What IS IT with me an airplanes this year? Everything went so well last year, but this conference, air transport was a nightmare.
My morning started out downhill: I woke up earlier than I'd wanted to, with my seasonal allergies suddenly at full-tilt. Stuffed-up nose, sneezing, and honking. I cleared up somewhat by ordering room-service waffles with strawberries and whipped cream and a big ol' carafe of tea. The waffle had the Dolphin emblem on it!
Waffles aside, it was sad to finally pack all of my things. I took all my Goody swag with me, but all my lovely books had been sent by ground-service mail, which means I probably won't be seeing them until September. More time to chip away at the rest of my TBR, though, right?
While eating my waffle, I also went over my hotel bill and goggled at my phone charges - which included several calls under a minute that ended up being priced $20 each. For phone calls I made to people who didn't even pick up. I'd been using the hotel phone instead of my cell phone because I thought the Dolphin provided 20 minutes free long-distance.
However, this was the day I learned that long distance calls and international calls are different things. Thankfully, a call to downstairs, and a bit of explanation, led to the hotel removing the charges for all the phone calls under a minute, so while I still got charged for a 3 minute call and a 7 minute call, I now had 150 fewer reasons to fret. Yup - I almost got charged $150 more to reach my mum's answering machine.
Once packed and downstairs, I chatted with some other writers who were also on the way out before taking the early shuttle, where I chatted with two awesome writers (whose names are probably in my mountain of business cards but my brain has utterly forgotten). One of them was a regular contest judge, and said it's a great way to practice towards being an editor.
She was one I told about a weird occurrence during the conference. Sometime (I think Saturday), I was talking about the plot of my book with some First-Timers, and a woman walked by and said, "Oh, The Duke of Snow and Apples! I loved reading that!"
"Um," I said, "How could you have possibly read a manuscript I didn't send out?"
"Oh, when I ..." This was was her face clouded over, and she mumbled, "judged it..." and walked away.
The judge I was speaking to on the shuttle said that was a pretty good sign, the fact that the other woman remembered a) the plot and b) the title attached to said plot (I hadn't mentioned the title talking to the other conference-goers) c) a long-ass time after I sent it in - my only recent contest was The Emerald City Openers Contest, back at the start of June.
As it turns out, I was informed a few days ago by the ECO that I didn't place, but still! It was nice to know that someone remembered and enjoyed my manuscript so well!
I arrived at the very crowded madhouse that is the Orlando International Airport in good time, only to learn my Delta flight was going to be delayed by half an hour. Great. Getting on the plane, we were further delayed by another hour thanks to another thunderstorm. I used to love air travel and thunderstorms, but right now we are so not speaking to each other.
And the flight itself was hell - however, unlike last time, it wasn't due to incompetence but thanks to sheer bad luck. I felt awful, not to mention embarrassed, as I shuddered by the window, sneezing and sneezing and honking into a rapidly-dwindling supply of kleenexes. I think by the end of the flight I had to use the napkins provided by the flight attendants - who were incredibly rude on this flight. I asked the male flight attendant for something, but it turned out he was going in the wrong direction, he said so, then he snapped at me sarcastically, "So what do you want, then?" I said, "Nothing, no thank you," which somehow made him more angry so despite my protests he forced a glass of water onto my tray and stalked off.
On the plus side, I managed to write a bit of my first draft for Lord of Dreams, the second book in my Seven Dowagers series, on the plane.
I arrived in Minneapolis late but still with time until my connection. I hobbled off to buy more kleenexes, and finally decided to purchase a travel pillow. I then bought a sandwich.
The sandwich. You hear people talk about comfort food. You know, the homey, familiar stuff you have all the time, like mac n' cheese or meatloaf. I define comfort food a little differently - the food you have at a point in time when everything feels like it's going wrong and the food is the only thing going right, so you glom onto it like a life preserver.
This sandwich was my comfort food after a looooong and trying day. It was just a cheesesteak from Quizno's, but I was cold and achey and sneezy and it was warm and steaky and cheesy. The food equivalent of a hug. Sorry, Earl of Sandwich, but this cheese steak, on this particular day, was the world's greatest hot sandwich.
Praise Jesus, the flight to Edmonton was on time, and my travel pillow really helped - I will bringing one from now on. I made it to Edmonton at 11:30 pm, and Customs was surprisingly quick - I'd priced and listed all of my swag beforehand, so other than the GST I'll have to pay on my books, I was all set. I took a taxi home and collapsed into bed, my RWA adventure over, but with a whole year in which to get The Duke of Snow and Apples read and The Lord of Dreams written.
Friday, August 06, 2010
RWA Day Six: Saturday SUCCESS!
It finally happened: the last day of conference! *sniffle* Too soon! Still, I had to get up early, eat cereal and fruit (I ate sooo much fruit this conference) and head off to the first workshop, one I'd really been looking forward to: the Dress for Historical Success workshop at 8:30. I'd had to make some hard choices for this block, because it also occurred at the same time as Serial Vampire Bondage (Genre Mashups) and YA: Like Romance, But Different. I consider The Duke of Snow and Apples a mashup, because while it's technically a fantasy romance, it has the style and setting of a Regency historical, and I was worried about how I'd market that. As well, I'm already published in short-format YA, so I was considering taking a workshop there if I ever decided to go in that direction. You'd be surprised - mentioning my book was a fairy-tale retelling had a lot of people asking me if it was YA. Um, fairy tales are for old people, too!
Still, once I got to the workshop, I realized I'd made the right choice. What costumes! I apologize in advance for blurriness - my camera is also a camcorder and it can't focus worth a damn in dim lighting:
First, we had Coralie Jensen model the male Tudor costume - complete with codpiece! While all the authors modelled, they also explained each piece of the costume and what it was for (as well as how difficult it was to get through airport security).
Peg Herring displayed the female Tudor court dress, as well as how difficult it was to move around in - not only a corset, but a hard panel down the front that made it impossible to bend.
Next, last year's Golden Heart Historical winner Jeannie Lin (and author of October's upcoming Butterfly Swords) came out dressed in the fashions her heroine might have worn in the years of the Tang Dynasty in China.
Pam Nowak came out in an example of a middle class Late-Victorian dress that could have even been a wedding dress - women often chose black because then the thrifty brides could reuse the gowns. She then proceeded to show us her bustle (which, in the 1870s, was more of a cushion), and her undergarments, the hussy!
Show us your stays! Whoo! At the podium is Linda Joyce Clements, who's dressed as an American Prairie schoolmarm circa 1900.
Next, the lovely Isobel Carr modelled the late Georgian round gown (although she admitted she was missing some padding, it did not fit in her luggage). I had a bit of a mental breakdown at this point because I noticed a more-than-passing resemblance to Kalen Hughes, who I'd spoken with the day before. But - but her nametag says a different name! Okay, so I checked after the workshop and was relieved to learn, no, I wasn't going insane, Kalen Hughes is now writing as Isobel Carr after her last series died a painful death thanks to Wal-Mart.
Is it just me, or would this make a really cool historical paranormal cover?
~*It's a small world after all...*~
Here's Julia Justiss, rockin' the Regency look.
Next, Leigh Stites modelled the costume her hero's mother, a Native American healer in the Old West, would have worn. She did a lot of research, she said, but she admitted that she also had to do a lot of guesswork.
Next, Judy Ridgley showed us the glamour of ancient Rome, relating how a wife not wearing a shawl over her head could be grounds for divorce, but that married women were the only ones granted the privilege of sweeping their hair up and parting it in the middle. Unmarried women had to wear their hair loose until they became a domina of their own household.
Another group picture - the woman seated on the right is Jade Lee, who was unfortunately unable to wear the clothing from China she brought - since they were worn by her own ancestors, people who could have easily saved their money and shopped at Gap Kids.
All in all, it was definitely a fun and informative workshop, with a big round of applause for all the ladies who had to smuggle all that cumbersome stuff in their luggage and through security/customs.
After this workshop - it was time to prepare for my very first Agent Appointment, with Jennifer Schober of Spencerhill, which was at 10:20. I went upstairs and jettisoned the giant RWA tote and just brought my Megapurse and my pitch cards. I went downstairs to where they were holding the appointments and discovered they arranged us all in lines according to when our appointment was. Some people were sitting quietly, eyes closed, in the zone. Others had folders and folders of stuff with them. I just had pitch cards and wanted to pitch to anyone who would listen, but not everyone wanted to pitch - I guess they were afraid they'd jinx themselves.
I was trying not to be nervous - nervousness gets me shaky, but it usually ends up making me better at whatever it is I'm planning to do. I've performed live in theatre and singing competitions before, so I know all that skittery energy ends up put to good use, but still...
The Agent Appointments were meticulously organized - so big props to RWA for that. All the agents were arranged alphabetically, so three minutes before our appointments, all the writers pitching at 10:20 were rounded up into lines according to whichever agent they were pitching, and led to the specific rows. And then we were set free to dash to our agents!
I went up to Jennifer Schober and shook her hand, and jumped right into my introduction and pitch: Hello, I'm Elizabeth Vail and I'm pitching The Duke of Snow and Apples, a 109,000 word single title Romance Fantasy.
The Pitch: In this gender reversed re-telling of "Snow White," Freddy Snow hides his aristocratic past and unusual psychic powers working as a footman for the eccentric Seven Dowagers. When he's tasked to serve a marriage-minded house guest, her unorthodox antics might expose him - but she just might be the Princess Charming to wake his heart from its frozen sleep.
I found that once I got into it, it was easier to speak it naturally, and not like I was reading from anything, which was a relief because while it sounds pretty, "wake his heart from its frozen sleep" was a little hard to deliver.
My impressions of the pitch:
1) Jennifer Schober is Canadian! Who knew! WE SHARE SOMETHING. That's good!
2) She liked the gender-reversed Snow White thing! She said it was a great idea, and marketable.
