Conference Day 2

After the agent panel discussion, I went to Suzanne McMinn’s workshop on writing emotion. As always, Suzanne did a great job. We attended Debbie Macomber’s luncheon speech and her publisher provided skeins of yarn (her last book involved knitting women I believe). At 3:00, Debbie promised to teach us how to knit. I’d always wanted to learn, so I went to the Harlequin suite ten minutes early. Unfortunately, other people had the same idea and there were no knitting needles left. Not to be discouraged, Mary Louise Wells, thought we should use ball point pens. Turns out, it worked. I learned how to do some basic knitting stitches. Miriam Kriss of the Irene Goodman Literary Agency was there, and we chatted about her hobbies of weaving and her interest in that. One brilliant author came up with the idea of snagging chopsticks from a restaurant to use as needles. :thumbsup: Debbie then drew names out of a hat for some door prizes. I was excited to win a book on the Encyclopedia of Knitting. The knitted patches will be sent to Debbie Macomber and she’ll put them all together to make a quilt for charity. It was such fun chatting with the women and learning a timeless skill.

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and we went out to dinner with Mary Schramski and Leanna Ells, who were a lot of fun. There was an Asian restaurant with wonderfully spicy food. We had drinks that night and I struggled to stay awake for the eHarlequin pajama party. When I arrived, I saw Dee, Dream, and Jayne. The suite had popcorn, candy bars, coffee, and a cash bar. I saw a few editors like Mary Teresa Hussey and Jessica Alvarez. Miriam Kriss showed up again as well. I also spoke with James Pearson, a representative for Audible. They intend to make audio books available for downloading, hopefully for all of Harlequin’s books in the future.

They hosted a contest for sexiest and cutest pajamas. I tied for cutest with my Curious George pajamas (as mentioned a few days ago) and won a pillow that says “The Princess Is Sleeping.” :sleepy2: Then I ran into some of the Mills & Boon Historical authors (Julia Justiss, Elizabeth Rolls, etc.) and we chatted about their careers. It was great fun meeting everyone.

I staggered into bed at around 1 a.m. (4 a.m. EST), barely alive, but I had a blast. :wave: