Posted on July 29, 2010
I’m here along with almost 2,000 other devotees, writers, editors, and publishers of romantic fiction. It’s exhilarating and exhausting.
Highlights of Day One:
At the airport shuttle kiosk, when I purchased my ticket to the Dolphin Hotel, the young lady looked up and asked, “Are you one of those romance authors?” And I got to say yes. And then I handed her one of my little excerpts. I was walking on air.
Opening up my badge material and finding the First Sale ribbon. Here is a photo of my badge. I feel like a kid in girl scouts when she gets that merit badge she’s been working months for.
I ran into my friend and author Judi Fennell. Judi was having a conversation with a reviewer from Romantic Times. So, I officially made my first elevator pitch for the book to a review. She took notes and I handed out my second excerpt.
Attended the Golden Network Retreat and listened to agents and editors talk about the market. These conversations always leave me slightly queasy. I think I’ll just keep my head down and write what I love to write and God-willing the rest will take care of itself.
I met Amy Pierpont, editor at Grand Central Publishing. She is so nice. And before our late afternoon snack was over, she gave me several new ideas for inclusion in one of the Last Chance books. We talked at length about quilting and crafting –things I used to do with a passion. I suddenly realized that I had learned my love of those things during my summers in South Carolina. When I think back on all the things my mother and aunts taught me, I realize that I want to share those things in a deeper way. Sewing and making dolls and gardening have immensely enriched my life. Those were the things I learned from Mom and her sisters.
I have a few friends who have been trying now for the better part of a year to get me to take up knitting. But I have already determined that I am terrible knitter. My thing is sewing, and embroidery. I really need to get the sewing machine out and do some quilting. Or maybe some cross stitch. My hands are itching to work on something that doesn’t require a computer. Thank you, Amy, for reminding me of how much I really love doing that stuff.
After that, it was on the the big literacy signing, where I cruised the room seeking out Washington Romance Writer chapter mates. It was there that my friend Robin Kaye put the squeeze on me, with a little help from WRW chair (and 2010 Golden Heart Finalist) Keely Thrall to become a co-pan-liason for the chapter. I think I’ve been drafted.
My day ended with dinner with the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood. I, like dummy, left my camera in my room, but there are plenty of photos of our night out being posted over at rubyslipperedsisterhood.com.
I’ve got blistered feet (of course), and am suffering from a lack of sleep. But I’m having a great time, meeting old friends, making some new ones, and learning new stuff everyday.