3) She was really interested in the Dowagers, and asked me about them, and hoped they would bring great characterization to the story - great news to me since I've been hoping I could base my series around them!
4) She said I was smart. SMART! S-M-R-T, I mean, S-M-A-R-T! She said it sounded like I knew my market and what I was writing and said how refreshing it was to come to conventions where the pitchers prepare everything.
5) She said this was one of the few pitches she heard where she could already visualize it!
6) She asked about me - this threw me a bit off track. I mean, I knew I wasn't only going to be talking about my novel for 8 minutes, but a part of me kept chugging talk about the book, talk about the book, talk about the book. I think I gave a good impression of myself - I mentioned my reviews, my education (English and Comparative Lit, because I loved reading and writing) and how writing and analyzing romance sort of self-taught me the different aspects of the genre and subgenres (the difference between paranormal and fantasy romance, for one thing). I also mentioned how important I felt internal conflict was, especially in a fantasy, where sometimes the external conflict can take over. So I think I made myself sound like I know my market!
7) SHE ASKED ME TO SEND THE FIRST THREE CHAPTERS AND A SYNOPSIS! SHE REQUESTED A PARTIAL! JENNIFER SCHOBER REQUESTED A PARTIAL!
*happy dance* *happy dance* *happy dance*
She said she might not be able to get back to me until September because she's attending other conferences as well, but that she will get back to me. She at first requested the first three chapters, and I asked if she wanted a synopsis - she said yes, but that what she really cares about is the quality of the writing. YAY!
This made me even MORE supremely grateful to Jo Davis for her fantastic synopsis workshop!
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!
I met up with MagdalenB after the Agent Appointments, and her pitch was a success, too! Double-Yay! We celebrated by going to the Fresh Mediterranean Market, which by 11:00 was still serving breakfast - which meant only one thing. CELEBRATORY WAFFLES. Boo-yah! During the meal, my mother called and texted twice about the good news (I'd tried to call her on the hotel phone after the pitch, but she was out).
To further celebrate, after waffles I went to the NAL/Sourcebooks signing. Wait, who am I kidding? I would have gone if I'd screwed up, too. LOL. My loot:
Oh yeah, you bet I got the new Jo Davis! Poor poor Cowboy Trouble, the only cover in the bunch without a naked man chest on it.
Because I wasn't paying attention to the clock, I did miss the first half of the What Came Before: The Art of Backstory workshop hosted by Winnie Griggs. I caught the last half, and it wasn't a total loss - I'm thinking of buying the conference DVD-rom anyhow, and she'd already said a lot about backstory and pacing in her So You Think You Can Pace workshop I attended.
Next, I went to the also-supremely-helpful My Manuscript is Done: What Do I Do Now? workshop hosted by Judy Baker. It gave me more info on synopses, as well as submission format and query letters. The basics of these are going into my submission packet to Jennifer Schober, because looking online, there are a suspiciously large number of "versions" to what is supposed to be "standard format" and Spencerhill doesn't give specific formatting guidelines. I think as long as my manuscript is clean, has clear information, and is readable, I won't do too badly.
Next, of course, came the St. Martin's/Grand Central signing! Loot loot loot:
And it turns out I got two Lori Wilde books by accident - I also got her Sweethearts Knitting Club from another publisher signing. Oh well! More books for me! It was good to meet Louisa Edwards - I'd heard a lot about her, and did I mention I love her goody room champagne glass? So drinking out of that when I celebrate my first sale. Also braved the line for Knight of Desire.
All in all, it was pretty good loot this year! I want to read all of these books, so regardless of how long they may end up sitting on my TBR, I think I swagged more responsibly than last year. I only got books I really, really wanted to read - I didn't just grab books because they were free.
I ended up forgoing the Talking the Talk: Writing Historical Dialogue workshop. I forwent a lot of workshops this time around - part of me felt guilty, but the ones I did go to had so much information. I also still have the handouts, and am seriously thinking about getting the Conference CD. I networked, I pitched (SUCCESSFULLY!), I learned, I sight-saw. I didn't get to do everything I planned - but that's ultimately what always happens at a conference. You can't see everything you want, and you may end up learning and seeing something useful that you hadn't planned on at all.
I spent the extra time shipping off my last boxes of books - and hey, I met Gaelen Foley in line at the shipping station!
But I was definitely going to the RITAs dinner ceremony! I got myself all purdy and followed Wendy, Rosie, and KristieJ - because as it turns out, Azteclady got us a killer table with a great view! Dinner was nice, although as my friends kept saying, "OMG this chocolate torte is too chocolatey!" I ate my pineapple slices with a little less enthusiasm (*grumble grumble*can't guarantee no nuts*grumble grumble*).
Actually, as much as I grumble, the server had initially said the torte had no nuts - but as tempted as I was, I knew I couldn't afford to get sick at a conference. I asked are you really sure? And he came back and said no and gave me the fruit plate instead. Even on the last day, there was so much to do, not to mention the preparations to make to leave the next day. If I had to forgo chocolate to see the conference through to the end, I would. *grumble grumble*
The RITAs were fun to watch and wonderfully hosted by Sabrina Jeffries, although only one person I'd picked to win actually won - Sherry Thomas for Not Quite a Husband. WHOO, Sherry! They also showed montages of all the Golden Heart-winning manuscripts that went on to be books (including one of Victoria Dahl's!).
And, while I was sad that Kate Noble's spectabulous (yes, good enough to require a brand-new word) Revealed didn't win, it did mean Julia Quinn (whose What Happens in London took home the trophy) got inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame, the award they give to romance writers who win the RITA in the same category three times. Julia Quinn is only the 12th person in 30 years to get the honour, so yay her!
Afterwards, everyone headed to the various lobbies and parties - some, like Wendy, Rosie, and KristieJ, retired early to get ready for their before-dawn flights home. Others stayed and partied - like me. My flight the next day wouldn't take off until 3:39, so I could afford to sleep in. Sherry Thomas let me hold her RITA. I met Courtney Milan and her gorgeous dress. I saw Smart Bitch Sarah for a brief instant. I walked all over the hotel (and even to the Swan because I'd heard of something going on the Japanese restaurant Kimonos) and glommed on to a lot of people. Partly to soothe my If I'm Not Socializing I'm a Cat Lady Without A Cat fears and partly because I didn't want the conference to end. It was too soon. I hadn't met enough people. I didn't remember enough people (although I had all their cards).
Soon, however, all things must end. I went to my room and Tweeted and Facebooked, and preemptively packed my bags so I could sleep in with more luxury the next day. I decided next year (if I had the money to go next year), I would get a roommate - killing both the Money and I'mSoLonely birds with one stone. I decided to wear my new Disneyworld t-shirt to the airport. I decided to order waffles for breakfast from room service. And then I went off to sleep.
Still, once I got to the workshop, I realized I'd made the right choice. What costumes! I apologize in advance for blurriness - my camera is also a camcorder and it can't focus worth a damn in dim lighting:
First, we had Coralie Jensen model the male Tudor costume - complete with codpiece! While all the authors modelled, they also explained each piece of the costume and what it was for (as well as how difficult it was to get through airport security).
Peg Herring displayed the female Tudor court dress, as well as how difficult it was to move around in - not only a corset, but a hard panel down the front that made it impossible to bend.
Next, last year's Golden Heart Historical winner Jeannie Lin (and author of October's upcoming Butterfly Swords) came out dressed in the fashions her heroine might have worn in the years of the Tang Dynasty in China.
Pam Nowak came out in an example of a middle class Late-Victorian dress that could have even been a wedding dress - women often chose black because then the thrifty brides could reuse the gowns. She then proceeded to show us her bustle (which, in the 1870s, was more of a cushion), and her undergarments, the hussy!
Show us your stays! Whoo! At the podium is Linda Joyce Clements, who's dressed as an American Prairie schoolmarm circa 1900.
Next, the lovely Isobel Carr modelled the late Georgian round gown (although she admitted she was missing some padding, it did not fit in her luggage). I had a bit of a mental breakdown at this point because I noticed a more-than-passing resemblance to Kalen Hughes, who I'd spoken with the day before. But - but her nametag says a different name! Okay, so I checked after the workshop and was relieved to learn, no, I wasn't going insane, Kalen Hughes is now writing as Isobel Carr after her last series died a painful death thanks to Wal-Mart.
Is it just me, or would this make a really cool historical paranormal cover?
~*It's a small world after all...*~
Here's Julia Justiss, rockin' the Regency look.
Next, Leigh Stites modelled the costume her hero's mother, a Native American healer in the Old West, would have worn. She did a lot of research, she said, but she admitted that she also had to do a lot of guesswork.
Next, Judy Ridgley showed us the glamour of ancient Rome, relating how a wife not wearing a shawl over her head could be grounds for divorce, but that married women were the only ones granted the privilege of sweeping their hair up and parting it in the middle. Unmarried women had to wear their hair loose until they became a domina of their own household.
Another group picture - the woman seated on the right is Jade Lee, who was unfortunately unable to wear the clothing from China she brought - since they were worn by her own ancestors, people who could have easily saved their money and shopped at Gap Kids.All in all, it was definitely a fun and informative workshop, with a big round of applause for all the ladies who had to smuggle all that cumbersome stuff in their luggage and through security/customs.
After this workshop - it was time to prepare for my very first Agent Appointment, with Jennifer Schober of Spencerhill, which was at 10:20. I went upstairs and jettisoned the giant RWA tote and just brought my Megapurse and my pitch cards. I went downstairs to where they were holding the appointments and discovered they arranged us all in lines according to when our appointment was. Some people were sitting quietly, eyes closed, in the zone. Others had folders and folders of stuff with them. I just had pitch cards and wanted to pitch to anyone who would listen, but not everyone wanted to pitch - I guess they were afraid they'd jinx themselves.
I was trying not to be nervous - nervousness gets me shaky, but it usually ends up making me better at whatever it is I'm planning to do. I've performed live in theatre and singing competitions before, so I know all that skittery energy ends up put to good use, but still...
