Max Vos

     Do you ever wonder why you do the things you do? Like, why in the hell do I wake up when I do? What the hell? It looks as if I am doomed to wake up at five a.m. every morning, even in the UK. 
     While I had this bit of quiet time, I thought I'd post this little tid-bit. No naked me this time guys. Sorry. 
     So here I sit, at the lovely home of K. C. Wells and her husband, looking out over the rolling green hills of the Isle of Wight. It truly is lovely. The sculpted, rolling landscape of an island covered in shamrock green, glisten in the morning light. What the fuck, it’s still only 5:30 in the morning. With only five hours sleep, I know it is going to be a long day. Thank the powers that be that she showed me where the coffee was!

     I guess that if I have to sit here, I might as well be productive, right? Sure, why not? So I'm reflecting on this past weekend on the UK Meet, held in Bristol. What did I do? What did I learn? Would I go back? These are just a few questions I'm asking myself. 
     Would I go back? Damn skippy I would. I had a great time.

     What did I learn? Well, I learned things about blogging, making my voice heard and things that I could do better. A lot of things that I had already learned were confirmed. I also learned, sadly, that it seems that most of the gay male population of Bristol don’t care for Americans. That’s too bad. There are a lot of decent Americans, just as I am sure there are a lot of decent people all around the world. You can't really go judging others by their individual countries politics.

     What did I do? I had a total blast. Not only was the interaction between other authors, there were the readers, who were the real gems of the weekend, in my mind at least. I think that some of the other authors may have missed out a bit on this point. 
     Of course we are there to promote ourselves, sells our books, make ourselves more marketable, but I think sometimes we lose the connection that makes it all work. The one small piece of the puzzle that gives you the whole picture. I think that some of the readers just want to get to know their favorite authors, but in doing so, they let the authors get to know then, whether know it or not. That is what I found to be the best part of the weekend. 
     If I had to make one complaint about the weekend, it would be that from my point of view, the readers kind of got lost in the shuffle. Most of the workshops seemed to be focused on the writers, not so much the readers. They may not be all that interested in all that stuff. They want to know about their favorite books and characters and the people who wrote them. That’s what I was hearing at any rate. 
     This is something that I learned: I think the readers who wanted to meet me were wondering if I was really the rambling, blithering idiot that I've portrayed online. Well, duh. Having worked in a professional kitchen, one tends to not have much of an internal filter. That’s a good thing because I really didn't have much of one to begin with. Now that I'm basically retired, I really don't have one. What I'm saying is, I really don't give a flying rat’s ass what anyone thinks of me anymore. I’m not out to impress anyone. So if they were looking for the in-the-flesh, raw Max Vos, I think they may have found him. Not like I'm hard to find. 
     I’m afraid that I may have proven that the stereotype of Americans being loud, boisterous and obnoxious. Truly, that is not how all Americans act. However, that is just me. I rarely hold back. I try to say what I mean, and mean what I say. I also try to do what I say. If I say I'm going to be there at a certain time, by god I’m going to do everything I can to be there. That is just the way I am.

     So back to the UK Meet… 
     I’d like to thank all those who put so much hard work and so much of their time into organizing this event. It was quite obvious that a lot of time, care and love went into it. It showed. 
     Thank you to all the readers who reached out to me and made my weekend, and first trip to the UK so memorable. You guys rocked! 
     Thank you to my lovely hostess, Ms. K. C. Wells for putting up with all my antics and bad behavior. Yes, I behaved, badly, of course. 
     A special thank you to Mr. Patrick Darcy who I am proud to call my friend. You may be an auld hore, but you still have some catching up to do. Bless his heart. I can only hope that my trip to Paris and then onto London proves to be as much fun.

     Thanks again, y'all. 
     Now…go…do something, preferably for someone else, no matter how big or how small. 
     Max 
     p.s. Yeah, so I lied. What is one of my posts without naked men!

Just because I can.