So, yesterday I started out the day at The Urban Hive setting up the breakfast for Freelance Camp Sacramento 2009. I was in charge of the food for the day, and in exchange got to participate in a very cool un-conference for freelance professionals. I met some great people (including Sacramento foodie Ann Rolke, technical writer Cinamon Vann a financial analyst named Allyson Gibbs- comprehensible business plan here I come! and the Co-founder of Nextspace Coworking and Innovation Inc.Jeremy Neuner) and re-engaged with others I had met before, including the author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Publishing, Jennifer Bayse Sander. We both work with Andrea Hurst on various projects, and I once researched and helped assemble a pitch list for one of her books. She led a discussion about How to Think like a Publisher, which reaffirmed what I already knew: It’s all about the bottom line.  Not the first line. Not the last line. How. Well. Will. It. Sell.

Which makes me think about the great novel I’ve been trying to sell (kobbiealamo.com). So far, it’s not strange enough for the indies and not mainstream/cliche enough for the biggies. Grr. I still have one or two big hopes! But I digress.

So Saturday at Freelance Camp was full of great nuts and bolts information and inspirational discussions, but I high tailed it out of there as soon as we finished the de-briefing (although I’m certain I would have enjoyed the after-party at the Lounge on 20). I met Kylee, my friend from the small Sacramento creative writing community and also my colleague at Narrative Magazine and we trekked down highway 80 to San Francisco’s mission. . We chowed on yummy south indian dosas and then went to Ritual Roasters to participate in the final phase of LQX, the Mission’s literary celebration of the anniversary of the Loma Prieta quake. This reading was special for us because the readers were Narrative writers: Tom Barbash, Carol Edgarian, Melanie Gideon, Charlie Haas, Kara Levy, and Matthew Zapruder.

I especially loved Tom Barbash’s reading, which was poignant and smart and made me want to read more. He reads really well, and I regret not grabbing him for a beer when I had the chance.

We grabbed a beer at the Latin on 22nd and made it home by one am. It was a busy Saturday, but it was totally All Right.