The Agent Appointments were meticulously organized - so big props to RWA for that. All the agents were arranged alphabetically, so three minutes before our appointments, all the writers pitching at 10:20 were rounded up into lines according to whichever agent they were pitching, and led to the specific rows. And then we were set free to dash to our agents!
I went up to Jennifer Schober and shook her hand, and jumped right into my introduction and pitch: Hello, I'm Elizabeth Vail and I'm pitching The Duke of Snow and Apples, a 109,000 word single title Romance Fantasy.
The Pitch: In this gender reversed re-telling of "Snow White," Freddy Snow hides his aristocratic past and unusual psychic powers working as a footman for the eccentric Seven Dowagers. When he's tasked to serve a marriage-minded house guest, her unorthodox antics might expose him - but she just might be the Princess Charming to wake his heart from its frozen sleep.
I found that once I got into it, it was easier to speak it naturally, and not like I was reading from anything, which was a relief because while it sounds pretty, "wake his heart from its frozen sleep" was a little hard to deliver.
My impressions of the pitch:
1) Jennifer Schober is Canadian! Who knew! WE SHARE SOMETHING. That's good!
2) She liked the gender-reversed Snow White thing! She said it was a great idea, and marketable.
3) She was really interested in the Dowagers, and asked me about them, and hoped they would bring great characterization to the story - great news to me since I've been hoping I could base my series around them!
4) She said I was smart. SMART! S-M-R-T, I mean, S-M-A-R-T! She said it sounded like I knew my market and what I was writing and said how refreshing it was to come to conventions where the pitchers prepare everything.
5) She said this was one of the few pitches she heard where she could already visualize it!
6) She asked about me - this threw me a bit off track. I mean, I knew I wasn't only going to be talking about my novel for 8 minutes, but a part of me kept chugging talk about the book, talk about the book, talk about the book. I think I gave a good impression of myself - I mentioned my reviews, my education (English and Comparative Lit, because I loved reading and writing) and how writing and analyzing romance sort of self-taught me the different aspects of the genre and subgenres (the difference between paranormal and fantasy romance, for one thing). I also mentioned how important I felt internal conflict was, especially in a fantasy, where sometimes the external conflict can take over. So I think I made myself sound like I know my market!
7) SHE ASKED ME TO SEND THE FIRST THREE CHAPTERS AND A SYNOPSIS! SHE REQUESTED A PARTIAL! JENNIFER SCHOBER REQUESTED A PARTIAL!
*happy dance* *happy dance* *happy dance*
She said she might not be able to get back to me until September because she's attending other conferences as well, but that she will get back to me. She at first requested the first three chapters, and I asked if she wanted a synopsis - she said yes, but that what she really cares about is the quality of the writing. YAY!
This made me even MORE supremely grateful to Jo Davis for her fantastic synopsis workshop!
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!
I met up with MagdalenB after the Agent Appointments, and her pitch was a success, too! Double-Yay! We celebrated by going to the Fresh Mediterranean Market, which by 11:00 was still serving breakfast - which meant only one thing. CELEBRATORY WAFFLES. Boo-yah! During the meal, my mother called and texted twice about the good news (I'd tried to call her on the hotel phone after the pitch, but she was out).
To further celebrate, after waffles I went to the NAL/Sourcebooks signing. Wait, who am I kidding? I would have gone if I'd screwed up, too. LOL. My loot:
Oh yeah, you bet I got the new Jo Davis! Poor poor Cowboy Trouble, the only cover in the bunch without a naked man chest on it.Because I wasn't paying attention to the clock, I did miss the first half of the What Came Before: The Art of Backstory workshop hosted by Winnie Griggs. I caught the last half, and it wasn't a total loss - I'm thinking of buying the conference DVD-rom anyhow, and she'd already said a lot about backstory and pacing in her So You Think You Can Pace workshop I attended.
Next, I went to the also-supremely-helpful My Manuscript is Done: What Do I Do Now? workshop hosted by Judy Baker. It gave me more info on synopses, as well as submission format and query letters. The basics of these are going into my submission packet to Jennifer Schober, because looking online, there are a suspiciously large number of "versions" to what is supposed to be "standard format" and Spencerhill doesn't give specific formatting guidelines. I think as long as my manuscript is clean, has clear information, and is readable, I won't do too badly.
Next, of course, came the St. Martin's/Grand Central signing! Loot loot loot:
And it turns out I got two Lori Wilde books by accident - I also got her Sweethearts Knitting Club from another publisher signing. Oh well! More books for me! It was good to meet Louisa Edwards - I'd heard a lot about her, and did I mention I love her goody room champagne glass? So drinking out of that when I celebrate my first sale. Also braved the line for Knight of Desire.All in all, it was pretty good loot this year! I want to read all of these books, so regardless of how long they may end up sitting on my TBR, I think I swagged more responsibly than last year. I only got books I really, really wanted to read - I didn't just grab books because they were free.
I ended up forgoing the Talking the Talk: Writing Historical Dialogue workshop. I forwent a lot of workshops this time around - part of me felt guilty, but the ones I did go to had so much information. I also still have the handouts, and am seriously thinking about getting the Conference CD. I networked, I pitched (SUCCESSFULLY!), I learned, I sight-saw. I didn't get to do everything I planned - but that's ultimately what always happens at a conference. You can't see everything you want, and you may end up learning and seeing something useful that you hadn't planned on at all.
I spent the extra time shipping off my last boxes of books - and hey, I met Gaelen Foley in line at the shipping station!
But I was definitely going to the RITAs dinner ceremony! I got myself all purdy and followed Wendy, Rosie, and KristieJ - because as it turns out, Azteclady got us a killer table with a great view! Dinner was nice, although as my friends kept saying, "OMG this chocolate torte is too chocolatey!" I ate my pineapple slices with a little less enthusiasm (*grumble grumble*can't guarantee no nuts*grumble grumble*).
Actually, as much as I grumble, the server had initially said the torte had no nuts - but as tempted as I was, I knew I couldn't afford to get sick at a conference. I asked are you really sure? And he came back and said no and gave me the fruit plate instead. Even on the last day, there was so much to do, not to mention the preparations to make to leave the next day. If I had to forgo chocolate to see the conference through to the end, I would. *grumble grumble*
The RITAs were fun to watch and wonderfully hosted by Sabrina Jeffries, although only one person I'd picked to win actually won - Sherry Thomas for Not Quite a Husband. WHOO, Sherry! They also showed montages of all the Golden Heart-winning manuscripts that went on to be books (including one of Victoria Dahl's!).
And, while I was sad that Kate Noble's spectabulous (yes, good enough to require a brand-new word) Revealed didn't win, it did mean Julia Quinn (whose What Happens in London took home the trophy) got inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame, the award they give to romance writers who win the RITA in the same category three times. Julia Quinn is only the 12th person in 30 years to get the honour, so yay her!
Afterwards, everyone headed to the various lobbies and parties - some, like Wendy, Rosie, and KristieJ, retired early to get ready for their before-dawn flights home. Others stayed and partied - like me. My flight the next day wouldn't take off until 3:39, so I could afford to sleep in. Sherry Thomas let me hold her RITA. I met Courtney Milan and her gorgeous dress. I saw Smart Bitch Sarah for a brief instant. I walked all over the hotel (and even to the Swan because I'd heard of something going on the Japanese restaurant Kimonos) and glommed on to a lot of people. Partly to soothe my If I'm Not Socializing I'm a Cat Lady Without A Cat fears and partly because I didn't want the conference to end. It was too soon. I hadn't met enough people. I didn't remember enough people (although I had all their cards).
Soon, however, all things must end. I went to my room and Tweeted and Facebooked, and preemptively packed my bags so I could sleep in with more luxury the next day. I decided next year (if I had the money to go next year), I would get a roommate - killing both the Money and I'mSoLonely birds with one stone. I decided to wear my new Disneyworld t-shirt to the airport. I decided to order waffles for breakfast from room service. And then I went off to sleep.
Thursday, August 05, 2010
RWA Day Five: Freaky Fun Friday
Friday dawned bright and early, and I went down to eat the RWA-provided Continental breakfast, which for me involves fruit, tea, and begging the waiters to bring me cereal because they won't allow me to eat any of their pastries with my nut allergy.
My first workshop of the day was Parade of the Paranormal, by Shannon Delany, who gave us many interesting sources in which to search for unusual paranormal elements to put in your stories. I didn't really jive with her idea of trend-spotting, because it takes years between finishing a book and getting it to print, but otherwise, she gave us some good websites to look stuff up. I locked away the idea of psychic remote viewing, because my (planned) third book in my Dowagers series, Lady Toad, has a heroine who can do that - both to feed the scandal sheets and to spy.
Next up, the Avon and Harlequin booksignings! Whoohoo!
Out of all the booksignings (and I attended quite a few this year) I think I did the best at Avon and Harlequin. Although some of the books I received just thanks to dumb luck - the Liz Carlyle ARC and the Marjorie Liu were just left at the front of the room because neither author had been able to make the conference. I also broke my No Two Books By an Author I Haven't Read rule for the new Miranda Neville. Sorry! It just sounded so good!
Of course, being a doofus, I ended us missing the workshop Mining the Past by Joyce Moore. Oh well - I used the extra time to ship my first batch of books by flat-rate priority mail - a surprisingly cheap option ($14.50) that will unfortunately mean I'll have to wait a bit for my books to arrive.
After that, it was the Awards Luncheon, with speaker Jayne Ann Krentz, who did not look like her author photo at all, but otherwise gave a great speech about the many ways some authors will have to reinvent themselves if their books don't sell or their editors move away or the myriad other things that can happen to jeopardize a writer's career.
