I had a great time at the luncheon for romance readers today. The location at the Governor Hotel in downtown Portland was beautiful. The fourth floor ballroom with its high ceilings, elaborate moldings and tall windows was the perfect setting. The Italian buffet lunch yummy! The authors were so very friendly. I got to see old friends and make a couple new ones. It's always fun to put a face with a name. The readers were absolutely wonderful, excited to meet authors, get books and win prizes. A few booksellers were there, too. One even brought her reading group all the way from Idaho! They were expecting 400 people to attend! I don't know exactly how many showed up, but it was a great turnout. 
Sherrilyn Kenyon's fans were out in force. The line to meet her rivaled ones I've seen at a Nora signing! She seemed very friendly and approachable. I've never read any of her books, but I loved her speech. She spoke about what books meant to her growing up. She didn't have a rosy childhood and she mentioned how reading The Flower and the Flame changed her life. 
Her anecdotes about having kids were spot on and mirrored my own experience writing with children. Her top ten list about being a writer was hilarious and had the crowd laughing right along with her. She brought tears to my eyes when she talked about finally making the NYT three days after burying her mother.
One of the first people I bumped into when I arrived was talented Avon writer, Elizabeth Boyle , who's up for another RITA this year. She's one of my favorite authors and people. We sat next to each other at the booksigning and had way too much fun. One reader came by a couple of times and said, You're still laughing?" We were! Ever meet someone and the more you talk the more you realize just how much you have in common? That's how it was for us today. Elizabeth described it as seperated at birth. I agreed. Needless to say, we talked about getting together in Dallas in July. She also told me about "The Plan" which has helped her schedule and track her writing. That's something I really need help with so she's going to email me more info. Fingers crossed it works for me as well as it's worked for her!
Silhoutte Romance author, Su Lute (center in picture), and I shared a table at lunchtime. Each author was asked to bring a basket to be given away to a reader at our table. Here's a picture of the one I put together. It included all of my favorite things: tea with cup and little plate to hold bag holder, decorated sugar cubes, chocolate, a make your own card kit, flowers and three of my books.
The winners of the author baskets were the readers who had birthdays closest to the author. My birthday is August 26 and there was actually a reader who had the same birthday! I also made goodie bags for each of the readers at our table with one of my books, chocolate kisses and other little items.
A great group of readers from the Portland area sat at our table. Four of the readers learned about the luncheon from Sherilyn's newsletter. They were a great group of women. I loved hearing about what they read and how they loved to unwind at the end of the day by escaping into a book.
The luncheon is a yearly event always held on the last Saturday in April from 10 am to 2 pm so if you're in the Pacific Northwest and love reading romances, you might want to attend in 2008. Everyone who attended the readers luncheon received a goodie bag filled with author promo items and books. I'll be giving the books away here on the blog as soon as I figure out how I should pick a winner! Any ideas?
