Romantic Times, Part Three

Okay, so Linnea busted me on staring at the cover models--tee, hee. You knew that was coming, right? : )

Thursday was our first full day. The first panel I attended was, "Creating a kick-ass heroine," a panel you know I'd be interested in. It was fascinating. Not just from a writing perspective, but as a woman. The women on these panels have done the most amazing things, in addition to writing novels. I'm not sure how much of it they want to be shared to the general public so I'll tell you who was on the panel and then, not in the same order, some of the cool things they've done. Rae Monet, Linnea Sinclair, Cindy Dees, Sue Grant, Merline Lovelace, Lindsey McKenna and Liz Maverick. Among them, you have a former private investigator, a 747 pilot, a former FBI agent, a USAF colonel, a travel writer who's been all over the globe, and an Air Force pilot. And I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting some stuff because most of them have done more than one really cool thing. I mean, these are real life, non-fiction, kick-ass heroines. Which is probably why they were picked to be on the panel! The panel was two hours long, but it went by too quickly.

After the panel, we had an awards lunch where all sorts of authors were honored for their work. Some of them included Susan Grant, Kelley Armstrong, MaryJanice Davidson and whole bunch of others. Lunch included, of course, more free books, which I loved!!! We ended up sitting with a really interesting group of people, some authors, some editors, some readers. But we had a great time talking together.

After lunch, Linnea and I went to the Hospitality Suite. The Hospitality Suite is basically this big room with giveaway baskets along the outer edge of the room and tables and chairs in the middle. Authors sign up for time in the Hospitality Suite so they can meet readers. Linnea helped me put together a basket for the Hospitality Suite--a Silver Spoon t-shirt, mousepad and a copy of my book--so I'd have something to give away. I hadn't originally intended to participate in the Hospitality Suite because I wasn't really sure what all it involved. But it ended up being great! Linnea and I shared a table so we could chat when people weren't coming by to visit us. But a lot of people did stop by--all of them knew Linnea (she knows everybody!) so she introduced me to them.

When we finished in the Hospitality Suite, we wandered around the vendor area for awhile. They have vendors who sell jewelry, books, obviously, clothing, cds, all sorts of things. Linnea had dinner plans with friends from another publishing company, so I headed to Promo Alley to check things out and see if I could find someone to eat dinner with. I met up with Bonnie Vanak and we had a blast talking about all kinds of things. I haven't read one of her books yet--I have one at home and I'm buying another--but they look really, really good. They're historicals set in Egypt and I love that kind of thing--The Mummy and The Mummy Returns are two of my favorite movies. I was amazed at the amount of research that must have gone into Bonnie's books.

After dinner, it was time for another evening event. This time it was Brenda Joyce's Masquerade Ball. Brenda Joyce is a huge author and basically, she sponsored this huge party for all the RT participants. We each got a book of hers, too. I totally did not dress up in costume (you can read my entry about this from last week) but it was interesting to see how many people did. Some of them had the most amazing costumes that looked historically accurate. I guess some people belong to the Society of Creative Anachronism (did I get that right?), so they might own historically accurate costumes for that.

On a trip to either the bar or the bathroom, I don't remember which, I bumped in Laurell K. Hamilton and her husband, Jon. He congratulated me again on my book being published, which was so nice. He also noted that I was wearing a white tag--I can't remember if I said this before or not, but published authors wear white name tags and readers, aspiring authors, editors, etc. have blue name tags. So, that was really cool. : )

After a little while in the party, Linnea, Isabo Kelly and I retired to a quieter table out in the hall, also near the bar, to keep talking. Actually, what's funny is I don't even remember now how I met Isabo--I know it was through Linnea--but we hit it off right away. And Linnea had tons of good promotional ideas to share with us--something I desperately need help with!

So, I think that's about it for Thursday. Only a couple more days to recap...hope y'all aren't getting bored. I'm doing it as much for myself, so I'll remember all the details when I think about how much fun it was!!!

Just for fun, here is a picture of Linnea, Isabo and me. This wasn't taken Thursday night, but Friday afternoon, I think. Still, you get the idea! Thanks, Linnea for sending me the picture!!!! Hope it's okay that I'm posting it here--but I think it's a great picture of the three of us : )