After the Awards Luncheon came probably one of the funniest and most helpful of the workshops I attended, Jo Davis' How to Tame the Man-Eating Synopsis. Jo Davis is a hoot. Her advice on how to write a synopsis was immensely useful, and not only that - she used her own work as examples. Let's just say that her synopses are so effective that I walked out of that workshop and into the book fair to see if I could buy her entire series of firemen romances (the answer: I could not - but I did find two at the library when I got back to Edmonton!).
I got out of that workshop just in time for the Berkley/Pocket Book signing! My loot:
I'd had to miss the Berkley signing last year because of a competing workshop (plus I heard its organization last year had made them run out of books before half the line was over), but let me just say that lining up for Berkley first and going to Pocket second was a wise choice. I went through Berkley, picked up books, went next door to Pocket, and when I got out of Pocket there was still a line of people waiting to get into the Berkeley signing. I picked up Jess Granger's second book and finally decided to try some Shiloh Walker.
By that time, my feet hurt. They really hurt. I think running across Newark Airport/Magic Kingdom/Epcot/Hollywood Studios/Downtown Disney/and the Swan and Dolphin was starting to tell on them and I had to strap them into heels later that night for the Gathering - the RWA Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal Chapter's annual shindig. I decided to take a little me time and soaked them in some nice hot water - only later strapping them into my evil, evil heels for the Gathering.
This is me all purdy'd up. I thought I'd add that to remind you I don't always look sweaty and exhausted in all of my RWA photos. I actually flip-flopped it over to the party, since it was actually in the Swan, the hotel directly across from ours. I'm sorry, but my heels have a limited window of comfortable wearability, and I wasn't going to waste it walking to the party. This year, the Gathering was actually a themed party, the theme being Steampunk. Back when RWA was scheduled to be in Nashville, our party was set to be on a steamboat, but even though that was no longer happening, that was no reason to abandon the steampunk theme!
This was the year I'd actually started participating in my chapter now that I had a finished manuscript, and so I recognized a lot more names on the badges this year - such as Gerri Bowen, who faithfully critiqued the first nine chapters of The Duke of Snow and Apples.
Did I mention how many fantabulous steampunk costumes there were at the Gathering? Wow!
All hail FF&P Chapter President Jeffe Kennedy!
Anyhoo, the dinner was a blast, and afterwards we had the Prisms - our awards - and super-awesome Leanna Renee Hieber took away two Prisms for The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker. Way to go! I also met agent Lori Perkins at the Gathering - she represents all sorts of romance but she's also the editor of Ravenous Romance, which is currently publishing some of my pal Katiebabs' work. Lori said she was interested in new erotic stories, but I write sweet romance, oh well.
The party ended relatively early, however - it happened Friday night, when a lot of publishers hold their big parties so once the awards ceremony and the costume prizes were given out a lot of the pubbed authors scattered. I wandered off and ended up on a couch with Carrie Lofty and a woman I would only recognize as Ann Aguirre (pronounced with a hard G like Ah-Gee-Ray) the next day at a signing.
Still, all in all a good, productive day.
My first workshop of the day was Parade of the Paranormal, by Shannon Delany, who gave us many interesting sources in which to search for unusual paranormal elements to put in your stories. I didn't really jive with her idea of trend-spotting, because it takes years between finishing a book and getting it to print, but otherwise, she gave us some good websites to look stuff up. I locked away the idea of psychic remote viewing, because my (planned) third book in my Dowagers series, Lady Toad, has a heroine who can do that - both to feed the scandal sheets and to spy.
Next up, the Avon and Harlequin booksignings! Whoohoo!
Out of all the booksignings (and I attended quite a few this year) I think I did the best at Avon and Harlequin. Although some of the books I received just thanks to dumb luck - the Liz Carlyle ARC and the Marjorie Liu were just left at the front of the room because neither author had been able to make the conference. I also broke my No Two Books By an Author I Haven't Read rule for the new Miranda Neville. Sorry! It just sounded so good!Of course, being a doofus, I ended us missing the workshop Mining the Past by Joyce Moore. Oh well - I used the extra time to ship my first batch of books by flat-rate priority mail - a surprisingly cheap option ($14.50) that will unfortunately mean I'll have to wait a bit for my books to arrive.
After that, it was the Awards Luncheon, with speaker Jayne Ann Krentz, who did not look like her author photo at all, but otherwise gave a great speech about the many ways some authors will have to reinvent themselves if their books don't sell or their editors move away or the myriad other things that can happen to jeopardize a writer's career.
After the Awards Luncheon came probably one of the funniest and most helpful of the workshops I attended, Jo Davis' How to Tame the Man-Eating Synopsis. Jo Davis is a hoot. Her advice on how to write a synopsis was immensely useful, and not only that - she used her own work as examples. Let's just say that her synopses are so effective that I walked out of that workshop and into the book fair to see if I could buy her entire series of firemen romances (the answer: I could not - but I did find two at the library when I got back to Edmonton!).
I got out of that workshop just in time for the Berkley/Pocket Book signing! My loot:
I'd had to miss the Berkley signing last year because of a competing workshop (plus I heard its organization last year had made them run out of books before half the line was over), but let me just say that lining up for Berkley first and going to Pocket second was a wise choice. I went through Berkley, picked up books, went next door to Pocket, and when I got out of Pocket there was still a line of people waiting to get into the Berkeley signing. I picked up Jess Granger's second book and finally decided to try some Shiloh Walker.By that time, my feet hurt. They really hurt. I think running across Newark Airport/Magic Kingdom/Epcot/Hollywood Studios/Downtown Disney/and the Swan and Dolphin was starting to tell on them and I had to strap them into heels later that night for the Gathering - the RWA Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal Chapter's annual shindig. I decided to take a little me time and soaked them in some nice hot water - only later strapping them into my evil, evil heels for the Gathering.
This is me all purdy'd up. I thought I'd add that to remind you I don't always look sweaty and exhausted in all of my RWA photos. I actually flip-flopped it over to the party, since it was actually in the Swan, the hotel directly across from ours. I'm sorry, but my heels have a limited window of comfortable wearability, and I wasn't going to waste it walking to the party. This year, the Gathering was actually a themed party, the theme being Steampunk. Back when RWA was scheduled to be in Nashville, our party was set to be on a steamboat, but even though that was no longer happening, that was no reason to abandon the steampunk theme!
This was the year I'd actually started participating in my chapter now that I had a finished manuscript, and so I recognized a lot more names on the badges this year - such as Gerri Bowen, who faithfully critiqued the first nine chapters of The Duke of Snow and Apples.
Did I mention how many fantabulous steampunk costumes there were at the Gathering? Wow!
All hail FF&P Chapter President Jeffe Kennedy!Anyhoo, the dinner was a blast, and afterwards we had the Prisms - our awards - and super-awesome Leanna Renee Hieber took away two Prisms for The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker. Way to go! I also met agent Lori Perkins at the Gathering - she represents all sorts of romance but she's also the editor of Ravenous Romance, which is currently publishing some of my pal Katiebabs' work. Lori said she was interested in new erotic stories, but I write sweet romance, oh well.
The party ended relatively early, however - it happened Friday night, when a lot of publishers hold their big parties so once the awards ceremony and the costume prizes were given out a lot of the pubbed authors scattered. I wandered off and ended up on a couch with Carrie Lofty and a woman I would only recognize as Ann Aguirre (pronounced with a hard G like Ah-Gee-Ray) the next day at a signing.
Still, all in all a good, productive day.
RWA Day Four - Thursday: Pantsers, Pacing, Pitching, and Pleasure Island
Well, now that it was Thursday, it was time to actually work. I met KristieJ and Wendy and we had the breakfast buffet at the Fresh Mediterranean Market - where I finally was able to get my hands on some waffles! Delicious, delicious waffles.
For my part, I adjusted my conference badge to reflect my experiences so far at Orlando:
It's a common tradition at conferences to put pins on your lanyard - I have my RWA 2009 pin, my RWA 2010 pin, my FF&P (Paranormal chapter) pin, as well as one pin from each of the Disney parks I visited. Medals of honour for two blissfully exhausting days.
The first official conference function I attended was the keynote luncheon. I almost sat with Wendy, KristieJ and Rosie, but decided to set at a table nearby. Some of the best things about the conference are sitting with and meeting new people. Nora Roberts was the speaker, and I found it really inspiring. This year was the 30th anniversary of the conference, so Roberts' speech was basically a hilarious crackdown on whiners and wannabes who like to bitch that "it was so much easier to get published 30 years ago." Roberts, who's been writing since 1979, vented her thoughts on that opinion with one word: "Bullshit."
30 years ago, there was no Twitter, Facebook, or e-mail for promotions. No internet for research. No laptop computers - it was typewriters, carbon paper and white out. And now there are ebooks to widen the market. Nora Roberts did not, however, go into a "you whippersnappers have it so easy" speech - but states that writing and publishing is hard, and will always be hard, and that the only way to be published is to write and improve and submit. Whining about the times that used to be so "easy," or waiting on your butt until "things get better" will not get your book published.
Her speech also spoke about the great group of friends she made at RWA over the years, the real, lasting friendships between writers who live across oceans and countries but share the same love of writing. I think I'm going to have to read more of her books - which is good, since I got two for free on my seat at the luncheon!
After the luncheon, I went to the Pantsers, Plotters and Plotsers Workshop, hosted by Claudia Dain, Sabrina Jeffries, and Deb Marlowe. Why haven't I read Claudia Dain's books yet? She's awesome! And once again, Sabrina Jeffries is partly responsible for one of the workshops I found most helpful.
I am a pantser - I get an idea, I research, and then I write without planning anything. Claudia Dain is the same way. It was interesting to hear these authors talk about the real advantage and pitfalls of being a pantser, plotter, or somewhere in between. Dain (a pantser) talked about how it's especially difficult for pantsers to write a proposal or synopsis without finishing the book first - because we don't know how the book's going to turn out until we write it! Dain admitted that she managed to get away without writing a synopsis and no one's ever made her write one, but I know it won't always be that easy. Sabrina Jeffries (a dedicated plotter) says that plotting can make things easier, but sometimes it can take the joy out of writing. They also talked about how pantsers generally write character-driven stories and plotters generally write plot-driven stories.
