To know Meredith Duran is to hate your own parents.
She is talented. God, is she talented. You could put her on the cover of a romance directly, no retouching required. She can drink George Clooney under the table–a quality, particularly in a woman, that makes me green with envy, as a cup of hot cocoa can drink me under the table. And she will mostly likely put a Ph.D. after her name in a couple of years, something that my shallow, snobbish soul covets, but is too lazy to do anything about.
Meredith and I have always been destined to meet and fall in mutual fangirl adoration, though neither of us knew it. Or at least, I didn’t. You see, we have been part of the same menage for years, both of us sharing the same critique partner, Janine of Dear Author. But we’ve never critiqued each other–and still don’t–and I didn’t even know she existed until she won the Gather.com contest. Upon which point, Janine excitedly mention to me this other critique partner, and I asked, sobbing, “Since when have you been cheating on me?” 🙂
(To Meredith, once and for all, I came first, I’m the chief wife, you are just the concubine!)
We met in person at last year’s RWA Nationals in San Francisco, she, Bettie Sharpe, and I. The three of us sat down in my hotel room and played a little storytelling game. (The game had actually begun the previous night at Courtney Milan‘s puppy party. We randomly pointed our fingers to a few words in a newspaper, and Courtney came up with this fun beginning, “All women on the Moon have small breasts. That is, until a woman arrived from Mars with double-D cups.” But nobody at the party did anything with that intriguing premise. )
Well, Bettie, Meredith, and I, we did everything with that intriguing premise. From double-headed twins to the bowels of Uranus, we went on an interstellar adventure that would have the writers of Battlestar Galactica speechless with wonder. But the line of the night belonged to Meredith, who, upon being presented the Mars lady with double-D cups bankrupted by her venture into plus-sized lingerie–no other woman on the moon needs anything other than training bras–came up with this immortal plot twist, “And then, coming to her rescue, the Greek billionaire tycoon who is pregnant with his own secret baby!”
That was the moment I became a Meredith Duran fangirl. And now I am excessively delighted to announce that Meredith has joined Plotters & Manipulators United to fulfill this blog’s manifest and plural destiny.
Welcome, Meredith, and may you bring me the notoriety I have never achieved on my own. Uh, I mean, may we blog long and prosperously together.
Cheers!
P.S. Many heartfelt thanks to Michelle McGinnis, who held my hand patiently as I gingerly dipped my toes into WordPress. Heck, she put me in a life-preserver, and pushed me across the pool. 🙂
P.P.S. I have incredibly twee tastes and love, love, love this cute little theme. But if it’s too slow loading, let me know and I’ll switch–sob–to something more lightweight and efficient.
You’re too good for my ego, LOL! But there’s enough of me to go around.
I just want to add that you are both so bright and talented and nice that it’s an honor to be your friend (Or your polygamous wife, as the case may be).