Today was our annual staff retreat. I generally dread this every year as it’s pretty unproductive and dull. Not to mention hell on my newly re-started diet. Yesterday I printed off a copy of the novella to reread during all the speakers. It is important to note that when you intend to do something OTHER than pay attention to the speakers, you should arrive EARLY, otherwise you wind up sitting in the last available seat, front row, center, immediately in front of the speaker. Um…yeah. I did figure out that the hero and heroine of the new novella are fae. After the morning break, I managed to move a few seats over and I got through 4 chapters during the second speaker.
The afternoon session was more interactive, between the research associates and the big boss. We discussed a lot of options that, if executed, would wind up giving us more marketable skills (always a good thing) and opportunities to work on projects with other researchers–which would be my foot in the door for shifting to someone besides my current boss. THAT would be a great thing, particularly since there’s a good chance I’ll be here longer than I originally planned due to the economy being in the toilet.
In other news, I worked up a basic blurb for the new novella. I’m sure it’ll be tweaked, but this was my first attempt:
War is coming. So says the missive from the Council of Races summoning the leaders of all the Races to a summit in [where?]. But the same signs that the Council interprets as war have another, even more sinister meaning for Mirus historian Finn Harmon. When she takes her concerns to her uncle, the clan’s emissary to the summit, he brushes her off as trying to cause trouble for attention. Determined that she should not interrupt the summit, he assigns an enforcer to see that Finn stays put at home. Ransom is furious. Not only is babysitting beneath his skillset as an enforcer, but being kept from the summit prevents him from fulfilling his duties as a spy. Either Finn must escape Ransom or sway him to her side, for she must make it to the summit to share her warning or it will mean the end of Mirus life as they know it.
Time to go exercise some more to work off the chocolate chip cookies they had as an afternoon snack.
2 thoughts on “Staff Retreat”
Oh, I can SO relate to the dreaded staff retreat experience!! My employer insists on a monthly day-long get together of all staff within the state. We’re all based at different unis or in the head office, so it’s probably valuable to share ideas etc every so often…. IN THEORY. But it usually ends up a complainfest and frankly, does my head in!
Best benefit is the 75-min train trip each way, since I’m the only out-of-towner. I have written some of my best action scenes on the trip. Haven’t yet had the nerve to work on material during the meetings, will try it in 2010 🙂
Trains. I miss trains. We don’t have them where I live.