As well, they talked about how their writing styles don't necessarily translate into their personal lives - pantser Dain's junk drawer is alphabetized, and Jeffries is very haphazard. What a cool workshop!
Next, I took the So You Think You Can Pace workshop, hosted by Laura Marie Altom, Margaret Daley, Michelle Grajkowski, and Winnie Griggs.
I've been told in feedback that my pacing needs work, so it was interesting to have certain aspects of it explained through the metaphor of different dances. As well, they talked about the different pacing expectations placed on different subgenres - for instance, romantic suspense novels are fast-paced, while historicals are slower paced.
After that came the Tiny Art of Elevator Pitches workshop by Carrie Lofty, which was hella helpful. Since I was pitching for the first time on Saturday, I thought it couldn't hurt to get some extra advice and feedback before the Big Day. Before the workshop, she asked if anyone wanted to write their pitches on cards and hand them up to the front. I'd actually brought my own on a card already so I handed it in.
For the first half hour, she talked about how much work it can take to create a good pitch, how many word changes it takes, how to choose words that you can say easily when presenting it to another person. She also told us how she sold What a Scoundrel Wants despite having an agent who arrived 4 minutes late into an 8-minute session by putting her pitch on her business card.
Then, she arranged the pitches that people had given her beforehand, and pulled one out. "I thought I'd read this one," she said. "Because this one really hit all the marks a pitch is supposed to make." She said that, at 60 words, it was a little long for a true "elevator pitch" (for when pitching to a poor trapped agent while riding an elevator), but for a face-to-face pitch session it did the job.
AND IT WAS MY PITCH SHE READ! She liked my pitch for Duke of Snow and Apples! Boy, was that a confidence boost! Yay!
After that, there were no more workshops for the day. I found myself alone again - most of my friends were either resting and staying in, or were invited out to things. Now, see, I'm used to being by myself, it's how I survived high school, but it also means that my ability to socialize developed more slowly than other people's. I try very hard to make up for it, but creating lasting friendships for me is very difficult - I'm a creature of habit, as well as an "out of sight out of mind" person, so I'm an inconstant correspondent, too. That means whenever I'm at a special event surrounded by other people who are like me, every minute where I'm by myself and not spending time trying to get to know other people feels like a failure. I know that's not true, but it's a difficult feeling to overcome.
So where else to drown my neuroses? DOWNTOWN DISNEY! I took the bus down to Downtown Disney - which doesn't require admission because it's not a park, but that doesn't mean there isn't stuff to do. It essentially has three sections: Disney Marketplace, Pleasure Island (hee hee), and Disney Westside. I arrived in time to watch the sunset - which, here close to the equator, means about 7 - 8 in the p.m. (sun sets at around 10:30 in the summer where I'm from).
It's a great place to explore - lots of clubs, live music and restaurants. And STORES. Holy crap, the STORES.
Yup - that's right. They have a store that sells Christmas-themed Disney merchandise ALL YEAR LONG. A merchandisegasm if I ever saw one.
They also had a place where you could create your own personalized t-shirts. I considered this - I love Beauty and the Beast and I'd love to wear something from that movie, but I'm not going to wear something childish (that sound you here is my parents laughing hysterically). Well, the folks at Disney will not let you print anything remotely snarky on those shirts. I tried to make a Belle shirt that said, "Seriously? You know I'm the one who can *read*, right?" but that got a no-no from the store employees. Sigh. So no shirt for me.
I stopped for dinner here, to satisfy my whimsical historical bent:
Their sign claims they have the "world's best hot sandwich," and I gotta say ... they came pretty darn close. I ordered something called the "Full Montague," with roast beef and turkey and it was seriously delish.
But let's not forget the CRAZY STORES.
This is just one of the entrances to the World of Disney, reportedly the biggest Disney store in the world. And how much stuff in that store was Beauty and the Beast designed? Very, very little - all of it Belle, and all of it included in the general Princess Line. Oh, boo. BOO, Disney. It's only your most classic and critically claimed movie EVER. And, seriously, who puts THIS in the entrance to a TOY STORE?
Yup, not kidding - they had moving, groaning skeletons right at the entrance and it scared one of the little kids half to death.
But Downtown Disney still had great things to look at - like the Characters in Flight balloon that takes people 400 feet up in the air. I was going to ride it, but sadly, they'd closed the ride thanks to a thunderstorm warning.
They also had live musicians, street performers, nightclubs, and a Lego exhibit:
That's a sea-dragon made of Legos, and while you can't see it - it has coils that go into the water. Wow, that definitely took effort!
After that, I got tired and went back to the hotel in time to check out the Moonlight Madness Bazaar. After that, thinking there was nothing to do, I went to my room and changed into my PJs. It still felt like it was too early, that I was wasting precious time at a conference that's only a few days long in my room when I could be out making friends that will last for 30 years like Nora Roberts said.
So I actually changed back into my clothes and went down the lobby, and fell into conversation with Prism-nominee and FF&P chaptermate Jess Granger. She told me about some of the fun exhibits she'd seen at Epcot (apparently there's a place where kids can actually interact with Crush from Finding Nemo, with an actor manipulating an animated type of puppet, but it looks so seamless it's like the turtle is really there), and the super-intense Aerosmith-themed Rock'n'Rollercoaster at Hollywood Studios. It was really interesting, but even while my mind was like, Keep on Talking, Keeping Making Friends Before You End Up an Old Lonely Cat Lady, my body had pretty much hit the wall. I politely ended the conversation before I drifted off in the middle of it and went back to my room for realsies.
For my part, I adjusted my conference badge to reflect my experiences so far at Orlando:
It's a common tradition at conferences to put pins on your lanyard - I have my RWA 2009 pin, my RWA 2010 pin, my FF&P (Paranormal chapter) pin, as well as one pin from each of the Disney parks I visited. Medals of honour for two blissfully exhausting days.The first official conference function I attended was the keynote luncheon. I almost sat with Wendy, KristieJ and Rosie, but decided to set at a table nearby. Some of the best things about the conference are sitting with and meeting new people. Nora Roberts was the speaker, and I found it really inspiring. This year was the 30th anniversary of the conference, so Roberts' speech was basically a hilarious crackdown on whiners and wannabes who like to bitch that "it was so much easier to get published 30 years ago." Roberts, who's been writing since 1979, vented her thoughts on that opinion with one word: "Bullshit."
30 years ago, there was no Twitter, Facebook, or e-mail for promotions. No internet for research. No laptop computers - it was typewriters, carbon paper and white out. And now there are ebooks to widen the market. Nora Roberts did not, however, go into a "you whippersnappers have it so easy" speech - but states that writing and publishing is hard, and will always be hard, and that the only way to be published is to write and improve and submit. Whining about the times that used to be so "easy," or waiting on your butt until "things get better" will not get your book published.
Her speech also spoke about the great group of friends she made at RWA over the years, the real, lasting friendships between writers who live across oceans and countries but share the same love of writing. I think I'm going to have to read more of her books - which is good, since I got two for free on my seat at the luncheon!
After the luncheon, I went to the Pantsers, Plotters and Plotsers Workshop, hosted by Claudia Dain, Sabrina Jeffries, and Deb Marlowe. Why haven't I read Claudia Dain's books yet? She's awesome! And once again, Sabrina Jeffries is partly responsible for one of the workshops I found most helpful.
I am a pantser - I get an idea, I research, and then I write without planning anything. Claudia Dain is the same way. It was interesting to hear these authors talk about the real advantage and pitfalls of being a pantser, plotter, or somewhere in between. Dain (a pantser) talked about how it's especially difficult for pantsers to write a proposal or synopsis without finishing the book first - because we don't know how the book's going to turn out until we write it! Dain admitted that she managed to get away without writing a synopsis and no one's ever made her write one, but I know it won't always be that easy. Sabrina Jeffries (a dedicated plotter) says that plotting can make things easier, but sometimes it can take the joy out of writing. They also talked about how pantsers generally write character-driven stories and plotters generally write plot-driven stories.
As well, they talked about how their writing styles don't necessarily translate into their personal lives - pantser Dain's junk drawer is alphabetized, and Jeffries is very haphazard. What a cool workshop!
Next, I took the So You Think You Can Pace workshop, hosted by Laura Marie Altom, Margaret Daley, Michelle Grajkowski, and Winnie Griggs.
I've been told in feedback that my pacing needs work, so it was interesting to have certain aspects of it explained through the metaphor of different dances. As well, they talked about the different pacing expectations placed on different subgenres - for instance, romantic suspense novels are fast-paced, while historicals are slower paced.After that came the Tiny Art of Elevator Pitches workshop by Carrie Lofty, which was hella helpful. Since I was pitching for the first time on Saturday, I thought it couldn't hurt to get some extra advice and feedback before the Big Day. Before the workshop, she asked if anyone wanted to write their pitches on cards and hand them up to the front. I'd actually brought my own on a card already so I handed it in.
For the first half hour, she talked about how much work it can take to create a good pitch, how many word changes it takes, how to choose words that you can say easily when presenting it to another person. She also told us how she sold What a Scoundrel Wants despite having an agent who arrived 4 minutes late into an 8-minute session by putting her pitch on her business card.
Then, she arranged the pitches that people had given her beforehand, and pulled one out. "I thought I'd read this one," she said. "Because this one really hit all the marks a pitch is supposed to make." She said that, at 60 words, it was a little long for a true "elevator pitch" (for when pitching to a poor trapped agent while riding an elevator), but for a face-to-face pitch session it did the job.
AND IT WAS MY PITCH SHE READ! She liked my pitch for Duke of Snow and Apples! Boy, was that a confidence boost! Yay!
