How You Will Recognize Me At RWA

In less than 12 hours I will be boarding the plane (one of the planes, anyway) that will be taking me to Washington, DC for the RWA National Conference. I plan on meeting up with many blogging friends (and authors and readers), but since I've known or met or spoken with them over the internet, how shall we know each other? Well, I don't know about other bloggers, but without giving too much away, if you are at RWA:

1. I'll be the loud one. Yes. Louder than everyone else. "I CAN'T SEEM TO CONTROL THE VOLUME OF MY VOICE!"

2. I might be the one singing Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie's "The War of 1812" in front of the White House ("And the White House burned, burned, burned, and we're the ones that did it" - look it up on YouTube, CANUCK PRIDE 4 LIFE).

3. I might be the one dragged off for a cavity search for singing "The War of 1812" in front of the White House ("The White House burned, burned, burned, and things were very historical - and the Americans ran and cried like a bunch of little babies, wah wah waaaaah - in the War of 1812!").

4. I'll be the one squirrelling every book I can get into my backpack/tote/purse/moneybelt (somehow?). I treat swag and free stuff like the internet - IT'S SERIOUS BUSINESS. When I went to the last job fair at my university, I returned home with 47 pens and a full freezer bag of candy just from picking it up from the tables and talking to people (the one thing I didn't bring back, oddly enough? A job). Imagine what I'll do at RWA.

5. I'm the one wearing black and white polka-dots, black trousers and glossy red pumps to every formal party/function (I'm packing light. Why? See above).

6. I'll be chatting up my (still planning my second draft, damn it to hell) novel, The Duke of Snow and Apples. I might mention words like "colour symbolism" and "magically-Regency-ish".

7. I'll be the one handing a Canadian souvenir to the wonderful Cheryl Dickerson who has been such a great help with accomodating my food allergies at the RWA-provided meals.

Other than that, I'll will just have to see how things go. I will be handing out business cards. I will be attending workshops (mostly about historical research and fantasy worldbuilding). I picked my two travelling books. I'm almost done Sabrina Jeffries' One Night With a Prince, but I think I'll be leaving it behind to finish later (horndog asshole hero + actually alright heroine who shouldn't put up with his bullshit = indifferent read). Nope, on this trip I'm bringing His Every Kiss by Laura Lee Guhrke (I haven't read much by her in a while), and Not Quite a Husband by Sherry Thomas. Yeah, I caved. I felt so apathetic towards Private Arrangements and I couldn't understand why, because it was legitimately well-written. So I'm trying again with Not Quite a Husband. Maybe I'll have the same response I had to Julie Anne Long (where I hated her first book but impressed with her writing and was rewarded by her next one).

Hope to see you there!