New York City, Day One

Last weekend, I spent three great days at the PennWriters Conference in Pittsburgh, and although I haven't had the chance to blog about it, I will soon. I attended some amazing sessions on point of view, pitching, character development, series characters, thrillers vs. suspense vs. mysteries, and crime scene writing.

I'm basically behind because as I was recovering from PennWriters, I was also preparing for Backspace, which is this Thursday to Saturday in the Big Apple.

Liz, a friend and co-worker who's writing a romance novel, and I arrived in the city this morning and met some friends for a trip to Coney Island.

I was stoked about this trip.

A TV program on the best places to get hot dogs had something to do with that, and I was looking forward to a visit to Nathan's. The hot dog was awesome. I'd eat another tomorrow if Coney Island wasn't an hour away on the subway.

The beach and boardwalk at Coney Island were great, but the amusement park wasn't impressive. Apparently, I'm spoiled since growing up less than an hour away from Kennywood, a family park with one of the top wooden roller coasters in the country.

Don't get me wrong, Coney Island was fun. I expected a bigger amusement park, but it was definitely worth the trip.

We rounded out the day with some afternoon rest, dinner in Little Italy (and a chocolate-dipped cannoli for dessert). Then it was time for penance in the form of jogging the stairs at our hotel and walking about a mile round trip to Times Square and back.

More tomorrow....Go Pens!