to her table, and - you guessed it - she turned out to be a writer too, of children's books.

What a treat to find more people who share my passion. :)