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Missing Meetings by Linda O. Johnston

March 6, 2021 by Linda O. Johnston in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston tagged as Linda O. Johnston, networking, RWA, Sisters in Crime, writers groups

Okay, I’ll admit it. I have been getting a bit lonesome as the pandemic continues, even though it may be easing up a bit—depending on where you live.

I still see relatives and neighbors and a few friends—and my dogs, of course—but I miss going to writers’ meetings and seeing more friends in person.

Oh, I do attend some meetings on Zoom and get to literally see some of those people, but it’s not quite the same as getting together with them as I did in the old days. I belong to several writers’ organizations and their local chapters, including Romance Writers of America, and the Orange County and Los Angeles chapters, Sisters in Crime and the Sisters in Crime Los Angeles chapter, and Mystery Writers of America and the Los Angeles chapter.

In the old days, I attended a lot of monthly meetings and got to chat with members before and after, and to some extent during, those meetings. I learned what they were up to and told them what I was doing and just felt caught up. I sometimes attended even when I wasn’t too excited about the speakers or their topics, mostly just to get together with, and be supportive of, friends.

I also tended to attend a lot of writing conferences, like the RWA National Conference, Left Coast Crime, Malice Domestic and more, often several in a year. I was often a speaker, or a panel member, too.

Things are a bit different these days. And I wonder if they’ll ever return to anything like the past. Guess we’ll just have to see.

Meanwhile, I’m hanging out at home, but imagine me waving at you, saying hi, chatting about writing and the rest of life.

I enjoyed it before and hope to enjoy it again—but I never imagined it would disappear even for a while.