Writer’s Police Academy 2023: Part 1

I was thrilled to be the recipient of a scholarship to the 2023 (and rumored to be the final) Writer’s Police Academy (WPA). All I had to pay was travel, meals, and hotel expenses. I last attended a Writer’s Police Academy in 2014 and enjoyed it immensely. Even as an introvert, I made a few friends like JB Lynn (I’m addicted to her Neurotic Hitwoman series) and Lynn Chandler Willis., as well as the founder and host of WPA, Lee Lofland. And yes, in 2014 I got him to sign my copy of his helpful book.

I wasn’t sure what to expect this time around. I had gone out on a limb and found someone to share the hotel room (splitting expenses), and as an introvert, I knew the event would be exhausting. Unlike in 2014 when I had Facebook friended several folks ahead of time in the WPA Event group, this time around the group wasn’t as active. I mean, this was the 15th year of the conferences.

But things changed quickly on the first day of the event. 

But I’m getting ahead of myself. The two day drive wasn’t difficult at all. I drove from home to Lafayette, IN the first day which gave me a much shorter day on Wednesday. I did drive through Eastern time zone but ended up in Central (my time zone). The only defugalty I ran into, was trying to find the hotel (and hotel parking). The GPS kept telling me to turn down an alley. Nope, not going there. After I circled the block three times, I stopped and asked directions from a gentleman getting into his car in a church parking lot.

So I circled the block once more, found a parking space and raced inside to register. I was now parked across the street from the parking garage. Phew! The clerks were amazing and I was quickly checked in, moved the car to the garage where I nabbed a very close to the front and first floor spot, carried my suitcase and backpack over, and headed to my room.

Oh, wondering what I packed? Too much, but this was the layout of my suitcase which is the new 19″ TravelPro Maxlite 5 we plan to use for our trip to Europe. I was amazed at what all I fit into it.

From there I haded to the Starbucks downstairs for an iced Cappuccino. I ended up with an iced Latte, but it was fine.

The hotel had a books theme and I snapped this photo behind the registration desk.

And I borrowed this one from another attendee because I forgot to snap a photo myself. This was on a wall in the lobby area (which was huge, with lots of seating spots).

A couple of hours later, my roomie arrived. She flew in from Arizona and had her own travel woes and was just glad to be there. We went down to the desk and arranged for her to be added to my room, then back to the room where we both relaxed and went to bed early. The next day was registration and orientation, so we both planned to sleep in.

One final photo, I took this one for my husband (a retired firefighter/paramedic/chief). It was on the wall across from the registration desk along with a couple other local historic photos.

Coming up in Part 2 – Touch a Truck, Registration, & Orientation.