After that, there were no more workshops for the day. I found myself alone again - most of my friends were either resting and staying in, or were invited out to things. Now, see, I'm used to being by myself, it's how I survived high school, but it also means that my ability to socialize developed more slowly than other people's. I try very hard to make up for it, but creating lasting friendships for me is very difficult - I'm a creature of habit, as well as an "out of sight out of mind" person, so I'm an inconstant correspondent, too. That means whenever I'm at a special event surrounded by other people who are like me, every minute where I'm by myself and not spending time trying to get to know other people feels like a failure. I know that's not true, but it's a difficult feeling to overcome.
So where else to drown my neuroses? DOWNTOWN DISNEY! I took the bus down to Downtown Disney - which doesn't require admission because it's not a park, but that doesn't mean there isn't stuff to do. It essentially has three sections: Disney Marketplace, Pleasure Island (hee hee), and Disney Westside. I arrived in time to watch the sunset - which, here close to the equator, means about 7 - 8 in the p.m. (sun sets at around 10:30 in the summer where I'm from).
It's a great place to explore - lots of clubs, live music and restaurants. And STORES. Holy crap, the STORES.
Yup - that's right. They have a store that sells Christmas-themed Disney merchandise ALL YEAR LONG. A merchandisegasm if I ever saw one.They also had a place where you could create your own personalized t-shirts. I considered this - I love Beauty and the Beast and I'd love to wear something from that movie, but I'm not going to wear something childish (that sound you here is my parents laughing hysterically). Well, the folks at Disney will not let you print anything remotely snarky on those shirts. I tried to make a Belle shirt that said, "Seriously? You know I'm the one who can *read*, right?" but that got a no-no from the store employees. Sigh. So no shirt for me.
I stopped for dinner here, to satisfy my whimsical historical bent:
Their sign claims they have the "world's best hot sandwich," and I gotta say ... they came pretty darn close. I ordered something called the "Full Montague," with roast beef and turkey and it was seriously delish.But let's not forget the CRAZY STORES.
This is just one of the entrances to the World of Disney, reportedly the biggest Disney store in the world. And how much stuff in that store was Beauty and the Beast designed? Very, very little - all of it Belle, and all of it included in the general Princess Line. Oh, boo. BOO, Disney. It's only your most classic and critically claimed movie EVER. And, seriously, who puts THIS in the entrance to a TOY STORE?
Yup, not kidding - they had moving, groaning skeletons right at the entrance and it scared one of the little kids half to death.But Downtown Disney still had great things to look at - like the Characters in Flight balloon that takes people 400 feet up in the air. I was going to ride it, but sadly, they'd closed the ride thanks to a thunderstorm warning.
They also had live musicians, street performers, nightclubs, and a Lego exhibit:
That's a sea-dragon made of Legos, and while you can't see it - it has coils that go into the water. Wow, that definitely took effort!After that, I got tired and went back to the hotel in time to check out the Moonlight Madness Bazaar. After that, thinking there was nothing to do, I went to my room and changed into my PJs. It still felt like it was too early, that I was wasting precious time at a conference that's only a few days long in my room when I could be out making friends that will last for 30 years like Nora Roberts said.
So I actually changed back into my clothes and went down the lobby, and fell into conversation with Prism-nominee and FF&P chaptermate Jess Granger. She told me about some of the fun exhibits she'd seen at Epcot (apparently there's a place where kids can actually interact with Crush from Finding Nemo, with an actor manipulating an animated type of puppet, but it looks so seamless it's like the turtle is really there), and the super-intense Aerosmith-themed Rock'n'Rollercoaster at Hollywood Studios. It was really interesting, but even while my mind was like, Keep on Talking, Keeping Making Friends Before You End Up an Old Lonely Cat Lady, my body had pretty much hit the wall. I politely ended the conversation before I drifted off in the middle of it and went back to my room for realsies.
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
RWA Day Three - Wednesday: Overkilling the Overkill
Okay, so Wednesday was the day where I did the most heavy lifting. Whenever people asked me what I did before the conference, they'd smile and nod sympathetically at the gargantuan task of "Oh, I saw the Magic Kingdom on Tuesday," but describing Wednesday made most of their jaws sag open and ask "How the hell did you do it all?"
The answer? Well... Looking back at all the photos I took that day, I'm not sure either. I think I just said, "I have to make sure this is done," and then I did it. But believe me, by the end of the day, I was wrecked.
Let's begin! First things first, I went to Picabu again, met Tessa Dare and Courtney Milan, and I was stymied in my quest for waffles because the Picabu puts hazelnut praline sauce on them - two nut products for the price of one. Yippee - not. Still, it was a nice breakfast, and Courtney Milan and I got into an argument over Final Fantasy games (I've only ever played the Playstation ones beginning with 8, and she's played the 2D ones and says they're classic), while Tessa Dare sat and made no secret of the fact that she had absolutely no idea what we were talking about.
After that, cheapskate moocher that I am, I checked out the Goody Room:
Let me tell ya, there was some good stuff! Sabrina Jeffries had a deck of cards (her hero for her next book is a gambler), Louisa Edwards had champagne glasses, and Karen Marie Moning gave away packages with the first book in her series as well as a CD of the soundtrack! As well as all sorts of other goodies - bookmarks, notebooks, nail files, chapstick, stress balls, the works!
After the Goody Room, it was time to hit the parks, big-time. It helped that both Epcot and Hollywood Studios are closer to the Swan and Dolphin than the Magic Kingdom (which is around a 40 minute bus ride there and back). Also - I got to take a water taxi to Epcot!
The weather was absolutely stunning that day, so taking the water taxi was no trouble at all and you got a great view of the Boardwalk and the other hotels. Anyhoo, I arrived at Epcot on the World Pavilion side and ultimately decided to restrict my travels to that. I like learning the science the same as everyone else, but I had to budget my time. I did go to one of the science-y things to wait until the World Pavilion opened at 11 - where they record you running in place, jumping, and doing a victory dance and put you in a video game (and e-mail you a copy of it!).
But after that, it was straight back to the enormous world pavilion where I spent the greater part of the day touring the various Not-Countries. I took a buttload of pictures, enough to swamp a regular blog post, so I picked two for each country to put in the blog post:
I spent some time in Not-Britain, where there were fish-and-chip shops and pubs and red telephone boxes, and lots of Alice in Wonderland merchandise. Theatrical performers showed up later in the day and performed King Arther skits.
Next, I went and had a big ol' laugh at Not-Canada. Yup, the Canada pavilion was filled with First Nations artwork, totem poles, fur trader stations, a fake mountain and waterfall and - oh yes - a mini Chateau Frontenac. Because every pavilion needs a castle and this is apparently the closest my country gets to one. Oh, well, that and the various Legislature buildings. At the bottom of this is Le Cellier, a fancy French Canadian steakhouse. No poutine or doughnuts, sadly.
An employee of one of the Canada pavilion gift shops. Ah, plaid. How could I forget the sacred pattern of our bucherons (lumberjacks)? This shopgirl hails from Ontario - in fact, a lot of the employees in the various pavilions come from (or at least claim they come from if I'm being too naive) the actual countries represented in the pavilions.
Epcot sure had a pretty view, though - the golf ball is the Mission: Space exhibit, and before that, they have a fountain that spurts and dances to music. No time for that, however - onwards! To other Not-Countries!
Here is Not-Mexico, and by this point the day was certainly hot enough to match temperatures south of the border.
Not-Norway was next. They had Viking hats in the giftshops! And a lot of the employees were actually from Norway (or else their nametags lied and they were just really good at accents). I took some time to take the most poorly-named ride ever, the Maelstrom - which is actually (thankfully) a very slow-moving boat ride through Norway's history, which amounts to Vikings, Vikings, Vikings, Vikings - OIL RIGS! Look, we are actually modern people now!
Not-China was next, and very beautiful. They had a lovely lily pond. It's also the place to go to if you want a buy a fan that actually cools you off. Everywhere else in the Disney parks, they hawk these squirt-gun-electric-fan thingees that do absolutely nothing - for $15 a pop. I got a ornate red folding fan here for $11 and it was my most useful souvenir.
Next is the random Africa tradepost. This isn't even assigned a country - it's just a place that looks "tribal" and sells flipflops and jewellery.
Not-Germany was also great eye-candy - and no, I'm not talking about Snow White, who is apparently German in origin. Who knew?
Here I am in Not-Italy, where they actually sell football (soccer to you Yanks) merchandise in the stores! I took a picture of myself there to annoy my sister B, who actually spent a semester in Cortona, Italy. There was also a nice-looking Italian restaurant there, but I wanted to keep walking.
My strength had started to flag by this point, so I didn't bother with "the American Adventure." Seriously? I'd already seen the Hall of Presidents. That's enough forcefed American Cheese Patriotism for me. Although, I did get a kick out of how white-washed colonial the American Pavilion is - apparently all the First Nations and American Indian stuff belongs only in Canada, despite the fact that we share several tribes between us. But no - in Disney, all that native culture is swept under the northern rug.
I made a pit stop at the Japan pavilion and ate lunch at the Yakitori House - a fast-food joint where I wolfed down some delicious but culturally-suspicious sukiyaki beef and rice. I then checked out a really interesting exhibit in the building in the picture directly above - "Spirited Beasts," about the spirit beasts in Japanese mythology and how they've repeatedly influenced anime (catgirls, anyone?). I really enjoyed it.
It was past noon by this point, so I just passed by the Morocco pavilion without going in and exploring - although I did take pictures (and a brief video when Aladdin and Jasmine made an appearance - wow did Aladdin have fake hair).
Last but not least, I visited Not-France, and got a picture by the Not-Eiffel-Tower to annoy my dear Mum, who spent a year in France and recently revisited. Look Mum! I can haz French vacation?
After that, I returned to the water taxi and met up with Lynn from All About Romance again! However, while she took the water taxi back to the Swan and Dolphin hotel, I stuck on it and rode it all the way to Hollywood Studios.
Hollywood Studios was amazing! So many places to go and see! Stunning architecture, behind the scenes stuff, everything reminiscent of Hollywood and movies, which I love.
