Another fun day at the conference! It started off at 9 am with the Meet and Greet in the Harlequin Hospitality Suite for Mills & Boon authors. When we walked in the door, they had this lovely poster with all the RITA finalist books. Sorry for the picture quality, but the lighting wasn't that great.
There were so many authors, many I didn't recognize, and lots of different accents...English, Australian, Irish. I love how authors from all over the world write for Harlequin. They aren't kidding about being global!
Four editors flew across the pond to attend the conference. I met three of the four. All were so welcoming and nice. I really do love working out of the Richmond/London office! Here is a picture of two of the editors, Linda Fildew and Sally Williamson.
My favorite part of the morning was meeting Romance author Melissa James in person. We worked on the Wedding Planners continuity together and it was great to finally put a person to the name on the emails and Yahoo chats! But I didn't recognize her. I thought she had red hair, but it was dark brown/black. That took me by surprise. Linda Goodnight was also there so the three of us posed for this picture of the SF Wedding Belles!
I headed downstairs and bumped into the must-always-read-but-not-alone-at-night Lisa Gardner. Her books are so good! If you aren't reading her, you should be! Her daughter is the same age as Rose. It's hard to believe I met her on-line before either of us had any children or she was even married.Historical author Victoria Alexander gave a funny keynote address. She had the audience laughing with her chicken nuggets of wisdom. A few of the things she said were exactly what I think or do sometimes. It was a bit strange to hear it coming from another writer's mouth!
After the talk, I went to a Chat with Nora Roberts session. It was a Q & A talk and exactly what I needed to hear. I've only spoken to her to 1) ask for her authograph or 2) take her picture at the Harlequin party, but for some reason she's the one person who can motivate me more than anyone else. She tells it like it is and gives writers the kick in the butt they need to put said butt in the chair and write. I still think her talk on discipline I attended way back when was one of the best workshops I've ever attended.
From the Chat with... session, I met Christie Ridgeway and Monica McCarty in the lobby and we walked along with Jamie Sobrato to the Jane Rotrosen Agency party. We got lost! Somehow we missed a turn (and bumped into two other authors who'd done the same thing as we'd done.) The soiree was held at a trendy, urban gallery. We had to show ID when we walked in (not kidding!) and were handed flutes of champagne. There was also a table of chocolates! Yum!
My agent, Annelise Robey, greeted me with a hug. Agent Meg Ruley was also there and introduced me to mystery author, Rhys Bowen. I met PR guru Nancy Berland there and got reacquainted with Cindy Kirk who I'd met in Dallas last year.
After the chocolates and champagne, I changed into a warm-up suit, took off my name tag and headed outside to wait for hubby. I spent the evening with my family and friends. We went out to Indian food and then we went across the street to a little place called Tart to Tart where I had the best strawberry chocolate shortcake! We then went home. The kidlets watched a Pokemon DVD while us adults played a card game called 10-9-8. My friend Jen won the first game. I won the second. The guys were shutout!
I headed back to the hotel after that and blogged!
That was my day. How about you?
