I had to get up though because there was one workshop I really wanted to attend called Save the Cat by Blake Snyder. Blake wrote a screenplay writing book called Save the Cat and my good friend Tiffany had recommended it to me months ago. Of course, I hadn't gotten around to reading it yet so I figured attending the talk would either 1) whet my interest 2) make me happy I hadn't read the book yet.
I loved the talk. So much so that Trish Wylie, Claire Baxter, Jessica Hart and I made the trek to the Union Square Borders to see if they had any copies of the book! We bumped into other romance authors at the bookstore wanting the book, too.
Needless to say Blake made an impression with his talk and his 15 point beat sheet. My fave part of the talk...his describing the term "Pope in the pool" scene. He's really a great speaker. He had the jam-packed room laughing many times during his talk. I'm curious to see if his "voice" carries over to the book. That sure would make for an entertaining read.
On our way back from Borders, we stopped at Union Square for a quick picture. The other three stayed to have a coffee, but I had to get back to the hotel to pack. I decided I'd rather head to my friend Jen's house, then sit through the awards' ceremony. I was really tired at this point.My feet were still hurting, too. I started the morning off in shoes, but quickly decided my dress would look just fine with my Tevas! A good call since another walk was in my near future.
My friend Deb drove up from San Jose and met me and our mutual romance writer friend Alice for lunch.Something interesting I discovered about downtown San Francisco...a lot of places that are open during the week for lunch are closed on weekends! We discovered that on our walk to a Bodin's. We ended up going somewhere else.
Back at the hotel, I attended the Harlequin Authors Forum. This is where the PTB (Powers That Be) tell us about the status of the business. A couple things caught my attention. Quality is up as well as sales. They also showed a video about the press Harlequin has received. That was really cool and I'm hoping they make it available via YouTube or Google so I can share it with you!
After that I popped into a workshop on legal issues for writers, then filled the time before my appointment with my agent, Annelise Robey. I met her at the Westin on Market. We sat outside, sipped ice tea and talked. My critique partner and her hubby just happened to walk by so I introduced everyone, then Annelise and I continued talking about my writing career and catching up on what had been going on with each other. Something Wedding Planner-ish happened during out meeting and I'll show those pics the next time I'm up to blog there.
I met my roommate Shirley Marks, Young Adult Inspirational author Shelley Adina and a former critique group member Jenny Anderson for dinner. Then it was time for me to check out! It was so good to see the family pull up to the curb in my minivan. I was starting to miss them even though I saw the kidlets every day except Friday.
When we got to my friend Jen's house, we had a blast. The kids watched a video while the adults played poker. I haven't played that much poker before, but I did really well! Yay!
It was really a great conference. I made some new friends, didn't feel completely overwhelmed and had a lot of fun. If you want to see more conference pictures taken by Trish Wylie check out the Pink Heart Society's Photobucket album.
