We all had a great time in Oklahoma City. I hobbled about, remembering that only a few years ago (4 maybe?), I was leaping up and down the stairs and racing through the halls of the hotel. Enjoy it while you still have it, kiddoes.

I saw tons of old friends; talked with Raymona Anderson about the ghost which lives in her house in Slapout, saw Carolyn Leonard's new collection of historical reports for the DAR. I'm doing a blurb for that. This will be a useful book.

At the autograph party I sat with Lindiwe Hall on my right. She's brand new to the business and trying really hard to make it as a writer. She's young, ambitious and pretty. She'll make it if she can stand the "dues paying" years.

On my left, oh thrill, the person who arranged the signing area put Debbie Macomber. Sometimes I feel as though I must have done something right in life since so many good things happen to me. What a pleasant, funny, happy acting woman Ms Macomber is. Her keynote speech was riveting. She made all of us laugh, think and almost cry. Great writers aren't always great speakers but this woman can do both.

The famous writer's public relations person, Nancy Berland, is doing a fine job for Macomber. Nancy is always friendly, always approachable. Although she is always attractive, she looked better in Oklahoma City than I've seen her look in a long time. Rested, maybe? The buzz session in Berland's room was worth attending.

John and Radine Nehring had their table directly across the aisle from me. That Radine is a go-getter, her own publicist, with a great, lovely looking husband who is willing to help her with speading the buzz. She does a great job making her books known. She and Velda Brotherton, and Dusty Richards headed to an Oklahoma City bookstore for a signing of their respective books on Sunday afternoon. Radine had arranged it all for herself and her fellow Arkansawers.

It was an all around great long weekend. I bunked in with Jackie King. She is so easy to travel with and to share a room with. She allows me to be silent in the mornings and gently turns me off at night. She turns a deaf ear to my snoring.

I sold a few copies of the new Confessions book and a couple of THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO WRITING AND SELLING MAGAZINE ARTICLES. The magazine article book has just spent two years on the Booklocker.com bestseller list. Not a bad run!

And I hear today from AWOC.com that CONFESSING FOR MONEY in now on AWOC's best seller list.

Recently I was happy to hear the news that SALLY had appeared on a couple of Hard Shell Word Factory's best seller lists.

Oh, be still my heart! Hurrah for best seller lists.

What nonfiction book shall I write next in the writing field? Any suggestions, friends? If I take up your suggestion I'll send you a prize, maybe a copy of SALLY? Let me know what you think writers would like to read from me.

Carolyn Leonard won SALLY in my last contest. At QWFI she was kind enough to say wonderful things about it within my hearing (to another person). What a pal. I asked her new husband, well, ten years new, if he still liked her and he told me he did. Good news. The difficult seventh year is past but rocky shoals are ahead. There speaks a cured divorcee, once supposes. Hope the two of them are still holding strong for the next ten years.

Sometimes I can't help myself. I wanted several of the male speakers. Really wanted them. Not to marry, you understand. Not even to fool with for an evening, I guess. (None of them applied so I don't know what I would have done in that case.) One of them was so gorgeous I had to tell him the absolute truth. After his session was over I walked forward and stood close enough to look up into his face. My head was somewhere in the region of his belt buckle. Up, up, up, I stared. He raised his eyebrows in inquiry.

"Fifty pounds and thirty years ago, I would have already had you, baby," I said , then I turned and walked out of the room, terribly embarassed by my own shocking boldness and bad behavior, as you might imagine.

I'm going to Steve's to get Anne Lamotts new novel, BLUE SHOE, her seventh novel. Can't wait to read it. If you writers haven't read her BIRD BY BIRD you must go and buy a copy. Best book on writing I've ever read. Hope her fiction measures up. I also want to buy a book of Emily Hahn's essays which I am coveting right now. Her last book published just after her death. It's interesting to see what makes well known writers get into the business.

Stephen Kings book ON WRITING is close to the top of my list, as well. Good book. Of course, I wouldn't read one of his novels for the world. His books scare the hell out of me. I read one once and quivered with fright for hours, days. but he knows what he is talking about when he talks about writing.

Another happy thing happened. Dorothy Garlock, who is a longtime pal and a world famous writer, has sent me a note that she will be in Tulsa on the 16th and 17th of June for a signing. On the 16th she will be at the Barnes and Noble at 5231 E. 41st St. at 7:00 pm. She'll be at Borders at 2740 E. 21st St. at 7:00 pm, on the 17th for another signing, as well. Those of you who are nearby should make plans to come and meet this former Okie who often writes about us (our state). She hasn't forgotten her roots just because she has become a best seller all across the world.

I'm sending out queries and chapters of a Regency Romance I have written. It's called MAKE-BELIEVE CURATE. I'll let you know what happens.

In June. I hope. Pray that I'll have something wonderful to tell you. I'm going to speak to the Green Country Ruff Riters in Poteau (sweet,strange Poteau) on June 7 during the afternoon and evening. In the following weekend I will go to the Abilene Writers Group in Abilene, Texas. I'll be talking about "Sell Your Writing; Starting Now," for both groups.