Awesome! With so much to do, and my remaining time dwindling, I had to choose my course wisely.
First things first, I went on the fantastic Great Movie Ride - a train that takes you through the scenes of famous movies, with interspersed animatronic and live actors and sound bytes from the movies. We saw a display from a Busby Berkeley number, Mary Poppins, Tarzan swinging through the trees, an animatronic version of a terrified Ripley from Alien, a '40s mob movie shoot-out where one of the (real) mobsters hijacked the train only to to be burned alive trying to steal a gem from the Indiana Jones scene, a musical number from The Wizard of Oz - and after that, a pretty decent Awesome Movie Montage. I'd highly recommend this ride to anyone who loves movies.
After that, I went to Walt Disney, One Man's Dream - a walk-through of Disney's life and how pretty much everything he did went not only into his movies, but the design of Disneyland and Disneyworld - Main Street USA is actually based on the Missouri town where he spent 4 years growing up, and his fascination with Lincoln led to the Hall of Presidents, and he actually built a miniature train on his estate that kids could ride that definitely ended up in Disneyworld. It finished up with some neat behind the scenes information about the newer additions to the parks - like the Great Movie Ride and Hollywood Studios itself (which opened in the 90s).
Finally, after that I went to the Magic of Disney Animation show/exhibit. We got to watch a surprisingly funny show where a demonstrator interacted with an animated Mushu from Mulan to tell us how Mushu had initially been designed, and the decisions that led to why Mushu looks the way he does today. He also added tidbits like the fact that one of Pocahontas' sidekicks was supposed to be a turkey - a turkey who initially replaced Mikko the raccoon before the animators changed their minds.
After that show, we were led through the building to a room where there were tons and tons of behind the scenes designs and storyboards for the new princess movie, Tangled (about Rapunzel). I finally learned the plot of the movie, and the villainess looks like Cher and needs to brush Rapunzel's magical hair to keep herself young and hawt. AWESOME.
Moving on, we got to see some of the colourists for Disney during their work, and if you wanted, you could join a brief animation lesson where you could learn to draw your favourite Disney character using a lit animation desk, put your voice into a Disney scene (I tried that just as my cell phone went off, just my luck), insert yourself as a character into one of the animations , or just meet one of the characters in person:
After that, I left and bought a souvenir T-shirt and decided to call it a day - I still had to bus down to the Ticket and Transportation centre to get my sunhat (which I'd lost the day before on Space Mountain) back from the Lost and Found. I retrieved it and bused back to Hollywood Studios just in time for the storm to hit, nixing the water taxis and necessitating a bus ride back to the Swan and Dolphin.
Let me make the timetable of my day a little more clear. Hotel to Epcot, Epcot straight to Hollywood Studios, Hollywood Studios to Ticket and Transportation Centre and back again - with me arriving back at the Swan and Dolphin at 4:50 - 40 minutes before the "Readers for Life" Literacy Signing was due to begin. No rest for the overscheduled!
I scrambled to my hotel room to drag a brush through my hair and slap on some basic make-up before heading down to wait in line with Wendy, Rosie, Aztec Lady, Lisabea, etc. While in line, I bought $20 worth of raffle tickets for the baskets of swag that various RWA chapters donate to the signing - partly for charity, and partly to test my luck again since winning last year.
First on my "to-meet" list was Jennifer Ashley, to pick up a copy of Lady Isabella's Scandalous Marriage. Aw yeah!
Next I saw Julie Anne Long, to get a copy of I Kissed an Earl and also to gush on how she's one of the best writers ever!
Carrie Lofty I just talked to - because she's awesome, and I already have Scoundrel's Kiss. Did I mention she's awesome? I took her pitch workshop at the conference and it was incredibly helpful.
To tell the truth, I was iffy about trying Sara Lindsey's books, but the high praise from such blogfellows as Katiebabs made me want to try Promise Me Tonight, *finally*.
My Twitter buddy (and soon to be author if there is any justice in this world) Keira Soleore - who brought her poke bonnet to the conference!
The marvellous Lisa Hendrix.
Victoria Dahl, awesome author and Tweeter, from whom I got one of her anthologies. Lords of Desire.
Three-time Prism Winner and FF&P chaptermate Leanna Renee Hieber!
Twitter friend and recently published author, Maisey Yates!
A great reunion with Julie James.
Meeting Carolyn Jewel in person.
The incredibly helpful Janet Mullany and her awesome t-shirt.
On the way, I paparazzi'd Courtney Milan.
The spectacular Christie Ridgway! Very friendly and supportive! As you can sort of tell by the picture, I am running on Book Buyer's High and not much else by this point.
RITA-Winner Sherry Thomas! Whoop whoop!
I also saw yet another author, and I feel I should bring this up. I stopped by Maggie Robinson's table, because the hype and reviews for Mistress by Mistake had finally risen to the point to make me bypass my loose No Buying Trades from People I Don't Know policy. She was wonderful, and signed her book, and started putting magnets and bookmarks in it - when I heard someone calling numbers on a microphone.
Raffle numbers.
And I remembered I hadn't entered my raffle tickets yet.
Or even signed them.
And I'm sorry to say I terminated my meeting with Maggie Robinson very very abruptly in order to gallop across the hall and crouch by the remaining baskets (for the woman reading the numbers slowly removed them one by one), frantically scribbling my name and phone number across 30 tickets and pitching the tickets into whichever baskets remained. I did not win anything, but I'm ashamed to say it took me until today to realize I must have looked incredibly rude to Maggie Robinson, for which I am very sorry. I should have come back to her table to say something at the very least, but I didn't. I am looking forward to reading her book, though.
As for total Literacy Signing Loot I didn't do too badly - I got the new Laura Lee Gurhke, and a book by an author I'd never read before who had no line - Christine Merrill. Her story sounded interesting - her hero's a peer who had his peerage revoked. Yikes. But in the good way! I also got a copy of Forget You, by Jennifer Echols. I already had the ARC, but I wanted one with the pretty cover, too.
By no, my day is not yet over. I still had to eat. I ran-hobbled at least to the Cabana Bar and Beach Club just after last call for food but I begged a waiter and he let me order the same thing as yesterday - cuban cheesesteak and raspberry daiquiri. Meanwhile, I met with my friends and fellow bloggers again:
The marvelous MagdalenB.
Lynn from AAR and Blythe from AAR.
Here we have Sandy Coleman from AAR, Jill D. from Romance Rookie, and Wendy.
The last vestiges of my energy went into devouring my cheesesteak and forming coherent words, but I think I did alright. Dominique Raccah and Deb Werksman from Sourcebooks came by and gave me an opportunity to gush over their art department (for a relatively young and small romance publisher, they have some fab covers and they've had a great couple of years so far). I got some nice books, and back at the parks, I got pins from both Epcot and Hollywood Studios to commemorate just how much I'd managed to pack into one day.
But boy, what a day. At the end of it I was ready to pour myself into bed - and get up the next day to start workshopping.
The answer? Well... Looking back at all the photos I took that day, I'm not sure either. I think I just said, "I have to make sure this is done," and then I did it. But believe me, by the end of the day, I was wrecked.
Let's begin! First things first, I went to Picabu again, met Tessa Dare and Courtney Milan, and I was stymied in my quest for waffles because the Picabu puts hazelnut praline sauce on them - two nut products for the price of one. Yippee - not. Still, it was a nice breakfast, and Courtney Milan and I got into an argument over Final Fantasy games (I've only ever played the Playstation ones beginning with 8, and she's played the 2D ones and says they're classic), while Tessa Dare sat and made no secret of the fact that she had absolutely no idea what we were talking about.
After that, cheapskate moocher that I am, I checked out the Goody Room:
Let me tell ya, there was some good stuff! Sabrina Jeffries had a deck of cards (her hero for her next book is a gambler), Louisa Edwards had champagne glasses, and Karen Marie Moning gave away packages with the first book in her series as well as a CD of the soundtrack! As well as all sorts of other goodies - bookmarks, notebooks, nail files, chapstick, stress balls, the works!
After the Goody Room, it was time to hit the parks, big-time. It helped that both Epcot and Hollywood Studios are closer to the Swan and Dolphin than the Magic Kingdom (which is around a 40 minute bus ride there and back). Also - I got to take a water taxi to Epcot!
The weather was absolutely stunning that day, so taking the water taxi was no trouble at all and you got a great view of the Boardwalk and the other hotels. Anyhoo, I arrived at Epcot on the World Pavilion side and ultimately decided to restrict my travels to that. I like learning the science the same as everyone else, but I had to budget my time. I did go to one of the science-y things to wait until the World Pavilion opened at 11 - where they record you running in place, jumping, and doing a victory dance and put you in a video game (and e-mail you a copy of it!).But after that, it was straight back to the enormous world pavilion where I spent the greater part of the day touring the various Not-Countries. I took a buttload of pictures, enough to swamp a regular blog post, so I picked two for each country to put in the blog post:
I spent some time in Not-Britain, where there were fish-and-chip shops and pubs and red telephone boxes, and lots of Alice in Wonderland merchandise. Theatrical performers showed up later in the day and performed King Arther skits.
Next, I went and had a big ol' laugh at Not-Canada. Yup, the Canada pavilion was filled with First Nations artwork, totem poles, fur trader stations, a fake mountain and waterfall and - oh yes - a mini Chateau Frontenac. Because every pavilion needs a castle and this is apparently the closest my country gets to one. Oh, well, that and the various Legislature buildings. At the bottom of this is Le Cellier, a fancy French Canadian steakhouse. No poutine or doughnuts, sadly.
An employee of one of the Canada pavilion gift shops. Ah, plaid. How could I forget the sacred pattern of our bucherons (lumberjacks)? This shopgirl hails from Ontario - in fact, a lot of the employees in the various pavilions come from (or at least claim they come from if I'm being too naive) the actual countries represented in the pavilions.
