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Hi all! Tis me, Darla. To all those who have emailed let me reassure you, we aren’t blaming anyone yet! Those who took what sounded like a legitimate attempt to contact Laurell about her grandmother are not to blame. In fact, we thank all of you! You were attempting to do a decent and kind thing. The fact that it was a malicious lie is in no being held against you. Really! We will not go off half-cocked before we have facts and proof.
We are after the source of this. The person who started it all, knowing full well it wasn’t true. It was meant simply to cause Laurell pain and heartache. Why anyone would be this low is simply beyond me. There is no earthly reason for anyone to be so cowardly and sneaky. I can only assume it was someone who is totally heartless and they have my sympathy more than my anger. I cannot imagine being such a sadistic, shallow twit that they thought this was amusing. It isn’t funny. It is however a very sad statement on who they are.
So those who were doing a decent and caring thing, your better than a-okay in our opinion. We think quite highly of those who tried to do the right thing. It gives you a sense of faith in people, that so many were so sweet. So please don’t fret about it. Your kindness will not get you into trouble. Nor should it.
To those who have taken me to task for not informing Laurell immediately, let me add to the facts you know.
It is true I didn’t attend the lunch. Not that I dislike the book sellers, heck I use to be one myself. I really like my favorite bookseller, chiefly because she often points me towards really good books because she knows what I like. I used that free time to visit with friends I hadn’t seen in two years who were also at the con. It was my first chance to sit and just say hi and catch up on stuff. I was afraid I wouldn’t get more of a chance to visit with some of them as there was so many things to do!
When I tried to check into the hotel, they kept telling me my room wasn’t ready. So I kept having to go off and do other things, then come back later to check yet again. The reason it took me so long to get that message to Laurell was two fold.
First, I had just stepped into the room, bell hop and luggage in tow when the phone started to ring. I did immediately answer it assuming it was for the previous occupant. I was surprised by the call as anyone would be. That took me about two minutes to get the message and thank the caller. Then I had to wait while the bellhop unloaded my luggage and got his cart out of the room. I checked the time, because I wasn’t sure where Laurell would be. I thought the luncheon was still likely but it was so close to the end time that I didn’t know whether to check her room, or hope they were running long and she would still be there. Nor did I want to call her cell phone for two reasons, one this is not the kind of thing I wanted to tell her over the phone and two I wasn’t sure she hadn’t turned her phone off for the duration of the banquet. Laurell is always mindful of others around her and it is extremely annoying to have a phone go off in the middle of a presentation. Ever been at a movie and a phone rings in the audience? It is just plain rude not to make sure it doesn’t happen. Yes, I know, mine went off during a panel. I forgot to turn down the ringer. I apologize again for that one.
Second, I was 27 floors away from Laurell as she was in the lower level of the hotel giving a speech. Anyone who stayed there knows getting an elevator was a chore. It seemed it stopped at every floor on the way down in addition to being incredibly slow. While I had a fairly good idea of where she would be, I wasn’t positive and it took me a couple of minutes to pin down her location. In fact, I passed her twice without realizing I had done so. When I finally located Laurell, she was in an interview. I signaled to her I needed to talk to her ASAP. But I wasn’t going to barge up to her and dump this news on her while she was in conversation with a reporter. That too would be really rude.
I then told Jon about the message. He checked voice mail for their phone. Extremely strange was there was nothing on their phone at all from any relative. By then Laurell was done and free to talk to me. It was then that I got an opportunity to tell Laurell when she about the message. All in all, about thirty minutes from the time I got the call to when I could tell her.
I was not making an arbitrary judgement to keep the info from her. Had that been my intent, she wouldn’t have gotten the message until Sunday night, not Friday afternoon. I wouldn’t do that to someone I dislike, much less a someone I call my friend. I am not like that.
So my next post, will be about the con. I have a slew of folks I want to say thank you to for this and that. Folks I just want to say hi to again. It was great seeing so many people! But I will save all that for a single post, not this little rant of mine now.
Darla