Curling up with good books and movies

For those of you interested, I’ve created a list of my notes from the Spotlight on Pocket Books from the 2005 RWA conference. The link is here. I’ll be adding the rest of my notes, a little at a time, to the For Writers page.

Julie Kenner needs to hurry up and finish California Demon because I enjoyed Carpe Demon so much. I’m now reading The Improper Wife by Diane Perkins. It has an interesting premise, of a woman whose husband goes off to war and when she finds him, it turns out the man she married gave her a false name. And the name her husband gave her was the hero’s name. It’ll be interesting to see where she goes with this.

On the writing front, I’m at that tricky point where I have to start leading off into the emotional Black Moment where All is Lost and the hero and heroine CAN’T be together. The problem is, getting them there. Yesterday was excruciating. Each page was like drawing blood. I actually turned off the computer and went to exercise (this should tell you how bad it was).

But I have 62 pages left to go. I can do this. I know I can. I’ve done it twice already. These fears are normal. They’re like little mosquitoes, nipping away at my self-confidence. I remind myself that, regardless of what happens at Mills & Boon with my one book, I need to be ready with a follow-up. My first book doesn’t count. That one needs major surgery. But I’m kind of proud of this third one. So: must finish!

I’m looking for some good videos to watch this weekend. I’ve decided to get “Madagascar” for the kidlets, but I want to find something else for hubby and me. Suggestions?

The rest of the conference

I forgot to mention my editor/agent appointments that happened on Friday. Anyway, the first one was very low-key. The agent requested a partial from all of us without having to pitch, and then we asked questions about her agency. The second one was also low-key. I talked to a Mills & Boon editor about my submissions and asked advice on whether I should be focusing on medievals or whether I should diversify. She said until I sell, I should keep trying different things. Once I sell, that’s the time to focus. Interesting.

On Saturday, I listened to a combination of publisher spotlights and promotional workshops. I learned some interesting facts about promotion, namely booksellers. Stephanie Bond gave a great talk on how she contacts a new bookseller each week as a gesture of goodwill and sends them promotional items to give to their customers. Great idea. She said that over time, you start to build up a base of people, and when they order books, they’ll start to remember your name.

That night was the Golden Heart/Rita awards ceremony. I guess I must be clueless, but while some people were offended by the historical slant of the film clips and the fashion show put on by the presenters, I wasn’t. I was entertained. I guess if you look at it from an overall perspective, that the focus wasn’t as much on the nominees, then they’re right. Maybe it’s because I’m not a political person. In any case, I enjoyed the ceremony, the wacky fashions, and the theater atmosphere.

Last night I finished reading Julie Kenner’s Carpe Demon. What a fun book!

And still more conference!

I think I need to get a real digital camera for next year’s conference. Anyway, clueless me does NOT know how to do a trackback/pingback feature (a little help here, people??) to Kacey’s blog posts with the pictures. She has lots more photos, so go visit her blog. But I’m going to blatantly steal a few of hers and post them here:

Here’s a picture of me and Suzanne McMinn just before I’m about to go to the Harlequin pajama party. Those are the infamous Curious George pj’s.
And here’s a picture of me, Amy, and Kacey just before we went to the Rita awards.

Anyway, on the third day, I spent the entire morning volunteering at the editor/agent appointments. I was the timekeeping Nazi who yelled, “Your time’s up! Get out, come on, move, people, move!!” It was a four-hour shift, and I was dead and exhausted when it was over. It was nice to put some editorial and agent faces with their names. After that, I met up with friends for lunch at a hamburger place and I attended some afternoon spotlights. I’ll be posting the details on those publisher spotlights later on separate web pages for those of you interested.

Friday night I went out to dinner with Kacey and we hung out and chatted. I tried a cantaloupe-flavored margarita at that same restaurant a night earlier which was actually quite tasty. The plan was to try a watermelon margarita, but they were out of them. Kacey and I decided that both of us need to sell by next year so we can attend some of the publisher parties. Or perhaps we need to bribe some appropriate folks.

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. 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.” 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.