Epcot sure had a pretty view, though - the golf ball is the Mission: Space exhibit, and before that, they have a fountain that spurts and dances to music. No time for that, however - onwards! To other Not-Countries!
Here is Not-Mexico, and by this point the day was certainly hot enough to match temperatures south of the border.
Not-Norway was next. They had Viking hats in the giftshops! And a lot of the employees were actually from Norway (or else their nametags lied and they were just really good at accents). I took some time to take the most poorly-named ride ever, the Maelstrom - which is actually (thankfully) a very slow-moving boat ride through Norway's history, which amounts to Vikings, Vikings, Vikings, Vikings - OIL RIGS! Look, we are actually modern people now!
Not-China was next, and very beautiful. They had a lovely lily pond. It's also the place to go to if you want a buy a fan that actually cools you off. Everywhere else in the Disney parks, they hawk these squirt-gun-electric-fan thingees that do absolutely nothing - for $15 a pop. I got a ornate red folding fan here for $11 and it was my most useful souvenir.
Next is the random Africa tradepost. This isn't even assigned a country - it's just a place that looks "tribal" and sells flipflops and jewellery.
Not-Germany was also great eye-candy - and no, I'm not talking about Snow White, who is apparently German in origin. Who knew?
Here I am in Not-Italy, where they actually sell football (soccer to you Yanks) merchandise in the stores! I took a picture of myself there to annoy my sister B, who actually spent a semester in Cortona, Italy. There was also a nice-looking Italian restaurant there, but I wanted to keep walking.
My strength had started to flag by this point, so I didn't bother with "the American Adventure." Seriously? I'd already seen the Hall of Presidents. That's enough forcefed American Cheese Patriotism for me. Although, I did get a kick out of how white-washed colonial the American Pavilion is - apparently all the First Nations and American Indian stuff belongs only in Canada, despite the fact that we share several tribes between us. But no - in Disney, all that native culture is swept under the northern rug.
I made a pit stop at the Japan pavilion and ate lunch at the Yakitori House - a fast-food joint where I wolfed down some delicious but culturally-suspicious sukiyaki beef and rice. I then checked out a really interesting exhibit in the building in the picture directly above - "Spirited Beasts," about the spirit beasts in Japanese mythology and how they've repeatedly influenced anime (catgirls, anyone?). I really enjoyed it.
It was past noon by this point, so I just passed by the Morocco pavilion without going in and exploring - although I did take pictures (and a brief video when Aladdin and Jasmine made an appearance - wow did Aladdin have fake hair).
Last but not least, I visited Not-France, and got a picture by the Not-Eiffel-Tower to annoy my dear Mum, who spent a year in France and recently revisited. Look Mum! I can haz French vacation?After that, I returned to the water taxi and met up with Lynn from All About Romance again! However, while she took the water taxi back to the Swan and Dolphin hotel, I stuck on it and rode it all the way to Hollywood Studios.
Hollywood Studios was amazing! So many places to go and see! Stunning architecture, behind the scenes stuff, everything reminiscent of Hollywood and movies, which I love.
Awesome! With so much to do, and my remaining time dwindling, I had to choose my course wisely.
First things first, I went on the fantastic Great Movie Ride - a train that takes you through the scenes of famous movies, with interspersed animatronic and live actors and sound bytes from the movies. We saw a display from a Busby Berkeley number, Mary Poppins, Tarzan swinging through the trees, an animatronic version of a terrified Ripley from Alien, a '40s mob movie shoot-out where one of the (real) mobsters hijacked the train only to to be burned alive trying to steal a gem from the Indiana Jones scene, a musical number from The Wizard of Oz - and after that, a pretty decent Awesome Movie Montage. I'd highly recommend this ride to anyone who loves movies.After that, I went to Walt Disney, One Man's Dream - a walk-through of Disney's life and how pretty much everything he did went not only into his movies, but the design of Disneyland and Disneyworld - Main Street USA is actually based on the Missouri town where he spent 4 years growing up, and his fascination with Lincoln led to the Hall of Presidents, and he actually built a miniature train on his estate that kids could ride that definitely ended up in Disneyworld. It finished up with some neat behind the scenes information about the newer additions to the parks - like the Great Movie Ride and Hollywood Studios itself (which opened in the 90s).
Finally, after that I went to the Magic of Disney Animation show/exhibit. We got to watch a surprisingly funny show where a demonstrator interacted with an animated Mushu from Mulan to tell us how Mushu had initially been designed, and the decisions that led to why Mushu looks the way he does today. He also added tidbits like the fact that one of Pocahontas' sidekicks was supposed to be a turkey - a turkey who initially replaced Mikko the raccoon before the animators changed their minds.
After that show, we were led through the building to a room where there were tons and tons of behind the scenes designs and storyboards for the new princess movie, Tangled (about Rapunzel). I finally learned the plot of the movie, and the villainess looks like Cher and needs to brush Rapunzel's magical hair to keep herself young and hawt. AWESOME.
Moving on, we got to see some of the colourists for Disney during their work, and if you wanted, you could join a brief animation lesson where you could learn to draw your favourite Disney character using a lit animation desk, put your voice into a Disney scene (I tried that just as my cell phone went off, just my luck), insert yourself as a character into one of the animations , or just meet one of the characters in person:
After that, I left and bought a souvenir T-shirt and decided to call it a day - I still had to bus down to the Ticket and Transportation centre to get my sunhat (which I'd lost the day before on Space Mountain) back from the Lost and Found. I retrieved it and bused back to Hollywood Studios just in time for the storm to hit, nixing the water taxis and necessitating a bus ride back to the Swan and Dolphin.Let me make the timetable of my day a little more clear. Hotel to Epcot, Epcot straight to Hollywood Studios, Hollywood Studios to Ticket and Transportation Centre and back again - with me arriving back at the Swan and Dolphin at 4:50 - 40 minutes before the "Readers for Life" Literacy Signing was due to begin. No rest for the overscheduled!
I scrambled to my hotel room to drag a brush through my hair and slap on some basic make-up before heading down to wait in line with Wendy, Rosie, Aztec Lady, Lisabea, etc. While in line, I bought $20 worth of raffle tickets for the baskets of swag that various RWA chapters donate to the signing - partly for charity, and partly to test my luck again since winning last year.
First on my "to-meet" list was Jennifer Ashley, to pick up a copy of Lady Isabella's Scandalous Marriage. Aw yeah!
Next I saw Julie Anne Long, to get a copy of I Kissed an Earl and also to gush on how she's one of the best writers ever!
Carrie Lofty I just talked to - because she's awesome, and I already have Scoundrel's Kiss. Did I mention she's awesome? I took her pitch workshop at the conference and it was incredibly helpful.
To tell the truth, I was iffy about trying Sara Lindsey's books, but the high praise from such blogfellows as Katiebabs made me want to try Promise Me Tonight, *finally*.
My Twitter buddy (and soon to be author if there is any justice in this world) Keira Soleore - who brought her poke bonnet to the conference!
The marvellous Lisa Hendrix.
Victoria Dahl, awesome author and Tweeter, from whom I got one of her anthologies. Lords of Desire.
Three-time Prism Winner and FF&P chaptermate Leanna Renee Hieber!
Twitter friend and recently published author, Maisey Yates!
A great reunion with Julie James.
Meeting Carolyn Jewel in person.
The incredibly helpful Janet Mullany and her awesome t-shirt.
On the way, I paparazzi'd Courtney Milan.
The spectacular Christie Ridgway! Very friendly and supportive! As you can sort of tell by the picture, I am running on Book Buyer's High and not much else by this point.
RITA-Winner Sherry Thomas! Whoop whoop!I also saw yet another author, and I feel I should bring this up. I stopped by Maggie Robinson's table, because the hype and reviews for Mistress by Mistake had finally risen to the point to make me bypass my loose No Buying Trades from People I Don't Know policy. She was wonderful, and signed her book, and started putting magnets and bookmarks in it - when I heard someone calling numbers on a microphone.
Raffle numbers.
And I remembered I hadn't entered my raffle tickets yet.
Or even signed them.
And I'm sorry to say I terminated my meeting with Maggie Robinson very very abruptly in order to gallop across the hall and crouch by the remaining baskets (for the woman reading the numbers slowly removed them one by one), frantically scribbling my name and phone number across 30 tickets and pitching the tickets into whichever baskets remained. I did not win anything, but I'm ashamed to say it took me until today to realize I must have looked incredibly rude to Maggie Robinson, for which I am very sorry. I should have come back to her table to say something at the very least, but I didn't. I am looking forward to reading her book, though.
As for total Literacy Signing Loot I didn't do too badly - I got the new Laura Lee Gurhke, and a book by an author I'd never read before who had no line - Christine Merrill. Her story sounded interesting - her hero's a peer who had his peerage revoked. Yikes. But in the good way! I also got a copy of Forget You, by Jennifer Echols. I already had the ARC, but I wanted one with the pretty cover, too.By no, my day is not yet over. I still had to eat. I ran-hobbled at least to the Cabana Bar and Beach Club just after last call for food but I begged a waiter and he let me order the same thing as yesterday - cuban cheesesteak and raspberry daiquiri. Meanwhile, I met with my friends and fellow bloggers again:
The marvelous MagdalenB.
Lynn from AAR and Blythe from AAR.
Here we have Sandy Coleman from AAR, Jill D. from Romance Rookie, and Wendy.The last vestiges of my energy went into devouring my cheesesteak and forming coherent words, but I think I did alright. Dominique Raccah and Deb Werksman from Sourcebooks came by and gave me an opportunity to gush over their art department (for a relatively young and small romance publisher, they have some fab covers and they've had a great couple of years so far). I got some nice books, and back at the parks, I got pins from both Epcot and Hollywood Studios to commemorate just how much I'd managed to pack into one day.
But boy, what a day. At the end of it I was ready to pour myself into bed - and get up the next day to start workshopping.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)